Halma
Halma plc is a FTSE 100 UK group that owns and grows a portfolio of specialist engineering businesses focused on safety, health, and environmental technologies. Rather than operating as one unified brand, it runs each acquired company independently.
As AI-driven search reshapes how B2B buyers evaluate suppliers, Halma’s marketing leaders needed a shared framework fast. We answered the call, culminating in a live briefing across the group’s Marketing Network on the shift from SEO to GEO, giving 50 specialist businesses one measurement approach and the confidence to act. Over 65 attendees, representing every company in the Halma group, joined from across the globe with the project.
Problem
Halma’s senior B2B marketers, operating across a portfolio of 50 specialist technology companies, were navigating a fundamental shift in how buyers discover and evaluate suppliers. AI-driven search was already changing the rules of buying behaviour but without a clear framework, marketing teams risked misallocating investment, reporting the wrong metrics, and being caught flat-footed as traditional SEO gave way to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
Across the business and in every boardroom, the questions were “what are we doing about AI?” but the answers were less forthcoming.
Process
With the urgency around the challenge rising, the Via team were asked to share their framework for effective marketing in a world changed by AI. It needed to be portable and applicable for manufacturing businesses in Safety, Environmental & Analysis and healthcare. Most of all, it needed to be rolled out quickly.
The delivery mechanism was Halma’s internal Marketing Network conference, the only occasion where senior marketers from across the company come together. It added time pressure as we were invited as lead contributor and speaker to deliver a structured, 90-minute interactive session on the shift from SEO to GEO and what it means in practice for B2B marketing teams.
Our contribution focused specifically on proving marketing effectiveness in 2026: addressing the limitations of traditional measurement, establishing clear investment principles, and redefining what senior stakeholders should actually be tracking in an AI-led discovery environment.
Solution
A practical strategic framework, delivered live across the Halma group, that gave marketing leaders the clarity to optimise for AI-driven buying journeys, make confident investment decisions, and identify where to act and where to stop.
Supporting materials were developed and shared across the network as both preparation and post-session reference.
In addition, individual sessions and workshops were conducted with teams in the US, UK and Europe, blending face-to-face and distance learning.
Impact
Marketers across Halma’s portfolio left with a shared language, a commercially credible measurement approach, and the strategic conviction to lead their businesses through the transition — turning an emerging external shift into a coordinated, group-wide advantage.
