Advisory Communications · Private Markets

Reputation leads. Growth follows.

A boutique practice for mid-market managers. Hands-on senior counsel on reputation, led personally by Craig Allen. We know how your products are structured, how they are built and how they are perceived, and we put them where they are bought, not sold.

Media relations

Boutique and bespoke

Custom service for each client, not a standard programme.

Direct and available

You deal with Craig Allen direct. Available, responsive, close to decisions as they happen.

A small roster, known well

Long-term relationships, not transactions.

Capabilities

Built around your marketplace

Senior counsel for mid-market managers, not a large team. Every engagement starts with our 360-degree audit: where you stand in your marketplace and what your position is. Then a roadmap, and a programme built around it to fit your firm.

Hands-on senior counsel

Direct guidance from senior people who stay close to the work. No hand-off, no layers. Clear advice on what to say, where to be seen, and how to handle an issue when it comes up.

We know the products

How private markets products are structured and how they are built, and how they are perceived by allocators, advisers and journalists. That perception is where most firms lose ground.

Bought, not sold

The aim is a firm and a product that people choose. When the story is clear and the product is understood, it does not need to be pushed. It is bought, and so is the story behind it.

Your advocate in the market

We act as advocate and communicator between you and the market. We remove the friction that sits between a product and the people who need to understand it, and we put the firm's case in terms those people can act on.

Permission to practise

Reputation work that helps a firm be accepted and backed in its market, build opportunities, and stay known to allocators, journalists and clients.

Custom service, small roster

We are available and responsive: in the discussions and on the calls, not briefed after the fact. The roster is kept small on purpose, so each firm gets senior time. Long-term relationships, not transactions.

Where we work: private equity and private credit · secondaries and successor funds · asset-backed and specialty finance · financial services and fintech.

Media Relations: Our Lead Work

Media relations, led by senior counsel

The core of the practice. Good media work rests on knowledge of the market and of journalists, and on judgement about what is a story and what is not. Each approach is prepared for the journalist it goes to. Nothing is sent out in hope.

Knowledge of journalists

We know who covers what, what their readers need, and how they work. Approaches are specific to the journalist, not sent to a list. Connections are kept current, between stories as well as during them.

Judgement on stories

Senior counsel on what will interest the press, what needs more work, and what should not be approached. That judgement protects reputation as well as builds it.

Preparation and thought leadership

Briefing for interviews, panels and difficult questions, and articles and commentary in the firm's own voice, placed where allocators, advisers and investors read.

AI narratives

AI tools summarise firms from published sources. If the published record is thin or unclear, the AI answer will be too. Clear coverage shapes that record.

The Wall Street Journal · WSJ Pro · Financial Times · Bloomberg · Barron's · Reuters · NBC · Business Insider · Politico · Private Equity International · Private Debt Investor · FundFire · PitchBook

Results

Success in media relations

Achieving success in media relations is central to our work. We work across a wide range of titles, including tier-one national, financial and specialist publications, helping firms to be seen clearly and understood well in the markets that matter to them. Alongside that coverage, we focus on managing reputations and enabling companies to grow, with sustained, credible communication that supports the business over time.

Presentation

Allen & Associates in brief

The firm and how we work, on this page. No download needed. Use the forward link to pass it on.

Slide 1: The firm

Reputation leads. Growth follows.

A boutique practice for mid-market managers, led personally by Craig Allen. Hands-on senior counsel, custom service and a small roster.

Craig Allen has led communications at leading alternatives firms and asset management businesses, including Franklin Templeton and ING Investment Management. He has worked with C-suite executives on their decisions for many years, and has covered this industry for 20 years.

Slide 2: The 360-degree audit

We audit first. Then we set the roadmap.

We offer a 360-degree audit of your firm and its reputation. We audit to understand where you stand in your marketplace, what your position is, and how the firm and its products are seen today, by whom.

Where you stand: your position in the marketplace, across allocators, advisers, intermediaries, press and peers, and what each needs to understand.

