Edelman during the lockdown: A story of two halves? Justin Westcott, CCO UK and Ireland of Edelman on the 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?
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?
Previous Episode
Francis Ingham, Director General of the PRCA on the PRmoment podcast
On this week's show, I'm chatting to Francis Ingham, Director General of the PRCA about what the PRCA describes as “an ethical divide (that) has emerged between those willing to embrace ethics and professional standards, and those unwilling to adopt such values.”
A PRCA spokesperson has said “almost half (of lobbyists) are happy to be unregulated and unaccountable. And within this group are some enormously influential companies.”
To put this spat into more context The PRCA’s analysis of lobbying company entries published by the Government’s Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL) showed that the number declaring that they followed no code of conduct increased by 28 per cent between 2019 and 2020.
Of the 166 entries by agencies on the ORCL register 51 per cent adhered to the PRCA’s Public Affairs Code, 39 per cent followed no code; seven per cent followed the CIPR’s code, and two per cent adhered to their own code.
Here’s a summary of what Francis and I discussed:
2 mins Why have some very large companies made the decision not to adhere to any lobbying code of conduct?
4 mins What is ORCL and why did the government establish it?
5 mins Why ORCL is a register to create transparency in lobbying, on its own it is not a code of conduct.
6 mins Why has the number of agencies declaring no code increased in the last 12 months?
7 mins By signing up to the Public Affairs Code - what are agencies signing up to?
7.30 mins Can lobbying firms join the PRCA’s Public Affairs Code without being members of the PRCA?
9 mins How the majority of consultancies not signed up The Public Affairs Code are not PR firms - they are lawyers, accountancies and management consultants.
11 mins What needs to happen for all lobbying firms to join a self-regulatory code of conduct?
15 mins Is the PRCA suffering from a Bell Pottinger hangover here? Are some of these firms not joining the PRCA because they saw what happened with Bell Pottinger and they don’t want to take the risk?
16 mins Why are in-house lobbyists not regulated, only their agency peers?
19 mins What needs to happen to maintain transparency and accountability in the lobbying sector.
Next Episode
Carrie Rose, CEO & co-founder of Rise at Seven on the PRmoment podcast
On this week's podcast, I talked to Carrie Rose, CEO & Co-Founder of Rise at Seven.
To give you some context, just over 2 years ago Rise at Seven barely existed, one year ago it employed 14 people with a turnover of about £1.5 million and today it employs 64 people and has a turnover of over £4 million.
So it really is a story of incredible growth especially when you bear in mind that the last 24 months (remember Brexit!) haven’t exactly been a walk in the park for any business, especially agency businesses in the startup phase.
Rise at Seven describes itself as a search-first creative agency, and it was co-founded by Carrie and Stephen Kenwright in June 2019.
Thanks so much to the podcast sponsors, the PRCA.
The final deadline for the PRmoment Awards is on March 26, do take a look at the PRmoment Awards website for all the details.
Carrie, welcome to the show.
1 min Carrie tells us how Rise at Seven has a fee income of over 4 million 2 years after it was founded
2 mins Carrie talks about what she means by digital PR - basically creating stories to land links!
4 mins Why digital PR needs to be at scale.
7 mins Carrie talks about the difficulties of Rise at Seven growing so rapidly.
9 mins“Fast growth eats your profits...we had to constantly hire”
10 mins How Carrie is splitting Rise at Seven into “three mini agencies inside the agency.”
12 mins Why Carrie has “never seen the value in having an account manager.”
14 mins How Rise at Seven has a proactive and reactive stream for clients - post-COVID 70% of the business is reactive.
15mins Who are Rise at Seven’s competitors? PR firms, creative firms or SEO firms?
17 mins “The search industry is moving faster into search than creative is moving into search.”
18 mins How Rise at Seven have built dedicated employee influencers to build their personal brands.
19 mins How big does Carrie want Rise at Seven to get? The company recently launched in the US and in Germany last week!
21 mins Why Rise at Seven only do organic search, no paid (PPC.)
22 mins“You have to lean on your own confidence and self-belief”.
24 mins Why SEO has become more important during the lockdown.
27 mins Carrie talks about her relationship with Rise at Seven co-founder Stephen Kenwright.
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