From Barbie-themed ketchup to exploding owl butts, these PR marketing campaign examples show that with the fitting knowledge, timing, and a little bit of creativity, you may win protection and drive actual, measurable outcomes.
On this put up, you’ll see the information behind 9 profitable PR campaigns, and hopefully get some inspiration on your subsequent press concept.
9 well-liked PR marketing campaign examples
This checklist is an actual blended bag of PR examples – from newsjacking, to content material repurposing, unique analysis, and kooky model stunts – however one factor all of them have in frequent is measurable success.
In every part, I’ll do a autopsy of marketing campaign efficiency, share some evaluation techniques, and round-off with a few fast ideas.
Sound good? Let’s leap in.
| Marketing campaign 🍅👱🏼♀️🎀 | Heinz Barbiecue |
| Model(s) 🏷️ | Heinz + Mattel |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 62 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📰 | Newjacking/model collab/product launch |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 600 for “barbie ketchup” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 200% for “barbie ketchup” |
Again in August 2023, when Barbiecore was all the fad, Heinz teased a mockup of two Barbie themed sauces: Kenchup and Barbiecue sauce.
Eight months later, for Barbie’s sixty fifth anniversary in April 2024, Heinz and Mattel dropped the official Barbiecue particular version sauce.
Heinz first conceived of the PR stunt to construct intrigue across the product months earlier than it hit the cabinets, then used public response as a litmus take a look at for its success.
In keeping with their submission within the Shorty Awards, they fastidiously coordinated their preliminary “teaser” drop to coincide with an uptick in viewers discussions, following the movie’s launch.
Up to now, the Barbiecue PR marketing campaign has earned Heinz 118 related mentions in top-tier media retailers like Bloomberg, Yahoo, CBS Information, and The Commonplace, in line with Content material Explorer.
With zero {dollars} in paid promotion, it additionally generated 38 million natural social impressions and doubled common engagement charges.
Fast learnings
- Hijack trending cultural “moments”
- Time your PR marketing campaign launch with peak on-line dialog
- Use teaser PR to gauge client demand and gas future R&D choices
| Marketing campaign 🛀 | Saltbomb |
| Model 🏷️ | Lush |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 142 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📰 | Newjacking/product launch |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 1.3K for “lush saltburn bathtub bomb” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 37K% for “lush saltburn bathtub bomb” |
That is one other nice PR instance of a model capitalizing on a movie, and ready for post-event dialogue to select up earlier than newsjacking.
Following a veerryy controversial bathtub scene within the movie Saltburn, UK cosmetics retailer, Lush, jumped on the chance to insert their model right into a cultural second.
In February 2024, three months after the movie’s launch, they launched the “Saltbomb”, a particular version, Saltburn-themed bathtub bomb.
Parodying a few of the movie’s most risqué moments, Lush didn’t maintain again with their product advertising and marketing.
And we liked it.
The marketing campaign led to 135 hyperlinks, many coming from excessive DR (Area Score) publications, driving actual, tangible natural visitors – together with International Information, New York Occasions, Pop Sugar, and BBC.
Press protection truly went above and past this, as a result of Lush’s merchandise are half of some writer affiliate packages – however affiliate hyperlinks are slightly trickier to observe.
Right here’s an instance of what I imply.
The positioning Attract wrote up a function piece on the Lush bathtub bomb, however their affiliate hyperlink navigates to a third-party platform earlier than redirecting to Lush’s product web page.
For that motive, the hyperlink doesn’t present up in Ahrefs’ Backlinks Report.
As an alternative, I discovered it by monitoring campaign-specific key phrases in Content material Explorer.
Past press and affiliate publicity, the Lush PR marketing campaign was a winner on social media.
The images and product descriptions made it good for meme-ification, which added 1000’s of views and impressions.
It additionally received huge in search, with world key phrase quantity reaching 1.3K…
And the product touchdown web page earned as much as 800 month-to-month natural visits in its first month.
