How Icelandair grew Northern Lights search visibility by 22% with digital PR

Search interest around Northern Lights travel was increasingly favouring destinations such as Norway, supported by stronger search visibility and media narratives positioning them as leading places to experience the aurora.

For Icelandair, the challenge was twofold. The brand needed to reinforce Iceland's authority as a world-class Northern Lights destination while building a stronger association between Icelandair and aurora travel.

Brave Bison also needed to improve organic visibility across the UK, US and Germany, using digital PR to influence both media narratives and search performance.

Brave Bison developed a data-led reactive digital PR campaign around the 2026 solar maximum, the peak of the Sun's 11-year cycle and a timely reason for renewed interest in the Northern Lights.

We created market-specific stories for the UK, US and Germany using open-source data to identify the best local places to see the aurora before positioning Iceland as the ultimate Northern Lights experience.

Expert photography advice and useful travel guidance strengthened the campaign's editorial value and helped Icelandair earn high-authority coverage. The Organic Performance campaign secured 240 links across the three markets and increased Northern Lights keyword visibility by 22%, with additional priority terms reaching position one in both the UK and US.