How We Built The Flat Lay Co.'s US Presence — From UK Brand to Award-Winning Travel & Beauty Editorial Favorite
Inside Godfrey Social PR's lifestyle PR strategy for a brand that lives at the intersection of beauty, travel, fashion, and gift-giving.
The Brand
The Flat Lay Co. is the UK-born beauty accessories brand that's redefined what a makeup bag can be. Their signature flat-lay-style box bags, designed to open out and display everything inside at a glance, have become a viral favorite among beauty enthusiasts, travel influencers, and fashion editors alike. The product is stylish, practical, and undeniably giftable — the perfect editorial darling.
But great product alone doesn't build a brand in a new market. When The Flat Lay Co. wanted to grow their US presence — building consumer awareness, attracting new retailers, and cementing themselves as a lifestyle brand (not just a beauty one) — they needed a US PR partner with the editorial relationships, category fluency, and storytelling range to make it happen.
That's where Godfrey Social PR came in.
The Goal
When we partnered with The Flat Lay Co., the strategic objectives were clear:
Establish a strong US editorial presence — get the brand on the radar of American consumers, editors, and shoppers
Tell the brand's story across multiple lifestyle verticals — beauty, travel, fashion, gift-giving, and lifestyle, not just one lane
Build the kind of press portfolio that attracts new retail partners — when retailers see editorial credibility, doors open faster
Layer in an influencer marketing strategy — pair traditional PR with social-first visibility to amplify the brand's reach across platforms
This wasn't about chasing a single big hit. It was about building a US press story that would compound — across seasons, across categories, and across the editorial calendar.
The Strategy
Lifestyle brands win when their PR strategy reflects the way real people actually think about products. A Flat Lay Co. bag isn't "just" a beauty product. It's a travel essential. A bridesmaid gift. A graduation present. A back-to-school must-have. A stocking stuffer. A festival accessory.
Our strategy was built around that multi-category reality:
We pitched The Flat Lay Co. as a lifestyle brand, not just beauty. Beauty pitches got us in the door at category outlets — but we expanded into travel, fashion, gifting, and consumer lifestyle to multiply the editorial opportunities. A single product, told seven different ways, becomes seven different placement opportunities.
We mapped every seasonal moment. Valentine's Day. Mother's Day. Easter baskets. Graduation. Spring travel. Summer festivals. Back to school. Holiday gift guides. Stocking stuffers. Every cultural moment became a pitch hook — and Flat Lay's product range made nearly every moment a fit.
We submitted for awards — and won. Shop TODAY Travel Awards 2026. Yahoo Travel Awards 2026. Awards aren't just shiny logos — they're credibility multipliers that drive press, retail interest, and consumer trust simultaneously.
We layered TV into the editorial mix. Multiple TODAY Show segments. ABC News features. TV placements amplify reach far beyond print or digital — and they create high-impact content moments that the brand can repurpose for years.
We built a parallel influencer marketing strategy. Working alongside our PR pitching, we developed a curated influencer gifting program targeting beauty, travel, fashion, and lifestyle creators — including activations around moments like Coachella and Stagecoach to capture festival-season visibility. Influencer content reinforces the editorial story; editorial coverage reinforces influencer credibility. The two strategies feed each other.
We pitched with relationships. With 30 years of US media relationships, our pitches land in inboxes where the editor already trusts us. That trust is the difference between "thanks for sharing" and "send a sample — I'd love to include it."
The Results
The headline numbers (US PR, past 9 months):
55+ US press placements secured across beauty, travel, fashion, gift, and lifestyle verticals
4+ billion total monthly unique visitors (UMV) across all coverage
36 unique outlets featured Flat Lay Co. — across digital, print, and broadcast
70+ press samples sent to top US editors
50+ influencers gifted as part of the parallel social strategy
Multiple award wins — including Shop TODAY Travel Awards 2026 and Yahoo Travel Awards 2026
TODAY Show segments and ABC News features — adding broadcast reach to digital editorial wins
Standout placements include:
TODAY Show / Shop TODAY — featured across multiple segments and articles, including Spring Travel Essentials, Stocking Stuffers, Stages Gift Bags, and the Shop TODAY Travel Awards
Travel + Leisure — multiple features including "The 9 Best Makeup Cases for Travel of 2026" and "The 14 Best Travel Pouches, Tested and Reviewed"
Wired — recurring placements in "The Best Travel Toiletry Bags" roundups
Oprah Daily — "49 Best Gifts for Travel Lovers That They'll Actually Use"
Forbes — multiple features including "The 30 Best Easter Basket Ideas for Teens" and "Valentine's Day Gifts for Kids"
The Everygirl — 7 features across fashion, travel, and beauty
WhoWhatWear — "What's on an Incredibly Picky Fashion Editor's Valentine's Day Wish List?"
The Skimm — multiple shopping newsletter features
BuzzFeed, MSN, Yahoo, ABC News, Scary Mommy, theQualityEdit, Beauty Matter — and many more
TMZ — festival-season visibility through influencer partnerships at "Posse's Pre-Festival Party"
The Ripple Effect
Press is only as valuable as what you do with it. Flat Lay Co. has used their US PR portfolio to:
Build retail momentum. Award wins, TODAY Show placements, and consistent editorial coverage make conversations with US retailers dramatically easier. Editorial credibility is a foundational ingredient of retail growth.
Power their marketing across channels. Every placement becomes content — for their website's "as featured in" wall, their newsletters, their social channels, and their wholesale pitch decks. One TODAY Show segment can fuel months of marketing assets.
Layer influencer + editorial credibility. When an influencer features the brand, it carries more weight because the same product is showing up in Travel + Leisure and Wired. When the brand pitches editors, it carries more weight because beauty and travel creators are already talking about it. Each channel makes the other stronger.
Build a US presence from the ground up. Nine months ago, The Flat Lay Co. was a UK brand looking to break into the US. Today, they're a recognizable name in US beauty and travel media — with awards, TV placements, and a press portfolio that proves it.
This is what we mean when we say PR is more than placements. It's the credibility infrastructure that makes everything else — retail expansion, influencer partnerships, brand awareness, and consumer trust — possible.
What This Means for Your Brand
If you're a consumer brand looking to expand into a new market, attract retailers, or build the kind of brand awareness that drives long-term growth, PR is the foundation that makes everything else easier.
The Flat Lay Co.'s story is proof that with the right strategy — multi-vertical storytelling, smart award submissions, broadcast targeting, and a parallel influencer program — a brand can build a meaningful US presence in less than a year.
Our Holiday Gift Guide PR Program and full PR programs are built for exactly this kind of growth. Whether you're launching, expanding, or accelerating, we'll help you tell your brand's story in the publications that matter — and turn editorial coverage into a marketing asset that compounds.
Let's connect → info@godfreysocialpr.com