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?

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

This is a bonus podcast where we chat about RAJAR results for Q4 2023 with Alex Blakemore, newsroom producer at Markettiers. For those of you who 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, it publishes the listenership figures for UK radio. This offers a really interesting insight for PR people on how the UK public engages with this important channel.

Before we start, 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 to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

Highlights for this bonus pod include:

2 mins “88.5% of the UK population listen to the radio each week- that’s around 49.5m adults.”

“20.5 hours a week is the average listening time for live listening.”

“Commercial ration is on the rise.”

“13% of people are using catch-up radio.”

4 mins The BBC has lost share in these most recent Rajar results.

The BBC share is now 43%, down from 47% in Q3 2023.

7 mins This is the first set of Rajar results since the BBC started using more syndicated programs across its radio stations in the afternoons.

9 mins Alex talks us through some highlights of radio stations that have seen big increases in listenership in the last quarter.

10 mins The continuing growth of podcast as a channel.

11 mins Alex looks ahead to the Olympics and the Euros and the broadcast opportunities for PR people.

12 mins Finally, Alex talks about potential interviews and story opportunities trends around the UK election later in the year, including the period of purdah.

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

On the show today, we've got Matt Neale, Golin's global CEO. I first met Matt just after we launched PRmoment in around 2008 when he was co-CEO of Golin in London.

Since then, Matt's moved to New York, been promoted goodness how many times and now runs Golin globally. It's great to see a Brit in a global role at a big global agency.

Matt joined Golin in 2005 from its then sister agency Weber Shandwick - he was appointed joint MD of the London office alongside Jon Hughes.

It worked out, and Golin London started to fly. Matt was promoted to President International in 2011 and was appointed global CEO in 2019. It’s been widely reported that Golin had revenues of approximately $300 m in 2022. Golin works predominantly in the consumer and healthcare sectors.

Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Matt and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Matt predicts whether Trump is going to win.

6 mins Matt reflects on the news that BCW and Hill & Knowlton are going to merge to form Burson.

11 mins Matt talks about the Group CEO role and how it's different from the CEO role.

16 mins Matt reveals how the move to America came about.

19.30 mins Will Matt be the last Brit to make it to hold one of America’s big PR jobs?

20 mins What does America think of the UK now?

“8 times out of 10 - when the UK makes it onto mainstream news - it’s about the Royal Family.”

25 mins How much bigger are PR budgets in the US than in the UK?

“A good rule of thumb is that the US PR budget is 10x the UK budget.”

27 mins  Matt explains the reason behind the higher salaries in the US.

29 mins  Matt gives his advice to anyone who's at the start of their PR agency CEO journey.

35 mins Matt talks about how three people have mentored him: Fred Cook, David Brain and Andy Polansky.

40 mins How has the PR agency model changed in recent years?

43 mins Does Matt reckon he’ll ever live in the UK again?

Welcome to our January 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.

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.

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

2 mins We kick off with some thoughts from Andrew and I on WPP’s merger of BCW and Hill&Knowlton

“It’s really nice that they are honouring Harold Burson.”

“It’s potentially going to be the biggest PR agency in the UK… taking them ahead of Brunswick.”

“You rarely merge two firms together because they are doing so well.”

“It's been reported that both of these firms had a tougher time in America; they’ve had a better time of it in the UK.”

“It just makes sense. You don’t need that many agencies in one group, especially when they have that much overlap.”

7 mins A discussion of January’s biggest PR pitch wins:

The Dept for Science, Innovation and Tech appoint Unlimited and Pablo as lead creative and strategic partners, with Nelson Bostock Unlimited providing the PR support.

Andrew pays tribute to Nelson Bostock co-founder Roger Nelson, who passed away recently.

Iceland appoints Tangerine for creative consumer, corporate, sustainability, crisis and social.

“A massive win for Tangerine.”

The Savoy hires the PR agency Fox Communications to handle media relations, digital media, and influencers.

“A lot of specialist agencies have done extremely well in the last few years.”

Sudocrem appoints Brazen.

Kidney Cancer and UK Reflo, the sustainable performance wear brand, appoint PR agency PHA

Oatley appointed Blurred for consumer, corporate and public affairs work following a 6-way pitch. 

Nest - Britain's largest pension scheme backed by govt - also hire Blurred.

Henkel appoints BCW (soon to be Burson!)  

The Ministry of Justice appoint Kindred on £1.3m

Luke “The Nuke” Littner -the teenage dart sensation who reached the final of the world championships, has appointed Soapbox London.

Airbnb appoints The Romans. Previously, Hope&Glory has held the Airbnb account for nine years, and Andrew and Ben pay tribute to that body of work.

Giff Gaff appoint Splendid for a strategic and creative comms brief.

Stonegate Group - Pitch. The UK's largest pub company, operating nearly 5,000 pubs, includes brands like Slug & Lettuce and Walkabout.

“It’s busy and this time of year is always busy. We’re still facing some of the challenges we saw last year...which is delaying decisions.”

"Whenever there is a lack of confidence in the economy, there is a lack of confidence in making appointment decisions.”

30 mins A round-up of PR’s January’s M&A activity

“2024 is going to be a lot stro

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 October 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.

PR Masterclass the Agency Growth Forum is now live. Virtual and face to face tickets are now available.
Check out PRmasterclasses.com or the homepage of PRmoment for the full speaker lineup.
Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, the PRCA.

Here is a rundown of what Andrew and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

Pitches
 
National Express - Block Report - Block Report launched earlier this year Founded by Chris Grimwood of Iris and Social Chain and Jack Colchester of Wonderhood.

Singapore Tourist Board - Splendid - UK integrated marketing agency. This win follows an open RFI. Splendid won Heathrow Express in April.
 
Belfast City Council -  Cavendish Consulting, Lanyon Communications (part of Consello) and Open Strategic Communications

PPHE Hotel Group (formerly Park Plaza Hotels Europe) - Launch PR. Retained consumer and corporate brief. 51 properties across eight countries.
 
Rangemaster - Stakked - Iconic cooker brand with global recognition and deep British roots. Previously in-house.

BFI London Film Festival - Vamp - 69th film festival. Vamp has worked with clients inc. Disney, paramount, Netflix, Prime, C4 Apple TV etc

Aardman Animation - Wonderland. New Ewe Knit it campaign invites fans to create knitted items that can be turned into blankets for the homeless in London.
 
Toy Retailers Association - WPR. To promote the dream toys list of the hottest toys for Christmas 2025.
 
Butlins - Popcorn. Positioning the holiday resort as the Home of Entertainment. Popcorn is strong in consumer and lifestyle - clients include Thorpe Park, Panasonic and London Designer Outlet.
 
Hey Dude - Words+Pixels.  Launch of new campaign with Lewis Capaldi.

Acai Berry Foods - Neon Brand Communications - Neon are specialists in health, wellness and beauty and lifestyle brands (hotpot yoga, coconut collab etc.)

For Goodness Shakes - Frank. Launch protein and collagen drink, Glow.

Lipton Teas and Infusions - Clarion. Retained consumer pr for sub brands PG Tips and Pukka.

Youngs Seafoods - Brazen. Consumer pr, social media, influencer. Frozen fish brand - supplies approx. 40% of all the fish eaten in the UK every year, apparently!
 
Omi/Shakers/Dints - Ballou. Trio of new clients for Ballou UK.
 
Nationwide Building Society - Popeyes, Ogi and DEBRA - Folk  
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership - Apella Advisors. Appella was founded in 2019 by ex APCO UK boss James Acheson Gray - works with Aviva, KPMG and Nationwide Building society
Royal Mint - Third City. The Royal Mint is celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Monopoly Board game.
Vinted – Smarts. Pan European pr, social and creator for online marketplace for selling, buying and exchanging new/second hand items.
POD - Tin Man. EV electric charging provider, joins Tin Man’s existing energy division - EDF, Electrify Britain, Energy GB.
Changan - Woosah - Chinese auto firm launching into UK market with all electric Deepal SUV model.
Paddy Power - Pitch - Addition to roster alongside Ready10.
 
M&A

Team Lewis acquire Instinctif Partners. This deal will double the size of Team Lewis’ UK ope

 Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

 On the show today, I’m chatting with Sharon Bange, joint managing director at Kindred.

Sharon has been at Kindred for an extraordinary 20 years. In that time, the business has seen huge change, including nearly going out of business when the then-new Conservative government came into power in 2010. 

It’s one of those firms that has consistently punched above its weight when it comes to creative, award-winning work.

Kindred is a consumer PR firm that has a fee income of £3 million and 35 employees.

Before we start, we’ve got some huge news - you need to enter The PRmoment Awards 2024 quickly.

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and with no additional entry fee, we’ve launched a regional champions scheme so we can reach the work right across the UK. The final entry deadline is 26th January.

Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

2 mins Sharon talks about why she originally wanted to be a social worker, rather than work in PR?

4 mins Sharon talks about why she’s currently undertaking a Psychology Master's.

7.30 mins Has an increased knowledge of psychology made Sharon view PR campaigns differently?

8.30 mins Sharon has spent 20 years at Kindred. How come?

“It’s not been one job. There have been many different guises over the years.”

“When you’ve been somewhere that long, you help shape the values of the place.”

“It’s not that I’ve never had a reason to leave…it’s that there’s always been lots of reasons to stay.”

13 mins. We covered it in 2019 when Sharon previously came on the show, but briefly, she talks us through how and why Kindred, with a fee income of approximately £8/9 million at the time, lost 90% of its clients in a couple of months back in 2010.

“90% of the clients were in the public sector…by the summer, the business had been completely decimated.”

18 mins Sharon reveals her in hindsight lessons of her career

1. Don’t be a clone

“20 years ago, I felt the pressure to conform to how I thought PR people should be…it was still trouser suits back then.”

2. Question everything

“At Kindred, we want and expect people to have more of a voice; it’s their agency, too.”

3. Know your role as an employer “We’re a business, an employer. Not a family.”

4. People are specialists, not generalists, and that’s fine

“We don’t have generalists any more. We have multi-specialists.”

29 mins How has PR changed?

“There are more people with deep expertise that make PR more sophisticated.”

31 mins Does Sharon worry about the current state of the media?

33 mins How has Kindred kept its creative edge after all these years?

34 mins. How tough was the process of becoming a B Corp for Kindred?

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

On the show today, I’m chatting with Ashwani Singla, founding managing partner of Astrum - Reputation Advisory. Astrum is an Indian PR firm which specialises in reputation management and corporate communications.

