The Hydra 400 is a hybrid heavy-lift uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), developed over the past five years by a small team of experts based in the UK. The platform was showcased on the Army stand at DSEI 2023, where it was fitted with a replica MBDA missile system to demonstrate potential payload compatibility. But to move forward, Hydra needed more than interest – it needed recognition, funding, and backing from the wider defence community.  

That support came when MBDA recognised the value of Hydra as a platform and invested directly in the company; the first time MBDA had taken a shareholder position in a UK SME. It was a major step forward but also came with limitations. The challenge was to encourage reticent stakeholders to engage and build a story that celebrated progress, championed UK-made technology, and encouraged deeper MOD engagement, all without crossing regulatory or messaging lines.  

Our deep expertise in defence and security communications made Canny the right partner for the challenge, combining a sharp understanding of MOD stakeholder priorities with the ability to craft compelling narratives for highly specialised audiences. We also brought in-depth knowledge of security and commercial messaging constraints, critical in a project where disclosure and positioning need to be tightly managed.  

A simple, clear message was built around three core themes: UK innovation, smart partnerships, and long-term impact. The focus was on why Hydra’s development matters for the company, UK supply chains, and the future of sovereign defence capability. Rather than referencing specific systems or integrations, the campaign highlighted Hydra’s advanced engineering, the strength of its team, and the strategic importance of continued backing from major industry partners.  

Having identified MBDA and specific Army stakeholders as the main target audience, we selected channels that were most likely to resonate with these audiences and drew up a content plan that would appeal to them directly. Quotes from Hydra’s CEO, Dr Stephen Prior, were used to explain why the investment has implications not just on a tactical level, but strategically, to the defence community.  

Our established relationships and credibility within the defence sector enabled us to secure a powerful endorsement quote from MBDA’s director of UK sales and business development, lending crucial third-party validation to the partnership announcement.  

The campaign significantly lifted Hydra’s visibility and credibility across defence and national audiences. LinkedIn performance for the company soared, with an increase in new followers and 8,500+ impressions in one week. Within 30 days, Hydra gained around 3,870 new followers and built a highly engaged defence audience.  

Media outreach generated attention from key outlets including an initial exclusive in The Telegraph, with further coverage in ADS, Shephard, and EDR, while stakeholder engagement extended to Army stakeholders and MBDA leadership.  

The campaign strengthened Hydra’s standing as a serious player in UK defence innovation, setting the stage for future investment, DSEI visibility, and deeper MOD engagement. It also directly supported significant business development activity, including follow-on engagement and contract discussions with leading defence primes. 

It proved the power of SME–prime collaboration in delivering sovereign capability at pace.  

HYDRA X MBDA

Fering approached Canny Comms with a significant challenge: introduce their revolutionary all-terrain, fully electric/biofuel military vehicle—the Pioneer X—to the notoriously conservative defence sector. As an unknown vehicle brand with groundbreaking capabilities, including 80km of silent electric operation and a 7,000km hybrid range, Fering needed to quickly establish credibility and generate interest among military decision-makers.

The campaign needed to transform complex engineering concepts into compelling narratives that would resonate with defence procurement teams. With just three months to prepare for the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) event in January 2025, we needed to develop a strategy that would cut through the noise at a crowded industry gathering.

Chief Operating Officer, Fering

Gren Paull

Our multidisciplinary team of communications experts, engineers and ex-military personnel developed an integrated campaign that highlighted the Pioneer X's revolutionary stealth capabilities. We created a strategic messaging framework focused on five key pillars: engineering excellence, capability, reliability, sustainable innovation, and precision British engineering.

We implemented a tiered media relations approach, crafting bespoke pitches for national, defence specialist, and technology publications. Rather than pursuing volume, we targeted 25 priority journalists across 15 key publications with tailored content.

