Our Seekers get about a bit. Mere weeks after their jaunt to Brighton for BSEO 2025, our trio of digital PR day-trippers (that’s Charlie, Sinead, and Laura) took a second springtime pilgrimage — this time, travelling over 250 miles north of SEO’s favourite seaside locale, to Manchester. Their destination? The Digital PR Summit.
After donning their best Berghaus jackets and perfecting their Mancunian walking technique, they descended into what the locals simply refer to as Town, their bodies prepared and minds primed to absorb as much information as possible.
The Digital PR Summit 2025’s speakers covered an impressive range of topics, from regional outreach strategies and the everlasting debate surrounding in-house vs. agency vs. freelance, through to — you guessed it — the influence of AI and emerging search platforms. Well, it wouldn’t be a marketing conference without someone mentioning artificial intelligence, right?
Was it worth the journey? Absolutely — and to prove it, our team returned to the good ship Seeker with a veritable treasure trove of digital PR pearls of wisdom.
Key themes: the Digital PR Summit 2025 in a nutshell
Digital PR is about building brands, not links.
- Links are a byproduct, not the goal — the real win is boosting visibility, reputation, and trust.
- Brand mentions, sentiment, and credibility now trump raw backlink counts.
- The future of search is AI, and AI search engines reward entity signals and brand authority, not just domain ratings or follow-links.
Relevancy is everything.
- Generic, scattergun pitching is out. Hyper-targeted campaigns rooted in local context are in.
- For global success, it’s vital to understand regional nuance (whether you’re pitching in Spain, the U.S., Australia, or elsewhere) and tailor accordingly.
- Data only works when it tells a meaningful story that speaks to people.
Slow ‘n’ steady wins the race.
- Pitching fewer, stronger stories will land better than high-volume reactivity.
- Want stakeholder buy-in? Take time to craft your angles, research your media list, and prep properly.
- Success often lies in patience, timing, and knowing when not to act.
The best talks from the Digital PR Summit 2025
This year’s summit brought together some of the finest minds in the PR biz, who shared their expertise-driven takes on the latest trends and best practices shaping the industry. In fact, there really was summit for everyone.
Our team of Seekers listened intently while furiously scribbling notes, absorbing all the knowledge they could from the event’s series of boundary-pushing talks. What did they learn? Well, you can find out right here.
So You’ve Promised A Client You Can Do Spain… Now What? (Lau Miguez)
¡Bien hecho, lo lograste!* You landed a Spanish client (or one eager to enter new markets). Brimming with entusiasmo**, you hunker down to plot your next steps… But then it hits you — what are your next steps?
Launching a successful PR campaign is tricky in any market, but when it’s for an overseas audience with an entirely different culture, things get complicated. Fortunately, Lau — Senior Digital PR Strategist at Lau Miguez Ltd — is well-positioned to provide some consejos***.
Lau’s first lesson? Ditch the drama. Despite the global stereotypes of danger-defying matadors and claret-clad flamenco dancers, Spanish media tends to prioritise facts over flair. If your pitch reads like a typical tabloid headline — or worse, strays into clickbait territory (eek!) — it’s less likely to land. Instead, side with the data; Lau emphasised that surveys are a great route in, especially when they offer fresh, nationally relevant insights.
It’s also important not to stress about backlinks when you’re gunning for Spanish coverage. Spain’s media ecosystem is more multichannel than the UK — encompassing digital, print, TV, and radio. That means your story might reach thousands, sans backlink. In fact, some top-tier outlets simply don’t allow them, so manage your expectations and, as always, think quality over quantity.
*”Well done, you did it!”
** Enthusiasm (come on, this one was easy!)
*** Advice/tips
Key takeaways:
- Don’t recycle UK/US campaigns — Spanish media demands a bespoke approach.
- A national story can still earn regional coverage — just pitch it to a national writer at a regional outlet.
- Don’t be put off by lower domain ratings; these are more common for Spanish publications.
- Don’t bombard journalists with multiple re-angles. One concise pitch is far more effective.
Top tips:
- Don’t rely on stereotypes. Case in point: On average, it rains for over 190 days a year in Spain.
- Always remember: Journalists need a reason to link to your website; your homepage is not one of them!
- Make your media list manually. If a contact is a freelancer, try Google and LinkedIn, and use tools like Hunter.io where necessary.
Level Up Down Under: Adapting Your Digital PR for Australia (Jonas Grunfeld)
Catapulting the PR focus 10,000 miles eastward, Jonas Grunfeld dispensed his knowledge on Australia’s media scene.
While The Land Down Under shares some cultural DNA with the UK — a common language, boundless love for barbecued delicacies, and a deep appreciation for dry, sarcastic humour — Jonas was quick to remind us: there are plenty of differences, too.
