Darling, hold my hand.

How online news media coverage about a viral song engaged millions and drove 80% of Google searches for Jet2

Sometimes, gold is found in unexpected places. Consumer response to an advertising campaign can’t be forced, but if content really resonates with the audience, it creates a bigger brand-building opportunity beyond the call to action.

Jet2’s ad ‘Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday’ has featured Jess Glynne’s hit ‘Hold my Hand’ for almost a decade. The song and advert had a massive resurgence on TikTok last year, becoming an internet meme, fuelled by holidaymakers uploading video content of their own holiday moments. Often, these were humorous takes on awful travel experiences, such as fights on planes or terrible views from hotels, always accompanied by the song and the ‘Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday’ strapline.

Glynne had a meet-up with the brand’s voiceover artist, Zoe Lister, on Capital Breakfast radio in July 2025 as the soundtrack trended on social media. What happened next was fascinating to watch. Social media content became news, with stories spilling over into regional and national online publications. Before long, respected business title forbes.com felt compelled to explain the meme phenomenon and how the airline was able to capitalise on it.

If something is truly newsworthy, it won’t stay on social channels. It migrates to online versions of mainstream media, rapidly increasing the size of audience exposed to the content. This growing audience increases the potential for media content to drive business outcomes, including Google search and purchase consideration.

At this moment, in summer 2025, theguardian.com speculated that Jet2 executives might be worried about the potential brand impact of the joke consumer-generated content. “A PR dream or disaster?” ran the headline. Of greater concern for executives was the use of the meme by the White House to promote deportations of immigrants. This resulted in condemnation from the singer and the company. Plus, of course, more media coverage! From a PR perspective, consumers knew that Jet2 was not to blame and it quickly took control of the narrative to avoid reputational damage.

Metricomm’s methodology allows executives to gain clarity about the impact of media coverage, which may – or may not – shape consumer perceptions and propensity to purchase. Our analysis shows this was far from a disaster. There’s a reason why brands go to enormous lengths to get their Christmas ad campaigns covered in traditional media. They know it increases YouTube views. As of January 2026, a single video of the ad on the official Jet2 page has had 9 million views. By comparison, the John Lewis 2025 Christmas ad on the company’s YouTube channel has achieved 2.5 million views.

In December 2025, ‘Hold my hand’ was named TikTok song of the year. Of course, Jet2 profited from this as well, with another spike in audience from news media. Almost 15 million people found and read the news on bbc.co.uk alone. By the end of the year, the cumulative size of media audience engaging with earned media content about the brand plus ‘Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday’ had added up over time to 112.5 million.

Thanks to the enormous consumer interest in the topic, 80% of Google searches for Jet2 over recent months have been influenced by the coverage in online versions of traditional news media. The chart below shows this impact over time. There is little doubt that the Jet2 jingle has been a black swan event in terms of brand building and consumer response for the airline.

UK Google searches for Jet2holidays strongly influenced by earned media coverage about the brand’s ad’ song,
Jess Glynne’s ‘Hold My Hand’.

80%* of UK Google searches for Jet2holidays have been strongly influenced by this coverage over recent months

Jet2 google searches media coverage media impact

Metricomm’s recent analysis of 174 brands across nine sectors, combining our media audience data with YouGov BrandIndex data, revealed that ‘holidays’ has the highest direct relationship between media audience and brand tracking metrics, followed by ‘automotive’ and ‘supermarkets’. Put simply, consumers for holidays are most likely to be influenced by media coverage.

Whether or not you are an existing BrandIndex client, Metricomm can provide you with quantified evidence of how, when and why your media coverage delivers in respect of: