Our Best Digital PR Campaigns of 2023

#1 Everypaw Pet Insurance - Viral TikTok Campaign

What did we do?

We noticed an emerging TikTok trend where people were dyeing their dog’s fur and one particular video amassed more than 128 million views. Within two days of the TikTok being posted, Pet Insurance provider Everypaw Pet Insurance’s in-house Vet gave her expert opinion on the trend and spoke out about its dangers. 

She explained why people shouldn’t be following the trend, the potential consequences it could have on pets and gave her top tips on how to safely dye dog fur in the event that it became necessary (for example, to prevent them from being stolen).

Why did we love this campaign?

This campaign was built around expert comments from Everypaw’s in-house Vet which highlights their expertise and authority within the pet industry to both journalists and readers. The expert comments were picked up by national, local and industry publications, including The Sun, The Mirror and the New York Post. In total, this reactive campaign led to 38 pieces of coverage and 29 backlinks to Everypaw’s website!

Important for any link-building strategy, the average Domain Authority for these websites was 77. The coverage we received from this campaign also meant that we reached an audience of 843 million over the course of the month which is brilliant for brand visibility.

With over 1.67 billion active users on TikTok, the platform has become a brilliant source for reactive campaigns. TikTok is one of our must-have PR tools for 2024 and we look forward to incorporating it into more of our campaigns next year!

#2 Sunsail - Best Beaches in the World for Switching Off Campaign

What did we do?

In September, Sunsail launched an ‘Off the Grid’ campaign with the purpose of highlighting that sailing holidays offer a fantastic opportunity to disconnect from the world and recharge. Our research found that online searches for 'secluded holidays' had risen by 163% over the previous three months and, with September also being the time when many people start booking their holidays for the next year, we decided to create a campaign about the best beaches in the world for switching off.

We analysed a combination of online search data, Trip Advisor reviews, information from official tourism boards, and geological data, and created a scoring matrix to find the top 25 most secluded beaches in the world for switching off in 2024. Alongside a map of the top beaches, we worked with a Psychologist who explained why people struggle switching off holiday on holiday and gave her top tips on how to relax on holiday.

Why did we love this campaign?

Our campaign gathered data for a lot of different sources to create the most comprehensive, accurate and trustworthy results possible in order to get coverage from journalists. This follows the behavioural principle ‘payment for effort’.  In other words, the more time and effort journalists can see you putting in (in this instance, a full dataset of over 100 beaches that had been analysed to find the top 25), the more valuable they perceive your campaign to be to them, which makes them more likely to cover your story over a competitor’s.

We gained 6 pieces of coverage and 4 backlinks to Sunsail’s website, with an average Domain Authority of 72. The campaign was also seen by an audience of 16.3 million people!

Our Digital PR campaign also had SEO benefits because it was turned into a ‘best beaches for switching off’ blog which sits on Sunsail’s website. The piece contained relevant keywords, internal links and useful information for users, all of which is vital for SEO success. This campaign also got our creative juices flowing! To illustrate our findings, we created a visual map of the best beaches around the world. As part of the blog, we also created mini factfiles of each beach with key facts, such as the average temperatures and sunrise/sunset times.

Plus, who doesn’t love spending their time looking at stunning beaches in the likes of Grenada, the Philippines, Greece and even the UK?

#3 Hopes Grove Nurseries - Winter Trends Campaign

What did we do:

We have a confession to make: our next campaign isn’t technically one single campaign, but instead a collection of seasonal reactive and proactive campaigns.

Across October, November and December, the Director of Hopes Grove Nurseries has given a range of expert comments, top tips and advice relating to gardening during the winter months, such as:

• The best flowers to plant in Winter
• What is overwintering?
• The best shrubs to grow for festive berries

Why did we love this campaign?

The expert comments we received contained lots of information about different gardening topics and trends which gave us multiple pieces of content to outreach and pitch to journalists.

The Winter campaign has gained 14 pieces of coverage, with a total of 29 backlinks to the Hopes Grove Nurseries website throughout the content. The average Domain Authority for the coverage we received during our Winter outreach was 80!

Most importantly, this campaign helped us to build vital relationships with relevant journalists and position Hopes Grove Nurseries as an authoritative voice. These relationships have enabled us to secure high-quality coverage and backlinks on a regular basis.

#4 Complete Pilates - Viral TikTok Campaign

What did we do:

TikTok has been our best friend in 2023. Another viral TikTok trend has made the list of our top Digital PR campaigns this year, this time for fitness experts Complete Pilates.

We noticed a new fitness trend on TikTok that people were raving about, the 12-3-30 low impact workout. The hashtag #12330workout has received 339.7 million combined views on the platform, with some individual videos gaining upwards of 9 million views!

Within a couple of days of the trend emerging, Complete Pilates’ Clinical Director gave her expert opinion on the new workout, including the benefits of following the routine and tips on creating a strong fitness plan.

Why did we love this campaign?

We love reactive campaigns because they’re fast-paced and time-sensitive! You often only have a matter of hours to pull together reactive campaigns before your comments are outdated or a competitor has jumped on a trend before you.

Much like our other reactive campaigns, the expert comments positioned Complete Pilates as an authoritative and trustworthy voice within the fitness industry. 

The viral TikTok campaign received coverage in several national and industry publications, including The Metro. We also secured linked coverage in British GQ as a result of jumping on this trend. British GQ has an average Domain Authority of 83 which is very high!

#5 Everypaw Pet Insurance - Pet Names Campaign

What did we do:

Our final favourite campaign of 2023 is the pet names campaign we created for Everypaw Pet Insurance. We analysed the names of over 25,500 furry friends registered with Everypaw Pet Insurance and created several ‘top 10’ lists:

• Top 10 celebrity pet names
• Top 10 strangest pet names
• Top 10 fictional pet names

We saw everything from ‘Lilibet’ and ‘Nala’ to ‘Ham and Cheese Toastie’ and ‘Lieutenant Banana Legs’!

Why did we love this campaign?

We loved creating this campaign because it was so fun and unique - it’s not everyday you see a rabbit called ‘fish’!

Journalists are more likely to cover a campaign if your research is new, reliable and has human-interest. We ticked all three boxes with this creative and silly campaign.

The campaign received 5 pieces of national and local coverage in publications such as The Metro and Wales Online, with 3 backlinks to Everypaw’s website. We also used the unique ‘celebrity’ angle to gain a linked piece of coverage from Hello Magazine which has an average Domain Authority of 89.

Key Takeaways

What a year for Digital PR! 

From brilliant pet names to emerging fitness trends, we’ve seen it all. What can we learn from our Digital PR campaigns of 2023?

• Constantly monitoring the news and platforms such as TikTok can create valuable, relevant Reactive PR opportunities for clients
• Journalists LOVE data-led PR campaigns. Taking the time to research and analyse a dataset, whether you’re looking at pet names, beaches or anything else, can give you a newsworthy angle and capture the attention of journalists over a campaign without data and statistics.
• ‘Lieutenant Banana Legs’ is without a doubt the most iconic pet name we’ve ever heard (don’t tell our Chief Happiness Officer Harry though - he’ll go barking mad!)

Do you want to unleash the power of outreach and link building in 2024? Our Digital PR experts are here to support your business with leveraging backlinks to improve organic rankings and brand awareness, as part of your wider SEO strategy. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can help your website level up its Digital PR game!