about

ingenious communications without limits

The heart of any disruptive brand is a strong story: a true purpose that gets you out of bed in the morning. Our mission is to put pen to paper and innovate new ways to tell your story. Looking for a new perspective? Talk to us.

Cut through the noise with a strategic communications partner

There’s never been a better time to launch or promote a brand. Customers are ready to engage across multiple touchpoints, and you’re ready to pounce. With more digital channels than ever before, you’ve got free rein to be bold and make a difference.

But with this choice comes competition. Only the most innovative, strategic comms strategies will cut through the noise. Traditional public relations that focuses purely on media relations no longer fits the bill: you need a well-rounded, adaptable strategy that secures press coverage, raises your online profile and integrates across all your owned channels and into your paid activity. Highlight your expertise, position yourself on a topic or even make yourself a thought leader, with your brand front and centre.

So, where do we begin?

It’s all about getting to the heart of your story and drawing out a roadmap to connect you with your customers. Our award-winning team of ex-Fleet Street hacks and digital natives will identify the unmissable opportunities in your market – keeping you ahead of the trends and offering game-changing ideas.

Once your campaign is live, it doesn’t stop there. We’ll nurture your campaign with our ‘3 i’s’ approach: building a campaign journey with inspired insights upfront, ingenious ideas in the middle and wrapping it all up with intelligent measurement to prove our impact. It’s so much more than what you might traditionally think of when you say ‘PR’. It’s why we win peer-judged international effectiveness awards, and it helps us live our own proposition: #createingenious

Our Ethos

Our 3 i's

Inspired Insights

Need to look at things from a different angle? Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. Using a powerful combination of data analysis, desk research and qualitative/quantitative techniques, we’ll create a strategic communications strategy for you. Discover what your prospects want to hear and how you can approach it from a fresh point of view.

Ingenious Ideas

You’ve got the aspiration; we’ve got the ideas. We understand that great stories rely on strong narratives derived from data. But they also engage audiences emotionally and influence their behaviours. Our ideas workshops will put you under the spotlight and come up with creative new ways to tell your stories to win hearts and minds.

Intelligent Measurement

Let’s see just how well we’ve done. As one of the very first UK agencies proudly named a PRCA measurement champion, we’re not here to blind you with vanity metrics. We present clear, incisive reports that demonstrate our impact on your business and communications goals – with metrics and insights that stand up in the boardroom. Our measurement approach has been celebrated by the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications through multiple Global award wins.

strategy

Your brand is constantly evolving. So isn’t it time to check in with your customers and stakeholders?

Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper – so you need to keep your finger on the pulse. Call us to discuss your free communications audit. We’ll feed your results into our bespoke measurement systems and create a roadmap for your future comms.

Be unstoppable with your unique, accountable media plan: staying relevant in an ever-changing world.

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Every successful PR agency understands the benefits of working with the community.

That’s why we’re committed to championing social causes and re-investing our media successes into the people that need us most.

Each year, we donate 1% of our annual profits to a chosen charity to show our gratitude and support. We offer pro bono work to causes we believe in, as well as discounted rates for charities. Our local communities have done so much for us and we’re keen to give something back.

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Our Clients

Booze brands to theme parks, baby gear to travel – there’s no limit when it comes to our clients. But they do all have one thing in common: they’re courageous disruptors that want to challenge the norms and push boundaries. And they’ve all had incredible success with Smoking Gun.

Learn more

The Big Guns

PR pros: assemble. At Smoking Gun, we never underestimate the power of a superhero team.

With more decades’ experience than we’d care to admit, our ingenious team covers everything from creative to analytics. Discover more from the professionals in consumer and B2B PR and social media, as well as content, marketing, journalism and data analytics.

But it’s more than a job title. We’re curious minds, creative thinkers and media experts. The proof is in the pudding.

Rick Guttridge

Co-Owner and CEO

Hayley Peters

PR & Strategy Director

Sarah Twyman

Head of Consumer & Client Services Director

Caroline Aspinall

Commercial Director and Head of B2B

Carly Chell

Senior Digital Account Director

Carl Stroud

Head of media

Rose Allerston

Head of Sales & Marketing

Vanessa Guttridge

Co-Owner and Culture Director

Bugsy

Chief Barketing Officer

Your Career

Want to work for an organisation that isn’t afraid to challenge the norm? We care more about lateral thinking and creative genius than gaps on a CV. Astound us with your ideas and we’ll welcome you with open arms, whether you’re a PR pro or a social media novice.

It goes without saying that you have to match our values too – bring your aspiration and you’ll fit right in. Find out more about vacancies on our jobs page.

Join the team