In 2026, brands that win won’t necessarily have the loudest voice – they’ll be the first to get out there quickly with something worth saying and sharing.
These days, trending topics on social platforms have a relevance window of just three to six hours. That’s how small the window is in which a brand can meaningfully join a conversation before it moves on. At the same time, the traditional media pitching landscape has become increasingly competitive. The average journalist response rate to PR pitches is just 3% and just 8% of pitches result in actual media coverage.
Honing your approach to reactive PR has never been more important.
Our webinar – Winning in the 24-hour News Cycle – examined how to make reactive PR work harder, taking in multiple industries, from the regulated world of healthcare, to B2B within huge global conglomerates and B2C in media and education. Here we break down what we actually mean by Reactive PR for those new to the industry, and look at what it can do for your brand or business and how to use it.
Reactive PR is the strategic practice of responding to real-time news, cultural moments, and emerging industry developments and trends to increase a brand or business’ relevance and visibility.
But that definition isn’t the full picture. It’s important to understand that trend- and culture driven news hijacking sits at one end of the spectrum, but there’s a whole gamut of reactive opportunities that follow, whether that’s providing expert commentary on breaking industry news, engaging influencers around a trending topic, or providing perspective on what’s happening on social right now.
With 44% of consumers saying they feel more connected to brands that participate in relevant conversations in the media, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your business is suitably prepared to meaningfully join the conversations in your sphere.
One of the biggest challenges in reactive PR – especially in thoroughly regulated industries like healthcare, finance or law – is balancing speed with governance. Lots of businesses and organisations have rigorous sign-off and processes in place. That’s understandable. But the reality is you can’t be fast to respond reactively if you haven’t already done the groundwork. The
brands that are winning at reactive PR have their spokespeople prepped, their messaging frameworks agreed and have decided where they want to step into the conversation long before that ‘hot moment’ arrives.
“Every moment you enter a conversation in healthcare, you’re borrowing from a bank of public trust that took years and years to build. So yes, [reactive PR is] essential, but it demands a different level of discipline and preparation.” – Katya Escala, HealthHero
Different media channels move at different paces. Where social media demands immediacy, traditional media operates on longer timelines and often carries greater authority. This can be tricky to manage within heavily regulated industries, where the inclination is to wait until you have a legally signed off statement before saying anything publicly. But social media waits for no-one. You should tailor your approach to work with each channel and have processes in place to give you the best head-start you can get.
A smart approach is to layer your response:
This allows brands and businesses across many industries to remain visible without compromising compliance or accuracy.
Speed is not accidental – it is carefully engineered.
For many companies, reactive PR can deliver where there simply isn’t the budget for a big campaign. Planning for short, sharp seasonal moments can deliver fantastic results, and often with less onerous financial investment.
A perfect B2C example from Colin Watkins, was language learning app Duolingo preparing social content around Eurovision, so they were poised and ready to quickly join the inevitable conversations that took off. Quick thinking with creative angles resulted in a large spike in people signing up to the app to learn Italian in 2025 due to Italy’s win that year.
From the B2B side, Alyona Levitin and Kantar conducted a study that disproved the “go woke go broke” theory that had begun to infiltrate the world of advertising. Over the two years since, they have been able to use the findings of the research to participate in relevant conversations to their business, responding to major cultural and political debates and thereby reinforcing their authority in data and insights.
Organisations that succeed in reactive PR have already done the groundwork long before a moment arises. This includes:
As highlighted in the webinar, brands that excel are those that have already decided which conversations they want to be part of before they happen.
This just goes to show that having relevant content ready in advance enables speed without sacrificing substance and quality.
Having a consistent presence in conversations is crucial to cementing your authenticity. Speaker Colin Watkins drew upon the example of supermarket chain Lidl taking advantage of last summer’s Oasis concerts in Manchester, using “Lidl by Lidl” on campaign artwork for everything from Lidl branded parkas to murals – which an Oasis-hungry media leapt on. Clever puns and witty comments are a key strategic part of the retailer’s communications strategy, so this felt natural as a piece of reactive PR.
Having a consistent presence also minimises risk when it comes to making mistakes. If your brand voice is known, understood, and generally viewed positively, then you are far more likely to be forgiven if you occasionally make a tonal slip-up.
Of course, not every reactive PR effort will land – and that’s just part of the process. Make sure that if your pitch didn’t land, you go back and analyse what succeeded:
Continuous learning is essential to refining both timing and messaging.
The role of PR in a brand’s visibility in Large Language Model (LLM) results is proving to be increasingly important. While a degree of mystery surrounds how they prioritise mentions – like with Google, the methodology is a closely kept secret – there are credible sources showing that earned mentions are definitely influential.
The more earned mentions a business or brand gets in the media, the more likely it is to be cited in a search via an LLM.
Historically, a huge amount of time has been spent by PRs sitting on social channels and trawling news feeds, looking for angles to react to. But now, with the help of AI, PRs can cut through the noise quicker than ever to the content that matters. At Speed, we are deploying our own proprietary tool, Pulse AI, to help us do just that. Of course, as with all things AI, correct use and human judgement is crucial for interpreting the cues and data. As Katya Escala states in our webinar:
“Take what the machine surfaces, and apply the emotional intelligence and human context. And that will turn a fast response into the right response.”
Pulse AI is Speed’s proprietary AI tool designed to help our teams identify and act on news opportunities faster than ever before. It enhances their existing media expertise, and is built on “human first, human last” principles, allowing teams to move with the speed of AI without losing the human touch.
Using PulseAI means the Speed Team is able to deliver:
Winning in the 24-hour news cycle is not about reacting to everything – it’s about reacting to the right things, in the right way, at the right time.
Brands that succeed will:
In a world where attention is fleeting, the ability to move with speed and relevance is no longer optional; it is the defining competitive advantage.
To find out more about PulseAI and how it feeds into Speed’s reactive PR work, get in touch or speak to your Account Manager.