Digital Download with Paul Sutton

In the last year leaders have had to make difficult decisions, push through very uncomfortable situations and be resilient when things got really tough. More than 50 such people launched new PR agencies at a time when the world was in turmoil, while others had to pivot their businesses as the bottom fell out of the industries they traditionally served. All of these leaders demonstrated extreme courage.

In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, leadership coach Ken Jacobs discusses why bravery is so important in modern leadership, why effective decision making relies upon it, what the elements of courageous leadership are, and how you can develop it in yourself and in others.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Podcasting continues to go from strength to strength, with over 180% more monthly downloads in 2020 than in 2019 according to Chartable. With demand at an all-time high, creators are launching more shows than ever before, and many businesses are wanting in on the action.

But the demands of running a successful podcast are not insignificant, and around one in three shows launched only ever publish one or two episodes before giving up. The process of planning, recording, producing, editing, publishing and marketing shows can be time-consuming, and the rewards are often intangible and difficult to measure. So is it really worth all the effort?

Co-founder of The Social Element and of Polpeo Tamara Littleton launched her first show with co-host Wendy Christie in April this year. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, we discuss exactly what goes into producing a business podcast, what the challenges are, what the benefits are and, after her first season, whether Tamara thinks it’s actually worth launching a show for your business.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

In the last 9 months, fashion retailer Boohoo has been investigated for modern slavery, been accused of making people work with no social distancing during lockdown, and been found to price the same garments at significantly different prices across its different retail brands. These are just the latest in a number of historic failures to address its supply chain. And yet in the last year its revenue has increased by a massive 41%.

The organisation consistently tries to communicate its good intentions, with the latest announcement being that executive bonuses may be linked to ESG principles. But a trail of broken promises mean that such statements appear to be nothing more than greenwashing, with Boohoo’s reputation suffering as a result. But if shareholders are happy, does it matter whether or not consumers trust it or whether it has any ethical principles?

In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, special guests Kate Hartley, co-founder of crisis simulation company Polpeo, and John Brown, founder of brand activisim agency Don’t Cry Wolf, discuss the role of ethics, trust and reputation in today’s business, and whether Boohoo’s success is a result of a societal failure to hold organisations to account.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

During the last year communications agencies and marketing departments everywhere have adapted to remote working and a virtual business model. But while for most it has been a bootstrapping exercise, for others it’s been second nature. As a result, debate and speculation about the future of the office has been intense.

One of the options that has been gaining increasing support is the concept of a hybrid office model, where staff work remotely two or three days a week on a permanent basis and only attend for focused team working. It has big potential upsides in terms of flexibility and cost savings, but also potential downfalls.

In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, co-founder of The PR Network Nicky Regazzoni talks about her experiences of running a virtual PR agency for 15 years. She shares what she’s learned and discusses how the communications industry might move forward towards an at-least partly virtual future.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

During the pandemic the thorny topic of public relations measurement and evaluation has taken a back seat to things like, well, survival! But now that the business world is creating new ways of working and new methods of marketing, it’s back on the radar.

Effective measurement goes a long way beyond evaluating campaigns or proving the industry’s worth. It also impacts job fulfilment and even resourcing and recruitment. So is the industry finally understanding that great ideas come from insight and putting the issue to bed once and for all?

In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, co-founder of Shook Gemma Moroney talks about her work with the likes of AMEC and the PRCA to provide effective and flexible measurement frameworks, and about the disparities that exist in different sections of the communications industry.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Clubhouse is being heralded as the latest breakthrough app in the social media world. Despite still being in beta, invite-only and not yet available on Android, the app reached 10 million weekly active users by the end of February.

Critics, however, are yet to be convinced. Concerns over data privacy and security, lack of native recording functionality, poor discoverability, dubious quality content and lack of moderation are all cited as reasons why Clubhouse won’t stand the test of time, or why competitors such as Twitter and Facebook will simply mop up ‘social audio’.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast explores Clubhouse from both sides and asks whether the app has a future and what role social audio as a concept will play, regardless of platform. Today’s guests are Digital Consultant Gabrielle Laine-Peters and Senior Clubhouse Manager at Battenhall, Nicole Mezzasalma.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Over the last year, the amount of time we have all spent on screens has grown significantly. It’s been less of a choice and more of a necessity. The average adult now spends around four hours per day on mobile devices or TVs, and two thirds of parents with school age children are more concerned about screen time now than they were before the pandemic.

But in a world where the way we live our lives has been completely redefined, is it even valid to spend time worrying about how long we spend looking at screens?

This episode of the Digital Download podcast explores whether we should be worried about screen time, if so how much, and what we can and should do about it. Today’s guest is tech journalist and author of ‘Screen Time: How to Make Peace with Your Devices and Find Your Techquilibrium‘ Becca Caddy.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

In the last year 10% of marketers were made redundant due to the impact of COVID-19 and another 13% were put on furlough. The latest data from the Office of National Statistics showed a record 395,000 redundancies in the UK between September and November 2020, and as many as 45% of us are made redundant at some time in our working lives.

Dealing with redundancy is extremely complex from a psychological perspective, and can lead to anger, bitterness and resentment. But it can also be an opportunity to take a new direction and to change things that are wrong as the casualty is unencumbered by having to make the decision.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast explores how to deal with redundancy in the marketing communications sector, and how to survive and thrive if it happens to you. Today’s guest is Eleanor Tweddell, former head of communications at Vodafone, RAC and Virgin Atlantic and the author of the book ‘Why Losing Your Job Could Be The Best Thing That Ever Happened To You‘.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Content marketing started to take off as an independent discipline in the mid 2000s as social media provided a new way for information and websites to be shared quickly and easily at low cost and at scale. A lot has changed since then, and perhaps even more so in the last year than at any time in the last 15 years.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast explores how content marketing has evolved in recent years and looks at what that means for marketers and individuals. It discusses how tactics and strategies have had to change, and also at how we’re adapting as people in terms of working processes and technology.

Today’s guest is Vikki Chowney, Global Head of Content and Publishing for Hill+Knowlton Strategies in New York. A former new media journalist, Vikki leads a global team of content experts around the world, focusing on who the agency creates content with, what format that takes and where it lives.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

The internet and digital communications technology has become fundamental to our way of life in the last year. A fast and reliable broadband connection has been vital in feeding ourselves, entertaining ourselves, educating our children and continuing to work during the pandemic. We’re not going back to the way we were, so how will the internet develop in the future?

Today’s guests have worked in and around the internet for two decades. Euan Semple started the BBC’s DigiLab in the mid 1990s, and now works with organisations and people to help them understand the impact of technology, while Neville Hobson recently left a position with The Internet Society and believes that the internet should be available for everyone.

Subscribe to the podcast to receive new episodes automatically to your mobile or email. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please email it to a friend and/or share it on your favourite social media channels. I’d love to hear from you with any comments or thoughts. I read and reply to every single email, tweet or message. And finally, it would also be very awesome and hugely appreciated if you’d be able to take a moment to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes or Podchaser, as this helps others discover Digital Download.