Public Relations Stories and Strategies

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Public Relations Stories and Strategies episodes

April 07 People Don’t Resist Change, They Resist Being Changed
Most communicators assume that if people reject a message, they must not understand it. Lord David Evans argues the opposite. Backlash often isn’t confusion. It’s threat. When people feel insecure, unheard, or looked down on, they don’t lean in. They shut down. And in that moment, facts don’t persuade, values don’t inspire, and “better messaging” can make things worse.
In this episode Lord David Evans breaks down what political campaigning can teach PR professionals about trust, psychological safety, and why populist narratives spread so quickly. This isn’t about copying tactics. It’s about understanding what your audience needs before they will even give you permission to listen.
Listen For
2:22 Who is Lord David Evans and why does his perspective matter right now?
3:54 Why is behaviour change almost never an information problem?
6:36 Why do people get drawn to extreme political movements?
10:36 Are politicians themselves fueling fear and insecurity?
12:48 Is social media pushing people into fight-or-flight mode?

Guest: Lord David Evans
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20 min
March 31 The New Role of Public Relations | Ipsos
Public relations used to be seen as the function that shaped the message after the decisions were made. That is not enough anymore. In a world shaped by geopolitical shocks, cultural division, AI disruption, and rising reputational risk, communications leaders are being pulled closer to the centre of power. They are no longer just storytellers or spokespersons. They are becoming strategic sensemakers: the people expected to read the moment, interpret the pressure, and help leadership decide what to say, what to do, and sometimes whether to say anything at all.
Our job is evolving to help brands survive the storm.
If you work in PR, corporate affairs, or communications leadership, this episode will feel familiar fast, because it names the job as it is now, not as it used to be. And if you have not yet felt that shift in your own role, you will soon.
Listen For
3:00 How Has the PR Professional Evolved into a Strategic Sense-Making Role?
5:58 When Should CEOs Speak Out. And When Should They Stay Silent?
10:23 What Is Strategic Ambiguity, and Why Are Companies Using It Now?
13:09 What Skills Do Future PR Professionals Need to Succeed?
15:01 How Do Communication Leaders Really Feel About AI?
Guest: Tom Fife-Schaw, Uk Managing Director of Corporate Reputation, Ipsos
Email | LinkedIn | Navigating Through Turbulence Report
Doug
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25 min
March 24 Why Public Relations Still Has a Leadership Problem
Communications is often described as a female-led profession, but that label can hide a harder truth. Women may make up much of the industry, yet the balance often shifts when it comes to senior leadership, influence, and decision-making.
So, what’s still standing in the way, and why has progress been slower than it should be?
Natasha Plowman argues gender equity cannot remain a women-only conversation, yet many men still hold back because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing, unsure how to contribute, or feel the issue is not theirs to address.
In this episode, why silence protects the status quo. And change usually starts when more than the excluded group speaks up.
Listen For
2:33 Why Does a Female-Powered Industry Still Struggle to Put Women in Leadership?
5:12 Why Are Men Reluctant to Join Gender Equity Conversations?
7:24 What Does Real Allyship from Men in the Workplace Look Like?
11:45 Is the Backlash Against DEI Actually About Performative Policies?
14:21 Would Simply Adding More Women to Leadership Solve the Problem?

Guest: Natasha Plowman
Spinning Red Website | Antiquoted Website | Email Break the Silence | Natasha LinkedIn

Doug
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24 min
March 17 Visual Drift: Why Brands Stop Looking Like Themselves
You know that feeling when you look at your own brand and it somehow doesn’t feel like you anymore? The logo is the same, the words are mostly right, and the message is still “on brand”… but the visuals have started to wander.
A new template here. A new font there. Someone’s “quick” Canva edit. A LinkedIn graphic that looks like it came from a different company.
None of it is a big mistake. It’s just… a hundred small ones.
And in PR, you can’t afford that moment when a stakeholder sees your work and thinks, Wait—who are we today?
Because we’re living in a scrolling, skimming world where people decide in seconds. They don’t stop to decode your intent; they feel something fast, or they move on. So how do you keep creativity alive without letting your brand drift into a different personality every week? And what actually makes a visual work now? What makes someone feel something immediately?

Listen For
:15 Why did Boaty McBoatface become the perfect lesson in brand control?
3:17 What is visual drift and how does it quietly damage brand credibility?
4:53 Why should brands resist changing logos and colors too often?
6:14 How are Canva and easy design tools changing the role of visual experts?
8:55 How do brands win attention in the first 0.3 seconds of scrolling?

Guest: Stewart Cohen
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Doug
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24 min
March 10 Synthetic Populations & Their Impacts on Public Relations
What if the best market research started by IGNORING what people say?
What if, instead, you started modeling them based on proven behaviour?
Right down to the regional level?
And what if political polling was done this way too
A new term is showing up in research and strategy circles with major implications for communicators: synthetic populations. This is not a cheap AI focus group. It is a data-built population model that reflects how people are distributed and behave at scale using high-quality inputs like official statistics, mobility patterns, and registration data, rather than relying only on interviews and surveys.
That matters because self-reported data is often aspirational, incomplete, or socially filtered. Synthetic populations offer another path: estimating market potential, testing where campaigns should start, understanding regional differences, and pressure-testing assumptions before rollout. The real question is not just what synthetic populations are, but what happens when strategy shifts from asking people to modeling populations.

Listen For
3:07 What’s the difference between a synthetic panel and a synthetic population?
5:13 How can a synthetic population be realistic without using real individuals?
8:49 Why do surveys over-claim luxury brands? And how does official data correct it?
11:58 What did Germany’s flat-rate transit ticket reveal about commuting by region?
14:15 Could synthetic populations change how political polling is done?

