This is how I landed coverage (not just a link) on The Independent — using Reddit.

No big-budget survey.
No visual assets.
No waiting around for a sign-off that never comes.
Just a timely hook, real public sentiment, and a clear idea of what would land.

Let me walk you through it, because too many people overlook the obvious when trying to be clever.

THE SETUP

I spotted a Reddit thread in r/AskNYC with 1,000+ comments, all about what tourists do wrong when visiting New York.

Locals were venting about the real, daily frustrations that never make it into guidebooks:

🤬 Tourists stopping in the middle of the sidewalk
🤬 Walking five across on narrow streets
🤬 Blocking subway doors
🤬 Holding dog leads across entire walkways
🤬 Standing still on the left of escalators

It was brutal. And brilliant.

Not just a rant — this was behavioural insight, straight from the source.

THE ANGLE:

The Unspoken Rules of NYC: What Tourists Get Wrong (and How to Walk Like a Local)

🤔Think: etiquette tourists won’t find in Lonely Planet.

I grouped the strongest quotes into themed rules and framed it as a smart, funny travel story. The kind that makes people stop scrolling and journalists hit reply.

The timing was ideal, NYC summer tourism was peaking, and TikTok was already fuelling “What NOT to do in New York” content.

All I did was package the cultural moment into something media-ready.

THE METHOD

👉🏽 Analysed a Reddit thread with 1,000+ real comments

👉🏽 Filtered by upvotes to surface consensus

👉🏽Organised into themes (sidewalk behaviour, subway etiquette, escalator rules)

👉🏽 Reframed as a “locals’ guide” to visiting NYC

👉🏽Pitched as travel advice with social proof – no fluff, no filler

THE RESULT

✅ Coverage in The Independent
✅ Relevance to both travel + lifestyle press
✅ Angle that can scale across other cities
✅ Media interest with zero ad spend or extra assets

THE REAL LESSON

Stop treating Digital PR like it needs to be complex to be impactful.

This worked because it was fast, reactive, and genuinely useful — not because it had a fancy campaign name or a ten-page pitch deck.

Coverage still holds value. Especially when it’s relevant, credible, and insight-led.

This is how I build authority for brands — and why results don’t have to come from “big campaigns.” They come from smart timing and sharp thinking.

If you’re looking for fresh hooks to pitch this month, here’s what’s heating up across media and search:

🏖️ Tourism Overload Content

With cities like London, Paris, NYC, and Rome packed out — tourist etiquette, local rules, and what visitors get wrong is prime territory for reactivity.

👉🏽 Use Reddit threads, local news frustrations, or TikTok mishaps to build stories

👉🏽 e.g. “The One Thing Tourists Always Get Wrong in [City]”

👉🏽 Can spin regionally for UK staycations or US destinations

🌡️ Heatwave Health & Safety

With temperatures climbing, journalists are running content on everything from hydration myths to heatstroke signs.

👉🏽 Comment-ready expert advice always lands well

👉🏽 Bonus if you can tap into niche angles: pet safety, sleep, kids, public transport, sunscreen for darker skin tones, etc.

🚗 Summer Driving Disasters

More cars on the road = more searches around breakdowns, overheating, traffic jams, air con fails, and dashcam drama.

👉🏽 Data from breakdown companies, road safety experts, or even humorous “summer road trip rules” perform well

👉🏽 TikTok is full of UK heat + driving complaints = press gold

🦟 Pest & Infestation Season

Wasps, rats, bed bugs, ticks — classic reactive topic that spikes in August.

👉🏽 “What to do if…” guides, myth busting, or comments on why infestations are getting worse

👉🏽 Bonus points for location-based stats or funny/horrific user stories

🎒 Back to School Creep

Mid-to-late August is perfect timing to get ahead of the back-to-school wave.

👉🏽 Parental finance pressure, uniform costs, packed lunches, routine resets, and emotional prep

👉🏽 Can also go the teacher burnout, school safety, or education reform angle

📺 Autumn TV Build-up
From Strictly to Netflix docs and Love Is Blind UK — late August is when media start teasing autumn TV lineups.

📉 Summer Slumps & Productivity
Workplace media love a “how to survive August” angle — especially for self-employed or hybrid workers.

👉🏽 Think burnout, motivation hacks, productivity patches, routines, energy dips

👉🏽 Use data or TikTok-led trends for what real people are struggling with

It's happening more and more — a client reads a blog post or sees a TikTok saying “Google’s dead, it’s all about ChatGPT now,” and suddenly asks:

Here’s how to answer with confidence, and turn it into a conversation about PR value, not panic.

Reassure them: this isn’t a new SEO war.

Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude don’t “rank” websites the same way Google does.

They generate answers based on a mix of sources, internal reasoning, and probability — not just who’s in position #1. But credibility, brand visibility, and authority still matter.

Position it as a trust game, not a keyword game.

LLMs tend to favour brands that:

✅ Have a strong digital footprint
✅ Are mentioned regularly in media
✅ Are seen as expert voices or trusted sources
✅ Appear in citations, discussions, or respected outlets

Sound familiar? That’s Digital PR in a nutshell.

Highlight the overlap with what you're already doing.

Good PR = more brand mentions in high-authority places = higher LLM visibility.

By getting your client quoted in The Independent, BBC, or industry titles, you’re not just earning backlinks — you're increasing their chances of being pulled into AI-generated answers.

Use tools — but don’t obsess.

You can use tools like:

🤖 Perplexity.ai (to check if your client appears in cited answers)
🤖 ChatGPT + plugins (to test prompts and see what’s being surfaced)
🤖 Glasp or MarketMuse (to see topical authority over time)

But remind them: this is a visibility game, not a ranking game.

Frame it as the future-proofing you’re already doing.

If a client is investing in Digital PR, they’re already doing the right thing.
LLMs reward brands that are present in expert conversation — and your job is to keep them there.

Quick line to use in a call or deck:

Not just another checklist. These are the exact playbooks, templates and industry-specific tools I use with clients to land national coverage and follow links — without fluff, AI-generated filler, or made-up metrics.

What’s inside:

💾 All available here: cupidpr.sellfy.store

No catch. Just practical tools for people who want to actually get links, not just talk about them