The campaign combined exceptional off-road video footage with CGI showreels demonstrating the Pioneer X's stealth capabilities in realistic operational scenarios. We prepared Fering's spokespeople as "technical translators" who could explain complex engineering in accessible terms, while our exhibition stand showcased the vehicle's innovations through live demonstrations.

The campaign dramatically exceeded all objectives. Coverage was secured in four major publications—The Telegraph, Daily Express, Jane's Defence, and European Defence Review—reaching a combined audience of over 8 million readers. 92% of coverage included at least three of our five key messages, with stealth capabilities mentioned in 100% of articles.

Digital engagement soared across platforms with our LinkedIn content achieving a remarkable 23.6% average engagement rate—nearly six times higher than the industry standard. One thought leadership piece generated 83,000 impressions, more than 40 times the normal engagement. On Instagram, we reached 11,184 profiles (exceeding the target by 11.8%), while our technical showreel videos received 18,691 views across platforms.

The campaign delivered exceptional business impact, generating enquiries from multiple military forces (including Dutch special forces and Singapore), interest in urgent orders from three countries (Malaysia, Poland, and Hungary), exclusive negotiations with a UK defence Prime company, and interest from major defence companies, including BAE Systems and BHE.

Launching Fering's Pioneer X

The British Army’s Project ZODIAC team were planning to take part in Project Convergence Capstone 4 (PCC4), an event held in the United States of America (USA) to experiment with and demonstrate international military technology collaboration. Roke is ZODIAC’s Prime Systems Integrator and was due to lead the industry team at PCC4 to demonstrate how ZODIAC could be used in collaboration with international allies to provide coordinated ISTAR. 

The Army and Roke wished to use the event to promote ZODIAC but required tailored communications and marketing materials.

We proposed a collection of targeted materials and activities to promote ZODIAC, including striking graphics, handout brochures, backdrop banners and slides for presentation by Army stakeholders. We also provided stakeholders with materials and approved wording to engage wider audiences. We engaged with the Army Communications Team and other stakeholders involved in ZODIAC to ensure messages were coordinated and amplified.

Throughout this project, we worked closely with Roke, who provided the strategic direction needed for us to deliver this work and oversaw the planning and delivery of our comms work as part of the wider project ZODIAC PCC4 activity. This collaboration ensured appropriate stakeholder input, buy-in and approvals, and that the comms aligned with and complemented the ZODIAC demonstrations at PCC4.

We received very positive feedback from Roke and the Army. The supplied materials and the advice we provided helped to raise the profile of Project ZODIAC both for attendees at PCC4 and for other project stakeholders.

“We were very happy with the work supplied by Canny Comms for Project ZODIAC. The brochure and graphic were a particular highlight – they really showcased the ZODIAC system and demonstrated what it can do.” Nik Beecher, Assistant Director Integrated Solutions, Roke

Project ZODIAC

The Land ISTAR programme aims to deliver an integrated and distributed system of sensors, applications and underlying architecture, enabling the Army to act with greater precision and speed. The programme required a partner with deep domain knowledge and experience with managing complex stakeholder networks, so Roke, the prime industry partner for this programme, contracted Canny to support with a communication strategy. 

We proposed a clear and coherent communications strategy to engage with key stakeholders.

We identified and interviewed stakeholders and developed case studies to understand their communication needs and interests. Roke was a strategic partner in the process, supporting us to craft a detailed strategy for effectively communicating the Land ISTAR programme and engaging stakeholders across the Army, MOD and industry. This included output recommendations ready for implementation.

Strategic communications for complex defence integration

The delivery of the strategy was met with positive feedback from Roke and the Land ISTAR team.

By tailoring the approach to the specific needs identified through stakeholder case studies, we provided a strategy that could streamline communication channels and reduce the complexity with the goal of enabling better comprehension of the benefits the Land ISTAR programme encompassed.

The delivered strategy will better enable the programme to meet its objectives and increase stakeholder confidence in the initiative's direction and impact.

