From influencers on TikTok to the Irish Taoiseach and even Canada’s Prime Minister, the Virgin Money Unity Arena and our mission to keep music alive this summer went viral, reaching millions of people across the globe and generating hundreds of headlines for our brand.
We used the power of PR to build awareness and drive ticket sales, targeting music, consumer and news journalists with bespoke experiences and announcements to create and sustain buzz around the brand and event. We also had content primed and ready when the likes of Fox News and Brazilian broadcaster Globo (approx. audience: 40m) wanted to cover the story.
The socially distanced music story injected Virgin Money into a cultural conversation, polarising opinion and prompting passionate discussion worldwide. We capitalised on this difference of views to create a purely organic, viral, somewhat argumentative PR campaign: Would ‘the world’s best-behaved outdoor gig’ by The Guardian be the new reality for live music in the pandemic era?
As a result, we have a delivered an unprecedented level of media coverage. We’ve secured 2,677 pieces of broadcast, online and print coverage across music press, trade, international, national and regional media in the UK and globally. To date 74 countries covered the news, as well as respected titles in the UK, including BBC News, BBC’s The One Show, The Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Rolling Stone and many more. This totals a PR value of £16.85m and a reach of 8,733,272,548 so far. Importantly, two thirds of the coverage landed Virgin Money’s core message of creativity and innovation and sentiment across articles has been 99.59% positive or neutral.
