Background:

StressFreeCarRental is a car hire comparison and booking website that aims to do exactly what its name suggests - take the stress out of car rental. They work to negotiate car hire prices from trusted brands and offer complete transparency on car rental costs across the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the USA. 

When we first began working with the team at StressFreeCarRental, we were primarily building links in the UK and much of our content focused on travel and advice - something which we knew how to do well. Over time, the focus shifted and new referring domains became more important to the client as well as landing links overseas in Europe and the US. 

Although we secured some coverage, it quickly became clear that the media landscape overseas was very different from the UK, with journalists showing interest in different types of content.

We now needed to develop a stronger campaign tailored to European and US audiences - one that could generate a surge in referring domains by using tactics outside our usual approach.

Strategy:

Research revealed that press across Europe and the US favour data-led content with a strong news angle, as it offers readers something genuinely new.

We developed the idea of creating an index ranking the most stressful airports around the world. With summer approaching, the timing was ideal - and by compiling an index covering European countries and US states, we could use a single dataset to target all the key markets for our client. It also tied in perfectly with the travel-focused content we already produced for StressFreeCarRental.

To avoid wasting time - ours or the client’s - we decided to approach each market separately, starting with Europe. This allowed us to test the idea, assess its performance, and make any necessary improvements before rolling it out in the US.

We selected ten of Europe’s busiest airports based on passenger numbers and ranked them using criteria such as distance to the city centre, number of destinations served, parking options, and a departure delay score. Each airport received a total score based on these factors, determining the ranking from most to least stressful.

Following the success of the European campaign, we applied the same strategy to a US version of the index.

To generate deeper links to the client’s website and fully utilise the dataset, we created dedicated blog posts on the StressFreeCarRental site for each index. This gave journalists a clear destination to access the full data and methodology.

One of the strengths of this campaign was its broad appeal - it had the potential to land coverage across national, regional, and travel media.

Results:

Up first to be pitched was the European index. This landed us 59 items of coverage and a total of 41 links. 20 of these coverage items were new referring domains for StressFreeCarRental. 

Our timely pitch to the US meant journalists tied the story and data in with Memorial Day travel and it secured 54 items of coverage, 25 new domains and a total of 56 links. 

We pitched both stories from April to July, making the most of the peak travel season. The data story was a success, securing coverage in regional, national, and travel publications. This included a mix of new domains and major titles, giving StressFreeCarRental a boost in both brand awareness and SEO value.

Here are some of our coverage highlights: 

• Extra Ireland - 1 x follow link, DR 67
• USA Today - 1 x follow link, DR 92
• The Weather Channel - 1 x follow link, DR 91
• Daily Mail - 1 x no follow, DR 92
• TimeOut - 1 x follow, 1 x no follow, DR 90
• Kilkenny Live - 1 x follow, DR 62 
• Dutch Review - 1 x follow, DR 65

Client feedback/testimonial:

Request feedback from the client on the specific campaign/project if possible.

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