Background:

Messina Hembry is one of the UK’s leading online second-hand clothing retailers, focusing on premium quality sustainable fashion and giving pre-loved garments a second life. 

Operating within the competitive online fashion resale space, Messina Hembry approached us to increase their brand awareness and strengthen online visibility. They wanted to stand out from already established resale marketplaces and highlight the sustainability and quality  elements of their business. 

One of the key challenges in a saturated fashion landscape, especially when it comes to sustainability, is that it’s a topic that’s often dominated by global, large-scale retailers – making it harder for independent brands like Messina Hembry to cut through the noise and secure meaningful, high-authority media coverage. 

Strategy:

To get Messina Hembry’s name out in front of a larger audience, we built a PR strategy that positions the brand as a conscious fashion champion. The core idea was to establish Messina Hembry as a go-to voice on slow and sustainable fashion – not just an online retailer, but a business with a story, expertise and a clear environmental mission.

To achieve this, we wanted to showcase Messina Hembry’s credibility and get actively involved in wider conversations in the industry, commenting on trends, reacting to news, and offering expert insights and advice.

We delivered a five-month campaign that included multiple elements to reach wider audiences and build momentum:

• Business profile: Highlighting the founders’ journey and the growth of the business from a student side hustle to a multi-million pound company. 
• Environmental impact of the business: Drafting content that showcased the genuine impact the business has on the environment, and arranging features in sustainability publications. 
• Reactive expert commentary: Monitoring fashion, retail and sustainability news to provide timely expert comments on trending topics, from fast fashion debates to latest style trends.  
• Proactive press releases on relevant topics: Creating consumer-facing press releases around tips for second-hand shopping and fashion advice, and pitching them to national, lifestyle and fashion titles. 
• Product outreach: Conducting targeted product PR outreach to secure placements in shopping round-ups and style features, putting Messina Hembry’s products directly in front of fashion-focused audiences. 

We targeted our outreach to fashion, retail and business titles, as well mass consumer and lifestyle publications to maximise brand visibility, reach new audiences and secure high-quality coverage. 

Results:

Our five-month campaign, running from July to December 2025, secured Messina Hembry 63 x items of coverage and 52 x backlinks from high-quality publications across a range of national, lifestyle, business, retail, fashion and sustainability titles. 

Messina Hembry’s founding story was covered by authoritative business titles, such as Retail Week, Business Weekly, Insider Media, UK Director Magazines, Money.co.uk, East Anglia in Business, Sustainable Business Magazine and Metro – highlighting the brand’s expertise and credibility.

Our fashion and lifestyle related press releases and expert comments were covered by Drapers and Fashion United – both of which Messina Hembry named as their ‘dream targets’ – as well as Woman & Home, HELLO! Magazine, Fashion’s Finest, The Mirror, The Express, Yahoo! and British Style Society.

Product outreach also resulted in coverage and links in HuffPost, where a journalist used Messina Hembry’s clothes to recreate Claudia Winkleman’s looks for a week (on the back of The Traitors' success), and we even secured a product mention in ELLE magazine! 

Coverage highlights:

• Drapers, DR 74, brand mention
• Metro, DR 88, brand mention
• HuffPost, DR 90, 2 x follow links
• HELLO!, DR 82,1 x no follow link
• Retail Week, DR 76, 1 x follow link
• Fashion United, DR 77, brand mention
• Woman & Home, DR 76, 1 x no follow link
• The Mirror, DR 89, 1 x follow link 
• Business Weekly, DR 64, brand mention
• Insider Media, DR 76, brand mention
• ELLE, DR 90, 2 x no follow links
• Sustainable Business Magazine, DR 49, brand mention
• Money.co.uk, DR 76, 1 x no follow link
• The Express, DR 88, 1 x no follow link
• London Loves Business, DR 71, 1 x follow link
• Fashion’s Finest, DR 37, 1 x follow link

Alongside strong media visibility, the campaign delivered meaningful SEO improvements. Messina Hembry’s domain rating increased from 29 to 34 and average search impressions increased by 58% – significantly improving online visibility. 

Want results like these?

Email us with the goals you have in mind – we’d love to work with you! hello@motivepr.co.uk