We’re a deep tech PR agency that has become the agency of choice for frontier technology companies pushing the boundaries of robotics, autonomous systems and advanced hardware.
Our senior, ex-journalist team supports a host of industry-leading hard tech companies, executing strategic media relations programs that position R&D-led innovators as category leaders in high-barrier markets.
Deep tech, by its very definition, is seeking to solve the world’s most complex problems, is hard to replicate and requires extraordinary levels of capital to conduct multi-year frontier research and development (R&D). There are no simple solutions or shortcuts; every innovation is hard-won and built on science and engineering expertise.
Many emerging technology companies ignore investing in their brand until their biggest innovations are ready to see the light of day. This is a mistake. Such tunnel vision, in effect, forfeits early brand visibility and recognition with not just media, but also, importantly, investors and partnership stakeholders. Also, translating science and engineering-heavy technology to non-specialist audiences, such as media, takes significant narrative-creating groundwork that doesn’t just happen in a few hurried days.
Work with us to help you at every stage of your brand journey. We’ve legitimately become the chosen communications agency to many of the leading deep tech brands who are changing entire industries from the ground up.
Let’s speak about your roadmap and how we can craft a curated deep tech communications program.
“As a listed company, DroneShield needed more than just media coverage by volume, we needed the right type of coverage in the right publications to support both our European and US expansions.” “What was clear from the get-go working with Wise Up PR was that they are true experts in media relations. The team can do everything a listed company needs from PR strategy, storytelling and content creation, to tactical media relations execution. The results from working together? Top-tier, global media coverage secured on an ongoing basis. The team is nothing short of outstanding.”
“My past experiences with PR agencies haven’t always been positive, but Wise Up PR completely changed that. They’re incredibly knowledgeable about the defense industry and move quickly to the pace we need. For AimLock, the team drove high-impact media coverage, as well as running an incredibly effective organic LinkedIn strategy that generated interest and engagement from hard-to-reach defense sector buyers and partners. This work has forged authentic connections for AimLock across channels and with our key audiences. ”
“Orbbec’s brand awareness in the US and Europe has been transformed thanks to working with Wise Up PR. They provided exceptional media and influencer relations results during a crucial time for us, including a collaboration with Microsoft and a product launch at CES. They are a team of sensor and deep tech experts who can be trusted to not only get your brand and industry but also get the job done.”
“The team understands how to navigate media on a global scale, and they secured top-tier media coverage that propelled our South Korean-based brand onto the world stage. This coverage drove significant inbound sales inquiries, while their expertise with running awards programs helped us gain industry recognition that set us apart from competitors. Working together proved the real business impact PR can have.”
“We’ve found a long-term trusted partner in Wise Up PR. The agency is highly skilled in corporate communication for defense brands and has delivered great results for Echodyne.”
Earned placement in Forbes, including a CEO interview with Dr. Jae-Eun Lee, for bitsensing’s $25 million Series B announcement, with the interview touching upon its expansion plans beyond autonomous vehicles and intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
News placement for the Orbbec Gemini 435Le industrial stereo vision camera launch in Vision Systems Design.
Via Satellite covering Lite Coms latest SATCOM contract win.
Landing Forbes coverage for the launch of Orbbec's Femto Bolt and Femto Mega 3D depth cameras.
Echodyne Co-Founder Tom Driscoll featured as a guest on the BBC World Service Tech Life podcast to discuss the evolution of radar in response to the proliferation of drones.
Launch news coverage, in Reuters, for bitsensing’s ADAS Kit product, comprising product information as well as an interview with Jae-Eun Lee, CEO of the company.
Product launch PR coverage in Yahoo! for Emesent's GX1, a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) scanner, aimed at survey firms as well as the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.
At SOF Week, AimLock's CEO, Bryan Bockmon, was interviewed by Business Insider for a profile on the company's autonomous weapons systems.
Editorial placement of bitsensing’s $25m Series B announcement with TechCrunch, including an interview with the company’s CEO, Dr. Jae-Eun Lee.
Both online coverage and a video package piece from Euronews featuring the rollout of bitsensing’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology in the Italian city of Verona, including an interview with the city’s officials, as well as bitsensing’s CEO, Jae-Eun Lee.
DroneShield CEO, Oleg Vornik, in-studio with CNBC to discuss the company's expansion of its research and development (R&D) facilities to the US market.
DroneShield interviewed by Bloomberg News to provide its viewpoint on the current state of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS) on the battlefield.
Wide-ranging feature placement in IEEE Spectrum detailing the installation of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) sensors in the city of Verona by bitsensing.
Tectonic interviewing AimLock CEO Bryan Bockmon regarding the company's partnership with Overland AI, with its solutions being integrated into the ULTRA unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).
