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Play the Game: How Brands Can Turn BBC Hit The Traitors Into Media Coverage
The celebrity version of The Traitors is back on our screens, bringing with it millions of viewers, daily headlines and plenty of ready-made opportunities for brands.
Amy BlythPR consultantPublished · Updated · 3 min read
The celebrity version of The Traitors is back on our screens, bringing with it millions of viewers, daily headlines and plenty of ready-made opportunities for brands.
Brands can use popular TV shows like The Traitors for reactive PR by connecting a relevant product, dataset or expert to stories journalists are already covering.
This kind of reactive PR, often called newsjacking, works best when the connection is genuine and the brand adds something new, whether that is data, expertise, analysis or a strong opinion.
Why The Traitors kills it for reactive PR
Newsdesks need fresh Traitors stories throughout the series. A brand that can offer journalists a new angle, backed by credible data or expertise, gives them another reason to cover the programme.
The show's profile helps, but relevance still matters. The brand connection needs to feel natural rather than bolted onto a popular television programme simply to attract attention.
How to turn screen time into column inches: what makes newsjacking work
The Traitors isn't the only programme capable of generating reactive PR opportunities.
Strictly Come Dancing can create angles for fitness, health and wellbeing experts. The Great British Bake Off can generate stories around food, baking and consumer trends. Long-running programmes such as EastEnders and Coronation Street regularly cover real-life issues that medical, legal, financial and other specialists can comment on.
The key is not simply finding a popular programme. A successful newsjacking idea needs three things: a genuine connection to the brand, something useful or original to add, and timing that allows journalists to use the story while interest is high.
Brands should also use judgement. Sensitive subjects should only be used where the organisation has genuine expertise and can contribute something responsible and useful to the conversation.
How we’ve played the game
Mission 01
Select Car Leasing: riding the Defender
The fleet of black Land Rover Defenders have become some of The Traitors' most recognisable props, carrying contestants from the castle to missions and back.
For Select Car Leasing, we analysed Google Trends data and found that the Defender was attracting almost as much attention as the contestants.
That became the basis of a motoring story examining how the first series of Celebrity Traitors sent interest in the Land Rover Defender soaring.
The story secured coverage in This is Money, giving Select Car Leasing a timely national media opportunity built around its core automotive expertise.
It is a useful example of what to look for when watching a major television programme. Props, contestant behaviour, conversations, locations and even set design can create a relevant news hook for the right brand.
Mission 02
CEL Solicitors: spotting the real traitors
Working with the scam experts at CEL Solicitors, we identified similarities between the techniques used by Traitors to mislead their fellow contestants and those used by real-world fraudsters.
Building trust, deflecting suspicion and using emotion are all tactics that scammers can use to manipulate victims into handing over money.
With expert commentary from CEL Solicitors, we turned that comparison into the story “How scammers use The Traitors tactics to con people.”
It was published across more than 100 Newsquest titles, including the Cotswold Journal.
The serious consumer message became more accessible because it was connected to a programme millions of people were already discussing.
Ready to play?
The Traitors shows that brands don't always need a large original campaign to earn meaningful media coverage.
Sometimes the opportunity is already in front of millions of people.
The job of good reactive PR is to spot the right connection, add something journalists can use and move quickly enough to become part of the story. In the game for coverage, timing is everything. Miss the moment and you’re banished from the headlines.