The Shakespeare

Marketing a pub for those who’ve been alienated by pub culture.

How did they DO that?

  • When Fleet Architects took over The Shakespeare Pub in Margate in April 2022, the building had been derelict for seven years. Situated near the seafront, the pub had once played a vital role in the local community but had long fallen into disuse.

    Fleet’s vision extended far beyond a simple refurbishment - they aimed to create a space that honoured the building’s heritage while serving the needs of Margate’s growing creative and entrepreneurial community. Their plans included transforming The Shakespeare into a hybrid venue: part working space, part cultural centre, and part social pub.

the transformation

To bring this vision to life online, Fleet partnered with founder Ellen Jones to lead the digital work - developing a strategic and inclusive social media presence, supporting event promotion, and embedding community engagement at the heart of all digital communication.

We took the account from reaching a few hundred people per month to regularly over 100,000 people per month - surpassing the entire population of Margate. Crucially, this growth wasn’t just about scale, but about who was being reached.

70% of the audience are now women - an unprecedented figure in the pub world. This shift reflected a deliberate move away from traditional pub marketing and towards storytelling that centred culture, creativity, safety, and belonging.

At the heart of both the physical and digital relaunch was a commitment to local collaboration. The Shakespeare partnered with artists, curators, and cultural producers to embed creativity into every layer of the pub. Exhibitions such as Meet And Be Met, part of Margate Off-Season Festival, featured queer artists Stef Felton and Brogan Bertie, transforming the pub’s walls into a living gallery space.

Pansy Studios amplified these collaborations online - spotlighting artists, contextualising the work, and extending the reach of each exhibition far beyond the physical venue. This helped position The Shakespeare not just as a pub, but as an accessible cultural space with real community value.

Events formed a key pillar of the reopening strategy. Tap takeovers with local brewers such as Five Points Brewing, music nights, quizzes, and creative workshops were all part of a curated calendar designed to welcome new audiences into the space.

Pansy Studios supported event marketing and community outreach across every activation, ensuring communications were clear, consistent, and welcoming. Accessibility, personality, and warmth were prioritised — resulting in stronger attendance, repeat visitors, and genuine dialogue between the pub and its community.

The building is a two-story structure with a sign that reads 'SHAKESPEARE PUBLIC HOUSE'. It has a beige stucco upper floor and a brown brick ground floor with large windows. Two women are standing outside, engaged in conversation, and a person is visible inside through the door.

talent spotlight

Event poster for a special Sunday at the Shakerey. Features cartoon illustration of a person lounging with a bottle and glass, surrounded by party elements like drink bottles and table lamps. Text details event times, music, and wine pouring activities, with date July 5th, 2025.

The Shakespeare have consistently worked with Heidi Illustrates, part of our LGBTQ+ talent network, to create bespoke illustrated assets that reflected The Shakespeare’s personality and values. These illustrations helped soften and humanise digital communications - from event promotion to community updates - and played a key role in making the pub’s online presence feel welcoming, expressive, and culturally rooted rather than transactional.

By drawing on trusted queer creative talent, Pansy Studios ensured that representation was not an afterthought but embedded into the brand’s day-to-day storytelling - reinforcing The Shakespeare as a space shaped with its community, not just marketed to it.