Explore how a strategic digital PR strategy can earn more than just links – it can influence the moments that matter.
The Client.
Emma – The Sleep Company is a leading UK-based sleep brand. The company specialises in mattresses and pillows, focusing on research-backed, ergonomic and sustainable sleep products. Emma is on a journey to disrupt the global sleep industry and continue creating products that improve sleep quality.
The Brief.
Emma approached Digitaloft after noticing a declining trend in organic branded search queries, alongside a shift towards AI- and LLM-driven discovery. As search behaviour evolved, Emma wanted to ensure their products remained consistently visible wherever customers were researching and comparing products.
Product-led PR was a key focus from the outset. Emma was keen to secure inclusions in high-quality product round-ups and buying guides, sitting alongside key competitors and influencing the buyer journey at the point of research. To support this, Emma provided a clear list of dream publications they wanted to be featured in, giving us a defined direction.
The overarching goals were clear: grow Emma’s market visibility, support long-term SEO growth, strengthen relationships with affiliate partners, build meaningful relationships with journalists, and increase visibility across AI-powered search and discovery platforms.
The Strategy.
With search behaviour shifting and AI-powered platforms increasingly shaping product discovery, we built a strategy designed to influence visibility at every stage of the research journey. Product PR is our main focus due to its ability to secure authoritative coverage, earn high-quality links and place Emma directly within competitor comparison content – a format frequently surfaced in both traditional SERPS and AI generation answers.
Success was not just defined by links and coverage earned, but by the publications secured, how often those placements influenced search results and AI summaries and increasing Emma’s share of voice in the market.
Using the client’s list of dream publications and running a link gap analysis, we mapped priority media targets across consumer and lifestyle verticals. The Guardian was identified as a priority publication due to its authority, reach and influence. The Guardian’s product-led content provided a powerful trust signal.
The Results.
By securing placements alongside key competitors, we strengthened Emma’s presence during high-intent research moments and closed existing visibility gaps within the category.
So far, our product PR strategy has secured:
- 86 pieces of coverage
- 84 links
- 71 links secured were directly into key product pages
- High average DR of 82 with standout coverage in The Guardian, The Standard, T3, Ideal Home, Good Housekeeping and The Telegraph.
- Impressions are up 44.7% YoY
- AI referral traffic is up 36.2% from last month
We secured a link from The Guardian, which ranked Emma’s weighted blanket as the best in the UK, and the impact was immediate. Within 24 hours of publication, Emma’s weighted blanket surfaced within Google’s AI Mode recommendation, citing The Guardian article as the source. This demonstrated how authoritative, editorial product coverage can directly influence AI-led search experiences.
Moreover, the Guardian article ranked #1 on Google for ‘best weighted blankets’, and there was no AI overview showing for this query, which makes being the top recommendation even more powerful.
The same placement also contributed to increased visibility across LLM-powered platforms. When testing a range of buyer-intent prompts within ChatGPT, Emma’s weighted blanket surfaced as the top recommended option, again referencing The Guardian article as the primary source.
Together, these outcomes highlighted the role of high-authority product PR in shaping both traditional and AI-driven discovery, reinforcing Emma’s market position and ensuring visibility wherever consumers research products.