Why Good PR Keeps Working Long After the Campaign Ends
There’s a common misconception about PR that I’ve encountered many times over the years: you get the coverage, enjoy the buzz and then, a few weeks later, everyone moves on.
But good PR doesn’t have to work like that.
The right story, backed by a long-term PR strategy, can continue building your profile and creating opportunities months – and sometimes years – after it was first published.
And in a world where so much media coverage now lives online, the old saying that “today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper” feels increasingly outdated.
When a PR Story Comes Back 13 Years Later
One of my favourite examples comes from a campaign we ran for The Printworks in Manchester back in 2013.
The campaign involved Bez from Happy Mondays and a colony of bees living on The Printworks’ rooftop.
It was a great story and generated some fantastic results:
- Total PR value of £1,148,096
- Media reach of almost 20 million
- PR ROI of 136:1
- Website unique visitors increased 30% year on year
- Facebook likes increased by 25%
- Twitter followers increased by 18%
- Coverage included BBC News, NME, Metro, OK! and The Times
At that point, you might reasonably have said: job done.
Except the story didn’t disappear.
In January 2021, it resurfaced in a Manchester’s Finest article when Bez launched a lockdown fitness campaign.
Then, remarkably, the bees were mentioned again on Radio 2 breakfast in February 2026.
That’s more than a decade after the original campaign.
We didn’t manufacture those later mentions. What we did was create a memorable story in the first place – one strong enough to become part of the longer-term narrative around Bez and The Printworks.
That’s the lasting legacy good PR can create.
Why Some PR Has a Longer Shelf Life
There’s obviously no way of guaranteeing that a journalist will rediscover your story in five or ten years’ time.
But you can give your PR a much better chance of continuing to work by thinking beyond the immediate headline.
A strong PR strategy considers what you want to be known for, which stories support that positioning and how individual pieces of coverage contribute to the bigger picture.
It also means creating stories with a genuine human angle.
Journalists are constantly looking for experts, contributors, case studies and interesting people. Previous coverage can give them something to discover when they’re researching their next story.
That means the article you think is “old news” could actually be the thing that puts you in front of your next journalist.
PR Should Build Something
Of course, immediate coverage matters.
But I don’t believe businesses should view PR purely as a series of isolated media hits.
Done properly, each piece of coverage should contribute to something bigger: your reputation, visibility, credibility and the story people associate with you or your business.
Sometimes the return is immediate.
Sometimes another opportunity appears months later.
And occasionally, a story about a rooftop full of bees starts buzzing again 13 years after you first told it.
At Tree Communications, we help airlines, travel, hospitality and event brands and ambitious founders build visibility and secure relevant, trust-building media coverage designed to do more than create a short-term headline.
If you want your PR to keep working long after launch day, get in touch.
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