A corporate PR agency helps a business shape and protect its reputation, and manage how it is understood by the people who matter most: customers, journalists, investors, partners and its own team. The work usually spans media relations, reputation management, crisis communications, leadership profiling and clear, consistent messaging across every audience.
Kitten & Shark is a boutique corporate PR agency based in London, working with hotels, hospitality groups, travel companies, restaurants, wellness brands and consumer businesses across the UK. You work directly with three senior consultants from the first conversation onwards, so the people who pitch your account are the people who run it. There is no handover to a junior team once the contract is signed.
Corporate PR covers a lot of ground. Here is where we tend to spend most of our time.
Building a strong, consistent reputation and protecting it when it is tested.
Calm, fast handling when a difficult story breaks.
Ongoing coverage in the business and national press, and a press office that answers journalists quickly.
Positioning founders and senior leaders as credible voices in their field.
Keeping investors, partners and staff informed and onside, especially during change.
If your priority is guest-facing coverage rather than corporate reputation, our hospitality PR and travel PR pages may be a better starting point.
Most of our corporate work starts when something is changing or something is at stake. A few situations that probably sound familiar:
If any of those feel close to home, this is the kind of work we do every week.
Reputation has rarely carried more weight, or been easier to lose.
of people globally believe business leaders deliberately mislead them, according to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, which also places trust in business across the UK among the lower scores it measures.
For hotels, restaurants and consumer brands, that scepticism shows up in reviews, in press coverage, and increasingly in what AI tools say about you when a potential guest or partner asks for a recommendation.
It helps to know that AI search engines and assistants lean heavily on what already exists about a brand in credible, published sources. Strong, consistent corporate PR gives those tools, and the journalists who still shape much of the conversation, accurate and positive material to draw on. Thin or out-of-date coverage simply leaves a gap that someone else fills.
Corporate PR is less about chasing one big headline and more about building a reputation that holds up over time. Here is what that looks like in practice.
This is the steady, ongoing work of making sure your business is known for the right things. It covers your corporate messaging, your leadership profiles, the stories you tell about growth, openings, hires and milestones, and the way you show up when someone searches for you. For a hotel group with several properties, it also means keeping one clear brand story across every location, rather than five slightly different versions of it.
When something goes wrong, a bad review that spreads, a health and safety story, a sudden closure or a staffing dispute, the first few hours matter most. Good crisis communications means a calm, prepared response, a clear holding statement, and senior people who can advise quickly rather than panic. We help you decide what to say, what to leave unsaid, and who should say it.
This is the engine room. It covers building genuine relationships with the journalists who cover hospitality, travel, food, wellness and business, pitching the right stories at the right time, and running a press office that can turn around facts, quotes and images quickly when a reporter is on deadline. Reliable press office support is often the difference between being included in a feature and being left out of it.
| Service | What it supports |
|---|---|
| Reputation management | A consistent, credible profile that holds up to scrutiny over time |
| Crisis communications | A calm, fast response when a difficult story breaks |
| Media relations and press office | Ongoing coverage and quick answers for journalists on deadline |
| Thought leadership and profiling | Founders and senior leaders are seen as trusted voices in the sector |
| Announcements and milestones | Openings, funding, acquisitions and hires that land with the right audiences |
| Stakeholder and internal comms | Investors, partners and staff are kept informed and aligned through change |
We built Kitten & Shark to fix something that frustrated us inside larger agencies. Too often, the senior team wins the business, then quietly hands it to juniors who learn on your account. We do the opposite. Three senior PR consultants work across every client, so the people you meet are the people doing the work, and everyone knows what is happening on your account.
That close-knit setup means quick decisions, senior judgement and a team that feels like an extension of yours rather than an outside supplier. When a project needs extra hands, we draw on a trusted network across event handling, hotel sales, social media, digital marketing, SEO, international media and crisis support, so you get specialist help without losing the personal service.
There is no single best corporate PR agency, only the right fit for your business, your sector and the stage you are at. If you are comparing corporate PR agencies in London or across the UK, these are the things worth weighing up.
Do they really know your world, whether that is hotels, restaurants, travel or wellness, or will they learn on your time?
Will senior people run your account day to day, or only appear for the pitch?
Do they hold real, current relationships with the journalists who matter to you?
Can they help calmly and quickly when something goes wrong, not just when things are going well?
How will they show you what the work is achieving, beyond a pile of cuttings?
Do you trust them, and would you be comfortable with them speaking on your behalf?
| Consideration | Boutique, senior-led | Large agency |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs your account? | Senior consultants throughout | Often juniors after the pitch |
| Speed of decisions | Quick and direct | Slower, more layers |
| Typical cost | Lower, senior-only model | Higher, larger overheads |
| Breadth of resource | Focused, with a network on call | Broad in-house teams |
| Personal attention | High, every account matters | Varies with account size |
A corporate PR agency manages how a business is seen by the people who matter to it: the media, customers, investors, partners and staff. That usually means media relations, reputation management, crisis communications, leadership profiling and clear messaging across every audience.
It varies with scope, but most corporate PR work in London and the UK runs on a monthly retainer. Boutique consultancies typically start from a few thousand pounds a month, while larger agencies and complex, crisis-heavy briefs cost considerably more. We quote on what you actually need, rather than a fixed package.
Consumer and lifestyle PR is mostly about visibility, getting your hotel, restaurant or brand in front of potential guests and customers. Corporate PR is about reputation and credibility with business audiences such as investors, partners and the wider public. Many of our clients need both.
It depends on what you value. A large agency offers broad in-house teams but often hands your account to junior staff. A boutique, senior-led consultancy gives you experienced people throughout, faster decisions and closer attention, with a wider network on call when a project needs it.
The strongest corporate PR agencies understand your sector, put senior people on your account, hold real relationships with relevant journalists, can handle a crisis calmly, and show you clearly what the work is achieving. Fit and trust matter just as much as a list of credentials.
No. We work across premium and strong mid-market hospitality, from five-star hotels to characterful four-star and independent properties, as well as restaurants, wellness and consumer brands. The common thread is a business with a genuine story to tell, not a particular price point.
Yes. Crisis communications is a core part of corporate PR. We help you respond quickly and calmly, agree on what to say and who says it, protect your reputation through the difficult moment and rebuild afterwards.
We agree on what success looks like at the start, then track it. That can include quality media coverage, share of voice against the businesses you compare yourself to, message pick-up, inbound enquiries and how your brand shows up in search and AI tools. The aim is reputation and enquiries, not just a stack of cuttings.