PRmoment Podcast
PRmoment
The PRmoment Podcast is a series of life story style interviews with some of the leading lights of UK PR.
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 PRmoment Podcast Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best PRmoment Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to PRmoment Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite PRmoment Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions: September 2023 update
PRmoment Podcast
09/05/23 • 25 min
Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.
Welcome to our September review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch.
He is the lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR and a partner at PCB Partners where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.
Andrew was also a co-founder at PR agency Frank PR, where he is still a non-executive director.
Thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors The PRCA.
A reminder about our new event PR Masterclass: The Agency Growth Forum.
At this one event, 22 experts will give 11 Masterclasses on essential elements of managing a modern, profitable and successful PR firm.
Also, a reminder that the final entry deadline for the ESG Awards is 29th September 2023.
Here is a summary of what Andrew and PRmoment podcast host Ben Smith discussed on this week’s show:
2 mins Andrew gives us his rundown of this month's PR pitch wins
- Instinct wins Moonpig
- Purple wins Yoo Capital
- Stir wins Dunkin Donuts
- Cirkle wins Wilkinson Sword
- Social Chain wins Holland & Barratt
- Hope&Glory wins Vision Express
- Mercia wins Wembley
- Ogilvy wins Muller
- One Green Bean wins Singapore Tourist Board
- Teneo wins The AA
- Powerscourt wins Rightmove
- Frank wins Cupra
- Axicom wins AMD
“A gamechanger for Axicom”
15 mins Andrew updates us on this month’s M&A news:
Markettier’s acquisition of Sassy
Definition has raised £7m debt investment from ThinCats
An update on the $7 billion Syneos Health deal, which sees the firm go private.
Ruth Allchurch, MD of WE UK on the PRmoment Podcast
PRmoment Podcast
09/08/22 • 35 min
Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.
This week we’re chatting to Ruth Allchurch, UK MD WE. We’re going to talk about Ruth’s career to date including her time at Diageo, her experience at Cirkle and most recently at WE where she has took the UK income of the firm to close to £7m, from about £3m when she joined as the UK MD 4 years ago.
Currently, 60 people work in London for WE and current clients include Capgemini, Intel, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim and Google Waves.
Before we start - if you haven’t seen them already - take a look at the categories for The ESG Awards - the early entry deadline is 16th September.
And do check out the home page of PRmoment for our latest webinars, including PR Analytics, LinkedIn as a B2B Marketing Channel, The Most Popular KPIs in PR and The intersection of Data, Insight and PR Planning.
Finally, thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.
Here's a summary of what Ruth and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:
2 mins Ruth talks us through how a PR firm with a fee income of £3m turned itself into a PR firm with a fee income of over £6.5m inside 4 years.
“There is no scope for ambiguity when you're looking to grow a business”
“We were overservicing on low fee accounts...it's not about more clients its about having healthier partnerships with the ones we choose wot work with”
9 mins Ruth was on Weber Shandwick’s first-ever graduate training programme. In PR it seems unfashionable to be a graduate at the moment - would Ruth go to Uni again?
11 mins Are graduate PR schemes still a good idea?
13 mins Ruth started her career agency side at Weber Shandwick and then went to Cohn & Wolfe before she went in-house at Diageo. How important was that period in-house in the story of her career?
15 mins Why did Ruth leave a nice in-house role to go back agency side when she joined Cirkle?
17 mins Ruth talks us through her time at Cirkle.
“It was probably the steepest learning curve I’ve ever had in my career”
19 mins Why did Ruth leave BCW to move to WE?
22 mins How has the type of work changed that WE UK does in the last 4 years?
“We do much more employee engagement work than we’ve ever done before”
24 mins Has the culture of WE changed in the last 4 years?
26 mins What do you need to do to change the culture of a PR firm?
28 mins Ruth talks us through why she’s not a great fan of the pitching process, and how she’d change it.
