Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast

PRWeek's latest podcast hears from two jurors on the Cannes Lions PR category about what to expect from the 2024 International Festival of Creativity.Our guests on this week's Beyond the Noise are Kat Thomas, founder and chief creative officer at One Green Bean and this year’s PR Lions jury president; and Fenella Grey, another juror and former EMEA MD and chair, now senior advisor, at Porter Novelli.Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or on your favourite platform.As the industry prepares to make its annual jaunt to the French Riviera, PRWeek journalists Siobhan Holt and John Harrington quiz our guests on some of the big talking points at Cannes in 2024.They examine whether 'purpose' work will be prevalent this year after a dip in the number of purpose-led campaigns in 2023, and discuss how the genre is evolving.The duo give their take on the likely success - or otherwise - of PR agencies in the PR Lions category. They also talk about the new and revised Cannes categories for 2024.And they answer the question: will AI-led campaigns be a big hit this year?Thomas and Grey also offer insights into the Cannes Lions judging process - including the number of entries jurors have to sift through.Cannes Lions takes place from 17 to 21 June. Stay tuned to PRWeek for all the news and insights from the festival.

What are the big lessons for the comms industry from the 2024 general election campaign so far? That's the focus of PRWeek's latest Noise in Brief podcast.Noise in Brief – a shorter offshoot of PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast – is released fortnightly and features PRWeek UK journalists discussing major issues from the previous seven days or so.Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify or on your favourite platform.This week’s edition is hosted by PRWeek UK news editor Siobhan Holt and features UK editor John Harrington alongside reporters Evie Barrett and Elizabeth Wiredu.The team look at the wider lessons for the industry from a campaign that in recent days has been dominated by the debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, and in particular the Conservative leader's disputed claim that Labour will add £2,000 to household bills.The bombshell news that Nigel Farage has taken over as leader of Reform UK and is contesting a seat is also analysed, alongside other elements of the campaigns, including the use of TikTok and other social channels.And the quartet ask: can election 'stunts' - like those used by the Liberal Democrats and their leader Sir Ed Davey - ever really work?

Salaries and bonuses are the focus of the latest episode of PRWeek UK’s Beyond the Noise podcast.In this episode of Beyond the Noise, Sarah Leembruggen, managing director of recruitment consultancy The Works Search, speaks to PRWeek EMEA editor-in-chief Danny Rogers and PRWeek UK’s news editor, Siobhan Holt, about the communications jobs market. Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.In this podcast, Leembruggen shares her advice on hiring, pay and bonuses, redundancy, staff benefits and how to retain staff members. This week’s podcast coincides with the release of The Works Search’s annual Salary Guide, which polled more than 400 corporate comms professionals to find out the latest job market trends. Further details from this report will be published online, visit prweek.com/uk to read more.

Tesco’s 10-year reputational turnaround is the focus of the latest PRWeek podcast, which was recorded live at the PR360 conference.This special edition of Beyond the Noise features Tesco group comms director Christine Heffernan speaking to Danny Rogers, EMEA editor-in-chief of PRWeek, in a session at the PR360 conference in Brighton earlier this month.Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.In this podcast, Heffernan discusses how reputation was “front and centre” of the turnaround programme at the supermarket giant in the aftermath of the accounting scandal in 2014.The role of internal communications was central to the turnaround. Heffernan talks about the listening programme Tesco undertook with its 300,000-strong employee base; how the group tracks staff sentiment; and how it communicates internally via its ‘news and views’ internal comms platform.Heffernan provides details of Tesco’s new values and how these manifest themselves in practice, including Stronger Starts, its £5m grants programme for community initiatives in partnership with Groundwork UK.She also gives her views of purpose marketing and how purpose is now “business as usual” for Tesco.

The power – or otherwise – of brand boycotts is just one of the topics examined in PRWeek’s latest Noise in Brief podcast.Noise in Brief – a shorter offshoot of PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast – is released fortnightly and features PRWeek UK journalists discussing major issues from the previous seven days or so.Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.This week’s edition is hosted by PRWeek UK news editor Siobhan Holt and features UK editor John Harrington alongside reporters Evie Barrett and Elizabeth Wiredu.In the podcast, the team discuss the conclusions of the inquiry into the NHS infected blood scandal and the resulting reputational impact on public trust.After Barclays’ involvement in The Great Escape Festival led to more than 160 acts pulling out of the Brighton music event, the trio ask whether brand boycotts work and how comms professionals can handle an abstention.Elsewhere, the trio chat about the recruitment sector and explore the challenges in the PR and comms job market.This podcast is being updated with a new version of the recording.

In a Beyond the Noise special, Danny Rogers, PRWeek's editor in chief, EMEA, and Steve Barrett, editorial director for PRWeek US, discuss the comms industry figures and trends from the current UK Top 150 Consultancies and Global Agency Business Reports.Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.Rogers and Barrett analyse what was a tough 12 months in PR consultancy; the comparative performance of agency giants such as Edelman, Weber Shandwick, Brunswick and Teneo; and the shift in power from employee to employer that we have seen post-pandemic.PRWeek's experts also muse over the impact AI is having on consultancies and clients and their effects on PR fees, on the 'end of peak purpose' and whether sustainability messages vary on both sides of the Atlantic.

Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.In this week’s episode, news editor Siobhan Holt is joined by UK editor-in-chief Danny Rogers and reporter Evie Barrett to discuss PR360, PRWeek UK’s annual conference held at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton.In the podcast, the journalists pick out highlights from the two-day event, such as Amarilis Whitty, senior communications and PR director at Mattel, who discussed the Barbie film campaign. Other standout speakers include Celia Richardson, director of comms and marketing at the National Trust, who commented on ‘culture wars’, and Tesco’s group communications director, Christine Heffernan, on how she approaches internal comms for one of the largest private sector employers in the UK. The conversation with Heffernan will also be available in a separate podcast available later this week, so stay tuned! 

Does PR have a class problem? That’s just one of the topics examined in PRWeek’s latest Noise in Brief podcast. Noise in Brief – a shorter offshoot of PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast – is released fortnightly and features PRWeek UK journalists discussing major issues from the previous seven days or so.Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.This week’s edition is hosted by PRWeek UK news editor Siobhan Holt alongside reporters Evie Barrett and Elizabeth Wiredu.The team discuss the newly launched ‘working class’ PR agency and overall class diversity in the industry. Elsewhere, the journalists chat about a comment piece by Liam Thompson from the Rosely Group who argued that "Boycotting oil and gas is bad PR". The trio debate if boycotting is the right response and what this could mean for comms. The journalists also analyse Co-op Live’s communications crisis and chat about the reputational impact it could have on the brands and businesses involved. 

The editorial team discusses the PRWeek UK Top 150 PR Consultancies Report in the latest episode of PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast.Beyond the Noise, which is published on alternate weeks, looks at some of the biggest issues affecting comms and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.In this week’s episode, UK editor John Harrington is joined by news editor Siobhan Holt and reporters Evie Barrett and Elizabeth Wiredu to discuss PRWeek UK’s Top 150 PR Consultancies Report, the long-running definitive report on the industry. In the podcast, the journalists explain how the survey and project is conducted, and give insights into this year’s Top 150 table. Each member of the team also offers detailed analysis on different trends identified from the Top 150 data, ranging from client demands and pitching to mergers and acquisitions.To access PRWeek UK’s Top 150 Consultancies 2024 in full – click here.