How Spectrum Search secured 86 published media opportunities through B2B expert PR
Spectrum Search
Specialist executive search business
Spectrum Search worked with Fair Public Relations on an 18-month expert PR campaign focused on turning Chief Strategy Officer Peter Wood's experience across artificial intelligence, technology, recruitment, entrepreneurship and business strategy into useful commentary for journalists.
The campaign records show 86 published media opportunities, with coverage across national, business, technology, finance, HR and recruitment media including The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Computer Weekly, Raconteur, ICAEW Insights, FTAdviser, IT Pro, TechRound, The Fintech Times and AI Magazine.
The client
Spectrum Search is a specialist executive search business working across artificial intelligence, digital assets and other fast-moving areas of technology.
The main expert throughout the campaign was Peter Wood, Chief Strategy Officer.
Peter is a three-time technology founder and advisor at Outlier Ventures. He has experience scaling venture-backed businesses, raising institutional capital, working with founding teams and advising businesses operating across applied AI, infrastructure and frontier compute.
At Spectrum Search, Peter helps shape the firm's commercial strategy and works directly on senior recruitment briefs.
Peter was originally referred to us by his brother, Paul, another long-standing client of ours.
That personal recommendation developed into an 18-month PR relationship.
The opportunity
Spectrum Search operates in a specialist B2B market.
Directly promoting an executive search service is not always particularly interesting to journalists.
The much stronger opportunity was the expertise within the business.
Peter could speak credibly about artificial intelligence, technology, recruitment, leadership, skills shortages, business growth, fintech and the changing requirements companies have for senior talent.
These subjects regularly intersect with wider business and technology news.
The opportunity was therefore to position Peter as a useful expert source for journalists rather than relying on stories directly promoting Spectrum Search's services.
The PR strategy
The campaign focused primarily on expert commentary and reactive journalist opportunities.
Subjects appearing across the campaign included:
artificial intelligence and generative AI
technology adoption
recruitment and hiring
AI skills shortages
leadership
workplace technology
CVs and recruitment screening
fintech and cryptocurrency
automation
business transformation
entrepreneurship
the future of work
This gave the campaign enough breadth to respond to different journalist requests while maintaining a recognisable connection between Peter's expertise and Spectrum Search.
Reactive PR became particularly important.
Of the 86 published opportunities recorded during the campaign, 81 came from journalist-request activity.
Turning complex technology expertise into media commentary
A major strength of the campaign was Peter's ability to understand complex subjects from several different perspectives.
He had experience as a founder, strategist, advisor and recruitment specialist.
That meant he could discuss technology not simply as an abstract trend, but in terms of how businesses actually adopt it, how companies recruit around it and what leadership teams need as new technologies develop.
Our role was to identify the part of that knowledge most relevant to each journalist and help translate it into concise, accessible commentary.
The resulting coverage included subjects such as generative AI, enterprise applications, AI skills shortages, predictive analytics, automation, recruitment technology and the changing demands placed on senior hires.
Responding to AI, hiring and fast-moving business stories
Technology journalism moves quickly.
Artificial intelligence in particular created a constant stream of new stories throughout the campaign.
Rather than attempting to comment on every AI development, we identified stories where Peter had a genuine perspective to contribute.
That resulted in coverage across specialist publications including Computer Weekly, AI Magazine, IT Pro, TechRound and Reworked.
Peter's recruitment experience also allowed us to connect his expertise with broader consumer and workplace stories.
This included commentary around CVs, hiring practices, AI screening and how recruiters assess candidates.
That broader positioning eventually helped generate coverage in major national publications including The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph.
Media coverage
The campaign board records 86 published media opportunities connected to Spectrum Search.
Selected publications included:
The Sunday Times
The Daily Telegraph
Computer Weekly
Raconteur
ICAEW Insights
FTAdviser
IT Pro
TechRound
The Fintech Times
AI Magazine
Fintech Magazine
Compliance Week
HR Grapevine
Croner-i
Reworked
Verdict
SmallBusiness.co.uk
Proactive
NationalWorld
The coverage demonstrates the range available to a well-positioned B2B expert, spanning national media alongside highly relevant specialist technology, finance, business and recruitment publications.
Building authority around genuine professional experience
Technology and AI commentary have become increasingly crowded.
The campaign therefore needed to establish why Peter had the credibility to contribute.
His experience as a technology founder, strategist and advisor provided that foundation.
The recruitment element added another useful layer.
Peter was not simply commenting on where technology might go. He could discuss the people, skills and leadership businesses require to implement that technology successfully.
This allowed us to approach both highly technical subjects and broader business stories while maintaining credible expert positioning.
Creating multiple media angles from one area of expertise
The Spectrum Search campaign also demonstrates why B2B PR does not necessarily require a constant stream of company announcements.
One knowledgeable person within a business can potentially contribute to dozens of different editorial conversations.
For Peter, those opportunities included artificial intelligence, recruitment, leadership, workplace trends, fintech, skills shortages, entrepreneurship and emerging technology.
Each story could address a different subject while still reinforcing the same broader positioning.
This meant the campaign could generate repeated media opportunities without continually recycling promotional messages about Spectrum Search itself.
The outcome
Across the 18-month campaign, Fair PR helped position Peter Wood and Spectrum Search as credible sources for journalists covering technology, AI, recruitment, business and the future of work.
The campaign records contain 86 published media opportunities, including coverage across major national publications and respected specialist titles such as The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Computer Weekly, Raconteur, ICAEW Insights, FTAdviser and AI Magazine.
81 of those published opportunities originated from reactive journalist requests, demonstrating how powerful expert-led PR can be for a specialist B2B business.
The campaign shows that businesses do not always need frequent launches or corporate announcements to maintain a strong media presence.
Often, the expertise already inside the organisation can become the story.
The results
Could your B2B expertise become a media opportunity?
Strong B2B PR does not always begin with promoting the company's products or services.
Fair Public Relations helps businesses identify the expertise within their leadership teams, develop clear media positioning and turn that knowledge into relevant earned media opportunities.