It employs 30 people in India and one in America!

Ashwani set up Astrum in 2015, previously he worked for the likes of Genesis Burson Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland.

Most of the listeners of this podcast are in Europe, so I thought it would be good to get an Indian perspective on how technology is likely to change PR. The scale of India’s technology sector is obviously huge, and it’s interesting to get a perspective from a country whose GDP is growing at over 7%, compared to the UK’s at about 0.5%.

Before we start, we’ve got some huge news - The PRmoment Awards 2024 are OPEN! The final entry deadline is on January 26th.

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and with no additional entry fee, we’ve launched a regional champions scheme so we can reach the work right across the UK.

Do check out the PRmoment Awards microsite.

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

Here is a summary of what Ashwani and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Astrum recently published a report on how communicators can navigate the digital disruption we’re seeing currently. Ashwani talks us through the three conclusions coming out of that report.

3 mins The report was titled “Technology Reshaping Communicators?” What were the lessons from the report about how AI is likely to change the framework for effective reputation management?

9 mins How are consumers responding to AI-produced content in India?

“Content consumption is going to become more personalised, experiential, and immersive.”

11 mins Does AI mean that reputation management as a business function requires a reboot?

“Social science, data science: to be able to assimilate information and patterns quickly to be able to create content.”

“You must be proficient at making videos…visual storytelling is the next skill you must acquire.”

14 mins Ashwani talks about the example of Prime Minister Modi as a 360-degree communicator.

16mins “Largely our consumption of content is going to go through the mobile phone.”

18 mins What are the dominant channels on mobile in India?

19 mins Where does India see itself from a global economic and political influence perspective?

“India sees itself as the voice of the global South.”

“India is not dependent on exports like China, it is largely a domestic economy. That makes it unique and a robust, stable economy.”

25 mins Are we seeing a change in how consumers use social media? Closed digital channels such as WhatsApp are ever more popular. That has huge implications for how brands use social media.

27 mins Aswani talks about how deepfake content has already become an industry and how it was used in the Bangladesh elections.

"Big tech has become a big risk for governments…so compliance is going to play a very big role in the reputation (of big tech firms.)”

34 mins Do we have enough good senior in-house corporate comms decision-makers to lead the PR sector through this period of huge change?

“I see a FOMO factor in the (PR) industry.”

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

On the show today, I’m chatting with Lewis Iwu, founding partner at Purpose Union, about the intersection of Purpose, ESG and CSR.

Are the terms interchangeable? Has Purpose superseded CSR and how much confusion is there both amongst communicators and consumers about the crossover between these terms?

Purpose Union was co-founded by Lewis in 2019, has about 20 employees and previous clients include Natwest, Sky and The Wellcome Trust. The agency specialises in corporate counsel and communications strategy. All its work is purpose-related.

Before we start, we’ve got some huge news - The PRmoment Awards 2024 are now - OPEN!

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories and refined the entry form, and with no additional entry fee, we’ve launched a regional champions scheme so we can reach the work right across the UK. The final entry deadline is 26th January.

Do check out the PRmoment Awards microsite.

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

2.30 mins From a communications perspective, how does Lewis define the differences between purpose, ESG and CSR?

“ESG is investor relations communicating to markets about your credentials as a sustainable business, a business that cares about society.”

“There is a movement away from CSR... Companies have become more sophisticated.”

7 mins To what extent have brand purpose and ESG been negatively impacted by the anti-woke movement?

10 mins What is the role of comms in purpose policy within a business?

13 mins As a comms agency, is your role to help companies find their purpose or is the assumption that they already know that?

15 mins Purpose Union has developed a scorecard model that helps companies decide whether they should speak out on specific issues. Lewis talks us through how that model works.

17 mins How do companies balance the risk of not speaking out versus the risk of not speaking out?

21 mins Has an organisation's purpose become more important for its employees than its customers?

24 mins Does the structured nature of the B2B buying process make purpose more important for some B2B brands than those targeting end consumers?

26 mins Do most consumers really care about the purpose positioning of one company, compared to its competitors? Don’t consumers care more about the product, the price and the convenience of the distribution?

29 mins What are the three questions Lewis asks organisations before they respond to purpose-related issues?

34 mins The CEO is completely crucial to an organisation's purpose strategy, right? If they don’t get it, you're doomed, aren’t you?

35 mins The purpose and environmental event caravan grows every year. What are the roles of events like Davos and COP? Do they help drive progress, or have they become a distraction?

37 mins What is the role of the comms director in setting and driving an organisation's purpose strategy?

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

On the show today, I’m chatting with one of my favourite people, the wonderful Bieneosa Ebite.

Bieneosa is head of communications and government affairs, inclusion & diversity at GSK.

In this regular format of the PRmoment Podcast with Ben Smith, we’ll be catching up with UK public relations leaders - and our guests will share their, in hindsight, secrets that they wish they'd known when they started their careers!

Bieneosa Ebite joined GSK 18 months ago. Previously, she was at Centrica for eight years. She ran her own agency, Bright Star Public Relations, from 2007 to 2014, but Bieneosa is best known as the chair and co-founder of Ignite, which was the original not-for-profit organisation established to promote the benefits of cultural diversity in public relations.

Before we start, we’ve got some huge news - The PRmoment Awards 2024 are now - OPEN!

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and with no additional entry fee, we’ve launched a regional champions scheme so we can reach the work right across the UK.

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

Here is a summary of what Bieneosa and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Bieneosa tells us why, for the “first time in my life, work doesn’t feel like work.”

“My purpose as a human being is aligned with what I’m doing professionally.”

“How do we get more people from underrepresented groups into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) sector careers.”

5 mins Improving diversity is a wide remit: Bieneosa talks us through where she tries to make a difference in your current role.

9 mins Does science and, more broadly, STEM have the same diversity issues as public relations?

“One of the things that is missing is representation at the senior level in the public relations sector.”

“When I started in PR, I didn’t feel like I belonged.”

“People have left PR because they don’t feel welcome.”

14 mins  Bieneosa and Ben reminisce about how and why Ignite was a trailblazer!

“Having a community is great, but I’m all about campaigning to make change.”

“What I found was that at that time, diversity and inclusion almost was like a fashion for PR…it was in vogue for a time, and then it would go quiet.”

18 mins Here is the link to Ben Smith's interview with Taylor Bennett Foundation alumni  Kwaku Aning, Shanice Hoo Mills and Toni Adeola on a recent PRmoment Podcast.

“If you want to see change, you have to agitate. Otherwise, nothing will happen.”

“When it’s something that affects you…ten years is too long… You want change now.”

“If you address things head-on, you stand a better chance of being able to solve issues. If you skirt around it and don’t want to say the word (racism) - nothing will ever change.”

32 mins What would  Bieneosa do differently in her career if she had her time again?

“Investing in a mentor or a coach is something I didn’t do early enough.”

34 mins What is the difference between a mentor and a coach?

39 mins Looking back at public relations’ DE&I journey - how does Bieneosa think PR is doing?

40 mins What KPIs does Bieneosa a look for when assessing a sector's progress on DE&I?

Welcome to our 2023 Creativity Review, where we talk about the best bits of PR creativity we saw last year.

On the show today to help us review some of the best creative work are:

• Clare Morris, Clare Morris, associate director, Premier
• Don Ferguson, Don Ferguson, deputy MD, Hope & Glory PR
• Lora Martyr, creative director, Taylor Herring

To remind the listeners of the rules - our creatives are not allowed to choose their own work! You can enjoy the video version of this episode here.

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.

If you’re listening to this show and you’re inspired to shout about your creative credentials, why not enter our work into the PRmoment Awards?

The PRmoment Awards 2024 are now - OPEN! The final entry deadline is on Friday, 26th January.

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and launched a regional champions scheme with no additional entry fee.

Do check out the PRmoment Awards microsite.

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

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting the show.

Here are the campaigns that made it into this 2023 creativity review:

2 mins January: 1072 Bad Apples

4 mins February: IKEA and Shelter

6 mins March: Dove TurnYourBack

7 mins March: Adidas, Wiggle and Muslim Hikers

9 mins April: Jacquemus Bags on Wheels in Paris

13 mins April: People Like Us Auto Correct Billboards

14 mins June Netflix and Black Mirror

16 mins June: Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie

21 mins July: Enchanté gender equality?

24 mins July: Maybelline CGI stunt

27 mins September: Alzheimer’s Research UK

31 mins October: Norwich City FC’s video for World Mental Health Day

34 mins October: Jaffa Cakes, Bonnie Tyler and the Total Eclipse

38 mins November: Doritos’ ‘crunch cancellation’ for noisy gamers

It’s been a funny old PR year. Some firms have had a tough time. Some firms have sadly gone bust, but many, possibly the majority, have seen growth of 5-10%. And in a decent number of cases, they’ve grown more than that.

So it’s a difficult year to try and sum up, but on the show today, I’m joined by W founder Warren Johnson, and we’re going to talk through the key themes and challenges that 2023 has brought to the PR agency market.

Warren founded W Communications in 2009, and it now has global revenues of £25m and an employee headcount of 200 globally, with 120 in London at W, 40 at Lotus, 25 employees in Singapore and 15 in New York.

W has grown at low double digit growth in 2023.

Before we start, The PRmoment Awards 2024 are now - OPEN! The final entry deadline is on Friday, 26th January.

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and launched a regional champions scheme with no additional entry fee to reach the work across the UK.

Do check out the PRmoment Awards microsite.

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

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting this podcast.

2 mins How has 2023 been for W Communications?

“We’ve delivered our EBITA numbers, but it’s felt like a real slog this year.”

“We had a super strong start to the year; the summer was very flat, and we’ve seen a strong recovery in Q4.”

4 mins Ben Smith asks Warren: “Does W have lots of fantastic clients who don’t spend enough money?”

“The dynamics of the industry have changed radically over the past couple of years and we’re now at this weird hybrid of low retainers with projects on top…When the economy starts spluttering, that model collapses a bit.”

“Nothing got cancelled. It just got delayed!”

“That's why we’re seeing bankruptcies; this is coming off the back of the biggest wage inflation we’ve seen in a couple of decades.”

“There was a massive fight for talent last year. People overpaid for often mediocre talent… So you’ve got the highest wage bill you’ve looked at, just as the days of the guaranteed retainer become a thing of the past.”

“A lot of PR people want to be liked… If your revenue is dropping, the only way to protect your margin is to reduce headcount. And most people don’t like to do that.”