31 mins Why Ruth doesn’t believe PR prices itself correctly.
32 mins As a female leader of perhaps the only female-founded international PR network - what mark out of 10 does Ruth give PR on its gender equality progress?
33.30 mins Ruth talks us through her experience of having a Ukrainian family stay for 4 months.
Edelman during the lockdown: A story of two halves? Justin Westcott, CCO UK and Ireland of Edelman on the PRmoment Podcast
PRmoment Podcast
03/04/21 • 33 min
This week on the PRmoment Podcast I’m talking to Justin Westcott, Edelman’s chief operating officer of Edelman UK and Ireland and head of technology, Edelman EMEA.
Edelman had a fee income of circa $840 million dollars in 2020, down from about $890m from the previous financial year.
So Edelman’s revenues decreased 5.9% in 2020 - which, most observers seem to reckon is a pretty decent result, bearing in mind the tumultuous nature of 2020!
Here’s a flavour of what Justin and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed.
1.30 mins Justin talks about how, for Edelman, this was a V-shaped dip and recovery.
2 mins Edelman had a horrid quarter last year but 8 months into its fiscal year Edelman in the UK has returned to growth.
3 mins When looking at the wider economy, is it a bit surreal that PR’s in such a growth mode?
8 mins What has Edelman done to reduce the negative impact of lockdown on its staff?
11 mins How 10-15% (so 50+ people) of Edelman’s UK workforce have never been to its office, nor met their colleagues face-to-face.
14 mins Could this decade be the second Roaring 20s?
15 mins Edelman is moving office in the UK next year - how has that new office brief changed in the last 12 months?
17 mins What will the new type of office layout and design look like?
21 mins As CCO - what's it like managing a 500 person agency virtually?
22 mins How Justin is regularly looking at employee data to check that things are working OK across the business.
28 mins While last year was challenging, 2020 was also Edelman UK’s most awarded year ever for its creative work.
29 mins For a PR firm to have strong tech expertise, can only be an advantage.
30 mins Post Chuka Umunna - what does Edelman’s ESG offer look like in the UK?
How to use risk methodology in your crisis comms strategies
PRmoment Podcast
01/09/23 • 29 min
Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.
This week we’re talking to George Hutchinson founder of River Effra Communications about the expanding area of risk methodology in crisis communication.
It’s an interesting area which takes another perspective on PR’s increasingly complex intersection with data.
The central concept is to use risk methodology to model and understand the reputational consequences for an organisation if it behaves in a particular way.
George set up River Effra earlier this year, previously he had senior roles at Teneo and BCW.
Before we start the PRmoment Awards 2023 are open for entries - do check out the awards site PRmomentAwards.com
Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.
Here is a summary of what George and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed on the show:
2 mins George talks us through the use of risk methodologies in crisis communications.
“The time has come for increased use of risk methodologies in crisis communications...to help potentially avoid the crisis in the first place.”
4 mins What are risk methodologies and how do you use them in crisis communications?
“Reputational risks are always secondary, they don’t come from no-where”
7 mins So is this approach about putting a “threat” cost on reputations by modelling various crisis communication scenarios?
“The idea that your corporate affairs director can somehow relationship your way out of a crisis just doesn’t work”
10 mins George suggests that communication and reputation crises are actually pretty predictable - Black Swan crises are rare.
12.30 mins What are the riskiest areas of crisis currently?
16 mins How cyber security crisis can become business critical.
17 mins Are poor CEO behaviour the most common reputation crisis for most large organisations?
“There are businesses that I have advised where the CEO has had to go...you can’t treat your leadership team differently from the rest of the organisation”
19.30 mins What are the short, medium and long-term implications of a reputational crisis?
22 mins What are the impacts of a reputational crisis on the different stakeholders? From the leadership, to employees, to customers...
“In a crisis, initially you feel under attack, which can lead to persecution bias...and you can only deal with a crisis if you’ve accepted the problem.”
