An on-brand Digital PR campaign to support a new product launch for Roberts Radio

We were tasked with getting Roberts Radio into the press to generate brand awareness for their new bluetooth speaker and drive links to the new landing page to support SEO efforts.

Roberts are an iconic British brand that were founded in 1932, so our campaign needed to match the topic of multiple generations listening to music through their products.

THE DATA

Our logic behind the campaign was that music lives on through generations, and songs that were popular years ago could still be someone's favourite, regardless of the time since it was released or their position in the charts.

We ran a survey of 2,000 UK respondents aimed to determine if older artists' fans engage with modern music and how involved older generations are with music today. We found that only 30% of people follow music in the charts, with 76% preferring to follow their own music taste.

Interestingly, just 18% of the Silent Generation enjoy listening to music that younger people listen to. Additionally, our data shows that younger generations are open to older music, with 57% wanting it to be played more on the radio and 36% expressing interest in exploring older music themselves.

However, over a third of Gen Z respondents stated they wouldn't listen to a song released before they were born, potentially missing out on a library of classics released before 2000.

Using the data to craft a press worthy story

We asked every generation how familiar they were with older artists, and it’s safe to say the results are shocking.

The artist least familiar to Gen Z was Aretha Franklin, with over 60% of those from ages 16 to 23 unfamiliar with the music legend’s work. Following closely behind were U2 and The Supremes with over half of the generation unfamiliar with their work. Also included in our study were Elvis Costello, Bee Gees, Phil Collins, The Beach Boys and Blondie.

The other end of the list found that Gen Z was most familiar with The Beatles, closely followed by Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston with over two-thirds of people being aware of these artists.

Interestingly, there were some artists from this list that even the Silent Generation weren’t too familiar with. Only 51% of The Silent Generation said they were familiar with the band that brought us songs such as ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ and ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’, Bon Jovi.

How well does Gen Z know older music stars?

RESULTS

The story caught the imagination of journalists and in total we achieved 64 pieces of coverage with over 30 links from 8 different countries.

The most popular headline used by journalists was that only 1 in 3 Gen Z's had heard of The Beatles. This saw great traction across music related websites and in particular their hometown of Liverpool where we got some great coverage in the Liverpool Echo.

Our survey results showed that regardless of the era in which certain artists were most popular, their music has the ability to transcend generations. In contrast, older generations are increasingly struggling to connect with the latest music releases. This presents a remarkable opportunity for new artists to curate the soundscape for Gen Z and future generations, ensuring their work resonates for years to come.

We really enjoyed working with Honcho, particularly on this campaign. The story aligned perfectly with our brand of rich heritage and the objective of raising awareness during a crucial product launch.