PR Advice for startups: Launching your early-stage business to the media

Getting noticed as a startup isn’t always easy. The fast-growing micromobility space is no different. Journalists are watching the space closely but with so much competition, many early-stage teams are struggling to cut through.

We recently worked with Yo-Go, a London-based startup, to announce its launch of the UK’s first pay-as-you-go electric buggy service to the media. Our PR coverage delivered a huge spike to Yo-Go’s website with thousands of sign-ups to their app following our announcement. 

Read on to understand how we landed top-tier media coverage for the micromobility startup, from BBC to Mail Online to The Times. 

If you’re a startup preparing to launch your business to the media, this one’s for you…

The brief | Bring journalists’ attention to an urban mobility first

Yo-Go wanted our support to publicise its pilot scheme launch in Hammersmith and Fulham. Their goal was clear: make noise in the media for their innovative e-buggies and position them as the exciting new alternative to e-scooters and e-bikes. 

Our challenge? To craft a story in the crowded e-mobility space that would immediately set Yo-Go apart from its competitors and that journalists — and their audiences — would get excited about. 

While we can’t take credit for the eye-catching yellow of Yo’Go’s buggies - it certainly gave us extra material to work with. We know that journalists love strong imagery to support a story and that when used well they can increase the success of a media announcement. That’s why we prioritised the photos of Yo-Go’s bright yellow buggies in all our media pitches. 

The approach | Bring the Yo-Go story to life

We built our strategy around a few core pillars:

1. Invite journalists to test Yo-Go for themselves

We capitalised on the novelty of Yo-Go’s UK-first trial to pique journalists’ interest in test-driving the buggies themselves. That real-world experience made all the difference, leading to richer stories and - in the case of The Times - multiple pieces of coverage.

2. Secure a case study to further bring the buggies to life

As soon as we heard about this new innovation - we knew broadcast media would be our go-to target. What did we need to entice them? Someone who was genuinely using Yo-Go vehicles as part of their regular routine. We worked with Yo-Go’s team to secure a case study who was happy to speak to the media - meeting her before pitching began to outline our plan. We prepped her with key talking points and to ensure she was ready for the interview about Yo-Go once we’d confirmed an opportunity with BBC London.   

3. Use our national media contacts to hone the sharpest angle

At Harpswood we pride ourselves on maintaining great relationships with top national journalists. We got straight to work calling our contacts to generate interest in the launch - crafting a press release based on early feedback that highlighted Yo-Go’s trial of neighbourhood electric buggies as the world’s first.

The results?

From two articles in The Times to a segment on BBC London that aired on both the lunchtime and evening news - the Yo-Go buggies received an early wave of influential media coverage - followed by further articles from an impressive range of national titles. 

• The Guardian, Mail Online, BBC News Online, Forbes, The London Standard and Metro all covered Yo-Go’s London launch with plenty of pictures of the eye-catching yellow buggies

• A broadcast segment on BBC London that featured one of Yo-Go’s first London customers was followed by a feature on BBC News Online

• The Times’ London Editor Andy Silvester came to Hammersmith to give a Yo-Go buggy a test run, describing the experience in his article as “extraordinarily good fun”

• We secured 22 pieces of national, regional and targeted industry coverage

What makes us even happier than the volume of coverage is the real impact our work delivered for the business. Yo-Go saw a surge of thousands of new user sign-ups in the days following the press coverage. We helped the business to build early awareness with the key audiences it needed to be in front of: city-based, eco-conscious commuters and early adopters.

What other startups can take away from our Yo-Go launch

Whether you're pre-launch or scaling, here are a few things startups can learn from our work with Yo-Go:

Show instead of tell

If your product is fun to use or unique in feel, get it in people’s hands — especially journalists. Let them experience it for themselves. Invest in creating interesting, high-quality images of your product or business that showcases its most unique aspects. 

Think like a journalist

Many early-stage startups make the mistake of focussing on the messages they want to land about their business - rather than on the story that will best catch the media’s attention.

Consider the wider news agenda

What’s the broader problem you solve? Where does your startup fit into the urban transport ecosystem? With Yo-Go’s pilot we were able to tie in the growing e-scooter debates, which made it more newsworthy.

Aim high

We see too many early-stage startups defaulting to the tech press or thinking national exposure isn’t possible in the early years. Our viewpoint? In e-mobility - general public awareness matters. While targeting key trades is a key part of many of our PR strategies for early-stage businesses it is definitely doable to land coverage in national media outlets. 

Want more tips? Download our free checklist here for startups on how to make their own press announcement a success.

When to bring in PR support

When is the right time for PR support? We hear this all the time - especially in the early-stage climate tech scene. 

If you’re eager to land earned media coverage to entice investors, partners and customers - but your business is complicated to explain, your sector is crowded, or you don’t yet have the media contacts to cut through with your story - consider bringing in external PR support. 

When done well, PR can have an immense impact on your business’s momentum. 

We work with ambitious early-stage and scaling businesses across the climate tech landscape to shape their narrative, reach the right media, and build a presence in all the places they need to be seen. 

If you’re looking for a partner who understands how to turn a smart transport idea into national coverage — we’d love to talk.