“Your employees can feel disillusioned by the corporate’s response”
24 mins How quickly do customers desert an organisation over a reputational crisis?
26 mins What does the CEO want from their communications leader in a crisis?
28 mins What is the most common mistake people make in a corporate crisis?
“You see a lot of leaders do flight to fight”
What Rajar’s Q3 Results 2022 mean for PR folks
PRmoment Podcast
10/27/22 • 20 min
Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.
This week we’ve put in a bonus podcast where we chat about Rajar’s latest results. For those of you that aren’t aware of Rajar - it was established in 1992 and operates the single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom
Each quarter they publish the listenership figures for UK radio and this offers a really interesting insight for PR people on how the UK public is engaging with this important channel.
On the show today we have Howard Kosky, CEO of markettiers to talk us through the latest Rajar results.
Before we start the PRmoment Awards 2023 are now open for entries - do check out the awards site PRmomentAwards.com
Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.
Here’s a summary of what Howard and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:
1.30 mins A record 49.7 million adults listen to the radio every week, 89% of the UK adult population, over 1 billion radio hours consumed each week and the average listener listens to 20.6 hours of live radio each week.
3 mins 63% of people are listening to the radio at home, 23% of people are listening in the car and 14% at work or in places like the gym.
4 mins How technology and changes in consumers working practices post-COVID have evolved people’s radio listening habits.
4.30 min 13% of people listen to the radio through a smart speaker and 23% listen to the radio via online listening (streaming), DAB has dropped to 39%, Apps 10.2%
“The technology is driving the trend”
7.30 mins What is the opportunity for PR people in the modern radio market?
“There are more choices a listener, which means the opportunity to reach a more indexed audience is greater from a PR and communications perspective but it means more effort.”
“If you’re trying to mobilise a behaviour at a local level or at an age demographic or a profile demographic then the ability to reach tight audience group is absolutely there.”
9.30 mins What are the main content opportunities for PR people within radio?
“They are radio stations first but increasingly multimedia platforms”
13 mins Commercial radio has had a phenomenal year - “all commercial” radio is up from 36.8 million to 38.2 million, and local commercial radio is up from 24.4 million to 25.8 million.
“I take my hat off to how the likes of Global and Bauer have implemented a strategy...to give listeners choice...They have recognised there is an opportunity to provide targeted programming output to reach a particular audience group”
19 mins Why the BBC is trying to drop the age bracket of Radio 2 by not renewing the contracts of the likes of Steve Wright.
02/02/23 • 49 min
On the show this week we talk to Howard Kosky, founder and CEO of Markettiers4DC.
Kosky founded Markettiers4DC in 1994. Clients include Rolls-Royce, Linkedin and Unilever. The business employs a team of 150 people in the UK and UAE
As many of our regular podcast listeners may know, last week Waterland Private Equity took a majority stake in Markettiers4DC for a reported amount of £50 million. The business has been well known for its broadcast PR credentials in the UK for decades but it’s grown significantly in the last couple of years - with the growth of its research business Censuswide and its digital production firm Through The I.
On the show today we’re going to talk to Howard about the deal and what it means for the future of Markettiers4DC and his role within the business. We’ll also be talking to Andrew Bloch from PCB partners about its role in the deal and how the valuation of Markettiers4DC was made.
Do check out our latest free-to-attend webinar “The State of Social 2023: Channel Disruption, Influencer Growth and The Great Data Integration Challenge.”
Thanks as ever to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors The PRCA.
Here is a summary of what Howard and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:
2 mins Howard talks us through why he decided now was the right time to sell.
“We were very pleased with everyone’s reaction internally to the shift in behaviour (required) to working remotely...with that productivity increased, broadcast popularity increased, the use of technology in virtual events increased and the use of data increased.”
“Rather than sell the business, we looked for an investor, a backer.”
“In professional services consultancy businesses, if you can get the people management right, you can flourish”
6 mins Why Howard believes the culture of Markettiers4DC is better now than before the pandemic.