The Canny team has been supporting in parallel a sub-project of the Land ISTAR programme called Project ZODIAC. This project, led by Roke, will provide the backbone of the capability delivered by the Army’s Land ISTAR Programme and will result in a faster, more integrated sense-decide-effect chain.

“The communications strategy and work carried out by Canny Comms was helpful in engaging Army, MOD and industry Land ISTAR programme stakeholders. This increased confidence in the programme by efficiently communicating its objectives.” Nik Beecher, Assistant Director Integrated Solutions, Roke

Land ISTAR Programme:

In the summer of 2022, Canny was engaged to be the PR and communications partner for the Three Counties Defence and Security Expo (3CDSE), which encompassed a dinner, industry day and expo.

3CDSE is an expo targeted at defence and security SMEs who develop products and services aimed at the specialist user. The event was originally aimed at businesses in the three counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire due to the high prevalence of such organisations within the region but quickly gained a national and international reach. 3CDSE recognised that Canny’s intimate understanding of this context positioned us perfectly to drive attendance to this event.

A media strategy that directly resulted in coverage for 3CDSE and exhibitors in publications such as Battlespace and Shephard.

This media strategy also included a crisis management procedure, which had to be implemented on the day of the event due to pressure from protestors, and resulted in balanced coverage in the local media.

Photography and videography to ensure that both exhibitors and the event organisers had plenty of content to drive sales.

The writing and distribution of marketing emails.

Copy for 3CDSE’s website, including a carefully researched thought piece.

A comprehensive social media plan for 3CDSE, including the curation of relevant content. This took the form of posts of varying frequency, reshares and a wide range of purpose-created images and videos.

We also organised and hosted an ‘innovation showcase’ that allowed smaller SMEs an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities to a receptive audience.

This robust and all-encompassing comms strategy resulted in a substantial increase in social media engagement and website views for 3CDSE. By effectively utilising 3CDSE’s social media presence and curating compelling content, the event was a roaring success.  

Views of 3CDSE’s LinkedIn page experienced a significant increase, with mobile views increasing by 751%, and desktop views by 821% between September and October. The engagement rate also showed substantial growth, rising by 252% in August. Organic impressions peaked in October, reaching 144% more than in previous months.  

Canny has been asked to continue as PR and comms partner for the event as it enters its latest evolution as the Specialist Defence and Security Convention (SDSC). 

3CDSE

Ploughshare has revolutionised its approach to exploiting innovations born from within the UK government to reap benefits for society at large. It asked Canny to help demonstrate the impact of its business model.

We conducted a series of interviews with key figures within Ploughshare to draw out the stories that brought Ploughshare’s impact to life. We then ‘put pen to paper’ and collated these into an annual review.

We designed the content structure, sourced the information, interviewed the subject matter experts, wrote and edited the copy and worked closely with Ploughshare’s existing design supplier.

Copywriting: showing the impact of innovation

This all culminated in a beautiful eBook that showcased Ploughshare’s many achievements at that time. It was launched at an in-person event in September 2022, engaging its key stakeholders and gaining coverage with relevant news sources. 

Ploughshare

Bright Corvus, a high-profile research and development programme being undertaken by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), needed to increase engagement and support from the project’s stakeholders. These include military users of the next-generation technology in the Front Line Commands and the partners they need to work with them in developing it, such as fellow colleagues, academia and industry. 

Our first step was to extract the technical details from the experts in each area. We quickly understood the potential use cases and applied them to our knowledge of the operational environment. Next, we developed a series of 3D concept stills and a 3D animation to show the potential application of this highly complex technology in a battlefield context. 

Using 3D animation allowed for greater realism and ensured that stakeholders could more easily visualise the full potential of future systems. Applying advanced radio frequency technologies in distributed systems enabled the delivery of disruptive surveillance, protection and navigation solutions.