Guest: Eike Hartmann, Vice President Custom Research & Insights Business at Statista+
Website | LinkedIn
White Paper on Synthetic Populations

Doug
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Farzana
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18 min
March 03 The 7 Reputation Drivers Every Leader Should Know
In today’s world, PR leaders need to build and protect their brand’s reputation in an AI-shaped, polarized world, where owned media matters more than ever.
Reputation is no longer a soft metric but an economic multiplier and an insurance policy. From the difference between brand and reputation to the growing tension between character and competence, this episode explains what actually moves corporate standing up or down in today’s environment.
We also share why owned media now plays a disproportionate role in shaping not just earned coverage, but AI-generated search results and stakeholder perception.
Listen For
3:45 What Is the Real Difference Between Brand and Reputation?
5:07 What Are the Seven Drivers That Shape Reputation?
6:28 How Has AI Changed Third Party Advocacy and Media Influence?
9:58 Do Character Crises Damage Reputation More Than Competence Failures?
16:13 Why Is Reputation a Business Tool Rather Than Just an Image Strategy?

Guest: Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, RepTrak
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Doug
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Farzana
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24 min
February 24 Public Relations in the Age of Insularity
Trust used to flow upward. To experts, institutions, and authority.
Then it shifted to “people like me.”
Now even that circle is tightening.
The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a growing insularity: smaller tribes, hardened perspectives, and a widening mass-class divide driven by whether people believe the system works for them.
Persuasion is shifting to trust brokerage, and what communicators, leaders, and businesses can do when trust itself has become the battleground.
Listen For
3:10 Skip the opening story and go right to the interview with Tim Weber
3:47 What does it mean that we’ve moved from echo chambers to “turtle shells”
7:21 Is polarization economic, cultural, technological—or all three?
12:35 How can companies blunt fear and become true trust brokers?
20:13 Will AI reinforce our biases and deepen our personal echo chambers?

Guest: Tim Weber, Managing Director & EMEA Head of Editorial, Edelman
LinkedIn | Instagram | Bio | Website
2026 Edelman Trust Barometer

Doug
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Farzana
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Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

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22 min
February 17 Why Brands are Too Serious… and Paying the Price
Can a joke really sell a brand? Or save it from sameness?
Most campaigns sound the same because they’re afraid to sound wrong. Safe language, serious faces, purpose-heavy messages that all blur together.
And yet one of the most successful creative agencies in North America has built its reputation by doing the opposite. Zulu Alpha Kilo lives by a simple motto… Fight Sameness… and they do it with humor, sarcasm, and a willingness to say the quiet part out loud.
Why does that work? Why does making people laugh end up being the fastest way to earn trust?
Why does honesty often land better as a joke than a lecture.

Listen For
3:01 Fast-forward to the start of the interview
5:19 Check out an example of a funny (sarcastic) ad by Zulu Alpha Kilo
5:36 Why does ad satire feel so personal to marketers?
9:11 What tiny detail annoyed people in that absurd ad?

Guest: Michael Siegers, Zulu Alpha Kilo
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Doug
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Farzana
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22 min
February 10 When Your Message is Consistent, But Your Audience Isn’t
You can be the same person across every channel.
Your social media accounts. Your YouTube. Your newsletter. Your blog. The same principles. The same voice. Often even the same message.
And many of the people following you on LinkedIn are the same people who see you on Instagram, hear you on a podcast, or read your newsletter. Yet those same people can understand you, trust you, and remember you very differently simply because they encounter you in a different place.
Not because you changed.
Because they did.
They arrive with different expectations.
Different attention.
Different patience.
The channel shapes what they notice, what they believe, and what stays with them, even when the words don’t change at all.
In this episode, we explore how platforms shape perception, why fractured identities are now the norm, and what that means for communicators who already know better but are running out of time and headspace.
Listen For
4:30 How do you tailor one piece of content for different platforms?
6:04 Is it better to master one channel or be on many?
7:49 Can AI help create content that still feels human?
12:21 What’s the right way to use emojis on LinkedIn?
16:35 Are we choosing content or are algorithms choosing for us?

Guest: Molly Demellier, Sounds Profitable
Email | Website | Sounds Profitable LinkedIn

Doug
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Farzana
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21 min
February 05 The Week Unspun: Friday September 25, 2025
Every Friday at 5 pm UK and noon Eastern we scan the globe and pick the stories that actually shaped the week then apply a public relations lens. This first live edition explains the format, brings the chat into the room, and sets a simple goal: turn a firehose of posts into practical takeaways for communicators.
We start with breaking UK politics and what a resignation and reshuffle signal about timing, narrative control, and public affairs workload. Then we track a viral rumor about a US president to show how influence and incentives push disinformation. Finally we hit Westminster for a fresh look at soft power and why language, culture, and education still move markets and minds.
Listen For
1:01 David explains the 1,200-person WhatsApp roundup and why this show exists.
2:28 UK cabinet shakeup. Farzana breaks the Angela Rayner resignation and the PR cost of timing
6:02 Charisma vs competence. The panel weighs why likability keeps beating policy.
10:35 Rumor mechanics. Doug and David map how influencers and gaps in information fuel false news
23:35 Soft power strategy. Farzana reports from Westminster on turning culture and education into influence
The Week Unspun is a weekly livestream every Friday at Noon ET/5pm BT. Check it out on our YouTube Channel or via this LinkedIn channel
We publish the audio from these livestreams to the Stories and Strategies podcast feed every Friday until Sunday evening when it’s no longer available.
Folgate Advisors
Curzon Public Relations Website
Stories and Strategies Website
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32 min

About Public Relations Stories and Strategies

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Every organization has a story people believe about it. Most leaders didn't choose that story. They inherited it, stumbled into it, or lost control of it somewhere along the…