PRmoment Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the PRmoment podcast. Today we’re chatting to Laura Burch, founder and managing partner at Work & Class and Roxy Kalha, founder and managing partner at The Heard about the challenges of founding a PR agency as a women.

Laura launched Work & Glass in 2024 and Roxy launched The Heard in 2023. 

Before we start, the final date to get your early entries in for The PRmoment Awards is December 16th. All the info you’ll need, including a list of the categories is on the awards microsite.

Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Roxy and Laura discussed with PRmoment founder Ben Smith:

Is it harder as a female founder in PR?

Roxy and Laura both give a shout out to The Lonely Female Founders Club.

What are the hardest parts of being a female founder?

Why does Roxy dislike the term imposter syndrome?

Who are Laura and Roxy’s female PR founder role models?

What are the biggest barriers to women launching a PR agency?

Which behaviours reduce the confidence of female employees? Described by Roxy and Laura  as “death by a thousand cuts.”

What were the catalysts that made Roxy and Laura decide to launch their own businesses?

What are the variables that can help more female founders launch more PR firms?

Welcome to our review of PR pitches and mergers and acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch. Here we discuss the biggest pitch wins, mergers and acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in November 2025.

Andrew 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 also runs the advisory firm Andrew Bloch & Associates.

Don't forget The PRmoment Award's early bird entry deadline, on 19 December 

Market Overview

November has been a very buoyant month.

The market has seen great wins and has been extremely busy on the M&A front, which is probably expected since people were trying to complete deals before the budget announcement.

It is an important time of year for pitches, as agencies line up new business for the following year and clients aim to get everything in place for 2026.

PITCHES

Warburtons appoints Burson The UK’s biggest bakery appoints Burson to handle its brand and consumer communications, focusing on building its heritage and innovation narratives ahead of the company's 150th anniversary. Burson will also manage the corporate news agenda.

BAKERY79 appoints Stakked The modern food-to-go concept, established by Park Garage Group, has hired Stakked for PR support. The campaign will focus on building consumer awareness and driving uptake as Bakery79 rapidly converts forecourt concessions as part of its acceleration into the UK food-to-go market.

Astrid & Miyu appoints Aisle 8 The jewellery brand, which operates 20 UK stores alongside sites in New York and LA, selects Aisle 8 (a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle specialist) to elevate its brand image and media profile.

Bodyform appoints Earnies The menstrual care brand, part of the Essity portfolio, has appointed Earnies to deliver a major awareness campaign highlighting the impact and challenges associated with heavy periods.

Tonys Chocolonely appoints Shook and Here Be Dragons Tony's has appointed Shook and Here Be Dragons for a creative project celebrating the chunky nature of its chocolate bars. The campaign involves using high-profile talent, like 'The World’s Strongest Footballer', as well as a PR stunt marking the standardization of the brand’s signature red colour.

WaterAid appoints Mischief The global water charity has selected Mischief to deliver its festive campaign and winter appeal. The project focuses on raising awareness and funds to support WaterAid’s mission to help communities access clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene.

Baller League appoints SoapBox The 6-a-side football league has hired SoapBox, a sport communications specialist, to handle its PR, event management, and press office function.

Meta appoints John Doe Meta has expanded John Doe’s brief to include creative communications for its wearables products, covering AI glasses, VR headsets, and other emerging technology from the Meta Wearables portfolio.

The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism appoints W The Department of Tourism has awarded W a five-year contract for UK and European PR and communications. The agency will execute a strategic program covering media relations, influencer partnerships, and event activations to position the destination as a leading Caribbean holiday choice.

Samsung appoints Ogilvy Samsung has expanded Ogilvy’s remit to handle the brand’s UK social and influencer work. This appointment builds on Ogilvy’s existing relationship with Samsung, which includes B2B responsibilities across Europe.

BMW Group appoints Kindred Kindred has been appointed to develop the creative communications strategy for both the BMW and Mini brands. The brief focuses o

Welcome to the PRmoment podcast. Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Lorraine Emmett, the founder and MD of the award-winning B2B tech PR agency, EC-PR.