9.30 mins Why are clients reducing spend?

10.30 mins Are clients willing to pay for the extra specialist advice that agencies are employing?

11 mins How is PR’s battle with other marketing services agencies going?

“We’re (PR) is doing great. It feels like there are a lot more social briefs knocking around.”

“If you can apply an earned media mindset and lens to influencer, to talent, through to live, through to advertising, you are going to provide solutions that can often be more cost-effective than what their (the client) is normally getting.”

12 mins Has the gradual reduction of retainer accounts and the formation of a low retainer/project hybrid client relationship made the PR agency business model less profitable than it used to be?

“We’re looking at a much more dynamic, agile resource-based (talent) system now for agencies.”

14 mins How can PR firms rebuild their margin?

“There is still the same amount of money in the market, you just need a sharper business model.”

“The opportunity to go beyond PR is vast…we’re increasingly doing earned advertising campaigns. Clients are interested in a more earned mindset when it comes to above the line.”

“The last two years have seen a bigger change in the business model of t

Welcome to our 2023 Year in 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.

He is the founder of Andrew Bloch & Associates, where he advises firms in the marketing services sector. His portfolio includes non-executive director, board advisory, consultancy and project roles for a range of businesses and agencies.

Andrew co-founded PR agency, Frank, where he is still a shareholder.

Before we start, The PRmoment Awards 2024 are now - OPEN! The final entry deadline is on Friday, 26th January.

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and launched a regional champions scheme with no additional entry fee to reach the work across the UK.

Do check out the PRmoment Awards microsite.

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

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting the show.

2 mins Andrew talks about December’s M&A activity:

PHA acquired Leeds-based creative comms consultancy MCG.

Premier acquired Edinburgh-based The Corner Shop PR. It will be renamed Premier Scotland.

Brands2Life was acquired by the Scandinavian holding company Paritee. Brands2Life has a fee income of £21 million and circa 180 full-time employees.

“It’s not easy for an agency to remain at the top of their game for so many years, and that is what Brands2Life has done.”

6.30 mins December pitch wins: 

8 mins Our Review of Pitch PR Wins and M&A Review for 2023

January 2023 Pitch Highlights

10 mins January’s PR M&A Highlights

“One of the biggest M&A deals in the sector. “

“Teneo will give Tulchan an international footprint.”

“I don’t think this will be the last acquisition we see from Teneo.”

 12.30 mins February 2023 Pitch wins highlights

“They become part of a roster that included Cow and Edelman...the first in a stellar year for The Romans.”

“Kuoni is a big big win.”

13.30 mins February’s PR M&A highlights

“A landmark deal for Markettiers”

15 mins March’s pitch wins highlights

“A very significant win for MSL, who have one of the strongest social media units within the PR space.”

17 mins March’s 2023 M&A Highlights

20 mins April’s pitch wins highlights:

“Supermarket comms is about as tough as it gets.”

23 mins April’s 2023 M&A Highlights

“Goat is a very data-driven influencer influencer agency.”

“This will give Camarco global reach and deep expertise in corp advisory.”

25 mins May’s pitch win highlights:

27 mins May’s M&A Highlights

28 mins June’s pitch win highlights

29 mins June’s M&A Highlights

31 mins July’s pitch win highlights

33 mins July’s M&A Highlights:.

34 mins August’s PR Pitch Wins

35 mins August’s M&A Highlights

36 mins September’s PR Pitch Wins

37.30 mins September’s PR M&A Highlights<

Welcome to our Recruitment Year in Review on the PRmoment Podcast, where we look at the PR job market with Dean Connolly, founder & PR recruitment director at Latte.

We look back at the talent trends in PR for 2023. The year has seen huge changes in the PR recruitment market. Back in January, we were in the midst of a significant talent war in the sector, which saw a raft of above-inflation pay rises - but the cost of living crisis and a tougher trading environment saw the dynamics of the PR talent market turn on its head in Q2 and Q3 - before a picking up again in Q4.

If you’re interested in keeping an eye on the best PR jobs, do make sure you subscribe for free to PRmoment’s Top 10 PR Jobs updates each week.

A reminder that the  early bird entry deadline for the PRmoment Awards is Friday, 15th December and the final entry deadline is Friday, 26th January

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

Here’s a summary of what Dean and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Dean talks about how 2023 was a year of 2 halves from a talent recruitment perspective.

“It’s become easier for agencies to attract talent.”

“For tech agencies, some have made redundancies, but we've seen some small and mid-size players growing at a rapid rate.”

8 mins  The second half of the year has seen a number of ups and downs in hiring trends.

“There is positive sentiment heading into 2024.”

10 mins Ben and Dean reflect on the reality that 2023 saw far fewer redundancies in PR than many had feared.

“People that got made redundant got snapped up quickly.”

“Once you’ve done three years in a sector - you’re seen as a specialist. Event at account exec.”

“We’ve seen (the) consumer (sector) really quieten down this year. We’ve (Latte) pivoted as a business and taken on more corporate and tech roles.”

“If you're hiring, it’s a better market at the moment.”

14 mins Dean updates us on some of the biggest PR moves in the last month or so. Including Ali Kramer joining Fight of Flight, Elle Bellwood joining The Academy and Leila Ager being promoted to managing director of corporate and public affairs at BCW in London (an internal move.)

“We’re seeing a lot of mid-sized agencies hiring creative teams.”

18 mins  Dean's top 3 PR talent predictions for 2024:

1. “2024 will see the PR talent market continue to loosen.”

2. “The debate around hybrid working in PR will die.”

3. “Agencies that invest in their employer brand will win the fight for talent.”

“An employer brand makes it ten times easier to recruit talent.”

21 mins Agencies need to tighten up their recruitment processes: “A 3 stage interview process (is the) maximum.”

“If you (the employer) can wrap up the interview process within three weeks, you will have a shot at securing the best talent.”

24 mins What is the average length of the recruitment process in PR?

On the PRmoment Podcast, this week is Adam Clyne, founder of Coolr, and we’re going to talk about what social agencies do and how that compares to what PR firms do.

Clearly, PR firms say they do social. But to what extent do they do social compared to the broader, or perhaps deeper, social remit of social agencies? And is this a problem for PR agencies? Do they need to worry about that? Or are they better off out of a very competitive social agency market?

To introduce our guest, Adam Clyne. He started in PR, and then he made the move into advertising with JWT. Adam launched his own digital agency called The Lab in 2002, which he then sold to the agency that is now called Kindred. He also had spells at TVC and Weber Shandwick.

He launched his own social media agency, Coolr, in 2017.

When I last interviewed Adam in 2020, Coolr had  20 employees. Now, in Nov 2023, it has 90. Adam won’t tell me his fee income, but there’s clearly a lot of growth in those in 3 years, especially considering Coolr doesn't buy much paid media, the reasons for which we’ll talk about later in the show.

Coolr clients include Burger King and Deliveroo.

Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

Also, a heads up to our PRmoment Podcast data partners - Meltwater.

2.30 mins Where does PR fit into the world of social media marketing, and where does social media marketing fit into the world of PR?

“Social and PR are kindred spirits, but there are a lot of differences and nuances between them.”

“Sometimes something that starts in the world of PR and media can explode into the world of social.”

“We never take on a PR brief. We prefer to be absolute specialists within social…there are nuances and differences in the ways of thinking and the ways of working.”

5 mins Are there areas that PR firms tend to play and areas where social media agencies own?

“When it comes to our competitor set, it’s very rare for us to compete against PR agencies.”

“The infrastructure is fundamentally different between how a PR agency is structured and how a PR firm is structured….and I’ve been in both.”

6.30 mins Who owns social client side - comms, brand or marketing?

8 mins What is the difference between social-earned media and PR-earned media? In terms of the type of campaign and the type of creative?

“Where the worlds are a little bit closer are the hero campaigns… those moments in time…The work we do is always on, a publishing approach.”

10.30 mins How do brands set themselves up as publishers on social?

12 mins What types of skill sets does a social agency need to create and activate content?

“Very few people here are from a PR agency background…We have people from publishers,...we have people from a TV background..from a social first background.”

15 mins How do the social channels break down in terms of the demographics of their audience? 

“TikTok is getting older, and Facebook is still very powerful and potent…but it’s more about the content that works with the audience...It’s a platform-first approach.”

“We want to play in culture.”

“Are there things in the draw ready for certain situations? 100% But you can’t plan for every situation. You have to have the agility to be ready, the process with the client to be able to approach stuff while it's a cultural moment, but more importantly, you have to have the trust from a brand.”

28 mins To what extent can AI automate customer service on social?

“You’ve got to be careful about automation of responses. Particularly on community management.”

30 mins Ho

In a new regular format of the PRmoment Podcast with me, Ben Smith, we’ll be catching up with UK public relations leaders - and our guests will share their in-hindsight secrets that they wish they'd known when they started their businesses!

 Today, we're chatting with Kirsty Leighton, founder & group CEO of Milk & Honey PR.

Milk & Honey was launched in 2016 and is a £5 m fee-income PR firm with offices in London, New York, Singapore and Munich.

Before we start, we’ve got some huuuuge news - The PRmoment Awards 2014 are now - OPEN!

There are some exciting changes this year; we’ve tweaked the categories, refined the entry form and launched a regional champions scheme with no additional entry fee to reach the work across the UK.

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

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting this podcast.

Here is a summary of what Kirsty and Ben talk about:

3 mins Kirsty tells us why she launched Milk & Honey internationally quite early in its story.

“I didn’t want any office to be more than 40 people because, to my mind, culture starts to change after that.”

Here is a timeline of Milk & Honey's international growth:

London 2017

Sydney 2019

New York 2021, led by Paul Cohen

Munich 2022, led by Manuel Huttl

Singapore 2023, led by Meilin Wong

“You need people who understand the local market.”

“America is a huge market for us, so it makes sense to open on the West Coast, potentially in Canada as well.”

“All our expansion has been on the back of finding the right people…none of it has been on the back of client demand.”

14 mins Kirsty talks us through her lessons on how to grow your PR business internationally:

1. Consider what amount of equity it makes sense to share with the leader in the respective market, but "you need to give the leader of the business skin in the game."
2. Test the leader’s alignment with your values.
3. It needs to be someone who understands the local market and is known in the market
4. Your offer must stand out.
5. Launch in countries where there is a PR talent pool.
6. Launch in countries that have a regional and national impact.

