Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Our Expertise

We understand and keep up with the perpetual motion of today’s global public. We reflect the voice of the public, at every important decision a company makes. Board level. Brand level. Reputation level. We help our clients communicate not just what they do, but what they stand for. At H+K, we have global reach with local knowledge. Our approach is rooted in purpose and behavioral science and focuses on creating engaging content that will connect with the audience across owned, earned, shared and paid channels. Everything we do is underpinned by data and insights and brought to life by our exceptional talent.

At Hill+Knowlton Strategies, we look at sectors on a global level.

Whether creating teams from around the globe, gathering insight from colleagues in a wide range of countries, or working between multiple offices, our client teams have experience with all facets of the sectors in which we specialize.

Behind all of our insight-led ideas and communication strategies are a deep understanding of data and analytics, creativity and master storytelling, as well as a dedication to looking at client work on a deeper level.

Sector Expertise

Consumer Packaged Goods Consumer Packaged Goods
Our job is to create conversations, content and campaigns that pique curiosity and inspire desire - that turn mundane products into world-famous brands. It's not an easy task, but for us it's a labor of love. We do it by understanding our audiences and their motivations -- what influences them whether online, in the line, shopping or swiping — and by putting purpose at the heart of everything we do. So whether it's shave care, home care, or fabric care, we care. Deeply. About telling your brand’s story, creating connections that convert to sales, and building your brand and your business. If you are in the consumer packaged goods sector and are tired of hearing that your brands are ‘low interest’, please know that we’re interested and would love to hear from you.
Education Education
The education sector provides unique challenges at each level. From innovations in education to public-private partnerships and philanthropic initiatives, many voices contribute to the conversation surrounding education. We have the resources to meet the needs of colleges, universities, and business schools, whether your need is influencing stakeholders, managing public affairs and issues, engaging the community, building a media profile, or branding and marketing.
Energy + Industrials Energy + Industrials
The energy and industrial sectors are confronting many challenges to their “licenses to operate” in the economic, social and political arenas. Managing these challenges requires a strategic partner and counselor that understands your industry and the volatile public landscape. With senior counselors around the world, our global energy and industrial teams have experience across the industries. We've worked in mature markets and developing countries and have experience with Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, government agencies, start-ups and investors across all sectors (including oil and gas, nuclear, utilities, pipelines, transmission, transportation, mining, manufacturing, chemicals, plastics, renewables, clean technology, and energy services).
Entertainment Entertainment
As the entertainment industry evolves and becomes more crowded, companies need clear messages that cut through the clutter and set them apart from the rest of the competition. We specialize in message development, special events, celebrity endorsements and web-based marketing to engage audiences and instill brand recognition. From motion picture to new media to home entertainment and music, our experts are in tune with the latest developments in the entertainment industry. We specialize in audience engagement to help our clients develop deep and lasting connections with the public, using storytelling, brand messaging, and much more.
Finance + Professional Services Finance + Professional Services
We have helped financial and professional services firms around the world endure various economic cycles and rebuild public trust. Our Finance and Professional Services teams — comprising specialists with corporate, B2B, public affairs, consumer experience, and more — make up the most experienced professionals in these industries and understand the various situations and stakeholders in which the client must engage. We help our clients build their profiles as experts in their fields by developing programs that balance business commitments with business development activities. Let us leverage our communication, management, and professional consulting expertise to help you build trust and establish sector credibility to raise your profile and enhance your brand in this complex business environment.
Food + Beverage Food + Beverage
The food we eat, how we get it, and what it means to us are changing almost as fast as the media landscape. Our food and beverage teams have the experience, passion, and specialist knowledge to navigate the vast food and beverage, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and quick service restaurant (QSR) landscapes to help our clients build relationships with the consumer, cultivate brand loyalty among "allies" and tell their stories effectively — both online and offline.
Government + Public Sector Government + Public Sector
It is critical for governments, both big and small, to have the ability to clearly communicate with the public and with key stakeholders, at a moment's notice, in any situation. Our issue and political specialists are connected to trends, key influencers, and supporting communications services, providing us with the necessary resources to help you deal with a crisis, manage your reputation, gain support for an issue, or simply inform the public. We understand how data-driven the political world has become, and have the tools to provide any organization with analytics.
Healthcare Healthcare
Health connects us all. Whether we are well or sick, our health — and that of our loved ones, our community, and the world — is the backdrop of our lives. To us, patients are people first. Our aim is simple: to work collaboratively as well as create programs and content that improve people’s lives. Working closely with our behavioral insights team, we take what we learn from patients, families, loved ones, and healthcare professionals to make content and programs tailored to the needs of the people they are designed to help.
Retail + Leisure Retail + Leisure
From fashion and travel to entertainment and electronics, our retail and leisure specialists display proven success in creating emotive campaigns that deliver business results, whether that’s the successful launch of a new product, driving online traffic, stealing market share, or increasing footfall. Enabling online conversations, engaging audiences, and endeavoring to better understand consumers are all fundamental to what we do. We don’t stop there; we also support our clients in building a dialogue with broader stakeholders.
Sports Marketing Sports Marketing
Sports are a universal passion. From the biggest events (the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, Rugby World Cups, Wimbledon, the Open Championship) to the biggest names (Lionel Messi, Novak Djokovic, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Rory McIlroy), we are always at the heart of the action. We have teams in major markets around the globe, allowing us to tailor and focus your brand's message to resonate with niche audiences anywhere and drive wider results. We offer sponsorship consultancy, sponsorship activation, international bid support, and sports federation council.
Transport + Shipping Transport + Shipping
The transport and shipping industry is inherently connected to a variety of sectors and policy areas. There is a delicate balance between the need for people and goods to be able to move quickly, freely, and affordably, and the need for sustainability, safety, and competitiveness. We have experience helping clients navigate the network of policies, people, and regulations to reach the most critical audiences. By representing companies involved in transporting goods by air, rail, or sea, we help clients position themselves to handle the challenges and opportunities of the transport and shipping sector.
Travel + Tourism Travel + Tourism
It is critical that a travel and tourism company or destination effectively leverages local attractions and points of interest in creative ways to inspire curiosity and, ultimately, create travel demand. Our relationships with influential travel media, freelance writers and trade/consumer press keep our clients ahead of the competition, driving visibility and securing placements in sought-after travel sections, blogs, and lifestyle commentaries. We have the travel and tourism expertise to drive visibility and preference for your offering among key audiences.
Technology Technology
At H+K, we create integrated campaigns that aim to disrupt the status quo, to highlight how technology is changing the world and our lives. Our communications heritage means that we pay particular attention to target audiences and how and where they consume content. We start with the story, and devise a program that will achieve maximum engagement through paid, earned, owned, and shared media. These stories impact our clients’ bottom lines, and educate businesses and consumers on the benefits of technology.