EC-PR is a boutique specialising in B2B PR for engineering, science, and technology scale-ups. They typically partner with high-growth B2B tech brands and companies with 50 to 999 employees, working with Strategic Marketing Leaders and CMOs to elevate brand awareness and influence.

Today, we'll dive into her insights on how B2B companies can gain a trust advantage. 

Before we start, our PR Masterclass the Agency Growth Forum is now live. Virtual and face to face tickets are now available.

This event always sells out so if you do want a face to face ticket, be quick. Genuinely, don’t hang about. Check out PRmasterclasses.com or the homepage of PRmoment for the full speaker lineup.

Also, do check out PRmoment’s TikTok content, it’ll keep you up to date with the best creative campaigns in PR, interviews with interesting PR folks and our weekly Good and Bad PR content with Andy Barr.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what PRmoment founder Ben Smith and founder and managing director of EC-PR Lorraine Emmett discussed on the PRmoment Podcast.

• Why the emotion of trust is a spectrum. How does Lorraine define trust in a B2B communications environment?
• Is trust in B2B a function of brand and product?
• As communicators is it possible to create trust? Or is it a symptom of customer experience?
• Why is thought leadership an important tool for creating trust?
• Lorraine talks about Coleman Park’s 7 Pillars of thought leadership in our pre show chat and why she finds them an important reference point. What are Coleman Park 7 pillars of trust?
• How do you build trust in a B2B market?
• Isn’t pretty all of a PR/comms team output related to thought leadership in one way or another? 
• The Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report consistently highlights the power of thought leadership in building trust and directly influencing the B2B purchase journey. Lorraine talks us through the finding of that report and the implications for how B2B PR and comms teams create and partner with influencers.
• EC PR’s recent The Trust Advantage report looks at how trust is important for SMEs. Lorraine talks us through the key findings of your The Trust Advantage report. 
• What are the outcomes of thought leadership in B2B markets? Are they both defensive and offensive?
• What does the best practice measurement of B2B thought leadership look like?

Braver co-founders Darain Faraz and Mike Levaggi on the PRmoment podcast

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast. 

On today's show, I’m chatting with two of Braver's co-founders: Darain Faraz and Mike Levaggi.

Previously, Darain spent 11 years in-house at LinkedIn. Mike's career has included roles at Seventy Seven, Hope&Glory and Snap.

Alongside Sheeraz Gulsher, they launched Braver in September last year. Braver is a talent consultancy specialising in helping PR employers increase the diversity of their teams.

Before we start, here is a plug for our latest launch:  our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it. 

Thanks also so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Darain and Mike, welcome to the show

3.30 mins Mike talks us through Braver’s approach to trying to help PR with its diversity problem.

6 mins Darain talks us through why he and his brother Sherazz launched People Like Us.

“My brother (Sheeraz) was baffled when he landed in the (PR) industry. He asked what’s going on? Why is it quite so homogeneous?  We should be doing something about this. He was rightly furious. I’d become a bit apathetic about it.”

10 mins Do we believe employers in the PR sector want to be more diverse? 

“The reality is that we’re inching along in our progress… The industry is keen to make progress, but it's not sure how to get there.”

12 mins What is PR’s ethnicity pay gap?

“PR’s ethnicity pay gap is 22.3 %.” 

“There is obviously a point when people leave the sector…from the conversations we’ve had, it's because they have felt they weren't given the same opportunities and promotion at the mid to senior levels. Agencies have to do 2 things: hire intentionally so their workforces more accurately represent the audiences they are communicating to 2) make sure that their workplace gives equal opportunity for people to thrive.”

25 mins How are PR employers trying to become more diverse? What are they getting right? What are they getting wrong?

29 mins What does best practice look like when it comes to increasing the diversity of your PR team?

“For it to be effective, you need an ongoing dialogue between people across your organisation and senior leadership.”

“Public sharing of salary bands is really crucial.  so important. We (Braver) refuse to work on roles where we can’t share the salary.”

33 mins Are Rooney Rule shortlists a good idea in PR?

35 mins Many PR firms are doing better at increasing the diversity of their employees, but are they getting the inclusion part wrong.

42 mins To what extent are clients, through procurement policies, only buying PR from agencies with diverse teams?

“There is a moral imperative.. but ultimately, it is a commercial imperative.”

