The challenge

We noticed that when something went viral on TikTok, related searches increased on Google. We wanted to reverse engineer this. Social media has the power to set trends and make business boom - and we have the power to create trends all of our own.

We also have a handy in-house Early Risers tool to show us what will trend next. If we put all that together, anything is possible. Maybe even a UK Search Award…

The idea

Rather than wait for a trend to start, we wanted to create one. We looked at products prettyLittleThing already ranked #1 for and pushed them as a trending item. We found relevant influencers and got them to all wear our products at the same time, meaning wherever you looked on TikTok, you’d see PrettyLittleThing looking its best. At the same time we pushed the trend to press, landing coverage and links across the web. PLT also promoted their products through other channels, creating a tidal wave of products that couldn’t be ignored.

The results

Searches went crazy. People were looking for our products everywhere, and the press couldn’t get enough of it. We featured in the Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan and OK!, with the crossover style tops becoming all anyone could talk about.

Even Love Island got in on the act. Suddenly our campaign had gone from TikTok to prime time TV, meaning screens of all sizes were filled with our products.

Our campaign was seen over 10 million times, driving 46k people to key category pages and earning a five-figure sum in revenue.

People were already searching for crossover tops on Google. Now they were finding them everywhere they looked.

This campaign landed three UK Digital PR Awards in 2022 (Best PR Campaign of the Year for Fashion and Beauty, Best use of TikTok and Most Innovative Digital PR Campaign) and two UK Search Awards in 2021 (Best Innovation and Best use of Social Media).