While your homegrown PR tactics might go down a treat here in Blighty, what works in the UK won’t always translate to an Aussie audience.
Digital PR is a harder sell in Australia than in the UK. The attitude towards such content tends to be a lot more cautious, and there are far fewer journos to pitch to. Aussie journalists also tend to scrutinise data-based stories more heavily, so search volume studies are best avoided. Want to make the cut? Include a case study.
Jonas also mentioned that Oz-based columnists are generally more open to informal coffee catch-ups. Unless you’ve got access to a private jet, it’s not the most useful advice, but he did add that they’re equally fond of the odd phone call or WhatsApp message (within reason), so we’ll let him off.
Jokes aside, Jonas was keen to stress Australia’s emphasis on building journalistic relationships. Journos don’t just value exclusivity, they expect it — even for quotes — so it’s crucial to regionalise your data to get the most out of your campaign.
Key takeaways:
- Reactive PR is tougher in Australia — your story must be able to stand alone even when removed from its trending hook.
- Pitch multiple regional angles — geographic relevance is vital.
- A solid case study can make or break your pitch — a simple search trends story won’t cut the mustard down under!
- Build a super-targeted media list — Australia has a tenth of the journalists the UK does.
Top tips:
- Timing isn’t everything — except at Christmas (nothing after Dec 15th).
- Exclusivity is essential (even for quotes), so regionalise your data to get the most out of your campaign
- Radio is a big deal in Oz, so have a script and a spokesperson ready!
Thinking Beyond the Link: How Digital PR Influences AI Search (Charlie Clark)
How many times have we heard the phrase “SEO is dead”? It’s become a bit of a running joke in the SEO community, so much so that brightonSEO even features a few mock headstones bearing the initialism. Harr harr indeed.
Search has faced more than its fair share of apocalyptic prophecies over the years, from the Panda update and Siri/voice search, to Google SearchWiki (remember that one?), but the algorithmically-themed, Nostradumus-esque claims never quite came to pass.
But some argue that AI — especially with Google’s AI Overviews and the rise of ChatGPT as a search tool — feels different. Is this the moment? The first harmonic tremors of an SEO Yellowstone: rumbling now, but hinting at an imminent eruption?
Perhaps, but Charlie Clark has a more optimistic view: AI isn’t the death of SEO, it’s an evolution. His presentation focused on digital PR’s ability to drive visibility in AI search, highlighting how AI search engines perceive brands as entities, knowledge-graph-based ranking (a topic also covered by Seeker founder Gareth Simpson in his brightonSEO talk back in April), and how to optimise for AI search.
Key takeaways:
- AI Overviews are already in front of 1.5 billion users, and search engines now view brands as entities, not just clusters of keywords.
- Links still matter, but so do citations and brand mentions — especially from authoritative sources.
- Factors like clear copy, proper schema markup, and high-quality, well-tagged media are more important than ever if you want your brand to appear in AI search results.
- Want to communicate the AI influence in your client reports? Focus on brand mentions, sentiment shifts and brand reputation.
Top tips:
- ChatGPT should not be used to gauge AI visibility. Despite the hype, the tech is still in its infancy, and hallucinations are still an issue (for now!).
- Look at the sources of your traffic; increasingly, we’re able to see when a user landed on a page via ChatGPT.
- Try SEMrush’s AI overview reports to monitor your website’s visibility within AI Overviews
Listen Up PRs – This Is What Journalists Actually Want In Their Inbox (Dayna McAlpine)
Channelling a bit of Aretha Franklin, Dayna delivered a clear message for the PR pros: respect journalists’ time. Journos are busy people, so don’t waste their time (or wreck your chance of a tasty feature) by pitching an irrelevant — or worse, generic — story.
Her presentation also emphasised the importance of exclusives, provided they’re real exclusives. Avoid pitching to hundreds of frazzled columnists — they can smell a scattergun PR campaign a mile off. Instead, research the topics each publication tends to cover, get familiar with their guidelines, and slim your shortlist down; this way, your pitch is more likely to land.
On clients, Dayna’s advice was simple: be upfront. Don’t bury the lead or make a journalist scroll through 10 paragraphs to figure out who’s paying for the pitch.
And finally, don’t be afraid to follow up. There’s a fine line to tread between persistence and pestering, but a quick “while I’ve got you” email can be the perfect opportunity to float another idea, especially if you’ve already landed a piece together.
Key takeaways:
- If it’s not breaking or time-sensitive, pitch after 9 am.
- Research the publication and the section you’re targeting — tailor your subject line accordingly, and match your story to a specific section of the site; e.g. “voices” or “life”.
