Pippa Russell, founder of financial services PR and marketing business Russell Communications, explains what makes her award-winning business tick.

How would you describe your business and what it does?

Russell Communications is a specialist financial services PR and marketing business based in Bath. We offer targeted and proactive communication solutions in this space, driven by our experience and vision. We help our clients tell their stories with full-service marketing and PR, delivered with passion and energy. Russell Communications launched in 2021 against the challenging backdrop of the pandemic, but the business managed to triple its client base and double its workforce and its profits in its first full year. I’m incredibly proud of our progress so far.

What plans do you have for growing your business over the coming year?

We are great at traditional journalist outreach and relationship-building, with particularly strong relationships on trade publications. But media and publishing are evolving rapidly. As the communication landscape shifts, Russell Communications has been adapting, branching out into native content creation, multi-media, and podcast production. We are getting lots of new requests for business proposals so we think this will be a growth area for us as we meet our clients’ changing needs. As Russell Communications grows, we’re also hoping to expand our headcount, hiring home-grown talent from the area near our offices in Bath. Our vision is to become the number one PR and marketing agency within the financial services sector.

What trends have you seen over the past year?

As the ‘Magnificent Seven’ technology stocks in the US have powered the performance of many internationally diversified portfolios, there is continued interest and growth in US markets. We have also noticed increasing interest in esoteric and alternative investments, and we expect this to continue into 2025 and beyond.

Where do you see the institutional investment industry going over the coming year?

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has been a game-changer for many industries, and financial services has been grappling with how best to realise its huge potential while maintaining regulatory compliance. The themes of digitalisation, data and particularly data quality also remain important in the institutional investment industry.

How will your firm be able to support them?

We can help firms position themselves as authorities in their field, producing thought leadership content which explores some of these big issues we know investors are thinking about. My 25 years’ experience and strong contacts in this space give us unique insight into what our clients are looking for and Russell Communications aims to anticipate and meet their needs.

Why do you think you won this award?

In the highly regulated world of financial services, it can be difficult for businesses to get their message across. This is where Russell Communications excels. What sets us apart is our deep understanding of our market, great relationships with journalists and our targeted and proactive communications. Our client work has been very well received this year and we have had a lot of interest from new clients in our space, largely based on referrals and recommendations. Financial services is a surprisingly small world! 

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