The Importance of Ideation in Digital PR

Digital PR is more popular than ever, which means those in the industry are trying to come up with unique and newsworthy ideas in a range of niches, making it harder to stand out.

However, due to Digital PR being so saturated, it’s more important than ever to offer journalists relevant, topical, and original content. This blog aims to provide tips on where to find idea inspiration, what to consider when coming up with new ideas, and how to refresh existing campaigns – all of which will help to spark inspiration!

8 Ways to Find Idea Inspiration

It can be difficult to know where to start when producing ideas, and it’s even harder for niche clients who may not necessarily have the most newsworthy product or service! Luckily, there are a range of sources that can help inspire ideas.

1) AI Tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has its disadvantages, as it isn’t capable of the same creativity as humans, but it can be great for getting idea inspiration. For example, you could ask AI tools, such as Chat GPT, to provide some potential angles for blogs on a particular topic or for more general marketing campaign ideas.

While the initial results may not be as relevant, you can try a range of prompts to get closer to what you want. A lot of the time, though, AI just provides a useful starting point when your mind has gone blank!

Another tool, idiot.online, was recently created and works similarly to tools such as Chat GPT, but it specifically comes up with Digital PR ideas, making the ideas much more relevant.

It’s also a lot simpler to use and takes minimal effort – you simply enter the website domain, and it will pull out a range of relevant Digital PR campaign idea titles based on the site’s main topics, with the ideas including UK tabloid media content, how-to articles and UK regional media articles.

As with many AI tools, the results are sometimes inconsistent. While both of these tools can provide some great starting points for ideas, they may also provide ideas that aren’t relevant or useable – it may take a few prompts. It’s also worth researching the topic suggestions from AI tools for accuracy.

2) Repurposing Ideas

A lot of Digital PR campaigns, and news stories in general, are based on existing stories and have been updated with something new and original. It’s perfectly okay to take inspiration from competitors and existing campaigns, but it’s important to change it up by adding something unique.

Otherwise, it likely won’t get picked up and copying work directly could give you a bad reputation, putting journalists off sharing any of your future campaigns. A new element to add could include internal data, updating statistics or adding expert comments, for example. 

Looking at what topics and types of content have previously worked for competitors is a great way to figure out what might get results for your clients and help you tailor your strategy accordingly. You can even use Google News to search for stories that have surfaced in the media in the previous year. Even your own campaigns can be repurposed – if you pitched a campaign and it was successful, don’t be afraid to update and repitch it!

Example of using Google News to filter on previous year’s new stories

3) Keywords

It can be difficult to tie relevant keywords to Digital PR campaigns, especially if it’s within a niche industry. However, keywords can certainly spark inspiration for ideas, as well as support a client’s SEO.

Starting with the keywords you want to rank for can help generate relevant and engaging content. Analysing keyword trends can also uncover popular topics and any industry pain points to explore, leading to relevant and topical campaign themes that can help position clients as thought leaders.

Incorporating keywords into Digital PR content ensures campaigns align with search intent, which in turn can drive traffic and increase visibility.

4) News and Events

Another great starting point for generating campaign ideas is to look at what is going on in the news or your client’s industry – this is key for a campaign to be relevant and topical.

A simple Google search of your client’s product, service or other relevant keywords can easily show you what’s currently being talked about in their industry which can spark inspiration for reactive campaigns.

As well as news stories and events, relevant awareness days and events can be a goldmine for idea inspiration. With there being so many days, weeks or even months dedicated to certain topics, there’s almost bound to be one relevant to your business!

Of course, not all awareness days are relevant or should be used for campaigns – any sensitive awareness days are best to avoid unless your business can contribute something valuable to the conversation.

Ensure to be considerate when producing campaigns off the back of awareness days and certain events depending on the topic and cause. However, many awareness days were created for marketing purposes, like Blue Monday, making it easier to get involved with lighthearted campaigns. 

