PR Resolution podcast

In many cases, Public Relations objectives are often set by a marketing team with little involvement from the CEO. So what happens when a PR agency not only has access to the CEO but they come up with a PR campaign together?

You get, Tinder for Cows!

In this episode, I interview Doug Bairner, the CEO of Hectare, an agriculture technology business along with his PR agency lead, Jon Lonsdale at Octopus Group to find out how their working relationship formed an international campaign.

I uncover how a CEO really views marketing and what he wants in terms of ROI. Why a consumer creative from a b2b agency worked so well and why having PR throughout a business can have such a positive impact.

Special Guests: Doug Bairner and Jon Lonsdale.

Understanding how people interact with news and media sites is essential in PR planning and measurement.

It has been an on-going challenge in Public Relations to understand the true volume of people arriving on news sites due to publishers' secrecy on traffic figures. There was further focus on this topic recently, when UK news site, The Guardian reported that The Telegraph online is planning to link journalists’ pay to traffic and popularity of their articles.

So, in this episode, I interview digital communications consultant Andrew Smith on his research into publisher traffic.

We discuss:
-How readers arrive at news stories
-Where the traffic comes from and how they interact on-site
-Publisher traffic growth strategies
-How the ‘pay for views’ model could work and the problems that could come with this
-Traffic and data tools available to journalists and PR people

No matter what country or industry you practise PR in, this episode is relevant to you all.

Special Guest: Andrew Smith .

In this episode I interview Donna Loughlin, she is the founder & owner of PR firm LMGPR and host of podcast ‘Before It Happened.

Having started journalism at just 10 years old; helping at a local newspaper network that her family managed, Donna progressed & became a global journalist for Reuters and the BBC.

It was when she was reporting in the Valley during the .com boom that Donna swapped sides to PR and started to stories on behalf of tech start ups.

Her experience of launching new tech to market, building founders and business reputation and eventually then taking them out through their initial public offering (IPO) gained the attention of the whole industry..

At her busiest she did 5 IPOs back to back in a, in a six year period...
You can see why Donna is on the wish list of most venture capitalists launch plans!

As well as perfecting launch strategies, over the years Donna met and worked with some of the world’s greatest innovators which led her to her to create her podcast ‘before it happened’ where she gets behind the scenes of the creators and finds out what really led to their moment of problem solving through tech...

This conversation is a fascinating timeline to our ever changing tech world and the importance of PR and storytelling those changes.

Special Guest: Donna Loughlin Michaels.

How healthy does your agency feel? Are there uncertainties around budgets? Are some of your retainers switching to projects? Is your pipeline flowing or in need of some work?

If your agency finances are feeling like a challenge right now you’re not alone.

Research has confirmed that PR budgets are being reduced. Data gathered in June 2023 from the world’s 100 most powerful communicators (Provoke 100 research) found that there has been a drop in public relations investment in the past 12 months of more than $1bn, from $4.8bn to $3.7bn.

Although agencies can’t control client budget decisions, there are efficiencies that can be made in how fees are managed and how agency finances are protected.

To help guide you through this tricky time, Stella is joined by agency Chief Finance Officer Simon Collard. With over 30 years experience as an Agency CFO, Simon is an expert as safely guiding agencies to larger margins and consistent profitability, whatever the industry climate may be.

Stella first met Simon at digital PR and marketing agency Propellernet. Alongside a talented management team, Simon lead the agency to triple margin, quadrupled the revenue and generated 10x more profit. All without pressure on staff; the agency won Best Place to work in the UK 8 years running during this period of growth.

In this interview Simon shares his wisdom on;

• Pricing and fees; Should PR be time or value priced? Or should we charge by output and outcome bonuses?
• The importance to demonstrate the problems you are solving for your client, always.
• Resilience; how to build it and where conscious over-servicing fits in.
• ‘Profit vampires’ and how to deal with them.
• Why the profit and loss sheet is a lagging indicator to an agency’s health & noticing negativity in the P&L means it could be too late
• Numbers; The % of revenue you should spend on people, and cost per person
• And the golden key in all agency profitability; time and resourcing and the best ways to manage it.

Special Guest: Simon Collard .

It's January 2024, offcially back to work. But before you dive into your next campaign its important to consider focus and development for the year. What do you as an individual, your team and as a collective industry need to work on to move forward and succeed this year?

I have enlisted the help of PR powerhouse Stephen Waddington to help us do exactly this. So grab a coffee and listen to this 30 minute episode of the PR Resolution to set your 2024 off to the best start possible.

Stephen Waddington (AKA Wadds) is the Founder and Managing Partner of Wadds Inc. which is a professional advisory firm that helps agencies and communications teams with planning, strategic decision making and execution.

He is fully immersed in the UK and Europe PR industry; he's been the President of the CIPR, has held senior positions at global PR and marketing agencies Ketchum and Metia Group. He is the co-founder of Socially Mobile, a not-for-profit PR school and is also a current PhD research student at Leeds Business School investigating the contribution of public relations to management.

It's safe to say Wadds has a clear view on the state of play in Public Relations and what could happen in this year, 2024.

In this interview, we look back at 2023 and how the economy and government decisions affected the industry.

We talk about marketing and PR budgets, how we responded and how agencies were affected.

Wadds talks about the alignment we have as an industry with senior business leaders and the areas that hold us back; including truly understanding business and how PR communicates success. As well as highlight the issues, he also explains what we can do to improve these areas.

Wadds highlights PR talent, diversity and inclusion as an area that did move on slightly in 2023 but also needs a lot of work within teams and as a collective.

As well as some 2024 predictions, our conversation outlines areas of focus that will help you individually and as a team to aim high, better sell success and as an industry raise credibility a more senior level in 2024.

Special Guest: Stephen Waddington.