The PRovoke Media Podcast

The founder of Boston-based independent brand communications agency Adam Ritchie Brand Direction joins the Echo Chamber to talk about "Invention in PR". He discusses how public relations can be used to invent new products and services with newsworthiness built into them from the start, such as the first rock album launched on cans of craft beer using Twitter.

David Tiltman is the head of content at marketing intelligence firm WARC and a former editor of CampaignAsia. He joins Arun Sudhaman and Maja Pawinska Sims in the Echo Chamber to talk about all things Cannes, and walk listeners through the five key elements of effective brand marketing in WARC's new white paper, The Anatomy of Effectiveness. 

The rise of influencer marketing has sparked debate around how to measure the impact of these campaigns and the new rules of engagement — and how those differ from traditional media. Cathy Planchard, president of Allison + Partners' All Told Division, joins the Echo Chamber to discuss a recent report the agency published,  Unleashing Influence , that shows that marketers aren't fully optimizing th...

Last year, former Weber Shandwick associate director Asad Dhunna founded The Unmistakables, a marcomms agency made up of minorities, with the aim of helping businesses understand minorities and create campaigns that are more representative of society. The agency now works with clients including the English Cricket Board, Unilever and Barnado's. Dhunna, who is also director of communications for Pr...

Mars global external communications director Kimberly West joins the Echo Chamber in Cannes to discuss the company's evolution from a low-profile manufacturer of confectionary and petcare products, into a brand that is highly visible on issues of sustainability and governance. In conversation with Arun Sudhaman, West outlines why companies must move beyond rhetoric if they are to combat 'purpose f...

Janet Balis is EY's global advisory services leader for media & entertainment, a position in which she advises both media platforms and marketing leaders. As such Balis has a unique vantage point over the changes that are transforming the media and marketing worlds, enhanced by her previous leadership roles at AOL, The Huffington Post and Time Warner. In a wide-ranging conversation with Arun Sudha...

Jenna Young, Weber Shandwick’s executive creative director in New York, joins the Echo Chamber in Cannes to talk about her Lions jury experience, cultural nuance in creative work, and being a long-time executive creative director in a PR agency.

Weber Shandwick global president Gail Heimann is not only a Cannes veteran but one of the more insightful industry voices when it comes to distilling lessons from the annual creative jamboree. In a post-Cannes conversation with the Holmes Report's Arun Sudhaman, Heimann breaks down her lessons from this year's edition, which include the PR industry's better showing, the colonisation of trust and p...

WE Communications international president Kass Sells joins the Holmes Report in Cannes to discuss the challenges posed by agency transformation, at a time of considerable industry disruption. 

The Holmes Report sits down with Weber Shandwick chief digital officer Chris Perry and X Practice EMEA/APAC president Hugh Baillie to discuss how data and analytics are reshaping the PR industry in general, and Weber Shandwick in specific. In a wide-ranging conversation with Arun Sudhaman, the duo also discuss Weber Shandwick's new 'We Solve' positioning, and why this doesn't indicate a departure...

When Nicky Regazzoni and George Blizzard started The PR Network in 2005, they were one of the first virtual agencies on the block. As the model of a core team supported by tailor-made groups of freelance experts to service clients around the world gains traction, they join the Echo Chamber to talk about what makes the virtual agency model a good fit for the modern PR landscape.

Three PR-for-SEO experts join the Echo Chamber to explain why search engine optimisation and public relations strategy should be working much closer together to achieve business results for clients from earned content: Threepipe co-founder Jim Hawker, Ready10 founder and MD David Fraser, and 10 Yetis Digital founder Andy Barr.

Egami Group president Cheryl Overton is a true champion of diversity, but also a realist who calls it like she sees it. Overton joins the Echo Chamber to discuss what true diversity and inclusion looks like (with a heavy emphasis on inclusion) as well as what achieving it is going to take, and why tiptoeing around our differences rather than addressing them head on – and even leveraging them – is...

Nearly 40 years ago, Racepoint Global founder Larry Weber launched a tech-focused PR agency before there even was such a thing. In those early days, The Weber Group (forbear of Weber Shandwick) was in the thick of launching emerging technologies — including something called the World Wide Web. Today, Weber remains steeped in the tech business, growing his expertise along with his firm, Racepoint,...

Method Communications CEO David Parkinson and Harvard CEO Louie St. Claire join the Echo Chamber to talk about Method's

Claudine Moore joins the Echo Chamber to discuss her work in Africa, and the continuing diversity & inclusion challenges faced by the PR industry. Moore is followed by Digiday editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey, who explores such topics as advertising fraud and influencer marketing.

For close to two decades, PAN Communications president and CEO Phil Nardone has maintained a side gig as an adjunct PR professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, giving him unique insight into who the industry’s up-and-comers are — and what they want. He explores a range of issues surrounding next-gen talent, including whether he would hire his students. Meantime, when InkHouse founder an...

During a 20-year career in China with ad agency JWT, Tom Doctoroff emerged as one of the leading authorities on the country's marketing landscape. In conversation with Arun Sudhaman, Doctoroff discusses why Chinese brands still struggle overseas, focusing on the specific case of Huawei. He also explores how China's young consumers are both changing and staying the same. Three years after leaving t...

Prospect Asia co-founder and MD Emma Dale joins the Echo Chamber to explore the recent State of the Industry Report — conducted in conjunction with PublicAffairsAsia. In addition to a wealth of information on salary and workplace issues, the study also reveals much about how the PR industry is changing rapidly in Asia-Pacific.

Zeno’s Europe MD Steve Earl and Markettiers4DC founder and CEO Howard Kosky join the Echo Chamber to discuss why podcasts are the flavour of the month for brand and executive communications, how to do them well, and when podcasting is not the right channel.

Jacob Puthenparambil co-founded Singapore-based consultancy Redhill Asia in 2015 following an itinerant career that included stints in the US, Middle East and his native India. But with Redhill, Puthenparambil has overseen the rise of one of Asia's fastest growing PR firms, thanks to a fiercely entrepreneurial spirit and a refreshingly international outlook. He talks to Arun Sudhaman about the fir...

The latest Echo Chamber episode comes from Sydney, where Arun Sudhaman sits down with former Weber Shandwick head EJ Granleese, who now runs her own successful consultancy called History will be Kind. Granleese discusses why local boutiques outperform the networks in Sydney's fiercely competitive consumer PR market, a theme that is also taken up by Poem founders Rob Lowe and Matt Holmes, who also...

After managing US Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, Terry Sullivan and Alex Conant left long careers in politics to start Firehouse Strategies, a public affairs firm in Washington. Sullivan and Conant have grown their business around communications strategies that leverage the power of persuasion, peer influence and “perceived authenticity.” They join the Echo Chamber to talk about ho...

Stephane Dujarric de la Rivière is spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, a position he has held since 2014,after previously holding the same role for Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan. In the latest Echo Chamber podcast, he sits down with the Holmes Report's Diana Marszalek to discuss his unique communications mandate, which he describes as "the best job in the building....

Mitch Kaye and Dan Glover built Mischief and now The Academy into two of the most creative comms agencies in the UK. They join the Echo Chamber to talk about how they work together and how they are aiming to grow the agency with an innovative structure.