Key takeaways
• Competing for attention with your own partners over the same industry project dilutes the impact of the story for everyone involved.
• A single, comprehensive narrative that weaves together the perspectives of an OEM, dealer, and end-customer, for example, is far more attractive to busy B2B editors.
• Building ‘co-marketing equity’ elevates all brands simultaneously, moving away from siloed communication and towards a systems-view approach.
• A neutral facilitator can help navigate the multi-party approval bottleneck, balancing compliance demands while keeping the narrative momentum going.
• Shared production costs for visual assets (such as photo and video shoots) save time and budget while ensuring high-quality, unified storytelling.
A groundbreaking project is completed, involving an innovative OEM, their expert local dealer, and a forward-thinking end-customer. Everyone is proud, and each has a compelling story to tell. The OEM wants to highlight its technology leadership, the dealer wants to showcase its role as a trusted on-the-ground partner, and the customer wants to demonstrate its own commitment to progress – be it safety, productivity, or sustainability.
So, what happens next? In many cases, three separate communications teams start working on three separate press releases.
The illusion of the win
Let’s be clear. If each organisation is targeting entirely different media verticals, then multiple press releases tailored to the specific interests of those respective audiences are a smart and effective strategy. Problems arise, however, when all three parties are competing for the attention of the exact same journalists with the same core story.
Realistically, given the intense pressures they’re under, editors do not have the time or inclination to piece together information from three separate press releases to produce one fully rounded story – and they certainly won’t publish three separate articles with largely the same information.
They will likely base their coverage on just one press release: the one they spot in their inbox first, the one with the most impactful headline, or the one from the contact they trust the most.
If your press release is the one that gets published, it can feel like a win. But it’s a hollow victory because your other partners have lost out, their voices unheard. A lot of collective time and effort has been wasted on unpublished content and most importantly, the industry has received an incomplete, on-dimensional version of a much more nuanced and richer story.
The value of a neutral facilitator
At SE10, our philosophy is to start with the story. Instead of leading with ‘What’s my angle?’, we reflect on ‘What is the best possible story we can tell here, together?’ It’s a shift from thinking in silos to taking a high-level systems view that builds genuine co-marketing equity – where the combined authority of the partnership elevates every brand involved.
However, executing this can be a significant challenge for multiple teams or organisations each with their own immediate corporate priorities, internal pressures, and compliance rules. In fact, the greatest threat to a shared story is usually the multi-party approval bottleneck, where an excellent narrative gets delayed or diluted by committee as separate legal and corporate communications teams try to find a consensus.
This is where a neutral player such as SE10 acts as a strategic facilitator. By representing all perspectives involved – including those of journalists and their readers – we don’t just find common ground. We actively manage the alignment and sign-off process across teams, streamlining the coordination to keep momentum moving and build a single, comprehensive narrative that serve’s everyone’s interests.
And we’re not just talking about writing press releases here. This collaborative mindset could also extend to planning photo or video shoots, where one professional crew captures assets to be shared among all partners to edit as they see fit. It’s a simple act that can save everyone time and money and ensure a consistent, high-quality visual story.
The unseen ROI: Building relational capital
Does this process take a bit more time for coordination? Yes, but the results are worth it and go far beyond more efficient and impactful communication.
Smooth and collegiate collaboration between multiple parties to tell a shared story builds trust and strengthens relations between them. This is how systems thinking in communication can help transform a transactional supply chain into a genuine partnership ecosystem.
Ultimately, the goal of B2B communications in 2026 should not just be to ensure your voice is heard, but to contribute a valuable, insightful, and well-rounded story to your industry. The brands that understand they are part of a connected system – and act accordingly – will be the ones the build the most resilient reputations and the most lasting trust.
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
