Darren Burn, co-founder and managing director of OutOfOffice.com, had taken staff to watch a recording of the popular BBC One talk show last month to celebrate record sales, when he was chosen by producers to tell an embarrassing story during the programme’s Big Red Chair segment.

If the participant’s story is not deemed exciting enough by Norton and the assembled celebrity guests, they get flipped backwards on the chair.

During his big moment, former ITV journalist Burn described how an ex-colleague had accidentally taken a sex toy into Buckingham Palace. He also took the opportunity to tell Norton and his guests, including Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, about his travel business.

“You should be booking… I’ll give you a special service,” he joked with Norton.

Burn told TTG that after the show aired, OutOfOffice wrote a blog about the appearance containing more information about its products and services. The OTA, which launched in 2015, also created a targeted marketing campaign on Facebook aimed at fans of the TV show.

As a result, Burn said OutOfOffice had so far received “a couple of thousand click-throughs” to its website, culminating in 14 enquiries and two bookings secured.

“We’re hopeful that the other enquiries will be converted in January,” he said. “It’s great how publicity that didn’t cost us anything has turned into a lucrative business stream.

“I’m a real believer that in the vast majority of cases there’s no such thing as bad PR, and this is definitely the case.”