18 mins Kirsty talks about the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Course she completed and how it influenced Milk & Honey’s strategy. The course is Goldman’s CSR program to help accelerate small businesses to become scale-ups and braver.

21 mins Three of Kirsty’s jobs pre-Milk & Honey were Wagener Edstrom (now WE), Hudson Sadler and Edelman. I asked Kirsty whether, if you combined a bit of each of those three firms, you would get a business that resembles Milk & Honey?

29 mins Why did Milk & Honey decide to become a B Corp? (Here is a previous PR Moment Podcast that discusses how a PR firm should go about becoming a B Corp accreditation.)

33 mins Has the Havas/ Shell controversy been worse for the Havas brand or the B Corp brand?

36 mins Looking back over the last seven years since Kirsty launched Milk & Honey, does she have any regrets? 

39 mins Kirsty talks us through why the Employee Owned Trust structure was right for Milk & Honey. How does the EOT structure work with international entities?

44 mins What lessons does Kirsty have for any budding PR start-up entrepreneurs?

In the fourth episode of the season, Dean Connelly, founder of Latte Recruitment and Elizabeth are joined by Shruti Gupta, account executive at Harvard and her colleague Joe McDermott, head of enterprise technology practice at Harvard. 

Following Gupta's inspirational My PRmoment interview, in which she discussed having imposter syndrome after moving from India to the UK to work in PR, we asked her and McDermott how that presented at work and how effective line management helped to reduce her feelings of doubt.

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors the PRCA

• Tin Man wins Mars Pet Care (Royal Canin) and Yeo Valley.
• Sunny Side Up wins Majestic Wine
• John Doe wins the Pernod Ricard wine portfolio and Sports Direct.
• Duet London wins INSHUR
• Frank wins Lounge.tv and Not On The High Street
• Red wins Toshiba TV
• Three Sixty wins Wizz Air
• The Romans wins The Gym Group, Formula E and Tony's Chocolonely
• Hatch wins 365
• H&K wins Philips Domestic Appliances
• PHA wins Alith Pay
• Little Red Rooster wins Hush Puppies

• Life Sciences firm Eversana have acquired digital health consultancy Healthware Group
• Freuds buys creative art agency Lawless Studios
• US private equity firm EagleTree Capital buys MMGY Global
• Havas buys Indian consumer firm PR Pundit.
• Splendid buys DIY Creative.

On the show today, we welcome Charlotte Brooks, who is the managing director of PR agency Mischief.

This is the latest In our ongoing in hindsight-themed PRmoment Podcasts, where PRmoment founder Ben Smith interviews public relations leaders - where our guests share their in hindsight, secrets that they wish they'd known when they started their careers.

Charlotte’s been at Mischief for five years and took over the managing director role from Greg Jones when he left last year.

Before joining Mischief in 2018, Charlotte had worked for some of London’s finest consumer PR firms, including House PR, The Academy and Launch PR.

Mischief is a consumer PR agency based in London with 35 employees and a turnover of £5 m. Current clients include the likes of Lego, Three and Ocada. Big wins for Mischief this year (2023) were Team GB, Diageo and Channel 4.

Mischief is part of the MHP group. MHP and Mischief became part of Next Fifteen when it acquired Engine in a £77m deal.

Before we start, if you haven’t already, look at 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, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting this podcast.

Here is a summary of what Charlotte and Ben discussed on the show:

3 mins Charlotte reflects on the state of the consumer PR market at the moment.

“This year’s been a tough year…there’s greater scrutineering from procurement than I’ve ever seen before.”

“The majority (of Mischief’s) work is retained work…retainers give you some security.”

5 mins For any PR agency brand connoisseurs out there, of which I imagine there are none -  is Mischief now Mischief again, or is it Mischief MHP?

8 mins Why does Charlotte think it’s good to move jobs regularly?

“Life’s too short to be unhappy in a job.”

“You can learn so much by moving (jobs)...it’s been interesting for me to take the learnings from those agencies.”

11 mins How do you know when it's time to change jobs?

Charlotte talks us through the lessons she learnt from her jobs over the years:

Jonny Pitt and Launch PR:

“Working at Launch is like being at the school of Jonny Pitt.”

“Plan what you’re going to say to a client in the lift…don’t talk about the weather; have something interesting to say…be memorable.”

Ginny Paton and House PR:

“Ginny has been a huge mentor for me throughout my career…she is the reason I am where I am today.”

“Some of my best friends now are people I met at House PR.”

16 mins What does a good culture in a PR firm look like?

“PR firm culture pre covid is very different to the culture now.”

Mitch Kaye and Dan Glover at The Academy:

“Their individual strengths are the other one's weakness…they taught me to understand what you're good at.”

Frankie Cory and Greg Jones Mischief:

Frankie was very much work hard, play hard  - she  taught me that you’re never too senior to get your hands dirty!”

“Creativity ran through everything we did when Greg was in charge at Mischief.”

Alex Bigg at MHP Group:

“Alex is a brilliant businessman.”

25 mins A discussion about how Mischief has retained its position as a leading consumer PR firm despite 4/5 leadership changes at the firm since it launched nearly 20 years ago. 

This week, we’re celebrating 15 years of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, and to do that, we’re talking to 3 of its alumni about how the programme helped their careers. On the PRmoment Podcast today, we’re talking to Kwaku Aning,  Shanice Hoo Mills and Toni Adeola

For those of you not aware of the Taylor Bennett Foundation - well, I’d suggest you should! It’s an amazing charity that exists to encourage black, Asian and minority ethnic graduates to pursue a career in communications. It does this through its PR training programme, internships and mentoring programmes.

Established by communications executive search firm Taylor Bennett in partnership with the University of East London and founding agency Brunswick in 2008, the Foundation seeks to address the need for greater diversity in the public relations sector.

With the support of leading communication companies, The Taylor Bennett Foundation runs professional development programmes that provide participants with the knowledge, skill set and network required to pursue a successful career in communications.

And what better way to celebrate the 15th birthday of the foundation than to chat with three recent alumni about the programme and how it has benefited their careers?

Kwaku Aning is currently senior director at FTI Consulting and completed the Taylor Bennett Foundation programme in 2016.  Shanice Hoo Mills is the founder of PR firm Kallure, which she launched in 2019. MHP sponsored Shanice and Kwaku’s Taylor Foundation intake.

Toni Adeola is the global corporate affairs manager at Charlotte Tilbury Beauty. Previously, she worked at Brunswick for five years. Toni completed the Taylor Bennett program in 2017. Brunswick was the sponsor of Toni’s intake of the programme.

Before we start, if you haven’t already, look at 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, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Finally, thanks to PRmoment’s data and insight partners, Meltwater, for supporting this podcast.

Here’s a summary of what Kwaku, Toni and Shanice talked about on the show:

3 mins For any of our listeners who are not aware of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, Kwaku Aning talks us through what the charity does.

4.30 mins Toni Adeola tells us what she was doing in life before she went onto the Taylor Bennett programme.

6 mins Toni tells about the type of course content and what she found most useful.

9 mins Shanice Shields-Mills talks us through how the Taylor Bennet Foundation helped her.

14 mins Shanice talks about how long the programme lasts and what content she found most useful.

18 mins Kwaku talks about why interns being paid to go on the Taylor Bennett Foundation is such a game-changer.

“It feels good to be part of something that was ahead of its time. That’s positive.”

20 mins Kwaku outlines how PR employers out there can get involved with the scheme and potentially sponsor an intake,

“They need to have an honest conversation with themselves first. Are they doing this for the right reasons…or are they doing it as an exercise to make themselves feel better.”

“The comms industry still has a massive retention issue.”

“It’s diversity, inclusion but also having equity. ..the equity part of that is important.”

27 mins Kwaku talks about what he learned on the programme that helped him the most in his career.

“Once the programme was finished, I felt so confident in myself.”

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

This week, we’re chatting to Alex Aiken, long-time executive director of the UK Government’s Communication Service.

Alex has worked with six Prime Ministers when they've had to make their most crucial decisions.  He worked in government communications during Brexit, during the COVID crisis, when the queen died and when Russia invaded Ukraine.

In short, he’s been in the room during many of the most difficult periods of the UK government since the Second World War.

He was appointed in December 2012 and has overseen a huge change in UK Government Communications. Currently, part of Alex’s role is to counter the disinformation spread by foreign governments about the UK and its allies.

Whatever your politics, it's acknowledged globally that UK Government Communications is a global leader in ensuring the effectiveness of its communications to the UK public.

Before we start, if you haven’t already, look at 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.

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

Here are some of the highlights of what Alex and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins What does a good disinformation campaign currently look like?

3 mins How digital and social media have added extraordinary scale to Russia’s disinformation campaigns.

4 mins Is there much evidence that people are becoming more circumspect to Russia’s disinformation campaigns?

4.30 mins Alex talks us through the principles of countering disinformation: strong and independent media, educated citizens and good public information.

“AI, bots and digital media mean we’ve got disinformation campaigns on steroids- it’s easier, cheaper and quicker to do now than it’s ever been.”

9 mins “(For the European Union, The UK, The US and the G7), it’s only by working together to identify disinformation, by attributing it…and by working on the stories we want to tell that we will be able to combat it.”

“To some extent, the UK can withstand disinformation, but smaller countries (those with newer democracies and a less independent media) are more at risk.”

10 mins Alex shares his concerns about the attack of disinformation on democracies.

He refers to the book Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda from the Ancient World to the Present Era by author Philip M. Taylor, which suggests that the sophisticated digital propaganda of today poses a serious threat to democracy.

“For centuries, information has been a powerful component of military doctrine.”

“Information is a very powerful tool. Sometimes the public relations profession underestimates the power and value of its own currency of information…of truth told well.”

12 mins Does Alex agree with this quote from the Freedom House Report on “Beijing's Global Media Influence 2022:

“The Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, is accelerating a massive campaign to influence media outlets and news consumers around the world.”

15 mins How much of Alex’s current role is to try and coordinate Western government’s response to Chinese, Russian and North Korean disinformation?

15 mins

The PR Network is a £5m fee-income global tech PR agency based in the UK. It has ten employees, no head office and 1300 associates all around the world who it can call upon. On average, it has 70-90 associates working for it at any one time.

Before we start, we’ve just launched our latest webinars. One is our annual The Creative Year in Review 2023, and the other is PR Analytics 2023. Do check out the PRmoment homepage for all the details.

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

Here is a summary of what Eileen and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed.

2 mins How many global PR campaigns are there these days?

2.30 mins Should most global PR firms be more accurately regarded as multi-territory?

