FAQ

It's a word we get asked about often, and we're glad, it's a beautiful one. Noetic has Greek origins and refers to mental activity, the intellect, and the process of thinking and cognition. It suggests deep, direct knowledge that goes beyond ordinary sensory experience: understanding, consciousness, inner wisdom. We chose it because it captures something essential about what we do. We help organisations turn what they know into communications that resonate.

It's how we describe our approach. We start with intellectual rigour: the evidence, the insight, the argument. We then package it with emotion. You can also think of ‘minds-to-hearts' as the journey from what you know to why others should care. Brand journalism is the discipline we use to make that journey: applying the editorial standards of quality journalism to the communications challenges of ambitious organisations.

Noetic is for any organisation that needs to communicate with authority to sophisticated audiences. In practice, our clients tend to fall into four groups:

• Camouflaged Giants: International organisations whose growth has outpaced their brand awareness.
• Transformers: Large, often public, international companies navigating material change.
• Scalers: Fast-moving companies that need multi-skilled partners who can start quickly, work with a light briefing and execute with minimal oversight.
• High-Trust Sectors: Finance, government, NGOs and news publishers who need partners that understand regulated environments, editorial independence, high-net-worth sensitivities and policy complexity, and can operate accordingly.

Check out the 'who we help' page on this site for more on the kinds of organisations we support. That said, even if your company doesn't exactly match those we've described, we'd love to hear from you.

The team behind Noetic conceived and built CNBC Catalyst, then founded and sold Alpha Grid, now FT Studios. Our founders ran CNBC International's newsrooms and then its business. They came from the FT, Bloomberg, BBC and PBS. Noetic is the natural next step: a nimble studio that applies all of that editorial and production experience directly in service of clients, without the overhead of a large agency.

We have three core practice areas:

• Events: full-service event management, including programming, talent booking, audience curation, logistics and post-event content capture and amplification.
• Studio: video, digital, social, audio and publishing for owned media platforms; made-for-paid content for premium media platforms; and brand journalism for go-to-market, client advocacy and growth.
• Accelerator: rapid-response communications delivery; media and go-to-market strategy, partnerships, planning and AI transformation workshops; and confidential C-suite media coaching and interview preparation, on demand.

In short: all of them. We have deep experience across end-to-end event execution - from choosing the venue and booking speakers to managing logistics on the day and capturing content for amplification afterwards. We've produced events alongside the World Economic Forum in Davos featuring heads of state, Nobel laureates, and senior global executives. We've also covered and produced content at WEF Jordan and Dalian, Slush, RAISE, VivaTech, World Governments Summit, the ADB Annual Meeting, and the Tokyo and Paris Air Shows, among many others.

Confidential, bespoke C-suite coaching with no off-the-shelf approach. Our two coaching leads have spent decades on either side of the media divide: one with 30 years supporting live on-air talent for global business television; the other a founder of three financial PR companies who has advised business leaders across a lifetime in the industry. Together they offer coaching in the manner that suits you best - wherever you are in the world, at whatever pace your schedule demands.

Noetic was founded on an AI-first philosophy. We experiment daily with the latest tools, run regular audits across the team, and build bespoke AI-enhanced workflows for our clients. We've quantified the monetary value of clients' communications efforts using tools we built ourselves - and handed those tools over to the clients to keep using. We believe AI is an excellent amplifier of human thinking. It doesn't replace editorial judgement, but it makes good editorial teams faster and sharper.

We developed a planning framework called BEAT, built around the four stages a prospect needs to pass through before they'll engage or contract with you:

• Brand awareness: they know you exist.
• Engagement: they understand what you offer and whether it's relevant to them.
• Advocacy: someone they trust has vouched for you, or they've met someone from your organisation and gained a sense of confidence.
• Top of mind: when their budget cycle opens, you're the name they remember.

We use it to help clients structure their annual activity and track the value they're generating as they go.

Standard AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent) metrics don't work for organisations targeting senior, selective audiences, so we built something that reflects that reality. Our Net Promoter Value methodology anchors valuations in the real cost of paid posts, sponsored speaking slots, and keynote appearances at events like Davos, drawing on our team's direct experience at the FT, CNBC, the BBC and Business Insider.

We use it to help clients understand what their communications have already delivered in monetary terms, benchmark performance against competitors, and package the findings in a format designed for internal planning conversations with finance or the board.

When we begin working with a new client, we put in place a Terms & Conditions agreement that sets out the rules of the relationship. After that, each commission is governed by a simple one or two-page Statement of Work. We charge 50% up front and 50% upon satisfactory completion.

If you think you might want to work with us - even if the timing isn't quite right yet - it's worth signing a T&Cs onboarding agreement. It means that when the moment comes, we only need a Statement of Work to move, and we can move fast.

Faster than most. Two months' notice is ideal for large productions - even an informal heads-up helps us hold the right people. But we filmed a major two-language film for a global enterprise client with four weeks' notice, and much of our work for technology clients has been produced within one to two weeks. If you have an urgent brief, call us before assuming it can't be done.

We'll adapt to your preferred working style. Some clients come to us with a clear vision and strong opinions; others have a vague sense of what they want and need us to shape the brief with them. Either way, we’re happy to fit in or guide the process. We've learned that the best work comes from a genuine partnership, and we're entirely capable of leading when that's what's needed.