Thanks to our integrated approach, we are able to ensure that each and every sector team includes the right mix of specific expertise.

This allows us to deliver the right messages to the right people, and at the right time and place. We understand that our clients today have more ways to communicate, influence, and engage with their audiences than ever before.

H+K brings fresh thinking to every situation, while keeping in mind the importance of fundamentals. We have the fullest and deepest range of services possible, which we are able to draw on in realizing our clients’ objectives.

Services Expertise

Consulting: Insights + Ideas, Publishing + Measurement Consulting: Insights + Ideas, Publishing + Measurement
At H+K all of our ideas are built out of insights and truths, rather than relying solely on instinct and experience. We develop insights from our deep sector knowledge and understanding of our clients’ brands and truths as well as cultural knowledge. We go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that data drives our work. To deliver a true 24/7, always-on approach for our clients — acting as a publisher to create and measure content — we structure ourselves like a newsroom, bridging all channels at H+K. We build a team for each client’s needs, based on outputs and specialties rather than agency titles, allowing us to be agile but focused.
Creating: Content Creation Creating: Content Creation
At H+K, we believe in the power of content and creativity. We have insight into the media landscape, which, combined with data collection for actionable insights and world-class creativity, allows us to deliver the right package of services that suits each client’s strategic needs. With many offices globally and our breadth of expertise, we have teams wherever the key audience lives, specializing in whatever readers care about. We focus on middleweight content that is digestible, short, and unique, and often includes multimedia. Our agile, custom content gets companies recognized. We combine products and wisdom, helping our brands take their audiences on a purpose-led journey, and we back all of this with creativity.
Connecting: Content + Publishing Strategy Connecting: Content + Publishing Strategy
Both the creation and distribution of content must be informed by consumer behavior. At H+K we first assess the right format and author to optimize your publishing strategy. Then we consider channel, working with best-in-class tools to assess behaviors, influences, and passions. Finally, we map look and feel to ensure that creative direction is consistent across all channels. When it comes to publishing, by again using a data-led approach, we’re able to use our relationships with artists, influencers, media, and more to produce world-leading content, which is then published in the right places to ensure that the intended audiences get to see it.

Alongside the breadth and depth of our core services, we add a carefully selected range of valuable specialties.

This strategy gives clients a total solution, delivered seamlessly under one roof.

