Bringing consumer campaigns into the national conversation
As a Press Officer at Which?, I planned media campaigns, wrote press releases and reactive statements, built relationships with journalists and secured national coverage on travel disruption, consumer rights and the cost of living. My role included:
- Writing press releases
- Pitching to journalists
- Working to tight deadlines
- Senior stakeholder management
- Monitoring news cycle
- Identifying opportunities for press work
- Out-of-hours media enquiries
Campaign PR
Leading the UK’s biggest travel consumer story of 2022
During spring and summer 2022 I led media activity around one of the UK’s biggest consumer stories: widespread flight cancellations and airport disruption.
Working closely with colleagues across policy, campaigns and external affairs, I developed media angles, drafted press releases and coordinated coverage calling for stronger passenger rights and greater powers for the Civil Aviation Authority.
I secured more than 1,100 pieces of coverage (an average of more than six a day), reaching over 105 million people with coverage on the front page of the Times, Metro and Express and across other national outlets including BBC News, CNN, The Guardian and Telegraph.
Airports and airlines need to be held to account for the unacceptable disruption travellers have faced in recent months.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel
Reform of travel rules is desperately needed, and the government should give the CAA direct fining powers so it can properly hold operators to account and drop plans to slash passenger compensation for delayed and cancelled domestic flights.
Broadcast media
I successfully pitched appearances for Which? spokespeople on national television and radio shows including BBC Breakfast, Watchdog and You & Yours; Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch and Times Radio.
Ahead of these I prepared briefing packs for spokespeople to ensure campaign messaging remained consistent, conducted practice interviews and accompanied them to recording studios.
Media relations
Alongside proactive campaigns, I maintained the day-to-day operation of a busy press office.
This involved running an internal communications service to keep the organisation abreast of news throughout the day.
I compiled morning media roundups by scanning through papers in Press Reader and using Kantar alerts to track coverage secured for Which?.
Results
1,141
Media mentions for Which? Travel in six months
105.4 million
Total audience
BBC
Breakfast
Watchdog
You & Yours
Front page
Express
Metro
The Times
Looking for a content professional who combines editorial judgement with marketing expertise?
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