Risks identified: gaps and misunderstandings in the current story, and where they hold the position back.

Opportunities understood: new channels, new audiences, and the points where a clear story opens a door.

The roadmap: we set a strong roadmap from the audit, built to marry up with your ultimate distribution and sales goals.

We use our industry knowledge, expertise and connections to guide and drive that roadmap.

Slide 3: Media relations, the lead work

Senior counsel, known journalists, clear judgement

Media relations is led by senior people who know the journalists covering private markets. Every approach is specific to the journalist, not sent to a list.

We know how the products are structured and how they are read by the press. The aim is a story that is understood and bought, by journalists first and then by the market they inform.

Slide 4: Results

Success in media relations

Achieving success in media relations is central to our work. We work across a wide range of titles, including tier-one national, financial and specialist publications, helping firms to be seen clearly and understood well in the markets that matter to them. Alongside that coverage, we focus on managing reputations and enabling companies to grow, with sustained, credible communication that supports the business over time.

Slide 5: How we work

Boutique, bespoke, close to the client

Available, responsive, close to the business. Senior counsel, direct, not a hand-off.

Our role is to act as your advocate and communicator in the market: to remove the friction between what you offer and what people understand, so your products and your story are bought rather than sold. A small roster, long-term relationships, and a firm that stays known to allocators, journalists and clients.

Success in media relations

Achieving success in media relations is central to our work. We work across a wide range of titles, including tier-one national, financial and specialist publications, helping firms to be seen clearly and understood well in the markets that matter to them. Alongside that coverage, we focus on managing reputations and enabling companies to grow, with sustained, credible communication that supports the business over time.

How We Work: The 360-Degree Audit

We audit first. Then we set the roadmap.

We do not start with activity. We audit. Our 360-degree audit establishes where you stand in your marketplace and what your position is: the risks, the opportunities, and what every market participant needs to understand. The roadmap, and the programme that follows, are built on that.

01 Audit, 360-degree

We audit how the firm and its products are seen, what is published, what AI tools repeat, and what is missing, across allocators, advisers, intermediaries, press and peers. That establishes where you stand and what your position is.

02 Understand

The risks in the current position, the opportunities in the market, and where participants are going and what they are trying to achieve.

03 Set the roadmap

We set a strong roadmap from the audit: a clear position, supporting proof, and a story that holds together across press, meetings and materials, and explains the product as it is built, not as a sales line. The roadmap is built to marry up with your ultimate distribution and sales goals.

04 Guide and drive

We use our industry knowledge, expertise, connections and IP to guide and drive the roadmap: acting as advocate and communicator in the market, placing the story in national, financial and specialist media, preparing spokespeople for interviews and panels, and keeping the firm known in its market. The aim throughout is a firm and products that are bought, not sold, in line with those distribution and sales goals.

How engagements run: close to the client, through fund cycles, product launches and market changes.

The Firm

Experience inside and outside

In-house experience brings an understanding of how decisions are made inside a firm. External experience brings distance, market knowledge and press relationships. Mid-market managers get both, hands-on.

Allen & Associates is a small, boutique, senior practice for mid-market managers. Work is led personally, with no layers between the client and the counsel. We sit in the firm's own discussions and calls, not outside them.

We have worked with many clients over the years and keep a small roster today, five to seven clients. That is a service decision, so each client gets senior time and counsel based on a real knowledge of the firm, its products and its marketplace.

Alternatives has always been the focus, with technology alongside it: how firms invest, how they distribute, and how their stories are now searched for, summarised by AI and reported.

Managing Partner · Lead on Every Engagement

Craig Allen

Craig Allen has led communications at leading alternatives firms and asset management businesses, including Franklin Templeton and ING Investment Management. He has worked with C-suite executives on their decisions for many years, and has covered this industry for 20 years.

He knows the journalists who cover private markets and how the products in this market are structured, built and perceived. Clients deal with him direct.