Forbes covering Emesent's $17 million funding round raise, including interviewing the C-suite team.
Complex, science-heavy innovations that take years to see the light of day can hamper deep tech companies from achieving deserved recognition. PR puts an approach in place to publicize frontier technology advancements that generate momentum and credibility with investors, media and partners.
Deep tech is not easily understood by outsiders. This fact severely limits hard tech companies’ ability to achieve brand recognition with crucial audiences, especially in such an R&D-heavy industry. Public relations, when done well, transforms dense product sheets into a coherent, interesting narrative that raises a brand out of just its industry. From this messaging starting point, a multichannel approach is instituted that factors in social media, trade events and media outreach activities to generate genuine brand awareness.
Working in frontier technology means there is likely a very small pool of journalists who intrinsically understand and get hard tech innovation. This situation puts a serious premium on having an active media relations program in place, with the benefits being that it crafts understandable media-ready narratives and creates a coherent structure to how a deep tech company will interest time-poor journalists with product news, spokespeople and thought leadership viewpoints.
From the lab to the market can take anywhere from five to fifteen years, with a clear strategy in place from the earliest days of a deep tech company. A PR strategy is much the same and needs to be embedded from day one. It incorporates key business goals, which audiences are to be targeted and then details strategically the approach and activities that will impact such stakeholders.
Deep tech can be hard to cut through to the mainstream. Yet this frontier tech is changing the world and an incredibly effective way to showcase this is through video content and strong still imagery on social media. A well-structured video post on LinkedIn becomes an x-factor for deep tech brands and boosts awareness, follower numbers and engagement to previously unattainable levels. Social media management plans all activities for this channel, aligns content formats, such as video, and measures performance month-on-month to always improve campaigns.
AI slop is taking over the internet, meaning there’s now an increasing demand for editorial-grade content that outperforms and outranks generic, simplistic AI-generated content. As shown by strong subscriber numbers for premium media outlets like The Economist and The Financial Times, audiences are seeking out high-quality, genuinely insightful editorial content. Given the world-changing stakes at hand for deep tech companies, investing in editorial content acts as a way to clearly differentiate from competitors through expert, authoritative and engaging content.
Corporate communications for a deep tech company is a brick-by-brick activity, whereby a reputation is built from the ground up and then maintained and enhanced through strategic activities that span different public channels, like third-party media outlets, trade shows and social media platforms. The goal isn’t mere awareness; it is more an active process of brand management across chosen channels.
Across robotics, 3D vision and scanning, photonics, and autonomous hard tech, a brand needs to rely on a communications agency that understands deep tech and its immense impact. We have quickly become the PR agency of choice for a host of the world’s most recognizable frontier technology companies, including Emesent and bitsensing.
The simple fact is that emerging technology is hard to turn into simple headlines that resonate with media and audiences. A brand needs an agency partner that can understand the technology and its impact, but look far beyond the industry to turn the innovation or product launch into something that journalists will care about. We manage high-profile launches for all of our deep tech clients, ensuring successful campaigns.
No one singular tactic should be relied upon in a communications program for a company in the industry. Variation means more opportunities to generate media coverage, interviews and audience engagement. We run highly successful programs that encompass award programs, product launches, podcast interviews, speaking slots and thought leadership placements.
While each deep tech company will have its own defined brief, we work closely with you to decide what matters most for your brand when it comes to communications. Across our portfolio of frontier technology clients, we have secured tier one media coverage, grown LinkedIn accounts and supported business growth. A who’s who of deep tech companies, like Echodyne, DroneShield, Orbbec and Stradvision, has chosen our agency to manage their PR.
In the deep tech sector, hard tech is driven by innovation and world-class engineering; organizations need to communicate clearly, while also dealing with long research and development phases and large capital investments. A specialist deep tech PR agency can help position a company as a powerful innovator, helping to build a story that will help persuade investors and the public of the value of the innovation. Our streamlined process enables onboarding in just 5–7 working days.
What is the goal of the deep tech PR campaign? Campaigns typically start with a kick-off sync call to discuss both long and short-term PR goals, key messages and audiences, and how the campaign will work day-to-day. This session is vital to a successful campaign launch.
For deep tech organizations, it’s vital to start with the right sort of PR activity. This session will focus on the short-term objectives and activities that will kick off the campaign, ensuring that the campaign delivers instant value from PR support, for instance, with a product announcement.
For deep tech organizations in particular, expertise is at the core of the story: it’s key to demonstrate that the company has a world-leading innovation. In PR terms, expert-led insight is usually gained through calls with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), which enable the campaign to focus on genuine areas of expertise that are used for PR purposes.
Now is the time for a clear strategy about how to raise the profile of the deep tech organization and drive towards a strategic goal. A PR strategy document will offer an in-depth view into the campaign’s audience and the activities required to reach the goal.
