Lights, Camera, Reaction – What Travel & Leisure Brands Need for Success in Broadcast PR Campaigns

Whether you are booking a holiday, looking for a staycation or wanting to visit one of the many fantastic leisure, cultural or historical spots the UK has to offer, PR and marketing professionals are busy trying to create stand-out campaigns that deliver real impact. 

With broadcast media remaining the most trusted and widely consumed source of news, finding a way to cut through and secure standout TV and radio coverage is vital. Complemented by an integrated approach to Broadcast PR, you will be able to achieve bigger, better reach by ensuring your newsworthy broadcast campaigns can also deliver fun and inspiring video content that connects across platforms – getting you the results you are looking for. 

At Broadcast Revolution, we’ve worked on tonnes of travel and leisure stories over the years. So we wanted to share a snapshot of some stand-out BR moments to give you a little inspiration for the season ahead. 

The Challenge of Turning Dry Sales Promotions Into Media Moments

In and of themselves, promotions that push a product or an offer aren’t newsworthy, but it is possible with creative storytelling to turn them into newsworthy media moments if you put a little creative flavour to them. Take our work with IHG Hotels. With the brand offering parents a discounted rate after the summer holidays, we built a campaign based around the existing creative of ‘Night on My Own’ – the idea that parents need some time to themselves after many hectic weeks looking after the kids. 

By securing a relevant and relatable spokesperson, Abbey Clancey, the campaign had a national impact when she appeared on Loose Women, discussing her own family life and the need for an occasional break. 

Another example can be found in our work with Europcar. Whilst the launch of a new delivery and collection service wouldn’t necessarily get cut through from a news perspective, we commissioned research on “The Race Against Time” – finding that 80% of people feel that they need extra time in the day to get everything done. With Dame Sarah Storey, cycling and swimming Paralympian, on hand to share her best tips on how to gain back some time in our fast-paced lives, this story reached people in a way a new product launch wouldn’t. 

Keeping a Story in the Spotlight 

We love a big broadcast moment when something compelling comes along – just like the announcement of Cunard’s first new ship in 14 years, The Queen Anne. But when presented with such a golden opportunity, we don’t want the story to be a one-hit wonder. 

To make the most of this story, we strategised a national and international campaign that spotlighted four key moments, ensuring a sustained program of activity through an always-on broadcast lens – capturing valuable content and b-roll at each stage in service of our goals. Focusing on the ship’s arrival at port, naming ceremony, a VIP event and maiden voyage, these special moments were enhanced by partial exclusives with different talent on the ship, such as Michel Roux Jr and artist David Pugh. 

To achieve the best results, we finally offered different outlets exclusivity so everyone felt like they owned something special in the story – resulting in great awareness, buzz and talkability. 

Creating Captivating Content 

Our 2025 Broadcast Trends Report data looked into the UK public’s daily media consumption figures and found that TV comes out on top, but that online channels are increasingly vital. With both broadcasters and PRs needing to take a layered, multichannel approach, captivating content is another strategic advantage in achieving successful campaigns.  

On the Tokyo Station Hotel’s 110th anniversary, BR Studio travelled to Japan to bring together a video centred on the creative idea of ‘The Real Luxury is Time’. Resulting in a “stunning and memorable” video, the project demonstrated the power of visual storytelling to allow PRs to make their audience feel, understand, and associate with what their brand is all about.

Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse Through the Newsroom 

Broadcast Revolution’s unique Newsroom model empowers brands to make the most of the natural news hook in the daily news agenda.

This is because our Newsroom team is plugged in, using their journalistic experience to foresee likely news stories and react to breaking news. In the case of online travel company, Skyscanner, this meant noticing a highlight in their 2025 travel trends report – the rise of dark skies tourism – and the fact that the Northern Lights were due to be seen in UK skies just one day after the report was launched. 

With a tailored pitch focusing on the big news moment of the aurora borealis, we offered their brand spokesperson as an expert who could comment on the natural phenomenon and further travel trends. As a result, Skyscanner secured coverage across both national and regional radio, demonstrating how a newsworthy moment and strategic thinking can be leveraged to create real impact for brands. 

Selecting Spokespeople Strategically

As we’ve seen with Abbey Clancey and IHG Hotels, great, well-chosen spokespeople can make stories more newsworthy, but it isn’t only celebs that can grab attention. When we worked with Marella Cruises by Tui, a bedrock of great research was bought to life by not only Greg Rutherford, but Michael Bonshor – a Wellness Professor from the University of Sheffield. 

With research revealing a formula to happiness (for those curious, it’s fresh air + sunlight + socialising + memory-making + new experiences + pleasant environment + rest +/- exercise = long lasting positive hormones), Professor Bonshor added credibility to the campaign – being able to talk confidently and engagingly on the subject  and helping to land widespread coverage. What’s more,  the strong creative and Greg Rutherford both formed the basis of engaging Instagram content with over 200K views, showcasing how campaigns can concertina across channels. 

Competition might be fierce, but bold storytelling, standout spokespeople, and an integrated, broadcast-first approach will help travel and leisure PRs get heard above the noise.

Phil Caplin