The month in links – February’s Digital PR highlights
Everyone in the Digital PR world knows that in February, the focus is firmly on Valentine’s Day, with campaigns for lonely hearts, soulmates and lovers scorned stealing all the headline spots. And whilst some of our campaigns certainly provided a salve for angry exes and got certain juices flowing (at the gym, obviously!) this month our Digital PR team didn’t stop there. The press office pushed out some sage advice for everyone from plant parents to money-conscious drivers, and tapped into some little-used data resources to score stellar international coverage to boot. So, even though it’s been a short month – albeit slightly longer this year – the team has churned out more cracking coverage than cupid could shake his bow at! Keep reading for our February highlights.
Brand campaigns
Sexiest Celebrity Voices- Pour Moi
Some voices are deemed to be sexier than others- whether it’s the tone, the pitch or the accent making it more appealing. But we wanted to find out which celebrity voices we find the most attractive. To do this we conducted an audio study, where participants had to rank over 100 celebrities for their pitch, tone, accent and more – to reveal which famous voice wis the sexiest.
This campaign has bagged 26 pieces of coverage thus far, including on Buzzfeed and Cosmopolitan Netherlands, with 5 links pointing directly to the target category page.
‘Sexy celebrities are often spoken about in the media, so we wanted to see which celebrity voices we find the most attractive. The study revealed that British celebrity voices were found to be amongst the sexiest – with London-born celebrity Stormzy taking the top spot overall. The list also featured Celtic actors too, with the alluring accent drawing people in.’ Maddie Davies, Digital PR Manager
Community Spirit- Remitly
In the digital age of the 2020s, there are many ways that people who have just moved to a new country can meet up and find local groups and clubs- from social media apps like TikTok or Facebook, to platforms such as Meetup. With this in mind, we wanted to find out which cities around the world make it easiest for new residents to make friends and find new communities in their new area, based on how many Meetup groups can be found in each destination.
We studied Meetup data to discover which cities have the highest number of communities per person, by analysing the number of Meetup groups available within a five-mile radius of the most populated cities in the world. The data found that cities such as Seattle (known for its reputation of being a hard place to make friends in), Cambridge and Zurich were among the top locations to meet like-minded friends in!
This campaign secured 63 pieces of coverage, including 56 links and 87% new linking domains. Some highlights include key international news sites such as The South African and The Portugal News, and UK news site The Express.
‘Analysing Meetup as a data source was a whole new methodology for us, so getting to grips with sourcing the data took some time initially – but it was really worth it to gain the unique data we did, using a never-seen-before methodology. This campaign enabled us to land links and coverage all around the world – something that’s really important for a global business such as Remitly, and we were also able to land a super high ratio of those all-important new linking domains. This campaign reminded us that it’s always worth persevering to find new and unique data sources!’ Abi Bennetts, Digital PR Director
Scrap Your Ex- Scrap Car Comparison
Valentine’s is the day of love – but its also a day you just want to get through if you’ve recently dealt with a breakup. We gave people the chance of the ultimate form of car-tharsis, by giving them the chance to name a car that was soon to hit the scrap heap after their ex. Enabling us to get people talking about scrapping cars, during the most romantic day of the year!
This landed over 160 pieces of coverage (including broadcast) – 76 of which included links.
Some key coverage included Forbes, The Express, Southern Living, Bored Panda and Fox News.
‘4 years ago we gave people the chance to ‘scrap’ the stressful, universally-hated year that was 2020. But fast-forward to 2024, we knew there was something else people would love to scrap: their exes. So we did exactly that, and the results show that you should never be afraid of returning to an old idea, if you can give it a fresh twist, that makes sense in the moment.
Plus, it was great to see how happy people were that got their exes scrapped – it was a lovely bonus to the links!’ Richard Paul, Creative Director
Press Office best bits
Libido-Boosting Foods – Pour Moi
With Valentine’s Day on the mind of many couples this month, the team partnered up with an expert to reveal the best (and most popular) libido-boosting foods to get you in the mood for a romantic night in. This tastebud-tingling story landed coverage on sites such as The Daily Star.
Rising Repair Costs – Scrap Car Comparison
We calculated what the cost of common car repairs could look like and showed that in just a decade or so, drivers could be paying eye-watering costs for routine repairs such as MOTs, a tyre change or car battery replacement. The study, which used the current rate of inflation to predict future costs, showed that for example MOTs could cost drivers over £80 per test by 2034, and over £370 for the annual checks in 50 years’ time. Overall we secured 23 pieces of coverage. Some coverage highlights include The Mirror, The Express and The Lancashire Evening Post.
Spice Up Your Sex Life with Exercise – PureGym
To help out those who were looking to get a sweat on in more ways than one this month, we worked with a sex expert to reveal how exercise could actually be the secret to a better sex life – just in time for Valentines Day. This tickled the fancy of lifestyle and news sites such as Femina and The Daily Star.
Most Searched Visas – Remitly
Remitly are the experts in all things moving to a new country – and so with this in mind we analysed Google search data to reveal the countries which people were searching for a visa most in, revealing that France, Canada and Japan are amongst the most in-demand countries. This reached international readers in France, New Zealand and beyond.
TikTok Plant Hacks – Patch Plants
We analysed TikTok to reveal the top trending ‘plant hacks’ and worked with Patch Plant’s lead horticulturalist and plant doctor, Kelly Dyer, to reveal the hacks that are doing more harm than good. For example, Kelly warned proud houseplant owners against using mayonnaise to polish plant leaves and said that using sugar to give your plants a new lease of life can lead to poor plant health. This working in tandem with our strategy for Patch Plants, which is to build authoritative and relevant links directly to their ‘indoor’ category page, seeing these links from the likes of HuffPost, The Mirror, National World and Nine Australia.
Driving Date Night Warning – Auto Trader
With Valentine’s approaching, we noticed TikTok’s Driving Date Night trend could be potentially problematic for UK drivers. Whilst a motor-located date night looks super romantic on social media, with Auto Trader we shared a reminder of the rules and potential fines that can take place when parking overnight on land you don’t own. This scored coverage on sites like The Sun and The Metro.