Down at the Social reappointed by WeBuyBricks and adds WeBuyBooks to brief

Manchester PR and social media agency Down at the Social (DATS) has been reappointed by WeBuyBricks, the Lancashire business that is one of Europe’s largest sellers of used LEGO sets.

Under the new agreement, DATS will continue its PR programme into 2027 and take on sister brand WeBuyBooks. The extension follows the agency’s launch campaign for the Brick-O-Matic, the company’s AI-powered sorting machine.

Adding WeBuyBooks

WeBuyBooks is where the business started, as a bookshop in Crawshawbooth. It later moved online and launched an app that gives sellers an instant price when they scan a book’s barcode, and is now one of Europe’s largest buyers and sellers of used books, with about two million titles stored at its Rawtenstall mill.

DATS will take the same news-led, data-driven approach for the brand, telling stories about the millions of books given a second life, from its Little Readers scheme offering free books to schools to the nation’s reading habits. The opening story reveals the company has kept more than three million books out of landfill.

The Brick-O-Matic launch

The partnership began in June 2026. Within weeks, the campaign had taken the Brick-O-Matic, which uses AI to sort and check mixed LEGO® bricks and assemble them into complete sets at the company’s converted Rawtenstall mill, from local secret to national news.

Highlights included a feature in The Times, a mention on ITV’s This Morning, airtime on BBC Radio 5 Live, broadcast coverage on Channel 5’s 5 News, BBC North West Tonight and BBC Newsround, and stories in Yahoo! News, Manchester Evening News and the i.

The story also reached the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia, and BBC One’s Morning Live has filmed at the mill for a feature to be broadcast before Christmas.

The campaign has produced more than 40 press and broadcast pieces, reaching a combined audience of more than 190 million with 100% positive brand sentiment. LEGO creators also shared the machine with their followers through a community-led influencer programme.

The coverage met the campaign’s commercial goal too. WeBuyBricks has been flooded with sellers, while buyer demand for quality-checked, pre-loved sets priced 40% to 60% below new has kept pace.

The extended brief builds on the Brick-O-Matic with visual, data-led and newsworthy campaigns over Christmas and into the new year. Plans include Christmas gifting, community-led influencer activity and a hunt for a talented LEGO builder, all aimed at encouraging people to sell unloved sets to WeBuyBricks.

Client and agency comment

Paul Ryan, marketing manager at WeBuyBricks, said: “We knew we had something special in the machine, but seeing it in The Times, on the BBC and on TV as far away as New Zealand has been a proud moment for everyone here, and we’ve felt it in the business too, with sets for sale pouring in and buyers snapping them up.”

He added: “We’d really like to carry on and see what else we can do together, especially as we head into Christmas and bring WeBuyBooks into the mix.”

Daisy Whitehouse, managing director at DATS, said: “The first time we saw the Brick-O-Matic, we knew it was a story the whole country would want to see. It’s Wallace and Gromit meets Willy Wonka, built in a Lancashire mill, and it’s giving unloved LEGO bricks a second life.”

She said the coverage had kept attention on “what matters most to the business: Reminding people that the LEGO sets sitting in their lofts are worth something, and that there’s a simple way to turn them into cash.”

“There’s so much more to come from this story, and we can’t wait to bring the same energy to Christmas, the new year and to WeBuyBooks, where it all started,” she added.

The new programme follows straight on from the initial three-month launch campaign, and Christmas activity has already started.