The PRovoke Media Podcast

Don’t get cancelled: how CEOs can minimise the risk of speaking up

Dan Neale, the founder of Alfred, talks to PRovoke Media EMEA editor Maja Pawinska Sims about the agency's new Brands and Movements research, which found that corporate leaders are committed to embracing shifting consumer expectations that business now needs to put purpose on an equal footing with profit, but many are still nervous about the potential risks of speaking out on big societal and environmental issues through fear of cancel culture. 

Elizabeth Bananuka: Five years of BME PR Pros

Elizabeth Bananuka is founder of BME PR Pros, a platform that she launched five years ago to promote Black and minority ethnic inclusion in the UK PR industry. In conversation with PRovoke Media's Arun Sudhaman, Bananuka discusses the organization's five-year journey — which includes The Blueprinted diversity mark for agencies, and The Xec, the first leadership scheme for UK-based BME PR and comms pros. She also breaks down the challenges and criticism she has faced, and the positives she has taken from the experience. 

Supporting Black business owners with communications

Verizon’s Diana Alvear and Goodie Nation founder Joey Womack launched a partnership that sees comms leaders working with Black business owners on communications strategies.

Being Human In A Tech-Enabled World: Leadership

Being Human in a Tech-Enabled World is a four-part video series from PRovoke Media in partnership with AxiCom, on how different aspects of life and work – as humans and communicators – have changed since we were thrust into a virtual and hybrid world and how they might change again in the future, via the power of technology.

This fourth and final episode features AxiCom president of Europe Kate Stevens and Shane Ryan, global executive director of the Avast Foundation – which advocates for digital citizenship and inclusive, respectful and safe online experiences – in conversation with PRovoke Media's EMEA editor, Maja Pawinska Sims. The trio look at the challenges and reality of leading businesses and agencies in such tumultuous times: how does leadership steady the ship and navigate forward, and build a working environment that will survive the longhaul and not be a short term fix?

Healthy Bites: The Corporate Communications Challenge

The global pandemic — that we’re very much still immersed in — has put healthcare at center stage. At this moment, we’re seeing the complex interplay between health tech, providers, pharma, policy makers and other stakeholders at a global scale. It's both breathtaking and often bewildering. And even before 2020, healthcare was quickly becoming one of the most compelling areas for public relations.

With that in mind, we partnered with Real Chemistry—- formerly W2O — on a new series Healthy Bites. In each episode, we will have a quick chat with a healthcare expert to provide a digestible "what you should know" to help the industry stay ahead of the rapidly changing healthcare public relations and communications landscape. And because healthcare touches every aspect of our lives these days, we hope these 10-minute conversations will be useful no matter what your day-to-day role is.

In this episode, PRovoke Media senior reporter Diana Marszalek talks to John Capodanno, Real Chemistry’s president of financial, corporate & capital markets communications.

Topics covered:

01:40 Changes in corporate comms

03:44 Preparing for future challenges

04:31 The corporate comms skillset

06:22 Exemplary organizations

07:48 Reaching the c-suite

Roundtable: Unlocking B2B results with intelligent PR

PRovoke Media partnered with the Hoffman Agency to explore how public relations ideas and strategies can be deployed to address B2B challenges and drive tangible, sustainable business outcomes.

The discussion featured the following panellists:

• Justin Lam, Business Executive Officer, Nespresso HK & Macau
• Marty Filipowski, Director of Public Relations, APJ, Nutanix
• David Hardoon, Managing Director, Aboitiz Data Innovation
• Caroline Hsu, Managing Director AP, The Hoffman Agency
• Sheel Kohli, Chief Marketing Officer, Eqonex
• Arun Sudhaman, Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media (moderator)

0:00 Introductions & relevant experience
6:05 Changing role of PR in B2B marketing strategy 
23:27 Long term objectives vs short term focus
29:34 Understanding what PR can accomplish
35:40 Changes in PR investment, from media relations towards social media, owned/paid content and influencer marketing
50:05 Using data and commstech to measure and prove return on PR investment
1:07:17 Quality of B2B content

Building an agency under the shadow of cancer

Nik Govier founded Blurred three years ago and the agency has quickly become a hugely successful business that was ahead of its time on ESG and purpose. But the journey hasn’t all been smooth. In this frank and moving conversation with Maja Pawinska Sims, Govier talks about her personal story and how she and her team have dealt with multiple cancer diagnoses and bereavement along the way.

White Parents’ Role In Stopping Racism

IPG Dxtra’s chief inclusion & diversity officer Margenett Moore-Roberts joins the Provoke Media podcast to discuss an initiative calling on white parents to discuss race and racism with their kids.

Clean Creatives on its campaign against fossil fuel PR firms

Clean Creatives campaign director Duncan Meisel joins the PRovoke Media podcast to discuss his group's efforts to stop PR firms — most notably Edelman — from working with the fossil fuel industry. In a spirited debate with Paul Holmes, Meisel asserts that such work obstructs urgently needed government action on climate change, and impedes climate justice solutions.

Rebooting The Automotive Launch Playbook With Infiniti

This conversation explores two launches: both in the same sector, during a global pandemic but targeting two very different groups. The Infiniti Motor Company recently  launched its QX55 and QX60 models and the pandemic opened opportunities to experiment with new launch strategies — and ultimately reboot its playbook. The discussion that features Wendy Orthman, Infiniti’s newly-promoted GM of global integrated brand, marketing and communications, in addition to Stephanie Friess, SVP at imre.

Topics Covered: 
02:02 Orthman on moving to Japan to join Infiniti just as Covid-19 enveloped the world 

04:33 Friess draws parallels between automotive and beauty, retail & lifestyle 

06:04 The QX 55 launch — and the unexpected pandemic pivot 

08:12 How lockdown allowed the team to take unprecedented risks 

11:20 How to replicate the sensory experience of buying a car during the pandemic

12:49 Rethinking exec comms around the ‘no suits rule’ 

15:03 ‘It takes a village’ - a new way to approach the marketing mix 

18:43 Getting real about the role of celebs vs more accessible influencers 

21:00 How the ‘Claire’ persona for QX60 still included multicultural nuance

25:11 Lessons learned on integration