A journalist at a UK trade title once ran an entire piece off a Companies House filing that took four minutes to find. No paid database, no agency retainer — just a public filing nobody had bothered to open yet. That’s the pattern behind most data-driven placements: the number was sitting in plain sight the whole time, and someone finally looked.
In This Article
- 1. Google Trends
- 2. Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- 3. Statista (Free Tier)
- 4. Reddit and Online Forums
- 5. Companies House
- 6. Google Scholar + Academic Papers
- 7. Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
- 8. Social Media APIs and Analytics
- 9. Price Comparison and Review Sites
- 10. Your Own Data
- How to Turn Raw Data Into a Pitchable Story
You don’t need a research budget for any of this. Some of our best-performing campaigns ran on data anyone could pull for free. The skill isn’t access. It’s knowing where to look and how fast you can spot the angle.
These are the 10 sources we reach for first, roughly in the order we check them. All free, and all strong enough to carry a placement on their own.
1. Google Trends
URL: trends.google.com
The most underrated tool in PR, full stop. It shows you what people are searching, when interest spikes, and how that search behavior splits by region.
Pitch angles:
- “Searches for [product category] jumped 300% since [event]”
- “UK vs US: completely different search behavior around [topic]”
- Seasonal patterns that expose a cultural difference or an emerging consumer habit
Open the “Related queries” tab and filter to “Breakout.” Those are topics up 5,000%+ that most journalists haven’t clocked yet, which means the story is still yours to break.
2. Office for National Statistics (ONS)
URL: ons.gov.uk
The UK government publishes more usable data than most PR teams ever open. Consumer spending, employment, housing, cost of living, health, crime: all free, regularly updated, and credible enough for any publication to run with.
Pitch angles:
- Comparing spending across UK regions to surface a surprising outlier
- Year-over-year comparisons that reveal a trend nobody has flagged
- Cross-referencing two datasets to find a correlation nobody has published
US equivalent: data.gov and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)
3. Statista (Free Tier)
Further Reading
URL: statista.com
Use Statista as a map, not a mine. The free tier gives you basic charts and reference statistics but not the underlying dataset. That’s fine. You don’t need it.
How we use it: find a compelling statistic, then go straight to the original source for the full dataset. Statista is the index. The original source is where the story lives.
4. Reddit and Online Forums
Not a traditional “data source,” but hear me out.
A 5,000-upvote thread complaining about one specific problem is a data point. Subreddit growth rates, post frequency on a given topic, sentiment across a comment thread: all of it is quantifiable.
Pitch angles:
- “We analyzed 10,000 Reddit posts about [topic]. Here’s what consumers actually think”
- “The top complaints in r/[subreddit] reveal a problem brands are ignoring”
This works especially well for consumer stories. Journalists want data that reflects real sentiment, not a corporate survey dressed up as one.
5. Companies House
Every UK company files accounts publicly, and that’s a full dataset sitting there for free. Revenue trends, formation rates by sector, director demographics, regional business density, all of it.
Pitch angles:
- “New company registrations in [sector] have doubled since 2023”
- “The UK regions where businesses are growing fastest (and slowest)”
- Gender diversity in boardrooms: tracking progress by industry
US equivalent: SEC EDGAR filings (sec.gov/edgar)
6. Google Scholar + Academic Papers
URL: scholar.google.com
Academic research is a goldmine most PR teams never open. Researchers publish findings that are genuinely newsworthy and never get covered, because academics aren’t the ones pitching journalists.
How to use it:
- Search recent papers on a topic relevant to your industry
- Find the one statistic or finding with a clear consumer angle
- Package it as a story, in plain language
- Credit the researchers, who appreciate the coverage and often become repeat sources
7. Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
This one takes patience (up to 20 working days in the UK), but it hands you exclusive data nobody else has. That exclusivity is exactly what makes journalists say yes.
You can file an FOI request with any UK public body: NHS trusts, police forces, councils, government departments.
Pitch angles:
- “FOI data reveals NHS spending on [specific item] has risen X% in 5 years”
- “Council data shows the most and least common parking fine locations in every UK city”
Check WhatDoTheyKnow.com first. Someone may have already filed the same request, and the response is sitting there publicly.
8. Social Media APIs and Analytics
X, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all hold data you can analyze without paying for a single tool.
- Hashtag volume and trends (free via platform search)
- Engagement rates on trending topics
- Follower growth patterns for brands or public figures
- Comment sentiment on viral posts
Pitch angle: “We tracked every viral TikTok about [topic] in the last 6 months. Here’s what they all have in common.” Journalists covering social trends eat this up.
9. Price Comparison and Review Sites
Trustpilot, Google Reviews, Glassdoor, and price comparison sites are sitting on huge amounts of structured data, and all of it is free to read.
Pitch angles:
- “We analyzed 50,000 Trustpilot reviews in [industry]. The number one complaint might surprise you”
- “The most and least affordable cities for [product/service], based on 10,000 listings”
- “Glassdoor data reveals the industries with the happiest (and unhappiest) employees”
This type of consumer-facing data performs exceptionally well with lifestyle and business journalists.
10. Your Own Data
The most overlooked source of all: your own business generates data every single day.
Ecommerce brands are sitting on:
- Sales data by product, region, and season
- Customer behavior patterns
- Search query data from your own site
- Return rates and reasons
- Customer service inquiry patterns
Anonymize it, find the insight, and pitch it. “Our data from 50,000 orders shows X” is powerful for one simple reason: nobody else has this data.
We worked with an ecommerce brand whose own order data revealed surprising consumer preferences by country. That single dataset generated over 40 media placements across 6 countries, using data they already owned and had never thought to pitch.
How to Turn Raw Data Into a Pitchable Story
Having the data is step one. Making it pitchable is where most people get stuck, so this is the framework we default to every time:
- Find the surprise. What in this data contradicts what people assume? That’s your headline.
- Make it specific. “Housing costs are rising” isn’t a story. “This city saw a 47% rent increase in 18 months” is.
- Add the human element. Data tells you what. You still have to explain why it matters to real people.
- Build a ranking or comparison. Best-and-worst lists, city rankings, year-over-year comparisons: journalists can’t resist them.
- Visualize it. One simple chart or table makes your data ten times easier for a journalist to lift straight into their article.
Need help turning data into placements? That’s literally what we do. Send us your idea and we’ll tell you straight if it has legs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What data sources do PR agencies use for campaigns?
Government statistics offices (ONS, BLS, Eurostat), Google Trends for search interest, freedom of information requests, and original surveys via free tools like Google Forms or Typeform. The best campaigns don’t use rare data. They find the angle nobody else spotted in data that was already public.
Do I need to buy data for a digital PR campaign?
No. Most successful reactive PR campaigns run entirely on free, publicly available data. Government databases, academic research, Google Trends, social media analytics, and a simple original survey are more than enough to build a compelling data-driven story.
How do you turn raw data into a PR story?
Find a surprising or counterintuitive trend in the data. Tie it to a current news topic or a seasonal moment. Present it in a format a journalist can lift straight from your pitch: one clear finding with the numbers behind it, a quote, and a visual if you can make one.
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About the Author
Salvador Jovells
Founder of Presslei. 12+ years in ecommerce SEO across international markets. After a decade of link buying for Hockerty and Sumissura, I reverse-engineered 5,272 earned media placements and founded a reactive PR agency that builds authority through data-driven stories journalists actually want to publish. Based in Zurich.
