Digital PR has become one of the most effective ways to boost brand recognition and attract new customers and partners.
But the Covid-19 pandemic made it harder for every business to succeed, particularly in our industry with travel restrictions being introduced all over the world.
And whilst we are now almost three years on, travel has still been as turbulent as ever, with flight cancellations, delays and strikes hitting at us left, right and centre.
But even when travel was at a complete standstill, our efforts were not.
We continued to create innovative campaigns for our clients and ignite feelings of wanderlust when people were relegated to their armchairs.
In fact, 2022 has elicited some of the most innovative digital PR campaigns we’ve seen as travel bounces back.
Many of these incredible campaigns are bookmarked in our internet browsers as sources of inspiration for what can be achieved when you think outside the box. The digital PR industry really is doing some great things.
So, with 2022 drawing to a close, we thought it would be fitting to write a blog post that celebrates all of the amazing campaigns that our team has created and some of the ones we have admired from other brands in the industry during yet another challenging year.
Five Travel PR Campaigns That We Created During 2022
Remote Working, Literally
We launched this campaign at the beginning of the year when people were still conscious of Covid when travelling, especially in the US.
At the time, people were looking for holidays away from hoards of people and workations were on the rise too, so we worked with our luxury Kauai accommodation provider to find out which secluded islands around the world were the best for remote working, literally.
The index ranked the most secluded islands in the world for a workation, based on their proximity to the nearest mainland and their average internet speed – because a slow pace of life is good, but a slow connection is not…
This campaign caught the attention of the likes of Travel Pulse and MSN and is a great example of using public attitudes and behaviours to your advantage.
Most Popular Museums In Every Country
Whilst we work in the travel sector, we’re always looking for ways to get our clients mentioned in publications from other sectors including tech, food & drink, and lifestyle.
Taking lifestyle as our target, we worked with our luxury cruise client to find out which museum was the most popular in every country.
Why? Well, museums have the ability to completely immerse visitors in the culture of a destination through rich art, history and unique artefacts, so it was incredibly relevant to our travel client whilst also being of interest to lifestyle publications that regularly cover museums.
Displaying this in an attractive map format, the campaign caught the attention of Apartment Therapy and Casa Vogue, as well as Time Out, Matador Network, and a range of nationals.
Multi-Generation Travel Index
As the world got pretty much back to normal and restrictions all but gone, we noticed that family holidays were really having a revival and research confirmed this, highlighting that two-thirds of Brits were set to take a holiday in 2022 with their loved ones.
We worked with our accommodation search engine client and analysed cities around the world based on factors that each age group deems important, finding out which destinations are the best for a multi-generational trip.
The campaign was our most successful this year, being covered not once but four times by CNBC! Yes, four separate articles about this campaign. It also caught the attention of Yahoo, MSN and Apartment Therapy.
It’s safe to say it is the star of the SEO Travel PR Christmas tree this year.
This is also a great example of why you shouldn’t just stick with the main story when it comes to data campaigns as many publications narrowed the data down and only used what was applicable to the generation of their reader demographic.
Slow Travel Package
We’re blessed to work with some really wonderful clients, clients who are wonderful for a range of different reasons.
But we feel blessed to work with a client that is vehemently trying to reduce its impact on the environment.
After a chat with our luxury villa client about their sustainability efforts, we worked together to create a ‘slow travel package’ that can reduce their guests’ carbon footprint by up to 90%.
This campaign caught the attention of Forbes, who wrote an entire article about the initiative. Not to mention pretty much every regional publication in the UK.
It also helped to cement our client as a leader and innovator within the luxury villa sector.
Real-Life Stories
Now, contrary to what the above might suggest, getting coverage on high domains does not just stem from heavy data sets and creative offerings. You can get fantastic coverage by finding an interesting story and framing it in the right way.
For our luxury Barbados accommodation provider, we wanted to jump on the digital nomad visa trend and highlight that their accommodation can be booked for long-term stays.
However, we know that people don’t like to be sold to, so we decided to let someone else tell the story for us.
We spoke with a single mum who had recently moved from Scotland to Barbados with her three children and she shared her story with us, which we then shared with the world.
The heartwarming story was lapped up by the likes of the Metro and the Mirror, and it is a great example of how you’re not always the best person to tell the story.
These real-life stories are incredibly valuable to journalists as they know that their readers will feel that they can trust the contents of the article because it comes from someone in the public rather than just the brand behind the story.
And now onto the ones that we wish we had produced…
5 Travel PR Campaigns That We Wish We Had Created During 2022
Although we know that our PR campaigns are pretty slick, there are lots of other agencies doing fantastic travel PR campaigns and so we felt it only right to pay homage to some of those that have inspired over the last year.
Although we know that our PR campaigns are pretty slick, there are lots of other agencies doing fantastic travel PR campaigns and so we felt it only right to pay homage to some of those that have inspired us over the last year.
Weird Reasons Why People Travel – British Airways
Using over 500 billboards around the UK, British Airways launched its A British Original campaign, which aimed to showcase the weird and wonderful reasons that people fly abroad.
This includes everything from “mischief” and “olives the size of my actual fist” to “because this weather sucks” and the incredibly romantic “I’ve had a ring in my pocket long enough”.
The campaign was created to highlight the many reasons why people travel and underline that all are equally important.
Such a simple idea and so beautifully executed.
28-Day All-Inclusive Breaks – easyJet
Another great example of jumping on the news is when easyJet launched a 28-day-long ‘Escape the UK’ all-inclusive holiday.
Tying this in with the cost-of-living crisis, easyJet claims the month-long getaway is cheaper than the cost of the average UK household’s monthly bills this winter.
An interesting approach sure, but perhaps not considering that data shows that many people were actually considering leaving the UK for an extended period of time to avoid increasing bills.
And with prices from just £650 per person for the entire month… we’re off to book our spot.
Free Tattoo Translation Service – Duolingo
Perhaps one of the funniest campaigns we’ve seen this year.
In light of World Tattoo Day back in March, Duolingo took it upon itself to uncover some of the most terribly translated tattoos that some of us unfortunately have.
The language learning app offered to translate any foreign language tattoos for free and even offered some lucky people the chance to a #DuoOver if their inking didn’t quite say what they thought it did.
Cringy, funny, and clever all in one!
Most Mispronounced Travel Destinations – Preply
Part of travelling is visiting a new destination, trying desperately to converse with locals and inevitably mullering the pronunciation of a word so badly that they don’t even know what you’re saying.
Preply recognised this and created a campaign that used Google search data to find out which travel destinations themselves are the most mispronounced.
In first place is Cannes in France, followed by the UK’s River Thames and Yosemite National Park in the US.
As funny as this campaign is, it actually offers useful information to journalists as it explains how to properly pronounce the tricky destinations.
The Rainiest Beaches In The UK – Parkdean
Now, we know that the UK is not renowned for its weather but when we Brits do venture to the Great British seaside, we often try to tie this in with a day that looks… dry.
That’s exactly why Parkdean analysed which beaches in the UK saw the most rain each year and this is exactly why it worked for them.
It works because every single Brit can relate to it.
It’s a great example of harnessing public emotion and behaviours.
And… that’s it folks.
We hope that you have a lovely Christmas and that your New Year is full of follow links.
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