“There are 195 total markets in the world; in terms of markets you could go to (with a PR campaign), maybe 130-140.”

“For us, when you're looking at the global/multi-territory piece, it comes down to the client set-up.”

“If a client is working in 40 markets, 40 markets for them is global.”

“The PR Network has a presence in 60 markets.”

7 mins What is the model for an international PR campaign now? Is the wheel and spoke model still dominant?

“Where we’ve seen the best campaigns come together is where you work with a consultative approach with the local agency teams.”

9 mins Is there a paradox between retaining control of an international campaign and giving people room to adapt a campaign for local markets? Isn't that a tension that will exist forever?

10 mins How many markets do the big global PR firms tend to have owned offices in? 

“The world's biggest PR firm has 29 wholly owned offices, and to cover the other markets, it works with 26 affiliates.”

14 mins Is there an alternative to the wheel and spoke model?

16 mins Eileen talks about the PR Network model and how they manage any client conflicts with their associates.

17 mins There are four ways of tacking an international PR campaign: 1) Doing the whole thing in-house, 2) Going through a global PR firm, 3) Using an international network of independent agencies, or 4) Hiring a virtual independent consultant firm like PR Network?

Eillen discusses which of these approaches is the most popular.

20 mins 70% of The PR Network’s work is international, making it a very different type of independent PR firm.

“The international piece for us is an opportunity to scale and grow.”

21 mins Are there regional trends in the types of content that work across different international PR and media markets?

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

This is a bonus podcast where we chat about Rajar’s latest results. For those of you who 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, it publishes the listenership figures for UK radio. This offers a really interesting insight for PR people on how the UK public engages with this important channel.

Today, we have Alex Blakemore, newsroom producer at Markettiers, to talk us through the latest Rajar results for Q3 2023.

Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

Also, a heads up to our PRmoment Podcast data partners - Meltwater. Do check out the program for PRmoment’s new conference launch, The PR Masterclass: The Agency Growth Forum.

Highlights include:

Radio's weekly reach is 49.5 million adults, that’s 88% of the population listening to the radio for 20.5 Hours per week.

The total BBC share of radio listening is 43%. So, in terms of the BBC vs commercial radio race, we have the BBC on 31.7m and commercial radio on 39.3m (reach).

Alex discusses the changes in scheduling at BBC local radio and what they mean for PR folks.

The impact of the Ken Bruce effect on Greatest Hits Radio numbers and whether BBC Radio 2’s reach has declined due to Ken Bruce leaving.

A discussion of how Greatest Hits radio strategy of national programming with local bulletins and the implications of that for PRs.

On the PRmoment Podcast today, Pangolin PR co-founders David Phillips and Will Cookson reflect on ten years of running their agency.

Pangolin is a consumer PR shop in London with a fee incline of £1.75m. Clients include Pernod and Pepsi, and it employs 17 people.

On the show today, we will reflect on their regrets, lessons and achievements as they look back on ten years of owning their own business.

To deal with the elephant in the room straight away - some listeners out there might be pointing out that many firms have exceeded £1.76 m over ten years, but in a way, that’s the whole point.

Ultimately this is a story of success but only with a few wrong turns along the way, which makes it an interesting story.

Before we start, if you haven’t already, look at 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.

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

Here’s a summary of what David, Will and Ben discussed on the show:

2 mins David and Will talk about their “real naivety about setting up a business” when they started their firm.

“I genuinely think we were the most naive co-founders back in the day…we were senior account directors when we set up the business.”

4 mins Do they wish they’d given it a few more years in a big agency before starting on their own?

“We’ve learnt everything on the job..it’s meant it’s been slower.”

“We’re not natural risk takers.”

“We were both in our late 20s and didn't have massive commitments…if someone were to ask me to set up a business now, it would be a very different story.”

9 mins  Freuds has a mythical status amongst some consumer PR folks - is that a vital cog in your story?

10 mins When Pangolin launched, it was called Caffeine. Will talks us through why they had to change the name?

“There’s a wider lesson there about what to do when it goes legal.”

15 mins Will and David tell us how they bought a ticket to win the Pepsi account.

“Dave slightly overcooked it on the cocktails the night before.”

“It just shows that you have to take a risk at some point, and it might work out.”

19 mins David talks us through why they nearly decided to say no to the Pernod Ricard account in their first year of business.

“We had a look at the current clients on our roster, which included a birdseed brand and a few others, and thought let's do it and see where it takes us!... It’s led to a 10-year relationship with Pernod Ricard.”

24.30 mins 70% of Pangolin’s work is project-based. David and Will talk us through why that is.

28 mins 50% of Pangolin’s work is UK-based, and 50% is global. Why is that? It’s quite rare for a consumer PR shop of its size.

30 mins What do global consumer PR campaigns look like at the moment? Are they a media brief or a social media brief?

“Brands want a percentage share of conversation online.”

“We’ve had the best year to date; revenue has grown by 25%.”

“New business feels a bit slower, a bit stickier.”

34 mins How big do David and Will want Pangolin to get?

37 mins Do David and Will believe they have benefited from founding Pangolin together, or do they wish they’d been solo founders?

“Dave and I talk about things A LOT!.... Sometimes we need to stop talking about stuff and just do it.”

“When we were at Freuds, Will and I weren’t really the best of mates…”

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Welcome to our October 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 at Frank PR.

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. 

Here’s a summary of what Andrew and PRmoment founder discuss as PR enters its golden quarter!

2 mins This month's PR agency pitch wins news:

• The Romans win Deliveroo
• PHA win England Golf
• Stripe win White & Mackay
• Made by Giants win YouLend
• Taylor Herring win Sky Mobile and Sky Broadband
• Mission agencies Speed and Krow win the Post Office
• Tigerbond win Justgiving
• Pitch win EA Sports FC
• Third City win Nespresso
• Four win The National Lottery Heritage Fund
• Firstlight win Chivas Brothers
• Circle PR win Fairmont Hotels
• M&C Saatchi win Elizabeth Arden 

12.30 mins Andrew reflects on the current state of the PR new business market as we enter the busy Christmas period

“The markets in a decent place…there’s hesitancy, but great agencies always do well despite the economy.”

“The tech sector needs to realign and readjust, but it’s not going anywhere - it will come back strong.”

15 mins Andrew talks about this month's M&A activity

“There a lot going on this month - both trade (deals) and private equity.”

• Havas acquires Australian Public Affairs (APA)
• Omnicom acquires Plus Comms and FP1 - US-based corporate PR and lobbying firms.

“This is all about the run into the US presidential election.”

• Milltown acquire the tech policy consultancy Taso
• SEC Newgate aquire Wepublic, a corporate agency in the Netherlands.
• Tyto acquires Its a Rep, a Dutch comms agency.
• Farner acquires Lansons.

“Farner now has about 17 agencies across Europe. Farner’s fee income is about $86m globally.”

“They’ve (Farner) have almost doubled in size in the last couple of years.”

“Farner is backed by Waterland Private Equity, the same private equity firm that backed the Markettiers deal.”

“The valuation of a business comes down to scale and specialist.”

The way that Waterland works is that they don’t like to get into bids…they want a partner. They invest time in a non-competitive process.”

“It (Lansons) was an EOT, which sometimes makes it (a sale) a complex process.”

“Gordon Tempest Hay (ex Teneo/Blue Rubicon) joined Lansons 18 months/2 years ago, and...he's found them a buyer.”

“It’s interesting that Cirkle and Lansons both sold relatively soon after becoming an Employee Owned Trust (EOT).”

28 min Morrow Sodali, the US-based firm, acquires Powerscourt

“I think this deal is worth in excess of £50m.”

Welcome to PRmoment Podcast. This week it’s our October Global Creativity Review, so we are talking creativity with a gorgeous panel who will identify and chat about some of the best bits of creativity they have seen in the past month or so.

 On the show today to help us review some of the best creative work are:

 Daniel Glover, co-founder & creative director of The Academy

Olivia Mushigo, social creative, Coolr

James Gordon-MacIntosh, co-founder and chief creative officer, Hope&Glory PR

 To remind the listeners of the rules - our creatives are not allowed to choose their own work!

 This is our 4th global creativity review, 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.

 Here are a few highlights of what Dan, Olivia and James chatted about with PRmoment founder Ben Smith.

 2 mins Olivia talks us through some creativity-inducing viral moments/trends where brands have tapped into the news agenda.

9 mins Tube Girl and MAC at London Fashion Week.

“My money’s on Tube Girl having a slightly shorter shelf life.”

“One of the things to admire is the amazing speed at which beauty brands will spot a trend and then move on.”

10 mins Donald Trump’s prison mug shot on some anti-woke right-wing beer which then sells out!

“Make the money, honey.”

13 mins Dan Glover talks us through three campaigns that caught his eye this month, all featuring challenger brands using creativity to position themselves as market leaders.

“Simple ideas executed well.”

Pukka Pies at London Fashion Week - the pie of football: includes a kit range and the Pukka Athletic Club.

“I tip my hat to 6EZ Group.”

“I’m going to use this platform to appeal for a gluten-free pie.”

“It’s nice to see Pukka Pies embrace its role in society.”

17 mins Alzheimer Research UK Change the Ending rebrand by Above+Beyond ad agency.

“The creative is without doubt beautiful.”

“We’re a charity that doesn’t have a happy ending.”

21 mins Lick Paint’s and Heinz collab by Hope&Glory

“Heinz approached Lick in this instance.”

26 mins “There’s always one brand a year that nails it, and Heinz is having its moment.”

28 mins Heinz’s Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch Sauce and Taylor Swift’s tweet goes bonkers across earned media!

“I’m not a big fan of the fake mock-up…if you keep doing it, I will stop paying attention because I know it’s not real.”

32 mins KFC’s bespoke chicken bone jewellery

36 mins Avavav’s chaotic Milan Catwalk Video

36 mins Carrefour puts 'shrinkflation’ labels on its shelves during the cost of living crisis.

37 mins Ed Sheeran gatecrashes a wedding in Vegas

“Ed Sheeran is a one-man PR stunt machine.”

Welcome to a new PRmoment Podcast where we look at the PR job market with Dean Connolly, founder & PR recruitment director at Latte.

We talk about all things PR recruitment - discussing some of the trends in the PR job market, including the latest numbers from Latte’s 2023 PR salary guide.

If you’re interested in keeping an eye on the best PR jobs out there each week, subscribe for free to PRmoment’s Top 10 PR Jobs updates.