On the show today, I’m chatting with Jo Ogunleye, B2B Communications Lead at Google UK  and Laura Wheeler, Head of Communications UKI, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Google Cloud.

Both are B2B communicators, and we’re going to talk about what creativity looks like in B2B communications, how it can be used and how it can be integrated across the appropriate B2B channels.

Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

A quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully, easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it. 

Thanks also so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a  summary of what Jo and Laura and PRmoment founder discussed:

2 mins Jo and Laura talk about what a modern, integrated approach to B2B communications looks like.

6 mins What are the priority channels for most B2B communications?

“Your company blog or your website should always be your priority channel.”

14 mins A discussion of the rise of influencers within B2B markets

17 mins Is creativity used less in B2B markets because communicators are more risk averse, or is it because of budget?

“Creativity is a critical part of B2B PR…You need to stand out from the crowd. 

…B2B buyers are usually bombarded with information.”

20 mins Why is creativity important in B2B PR? 

21 mins Laura gives some examples of how Google Cloud uses creativity in its B2B campaigns.

28 mins How to craft your B2B campaigns to reach multiple objectives, including impact on sales.

31 mins Does creative content drive more sales in Google’s experience?

38 mins Bearing in mind how specific the target audience is, are B2B campaigns easier to measure?

41 mins As in-house communicators, what is the role of the PR agency in B2B markets? To what extent do you look for creativity in your agency partners in B2B?

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast. 

On today's show, I’m chatting with Charlotte West, executive director of corporate communications at Lenovo, and Jo Patterson, UK MD at Zeno.

Today, we’re discussing the findings of the Global Women in PR Annual Index, a research programme that aims to measure the status of women working in PR and communications worldwide.

Before we start, we should pay tribute to GWPR co-founder Angela Oakes. Angela sadly passed away after a brief illness last year but her legacy of helping to change the landscape for women working in our industry will go on.

Here are some topline findings from the report:

• Flexible working has become an accepted norm
• Levels of flexible working have been maintained since this time last year and are anticipated to stay.
• Women continue to see progression and promotions slower than men, and boardrooms continue to be male-dominated.
• According to the report, half of female PR professionals globally have experienced harassment or inappropriate behaviour at work. 

But before we start, a quick plug for our latest webinar launch. The topic is “How to track the success of an earned media campaign." Tickets are free, and we’re putting this one on in partnership with our good friends at Carma. T

Also a quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it. 

Thanks also so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Charlotte, Jo and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

3 mins The report reckons PR professionals expect to be working remotely for an average of 2.5 days a week, a slight drop in comparison to 2022 (3 days.)

What remote working policies have Charlotte and Jo established at Lenovo and Zeno, respectively?

“At Lenovo, the corporate guide is in the office three days a week.”

6 mins A discussion of how remote working changes the culture of work - for better and for worse.

“At the moment, the 2-day working week in the office is working well for us (Zeno).”

9 mins Jo talks about the impact of flexible working for women working in PR.

11 mins How has flexible working changed the culture at Zeno?

20 mins “Most people in PR don’t have a work-life balance. What we can’t lose is work-life flexibility.”

Some stats from the Global Women in PR Annual Index

“The benefits of working flexibly continue to be regarded positively amongst PR professionals. With regard to well-being, seven in ten (75%) feel it helps employees maintain their mental well-being and four-fifths (82%) feel it helps maintain a healthy work-life balance, up from 77% in 2022.

“75% believe flexible working allows women to have a family or take on caring responsibilities and still progress in their careers; up slightly from 71% last year. Whilst 74% agree that it helps retain female talent (increasing from 68% in 2022).

A third (32%) believe that flexible working helps women progress into the boardroom.”

23 mins Does flexible working slow down or speed up the PR careers of women?

27 mins What does the next generation want from work? Is the generational divide amongst work-based teams becoming more pronounced?

Welcome to our February Creativity Review. Here, we are talking about the best bits of PR creativity we’ve seen this month.

On the show today are:

James Gordon-MacIntosh, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Hope&Glory
Leila Mountford, Partner, Creative Director at Portland
Kim Allain, Creative Lead, MSL UK

To remind the listeners of the only rule of our global creativity review, our creatives are not allowed to choose their own work!

