World Quantum Day: Communicating Quantum Without the Hype
2025 might well be the year that quantum coverage went mainstream. In addition to marking UNESCO’s International Year of Quantum (IYQ), industry advancements, claims, and predictions have dominated the news agenda.
But while news about quantum has increased, there’s still a lot of work to be done to effectively communicate quantum to the public.
Quantum technology is complex, evolving fast, and often misunderstood. With major ‘breakthrough’ announcements such as Google’s Willow and Microsoft’s Majorana, it’s becoming increasingly harder for media to distinguish between hype and technical accuracy.
For communications professionals, that creates a unique challenge: how do you tell compelling, accessible stories without leaning on hype? And how can we help our clients cut through the noise and gain media attention while staying credible?
This World Quantum Day 2025, TFD therefore developed data, content, and opportunities to add value to the quantum conversation, and provide journalists with an overview of the landscape.
With The Economist Impact’s 4th annual Commercialising Quantum Global 2025 fast approaching on May 13-14, we created a research-led campaign designed to offer a pulsecheck on the state of the quantum industry. The findings spotlighted both opportunities and challenges to address; while exact timelines are impossible to predict, the study showed that a huge 83% of quantum professionals think that quantum utility will be achieved within the next decade.
However, 75% of respondents indicated that quantum adoption is hampered by a lack of understanding at the board level, and 57% believe that misconceptions about quantum computing actively hinder progress. This highlights a significant disconnect between technological advancement and business readiness, underpinning the necessity for clearer communication and education.
We pitched the findings to the press to coincide with World Quantum Day, resulting in the data being published both in standalone features and on broader pieces on the quantum landscape. To date, we’ve secured over 12 pieces of coverage in key technology and telecoms publications, including The Next Web, Computer Weekly, Telecoms.com, TelecomTV, The Mobile Network, Tech Informed, The Quantum Insider and Startups Magazine.
In addition, while we’ve previously spoken to journalists and branding experts about how to communicate quantum effectively, we wanted to dive a little deeper into journalists’ burning quantum questions. To do this, we invited UK technology journalists to a Q&A session with three of our quantum experts, spanning the core pillars of quantum technologies - sensing, communications and computing. Five journalists attended the session, with many emailing afterwards to say how helpful they found the discussion.
Key topics covered included:
- Distinguishing between different areas of quantum technology (e.g. sensing, communications, security, computing)
- Quantum technologies already being deployed
- Recognising hype vs breakthroughs
- The quantum ‘tipping point’
- Use cases and enterprise adoption
- Quantum computing business models
- The role of government, regulation, and policy
By targeting media through different channels and sharing a variety of content, we secured coverage for our clients across key trade publications, many combining commentary with statistics from the survey press release. We brought together multiple clients to offer their perspective on the industry, providing journalists with a comprehensive view and creating something far greater than the sum of its parts.
This approach ensured our clients led the discussion surrounding World Quantum Day, while giving journalists informed and insightful perspectives without the hyperbole.
To discuss how TFD can amplify your quantum brand, please get in touch, or to find out more about our work in the quantum industry visit our Quantum Collective page.