Cutting through the noise and leaving an impact on the media and markets is what we do best, and when our clients come to us with their next project, we make it our mission to create as much noise as possible.  

When we were approached by one of our longstanding clients, law firm Shakespeare Martineau and sister company, Marrons, a planning consultancy, to promote their joint housing industry report, Housing 2040, we knew the answer lay in a solid property marketing strategy, our little black book of journalist contacts, and heaps of creativity. With the report hoping to make headlines highlighting key areas within the UK where the housing market could not support the demand, our job was to curate a PR programme that not only cut through the media, but that left an impact on the reader and delivered commercially.  

Whether building a multi-pronged media and marketing service strategy, or navigating the news wave on a campaign level, no project or is too big or too bold for our team.  

Marketing a research report requires a little bit more thought than a simple media sell in (not that any sell ins are simple!). For the media to sit up and listen, report campaigns should answer a question or angle a ‘hook’ to reel the journalists in. The story always must always be news first, not promoting the firm or service.  

As PR pros, it’s our job to know what’s newsworthy and what is not. Whilst statistics can be extremely valuable, for the story to make waves in the media, we had to digest all the findings and carve out the winning angles. For Marrons’ report to be a success, we leant on our strong knowledge of the media to cherry pick what they would find interesting, what their readers would want to see, and ultimately what they would publish.  

In this report, the data was split regionally, so well-rounded knowledge of different regional media titles and top contacts was vital. When issuing report releases, hooking the data to either an existing news story or major media event can help to boost its impact, so our team scoured the news agenda daily looking for that extra boost to propel the story into the headlines. When changes to the National Planning Policy Framework was announced only a few months after the report was published, we utilised this news hook to give the report a second push.  

Once we’d unpacked the hard-hitting stats from the report, it was time to get writing. To ensure all targets were hit appropriately, we split our findings into seven different press releases: one national release, with all the key facts and figures from the main research report, and six regional releases, covering the same stats on a local level. To pique attention from the get-go, we ensured all the top findings were clearly bullet pointed at the top of the release, giving journalists a speedy overview of the sentiment before getting into the full story. 

Our story was strong, but a release is only as good as the journalists you pitch to. By staggering the report, hitting national journalists first, we were able to control the news wave and ensure all our top targets were saturated before working down the list to regionals and trades. While this was a property-focused report, we extended our list to include local government, public sector and social housing publications – all with unique angles to pique media interest and maximise the chance of coverage.  

Together, our meticulous approach garnered almost 50 pieces of coverage, with top results at a national, regional, and trade level.  

Another key strand of our media strategy was broadcast – spreading the story on the airwaves at a national and local level. Our team secured three media interviews with key spokespeople at BBC West Midlands, BBC Sheffield, and BBC Radio Bristol. The news agenda was well and truly jacked! 

Altogether, these results landed our client over 300 report downloads in the first 24 hours, with a 70% backlink click through rate. We even secured a briefing with a shadow government minister to discuss the report.  

Got a research angle that you want to make waves with? Or an idea you want to flesh out further? We’re the team for the job. Get in touch.