Going from trade placement to national phenomenon: How a scaleup brand PR story can gain global momentum

Securing national coverage is more competitive than ever, particularly as a scaleup brand looking to cut through the noise versus bigger, known brands.

Often overlooked is considering a grass roots trade media strategy as a route to hitting mainstream news. We’ve been told by broadcast producers that they’ll often scan trade news to find their next big story. Whilst often overlooked, we’ve recently seen the impact that it has in shaping the national news agenda if executed right.

Working with transport and smart city tech scaleup, VivaCity, we’ve seen the perfect national PR campaign develop, despite the story initially being placed in trade media.

With its AI traffic sensors feeding anonymous data to councils to help shape decision making on our roads, we drafted a story with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), to showcase the impact of the technology on the local area. Prioritising vulnerable road users, the sensors give them greater priority over motor vehicles as part of an initiative to boost active travel in the region. 

As a ‘tech for good’ story it achieved widespread trade coverage, with the news in outlets including leading global intelligent transport publication ITS International, 

But then things got really interesting when The Times picked up on the news and we developed the story with them, resulting in both print and online coverage. This would have been a PR win for any scaleup but the story went further with us working with a range of national and broadcast media to achieve placements in:

• The Telegraph 
• BBC Radio 4 
• Express
• Daily Mail
• Yahoo

In total, UMVs and circulation for the story reached 242 million people. A phenomenal result stemming from a regional tech placement.

And what’s the moral of the story? Building PR momentum and visibility is difficult enough, so never overlook the trade media. It might just be the route to your next national, or even global, story.