“It’s not work-life balance, it’s just life. It’s where work sits within the parameter of people’s lives.”
7 mins Howard talks us through the shape of the Marketteirs4DC group in terms of the venues and headcount.
8 mins The reported deal value is £50 million. Is that what Waterland bought the majority stake in Markettiers4DC for, or does that include their future investments in acquisitions?
“They (Waterland) shared our ambition with the desire to create a war chest for us to match our M&A plan and ambition.”
10 mins Is Howard trying to replicate the broad shape of the UK Markettiers4DC business in America?
“North America is a huge opportunity for us.”
10.30 mins The revenues of the Markettiers4DC group are about £30m and the business has grown by about £10m in revenue (30% or thereabouts) in the last 24 months. That’s going some, how did they do that?
13.30 mins Markettiers4DC have been purchased by a private equity group. Did they consider a trade sale?
15 mins As a sell-side advisor to the deal, Andrew Bloch from PCB partners talks us through what his role was in helping put the deal together.
17 mins The private equity debt market is a tough one at the moment, did that add a layer of complexity to the deal?
“We were probably at a stage where we had agreed on the numbers 3 months before...”
23 mins When you’re agreeing on the final number, is it basically a game of poker?
“Waterland is a buy and build specialist”
29 mins Howard talks us through the due diligence process and the psychometric tests!
“When these guys come in they put a periscope us every part of y
Your PR measurement decisions: A discussion with Onclusive’s Marcus Gault on the PRmoment Podcast
PRmoment Podcast
02/14/22 • 29 min
Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.
This week we’re chatting to Marcus Gault, managing director UK and Ireland of Onclusive.
Dare I say many of you may not be aware but Onclusive is the new name for the Reputation Intelligence division of Kantar that was recently acquired by Symphony Technology Group.
Onclusive has over 9,000 clients, across 130 markets and over 1,100 employees. So it’s a big beast in the PR measurement and evaluation game.
Before we start, just to tell you about PRmoment’s new Patron Scheme. If you are a regular consumer of our content, including this podcast, and you’re getting value from it, if you fancy making a contribution to help fund PRmoment, now you can.
We have three different Patron Tiers—The Daney Parker Tier, The Chadlington Tier and Edward Bernays Tier.
Also, thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.
Here’s a summary of what Marcus and PRoment founder Ben Smith spoke about:
1.30 mins Is there a difference between the data and insight demands of your agency clients and your in-house/corporate clients?
3.30 mins Most data suppliers use a mix of human and automated (AI) analysis these days. Marcus talks us through the pros and cons of each approach.
“The sweat spot is a hybrid approach: you use AI to do the heavy lifting but then you sample code with people a proportion of the coverage to get the deeper insight.”
7.30 mins Do companies like Onclusive tend to supply the raw data or do you interpret it? How do you see yourselves these days, as data providers or insight consultants?
9.30 mins Is the measurement of PR and comms always likely to be imperfect? Just because PR and comms is nearly always part of an integrated marketing strategy?
13 mins Marcus talks about how he’d advise the measurement of a consumer campaign.
15 mins And he compares that to how he’d suggest measuring a firms reputation, so corporate PR.
18 mins“The key insight is what is hurting and what is helping your reputation.”
19.30 mins Measurement professionals working in the PR and comms sector spend a lot of time talking about outcome measurement. But not many PR campaigns measure their outcomes. Why is that? Is outcome measurement a false hope?
20.30 mins The integrated nature of most marketing campaigns makes outcome measurement difficult.PR and comms is not in isolation much of the time.
21.30 mins “I would advise PR and comms professionals to clearly define what they are trying to achieve in their comms activity, and then identify what sources of data they might have access to that will help them understand the impact of that work.”
23 mins Don’t forget: our colleagues/rivals (?) in marketing may have bigger budgets but they also struggle to measure the impact of their integrated campaigns.