This is part of our regular series of creativity reviews, so if you like what you hear, look back at the PRmoment Podcast archive on iTunes or Spotify to listen to more creative ideas.

This special PRmoment Podcast about creativity is, naturally enough, bought to you in partnership with Creative Moment. You can subscribe to Creative Moment here.

A quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Kim, James, Leila and your host PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

4 mins Lush Saltburn Bathbomb

You can read more insight on what made this campaign a creative bit here. 

6 mins Michael Cera and CeraVe

You can read more insight on what made this campaign a creative bit here.

12 mins Uncommon’s Ratboot
You can read more insight on what made this campaign a creative bit here. 

15 mins Taylor Swift mania in Australia sees the release of  ‘Tay Tams’ to celebrate 60 years of the iconic treat

19 mins MSCHF’s Global Supply Chain Handbag

You can read more about this campaign here.

23 mins Kitchen roll supplier Plenty gives couples a chance to win a wedding.

Does kitchen roll need a purpose?

27 mins Hello Down There: Martin Scorsese directs Squarespace Super Bowl ad

You can read more about this campaign here.

32 mins PETA’s Dangerous Leather Warning to the public

You can read more about this campaign here.

35 mins Dove’s “It’s Hard Knocks Life” campaign.

39 mins Changing Narratives' Campaign Challenges Racial Stereotypes

41 mins An Ordinary bottle floats down the Thames.

You can read more about this campaign here.

45 mins Aldi’s Rogue Vogue

Welcome to our February 2024 Review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch, where we will discuss the biggest, most seismic pitch wins and mergers and acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in 2023.

Andrew 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 co-founder and managing partner at PR agency Frank, before stepping back in 2020 to found Andrew Bloch & Associates.

A quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully, easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it.

Thanks also so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

2 mins Andrew talks us through this month's biggest PR pitch wins in the UK:

Tortilla, the Mexican fast food restaurant,  appoints PR agency Houston.
Orlebar Brown - a luxury swimwear brand owned by Chanel - appoints PR agency W.
Bolt appoints PR agency Boldspace
Burger King appoints PR agency The Academy
Versuni (Philips brand owner) appoints PR agency Smoking Gun.
(Ketchum continues to partner with Philips. Tin Man continues to handle global comms.)
Heineken’s trade PR goes to food and drink  PR specialist Fleet Street
Ballantines Whisky appoints Pangolin on a global brief.
M&C Sport and Ents retain the global music brand strategy brief and Firstlight Group handle corporate comms.
Four Seasons appoints Red - replaces PRCO after a 30-year client-agency relationship.
Greggs appoint That Lot for a social media brief.
Santander appoints two agencies - Lansons Team Farner for its consumer PR and MHP for its public affairs work.
eToro appoints Lansons/Team Farner on a combined corp and brand brief.
British Gas appoints Smarts for a consumer PR brief. (Working alongside BCW)

“If there is a lack of long-term client commitment you have to adjust your cost base accordingly. The great agencies do that.”

“We don’t do this for fun. There is no point running an agency that doesn't make any money.”

16 mins Andrew talks us through February's M&A activity:

Faith Brand Communications is acquired by Fantastic Media
SEC Newgate acquires a 70% stake (over five years) in Athens HQ V+O Group.
Real Chemistry acquires Avant Healthcare.
Havas acquires b2b marketing specialist Ledger Bennett
Cognito, an independent global PR agency, has completed the majority acquisition of its German operation Cognito DACH.

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Today, we’re talking PR Ethics, basically because Mary Beth West, who is a senior strategist at Fletcher Marketing PR in the US, has funded research by the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), which compares and contrasts 24 global ethics codes of PR.

On the show today, Mary Beth is going to talk through some of the themes of this research. 

Today’s podcast also sees the return of the finest voice radio voice in PR - Trevor Morris, who I suspect will bring some practical thoughts on the real-world implementation of PR ethics codes. Trevor and his co-author Simon Goldsworthy wrote the book Public Relations Ethics.

A quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. Do take a look and let us know if you like it. 

Thanks also to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Trevor, Mary Beth and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Do published ethics codes serve a critical role in public relations? 

