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CosyJoes was expanding its karaoke party concept from Newcastle into Sheffield, taking over an existing venue (previously Olivia’s Townhouse) and rebranding it from scratch, with a launch timed to land during Freshers’ Week.
CosyJoes took over an existing Sheffield venue, and rebranded it from the ground up. TikTok launched from a completely fresh account, while Instagram and Facebook carried over an existing following built for the old venue – a ready-made audience, but not necessarily the right one. Within months, trend-led, staff-fronted content turned that fresh TikTok account into a genuine engagement driver, and, along with the Instagram and Facebook strategy, the brand new bar became one of the most talked-about nights out in Sheffield online.
CosyJoes was expanding its karaoke party concept from Newcastle into Sheffield, taking over an existing venue (previously Olivia’s Townhouse) and rebranding it from scratch, with a launch timed to land during Freshers’ Week. That created two different problems at once. On TikTok, there was nothing to build on: no followers, no content, no starting point at all. However, on Instagram and Facebook, the challenge was the opposite: an existing, sizable following that belonged to a different bar entirely, with no guarantee that those followers would have any interest in what CosyJoes was about to become.
It also meant proving the brand could travel. Newcastle had built a loyal following around crowd interaction, private karaoke rooms, and a high-energy, “biggest party on the planet” identity. Sheffield needed to inherit that reputation while establishing its own local voice, in a market already home to many established student-friendly bars and late-night venues.
The business problem went beyond visibility: CosyJoes needed to convert both a completely cold audience and an inherited, mismatched one into people who’d choose it over established competitors on a night out, from opening night onward.
We built CosyJoes’ Sheffield presence from the ground up across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, structured around a clear launch strategy and three ongoing content pillars.
A phased launch, not a single announcement. In the lead-up to opening, renovation teasers and before-and-after shots of the venue built curiosity and momentum ahead of launch day.
Content built around what makes the venue different. Ongoing content was organised around three pillars: the CosyJoes experience itself (karaoke moments, DJ and crowd interaction, the venue’s different floors, drinks promotions), the people (user-generated content, staff, and the various celebrations that came through the door), and the brand’s “biggest party on the planet” identity carried over from Newcastle.
Staff-fronted, trend-led video. The strongest performers were quick, funny, on-trend videos featuring the bar’s own staff. This is what nightlife audiences actually engage with, and it became the backbone of the content plan.
A content calendar built around real moments. Regular site visits kept the content pipeline fresh, and key dates — Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, January promotions, Valentine’s — were used as hooks for timely, shareable posts rather than generic filler. Simple, low-effort formats with a clear call to action (like prompting viewers to share a post) were identified early as reliable wins and repeated deliberately once they proved themselves.
Cross-platform efficiency. Once TikTok content was landing well, we started reposting it directly to Instagram. This kept the grid feeling more people-centric and consistent, while giving strong content a second life without doubling the workload.
Targeted paid support. A small Meta ad campaign was run to support the venue’s New Year’s Eve event, giving the organic strategy a paid boost around one of the highest-stakes nights of the year for a bar.
TikTok launched from nothing and became the standout channel. Built from a completely fresh account with zero followers, it reached 452 followers and over 89,000 monthly views by the time of handover — accelerating every month along the way, from 3,753 monthly views in October to over 89,000 in February alone. Across its lifetime, the account earned over 281,000 total views, 8,087 shares, and over 12,000 likes.
This wasn’t a one-off spike, it was a steady climb, with views, shares, and engagement all growing significantly month over month as trend-led, staff-featured content found its audience and momentum compounded.
Instagram engagement accelerated sharply, despite carrying over an inherited audience. The follower base held steady around 10,200–10,300 throughout — the same crowd who’d followed the venue as Olivia’s Townhouse — but engagement told a different story as new, on-brand content took hold:
Facebook delivered steady, consistent growth across the engagement, with page engagements peaking at 11,061 in a single month — a 90% month-on-month jump — as posting frequency and content quality increased.
Paid social delivered strong efficiency on a small budget. A 10-day Meta campaign supporting the New Year’s Eve event spent just £89.97
Jack
CosyJoes
