London Eye: 25 Years as an Icon
Landing prominent national broadcast and press coverage for a landmark anniversary
Client challenge
Merlin Entertainments needed to mark the 25th anniversary of the lastminute.com London Eye with significant national impact. While their in-house team is highly skilled, the sheer scale of the anniversary—encompassing brand sponsorships, celebrity partnerships, and ticket promotions—created a bandwidth challenge at a critical moment.
The UK national news and broadcast landscape is notoriously competitive. Without dedicated, senior-level focus on UK news and broadcast sell-in, there was a risk that this landmark milestone for one of Britain’s most iconic attractions would fail to land prominently on the national agenda - missing an opportunity to reaffirm its status and support wider commercial objectives.
Brief
PRN was tasked with providing dedicated UK news and broadcast media relations support for the London Eye’s 25th anniversary on 18th March 2025. The objective was to secure high-quality national broadcast and press coverage, ensuring the milestone landed prominently across key UK outlets.
Operating as a seamless extension of Merlin’s internal team, our role was to convert the campaign’s core assets - including the celebrity partnership and visual stunt - into compelling national news stories.
Our solution
We provided an agile, senior-led team to act as Merlin’s dedicated UK news and media relations arm for the anniversary. Our role was not to reinvent the campaign, but to ensure a critical strand of it - namely, national news and broadcast sell-in - was executed with precision and focus.
Leveraging our experience and relationships with UK news, picture and broadcast desks, we tailored the pitch to the needs of different outlets. By focusing on high-value visual stunts, coordinating the broadcast schedule for celebrity ambassador Rylan Clark, and preparing assets in advance, we made the story straightforward and compelling for time-pressed journalists to cover.
Delivery
Execution was methodical and proactive, moving from long-lead broadcast planning to high-intensity outreach in the days ahead of the anniversary.
Phased Sell-in: Initiated early, embargoed conversations with key broadcast planners before intensifying outreach to national news and picture desks.
On-the-ground Support: Managed media attendance and facilitated interviews with Rylan Clark on the day, ensuring broadcast crews and photographers captured the required assets, smoothly and seamlessly.
Visual Distribution: Coordinated efficient distribution of the "birthday-card-in-the-sky" assets to national picture and digital desks to maximise uptake and placements.
Real outcomes, real impact
By augmenting Merlin’s expert in-house team with dedicated UK news and broadcast expertise, we ensured the London Eye’s 25th anniversary achieved prominent national visibility on the big day itself.
The campaign successfully converted a landmark milestone into a widely covered national news story, delivering extensive broadcast and press coverage across the UK’s leading outlets.
Results in detail
The targeted UK news and broadcast sell-in delivered exceptional, high-quality results for a project-based engagement. We secured over 200 pieces of UK-wide coverage, achieving a total reach of more than 114 million.
The quality and prominence of placements was particularly strong, including dedicated feature segments on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, This Morning, and ITV News, as well as radio packages on Sky News Radio.
In the press, the story landed in the Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Star, and Evening Standard. Digital traction was equally strong, with the visual "stunt" appearing on MailOnline, Guardian.co.uk, and Independent.co.uk, maintaining 100% positive or neutral sentiment throughout the campaign.