Digital Download with Paul Sutton

In the final show of the year, five senior figures in the marketing communications industry discuss what 2021 may hold in store for brands, agencies and individuals. We discuss technological adoption, behavioural change, brand purpose, diversity, innovation, agency start ups, social media and a whole lot more.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast is the second of two special shows to close off the year, featuring James Whatley, Strategy Partner at Digitas UK, professional business advisor Stephen Waddington, Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, Katy Howell, CEO of Immediate Future and Rax Lakhani, digital PR & social media consultant.

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 COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest on either side of the Atlantic, Brexit, a vitriolic US Presidential election and mass redundancies are what 2020 will be remembered for. And while the human cost has been massive, with 50 million cases of coronavirus and over one million deaths to date, the impact on the marketing communications industry and those working within it has also been significant.

Though we have all lived through the same events, we’ve experienced them in very different ways. Some of us have experienced trauma, some of us have changed our lives or our careers, and some of us have been relatively unscathed. But we’ve all faced the same challenges to our mental wellbeing and we’ve all had to adapt on the fly to changing business demands.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast is the first of two special shows to close off the year. In candid conversations with five senior figures in the marketing communications industry, I’ve gained an insight into their experiences of the last ten month and how they’re planning for 2021.

My special guests on this show are James Whatley, Strategy Partner at Digitas UK, professional business advisor Stephen Waddington, Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, Katy Howell, CEO of Immediate Future and Rax Lakhani, digital PR & social media consultant.

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.

Until now, podcast discovery, research and outreach has been an arduous task. Trying to find relevant podcasts in a specific topical niche has largely been a manual job, while publicly available listener statistics and analytics have been non-existent. However, a new service for marketers and communications professionals promises to make the entire process easier, quicker and more transparent.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast looks at Podchaser, the IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes or Wikipedia of podcasts. As well as a public database that solves the discovery/research issue, the brand new Pro service provides full analytics of every podcast, including listener statistics and demographics, to enable a comparison and analysis that has, to this date, not been available.

My special guest on this show is Cole Raven, co-founder of Podchaser.

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.

At this time of year thought leaders start predicting what will happen in marketing communications over the next 12 months. But most of those predictions are based upon opinion rather than data. That criticism cannot be levelled at the likes of Global Web Index, which tracks trends in digital consumer behaviour across 46 countries worldwide.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast looks at some of the latest data available on the digital consumer. It explores ecommerce and usage of marketplaces such as Amazon, differences between age groups, the resurgence of Generation X online, the impact of increasing online competition on brand loyalty, and whether any of these behaviours are likely to stick.

My special guest on this show is Chase Buckle, Trends Manager at online market research company Global Web Index.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Transvision Vamp was one of the most popular alternative bands in the UK, with a number one album and five top 20 singles. No stranger to controversy, lead singer Wendy James was renowned for her rebellious and straight-talking attitude as well as her sexually-charged performances.

Thirty years on and Wendy has now recorded six solo albums, the most recent of which, Queen High Straight, was released during lockdown. I caught up with her to talk about how digital has impacted recording and releasing music, and about what social media would have done for Transvision Vamp, given her provocative nature, had it been around at the time.

In this special episode of the Digital Download podcast, I chat to Wendy about how, as an independent artist, social media is now an important promotional vehicle for her, about maintaining relationships with her fans, and about releasing a record during lockdown. We also cover some of her more controversial moments and her musical inspiration, and veer off into politics and sexual equality.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Brilliant user generated content is seen by some marketers as the holy grail. UGC can create greater engagement, build trust and affinity, and provide endorsement for other marketing activities. Above all, 60% of consumers think that user generated content is the most influential form of content in purchasing decisions.

However, generating brilliant UGC is not an easy task, and many brands come unstuck when it comes to what to ask and from whom. There is a perception that UGC is often poor quality and a terrible time suck.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast explores the benefits and power of UGC, and specifically user generated video, why it is so influential, and how to go about creating a strategy built around crowdsourced content.

My special guest on this show is the founder of video crowdsourcing platform Seenit, Emily Forbes. Emily worked in feature film and documentary film making prior to launching Seenit in 2014.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations was founded in 1948 and currently has around 10,000 members. In common with most organisations, the CIPR has had to adapt rapidly to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is being looked to for guidance by the rest of the industry.

The last three Digital Download shows have explored what the future holds for the communications industry from the perspectives of agency leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, and highlight that big changes are occurring. This episode looks at these changes from the perspective of the UK’s major trade body, how CIPR members have evolved and the confidence issues inherent in public relations practitioners, and at how PR can impact strategy at different levels of an organisation.

My special guest on this show is Jenni Field, President of the CIPR and founder of Redefining Communications. Jenni took over as CIPR President in January and has the unenviable job of guiding the organisation through one of the toughest years in its history.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

In part two of a duo of shows focused on the communications professionals who are shaking up the industry, we discuss conventional agency models and their limitations, selling results not time, the importance of transparency, ditching the pitch process, and taking responsibility for change rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

The special guests in this fast-moving and impactful episode of the Digital Download podcast are founder of Don’t Cry Wolf, John Brown, co-founder of Rise at Seven, Carrie Rose, and co-founder of Hard Numbers, Darryl Sparey.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

On the last episode of the podcast, we discussed how the public relations industry is under serious threat from the pandemic. In this show we outline a template for the future that will ensure that communications agencies not only survive, but thrive.

There is a new breed of communications professional that is challenging the status quo and doing things differently to what has come before. It’s a hybrid of PR, marketing, creative and SEO that has strategic communications at its heart, and following their lead is, in my view, the way forward for the industry.

This episode of the Digital Download podcast investigates what makes these communicators unique, and how they are approaching their businesses.

The special guests in this show are founder of Don’t Cry Wolf, John Brown, co-founder of Rise at Seven, Carrie Rose, and co-founder of Hard Numbers, Darryl Sparey.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.

Public relations is at a crossroads. Years of failing to adequately address the measurement issue, ignoring associated disciplines like SEO and a steadfast refusal to understand the viewpoint that PR is a tactical function rather than a strategic discipline have created a position where the industry is now in serious danger of being absorbed into marketing once and for all.

An annual study in America shows that progressively less public relations professionals report into the C-Suite, while the latest CIPR State of the Profession report highlights a chasm between what PR people think they should do and what they actually do. 

In a recent blog post, public relations author, write, speaker, podcaster and change-maker Gini Dietrich asserted that the industry will fail to exist as a standalone discipline within three to five years. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I question Gini about her line of thinking, how and why she reacted to the threat of COVID-19 way before others, what the implications of the trends she has identified are, and whether she’s finally given up on PR.

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, as this helps others discover Digital Download.