Communicating emerging tech to front-line users

These highly realistic 3D concepts have been implemented in core stakeholder briefings, while the animation has already been put to use at the first Bright Corvus annual conference, as well as at the media release of the Defence Command Paper Refresh in July 2023. The visuals have allowed the project to make a real impact at both events, gaining traction with all their stakeholders but particularly MPs and senior military personnel. The customer is delighted with the result and Canny’s approach – producing a high-quality animation within an incredibly short timescale to meet their deadlines.

Dstl - Bright Corvus

Uncrewed aviation specialist Callen-Lenz sought to promote its novel Koios drone system and announce a new working relationship with Inzpire at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow. More widely, it wished to refresh its image and emphasise the range and quality of its products.

Canny created a suite of marketing materials to deliver a shift change in the company’s brand image. This included stand designs for both the Callen-Lenz and Inzpire stands, as well as printed brochures.

Callen-Lenz successfully showcased its new look with a great response from all its stakeholders. This was just step one in the evolution of the brand. See its new website to witness the next stage of change. 

Callen-Lenz

TB2 Aerospace, a start-up, backed by substantial grants from the US Department of Defense, had been working discreetly on its innovative multi-mission payload system, DROPS. After completing successful flight trials and moving into production, the company was ready to unveil its technology publicly. However, its branding and website were outdated, failing to represent the cutting-edge nature of its work. With key launch events already scheduled for September, there was an urgent need to rebrand and launch a new website in just eight weeks.

Canny stepped in to deliver a comprehensive brand refresh. We began by refining the messaging to better reflect TB2 Aerospace’s vision and values. From there, we designed and developed a modern website, which was successfully launched in September 2024. To ensure a successful debut for both the new brand and the DROPS product, we devised a strategic PR campaign centred around the product’s first public appearances. These were scheduled for major industry events including Land Forces in Australia, ASCC in the US and DVD in the UK.

The DROPS system now boasts a distinct brand identity, with messaging that clearly communicates its value to military and front-line operators. This is supported by a sleek, dynamic website that showcases TB2 Aerospace’s partnerships, the latest news and the technical capabilities of its system. The new website strikes the right balance – offering just enough detail to spark interest and prompt further enquiries. While the full PR campaign is still underway, early indicators show promising results, with strong engagement and a growing interest in the DROPS product line.

“It’s so exciting to see the vision of TB2 Aerospace come to life better than we could’ve imagined. Our new brand finally reflects the technology we’ve developed and will support our PR and business development going forward. Thank you to the Canny team for getting to the heart of what we needed so easily and turning it into a cohesive branding package.”

TB2 Aerospace

We were challenged to convey the improvements to THURBON CEMA in a way that clearly demonstrated its full potential.

MASS, a technology company specialising in highly secure software, services and training, wanted to showcase the latest development of its world-leading electronic warfare (EW) database management system, THURBON CEMA.

THURBON CEMA allows users to manage and exploit cyber electromagnetic activity (CEMA) data to gain new insights and operational advantage. MASS needed to communicate the full capabilities of its complex system in a simple, eye-catching way as it prepared to attend AOC Europe, a leading EW domain defence event. With a pressing requirement to create engaging marketing content out of such complicated technology, MASS reached out to us for our expertise.

Check out the animation we created for the MASS team.

MASS_CEMA_ANIMATION_3m5s_4K_AUDIO_v010

THURBON CEMA Animation

The solution seemed clear to us: we needed to bring the technology concepts to life!

The best way to do this was to create a unique animation that clearly set out how this technology would be used in a military context. Starting from an outline storyboard provided by MASS, we worked closely with the team to identify the benefits that THURBON CEMA would provide in a series of hypothetical operations.

These discussions informed our tailored designs, and we developed an animation based around a convoy journey in a hostile environment, employing realistic models of military assets. We layered representative data from the THURBON CEMA database and included key marketing messages that we’d honed with the team. Under immensely tight deadlines, we worked iteratively with the MASS team until the animation had been perfectly refined for maximum impact, just in time for AOC Europe.