23.30 mins What are the most popular measurement KPIs for Onclusive’s clients?
26.30 mins They’ll be a section of listeners of this podcast who are part of PR’s measurement clan. Marcus gives us an update on why, having left the sector for a few years, he’s been tempted back!
The UK PR Recruitment Market 2024: The Year in Review with Latte founder Dean Connelly
PRmoment Podcast
12/28/24 • 20 min
Today on the PRmoment Podcast we’re talking to Latte founder Dean Connelly about the PR recruitment market in 2024.
The reason for analysing the recruitment market in PR is that it tends to reflect the confidence of the sector. If firms are recruiting, they are feeling confident, if they are not recruiting they tend to be more concerned about the future.
Latte is a PR recruiter in London and Sydney and Dean founded the firm in 2016.
Before we start, we’ve now launched our PR Masterclass: The Intersection of Data, Planning and Measurement. Attend this PR Masterclass to hear from experts on the latest techniques, tools and case studies about the use of data in modern communications. Early bird ticket prices are available until December 20th.
The other big news in public relations is that the PRmoment Awards 2025 are open.
All the categories, the updated entry form and the 2025 entry pack can be viewed on the awards microsite.
For some more perspective on the current PR recruitment market, take a look at this Linkedin discussion.
Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.
Here’s a summary of what PRmoment founder Ben Smith and Dean discussed:
3 mins Dean outlines the current state of the PR recruitment market.
“We’re seeing more corporate and tech roles coming through but consumer is quiet.”
“The first half of the year for us in consumer was quite busy but it's seen a steady decline.”
6 mins Why the move to project income and shorter turnaround times on briefs has impacted the recruitment sector for full time employees.
9 mins Which sectors are up/down in PR recruitment currently?
“One consistent message is inconsistency.”
“Covid growth meant unrealistic financial targets were set.”
14 mins Dean runs us through his PR recruitment heat thermometer for Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.
15 mins The most in demand jobs titles: Account manager to account director.
17 mins Which job titles are less in demand?
18 mins Dean outlines his talent trends of 2024 and predictions for 2025.
12/18/24 • 26 min
It’s my twice yearly chat with W Communications founder and CEO Warren Johnson and today it’s our 2024 PR Agency Year in Review.
It’s been quite the year. Some have described it as the year that never was! But could it have been worse? And has PR the latter half of Q3 and into Q4 actually come good?
Warren founded W Communications in 2009. It now has global revenues of £20m and a headcount of 200, with 140 in London and 60 across the rest of the world.
Over the next half hour or so Warren and I will discuss the ups and downs of agency life over the last 12 months.
Before that, the breaking news is that the PRmoment Awards final entry deadline is the 17th January. Don’t miss the opportunity to create proof points of the quality of your agency’s work.
Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.
2 mins Warren, on how has 2024 been for W.
“The dismantling of the retainer model accelerated this year.”
“We and the rest of the industry are having to re-tool into a more management consultancy style project based business”
“We’re seeing a greeter and greater appetite to buy more services from PR consultancy businesses.”
“It’s busy, I wouldn't say it's as profitable as it has been.”
“We’re having to work harder than ever to maintain our strong margin.”
“You can often have clients bump a project with little or no notice and also no penalty and that’s a drag on margin. Until we get that fixed.”
“If you don’t know what the world looks like in 3 months, let alone 6, why would you plan for 9 months out.”
9 mins Why is retaining PR agency margins tougher than ever?
10 mins What are the implications of the move towards project based fees on the talent profile of PR agencies?
11 mins Is a retainer relationship ever better for the client?
“If you want to partner with an agency properly, then a retainer is always better.”
13 mins In which sectors is PR spend up/down?
“Love a bit of B2B. No one is ever going to cut budgets driving CEO fame or lead gen.”
“Sport for us has been huge. Biggest growth area. Insatiable appetite for briefs coming in.”
