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Business without borders: A new era in international PR

Almost 10 years ago I founded a European tech PR agency named after the passionate belief I held for the power of partnership – With. This week, we launched the With Global Alliance: a network of 5 founding member agencies operating across 4 continents and 18 countries. All specialise in tech and all are owner-managed. We put our money where our mouth was and invested in taking the notion of effective PR partnerships global.

It has been no mean feat finding agencies who share the right skills and expertise, but equally who we can trust to care for our clients in the same way we do and who we can even have a laugh with as we work side by side. I met every short-listed agency face to face – the team we have brought together truly share the vision for international collaboration. We are incredibly proud to have exciting and award-winning agencies partnering with us: Affect in the US, Ideosphere in India, WEdge in China and Bold in Singapore.

Being a European agency, we have always had a multi-market offer at our heart. We have been running campaigns across multiple European countries since we began and before Brexit was even a twinkle in Boris’ eye. Almost a year ago I sat on a Brexit panel at Advertising Week Europe and when the room of agencies was asked for a show of hands on who had made Brexit plans, almost no-one moved. We were pretty much born Brexit-ready with a team of tech PR experts that speak 8 different European languages.

And it is just as well, as it is not just Brexit that is changing the face of UK PR. For over a year the IPA Bellweather has reported doom and gloom on the PR budget front. When UK budgets are set to be squeezed, it makes sense to look further afield for income opportunities. Tech companies in particular seem to see expanding internationally as less of a challenge and the buoyant international M&A activity in sectors like fintech and adtech mean companies’ global footprints change often and quickly.

We need to be where our clients are. As an Alliance, we are now uniquely well placed to support technology businesses as they scale. Our members are expert but agile; we work as unified client account teams. The combined team knows the media tech clients need to know, creates killer content that suits their markets and is already helping get clients in front of both customers and partners with campaigns that work both globally and locally.

We hope that the launch of the With Global Alliance represents a new era in international PR for tech companies and offers choice outside the bigger networks and goliath groups. Passionate subject matter experts, agile campaign delivery and streamlined client reporting, all conceived by some really rather lovely people.

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