How has the Golin-Ketchum merger fared in the UK? We hear first-hand in PRWeek’s latest podcast, which features our guest Ondine Whittington, president of Golin Ketchum and Virgo Health London.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

On the latest episode, Ondine Whittington discusses the challenges of merging Golin and Ketchum to form the new agency, including helping to create a unified culture.

She describes how clients have responded to the merger and addresses questions of client conflicts, redundancies and her priorities for the months ahead.

Speaking to PRWeek UK editor John Harrington, the former Golin London chief talks about the reasons behind bringing back creative shop Brooklyn Brothers in London, and speaks about how it will work alongside Golin Ketchum in the UK.

Whittington also reflects on the biggest lessons from Cannes Lions this year. And she gives her take on major industry issues, including current trading, shifting client needs and pitching.

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A pair of young PR stars are guests on this week’s Beyond the Noise podcast, discussing AI, office attendance, navigating LinkedIn and more.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

This week, we hear from Chris Maho, account manager at The Romans, and Holly Ryan, account director at WA Communications – both of whom were shortlisted as People Stars in PRWeek’s People and Places Awards last month.

In conversation with PRWeek UK deputy news editor Evie Barrett, the pair speak about targeting Gen Z as a demographic, whether they think comms has an ageism problem, and using social media to boost your professional profile.

Elsewhere, they address the stereotypes that young comms professionals dislike phone calls, and that social events in PR are becoming less alcohol-centric.

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What were the biggest lessons and talking points from Cannes Lions 2026? PRWeek’s latest podcast takes a look.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform. 

Joining this episode are PRWeek trio Danny Rogers (editor-in-chief), John Harrington (UK editor) and Siobhan Holt (deputy editor).

They discuss the big trends from the PR Lions in particular this year, and discuss why ‘The KitKat Heist’ by VML and Burson won the prestigious Grand Prix in the category.

The journalists talk about some of their favourite winners and what they tell us about campaigns today – including trends with purpose, humour and AI.

They also ask why smaller UK independents were largely absent from the awards in 2026, despite many still attending the event on the French Riviera.

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We put more of your confessions under the spotlight in the latest episode of PRWeek’s ‘Am I the PR A***hole?’ (AITPRA) podcast.

In each episode of AITPRA, PRWeek will read out your anonymous confessions and our judges – Lynn Advisory founder Shayoni Lynn and Hoffman Agency UK co-MD Richard Fogg – will decide whether an ethical line has been crossed. 

Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

This week’s confessions include:

• Making a colleague cry (and being pulled up) after giving honest feedback.
• Making a group of pensioners sit in a cordoned-off area for hours for a PR stunt.
• Purposely avoiding work but getting promoted anyway.
• 
  

The episode is hosted by PRWeek UK editor John Harrington.

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Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." 

Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of Lords

Key topics covered:

• Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)
• US "Star Wars" program and brain drain
• Geopolitical case for European R&D collaboration
• Impact of Brexit on science and technology

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In a Cannes Lions special, PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise speaks to communications professionals from Edelman, Burson and Smarts about this year’s Festival.

Ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which starts on Monday (22 June), PRWeek UK spoke to Edelman’s international chief creative officer, international, Kate Stanners, alongside Burson’s chief strategy officer, Eleanor Sullivan, and Smarts’ brand futures director, Natalie Moores.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen in the browser above or on your favourite platform.

The trio discuss what they are looking forward to at this year’s event, whether purpose-led campaigns will win big this year, and the impact of AI technology. They also offer advice on how to get the most out of the festival from a business perspective.

Asked whether the festival may look a bit extravagant in 2026, especially given industry consolidation and cost-cutting, alongside the ongoing geopolitical strife, the professionals share their thoughts. 

As part of the episode, the three comms pros debate earned creativity within the PR Lions, and if the lines between PR and advertising have blurred. 

Stanners, who spent two decades at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi before joining Edelman last year, dismissed the idea of a turf war between PR and advertising agencies.

“There is a school of thought where advertising agencies are saying: ‘Watch out, PR companies, we know how to do it,’” she said. “I think, interestingly, it’s the wrong discussion to have. This is about recognising the power of a very different media landscape.”

In the discussion, Stanners argued that audience behaviour increasingly favours earned communications over traditional advertising.

“Ninety-nine per cent of people would like to skip the ads if they could, so that tells us a huge amount,” she said. “People are significantly more likely to trust work that comes in an earned space, which also tells us a huge amount.” 