“Travel has been strong."
“We’ve had some very good wins over the last 5 days. It’s been nice to go into Christmas with some wins under our belt."
17 mins Warren’s top tips for any independent PR agency CEOs out there on how to manage their businesses in this new project lead income, more agile business environment.
“Challenge every way of working. Make sure it’s match fit.”
“Agency bosses need to get out. Get into the office. Spend time with your staff IRL, go out and see clients.”
“PR agency owners are making money but not enjoying it.”
20 mins What talent trends have you seen this year?
“Lots of big senior names have become available, particularly client side.”
“At a lower level there’s bound to be a slight reduction in grad level intake just because of the cost of bringing them in and the quite often poor quality of talent coming in. The costs versus talent quality is beginning to become imbalanced.”
23.30 mins Warren’s thoughts on the Omnicom, IPG merger. Historically these holding companies mergers happen because of the ad agencies and the PR firms either innocent bystanders, or potentially innocent victims, depending on how cynical you’re feeling at the time. Is this one the same?
“The PR agencies are a rounding error of that deal.”
25 mins Warren reflects on the busyness of PR’s 2024 pitching Golden Quarter.
27 mins How does Warren think PR will fair 2025?
03/14/25 • 29 min
Welcome to the latest PRmoment podcast. Today we’re chatting to 2 of The PRmoment Awards jury chairs Alison Clarke and Michael Murphy to get a chairs perspective on the jury day.
The PRmoment Awards have 5 judging streams incorporating 6 juries across one day. So there are 30 odd jury sessions, of about an hour across 5 different judging streams.
Each stream has an experienced chair to make sure everyone behaves and on today’s show we have 3 of the 5 chairs. Me, Alison Clarke and Michael Murphy.
As a chair it’s an exhausting day. At the end of it I need to open a cold beer and go and sit in a dark room!
But that need for counselling aside, it always seems to me that as chairs we have some wonderful insight from the juries that we then don't share with anyone. And today we’re going to put that right with a PRmoment Podcast on "The Chairs' Perspective."
Clearly we can't talk about who won or give away any campaign specifics because some of that detail is confidential but standby for a whole bunch of insight from inside the PRmoment Award juries.
Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.
The PRmoment Awards Manchester sold have sold out but you can still register for the waiting list. The PRmoment Awards in London still have some tickets available. But time is short. The event is on Thursday March 27th in London. The Manchester awards are a week later.
Michael and Alison, welcome to the show.
Here is a summary of what Alison, Michael and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:
2 mins Michael and Alison explain what the PRmoment jury process is.
7 mins How do Michael and Alison like to chair the sessions? It seems the chairs have their own chairing styles - there’s no one best way of doing it!
11 mins The chairs agree that passions and arguments can run high amongst the judges.
12 mins Michael and Alison compare the type of work coming out of the consumer agencies, compared to the B2B and tech agencies
17 mins A discussion about whether PR charging enough for its work
19 mins How did the type of work coming out of big agencies and small agencies compare?
20 mins Alison and Michael reflect on a really strong year in Manchester and The North this year.
22 mins For people entering the PRmoment Awards in 2026 - what advice would Alison and Michael give?
Show more best episodes
Show more best episodes
FAQ
How many episodes does PRmoment Podcast have?
PRmoment Podcast currently has 377 episodes available.
What topics does PRmoment Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Public Relations, Podcast, Podcasts, Business and Communications.
What is the most popular episode on PRmoment Podcast?
The episode title 'The Media Review with Mark Borkowski on the PRmoment Podcast: Musk, Hancock and The World Cup' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on PRmoment Podcast?
The average episode length on PRmoment Podcast is 34 minutes.
How often are episodes of PRmoment Podcast released?
Episodes of PRmoment Podcast are typically released every 6 days, 4 hours.
When was the first episode of PRmoment Podcast?
The first episode of PRmoment Podcast was released on Nov 18, 2016.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