Mutual Vision (“MV”), a technology provider for specialist lenders, has appointed Air Cover PR as it looks to increase awareness of its digital banking solutions.
The agency, which has been appointed on a three-month project basis with the possibility of extension in the future, will focus on highlighting the technological advances MV has made to audiences to the specialist lending industry.
MV will also look to build its profile as a UK-based technology provider that hits deadlines, creating a point of difference with international rivals.
This is the first time that the organisation has used a B2B PR agency to grow its reputation with building societies, credit unions, co-operatives, and specialist lenders — MV’s potential customers.
The account will be run by James Staunton, Air Cover PR’s founder (pictured), who will report into new chief executive Tm Bowen, previously CEO of Penrith Building Society, and mortgage and savings software veteran David Bennett, MV’s business development director.
Tim Bowen said: “We have hired Air Cover PR to promote the business as we believe James has the creativity and in-depth knowledge to make a success of this project. The community needs to know about the product innovations we are making and the fact we’re consistently delivering on plan, on time, and on budget.’
Staunton said that some of the work would focus around research-based PR, which would show the company’s ‘authority, experience and knowledge’.
He added: “I hope this initial project will be a seed that will grow into future comms work. MV is exemplary in its understanding and provision of banking technology platforms to the specialist lending community but it hasn’t shouted about it before. By way of example, between 2019 and 2023, MV was effectively absent from the mortgage press. Looked at most positively, this makes MV ‘the mortgage industry’s best kept secret’. Air Cover PR has been hired to change that.”
MV employs 90 people and is headquartered in Wilmslow, Cheshire. While working with clients including StreamBank and Kingdom Bank, in the past MV has focused on providing banking technology to building societies, working for 23 of the 43 mutuals in the UK — more than half of the market. It was established in 2001 by a group of building societies and is still owned by six mutuals (Beverley, Chorley, Ecology, Harpenden, Monmouthshire, and Penrith); even now MV operates with a mutual ethos.
MORTGAGE PR EXPERIENCE
In the technology space, Staunton has previously worked with Phoebus Software as well as panel managers xit2 and Decision First; Omnii Solutions, a provider of aggregated ID, money laundering, and AVM data; environmental and climate data authority Groundsure; and the conveyancing search provider Searchflow.