Before we start, if you haven’t already, do take a look at 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.

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

Here’s a summary of what Dean and PRmoment founder Bes Smith discussed:

2 mins Dean updates us on trends in the PR recruitment market in the UK

“We’re seeing a slowdown on the consumer side; jobs aren’t flowing as quickly in the consumer market.”

“Corporate has picked up in September.”

“Just because there’s a slowdown in the jobs market doesn’t mean an abundance of talent is available.”

5 mins  What has the impact of the tech slowdown been on the PR recruitment market?

“We find if someone’s been made redundant, they’ll have a job within 5 days - if they want it” (At the junior level)

“Employer brand for agencies is crucial for attracting talent.”

11 mins  Dean says the talent gap has reduced (the number of vacancies agencies have that they cannot fill), - but it’s still a growth limiting factor for agencies.

12.30 mins “We have seen salaries level out and plateau...I don’t think we’ll see salaries move again for another 6-12 months.”

“I think salary increases in PR will be a bit below inflation.”

14 mins Dean’s recruitment heat map:

• Healthcare Red Hot 10/10
• Corporate 9/10
• Tech 5/10
• Consumer 6/10

17.30 mins Dean gives us his PR salary band update (London-based roles)

• PR account executive £26-28 K
• PR senior account executive £28-33K
• PR account manager £35-40 K
• PR senior account manager £42 -£45K
• PR account director £50-55K
• PR senior account director £60-65 K
• PR associate director £70-80K
• PR director £85-£130K

23 mins  “Linkedin’s research says that mentioning a salary in a job advert is the key feature to get someone to apply for a job.”

24.30 mins An update on working from home/in the office trend.

“We’re seeing some agencies go back to 4/5 days a week in the office.”

“Whether you want to come into the office just depends on the commute.”

“We’re seeing the rise in the destination PR office.”

A recent survey by Fairtrade, with research undertaken by Kantar, finds 86% of shoppers want brands to be upfront about sourcing and more than half (55%) think businesses should take a ‘large amount’ or ‘full responsibility’ for protecting the human rights of workers in their supply chains.

The study found that 59% of UK adults support Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) legislation, while just 9% oppose it, showing strong public backing for government action and responsible business practices.

Sustainability and purpose matter in communications. They help you build trust and credibility, they help you attract and retain talent and they help you drive innovation in green technologies. 

In a special PRmoment podcast, inspired by the final deadline for the Sustainability and Purpose Awards we’re chatting to The Fairtrade Organisation’s Martine Parry about its Fairtrade Fortnight Research and its implications for communicators.

Before we start a reminder that PRmoment’s Sustainability & Purpose Awards final entry deadline is on Wednesday 15th October. Take a look at all the categories on the microsite.

Here’s a summary of what PRmoment founder Ben Smith and Martine Parry discussed on this week’s show:

75% of UK adults believe their shopping habits are the most meaningful way to help build a fairer world. Martine and Ben discuss the implication of this for brand communicators.

Is the value of the ‘green pound’ (total ethical spend in the UK) still a relevant measure of consumer ethical and sustainability spending trends?

Fairtrade’s research identified 2 sustainability and purpose personas, what are they?

How can brands encourage consumers to shop “fair”?

It’s a busy media agenda but is there still room for sustainability and purpose related stories?

Define what authentic sustainability storytelling looks like in 2025?

What is the Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) legislation and why is it important for communicators who are worried about reputation issues resulting from their supply chains?

As a judge in the Sustainability and Purpose Awards, what sort of work is Martine looking forward to seeing this year?

On the PRmoment Podcast today we’re chatting with Katie De Cozar, director of CCgroup about how to improve the DE&I of PR agencies.

CCgroup has made major changes to its business over the past 5 years which has seen significant improvements in the diversity of its employees.

CCgroup is a £6m revenue PR firm based in London with 46 employees. In 2020 17% of CCgroups employees were BME, in 2023 that has increased to 37%.

Some background stats for our listeners:

According to the CIPR State of the Profession Report 2022 89% of the PR sector is white, 11% black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic groups. (All UK-wide)

Government data from the UK Census 2021: 82% of people in England and Wales are white, and 18% belong to a black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic group

So we as a sector need to do better when it comes to encouraging a greater representation of people to work in public relations.

Before we start, if you haven’t already do take a look at our new event PR Masterclass: The Agency Growth Forum. Katie will be joining a panel at the event on “Building partnerships to help shift the diversity of communication campaigns and the teams that create them.”

At this one event, 22 experts will give 11 Masterclasses on essential elements of managing a modern, profitable and successful PR firm.

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

4.30 mins “We know that diverse teams outperform non-diverse teams.”

5 mins Where do PR leaders need to start their journey towards increasing the representation of minority groups within their PR teams?

5.30 mins “Representation in London of BME is around 46%.”

7 mins Katie talks about what data do you need to know when it comes to your company's diversity.

“Our gender pay gap has improved significantly, we’ve got work to do on our ethnicity pay gap.”

12 mins Katie talks about the need to communicate your diversity data in a transparent and fair way, both internally and externally.

13 mins Here is the link to the WIPR podcast with Jo Carr Ben mentioned in the show.

14 mins The other areas that are critically important to making progress on diversity are recruitment, bonuses & benefits and staff surveys. Katie talks us through why they are such important areas and gives an insight into the changes that CCgroup made.

“Importantly we got rid of the words ‘cultural fit!’”

“We have full transparency within pay bands within the business. One thing agencies must do is include pay bands within the job description… There’s a real danger to hiding that information.”

20 mins Katie talks about how CCgroup changed its recruitment processes to improve the diversity of candidates.

23 mins Katie describes how CCgroup has democratised its approach to rewarding staff bonuses - to make it a fairer and more transparent process.

26 mins Katie talks about the role of staff surveys in helping understand how its staff are feeling.

28 mins How CCgroup’s 360 appraisal process works.

31 mins Is CCgroup producing a different type of work than before it had a diverse team?

33 mins How has the culture of CCgroup improved?

35 mins Have clients noticed CCgroup's improvement in its approach to diversity?

37 mins CCgroup is a member of

On the PRmoment Podcast this week we’re chatting with Andy Peake, London CEO of creative agency VCCP. I’ve known Andy for about 25 years so, to an extent, we’ve followed each other's careers with interest over a couple of decades!

As Andy is now CEO of one the largest creative agencies in London I thought it would be interesting to get him on the show to chat about the intersection of PR firms and advertising agencies. 

VCCP London has 850 employees and according to Nielson Billings Rankings is the UK’s highest billing creative agency with £483 m in billings, in 2022. Up 34% from £360m in 2021.

The agency was founded in 2002 and is owned by Chime, which also owns the PR agencies Good Relations and Harvard.

Chime is majority-owned by private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.

The intersection between PR firms and advertising firms has become an interesting one - because if you listen to a PR firm describe itself and an advertising firm describe itself, you’d think they have become basically the same or very similar. 

But they seem to rarely compete for briefs and clients' budgets - and we’ll be discussing that and no doubt much more on today’s PRmoment Podcast today.

Before we start, if you haven’t already do take a look at 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.

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Andy and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed on the show:

2.30 mins As far as many PR people are concerned advertising agencies wedded themselves to producing 30-second TV ads that no one watches any more. So what have advertising agencies become?

5 mins What types of discipline specialists does VCCP have?

8 mins How does an advertising agency differ from a PR firm?

“The simplest way of categorising what different parts of the agency do is into paid, earned and owned and there’s obviously an enormous amount of overlap now.”

12 mins Andy talks about why he thinks don’t PR firms and advertising agencies compete against each other more often.

15.30 mins How much tension is there between a long-term strategic view of a brand strategy, with the need to respond to a news hook or an event?

19.30 mins Agency-wise we’re living in an era of specialism over the generalist. PR firms have more specialists than ever - but Andy talks us through the extent of specialism within VCCP.

22.30 mins With the level of specialisation in agencies now, is there a danger that everything just takes too long? How do you remove bureaucracy and hierarchy from a multi-specialised agency structure?

“The client shouldn't feel like there dealing with a big group of people.”

24.30 mins From the client's perspective, has the buying of marketing services either become or, is in danger of becoming, too confusing and too messy?

“You’ve got to find a way of constructing yourself as an agency, and as a client, that is going to make that experience for the customer as seamless and consistent as possible.”

27.30 mins How is the creative market for VCCP at the moment? If 2022 was an 8/10 where is the market now?

“You have to be winning new business. There are going to be reasons, which are completely out of your control, that mean some clients are not going to spend as much next year as they did this year, so you’ve

On the PRmoment Podcast today we’re chatting with Jo Carr, the president of Women in PR. Jo is also co-founder of PR agency Hope&Glory.

Women in PR was founded in 1962. So it’s just turned 60!

It has 350 members and the profile of the organisation has grown a lot over the last 10 years or so.

Of all the trade associations in public relations, I’d suggest Women in PR is the one with the greatest momentum currently.

For our international listeners, there is an organisation called Global Women in PR, which has a similar remit.

Before we start, if you haven’t already do take a look at 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.

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.

2.30 mins Jo talks us through the raison d’etre of Women in PR

“We are losing legions of brilliant women from our industry. Our (WIPR’s) mission is to increase the number and diversity of women in senior roles across the (PR) industry. We do that through networking and support, through mentoring and campaigning”.

5 mins Jo outlines the barriers stopping women from reaching the most senior roles in public relations: sexism, racism, life stage changes and employer support.

“The evidence shows that if…women don’t have an enlightened or progressive employer it can get in the way of their progression.”

6 mins Have PR employers become better employers of women in recent times?

8 mins Jo discusses the importance of having an employer brand in public relations.

9 mins There are about 60,000 women working in PR in the UK, so why do Women in PR only have 350 members?

10 mins Jo talks about what mentorees get out of the Women in PR mentoring scheme.

13 mins Jo reveals the secrets of being a great mentor.

“Great mentors are great listeners, you can’t see your mentee as a problem to be solved.”

15 mins To get the most out of mentoring, what do mentorees need to bring to the scheme?

“The combination between coaching and mentoring is very important”

15 mins Jo talks us through the difference between mentoring and coaching.

16 mins Jo discusses stats (from 2022) suggesting that the gender pay gap in public relations is getting worse.

“How do we we stop so many women from leaving (PR)? If they stayed that would have the biggest impact in reducing the gender pay gap.”

20 mins Jo discusses the changes the PR sector needs to make to reduce its gender pay gap.

