WHO SIGNED THIS OFF: SEPTEMBER EDITION

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SEPTEMBER EDITION:

WHO SIGNED THIS OFF?!

August lull? What August lull? Far from snoozing on the sunlounger, our clients spent the summer taking care of business — and earning plenty of media coverage while they were at it.

Every August is busy at MyEdSpace, the UK’s largest online education platform, as A Level and GCSE results land. Teacher Louis Provis appeared in a five minute slot on BBC regional radio talking about how GCSE students should handle disappointing result. More coverage followed on LBC, Capital Radio and in trade press. ‘A-star’ for media relations…

Solar thermal scaleup Naked Energy landed nearly £9 million in funding from GB Energy and Barclays Climate Ventures. It was GB Energy’s first major solar thermal investment and will generate up to 140 jobs. The news was covered throughout the sector press.

Octopus Energy celebrated the solar eclipse by inviting its millions of customers to “power down” and take the strain off the grid by using less electricity between 6pm and 8pm – in return for an hour’s free electricity the following Sunday. Nearly 800,000 customers took part and the initiative received extensive national media coverage.

Tens of thousands of festival-goers went mad for Skrillex on the main stage at Boomtown in Winchester. They enjoyed a cleaner experience too, as the stage was powered by clean energy from GeoPura’s hydrogen power units. Sustainability media loved the story and regional journalists took a close up look at the units.  

And Volt Quads launched its new electric quad bike, the VQ, onto the market. With Harpswood’s help, news of the launch appeared in the Guardian’s Down to Earth newsletter, Farmer’s Weekly and Forestry Journal among many others.

🇬🇧 LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WILL BE…

The UK’s ability to back innovative tech scaleups with the capital they need has been under persistent scrutiny. A Sunday Times story floating the possibility of an exit tax for successful university spin outs hints that the Government is considering stick as well as carrot when it comes to keeping high-growth businesses out of foreign hands. If ministers were flying a kite to check how the story played, a cursory glance below the line told them everything. One comment summed up the reaction: “Alternatively, make Britain an attractive place to do business…”

💸 WE’VE RAISED FUNDS… WHAT NEXT?

You’ve closed your funding round. The money is in the bank, your investors are excited and you’re ready to tell the world. Now you need a PR agency. But the right agency should do more than send out a press release. They help you to use that funding moment to build credibility, reach investors, attract talent, raise your founders’ profiles and create momentum for what comes next. In our latest blog we share how to pick the PR agency that is right for your business. You can read it here.

📱PUBLISHERS STRIKE BACK

Australia’s new News Bargaining Incentive tells tech giants: pay news publishers, or pay up. Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn will be charged 2.5% of their Australian advertising revenue unless they strike deals with at least eight news outlets. Deals with smaller publishers earn bigger offsets - incentivising platforms to to work with smaller outlets, in a win for regional journalism.

🤖 ROBO-CUP

China’s latest push to dominate robotics has involved all the classic policy tools: investment, government backing and getting robots to have a boxing match. More than 2,000 humanoids competed at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing across events including football, table tennis and athletics. One even ran 100m faster than Usain Bolt. Others crashed into barriers and repeatedly fell over. But the mishaps arguably helped the spectacle. The Games provided China with a very public showcase for an industry it hopes to lead. There are easier ways to communicate an industrial strategy, but few come with quite as much viral footage.

NEWS-O-METER

🤩 NAILED IT

£419 for a toothbrush? Madness. But what if that toothbrush is made by Dyson and called the CameraJet? In that case, the huge price tag becomes a talking point — and a hook for dozens of national media toothbrush reviews on launch day. Much of the coverage focused on the in-mouth camera and jet bursts of mouthwash (hence the product name). The launch  inspired some excellent writing – including this gem from The Times: “If hell exists, it will look like a dentist’s office. Sterile, brightly lit and governed by a balding sadist with drills for fingers.”

🥶 FAILED IT

England cricket has spent much of the year trying to draw a line under its off-field problems. Harry Brook was fined after a nightclub altercation, Ben Duckett apologised after being filmed disorientated during the Ashes and Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were dropped after breaking a team curfew. Now Brydon Carse has been dropped after being filmed in handcuffs outside a Derby nightclub, leaving Joe Root “really hacked off” by players making “stupid mistakes”. There are only so many resets, reviews and carefully chosen words that can be used. Eventually, the facts write the story for you.

🔥 HOT TAKE

In news that surprised no-one, this summer was confirmed by the Met Office as the UK’s hottest since records began in 1884.  A temperature of 30C or higher was recorded on 40 separate days. The BBC pointed out an alarming trend: until last year, the four hottest summers on record were separated by five hundredths of a degree. But 2025 beat the previous record by 0.34C. And this year beat that record by 0.40C.  

HEARD BY HARPSWOOD

📻 THE MEDIA SHOW

If you want to hear what it’s like to interview Elon Musk, weigh up the debate about AI actors or explore the phenomenon of retail workers being filmed for social media, the Media Show is for you. The Radio 4 programme, presented by BBC Culture & Media Editor Katie Razzall and News Analysis Editor Ros Atkins, is a thoughtful, measured and informed listen and one that does not shy away from difficult questions. All episodes on BBC Sounds.  

HARPSWOOD IRL

MEET OUR LONDON TEAM THIS SEPTEMBER AT:

📆 Climate Connection Biodiversity Dinner, apply for a seat here, Tuesday 15th September

📆 Founders Connect, Wednesday 16th September

📆 Climate Tech Time, @ The Conduit, Wednesday 23rd September

📆 Climate Coffee@ St James Cafe, Thursday 24th September

📆 Runway by Sifted, Monday 28th September