How a quick, reactive news story can get you national media coverage…

Ever-changing news presents ever-changing opportunity to get your hotel talked about using something known as ‘news jacking’.

This is where you spot an opportunity that’s relevant to you and add a newsworthy spin of your own to get your hotel featured in news publications.

Here at Pic PR, our PR team are specialists at spotting opportunities we can jump on, and it was something we did last week for one of our hotel clients, Stonehouse Court Hotel near Stroud.

With the hotel big on sustainability having won an eco-award and with 100s of flights being cancelled of late, we thrashed out an idea that would help to push Stonehouse Court’s green credentials in a newsworthy way.

This saw us launch the ‘Carbon Saving Cancellation Package’ which centred on the hotel offering discounted bookings for people with recently cancelled flights, including a nod to the amount of carbon a missed flight would save, while would-be guests would also be rewarded with ‘carbon credits’ based on the distance of the missed flight.

With the hotel’s nearest airport being Bristol and the most popular UK holiday destination being Spain, a missed flight from Bristol to Madrid would save 32% of a person’s annual ‘carbon allowance’ (that’s how much carbon individuals should be responsible for emitting each year) – so that was the discount offered by the hotel on midweek stays.

The offer would only be available to those who booked directly with the hotel – negating any OTA booking fees and helping to ensure the offer was commercially viable.

With a green theme running throughout the release, we sent it out to press and subsequently achieved national media coverage via the Mirror Online, which was syndicated on MSN Lifestyle, while it was also covered online by the hotel’s local news publication, Gloucestershire Live as well as Birmingham Live, and it even featured in the daily roundup by Carbon Pulse, which looks at environmental news from around the world.

An idea triggered by the news then, with a quick turnaround and the hotel’s buy-in, achieved national coverage with messaging centring on an important part of the hotel’s identity – that of being environmentally friendly.

That’s just a brief recent example of how marketing doesn’t need to be mapped out weeks and months in advance. A bit of quick turnaround PR can get you impressive results – as long as you have the wherewithal to seize on it.

Want us to try and replicate it for you? Get in touch – we’d love to help!