Oct 24th Northern news round-up

Welcome to the very first edition of the Northern News Roundup! 

Want to get up to speed quickly on the North’s hottest headlines, biggest discussions, and latest movements in the marketing and creative space? Then read on.

AWS Outage

Monday, October 20th, lived up to its bad reputation when a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage knocked dozens of leading digital platforms offline—impacting everything from gaming and social media to critical enterprise tools. After 15 hours, services were restored, but not before affecting over 1,000 companies. Whether your daily dose of Fortnite vanished or you couldn't hit a Canva deadline, the takeaway is clear: global platforms are heavily reliant on a few major cloud providers.

Key Takeaway: The internet is still fragile. Always have your essential Canva templates ready, and maybe don't trust AI to write your emergency copy!

Salad Bar Blues:  Pizza Hut Closes Doors

More tough news followed on Tuesday: Pizza Hut is closing 68 restaurants, with nearly half (31 locations) in the North and Scotland. Challenging trading conditions and rising costs have forced the family-friendly chain into administration for the second time this year. As the Liverpool Echo's Jamie pondered after his recent visit, in a world full of pizza alternatives, is an unlimited salad bar still the main draw? (My Eastern European mum always said you don't make friends with salad, and maybe she was onto something.)

The full list of Northern and Scottish branches affected is here and I’m always available for some proper good pizza recs in Manchester! 

Manchester Pride Enters Liquidation 

It's with genuine sadness—and a heavy heart full of glitter and regret—that we report Manchester Pride has entered voluntary liquidation, confirming earlier worries about financial distress. A perfect storm of rising event costs, dipping ticket sales, an ambitious format refresh, and a lost bid for Euro Pride proved too much for the budget.

While this financial stumble leaves some artists unpaid, it’s a poignant reminder that even the most fabulous community celebrations need a solid spreadsheet to keep the party going. Goodbye, Manchester Pride; you leave behind great memories. Read the full story on Prolific North 

LADbible revenues soar 10% 

OK - finally some good news!

Manchester-based content powerhouse LADbible reported a 10% revenue increase, hitting £92.2 million for its latest financial year, with profits also climbing. It’s brilliant to see a fellow publisher thriving, especially when organic web traffic is taking a beating this year (thanks, algorithms!). Their growth is credited to strong performance across social media and increased focus on the US market, bolstered by their recent acquisition of Betches. Congrats to everyone at LADbible.  Details here:

THG Ingenuity making moves

Ecommerce giant has announced an exciting partnership with Google Cloud to transform THG's digital commerce platform.

After enduring what felt like an eternity of bad news, THG finally gave investors something to cheer about last week by reporting its strongest quarterly sales growth since 2021. The Manchester-based group saw its Q3 revenue rise by 6.3%, sending its shares up by more than 5% as both the Beauty and Nutrition divisions returned to growth. CEO Matthew Moulding is "really pleased" that the strategic pivots are finally paying off, suggesting the company might just be ready to leave its "rough time" in the rearview mirror and cash in during the profitable holiday season. Read more on Prolific North here

True Originals Never Settle

And now, for our inspirational sign-off: all-star creative Newcastle agency, Drummond Central, revealed their latest work for the legendary Triumph Motorcycles. This epic, global campaign—"True Originals Never Settle"—celebrates the idea of momentum: respecting heritage while constantly pushing forward. As the campaign rightly reminds us, staying still is not an option!
Read details here. 

And on that very encouraging note, I’m off to catch a train to Leeds for the 2025 Prolific North Marketing Awards. See you next week with all the tea!