Communicating complex EW technology clearly

We turned around the animation request in record time to ensure the MASS team could attend AOC Europe confident in their ability to communicate the THURBON CEMA system. By setting the animation in the military context, customers could quickly and easily understand the full potential of the system and how it could directly fit into their world and support their operations.

The team at MASS were delighted with the result, and the animation helped to draw lots of attention to their stand within the busy exhibition environment, encouraging fresh conversations with key stakeholders and potential leads.

“Working with the Canny team was a great experience. They got everything ready for us so quickly under some really tight deadlines, and the final animation was fantastic. It really brought to life what THURBON CEMA does and will be a great tool for communicating with our stakeholders.”

Pippa Webber, Head of Communications for MASS

MASS

TB2 Aerospace needed to communicate the use cases of its drone recharging operational payload system (DROPS). The secure capture and release mechanism and payload system have exciting military applications across multiple domains but the team lacked a quick and clear way of showing this to stakeholders and end-users.

Check out the animation we created to show the applications of TB2 DROPS for the Army.

TB2_POD_ARMY_ANIMATION_4K_30Mbps

Army Animation

Check out the animation we created to show the applications of TB2 DROPS for the Navy.

TB2_POD_NAVY_ANIMATION_4K_30Mbps

Navy Animation

We produced two high-quality 3D animations to demonstrate use cases for the Army and the Navy. Working closely with TB2, we crafted compelling storyboards and carried this through into design, creating a realistic animated environment that showed the real-world potential of the technology.

3D animations to communicate military applications

The two animations have been vital tools for TB2 as the team has attended events and met with stakeholders and end-users. The animations offered clear visual explanations of how the technology could be applied in military use cases, allowing TB2 to build strong relationships and attract investment.

“We approached Canny as we had seen the team’s previous work with another military-specific company and saw how clearly they could convey key messages. Our system is very unique and unusual at first so we needed to portray it in a way that quickly and coherently conveyed the message of what we do. The result was fantastic and has allowed our customers to easily understand how our novel system could benefit them.”

Cyber 1st, a top British crypto engineering company, wanted to promote its mobile ‘Bulldog’ devices, which facilitate secure sharing of classified data over networks. It was struggling to showcase the benefits of its new product development due to travel restrictions and wanted to develop a consistent message to its stakeholders.

Hear from William Gimson, Strategy, Business Development and Sales Director, as he talks about Cyber 1st's attendance at SDSC-UK.

Cyber 1st - Website Video - V1

To overcome travel limitations, we created a virtual product showroom. The products could be explored interactively on screen, with the key information alongside. We accompanied this with 3D stills of likely use cases for the devices. We also developed a 2D animation that communicated the revolutionary advantages of these new products with contextual examples.

The virtual showroom allowed the company to bring its products to life without transporting physical devices.

The 3D stills captured the imagination of customers and led to opportunity pipeline growth.

The 2D animation and virtual showroom supported Cyber 1st’s presence at the Specialist Defence and Security Convention (SDSC-UK) and supported many subsequent meetings.

‘Canny found an innovative way to communicate the vast benefits of our world-class devices within the limitations we had. With their solution, we were able to travel to the other side of the world and present as easily as if we had our devices physically with us!’

William Gimson, Strategy, Business Development and Sales Director

Cyber 1st

Radnor Range, a firing range situated in Wales, was selected as the Prime contractor and host for a collaborative project between government and industry, tasked to redefine autonomous Test and Evaluation (T&E) for modern defence requirements.

Radnor Range required PR and comms support to boost its reach amongst its stakeholders, and to produce a range of content that showcased both Radnor’s live fire and synthetic capabilities.