23 mins How can PR employers help their female employers more?

27 mins Jo talks about how WIPR plans to increase its diversity.

28 mins Jo outlines a number of resources that are useful for employers and employees wanting more information about menopause and perimenopause including mymenopausecentre.com.

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.

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

This is 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 it publishes 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 Alex Williamson, senior newsroom producer at Markettiers to talk us through the latest Rajar results for Q2 2023.

Thanks to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

Also a heads up to our PRmoment Podcast data partners - Meltwater. Do check out the program for PRmoment’s new conference launch The PR Masterclass: The Agency Growth Forum.

1.30 mins Alex gives us the highlights of what PR professionals need to know about Rajar’s Q2 2023 results.

“49.5 million adults listen every week to the radio each, 88% of the (UK) population.”

3 mins Alex talks about the increasing gap between commercial radio and the BBC.

“Commercial radio reaches 39.1 million, the BBC reaches 31.6 million.”

“People want to be entertained.”

“Hits Radio has gone up from 1.7 to 1.8 million listeners, Jamie and  on Heart reach 3.8 m listeners, which is catching up with Greg James on BBC Radio 1 who has just dipped below 4 m, on 3.9 m listeners.”

“More than ¾ of main shoppers with kids, the people you want to reach, listen to commercial radio.”

5 mins Is it easier to target audience niches within commercial radio than BBC?

7 mins Why the modern structure of the radio market has big implications for PR planners.

9 mins The importance of local content for radio and the implications for PR professionals.

“The Ken Bruce effect has worked wonders for Greatest Hits Radio”

“The BBC is still the most trusted broadcaster.”

Today on the PRmoment Podcast we’re talking about values. We’re going part history lesson, part comms theory and part future gazing. To help talk us through that kaleidoscope we’ve Rebecca Grant, UK CEO and Global Chief Brand Officer of BCW on the show.

We’re going to talk about the importance of values in successful communication campaigns. 

The hope is that in 30 mins' time, you'll know about the basics of Schwartz’s values theory, why it matters to communications and we’ll give you an insight into the research BCW has done to take Schwartz’s theory and apply it to communications best practice.

So it’s a serious show and to match such a serious topic I should mention that it’s the very serious ESG Awards entry deadline in September! Take a look at all the categories on the ESG Awards website.

And thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.
Here is a summary of what Rebecca and I discussed on the show:

2 mins Rebecca talk us through Schwartz's work on values and what it was all about.

“Values are the motivational basis for what we think, feel and do…they are foundational and shape how we engage with the world. They are more constant than our attitudes, knowledge and opinions."

“Values are formed in adolescence and then shape your view of the world and they remain constant.”

“Your values might shift or evolve but on the whole, once your value set is formed in adolescence they remain constant.”

“You will have different values, they are not mutually exclusive.”

“Professor Schwartz defines the basic human values - of which there are eleven.”

“Values are good predictors of future behaviours.”

7.30 mins You can visit www.bcwmovatory.com to find out your own values.

8 mins Rebecca talks us through Schwartz’s 11 values: 

Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Achievement, Power, Security, Tradition, Conformity, Universalism Societial, Universalism Nature, Benevolence.

14 mins How has BCW’s research put a communications layer on top of Schartz’s work to understand how to communicate with people with different values?

“As people, we will fit into 1 of the 7 Archetypes based on a combination of our core values”

19 mins Why this research has huge implications for communications and content planning.

23 mins Rebecca talks us through the 7 Archetypes coming out of BCW’s research.

The Success Seeker, The Conformist, The Adventurer, The Visionary, The Protector, The Good Neighbour, The Traditionalist and The Conformist.

25 mins Bens's core values: Benevolence, Universalism Societial, Self-direction.

26 mins Rebecca’s Core Values: Benevolence, Universalism Societial, Conformity.

In this new regular format of the PRmoment Podcast with Ben Smith we’ll be catching up with UK public relations leaders - and our guests will share their in hindsight secrets that they wish they'd known at the start of their careers.

This week on the PRmoment Podcast we're talking to Paul Joseph MD of Full Fat.

Full Fat is a consumer PR and social agency with 18 employees. It specialises in FMCG and event work. Current clients include San Miguel, Poretti, and Sziget Festival (a massive festival in Hungary that is I'm told bigger than Glastonbury!)

Paul has worked out Full Fat for just over 10 years. The agency was founded by Ella McWilliam and Megan Morass.

And thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Paul and I discussed:

2 mins Paul shares his first In Hindsight Lesson: “A one-size-fits-all approach to the workforce doesn't work”

“In the PR industry, there can be quite a linear approach to how people progress”

“We’ve created part-time roles, we’ve offered people the opportunity to do hybrid roles.”

“You’ve got to have an inclusive environment…our working model has completely changed to what it was 5 years ago.”

“We offer one-to-one mental health support sessions”

7 mins Paul talks us through what the word inclusive means at Full Fat, in a practical sense.

8 mins Paul tells us his second In Hindsight lesson: “Trust your gut”

“You have to listen to that inner voice…ultimately any decision is better than no decision.”

10.30 mins Paul’s third In Hindsight Lesson: Know your superpower.

11 mins Paul shares his superpower: That he’s an introvert.

“PR job adverts exaggerate extroverted traits …interviews lean on extroverted traits.”

“Being calm and pragmatic tends to put people at ease…the ability to really listen goes a long way with clients!”

“I'm more creative when I’m on my own”

14 mins Paul’s fourth In Hindsight Lesson: Don’t rest on your laurels when it comes to your DEI journey

“That’s really about making sure you’re always adapting your approach”

15 mins Paul talks us through the phases of Full Fat’s DEI journey over the last few years.

19 mins Paul’s final in Hindsight Lesson: Treat yourselves like a client - both the people and the business

“Having a profile makes a huge difference.”

“You also need to be clear about what you stand for and what your positioning is, over time your position might change and you might need to give it a refresh.”

“It’s about elevating voices within the agency…giving them profile.”

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Welcome to our July review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch.

Andrew is a co-founder and non-executive director at Frank PR and is now lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR. He is also a partner at PCB Partners advising on buying and selling marketing services agencies.

Thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

Do look at the brace of new webinars that we’ve launched on PRmoment, including Social Media in B2B and The Contribution of Comms to ESG.

2 mins Andrew contextualises the state of the new business market in UK PR currently.

“In an economy that is a bit shaky…being able to demonstrate effectiveness is more important than ever.”

“Why Andrew’s PR agency activity barometer is busier than ever!”

8 mins Andrew gives us his rundown of PR pitch wins for July, including:

• Good Relations wins Starling Bank
• Fleishman wins HS1
• Mischief wins Team GB
• Ready 10 wins Kind Snacks
• Stripe wins Giggling Squid
• PR Network and Heathrow Express
• Azaria win VTech and Leapfrog
• Nudge wins Kettle chips
• MSL wins Currys
• Ketchum wins Dolmio

18 mins Andrews gives us his insight into the Havas Uncommon deal.

“It could be a deal that’s worth up to £120m in 6 years time”

“Havas already has a reputation as one of the most creative marketing services in the world…and they are doubling down on creativity.”

21 mins Andrew explains the £120m valuation of Uncommon on its current fee income of £22m.

25 mins Andrew reviews SEC Newgate’s $100m investment from Investcorp, an alternative investment firm, for a 55% stake in the business. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and values SEC Newgate as a $250 m business.

28 mins Andrew rounds us off by talking us through some smaller trade deals:

• The Bigger Boat acquires Scriba
• Bulla acquires Hype Collective
• There’s a management buyout at Lucre Group which rebrands to Gold79.

This week on the PRmoment Podcast we talk about what CEOs want from PR and we also identify the 7 top attributes that CEOs want in the comms directors.

The folks at PR recruitment firm VMA have recently interviewed 20 CEOs and today we’re going to chat with VMA’s MD Lucy Cairncross about what she’s found out about CEO communication priorities.

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

Here’s a summary of what Lucy and I discussed:

2 mins What are CEO’s current priorities?

3 mins Are UK CEOs more brow beaten than their international counterparts? 

4 mins The top 4 CEO concerns: International stability, economic turbulence, political changes and environmental commitments.

6 mins What do CEOs want from their PR and comms teams? 

“Comms is central to the quality of response to those issues.”

“Previously comms was a side thought, now comms is at the heart of the big issues from the very beginning.”

“The breadth of responsibility that comms people have within organisations is now vast”

“Successful organisations will have strength in comms”

12 mins Why are CEOs still struggling with their organisation's home, hybrid or office working policies?

16 mins The impact of the speed of organisational change on the priorities of the CEO.

“Organisations need to adapt to survive…for some organisations, their raison d’etre will no longer be viable.”

18 mins The focus and challenges the CEOs are experiencing in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I)?

“DE&I requires constant attention across all functions.”

21 mins PR people should sell T-shirts with this message on them: 

“You cannot be effective as a CEO without a trusted communicator by your side.” Robert Swaak, CEO, ABN AMRO

24 mins How internal comms went to the forefront of CEO priorities during COVID.

28 mins Are in-house PR and comms folks retaining the increased breadth of responsibility they gained during COVID

“The expectation is the same…but they aren’t necessarily being given more headcount and more budget”

32 mins Are comms directors now more important than marketing directors?

“Where they aren’t aligned and where they don’t work together, those cracks really show”

“They are aligned functions but not the same function.”

35 mins The 7 top attributes that CEOs want in the comms directors:

1. Subject matter expertise
2. Empathy
3. Nuance
4. Clarity
5. Connection
6. Agility
7. Coolness under fire

41 mins Lucy reflects on the current state of the in-house PR jobs market.

 In a new regular format of the PRmoment Podcast with Ben Smith we’ll be catching up with UK public relations leaders - and our guests will share their in hindsight secrets that they wish they'd known when they started their businesses!

Today we're chatting with Greg Double, creative director of consumer PR agency Mischief.

Mischief is the consumer PR arm of MHP. MHP and Mischief are owned by Next Fifteen, which acquired them from Engine last year. Mischief has recently won Diageo and Team GB accounts. Other clients include Lego, Just Eat, and Ocado. MHP which owns Mischief has a fee income of about £33 m and 200 employees.

Greg has previously worked at Frank and Ready 10. He has been at Mischief for 3.5 years.

And thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Greg and I discussed:

 2 mins Greg confirms the re-appearance of the Mischief brand as the consumer arm of MHP!

4 mins Greg gives his first in hindsight lesson: He should not have started his career at Blue Rubicon! (now Teneo.)

