How the Olympic Games in Paris, Euro 2024, and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour helped us get featured in The National, Khaleej Times, and Time Out Dubai
Hi, this is prhub.ae — we do PR for companies in Dubai and make it so that even unknown brands without publications are quoted by top media. We explain, using our client The Visa Services as an example, how to get 35 press mentions and a free expert column in Khaleej Times.
If you’re too lazy to read:
– The Visa Services is a Dubai-based company that helps with obtaining visas to various countries.
– The brand has never been featured in the media, and it wanted residents of the UAE to learn about it.
– We came up with a study, linked it to news events in Europe, and pitched a press release about Schengen visas to Arab publications.
– Articles about the startup appeared in MSN, Khaleej Times, Trading View, Arabian Business, Time Out Dubai and Travel and Tour World.
– Later, together with Khaleej Times editorial team, we published a free expert column about myths on US visas.
– If you want the same, leave a request on the website or write to office@prhub.ae
That’s a brief overview. Now for more details.
Client
The Visa Services is a Dubai-based company helping residents of Arab countries get visas to Europe, America, Asia, Australia, and Russia. Their target audience includes locals and expats who travel, go on business trips, or study abroad.
Task
The Visa Services have been operating in Dubai for seven years. For promotion, they used advertising on Telegram, and since 2023, they started maintaining a blog on their website with useful tips and materials about countries for which visas are issued. However, the brand had never been published in the media and was almost unknown in the Arab market, despite fierce competition in the visa services niche.
Therefore, the PR goals set for us were:
- to make locals and expats in Dubai aware of the brand;
- to demonstrate the company’s expertise in visas.
Approach
To make The Visa Services known, we needed to get into the media with interesting material. The Arab market is competitive: major global companies publish news here, and journalists will not take articles from little-known brands without a good hook.
We hacked the algorithm and found that research formats are popular in Dubai: top media eagerly pick them up and other editions quote them. For a visa issuing service, this is an excellent option because the company can easily gather useful market analytics.
At the first call, we asked the client what interesting statistics they could share with readers. It turned out the company was ready to tell where UAE residents get visas.
At that time, three major events were happening in Europe: the Olympic Games in Paris, Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, and Euro 2024. As a result, we got the idea to tie into this news — studying Schengen visa statistics for summer 2024.
Collected statistics and prepared a release
After the call, we formed the article topic — “Schengen Visas in the UAE: What Travellers Need to Know.” It was decided to cover which European regions Dubai residents most often got visas for, which European countries were popular, and the citizenship of most travellers. It took one and a half weeks to gather statistics and prepare the release. June to September is the main travel period for Dubai residents: summer is tough to stay in the UAE, so the travel wave begins.
Since visas are applied for in advance, we asked for statistics on applications for the second quarter, from April to the end of June. The client exported data from their CRM system, and we prepared the release based on this data.
This case exemplifies a strategic approach to PR for a niche service brand aiming to build presence and authority in a competitive media landscape using data-driven stories linked to trending regional and global events.
For the article, we added a tie-in to the current agenda — in our case, to events happening in Europe.
To emphasise the company’s expertise, we added comments from Anastasia Yanchenko, the Commercial Director of The Visa Services.
And at the end of the article, on behalf of the company, we included tips on how to obtain a Schengen visa.
We pitched the journalists.
For the pitching, we chose The National — a top Arab publication founded in 2008 and considered a standard of quality journalism in the MENA region. We secured an exclusive placement with them.
We immediately arranged with The National’s editorial team for the publication and released the press release when the editor returned from vacation.
After the feature in The National, we contacted 200 journalists across various media outlets, of whom 35 responded. Within a few days, the study was republished by MSN, Khaleej Times, Trading View, Arabian Business, Time Out Dubai, and Travel and Tour World.
After the feature in The National, we contacted 200 journalists across various media outlets, of whom 35 responded. Within a few days, the study was republished by MSN, Khaleej Times, Trading View, Arabian Business, Time Out Dubai, and Travel and Tour World.
Result
We conducted a study with statistics on Schengen visa issuance, and it went viral: some media outlets cited the information and republished the news without our pitching.
When we distributed the press release to the media, the editor of Khaleej Times became interested in the visa topic and asked to keep in touch. A week later, during a call, the client proposed to share information about myths regarding US visas, and we contacted the editor. About a week later, we published an expert column in Khaleej Times titled “US Visa for UAE Residents: Expert Busts 5 Common Myths About Applications”, which reached 11.7 million people.
In summary:
– 35 media publications, including in The National, MSN, Khaleej Times, Trading View, Arabian Business, Time Out Dubai, and Travel and Tour World.
– A total reach of 870 million across all publications.
– A free column in Khaleej Times with a reach of 11.7 million.
If you want to be published in top international media, contact prhub.ae We will come up with an engaging news angle, pitch journalists, and track media placements.