Specialist Expertise

Cybersecurity / Data Breach Cybersecurity / Data Breach
In our world of connectivity, reputation has never been more vulnerable. This is especially true in the cyber arena, where the implications of a crisis are costly — in terms of dollars, and also the potential reputational impact on an organization. H+K draws on our expertise, deep experience, and best practices gleaned from direct experience with high-stakes cyber incidents to help organizations effectively navigate the challenges of an incident and prepare diligently for the situations they could face. While the details of every data breach are different, we have seen that the life cycles are remarkably similar: Cyber Incident Services + Cyber Preparedness Audit + Training & Simulation + Cyber Incident Planning + Proprietary Tools + Global Coverage + Emergency Response + Reputation Recovery. The circumstances are undeniably daunting, but there are concrete steps an organization can and should take in anticipation of an incident.
Partnership Marketing Partnership Marketing
We create effective partnerships between brands and the things people enjoy, care about and spend time with — from music to sports, film to community, gaming to entertainment.
Employee Comms Employee Comms
We believe that brands with a purpose that customers understand and trust are more valuable. These brands have employees that live and breathe their purpose through every touch point with customers or clients. Their strong employer brand attracts talented people with their own sense of purpose, who actively contribute to their culture, which in turn guides their strategy and decision-making. They contain networks of advocates who take every opportunity to innovate, share, and interact both internally and externally. The most successful businesses trust that their people want to do the right things, and know the right things to do. And they give them space to make things happen. Our People + Purpose team helps our clients to join up the dots between brand and internal culture, so that their businesses grow from the inside out.
Brand Identity Brand Identity
All kinds of things drive rebrands, including changing audiences, cultural shifts, a new CEO and new markets. We create brands for all kinds of people. We’ve rolled our rebrands at petrochemical companies, run change programs at estate agencies and revamped all kinds of startups and SMEs in between. We pin down where you are now, and where you’d like to be. We create a brand to get you there that complements your culture and your strategy, defining your purpose as well as how you look, sound, name, and write. Then we make waves, from starting a quiet revolution to creating a movement, to give you the results you care about. We make your brand stick.
Brand Experience Brand Experience
When recommending brands, 75 percent of people only do so for those in which they’ve had great personal experiences. So we create these experiences, designing physical spaces people explore and digital ideas people share. But creating a lasting buzz needs more than a one-off event. That’s why we create digital/online touch points and teaser content to whip up enthusiasm in addition to interior spaces and environments, launch events and campaigns, and exhibition signage and wayfinding. Then we keep it going, using highlights from the experience to keep people talking for weeks to come. With whatever we create, we always push to provide the right balance of creativity and practicality, giving you the results you care about.
SJR SJR
SJR is an innovation consultancy of more than a hundred creative, strategic, and adaptable thinkers and doers. We specialize in insights, content creation, and audience development. SJR works with the world's leading corporations, organizations, and institutions to tap, shape, and share their unique and invaluable knowledge. Great ideas travel, and over the past 12 years, SJR’s presence has extended to cities including New York, London, San Francisco, and Toronto. Our work spans across industries, but the one thing all of our clients have in common is a dedication to staying one year ahead.
Research + Data Insights / RDI Research + Data Insights / RDI
Research+Data Insights is an international consulting firm providing research services that inform influential and effective communications programs. As a trusted adviser to organizations around the world, we leverage both large-scale data analytics and multimodal opinion research to provide insights on reputation and issue management, including valuable information on both emerging challenges and recurring problems. We also specialize in strategic and corporate communications and public affairs. Our firm offers innovative research design and sophisticated data analysis as well as a full range of traditional and online qualitative and quantitative research tools. We produce clear, engaging, and actionable reports for clients around the world. We pride ourselves on having the best professional talent both in terms of technical expertise and the honed intuition borne from working on numerous high-stakes communications campaigns.
