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The Right Stuff: What’s Hiding in Your Bathroom Towels?
What "right stuff" does a Digital PR campaign need to stand out from the crowd?
A captivating story has the ability to attract people's attention, so much so that you might overhear someone discussing it at a bar or even hear someone mention it themselves.
As a successful Digital PR agency, Reboot will explore what makes the most successful Digital PR campaigns in a series of blog posts called "The Right Stuff".
How often do you wash your towels?
In the competitive world of Digital PR, our goal was clear: to raise brand awareness by captivating audiences with a unique angle on bathroom habits, specifically focusing on towel hygiene. This positioning established our clients, Showers to You, as experts in the field.
By utilising survey data from uStats.org, incorporating expert commentary, and tying the campaign to timely news, the aim was to generate widespread interest, drive traffic, and secure valuable backlinks.
Want to find out how we got over 150 links in 18 different countries and counting?
The results
This campaign not only gained our client links in some highly authoritative publications, such as the BBC, Mirror, Mail Online, Huffington Post, LadBible, and many more, but it also got people talking... like really talking!
The campaign sparked hundreds of conversations, drawing in 134,000 engagements, by post shares, likes, or comments.
What made it go viral?
It had the human shock factor
What's undeniable is that this campaign delivered a serious shock — over 4 million Brits openly confessed to washing their towels just twice a year! That jaw-dropping revelation was the emotional driving force behind the campaign's virality, sparking conversations, mentions, and engagement with our shocking yet eye-opening data.
This campaign exposed the number of people who don't wash their towels enough, capturing the media's attention by revealing a secret shared by many.
It was centred around exploring a seemingly mundane, yet relatable, aspect of people's daily lives: the frequency of washing towels. The shock factor and human interest angle were incorporated by comparing the towel habits of different UK regions, as well as the difference between men and women.
As the results were shocking, dirty, and unexpected, the sentiment was largely negative, which led to an increase in social discussion.
We discovered that love emerged as the predominant emotion among mentions, it was closely followed by expressions of anger and surprise. The campaign effectively sparked a diverse array of emotions within our audience, highlighting its ability to elicit strong and varied reactions.
Multiple angles and re-sends
Our ability to breathe new life into the campaign by recycling and re-angling press releases resulted in a new spike in links, mentions, and coverage. This approach ensured that our content remained evergreen and adaptable to emerging trends throughout the year and news cycle.
Appealing to a broad audience, our campaign boasted multiple angles, allowing us to finely optimise our outreach potential. Over the period of 5 months (and counting), the campaign went through multiple resends, each re-angled to align with the current news cycle, ensuring ongoing and relevant engagement.
1. Regional outreach with localised relevancy
Our initial campaign, launched in September 2023, included survey results from across the UK, analysing data to determine which UK region goes the longest without washing their bathroom towels.
This approach allowed us to tailor our outreach for different regions, providing a personalised touch that resonated with local and regional journalists. It also sparked social discussions as the regions were divided in their washing habits.
2. Reactive hooks that sparked headlines
A crucial aspect of our success lies in the ability to make our content newsworthy. By linking our campaign to multiple reactive news events, such as Europe’s bedbug outbreak, and the spike in UK cases of scabies, we not only heightened relevancy but also became a key part of ongoing and topical conversations. Reactivity, in this case, proved to be a game-changer.
We conducted extensive experimentation with headlines for this campaign, exploring various approaches. We included statistics, used questions as subject lines, and employed reactive hooks to capture journalists' attention. Each headline strategy yielded links and coverage; however, the headlines that garnered the highest open rates were the ones featuring the shocking statistics from our data.
Backed up with expert commentary
In our world, connecting the client to their campaign in a way that makes sense is super important — that’s where using expert commentary in Digital PR comes in. We all know that journalists prefer information from trusted sources. Plus, you can't beat the special touch of expert advice; it's the human magic that even artificial intelligence can't replicate.
We incorporated multiple expert tips into the campaign, delving deeper into bathroom and towel hygiene. This not only made our information more trustworthy but also positioned Showers to You as the go-to bathroom expert.
Data-driven results
Data-driven Digital PR campaigns play a pivotal role in securing valuable backlinks and achieving virality. By integrating data from credible sources or conducting original research, these campaigns establish authority and credibility. The shareability of data-driven content further enhances its virality, leveraging the novelty and freshness of the information.
This campaign was no different; we used ONS data mixed with our survey results, creating a highly credible campaign. ONS data provides validity to the piece while adding context to our findings, making the campaign more compelling and ideal for media coverage. Journalists appreciate solid sources that lend trustworthiness to a campaign while revealing some hidden truths.
Through strategic resends, expert commentary, and a keen alignment with reactive news, the campaign has garnered over 150 global links, driven by a shock factor that resonated with many.
As the subject was about cleanliness, it was the perfect topical fit for our client who sold bathroom equipment. This hyper-relevant approach to link building solidified Showers to You as a credible authority and thought leader in their space.
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