Media relations

With more than three decades of experience and dozens of awards under our belts–including PRovoke EMEA Technology Consultancy of the Year 2023-2024–we help some of the world’s most ambitious B2B tech organisations improve their industry reputation, drive customer acquisition, and increase their market share through PR-led marketing across every channel. Media relations is a critical component of most of our programmes.

Media relations knowledge & expertise

Whether it’s a high-level strategic campaign, or you’re simply trying to increase your share of voice on the crowded industry airways, media relations is a crucial part of both PR and marketing. But you don’t need to take our word for that. We’ve done our research, and are consistently told by executives in all the sectors we operate in that media coverage is one of the most influential channels impacting B2B purchasing decisions.

Our PR-led marketing approach helps you stand out in ultra-competitive B2B technology marketplaces. Over the last 30+ years, we’ve worked hard to build trust among a network of some of the most influential sector journalists around the globe, to help get your stories and messaging in front of the audiences that matter to your business.

Our media relations approach

Most editors and reporters receive over 400 press releases and news announcements a day. In such a crowded marketplace, building solid relationships with members of the media is essential. Quite simply, if you’re not an industry ‘name’, those relationships are essential if you want journalists to pay attention to your brand. Our network of business, national and trade journalists has been carefully cultivated over decades, we’ve built relationships based on trust and understanding, to make sure our clients see maximum value from their investments in media relations and content production.

It’s not that we wield undue influence–you can’t ‘buy’ a journalist with a free lunch. After all, these are professionals doing a critical, respected and rigorously regulated job. But by building mutually-beneficial relationships, journalists are more likely to return our calls or respond to our emails, WhatsApp messages and DMs when it matters most. Ultimately we try to reach a point of trust: where they know that what we’re offering is of genuine value, not just inbox filler. Of course, this has to be true, so we’ll often ‘push back’ on clients that want to issue stories that don’t meet the needs of our friends in the media.

Our media relations services

Our media relations services help you to raise awareness of your brand and products, build credibility within your industry through inspiring thought leadership and influence the narrative around news and announcements via placed bylines and secured press coverage. We want your spokespeople to be the ‘go-to’ for journalists looking for expert commentary. Our services include:

– Building an overarching media relations strategy: Building a media relations strategy can make all the difference when it comes to trust among journalists. All of our colleagues have tight networks of trade and national media contacts that we can leverage when helping you build out an effective media relations strategy. In particular, our sector leads have an unrivalled web of crucial contacts in their specialist areas.

– Boosting credibility through thought leadership: Having a voice on key industry topics helps build the credibility of your experts and leaders. Our PR, AR and marketing services teams are supported by our in-house content specialists. They’re dedicated to helping your subject matter experts deliver inspiring thought leadership stances and articles that will empower them in your industry, boosting their–and your business’s–authority.

– Raising awareness through press coverage: Media coverage is one the most influential channels when boosting top of funnel awareness of companies and products. Our expertise in media relations grants us solid, trusted relationships that boost the open rate of media pitches and press releases, enabling you to better control the narrative around your announcements, and help people to get to know your business.

– Using storytelling to craft creative content: Ultimately, all journalists are looking for is a good story. Drawing on our in-depth knowledge of the B2B tech space, our media relations and content experts are able to work with you to craft the kinds of pitches, press releases and bylines that journalists want to read. And if a journalist wants to read it, you can be sure they’ll want their audience to as well.

– Consistent media coverage in trade and national press: It’s exciting to see coverage of your company and announcements in the largest international publications like the Washington Post or the Financial Times. But trade press is an essential component too–its what influential members of your industry read, after all. A great media relations strategy takes both into account, adapting to the needs of the story.

“We’ve spent years building relationships with the biggest names in the B2B tech press, to help you define and refine your media relations strategy.”

Richard Fogg, CEO, CCGroup

"I consider the team an extension of our internal marketing team. They are always on hand, proactive and knowledgeable. Whether it’s senior counsel, media relations, internal communications or campaign strategy – I can always rely on CCGroup to deliver for our brand."

– Netacea (see case study)

“CCGroup has a knack for bringing interesting stories to journalists, and importantly, understands what we want from a story–deep and quality data, thoughtful commentary, and of course access to senior executives from top businesses. The breadth and depth of experts they’ve been able to connect me with has been nothing shy of incredible.”

– Ryan Browne, CNBC Tech Correspondent

“This was a significant and important announcement that took months of hard work to put together, but it delivered almost more than we could have hoped in terms of engagement and coverage, it’s the first major milestone in a programme of activity that we’ve planned with CCGroup that will demonstrate to our industry and customers the leadership position BT has in UK telecoms.”

– Alex Jackman, Network Communications, BT Consumer (see case study)

“I have worked with many PR agencies since becoming a telecoms journalist but none have made such an effort to get to know me as an individual as CCGroup. We work, socialise, and laugh together and it’s a relationship I have come to value a great deal. I also deeply respect their professional competence and expertise and would have no hesitation in recommending them to any telecoms company looking to enhance their industry standing.”

– Scott Bicheno, Editorial Director, Telecoms.com

“In my 18 years of writing about the telecom sector as a journalist, CCGroup has stood out as one of the best public-relations agencies in the business. Staff have a clear understanding of the technologies and trends shaping the market and actively engage with reporters on a regular basis. Unlike some others, CCGroup makes the effort to brief journalists properly on the companies it represents and show why they matter.”

– Iain Morris, International Editor, Light Reading

Why choose CCGroup?

At CCGroup we’re all about Connection, Communication and Growth. Through people-centric best-in-class PR-led marketing, we drive the future success of B2B technology brands. We have unparalleled industry expertise across mobile & telecoms, fintech, cybersecurity and enterprise technology. Our 30+ year PR heritage means we’ve been there for some of these sectors’ biggest developments, telling their stories as they’ve grown and evolved among the ever-changing business landscape.

Our journey so far has equipped us with the foresight to predict future technology trends, ready for whatever the fast-paced world of technology throws at us. And our integrated, channel-agnostic, audience-centric approach allows us to tailor our services to the needs of our clients, no matter their size or scale of their project. All of our ideas are creative, structured and effective, from traditional PR, to media relations, to content creation and marketing services.

Media Relations Case studies

Putting Netacea on the map

Netacea wanted to increase its brand awareness while educating the cybersecurity market on the detrimental impact of malicious bots. Via a robust media relations strategy we developed a series of thought leadership synopses, comments, opinions and news stories, ultimately resulting in Netacea being noticed as an authority in the bot space.

Find out more here

Re-establishing BT’s UK leadership position

As part of a multi-pronged strategy to demonstrate BT’s leadership credentials across a wide range of sectors, we built out media relations services that included testing what could have potentially been off putting and dense information among a handful of curated influencers, meaning we were able to refine their messaging and boost take-up.

Find out more here

Awards

– PRovoke Agencies of the Year 2023-24 – EMEA Technology Consultancy of the Year

– PRmoment Awards 2023, 2022, 2021 & 2020 – Technology Agency of the Year

– PRmoment Awards 2023, 2022 & 2020 – B2B Agency of the Year