Client Case Study: SoberLove & Sober Rebel Society
- Nov 1, 2025
- 3 min read
SoberLove and Sober Rebel Society are two completely separate organisations founded by entrepreneur Nicky Wake, each responding to different challenges around sobriety, connection and life without alcohol. SoberLove is a dating and friendship app for people who are sober or sober-curious, while Sober Rebel Society is a non-profit providing free peer support, community and sober-friendly spaces.
We have supported communications around both organisations, tailoring our work to their different purposes and the audiences they are trying to reach. Across the relationship, our support has included communications strategy, media relations, founder profiling, thought leadership, lived-experience storytelling, broadcast, podcasts and content development.
SoberLove was created in response to a practical challenge Nicky encountered after becoming sober. Dating culture remains heavily associated with alcohol, from meeting for drinks to navigating social situations where drinking is assumed, creating an additional barrier for people in recovery or simply choosing a different relationship with alcohol. The app provides a space for people looking for dating, friendship and connection without alcohol at the centre of the experience.
Our communications work placed SoberLove within wider conversations around sober dating, changing attitudes towards alcohol and the growth of sober-curious lifestyles. Rather than relying on a conventional app launch story, we identified different routes into the subject through Nicky’s experience, lifestyle commentary, relationships and the changing ways people socialise and date.
Nicky’s own story has been an important part of that work. She has spoken openly about experiencing high-functioning alcohol addiction while continuing to run a successful business and raise her son, and how her drinking escalated during an extraordinarily difficult period in her life. She ultimately entered rehab, completed a medical detox and began rebuilding her life without alcohol.
We worked with Nicky to develop her story for the media alongside the wider themes behind her work, creating opportunities to talk about hidden addiction, stigma, women and alcohol, recovery, sober dating and building a social life without drinking. This provided different ways to introduce Nicky and SoberLove to audiences beyond those already engaged with sobriety.
Our work later extended to communications support around Sober Rebel Society, a completely separate non-profit created to provide free peer support and community for people cutting down, stopping drinking or exploring life without alcohol. Its moderated online community, peer-led meetings and alcohol-free social events are designed to reduce isolation and give people opportunities to connect with others navigating similar experiences.
For Sober Rebel Society, our communications focused on the need for accessible community and connection beyond a single moment such as Dry January. Nicky’s lived experience again provided an important perspective, particularly around the challenges people can face after deciding to change their relationship with alcohol and finding support that feels right for them.
Across our work with SoberLove, Sober Rebel Society and Nicky, we have secured extensive national, regional, broadcast, magazine, podcast and digital coverage. This has included The Guardian, The Big Issue, The Women’s Journal, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, BBC radio and regional television, alongside NationalWorld, The Charity Champions Podcast and further national, consumer, lifestyle and regional media. Together, these opportunities have taken Nicky’s story and the work of both organisations to audiences interested in sobriety, recovery, relationships, women’s experiences, lifestyle and community.
The breadth of the coverage has allowed us to approach these subjects from very different angles rather than relying on a single founder story. Nicky has contributed to conversations around addiction and recovery, women and alcohol, dating and relationships, sober lifestyles, community and the changing place of alcohol in people’s social lives. At the same time, the work has created opportunities to introduce SoberLove and Sober Rebel Society to relevant audiences while keeping the purpose of each organisation clear.
Across both organisations, our role has been to use strategic communications to turn important subjects and personal experiences into stories that engage wider audiences. Founder profiling, media relations, thought leadership, lived-experience storytelling, broadcast and longer-form opportunities have provided different routes into conversations around sobriety, connection and changing relationships with alcohol, while supporting greater visibility for each organisation in its own right.
If your organisation is looking for strategic communications support to strengthen its profile, develop campaigns and reach the audiences that matter, please get in touch to discuss how we can work together.
