Midlands’ top PR agency grows again

Social value and sustainability with substance drive business at Solihull’s The Marketing Pod

The Marketing Pod, the leading B2B marketing and PR agency based in Solihull, is ending 2022 on a high thanks to being awarded prestigious awards, expanding its team, doubling its revenue, and winning new clients.

According to its founders Jenny Hughes and Jodie Williams, the secret to the agency’s success is two-fold - stemming from its commitment to helping clients create responsible marketing campaigns, and its diverse, carefully curated team of experts.

Jenny Hughes comments:

“The company is structured in five centres of excellence – strategy, creative, digital, content and PR – but we work as one close and collaborative team to deliver a seamless client experience. The high degree of expertise of each team member fosters a culture of trust in each others’ work, meaning we ‘Podsters’ are genuinely proud of what we can achieve as a team. Teamwork truly is at the heart of our success.”

Recently awarded Midlands’ PR Consultancy of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), The Marketing Pod has made ‘thoughtful marketing’, with a sustainability and social value focus, the foundation of its business. Working with organisations across the energy, cleantech and decarb sectors, as well as a variety of industries ranging from construction to rail, it specialises in campaigns that champion sustainability– from contributing to the decarbonisation of the energy market, to implementing the principles of the circular economy.

By helping its clients create accurate and honest green messaging, The Marketing Pod has recently experienced a period of fast growth, doubling in revenue and size in the last twelve months and adding new capabilities, such as data, CRM and content roles. It has also become an approved HubSpot agency with Platinum status, which ensures its clients benefit from one of the world’s most powerful platforms. 

Thanks to virtual ways of working, The Marketing Pod has also expanded its clientbase internationally, with new customers in the US, France, Poland and Australia, and has been able to recruit talent from across the country.

In addition, the agency formed a Green Team, joined the SME Climate Change Hub, and adopted Stripe, meaning that any payments it receives provide a 0.5% donation to climate projects. It also takes part in the Cycle to Work scheme, offers a green pension option and has documented CSR and sustainable transport policies.

Thanks to its focus on team development, the company has recently been acknowledged as a Great Place to Work®, a global certification based on anonymous employees’ surveys that recognises the value of a great work environment.

“Our unique team culture has allowed us to thrive in extremely challenging times,” explains, co-founder Jodie Williams. “We have a permanent hybrid model, with many ‘Podsters’ working part-time, flexible hours. Our team is based across the whole country, from Birmingham to Bournemouth, while our Solihull HQ is a base for the team to meet clients and collaborate. This means that geography is no longer a boundary to recruiting, which is how we manage to attract and retain top talent in the sector.”