- Don’t mass-pitch — target fewer, better-matched outlets.
- Exclusives still work — but only if they’re real exclusives.
- Respect journalists’ time — keep your emails relevant, focused, and easy to act on.
Top tips:
- If you have a story on something like weight loss, but you don’t see any content relating to that topic on the site, then don’t bother. It’s either irrelevant for the publication or the guidelines mean journalists can’t touch that topic.
- SPELL THE JOURNALIST’S NAME CORRECTLY!
- If you’re pitching an exclusive, be extra selective about who you’re pitching it to!
How to Get Your Boss to Sign Off on PR Ideas (Katy Powell)
If your idea can’t be explained in two sentences, it’s a dud.
Ok, maybe that’s a little hyperbolic, but Katy’s presentation firmly positioned brevity as king in pitching. Her talk focused on the three C’s: Clarity, Confidence, and Collaboration.
Continuing a running theme from the summit, the audience was urged to remove all subjectivity from the pitch, and use data to tell the story, show interest, and crucially, get buy-in. A top tip for creating a winning PR proposal? Make like you’re sitting your maths GCSE exam and show your workings; sometimes the best way to demonstrate a story’s value is to reverse engineer the thinking (and strategy) behind it.
Katy likens pitching a campaign to sales; you wouldn’t close a deal through a cold email alone, so don’t leave your deck to do all the heavy lifting. Book a call and walk them through your idea. This way, if they’ve any questions — or reservations — you’re there to steer things back on track.
It also helps to come prepared, so before the call, think about what kind of questions they may pose to you. And if you want to win them over? Present a few headlines and ask which one they’d click.
Key takeaways:
- If you can’t sum your idea up in one or two sentences, refine it.
- Play to your audience. Tailor your pitch based on who’s reading it — C-suite ≠ SEO team.
- Use a clear pitch template — this will build your confidence, increase your pitch rate, and improve structure.
- Have a favourite — show your opinion, don’t just list ideas neutrally; nobody likes a fence-sitter.
Top tips:
- When pitching, assume no knowledge (in a respectful way).
- Remember — as a PR, you’re also a salesperson. Anticipate resistance and think about any potential concerns they may raise.
- It’s often easier to talk your ideas through, so if possible, always book a call!
Digital PR’s Dirty Little Secret: Most Of The Links You’re Earning Have No Impact On Metrics That Actually Matter (James Brockbank)
James began his talk by demanding a change in perspective: Digital PR isn’t a link building tactic, it’s a brand building strategy. No, he didn’t suggest links are worthless (heresy, if ever we heard it!); instead, he stressed that they’re not the final outcome of a campaign, nor should they be a goal — they’re a byproduct.
PR campaigns are all about expanding reach, strengthening reputation, and increasing awareness. Vanity metrics look great when reporting calls roll around, but what’s the real impact on the business? James challenges the idea that link counts are the yardstick by which a campaign’s success should be measured, contesting that brand mentions and no-follow links from highly-relevant sources are far more vital — particularly in the era of AI search.
It’s tricky to communicate the importance of brand signals over link volume and unfortunately, stakeholders tend to err on the side of scepticism. And while they’re unlikely to admit it, most seem to believe that in the face of increasing competition (and under threat of looming report calls), marketers are moving the goalposts.
It’s understandable, of course; a PR campaign isn’t cheap, but positioning it as a cost undermines its value — it’s a growth investment. One that fuels compound results: brand searches, authority, and yes, conversions.
Key takeaways:
- Links are a byproduct of good PR, not the main goal.
- Link metrics became popular because they’re easy to report. Try to recondition stakeholders by creating reports that answer “what did it do?” not “how many links did it earn?”.
- With the rise of AI-powered search, brand signals influence search rankings more than ever. Google’s looking for brands that deserve to rank, and digital PR helps build that trust.
- Digital PR is only a cost when it doesn’t drive growth. When it does, it’s an investment with an ROI.
Top tips:
- Stop celebrating a campaign because it hit a link number KPI or looked good in a report! Measure what matters and show the impact on organic traffic, rankings, organic revenue, and brand impact.
- Mentions, syndications, and no-follow links are all valuable, so highlight them and communicate their value from a PR perspective.
- Trust and authority build recognition, so stop chasing links and invest more in niche campaigns where possible.
How To Build Links Like A Billionaire (Mark Rofe)
Want to build links like a billionaire? You’re in luck — and fortunately, none of Mark’s pointers involve launching a rocket manned by a squad of cringe-inducing celebrities (joys!).