Site visitors has remained regular since, averaging between 500 – 600 month-to-month visits, regardless of the product having been archived – fairly good going for a little bit of trendjacking.
Fast learnings
- Scout for affiliate hyperlinks – you received’t at all times know when a writer plans to make use of an affiliate hyperlink, so looking for mentions of marketing campaign key phrases can assist you discover any affiliate protection that has flown below the radar.
- Take into consideration how your model and its tangential matters can tie into cultural moments.
| Marketing campaign 👴🏻 | Eclectic Grandpa |
| Model 🏷️ | |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 98 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📑 | Report |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 4.8K for “eclectic grandpa” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 215K% for “eclectic grandpa” |
Yearly, Pinterest faucets into their inside platform search knowledge to put up their development forecasts in what is named “Pinterest Predicts”.
Posting on Pinterest For Enterprise (the corporate’s industrial arm), they categorize associated high-growth searches, and assign them novel development names like “Eclectic grandpa”, “Bow stacking” or “Cafe core”.
I took a take a look at the Website Construction report, and located that Pinterest’s most linked development was in reality the “Eclectic Grandpa” which – in Pinterest’s phrases – is all about:
“Embracing ‘grandpa core’ and bringing eccentric and expressive parts for the ages to wardrobes. Suppose retro streetwear, stylish cardigans and customised clothes. As a result of the coastal grandma aesthetic is so final yr.”
Up to now, the development has earned citations from 98 separate domains.
A take a look at the Backlinks report revealed protection from Vogue, Elle, Who What Put on, New York Publish, and Enterprise Insider.
And it didn’t finish there. The “Eclectic Grandpa” will get a few bit, cropping up 340 occasions within the articles I found through Content material Explorer.
A substantial variety of these DR 50+ mentions (150, to be exact) went unlinked primarily based on Ahrefs’ Unlinked Mentions filter/export – hyperlinks which might nonetheless be claimed by the Pinterest workforce.
Given the far reaching protection, searches for “Eclectic Grandpa” key phrases have shot up within the final yr, rising to 4.8K world search quantity (GSV). 
By creating hyperlink magnet content material, Pinterest has managed to drum up enormous publicity – whether or not they pitched for it or not – making it a terrific instance of a profitable PR marketing campaign.
Fast learnings
- Mine firm knowledge to publish new, unseen tendencies and insights.
- Give you a novel title for self-discovered tendencies and/or theories so it’s simpler to observe uptake and hold observe of press protection.
- Observe mentions – not simply hyperlinks – and declare any unlinked mentions to boost web optimization and model authority.
Actual property market, Zillow, surveyed 1,815 householders and located that these with decrease mortgage charges are twice as more likely to keep put vs promoting their house.
By creating firsthand analysis tackling a problem near their viewers’s coronary heart, Zillow earned 235 backlinks from the likes of Bloomberg, Yahoo, FoxBusiness, and Cash.com.
Websites referenced the survey for a number of causes; not simply quoting one stat, however an entire selection, as evidenced within the anchor textual content of their backlinks.
Fast learnings
- Conduct your individual surveys, asking questions which tackle a key drawback in your business, then quantitatively analyze the responses.
- Tease out a number of exhausting hitting stats to drive extra protection and hyperlink selection.
| Marketing campaign 🔮👨💻 | Future of Work |
| Model 🏷️ | |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 383 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📑 | Report |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 300 for “LinkedIn report” |
LinkedIn tends to maintain their knowledge below lock and key, however of their Way forward for Work report they launched proprietary insights on the expansion of AI conversations on the platform, plus the impression of AI on careers.
An incredible instance of unique PR, LinkedIn’s report made a splash, touchdown 383 hyperlinks in Forbes, Microsoft, Harvard Enterprise Evaluate, and CNET.
Fast learnings
- Take into consideration what unseen or underground knowledge you may harvest to generate unique analysis on your subsequent PR marketing campaign.
- You probably have inside knowledge, analyze patterns and tendencies to carve out a very distinctive angle..
