B2B marketing experts – success is all about business relationships
Prudential began to sell affordable insurance to the working classes in 1854. These so called ‘penny policies’ were sold by a ‘sizeable army of good men’, who stood out due to their precise understanding about doing business. By 1900, 10,000 Prudential agents had has sold insurance to one third of the population. The ‘Man from the Pru’ certainly knew how…
Our 2020 highlights
2020 has been an incredibly challenging year for businesses and individuals around the world, but there have been some highlights. From March onwards life as we knew it was turned on its head. We had to shut up the Skout office and working from home became the norm for the team. Little did we know at that point that things…
The top five issues in facilities management right now
As a B2B PR specialist agency, we work for clients in sectors as diverse as law, care, technology, data and food. It’s our understanding and knowledge across multiple B2B sectors that often attract clients to us in the first place. And once we’re part of their team, we continue to develop our knowledge and insights in their sectors. This means…
The ‘is’ vs ‘are’ debate
I was recently getting stuck into my new book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (some light lockdown reading, I know) when I noticed something interesting. The word ‘data’ was consistently written as a plural – the data are as opposed to the data is – something that I had never seen before. I spoke to Skout MD,…
What is B2B PR?
Mention PR to anyone outside of the industry and you’ll get lots of jokes about Ab Fab and long lunches fuelled by champagne. It really couldn’t be further from the truth. Once you mention B2B PR however, the eyes glaze over and you just get a confused nod in response. This even happens to me when talking to peers from…
Know your promise and keep it – the secret to an effective B2B brand strategy
We’ve enjoyed working with Yvonne Henderson, Head of Retail Brand and Communications at Gazprom Energy, for several years now. During that time Gazprom Energy has undergone its own transformation as far as brand is concerned, which makes Yvonne ideally placed to give us her views on what the real secrets are to an effective B2B strategy and how she believes…
PR and the pandemic: six ways we’ve had to adapt
I think it’s safe to say that every business in the UK, regardless of sector, has had to make changes to the way it operates as a result of the pandemic. It has certainly had an impact on the way that we work at Skout, and while it has undeniably created challenges, it has also brought about some welcome changes…
Why is integration so crucial to B2B marketing success?
Interview with Sue Westhead Among her many talents, Sue Westhead is a serial Skout client. We’ve been her B2B PR agency in three separate roles over the past 10 years. One of the reasons we love working with Sue is that, like us, she’s a great integrated thinker when it comes to B2B PR and marketing. That’s why we asked…
The rules of PR have been turned upside down: Pitching to journalists in the middle of a pandemic
While it’s business as usual for the Skout team, like every business we have been experiencing a number of changes due to the Coronavirus. The rules of PR have changed. Rather than conducting our meetings and talking to the media from our little office in Macclesfield, we are now working in the safety of our homes (undoubtedly great news for…
Resilience is key for marketers now more than ever
Last week we hosted an informal Zoom gathering to bring together the marketing folk in Skout’s diverse client base so we could connect, share experiences and learn from each other while we continue to run marketing and comms operations remotely. Over the past couple of weeks at Skout we’ve also been thinking about important brand behaviours in crisis situations. We…