Tying an idea to an awareness day can make it more topical, as they are often talked about in the news and online. For example, if you have a client or a business that offers pet-related products or services, National Pet Month would be an ideal awareness day to produce a relevant idea or repitch existing content.

We have also put together a calendar of Pop Culture events that you might find useful.

5) Social Media

Social media can be a great source of inspiration for a wide range of creative tasks, including Digital PR campaign ideas. A great starting point is to look at social media platforms for any trends relevant to your client.

Pinterest Trends showcases the topics trending on Pinterest with high search volumes and allows you to search by keywords, too. For example, at the time of writing, ‘spring outfits’ were trending on Pinterest, which could be a starting focus for an online fashion retailer.

X also has a trending section where you can see what people are talking about on the platform, which can inspire a reactive campaign idea. Additionally, Instagram and TikTok trends provide a visual representation of what audiences are engaging with.

Popular hashtags, used across most social media platforms, can also provide insight into what is currently popular on social media. There are also trend analysis tools which analyse historical data to identify any patterns and trends over time, such as Buzzsumo and Exploding Topics.

6) Data Sets

A wide range of datasets are available that can enormously help and inspire a digital PR campaign. For example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) might release a house price index, and the data itself may show a change since the last statistics, which alone could be a story.

Tying this update to a relevant client and adding expert comments can make it stand out from others reporting on this news.

Some popular data sets include:

• ONS
• YouGov
• Freedom of Information (FOI) requests
• Netflix data
• Google Trends
• Census data
• Social media analytics

Niche databases that are more relevant for specific industries shouldn’t be overlooked! These databases include Crunchbase for business insights, Spotify data for music trends, and IMDB for entertainment data. Showcasing data in a visual or interactive way, such as infographics or interactive maps can also add extra impact.

7) Editorial Calendars

Some publications will share their editorial calendars, which often outline themes, topics, and special features they’ll cover. Looking at these content plans can spark inspiration for new ideas and be a great way to see if any of your previous or planned campaigns could fit with their upcoming stories.

Editorial calendars can also help identify relevant themes you could tie into your campaign and increase the chances of coverage.

For example, if a publication had a feature coming up on ‘sustainable business solutions’ and your client related to this, you could create a campaign focusing on ‘Sustainable Business Trends to Look out for in 2025’. With all campaigns, if there’s a way to add any unique data or quotes on the topic, this can go a long way.

Another benefit of editorial calendars is that they will often provide deadlines – in Digital PR, it can be impossible to know the perfect time to pitch a campaign, especially when it’s a seasonal or reactive pitch as these are often planned into a publications content calendar way ahead of time!

These deadlines can help you plan, create, and pitch the campaign in plenty of time.

8) Online Communities and Forums

A range of forums, such as Reddit and Quora, can inspire campaign ideas based on what the public is talking about and asking. There are also more niche forums, such as parenting forums or creative professional networks.

Social media, such as Facebook, also has various online groups available for users to discuss a wide range of topics. 

To find relevant topics, check groups where your target audience might be looking. For example, if you’re targeting entrepreneurs, you could browse the subreddit ‘r/SmallBusiness’ on Reddit.

When looking into forums, also keep an eye out for trending questions, popular threads and topics, and discussions that occur frequently. Questions are a great way of knowing what information people want to read about.

For example, somebody asking “How can I reduce my business debt?” is a good indicator that a campaign providing tips on this topic, tying in expert comments from your client and any unique data/insights, would be beneficial to the public.

What to Consider When Brainstorming Ideas

When brainstorming ideas, the process should be approached strategically to try and ensure that the ideas will resonate with journalists and their audiences, as well as your own audience. 

Consider the following factors to refine campaign ideas and maximise their impact:

Why would journalists care about this?

Journalists won’t be interested in stories that aren’t relevant to them or their audience. Ask yourself why the journalist might care about a story – does it offer a unique perspective, original data or further information on a trending story?

Asking these questions can help you pivot your idea to help and ensure journalists will be interested.

What would the readers gain from this?