This presentation argued that PR has quite a lot in common with the stock market; it’s full of unpredictable swings, up and down, and outcomes are often affected by external, uncontrollable factors. As any (sensible) trader will agree: time in the market beats timing the market. 97% of day traders — those who ride the wave on high-volume investments minute-by-minute — lose money. Mark argues that PRs operating on the same principle (high volume = high rewards) will see the same results.
As Warren Buffett put it, “When a baseball player is batting to hit well, they wait to hit the right pitch.” The same goes for newsjacking and reactive campaigns — avoid shoehorning your brand into every trending news event. Instead, sit back, stay alert, and move only when the odds are in your favour.
But don’t rest on your laurels; when the stars align, make sure you’ve something ready to go. Avoid the reactive gold rush by maintaining a quotebank of sharp, relevant comments drafted in advance, so you can act quickly when the right story breaks.
Key takeaways:
- Don’t chase volume — it’s a trap. Strategy > activity.
- Don’t mistake movement for momentum — be intentional with your outreach.
- You’d be better off buying a lottery ticket than pursuing a planned, high-interest reactive. Wait for those unplanned opportunities and events to happen, and if the interest is high enough, take a punt.
- Anticipate events and prep a strong comment or quote in advance.
Top tips:
- WhatsApp is always faster than email to get your expert to respond quickly — use this to your advantage.
- Struggling with a slow client? Hire an expert to provide extra information/context, write your comment, then present it to the client for feedback.
- More outreach doesn’t always mean more success — be intentional with your outreach!
Across the Pond and Into the Press: Mastering U.S. PR (Bri Godwin Huyke)
UK-based PRs often dream of cracking The New York Times or CNN, but Bri’s presentation urged us to think smaller (and smarter). Over in the states, regional news still holds serious sway, and with a PR-to-journalist ratio of 6:1, it’s a relative walk in Central Park to make waves at a local level.
Bri was keen to remind us not to think of America as one giant monolith, but instead, to see it for what it is — a patchwork of wildly different states. In other words, we need to view the U.S. as a continent.
Singing from the same hymn sheet as Katy Powell, Bri urged us to ditch the fluff, noting that American journos favour clarity and brevity over flowery introductions and exaggerated headlines. In her own words: “Put your boring hat on.” Instead of trying to generate interest through sensationalism, do it through crafting stories based on well-researched, regionally relevant data.
Oh, and Americans really don’t like being sued, so make sure your story’s legally watertight, too.
Key takeaways:
- The U.S. is massive — treat it as multiple regions, not a single country.
- Regional publications tend to carry more influence than national ones in the U.S, so create campaigns that work on a local level.
- In case we didn’t get the message across yet, be succinct! Keep your opening pitch short and get to the point.
- American journos work with longer lead times and write fewer articles than their UK counterparts.
Top tips:
- Be aware of the legal landscape — Americans really don’t want to face lawsuits.
- Forums are your friend. Reddit and Facebook in particular are goldmines for regional insights, and great channels for monitoring attitudes towards locally-relevant topics.
- Avoid sensationalist headlines — this can create unnecessary reputational risk for the journalist (meaning your story is less likely to be covered).
Data Isn’t Boring – You Are (Thierry Ngutegure)
Calling the audience boring might be a slightly unconventional opening to a presentation on PR strategies, but we’ve got to hand it to Thierry — he knows his stuff!
Thierry used his slot at the summit to warn us about the dangers of slapping stats into a press release without pondering the story behind the data. If your campaign doesn’t say something about people, it’s not saying anything at all.
So, inject some humanity into your data. Don’t tell journalists to care about the numbers; make it impossible for them not to. If you can tease out the specific behaviours, thoughts, or trends to create a narrative around your data, you’re onto a winner. Thierry also pointed to Monzo as a masterclass in internal data storytelling — though this author is still reeling from the revelation that his annual fast food spend tops £500 (Oowee, I blame you for my waistline).
Key takeaways:
- Surveys have their place, but data can come from almost anywhere — including internal sources!
- Humanise your data — always ask: what does it say about people? What emotions does it trigger?
- If you do use surveys, make sure you get your money’s worth! Explore individual respondent patterns if you want to find the hidden angles.
- Credibility matters. Always share methodology, and make sure it’s repeatable.
Top tips:
- Always access the raw data from surveys. This lets you find secondary angles, generate fresh insights, and squeeze more from a single dataset.
- Don’t be vague: clarify whether you’re using mean, median, or mode, as this massively impacts the results!
- Double-check your sources: Is the data accurate, up to date, and relevant?
Another digital marketing event done and dusted, and yet we’re still dreaming of the next. Thanks to all the brilliant speakers and event organisers who helped make The Digital PR Summit such a blast — we expect we’ll see you again in 2026.
