What really lies behind WPP's decision to merge BCW and Hill & Knowlton? And will it succeed? The PRWeek team put the deal under the microscope in a special edition of the 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 episode focuses on the bombshell news last week that BCW and Hill & Knowlton are joining forces to form a new agency called Burson. It will create what is believed to be the world's biggest PR agency.

PRWeek editor-in-chief Danny Rogers, UK editor John Harrington and reporter Evie Barrett discuss the background to the move and the advantages, and challenges, of such a colossal merger.

They talk about the financial challenges at WPP at the moment and how the group's recent performance, in its PR business and elsewhere, may have triggered the action.

The trio also weigh up the pros and cons of choosing the Burson name and discuss what the move tells us more widely about the global PR market in 2024.

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