45,000
app downloads in 4 weeks
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Preshift Tech + Marketing
Wenzel's The Bakers
108 sites. 45K app downloads in 4 weeks at £0.55 CPI.
TypeBakery chain
Sites108 locations
EngagementStrategic tech advisory + 7-month marketing retainer with handover
01 · the challenge
The challenge
Two problems sitting on top of each other. On the tech side, 108 sites meant every decision was a 108-site decision, and the estate needed outside scrutiny on vendors, contracts and rollout sequencing. On the marketing side, there was no central function - social was being run from the stores, no strategy, no calendar, no budget framework, and an outgoing six-figure-feeling agency retainer with no transparent reporting. What they needed wasn't another agency. They needed someone embedded in the business, making decisions, owning outcomes, and building something they'd own when we left.
02 · the approach
How we approached it.
- 01
Technology strategy review
Full evaluation of existing systems at scale. What was earning its keep, what was bloat, what was a risk waiting to happen. Recommendations sequenced so service never paused across 108 sites.
- 02
POS tender across the estate
Open competitive tender. Shortlist, demos, reference calls, commercial negotiation. Selected the right partner and structured the rollout phasing for staged go-live.
- 03
Centralised trading intelligence
Reporting infrastructure that gives head office one view of the estate. Site-by-site benchmarks, day-on-day, week-on-week, year-on-year. Anomaly alerts before the wrong site goes off-trend.
- 04
Annual strategy and budget framework
Twelve-month plan built backwards from commercial targets: store revenue, footfall, app penetration, brand position. Annual budget envelope with channel splits weighted to trading peaks and NPD windows. Every line tied to a revenue, footfall or install KPI.
- 05
Trading calendar locked end-to-end
Halloween, Christmas, January win-back, Mother's Day, Easter and Spring delivered as full campaigns. Underneath, a 12-month grid mapping every NPD launch, regional event and product drop. Creative briefs, paid weight and CRM sequences ready four weeks before each go-live.
- 06
App launch: 45,000 downloads in 4 weeks
Full-funnel paid launch across Meta, Google UAC, Apple Search Ads and OOH digital. 7,000 installs from Meta at £1.43 CPI. Google UAC at £1.61, 60% below the typical hospitality benchmark. 20,883 QR scans attributed to physical media. Blended cost per install: £0.55, against a market benchmark of £2.50–£4.50.
- 07
Brand rebuilt end-to-end
Directed Wenzel's design agency through new identity, website, app, OOH and in-store creative. Brand-led website. New product photography. Consistent voice across paid, owned, physical and digital surfaces.
- 08
Retention and lifecycle programmes
Welcome, win-back, seasonal and retention flows built in Iterable. Database segmentation, push notifications driving return visits, loyalty stamp reminders converting from notification to order.
- 09
Hired the team and handed over
Hired and trained the in-house Marketing Manager: wrote the spec, ran interviews, made the offer. Four weeks training across every system and workflow. SOPs documented across Meta, Google, Apple Search Ads, Iterable and the app. Annual calendar locked. Team and growth roadmap handed over for the next three hires.
03 · the results
The results.
£0.55
blended cost per install
£24,856
total paid media spend
+1,000%
click & collect orders
£5.52 → £6.88
average order value
108
sites under one strategy
Typical UK hospitality and retail app installs run £2.50–£4.50. A blended £0.55 across five channels landed this launch in the top decile of performance we've seen, at one-fifth the typical cost per install. On the tech side, the strategy now matches the scale: one partner, one set of vendors, one reporting view. The marketing function we built handed over fully documented and now runs in-house.
“We'd been burned by agencies. Locked into contracts, hit with fees, and given no clarity on what was actually working. Preshift changed how we think about marketing entirely. In seven months, Wenzel's went from no marketing function to a launched mobile app with 45,000 downloads in four weeks, a rebuilt brand that made us more relevant, a hired-and-trained marketing manager, and a strategy our team owns. We couldn't be happier.”
whenever you're ready
Let's talk about your tech.
Half an hour on Zoom or in person. We'll show up with questions, not a slide deck.