PHA has been shortlisted in the Social, Content & Creator Marketing: Automotive & Industrial category at The Drum Awards for our work with JAECOO, recognising a social-first campaign that helped transform an unknown challenger brand into one of the UK’s fastest-growing automotive success stories.
Widely recognised as one of the marketing and communications industry’s most respected global awards programmes, The Drum Awards celebrate the most effective and innovative work from brands, agencies and marketing teams worldwide. Being shortlisted is a significant achievement and recognition of the impact created through our partnership with JAECOO.
The nomination recognises our work launching JAECOO on TikTok and redefining how automotive brands show up on social media. Entering the UK market as a new and largely unknown automotive brand, JAECOO faced the challenge of building awareness, credibility and consideration in a category dominated by manufacturers with decades of heritage.
Rather than relying on traditional automotive advertising, we developed a platform-first social strategy designed specifically for TikTok. The campaign embraced creator partnerships, trend-led content and lo-fi storytelling that felt native to the platform, helping JAECOO become part of the conversations and communities audiences were already engaging with.
At the heart of the campaign was Power The Drive, a creator-led content platform built around JAECOO’s innovative vehicle-to-load (V2L) technology. Working with creators across music, gaming, food and lifestyle, the campaign demonstrated how the vehicle could power people’s passions through authentic experiences rather than product-led messaging.
The results were remarkable. Within six months, JAECOO generated more than 120 million TikTok views, over 92,000 engagements and built an audience of more than 17,000 followers from a standing start. Beyond social performance, the campaign helped drive significant increases in brand search demand and contributed to JAECOO becoming the UK’s fastest-selling plug-in hybrid SUV and one of the country’s fastest-growing automotive brands.
This shortlist is a testament to the strategic thinking, creativity and collaboration behind the campaign. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved alongside the JAECOO team and delighted to see the work recognised by one of the industry’s most respected awards programmes.
Winners will be announced at The Drum Awards later this year.
More from us
At PHA, we combine social strategy, creator marketing, digital expertise and audience insight to help brands build relevance, trust and visibility across the platforms that matter most.
Our work with JAECOO demonstrates how platform-native content and creator-led storytelling can drive measurable business outcomes, turning social media from a communications channel into a commercial growth engine.
As an award-winning integrated communications and PR agency with specialist expertise across social media, digital marketing, PR, influencer marketing and crisis and reputation management, we help brands create campaigns that connect with audiences and deliver meaningful results.
To find out more about our social media and creator marketing services, get in touch with our team at hello@thephagroup.com.