Wexler|Walker Wexler|Walker
We are a bipartisan team of policy and political strategists. We gather intelligence. We build coalitions. We market our clients’ products and services to the federal government. We design and execute winning strategies to help companies, associations and nonprofits succeed in Washington — no easy task these days.
Dewey Square Group Dewey Square Group
Dewey Square Group (DSG) helps businesses, nonprofits, campaigns, and causes achieve their public affairs goals — whether they are favorable legislative or policy outcomes, successful advocacy efforts, community-based consumer marketing, or high-profile awareness campaigns. DSG’s team is led by some of the nation’s top strategists and professionals with impressive track records of success in the political and corporate arenas. In addition to its industry-leading grassroots and coalition-building expertise, DSG’s public affairs capabilities include public relations, strategic communications and multicultural outreach.
Public Affairs Public Affairs
We have a team of professionals and a comprehensive suite of services to help clients win in legislative and regulatory capitals around the world. Our bipartisan team of lobbyists / strategists come out of the highest levels of government and thrive at the intersection of policy and politics. Trusted by both policymakers and clients, the team has deep connections with decision makers and regulators all over the world. At H+K we employ a public affairs model founded on research, technology, content and insight. You deserve to know exactly what you are getting for your PA investment and how it is performing, seeing the progress and results of every aspect of an integrated campaign.
Brexit Advisory Brexit Advisory
At H+K, we know that the uncertainty caused by the UK's decision to leave the EU is affecting business decisions. That's why we have set up our Brexit Advice Team to help you understand and navigate the new policy and political landscape. Our global team of experts can tailor a program of activity designed to support you and your business.
H+K EastWest H+K EastWest
EastWest is a consultancy that supports Chinese businesses’ global expansion activities, assisting clients to develop impactful content and publishing strategies, informed by a rigorous approach to data and analytics. Services include market entry strategy, audience mapping and engagement, campaign development, messaging and storytelling, brand marketing and design, digital communications, government relations, media relations, channel strategy, reputation management, measurement and analysis, and senior counsel.
Behavioral Insights Behavioral Insights
Our specialist behavioral insights and strategies team helps clients better apply the science of human behavior to the art of communications. As an industry we’ve moved on from the days where our primary expertise was knowledge of how the media works. As more of our communications become direct to audience, we need to be experts in the science of how people think, behave, and make decisions. We need to understand the unconscious drivers of behaviors as well as the conscious. We combine the latest behavioral science thinking with robust research capabilities to help clients create campaigns that truly understand and influence their target audiences.
Training Training
Compelling communication skills are no longer an optional extra. Every company must have a key message and a voice. H+K has a training course to improve each of your communications and business skills. Each highly tailored course includes media training and message development, as well as training in investor relations. The course also offers presentation and business skills training. This will help you sharpen your company’s key message, communicate more effectively with your investors or shareholders, and understand how journalists think. Your company will emerge from our media training with more persuasive presentations, a view of media interviews as fantastic marketing opportunities, and messaging at hand for all of your future needs.
Issues + Crisis Issues + Crisis
H+K has unrivaled success in protecting and defending brands and organizations. We safeguard the reputation of our clients — who range from global brands, multinationals and public sector organizations to small independents — by deploying meticulous preparation, bespoke training and perfectly pitched responses to a wide range of audiences. Our team is highly respected as the most experienced and best resourced in the industry. We have a combined experience of more than 100 years operating at the most senior levels of crisis management. Our extensive global reach means we have the breadth and depth of experience to support our clients in responding to issues both locally and across the world when they arise.