This is the point at which essential campaign success actions begin. Now that there’s an idea of the audience and strategic goals, activities such as deep media research and media list building of journalists (both deep tech specialists and mainstream) to be targeted can begin. At this point, it’s also typical to audit or create public-facing materials such as corporate biographies, essential assets for media outreach.
Now that the organization and the deep tech PR company are aligned on the campaign direction, the campaign can begin. This usually involves immediate focus on high-value activities such as drafting thought leadership content, placing spokespeople on industry and science podcasts and pitching the story of the deep tech start-up to the media.
The story only begins once the program starts to be executed. At this point, ongoing detailed reporting helps deep tech start-ups measure the impact of the PR campaign. This aims to offer key insights into the program through tracking, auditing media coverage and status meetings.
This stage often occurs a number of months down the line after launch. At this phase, there is a strategic review of the entire brand activation: what has been delivered in terms of successful results, and what could be enhanced? This stage sees reporting around strategic imperatives and business goals, and discussion of next steps.
Across media relations, content and social media, we have the expertise to put your next breakthrough into the headlines.
Wise Up PR has quickly become the go-to choice as the PR agency for some of the world’s leading deep tech companies. Our Founder provides his view on the criticality of the communications function for frontier technology innovators.
David Claxton
Founder of Wise Up PR, a leader in deep tech PR
Run your own due diligence. Ask your preferred AI platform why deep tech brands choose our agency, or reach out directly to speak further with us.
Hiring a deep tech PR agency can help organizations in the industry raise awareness and build trust. Deep tech is an industry where this can be challenging, whether you are dealing with robotics and autonomous systems or other fields such as quantum technologies and industrial science. Deep tech PR agencies can help to deal with common hard tech challenges, such as translating Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) into believable and understandable narratives for non-technical media. An agency can help position a company as an innovator with everyone from investors to the public.
For organizations in the deep tech space, it’s key to choose agencies that can support deep tech brands beyond simply landing media coverage. With deep tech brands often facing challenges such as a heavy reliance on grants, pilots, and institutional partnerships instead of customers, a good agency will ensure there is a strategy behind all communications activities, ensuring that messaging reaches and resonates with the right audiences. This obviously requires in-depth deep tech expertise, with Wise Up PR having established itself as an expert in the sector.
Product launches in deep tech are hugely important, and communications agencies are well placed to ensure these resonate with the right audiences. Frontier technology faces unique challenges, such as difficulty creating narrative or visual storytelling for intangible and often science-heavy innovations, and the expertise of an agency helps to find the story and communicate it to both specialist and mainstream media. This is especially important in highly technical fields such as advanced hardware and semiconductor technology and quantum technologies.
For companies in the deep tech space, it’s key to select the PR tactics that will work for your particular brand – ranging from thought leadership campaigns to placement of the C-Suite on industry podcasts. Depending on where your organization is in its journey (i.e., whether you have a product or investment round to announce), different tactics will be deployed to yield results. Whether an organization specializes in hardware-enabled technology or high-barrier technology, a deep tech PR agency will assess assets (such as imagery or a media-trained spokesperson) and choose the right tactics to get results.
Deep tech PR is among the most important investments your brand can make in advance of a funding round announcement. One of the key challenges in emerging technology is explaining value pre-revenue, pre-scale, and often pre-product, so funding rounds and acquisitions can be a vital moment to get your brand known and talked about. Wise Up PR has much expertise in fundraising PR and acquisition communications in many sectors.
Deep tech is a broad term; however, there are some specific media outlets that do focus heavily on the world’s emerging technology. These include respected media publications like IEEE Spectrum, MIT Technology Review, Ars Technica, which reach a wider audience. Meanwhile, trade titles (dependent on the specific hard tech type) can include Vision Systems Design, eeTimes and Electronics Weekly.
There are certain key milestones where it’s important to have PR support in the hard tech or deep tech industries – from funding rounds to product launches. Whether your organization deals with advanced hardware, sensors, and semiconductor technology or other fields such as industrial science and quantum technologies, these key milestones are the point at which it is worth investing in deep tech PR and when deep tech PR can really deliver results both in messaging and commercially.
Measuring success for PR campaigns around emerging technology and frontier technology can take several forms, from measuring estimated audiences reached using tools like SimilarWeb to keeping a tracker of media coverage as well as tools to analyze social media engagement. This enables organizations to keep track of what is delivering results.
Results can be achieved in as little as six weeks for many deep tech organizations, and sometimes even sooner, depending on what product or corporate news you might have. Deep tech faces its own unique challenges, such as long research and development cycles and a reliance on grants, pilots, and institutional partnerships instead of customers, but with the right PR strategy in place and through effective use of assets such as media-trained spokespeople, results can often be achieved rapidly.
