If you need the services of a professional and result focused PR agency to promote your Fintech and Blockchain business, Montieth & Company is one of our best PR agencies and communication strategists. In this interview with the CEO Montieth Illingworth, you will find out why.
1) Please tell us your name, about yourself and your experience at Montieth & Company.
A: Montieth Illingworth. I founded the firm in 2007 after leadership roles at a variety of PR agencies and 15 years as a journalist and author. I’m a “practicing CEO” which means I both work with clients and manage the firm globally. I love doing the work and creating new ways to deliver value to our clients. I also learn from my colleagues, and our clients. I see my job as also about constantly recreating ourselves and our value proposition.
2) Could you give us a brief history of Montieth & Company and your success story so far?
A: We started just as the Great Financial Crisis shook the world which engaged us in a lot of high profile headline crisis and litigation matters. We’ve grown and diversified significantly since, across practice groups, sectors, and global media markets. We’ve been lucky to have had clients with successful organizations and strong leadership, big opportunities and enormous challenges, and made a real difference supporting them with our unique solution set and specialist services, especially for the new generation of blockchain companies. We’ve been able to measure the benefit of the positive outcomes we achieve, from our corporate positioning and brand building work via the media ecosystem to thought leadership and crisis management. Very few PR firms can claim to be best practitioners in both core communications and special situations but we’ve combined both. There’s never a dull moment for us!
3) What specific services do you offer at Montieth & Company?
A: Our core competencies are in Communications Strategy, Media, and Content which we provide through a comprehensive set of PR services which we can project into multiple global money and media markets in a seamless, flexible, cost-efficient way. The majority of our clients, and our work, is cross-border and we support our clients in as many as 12 media markets. We speak six languages, including Arabic, and highly value diversity and delivering value with a global perspective. That has brought us some of the largest, enterprise scale clients in the world in legacy sectors like financial services, but also new, emerging ones like blockchain. On the crisis side, we’ve handled matters in countries all over the world, from Iraq to Australia. We have more breadth and depth in crisis and litigation than any firm even close to us in size.
4) Who are your services for and how big is your audience network, would you like to share with us, some notable companies that have used your services?
A: We work across industry sectors and audiences, b-to-b, b-to-c, government and non-profit. We know that our work reaches millions of people around the world. Our integrated global model appeals to a wide set of organizations. The common thread is the need for our deep domain knowledge of those sectors, about the media and how radically it’s changing, and our specialist solutions and services. That and our cost-effective model which enables us to have a big impact for every dollar spent. Our clients include one of the Nordic region’s largest financial institutions, a top-ten Japanese corporation, Latin America’s leading bank, and a mix of emerging, venture funded companies who use technology to create exciting new products and services for targeted audiences around the world. That’s been fascinating to see: how a start-up with a dozen employees can micro-target a need by an audience in 20 countries. On the crisis side, it’s everything from large companies to ultra high net worth individuals and family offices, and some of the world’s leading law firms and professional service providers.
5) Montieth & Company also offers communication services to the fintech and blockchain technology companies, could you tell us more about the services you provide for these markets?
A: Our specialist solutions and services and global reach attracted fintech and blockchain companies focused on everything from innovative new digital currencies and tokens to “big data” solutions that empower organizations to offer new products and services for consumers and businesses. This work ranges from cloud services for SMEs in emerging markets, to compliance solutions, digital identify fraud protection, democratizing the art market, and personal investing. We provide complete communications strategy architectures and tactical tool kits for achieving influence across stakeholders and constituencies. We help build brands, penetrate highly competitive market segments, achieve influence, and protect organizational and individual reputations.
6) Montieth & Company was ranked as a “Power 50” public relations agency by the New York Observer, what does this mean for the company, any other awards you will like to share with us?
A: It’s a real honor to be ranked a Power 50 PR agency by the New York Observer. They recognized how much impact we have, globally, on complex subjects. They once said we were like “Jason Bourne but more effective.” We’ve been fortunate to have great clients but also highly motivated teams committed to excellence. Our diversity and global perspective, our flexibility and nimbleness to find solutions that span languages and cultures is a big part of this success. I also am fortunate to get invitations to speak about our specialist expertise and will speak next at the Deloitte Art & Finance Conference in Luxembourg on October 26.
7) Do you have any current opportunities you will like to share with us from Montieth & Company?
A: Every day seems to bring some new, interesting opportunity, someplace different in the world! I’d group them in three areas: first, new, emerging technologies in everything from blockchain to renewable energy and cybersecurity; second, global clients who see the value of our flexible, integrated, cost-efficient model which enables them to penetrate and have influence with and in new market segments across the world; third, complex issues and crisis management challenges where our expertise really stands out and involving everything from online consumer privacy, to political, law enforcement, and regulatory matters in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. And there’s a fourth: we’re creating a new company that will combine our unique marketing communications model with helping provide venture funding for start-ups. We see the power of continuing to evolve our solutions and services which means creating a global platform for helping build and catapult a company into new levels of success and influence.
8) Please tell us about your amazing team of experts and customer support?
A: I’m really proud of the work they do and just who they are as people. We hire non-traditionally for a PR firm. Less than a third of our professionals come from other PR agencies. We hire on “brain power”, the best and brightest. Our experts also come from law, management consulting, financial services, and politics. We have our own standards of excellence, and culture that values diverse backgrounds and views then we work hard to collaborate and integrate that diversity into value for our clients. It produces better results for our clients. I also have to mention our Senior Advisors across Europe and the U.S. They’re an outstanding group of experts across PR, law, public affairs, financial services, crisis management, and professional services.
9) Where can we find you and what will be the best way to contact Montieth & Company?
A: Wherever I am in the world I’m always reachable at montieth@montiethco.com. Our website, www.montiethco.com has other ways to reach us as well.
10) Do you have more information for our readers today?
A: When someone is evaluating a PR partner look to see what they’re doing to constantly improve who they are and what they do to fit the client’s needs. Most PR firms do the reverse: they fit the client into what they are and it’s all financially driven. Our industry has fallen into the mindset of “harvesting” clients and thus building market share solely to drive profitability. We think of it differently. We start with providing value and creating results and achieving excellence for our clients and we strongly believe that when we do that the money will come. Our revenue growth and profitability has proven that right.
For more information, visit http://www.montiethco.com/
