Babel: a coming-of-age story
There’s always been a misconception that to work in technology, or B2B tech PR in this case, you must be technically minded and skilled. Setting the record straight on that front – I’m quite possibly the least technical person you’ll ever meet, but I love tech and here’s why…
Our industry is essentially the backbone of modern culture. It provides us with the fundamental services and infrastructure that societies are built on and yet it suffers the incredibly inaccurate stigma of being uncreative and even boring. Babel was born, in part, to dispel this myth. Every story we cover for clients is interesting, sometimes even ground-breaking; knowing how to best position it, how it appears on different channels and who to pitch to from a media perspective, is key to making every piece of client content shine with audiences.
The birth of Babel
When Ian (Hood) and I came together 18 years ago to found Babel, we felt (and still do feel, in many ways) that the tech industry, while clearly important, was the unsung hero of our lifetime. A hero whose influence had the power to extend far into the future – ultimately proving itself to be a rich, diverse and exciting industry, full of welcome and opportunity. Tech has proved us right and I feel privileged to have built a career and an agency that, for almost two decades, has had the advantage of sitting at the cutting-edge of progress.
Needless to say, 18 years ago, when Babel was born, the tech landscape looked very different. While we’re still working with some of our first clients today, the conversation has shifted away from the launch of Facebook and the internet in your palm, towards deepfakes, the proliferation of AI and many more advancements we could only have imagined back in 2006.
But, while the narrative has evolved, what we exist to provide at Babel is still very much the same, in terms of our core business purpose. Which is one of the reasons we enjoy the unique position of working with many of our clients for years, some even for decades. Built on a profound and lasting obsession with the evolution and future of technology, as well as consistently delivering the best in business results for our clients. We’re understandably proud of the loyalty we receive from our client and partner network. We exist to transform the reputations and business outcomes of our clients, and take great pride in our role communicating the significant and crucial contribution they bring to the industry and indeed, the world.
Our coming-of-age year
In many ways, this year has been a transformative one for Babel. Our move to becoming majority employee-owned, securing Babel’s future for our team, and our continued evolution in other key areas – which we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks, are all real-life examples of what we have embraced since Babel’s inception 18 years ago; that of placing purpose and people before profit.
Part of our purpose when starting the agency was to create an environment in which to foster positive progression in PR. By that we meant that we were founding an agency that would exist to champion the good in tech, as well as one that would always place its people front and centre of the business agenda. Our goal was, and is still, to be a place of business where independence and an entrepreneurial spirit meets progress, both human and technical. We’ve created a space where people and progress unite to do good for the world around us.
