SD Create

A moment on the grid for the first proper Christmas do 🎄🪩🍸

Last year, indulged me, so I didn’t have a sad little solo Christmas dinner for one. And whilst that was lovely in its own way, nothing beats a good proper work Christmas do - letting the hair down after the busiest few months.

This year looked a whole lot different, and with my fab office bestie & the gorgeous , I had the best day out, filled with great food, cocktails and lots of laughs.

A fab lunch in was followed by drinks and cocktails around a buzzing Belfast, stopping off at , , & .belfast and .

So grateful for these girls, their support and collaboration and it was great to come together and celebrate what has been a great year in so many ways for me and this wee (but growing) business.

Cray Cray Szn Recap 🤪

We’re starting to see the wood from our tinsel-clad trees here in SD Create HQ, so here’s a recap on a few of the (many) fun things we’ve been working on lately.

1. Halloween was barely finished when we were dropping the C-word. Christmas season officially begins this weekend , with a weekend of festive fun for all the family this Saturday & Sunday, including a Christmas Jumper party on Sunday 12 November. Get on down to get into the festive spirit!

2. We had a lot of fun behind the scenes at our Sparkle Season shoot for - the results of which you’ll see in your feed very soon. ✨

3. We helped launch their spiffing new range of canned beers.

4. We worked with and a stellar line-up of trad talent, when Powers Golden Hours touched down in Belfast.

5. Following last week’s announcement of the ’s milestone £6.5m redevelopment, we announced news of a special preview event with a Q&A with the movie’s producer Mark Huffam later this month. We’ve got our tickets, have you got yours? 🎟️

6. We’ve been working with on media and influencer engagement to promote its incredible Luxury for Sale packags, with incredible offers starting from £119.50 pp sharing for an overnight stay, or £128 pp sharing for an overnight stay with bed and breakfast with dinner (Jan-March 2024); plus the launch of its new cocktail book, and the hotel’s search for a new deputy general manager.

Phew. And that’s only the highlights. 😅

August marks one year of SD Create 🎉

The official date isn’t for another few weeks, but shall I just milk it and have a birthday month? 🎂

It’s been a hell of a ride so far, so between updates on current projects, I’m going to take some time over the next few weeks to mark the milestone and reflect on year one. So stay tuned here and follow along .

Pictured: me / SD at the launch at the weekend with the number 1 badly photoshopped on their lovely colourful display. (Don’t @ me - we spend all our time on client content, so our own is always an afterthought, ok?)

C’mon bros, give us a break… 😵

ICYMI, Elon Musk has rebranded to ‘X’, just weeks after launched .

Interested to see how this one unfolds. Sleep is for the weak anyway, right? 😩

What’s your view? Are you migrating to Threads; sticking around to see if ‘X marks the spot’ or will you continue to spend your time here, on , or somewhere else? We’d love to know.

One day you’re launching a new cocktail menu for , the next you’re donning steel capped boots and a hard hat, and trying to summon up what you learnt in your GSCE history to interpret archaeological terminology, and make sure you’re getting your centuries and eras in the right order…. Life at SD Create is certainly varied lately.

ICYMI, an archaeological excavation on the site of the Beannchor group’s Bullitt Dublin hotel development has uncovered medieval burials including skeletal remains and significant historic buildings associated with the earliest inhabitants of medieval Dublin.

Swipe for just some of more than 100+ media outlets that have covered the story over the past few days, right across Ireland, NI, the UK and even in the U.S.

Delve deeper than the headlines and you’ll read a fascinating story on the significance of these finds and how they will feed into the new Bullitt Dublin development.

Beannchor has a strong track record in the sensitive restoration and reimagining of historic and listed buildings, with landmark projects like Belfast’s Merchant Hotel, and bars and , within its portfolio. Great care has been taken to preserve and incorporate surviving buildings into the new development.

As part of the first phase, Beannchor plans to reopen an historic Victorian laneway stretching between Capel Street and Meeting House Lane, which has been closed to the public for over 140 years. Walking through that laneway on Friday for the first time, I felt like I was walking into a hidden part of Dublin for the first time.

There’s so much more to come on this story. Looking forward to playing my part, working alongside , and all of the Beannchor marketing team, to help tell it.

Client News 📣

It’s been a busy few weeks, so we thought we’d jump on the round-up trend and share a few things we’ve been working on, starting with some news for some very exciting new clients, announced today. 🤩

Pooch Social is Back! 🐶

Are you ready for a ‘Pooch & Pokes’ Paw-ty? 🐾’s popular Pooch Social returns with a summer edition of the popular event on Sunday 11 June. Dogs and their humans can expect an afternoon of live music, fantastic food and drink, and a range of stalls offering local treats, merch, crafts and toys all tailored to our four-legged friends. Plus, the first 100 dogs to arrive at the event will get a free Frozen Yogurt. 🍦

The Merchant secures Spot in Top 10% of World’s Hotels 🏆

In breaking news today, Belfast’s highly decorated Merchant Hotel has received another accolade to add to its burgeoning trophy cabinet. The Merchant has been recognised by travel giant, as a 2023 Travelers’ Choice award winner, which means it’s amongst the top 10% of all listings on the site globally. PLUS, The Spa at The Merchant has also been shortlisted for an award at the prestigious !