Ideally, Digital PR campaigns should inform, engage, or inspire the public. When thinking of ideas, consider how the readers might engage with the story – does it offer them a solution to a problem,  or evoke an emotional response?

These factors can increase a campaign’s chances of being picked up. It’s also worth bearing in mind how you can make this clear to journalists when pitching.

How is it unique?

According to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism report, journalists get around 50 to 100 emails a day, with high-profile writers receiving much more, so standing out is important! Is there a way to add unique data or statistics to your campaign?

Can you add a new angle to an existing story? Unique data can help make an already covered topic more original and different, which journalists will appreciate.

What assets would the campaign benefit from?

Visual assets can help to get angles and data across in a simple way – they’re particularly useful for data-led campaigns.

For example, an infographic can clearly showcase a campaign’s insights, while an interactive map or table can allow users to filter any data themselves for a better user experience.

Visual assets are also often shared on social media, providing more opportunities for exposure.

Is this evergreen?

Evergreen content is material that remains relevant, useful and valuable over an extended period. Keep in mind whether your idea could be repitched in the future, and if so, how much effort would be required to do so? Would the blog itself need altering, or would it simply just need a new press release or pitch email.

How to Freshen up Ideas for Repitching

In Digital PR, it’s impossible to judge if and when a campaign will be successful. Often, campaigns will be pitched a few times with different angles before they get picked up. To prepare for this outcome, it’s important to look for multiple angles within one campaign idea. 

Some ways to refresh campaigns for repitching can include:

Adding New Data

A campaign may not have been picked up due to the data not being unique or up-to-date, or there may not have been any data at all.

To update content for repitches, try adding in recent data that support the angle you’re pitching – internal data is ideal as this won’t already be available to journalists.

Existing data can be tied to campaigns too, but this could be less effective because it’s already out there. However, tying a few data sets together can make the angle slightly more unique.

Expert Comments

Adding expert comments to any campaign is beneficial as it positions the person providing commentary as an expert, which can make the brand and campaign more trustworthy and authoritative. Expert comments can support data, add further information, or provide opinions.

Adding expert comments into the campaign when repitching, whether it’s because they weren’t included in the original, or you’ve altered the quotes slightly to support a new angle, can go a long way.

Journalists will sometimes just take expert comments and tie them to an existing story rather than the full campaign, so including these in all pitches and repitches is key.

Infographics and Other Materials

If your original campaign didn’t have any visual assets, such as infographics or videos, and you feel it could benefit from this addition, including it in the repitch could make all the difference.

Infographics are a great way to represent data in a clear, concise way, and simply show the range of angles, saving journalists the chore of having to read through the content and find the key information themselves. If creating infographics, ensure to include branding like logos so you know the assets are yours if they get picked up.

Alternative Angles

Of course, as mentioned, using alternative angles is a key tactic for repitching campaigns. For example, if you’ve pitched a story about the best places to live in the world and it hasn’t performed great, try flipping that and pitching the worst places to live.

If you’ve produced and pitched a campaign focusing on the most dangerous roads in the UK, looking at crash data and leading with that angle, perhaps for a repitch you could focus on the local angles within this campaign, targeting local publications and leading with their area’s statistics.

Tying to Relevant News, Events, and Awareness Days

As mentioned above, campaigns relating to any new stories, events, or awareness days can provide a fresh angle to an existing campaign!

If you have pitched a campaign in the past relating to mental health, tying this campaign to a mental health awareness day, such as World Mental Health Day, can make the old campaign instantly topical and relevant again. However, be sure to update any old data or insights before repitching.

With the Digital PR industry being more competitive than ever, fresh insights and relevance are key to campaign success – standing out is key to securing media coverage. By focusing on what journalists and readers care about and adding value through data and expert comments, Digital PR campaigns can deliver maximum impact.

We hope the above tools, techniques and tips will help to provide some inspiration when producing unique, topical and relevant campaign ideas to share with journalists!

Want to build your brand awareness and boost your SEO via our exciting and innovative Digital PR campaigns unique to your sector? Get in touch today!