PR Resolution podcast

Understanding how people interact with news and media sites is essential in PR planning and measurement.

It has been an on-going challenge in Public Relations to understand the true volume of people arriving on news sites due to publishers' secrecy on traffic figures. There was further focus on this topic recently, when UK news site, The Guardian reported that The Telegraph online is planning to link journalists’ pay to traffic and popularity of their articles.

So, in this episode, I interview digital communications consultant Andrew Smith on his research into publisher traffic.

We discuss:

No matter what country or industry you practise PR in, this episode is relevant to you all.

Special Guest: Andrew Smith .

Understanding your audience is the most important stage in developing PR strategy.

It’s impossible to influence and change opinion without a full understanding of who you are talking to and how they feel. And with more data available than ever before, where on earth do you begin that kind of research?

Step forward Alex Judd, Alex is the head of Impact and Planning at Clarity PR. Alex is passionate about combining the art of communications with the science of research and data.

In this episode we discuss:

Special Guest: Alex Judd .

In this episode Stella interviews Brendon Craigie, the co-founder and managing partner of Tyto. A global PR agency that uniquely has a team working across multiple communications disciplines and international borders, without physical offices.

Brendon shares his experience in setting up and running a completely remote global PR agency, not because of lockdown restrictions but because their ‘PR without borders’ strategy truly engages local markets and delivers the best possible results for clients. 

As we start 2021 with most PR agencies around the world working with pandemic-led restrictions, Craigie shares Tyto’s challenges but also huge successes in serving their global clients with a team of professionals located in 12 countries. 

From team practicalities to VR client meetings, this may just be the PR agency structure of the future.

Stella and Brendon discuss:

Special Guest: Brendon Craigie .

In this episode Stella interviews Sarah Waddington, founder and curator of the FuturePRoof book series and discusses the latest edition, 'celebrating BME talent'.

Stella and Sarah explore representation in Public Relations, from an inclusivity perspective on the communicators side but also our responsibility in truly understanding, connecting and relating to the public.

As well as curating the FuturePRoof books, Sarah Waddington is managing director of Astute communications, an agency in the north of England. Sarah also led the CIPR's gender policy for many years, improved social mobility within the UK PR industry and is now on the advisory board of The Blueprint, which is part of BME PR Pro mentoring scheme.

The discussion explores:

Special Guest: Sarah Waddington .

The second episode in our ‘public feeling’ mini-series, Stella Bayles interviews crisis communications expert, Amanda Coleman, on why understanding ‘how the public is feeling during a time of crisis’ is paramount to PR strategy.

With 20 years' experience working in emergency services communication, Amanda Coleman is the former Head of Corporate Communications for Greater Manchester Police. During that time, Amanda managed the public communications during significant crises including the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017 and riots in 2011. Public feeling insights were key to build the stages of communication.

In this episode Stella and Amanda discuss;

Crisis comms is now arguably the most important area of PR in 2020. Whether you have your plan in place or just beginning to explore, Amanda’s advice is gold-dust.

Special Guest: Amanda Coleman .

With huge adjustments in how we live and global events reaching us in real-time, there is constant change in public feeling.

Whether it’s uncertainty, mistrust, frustration or comradery, understanding the way we, the public are feeling has never been so important in Public Relations.

In this episode I speak to Stephen Waddington. Wadds is an advisor and consultant on communications, he has led the CIPR and authored multiple PR books including #BrandVandals, ShareThis and Brand Anarchy.

He has spent over 25 years understanding the public and the most effective way organisations should understand and interact with audiences, build trust and grow by improving techniques and technologies.

Wadds and I discuss:

This is the first podcast in a series I’ll be running on public feeling insight. Get in touch with thoughts and ideas @StellaBayles @Wadds

Special Guest: Stephen Waddington.

'Share of voice' is a term used to describe how a brand is being talked about against it’s competitors.

Share of voice is worked out very differently in Public Relations in comparision to other areas of marketing. This is mainly down to earned, owned and paid media all having different data and what we're allowed access to.

At the end September 2020, Mark Ritson wrote an article for Marketing Week, which pitched why 'share of search' could be a better alternative measure of how popular a brand is among consumers.

When I read the article, it struck me as a more sensible integrated way of looking at marketing success. However, I needed the help an expert to learn more!

In this episode I interview marketing attribution expert, Russell McAthy, founder of Ringside to help us learn more.

We explore:

If you do PR for a brand that also has lots of owned and paid marketing activity, this episode is for you.

Special Guest: Russell McAthy.

Public Relations professionals excel in storytelling. PR has also been known not to use data as well as other areas of marketing. So when I came across the wisdom of Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, the founder & CEO of storytelling with data, I had to interview her on the PR Resolution Podcast.

Cole is the author of the best-selling book, ‘storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals’ and, through her courses has helped thousands of people around the world tell better stories with their data, but what does she think about PR data?

In one of my favourite interviews to date, Cole and I explore;

If naturally right-brain people can tell great data stories

We cover the Barcelona Principles 3.0 updates & how it’s possible to communicate outputs & outcomes visually

Why getting to know your report readers is SO important

And why starting with data is actually the wrong place to begin your measurement journey..

Special Guest: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.

The PR industry has had to adapt to a huge change recently. Not only have many comms strategies had to change, we've never had a news agenda like this.

In this episode I'm joined by news experts from 72Point, part of SWNS Media Group which is an independent press agency working directly with major news-desks in the United States and the UK.

I interview Daniel Johnson-Kim and Rick Maughan, Heads of Editorial and Media Liaison at 72Point Inc, New York, to discuss the changes at the major news-desks and how to sensitively navigate them.

Together, Daniel and Rick have more than 20 years experience in working with news desks in both the UK and USA. As well as Daniel being an ex journalist, designer and editor at The New York Daily News and News Corp, he and Rick now work alongside journalists and PR teams to help shape brand comms into news.

We cover:

Special Guests: Daniel Johnson-Kim and Rick Maughan.

Since the world went into lockdown, millions have turned to Amazon. The online retailer is due to release sales and profit figures on 30 April, however analysts have already forecast a sales increase of at least 22%.

It’s been predicted that during the pandemic Amazon has experienced sales of $10,000 every second, day and night!! wow.

Just before the pandemic was announced, I met Jim Hawker, co-founder of agency PR & marketing agency, Threepipe to find out about a new growth area for them; Amazon optimisation.

It’s not a common skill-hire or PR service we talk about in the industry so I was keen to hear more.

In this podcast interview Jim explains why

This podcast was recorded just before COVID-19 hit in the UK and US, yet the insights Jim shares couldn’t be more relevant right now.

Special Guest: Jim Hawker .