We used our experienced team and knowledge of MOD communications processes to coordinate communications activities between the numerous collaboration partners. By doing this, we were able to curate compelling content that highlighted how Radnor’s capabilities positively impacted the results of the T&E project and showcased the many organisations involved

With a focus on MOD and industry audiences, we utilised LinkedIn and worked closely with Radnor’s customer to share the many successes of the project.

Radnor’s LinkedIn page has seen an exponential increase in reach since we began:

·        Followers increased by 167%.

·        Posts received an average engagement rate of 6.75%, 2–3% higher than what is considered a traditionally ‘good’ engagement rate for posts on LinkedIn.

·        There has been an increase in comments and reactions of over 500% in four months.

Here’s an example of a post that was shared through the end customer’s social media accounts and received over 120 likes and dozens of comments and reposts.

Radnor Range

Global geopolitical risk and intelligence firm Sibylline had many of the Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 companies on its client list, yet CEO Justin Crump described his company as the industry’s “best kept secret”. Justin asked Canny to change that. 

The aim was to double its revenue from its existing customer type (chief security officers (CSOs) in large corporates) and introduce Sibylline’s capabilities to the rest of the c-suite.

Head of Marketing and Communications, Sibylline

Millie Martin

Given Sibylline had a team of expert analysts, all providing unbiased analysis to clients on geopolitical issues every minute of every day, the approach centred on turning this into a ‘service’ for the media to secure regular high-calibre coverage. 

We started by working with the chosen spokespeople to provide media training and develop compelling pitches based on their expertise and the news agenda. Next, we worked with the in-house team to ensure a robust process was in place for handling media enquiries quickly and smoothly. 

Our challenge was proving the credibility of their spokespeople. To achieve this, we constructed a series of short media-only virtual roundtables with Sibylline’s experts, running ahead of the news agenda to provide forecast insight. 

Media relations: a PR service for the media

Canny started working with Sibylline in 2020. Here is a snapshot of coverage between May 2022 and mid-May 2023. In this period, we secured 488 pieces of UK and US national and international business coverage. Examples of the coverage, all including unbiased analysis and brand mentions:

42 interviews and expert appearances on BBC News

35 comments in The Times (print and online)   and three interviews on Times Radio 

13 interviews on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme   

4 interviews and expert appearances on the BBC   World Service

In May 2022 alone, the audience reach of coverage was well over 1.569bn. LinkedIn followers increased by 48% (3,702) and average engagement rate rose from 4.72% to 5.18%, with some posts topping 81 reactions and 423 clicks. 

The results of this coverage have led to significant brand recognition; when the sales team now make ‘cold calls’ to prospective clients, the contacts have heard of Sibylline and want to know more. The company has grown to five times its size, from 100 to 500 employees, and has accrued £50m in revenue in the last 12 months and continues to receive daily requests for comment.

Sibylline

Nanotechnology firm Advanced Material Development (AMD) was looking to accelerate its innovation within defence and security.

COO of AMD

Richard Lee

Phase one included an analysis of AMD’s current position and development of a strategy covering innovation, BD and marcomms. The resulting strategy included three growth themes: reputation, revenue and IP.  Phase two was a targeted programme with September 2021’s DSEI in the centre to increase the company’s insight and traction in defence, develop useful partnerships, identify future routes to market and secure R&D funding. 

More than 100 new relationships formed, including the CTOs of most of the major primes, as well as relevant SMEs. 

DASA contract worth ~£400k secured in September, adding £8m to the company’s valuation.

A pipeline of opportunities with government and industry.

Coverage with national broadcast and broadsheet outlets and trade, investment and scientific media outlets.

Here are some examples of how we've helped clients succeed.

Our work

HYDRA X MBDA

Launching Fering's Pioneer X

Project ZODIAC

Land ISTAR Programme:

3CDSE

Ploughshare

Dstl - Bright Corvus

Callen-Lenz

TB2 Aerospace

MASS

TB2 Aerospace

Cyber 1st

Radnor Range

Sibylline

AMD