“I was too young to start in corporate PR...everyone had done a Masters!”

“I was too immature to be in that game”

“The graduate scheme was Apprentice style…I’d never been tested like that before.”

“You have a responsibility to keep learning.”

11 mins Greg gives us his second in hindsight lesson: Don’t get bowel cancer at 33.

“I’m down half a bowel, I had chemotherapy last year.”

“Deborah James is the reason I got checked, which was very lucky for me.”

“We need to destigmatise chemotherapy!”

“The obsessive part of me has been erased away a bit.”

“I’m constantly terrified it’s going to come back…so I’ve made some staunch lifestyle changes.”

“I love that I still care about my work.”

“I’m proud mentally I’ve retained a balance.”

21 mins Greg first had symptoms in Oct 2021, when the Omicron strain of COVID was kicking off - which meant he was unable to get a GP appointment.

“Because I had private healthcare, through work, there is a legitimate argument that work saved my life there.”

“The NHS is the best in the world for saving your life, the worst in the world for knowing your life needs saving.”

25mins Greg outlines the symptoms that mean you should go and get checked out for Bowel Cancer.

Things to look out for: Blood in your poo, if your poo habits change, waking up in the middle of the night desperate to go to the toilet.

27 mins Greg talks about why he will no longer eat processed or ultra-processed foods.

30 mins Greg talks about his third in hindsight lesson: Don’t be afraid to evolve your career.

“By embracing opportunities your career will end up in a better place.”

34 mins Greg talks about why “demographics are useful but fundamentally dead”

35 mins Greg describes the work Mischief is doing to try and bring science to targeting an audience with a specific passion.

“Demographics are growth limiting”

“Earned is essential for passion…you can’t pay for passion - you have to earn it.”

PRmoment founder Ben Smith is interviewed by Eilizabeth Giles about the speaker line up for PR Masterclass series The Agency Growth Forum and why it has become a bit of a personal challenge.

What PR Masterclass: The Agency Growth Forum covers in one day is incredible. You get to hear the real experts talk about how to overcome the key challenges that PR firm owners are having right now when it comes to growth.

As always with our PR Masterclass series, there are absolutely no sponsors. We don't believe in charging delegates for a ticket and then filling the program with sponsored slots.

When, Where: Wednesday 26th November 2025

Virtual tickets from £230 +VAT. Face-to-face from £460 +VAT, buy your ticket before 10/10/25 to get these early bird rates.

Here’s a run down of what Ben and Elizabeth talk about on the show:

Why did we choose Rachel Bell to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

Let's just run through Rachel's PR agency CV:

Founder, Shine
Co founder, Mischief 
Co founder, The Academy 
Co founder, John Doe
Co founder, Adhuro
Non executive chair, Cavendish 

Enough said?

Why did we choose Jonny Bentwood to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

There's an interesting global community of about 8-10 PR firm data geeks who are at the arrowhead PR and technology. Jonny's at the tip of that arrow.

No PR Agency Growth Forum event would be complete without an analysis of PR's GEO opportunity and here Jonny will update us with the latest thinking.

Why did we choose Rachael Marshall to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

Her firm Magic Digits has circa 30 PR agency clients and so there's no-one better to give a third party insight into the financial trends and challenges of running a PR firm today.

In house panel: What do clients want?

Bieneosa Ebite, GSK, head of communications and government affairs, inclusion
Clara Biu, Allwyn UK, head of consumer communications
Charlotte West, Lenovo, vice president, global corporate communications

Why did we choose Rachel Friend to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

Rachel’s had success at PR firms who are part of the holding groups and she's also had success at PR firms who are independent.

So she knows how to run PR agency businesses. Rachel's going to talk to us about how to re-energise your PR businesses and get your momentum back.

Why did we choose Jo Carr to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

For about the last 10 years PR firms have, in the main, worked hard to improve their employer brand and to become better employers.

Jo was at the start of this trend. She understood that in a consultancy business where creativity and customer service are absolutely vital, happy employees are always going to mean happy clients.

• Why did we choose Paul Nolan to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

As this is the Agency Growth Forum, I didn't just want a PR AI expert, I wanted the PR leader who was furthest along the road integrating AI into their agency. 

That's why Paul's speaking

• Why did we choose Jackie Elliot  to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

If you know, you know.

• Independent PR agency panel: The growth challenge

This panel will give an insight into the growth challenges for independent agencies at the moment.

• Why did we choose Lee Beattie to speak at the Agency Growth Forum?

Lee is going to talk about how Joe Doe has had success in developing a culture where young people can thrive.

Ready 10 founder David Fraser is the next guest in our new In Hindsight series on the PRmoment Podcast.

In this new regular format of the PRmoment Podcast with Ben Smith we’ll be catching up with UK public relations leaders - and our guests will share their in hindsight secrets that they wish they'd known when they started their businesses!

Today we're chatting with the founder of Ready 10 David Fraser.

Ready 10 has revenues of £4 m and 35 employees. It is a consumer PR shop based in London. Clients include McDonald's, Brewdog, Reed and Paddy Power. David founded the business about 7 years ago.

It's 5 years since David's been on the PRmoment Podcast it was David who persuaded me to launch it all those years back! So thank you, David, we now get between 5-6 thousand listeners a month and people seem to enjoy the show.

If you haven’t taken a look already - do check out the Creative Moment Awards website, the final entry deadline is on Friday 30th June 2023

And thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors of the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what David and I talked about:

2 mins David tells us his in hindsight first lesson: How to position your business.

“Your positioning isn’t a fixed thing, it’s an evolving thing.”

9 mins David’s 2nd in hindsight lesson: How to push through the £1m barrier

13 mins David talks about how can build extensions to your business without damaging the original.

“When there’s 10, 15,25 of you (employees), the values you want to hold get lost unless you write them down and push them through the business.”

15 mins David’s 3rd lesson: The importance of values in a business

20 mins David 4th in Hindsight Lesson: “When the tide goes out, you can see who has been running things properly.”

“We didn’t make any redundancies, we didn’t take a penny of furlough money from the government”

26.30 mins David’s 5th Lesson: “You can lose everything in an instant”

“I am the grandson of a holocaust survivor”

“Don’t ever think that anything is permanent, things can change in an instant, be ready for that uncertainty”

32 mins David reveals his 6th and final lesson: People (employees) always want more. 

“You have to design a structure that takes them with you if you want them to grow, rather than pushes them away.”

“No one is turning up to work every day to make me (David Fraser) successful!”

Welcome to PRmoment Podcast. This week it’s our June Global Creativity Review so we are talking creativity with our wonderful panel who will identify and chat about some of the best bits of creativity they have seen in the past month or so.

On the show today to help us review some of the best creative work are:

Kim Allain, creative lead, MSL
Ottilie Ross, creative director, Halpern
Tom Rouse, creative director, Pitch Marketing Group

This is the third episode of our monthly global creativity reviews -  here are our reviews for March and April. (May seemed to get a bit too frantic and I forgot, sorry!)

This special PRmoment Podcast about creativity is, naturally enough, bought to you in partnership with Creative Moment. The final deadline for The Creative Moment Awards is Friday 30th June.

Here is a summary of what we chatted about:

2 mins We kick off with some creative trends identified by Kim, Ottilie and Tom:

“We seemed to have gone back in time…The PR stunt is back!”

“Not everything (needs) to work across every channel”

“Integrated work works when you have time to deliver it!”

6 mins Ottilie talks about the first piece of work that caught her eye this month - Lulu Lemon Dupes

How Lulu Lemon leaned into the #dupe culture rather than fighting against it.

“You won’t need dupes when you use the real thing!”

“Really single-minded, really brave and great visuals”

“Dupe culture on Tiktok is people who are trying to buy into something but can’t afford it…so this is a great way for them (Lulu Lemon) to tap into that culture of dupes and TikTok and Gen Z but (it) also widens their consumer range.”

1 min Tom talks about Elvi’s recent work to raise awareness of the pelvic floor: Pelvic Floor Playlist

Elvi has released a playlist of 3 tracks that replicates the sound your pelvic floor has during different times: Orgasm, menstruation and pregnancy.

“It (the campaign) gets you to think, it gets you to unlock it. And (from a PR point of view) it gives you a different asset. (Journalist) pitch desks get thoughts of pitches - how many are getting sent playlists?”

13 mins The panel discusses whether men have a pelvic floor. They do!

“The campaign makes the pelvic floor feel more real”

“Any woman who experiences periods… knows that when it gets to a certain point of the month you know there’s something going on in your body but your not sure what it looks like but you just know it’s about to be a roller coaster of a ride and can’t wait until the week after…and putting some tangibility to it to allow women and men to experience what that is like in terms of sound is really strong.”

17 mins Ottilie talks about a prince of work that impressed her this month: The Beautiful Sound: from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The sound of cancer cells dying: https://www.themostbeautifulsound.org/

“I loved the campaign but they could have taken it a bit further.”

“There are so many ways you could build on his cam

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

Welcome to our June review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch.

Andrew is a co-founder and non-executive director at Frank PR and is now lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR. He is also a partner at PCB Partners where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.

Thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.

If you haven’t taken a look already - do check out all the categories on the Creative Moment Awards website, the early entry deadline is on Friday 30th June 2023.

2 mins Andrew gives us his rundown of PR pitch wins for June:

• Alfred win Westfield Shopping Centres
• The Academy win Epson 
• Finn Partners win Tuscany Tourist Board
• Cow win Gilead Science 
• JPR win Hilton Luxury Brands
• Taylor Herring win Unison
• Brazen win Castore
• Hill & Knowlton win Costa Coffee
• Stripe Communications win Honest Burgers
• MSL win The FA
• Edelman win Haribo 
• Portland win Airlines for Europe
• The Romans win Mecca Bingo
• Klaxonn win Grand Designs Life

11.30 mins Andrew reveals the ideal length of a client: agency partnership.

“You get the best out of people when you know them and you trust them”

13 mins Andrew refutes the suggestion that the PR pitch and new business market has gone very quiet.

Ben Smith: “Are things as bad as some people say?”

Andrew Bloch: “No…it’s a bit scrappy…things are slower to sign off.

But I’m dealing with more briefs than I’ve ever had to deal with in my 3 years at the AAR.”

18 mins Andrew gives us his M&A update for June:

• Brandtech Group acquire Jellyfish from Private Equity firm Fimalac
• One Equity Partners takes a majority stake in Smarts owner MSQ.