Tip
Should you can’t make use of major knowledge, faucet into third-party sources. PR professional, Matt Seabridge, routinely shares some great data sources and PR marketing campaign examples on LinkedIn – I actually suggest giving him a observe. 
Private finance firm, WalletHub, in contrast the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, throughout 11 key metrics.
Combining major knowledge with third-party sources just like the U.S. Census Bureau, GreatSchools.org, and Yelp, WalletHub created an interactive research rating essentially the most and least educated cities in America.
That is an instance of a PR marketing campaign that doubles as nice content material advertising and marketing.
It snagged 604 distinctive backlinks from heavy hitters like Wikipedia, Forbes, Enterprise Insider, Bloomberg, and Yahoo – in addition to tons of state publications.
Location primarily based PR campaigns are an particularly highly effective type of PR, since they’ve each native and nationwide enchantment.
Right here’s Tom Chivers, PR Professional and Founding father of Sabot, explaining why localization actually works for public relations campaigns – with a terrific extra level made by Co-Founding father of Journo Finder, Veronica Fletcher.
Fast learnings
- Use superlatives in headlines (e.g. “Most”, “Least”, “Finest”).
- Embrace rating codecs – comparisons make readers need to click on to see how they dimension up.
- Slice and cube your knowledge by location to get your marketing campaign syndicated in each nationwide and native publications.
| Marketing campaign 🍩 | “Go USA” and “Passport to Paris” doughnuts |
| Model(s) 🏷️ | Krispy Kreme |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 95 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📰 | Newjacking/model collab/product launch |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 45K for “Olympics Krispy Kreme Doughnuts” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 4.4M% for “Olympics Krispy Kreme Doughnuts” |
Krispy Kreme rode the wave of Olympic curiosity this yr by creating two particular version doughnuts: “Go USA” and “Passport to Paris”.
As we’ve seen already, well-liked PR campaigns don’t at all times neatly observe again to the sources you’d count on them to.
Krispy Kreme earned solely 11 hyperlinks to their USA doughnut press launch, and 20 to their Paris doughnut launch announcement. Not precisely groundbreaking.
However if you filter for mentions of marketing campaign key phrases (e.g. “Go USA” and “Paris”) on the domain-level, you discover a complete lot extra protection; 95 hyperlinks, to be exact, from main publications like Yahoo, USA Right this moment, Individuals, and the Meals Community.
The particular version doughnuts additionally drive a cool 45K month-to-month searches, in line with the Matching Phrases report in Key phrases Explorer.
Fast learnings
- Capitalize on excessive demand round recurring occasions.
- For campaigns that may’t be neatly tracked (e.g. no particular touchdown web page, or product web page) pay nearer consideration to homepage or domain-level hyperlinks via intelligent filtering.
| Marketing campaign 🍟👞 | McDonald’s + Crocs Collaboration |
| Model(s) 🏷️ | Crocs + McDonald’s |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 516 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📰 | Model collab/product launch |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 18K for “mcdonalds crocs” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 838% for “mcdonalds crocs” |
This subsequent PR instance is a marketing campaign of a number of components. It started with a pair of McDonald’s themed Crocs, and has prolonged to a full blown footwear assortment…
And a novelty product: McDonald’s pleased meal mini-crocs keyring.
The coordinated PR marketing campaign has generated enormous consciousness for each manufacturers, however monitoring all of the fragmented property is not any imply feat.
To get a greater concept of general model consciousness, I opted as an alternative to seek for co-citations on the area stage.
Looking within the Backlinks report, I utilized filters for every model title within the different’s backlink profile.
McDonald’s earned 260 hyperlinks for “Crocs” associated content material, however Crocs was the true winner, touchdown 416 hyperlinks for “McDonald’s” associated press from media goliaths like Enterprise Insider, Quick Firm, and Entrepreneur.
From finding out the marketing campaign’s particular person property, I observed one thing fascinating: social posts have the power to draw hyperlinks.