“Of all the ethics codes in PR…accuracy and honesty were the values that were universal.”

“There are other elements of codes that are not universal, such as guarding of conflict of interests. “

“AI is another one that is not dealt with in codes.”

“PR ethics codes are an important benchmark. You have to have them… But the reality is that very few people have read them.”

“When they do get used it’s often after the event. When something has gone wrong.”

“For the codes to be effective, they need to be memorable. Shot, sharp and memorable.”

6 mins Mary Beth talks us though the differences in PR ethics codes globally.

“Another element of this white paper was to determine how old some of these codes are. There is a prominent code here in the US, which is a very good code. But it hasn’t been updated in nearly 25 years.”

9 mins What are the compliance gaps in global PR ethics currently?

“Of the 24 ethics codes we evaluated, 20 of them had an order to comply with the code to be a member. Only 13 of the codes, however, say that they are enforced.” 

“Only 6 of the codes made it easy to submit an (ethics) complaint.”

“Only 2 of the 24 codes offered whistleblower protection mechanism.”

11 mins “Very few PR people have ever been prosecuted for anything related to their work. There are far more lawyers and accountants that run into those kinds of problems.”

13 mins “Trust is fundamental to the career of a PR person. If you lose that trust, it is potentially career-ending.”

14 mins To what extent does PR have an ethics problem?

“I think we have a lot of ethics problems in this industry. When you look across the full scale of all of the different acres in which communication can be manipulated to mislead.”

“There is a danger that the codes start to behave like a priest, that you must never say anything that is not 100% transparent. And I don’t think that is possible.”

“Ethics codes are not a silver bullet. If a public relations profess&

On the show today, I’m chatting with Delphi co-founder Ellie Thompson and ZOE’s communications director, Danielle Restivo, about how to find your organisation's reputation North Star.

Ellie was previously CEO at Harvard. She launched Delphi alongside Louie St Clare and Pete Marcus in May last year.

Danielle has had in-house experience in senior roles at the likes of Linkedin, SAP, Google and Vodafone. She joined ZOE as its communications and PR director in 2023.

The central premise behind the subject for today’s show is that if reputation were prioritised where it should be within organisations - communications directors would be the CEO’s best friend. And currently, in the main, they are not.

So today, we’re going to chat about the reasons for this - who’s at fault, and hopefully, we’ll touch on some suggested solutions for any comms directors out there who can empathise with this issue.

Before we start a plug for our latest webinar launch. The topic for this one is “How to track the success of an earned media campaign." tickets are free, and we’re putting this one on in partnership with our good friends at Carma. The event is promoted on the homepage of PRmoment.

A quick mention about the relaunch of PRmoment. If you take a look at PRmoment.com, you'll see a brand new design with lots of new features, hopefully easier navigation and also the launch of our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders.  Do take a look and let us know if you like it. 

Thanks also so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Ellie, Danielle and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Why do organisations need a reputational North Star? 

“A reputation north star gives you your reputational requirement…It gives you absolute clarity. …It’s a living shifting thing.”

“It’s about what reputation we need if that’s what we want to achieve as a business.”

4 mins What is the difference between a Reputational North Star and your comms team’s objectives?

6 mins Do many companies try to define their reputational North Star?

7 mins How should companies define their reputation North Star?

10 mins Your North Star Gap: How far away is your organisation’s reputation from your reputation, North Star?

12 mins Do you think too many in-house comms teams get beaten down by the day-to-day?

15 mins How have we got to a place where, for some organisations, comms doesn’t play a leading role in an organisation's reputational management?

20 mins To what extent is the in-house comms role a process of internal stakeholder management?

24 mins Danielle explains ZOE’s reputational North Star.

28 mins How can communicators make the shift from brand awareness amongst their target audiences to a good reputation?

32  mins For some comms teams, there is an increasing emphasis on impact on sales. To what extent is this a product of reputation, and to what extent should a comms team take a shorter-term lead generation approach?

39 mins Ellie’s theory of Reputational Capital: Your reputation is like a bank account. You will have to make deposits into it and withdrawals from it. But don’t go into your overdraft!

46 mins What are the attributes of a successful in-house comms team?