Celebrating 15 years of Victoria Square with a chance to WIN a £50 gift card. 🎁

To celebrate their 15th birthday, Victoria Square has teamed up with to create a stunning installation featuring creative captures from budding photographers - walk through the centre this March and you’ll see their snaps suspended from the roof, and in the fab new VS15 themed seating areas.

📸 Share your own memories, favourite things and creative captures of Victoria Square this March using and you could WIN our giveaway for a £50 Victoria Square gift card. Swipe for more info.



This giveaway is not affiliated with Instagram.

Valentine’s content we’re crushin’ on ❤️

We’re big fans of the ’s tongue in cheek marketing and brand activations and today’s cheeky ‘Cheat on Tony’ sampling stunt was a cracker, inviting consumers to ‘ditch the sugar daddy and wake up with Surreal.’ I think we can all agree that’s grrrreat content.👌🏻

’s campaign is reframing how we look / and talk about ageing - it’s a campaign we’ve lived activating locally, through the new Powering Conversations interview series. Today’s ‘Let’s Go Old’ together post with a vintage bottle of Powers was a nice nod to the heritage of the brand and the day that’s in it.

dropped the season 3 trailer today with a heartwarming play on the show’s iconic catchphrase. As huge Ted Lasso fans, we’re buzzin’ for S3.

have been making waves with a series of content around self-love this week and tonight unveiled as the face of a new campaign with real heart - encouraging women to ‘give love another chance.’ Perfectly timed with Pammie’s doc ‘Pamela, A Love Story’, the campaign will also support domestic violence survivors. We couldn’t love this more.

No two days are ever the same in the wonderful world of marketing and PR but our SD has had a go at summing up a day in the life of a female founder, running the good ship, SD Create.

Find out more in the latest ‘Leaders in Business’ issue of Ulster Business magazine (online version linked in stories).

And tell us, what makes or breaks your morning routine? Join us over on stories for a few fun little polls on the subject.

Turning on the OOO in the knowledge that the best ideas come from clear heads. 💆🏻‍♀️

So, in a world where we’re ‘always on’, don’t be afraid to switch off over the holidays. 😴

Wishing a restful, healthy & happy festive season to our clients, collaborators, creators & friends.

Practice what you preach… 🙊

We wouldn’t recommend our clients ‘go off the grid’ for eight weeks but in our defence, we’ve been busy keeping other brands’ grids looking tip top (amongst other things).

As we approach the final working week of 2022, we’ll be sharing some of the fantastic projects we’ve been working on over the last few months. We also have some plans in the works for more of our own original content in 2023.

Our clients will always come first though, so if we do ever drop off the radar again, it’s because we’re busy creating content for brands we’re proud to put our name to.

Calling local creators! 📱

Matching brands with creators is our jam. Brand experiences and partnerships work best when creators love the brands they work with and that authentically match their content style and audiences.

So, if you’re a local creator based in Northern Ireland, or the Republic of Ireland, tell us more your interests, the type of content you create, and the brands you love. We’ll use these insights to match you with ‘best-fit’ brands, events, events and experiences from our client portfolio, to ensure that when we reach out, we’re contacting you about things we know you’re gonna love.

Head to the bio site via the link in our bio and hit the ‘Creator Cupid’ button to find out more.

👋🏻 Meet SD

We’ve been busy working behind the scenes on some exciting projects, but thought it was about time we said a proper hello. 🙋🏻‍♀️

So here’s our founder, creator & chief tea maker, Sinead Doyle.

After 16 years’ in journalism, PR and marketing roles in both agency and in-house, Sinead is channelling her passion for storytelling, creative content & brand marketing in a new direction, with the launch of SD Create.

Expect to see a bit more of her around here, though she’s still fighting that long held belief that ‘a PR’s place is behind the camera’, so she
might take a little coaxing...

📸 Fab photos like this by the talented Elaine Hill make it slightly easier to stomach, all the same.

Less than a week until GIANT nights out are back! 🎉

Fun fact: Our founder Sinead Doyle is a bona fide ice hockey fan. 🏒 Having worked in-house as the Odyssey’s head of communications and marketing for the last two years, leading on the Belfast Giants’ historic rebrand and return from Covid-19, Sinead lived through every edge of the seat moment with the team last season.

2021/22 was one of the Giants’ most successful seasons in the club’s 22 year history. On the ice, the team claimed both the Elite Ice Hockey League League & Challenge Cup titles. Off the ice, they engaged with new audiences, driving record crowds, season ticket sign-ups and making a big impact through community outreach programmes.

Whether you’re a diehard hockey fan or a total newbie, a Belfast Giants home game is not to be missed. Where else would you find a guy firing free Subways out of a cannon into the crowd, pizza giveaways, and a ‘make you wanna get up a dance’ playlist alongside your serving of sporting action?

So, Join the ‘Teal Army’ (and us) at The SSE Arena, Belfast this season for Belfast’s biggest nights out.



📸 William Cherry & Philip Magowan, Press Eye.