Take for example, this UGC post by Instagram meals account, Snackolater. It landed 24 backlinks after sharing information of the pleased meal mini-croc launch.
It had by no means occurred to me to trace social media posts for hyperlinks, however you may by no means inform how a journalist goes to reference your marketing campaign, so it’s worthwhile establishing a backlink alert for all of your property simply in case!
The expansion of brand name searches is an actual testomony to the success of a PR marketing campaign, and this collaboration positively delivers on that entrance.
Audiences are looking for related McDonald’s + Croc primarily based key phrases a complete of 37K occasions a month on common, primarily based on knowledge in Key phrases Explorer.
Fast learnings
- Generally, the “aspect” model in a collaboration can snag extra hyperlinks. Hold that in thoughts on your subsequent PR partnership.
- With two manufacturers there are double the property to trace, together with product pages, press releases, touchdown pages, and varied social posts – be sure to have purview over the efficiency of all transferring components to trace public relations campaigns holistically.
- Don’t neglect to report on social posts, not only for impressions/engagement however for hyperlinks.
| Marketing campaign ❎🍑 | Do your lesson, no buts |
| Model(s) 🏷️ | Duo Lingo |
| Hyperlinks earned 🔗 | 130 |
| Marketing campaign sort 📽️ | Advert |
| International search quantity 🔎 | 250 for “Duolingo industrial” |
| Search development (YoY) 📈 | 376% for “Duolingo industrial” |
Duolingo leaned into their bizarre but fantastic model of selling with a hilarious superbowl advert that includes Duo, the model’s menacing owl character.
In 5 (wild) seconds, we witness the explosion of Duo’s butt, and the expansion of a mini Duo as a replacement, accompanied by a reminder to do our Duo Lingo lesson.
The advert inventive was repurposed from a widget design that went semi-viral – Duo Lingo knew it labored, so that they constructed on it.
And in a stroke of coordinated PR genius, they concurrently despatched out a push-notification to app customers as quickly because the advert went reside.
“We determined to pair the advert with a coordinated push notification, which might hit learners’ telephones proper after the industrial aired, reinforcing the concept that Duo is at all times watching 👀.”
The YouTube industrial has earned 5M views and 130 hyperlinks from Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and Indy100.
Plus 24M performs on TikTok.
The Duolingo workforce have written up a seriously funny play-by-play of the PR marketing campaign right here – they discuss every thing from the lengths they went to to get the fitting “shine” on Duo’s buttocks, to fastidiously choosing the proper fart sound impact. I like to recommend studying it, for a giggle if nothing else.
Fast learnings
- Upcycle owned content material that has labored effectively previously on your subsequent PR marketing campaign.
- Strive a mixed-message strategy to essentially drive the purpose of your marketing campaign house.
How I discovered these PR marketing campaign examples (and you’ll too)
I spent a variety of time:
There have been so many superior examples of PR, however I narrowed it right down to those that drove both press mentions, hyperlinks, search quantity, visitors, or the entire above.
Last ideas
One of the best PR campaigns aren’t nearly hyperlinks. They’re about creating conversations, driving consciousness, and making a long-lasting impression in your viewers.
Right here’s a fast recap of a few of the high takeaways:
- Time it proper: Launch your campaigns when conversations peak
- Faucet into distinctive knowledge: Use unique insights to face out
- Observe holistically: Monitor hyperlinks, mentions, searches, and social
- Rank and evaluate: Have interaction a number of viewers “tribes” via rankings
- Take an area angle: Analyze a number of places to win extra press
- Collaborate creatively: Model partnerships can amplify your attain
- Repurpose winners: Flip profitable content material into new campaigns
Success is based on a marketing campaign assembly its purpose(s), and whereas we don’t know precisely what these manufacturers got down to obtain, their campaigns have loved outcomes that the majority of us could be fairly pleased with.
Hopefully they’ve given you some inspiration on your subsequent undertaking.