We believe that the best work in any industry is based on data + insights. Our partnerships and proprietary tools inform our ideas and analyze our success.

From finding the most relevant influencers to measuring the results of a campaign in real time, we have tools to ensure that our work delivers for our brands.

Through our relationships with top industry partners such as Brandwatch we have created dashboards that inform our ideas and measurement tools that simplify the reporting process. These products allow us to create targeted programs and constantly refine them, maximizing the effectiveness of our campaigns.

Our Products

Purpose driven communications™Purpose driven communications™
At H+K we have developed a Purpose Driven Communications Model that puts your purpose at the heart of all your communications. It allows us to develop a cause and story arcs that make your purpose relevant and resonant with all your audiences. Once we have developed your cause and story arcs, we create content to carry your story to your audiences and a data-driven publishing strategy to ensure that the content is seen in the right places.
Measurement / SingleScore™Measurement / SingleScore™
SingleScore’s proprietary algorithm melds overall media coverage, owned-web analytics, and social performance into a single metric tracked over time. It considers performance across paid, earned and owned spaces online using a unique methodology that covers reach, amplification, engagement and loyalty signals, turning this into a measurable score. By using this algorithm, we can benchmark against competitors to view how a business or brand is performing in the context of its sector.
Influencer Identification and Tracking / Sherlock+Influencer Identification and Tracking / Sherlock+
Influence changes on a daily basis, and Sherlock+ tracks these variations constantly, which leads to less time searching and more time finding, knowing, and creating great work. Sherlock+ is an influencer-mapping dashboard. Partnering with social intelligence company Brandwatch, Sherlock provides a unique, real-time perspective on the people that have the most impact across eight industries and 45 core topics. The dashboard was created using “VIP lists” of key influencers across each subject, designed by H+K’s sector experts. These are then extended using data-driven network analysis of the interactions, engagements, and relationships that surround these super-influencers, which are ranked according to true impact, all in real time.
Behavioral Insights / H+K SMARTER™Behavioral Insights / H+K SMARTER™
Our specialist behavioral insights and strategies team has developed a behavioral communications model, called SMARTER™. Based on the latest science, it brings together seven of the most effective methods by which communications can influence behavior. The model acts as both a framework for analyzing audience behavior and a toolbox from which to influence it.
Crisis Training and Simulation / Flight School+™Crisis Training and Simulation / Flight School+™
FlightSchool+ is an online crisis simulation program that lets businesses and individuals test their crisis response capability in a controlled setting. Running over multiple communications platforms, the immersive FlightSchool+ experience runs in real-time with H+K’s specialist trainers assessing how teams perform when the pressure is on.
Media Measurement / Brand Report Card Media Measurement / Brand Report Card
We will design a monthly report card to visualize a top-line assessment of your brand’s media performance. We will collaborate with you to determine the best metrics to showcase your success. These metrics range from volume, coverage over time, sentiment and share of voice to global performance, key messages, reputation metrics, share of topic, and share of media channels. The visualizations in our Brand Report Card can be included in your reports to senior leadership or in your brand’s marketing collateral.
Media Measurement / Custom Measurement Report Media Measurement / Custom Measurement Report
Senior analysts will customize measurement reports that evaluate your media success. Our analysts are adept at cutting through the noise by honing media searches to capture meaningful coverage across global markets, and delivering it in a way that can be quickly digested and strategically acted upon. These custom reports will be tied to your communications and business goals, and feature world-class metrics and strategic insights to help increase your brand’s awareness.
Media Measurement / Media Performance Indicator Media Measurement / Media Performance Indicator
Our proprietary Media Performance Indicator will provide you with one score that indicates media performance in three metrics that are most important to your brand. Each month, we will rate your coverage for these metrics and visualize a barometer of your score over time. We will accompany the scorecard and drill down to show you what works, what doesn’t, and what to do next.
Measurement / 360˚ Reputation Monitor Measurement / 360˚ Reputation Monitor
Our 360˚ Reputation Monitor analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of an organization across its key stakeholder groups, helping to create a foundation for building equity. Further, it can inform comprehensive C-level reputation management, breaking down silos in the organization and guiding the allocation of limited resources. Combining research expertise with public affairs insight and cutting-edge technology, we deliver valuable, timely information and provide actionable metrics for executive decision-making.
Content Training / Message Map Content Training / Message Map
Our campaign-style research approach helps to inform message development for the purposes of crisis and issues management. Our model provides an objective assessment of the current context and environment, an empirical road map to guide communications strategy, and a benchmark against which to measure progress. The approach simulates the education process that takes place during a campaign and, through statistical analysis, reveals the most compelling facts and messages our clients should use to tell their story and position themselves, their issue, or their product with the public.
Reputation Management / Compass Reputation Management / Compass
Compass is a dynamic, multidimensional issues-management framework that can be leveraged to guide prioritization and communications across the myriad of reputational issues that a company faces on a day-to-day basis such as product or service quality, reputation as an employer, and sustainability and corporate citizenship. The tool combines research on public priorities, a company’s strengths, and its current issue stances to highlight the issues where that company can take a leadership position, where it may need to engage with the public defensively, and what issues are of less concern. This tool is helpful in positioning the company externally but also provides great value in coordinating and aligning the efforts of internal audiences.
Reaction Analysis / Risk Relevance Indicator Reaction Analysis / Risk Relevance Indicator
The Risk Relevance Indicator is a proprietary new tool that analyzes online activity to predict how stakeholders will react to a given incident or scenario, to help you understand which issues present the greatest risks and the greatest rewards to your company. Using information drawn from social networks, news and digital activity, we assess the resonance and potential brand impact of risks. Specifically, our analysis will explore the scope of conversations on issue challenges and opportunities, the most influential voices (both individuals and organizations) in these discussions, public reactions to and engagement with certain issues, how your brand and industry are associated with the narrative, and how your risks compare with your competitors. The output is rich, insightful, and remarkably simple.

With more than 85 offices around the globe, H+K has an unrivaled global presence.

Our regions and offices vary in specialties and accolades, but we structure our organization by service, not strictly by region. This agility gives us the ability to create teams with employees from any office around the world, depending on our clients’ needs. As a truly global company, we can offer any of our products and specialties at any hour of the day.

Regional Expertise