PR retains a unique advantage in creating earned impact, added Stanners. “It is a battleground, probably, for all sorts of businesses to be playing in. But a truly earned piece of work plays slightly differently.”

The three professionals assess the festival’s updated guidelines, introduced following controversies at last year’s awards, and whether they will prove effective.

And the panel members share their own experiences at Cannes and outline the criteria they use to evaluate what makes a standout PR campaign. 

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‘If you’re talking about brand reputation, this World Cup is probably the most important comms and strategy campaign for nations and for an organisation (FIFA) that we’ve ever seen… and it’s fraught with dangers,’ says MSQ Sport & Entertainment’s co-founder Steve Martin, on a World Cup Special podcast by PRWeek.

Speaking on the latest episode of Beyond the Noise, MSQ Sport & Entertainment co-founder Steve Martin, the most influential Sports Agency professional in PRWeek’s 2026 Power Book, argues that “PR is having an extraordinary renaissance” with this World Cup, bearing in mind both the amount of earned-media-led brand campaigns and the level of reputation management required in what is proving a highly politicised tournament.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

In this episode, Martin was joined by fellow sports comms expert Sarah Hartwell, executive director for sports entertainment consultancy 50 Sport, who is also a proud Canadian.

Hosted by PRWeek editor-in-chief Danny Rogers, Martin and Hartwell discuss successful brand campaigns from Nike, Adidas, Irn-Bru, Duracell, Lego, Burberry and others.

They also talk about some of the damaging stories that are impacting the reputation of FIFA and the United States, as well as the opportunities for fellow host nations Canada and Mexico.

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In a Pride Month special, PRWeek UK speaks to two prominent LGBTQ+ PR professionals on the comms industry’s progress, as well as analysing what ‘corporate pride’ looks like in 2026.

Christina Peach, director at FleishmanHillard and head of comms for London Pride 2026, is our guest on this week’s podcast, alongside Josh Wheeler, founder of Be Broadcast PR and head of comms at InterComms, the network for LGBTQ+ PR professionals.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or on your favourite platform.

The guests dissect the finding that the majority of LGBTQ+ comms professionals do not feel there are visible or vocal role models within the industry, and about half believe LGBTQ+ practitioners become less open about their identity as they become more senior.

Speaking to PRWeek deputy news editor Evie Barrett, Peach and Wheeler also discuss the effects of big businesses scaling back their DEI initiatives, giving examples of organisations that they believe engage authentically with Pride Month.

The guests offer tips to employers on being more inclusive, as well as advice to PR professionals struggling to be open about their identity in the workplace.

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Why do people in the space sector think they have a comms problem and yet the public at large think space is sexy? Should we stop evangelising about the technology that gets stuff into space rather than the core marketing message? After all, KFC is about the chicken not the trucks that deliver it.

What are the leadership opportunities in the UK from launch in Scotland and what is the “environmental conscience” behind that endeavour? And how did we end up with kids in St Austell working on global lunar space missions on the back of a famous “failure”?

Join Alice, Jess Ratty from Halo Global and John Harrington UK editor of PR Week, as they confront the introspection of space and figure out better ways of confounding British understatement and amazing a world of would-be investors.

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Jess Ratty, Founder and Leader, Halo Global

Jess Ratty | LinkedIn

John Harrington, UK Editor, PR Week

John Harrington | LinkedIn

PR Week UK

Key topics covered:

• Communications
• Marketing
• Leadership opportunities
• Saxa Vord launch
• Environment
• Spaceport Cornwall
• Virgin Orbit’s “Start me Up” mission

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Nils Leonard, co-founder of renowned ad agency Uncommon, is a guest on this week’s PRWeek Beyond the Noise podcast episode – speaking alongside Randy Manicks, managing partner of the firm’s PR arm.

The Uncommon leaders discuss how the firm’s PR, Culture & Influence practice – which launched in February – has performed so far.

Leonard discusses how he caused a stir in the PR industry by setting out his ambition to “carve out a new space in a tired category” with the launch of Uncommon’s PR offer.

Speaking with PRWeek UK deputy news editor Evie Barrett, he explains how he believes traditional PR agencies could improve their offer, and reveals the types of briefs that Uncommon’s PR division has worked on so far.

Meanwhile, Manicks, a former managing director at comms agency John Doe, dissects the difference between working at a traditional PR firm versus a creative agency that has expanded into PR.

Elsewhere, the pair argue that more PR agencies should be boosting their own profile with independent projects alongside launching client work.

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