Formerly known as the Holmes Report‘s Echo Chamber, the PRovoke podcast brings insight and intelligence from the global PR industry. Featuring interviews, analysis and conversation, the weekly show is hosted by PRovoke Media editors Arun Sudhaman, Maja Pawinska Sims & Paul Holmes.
In a keynote conversation that featured GSK Consumer Health global corporate affairs SVP Dana Bolden and Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA) chief communications officer Aaron Radelet, H+K New York EVP Avra Lorrimer examined the role that communicators are playing in closing health equity gaps, finding that their role has — in this respect at least — never been more important.
The leap from communications to business leadership remains rare within major multinational corporations, but it is one that Jackson Jeyanayagam undertook when he became VP and general manager of Clorox's consumer business in 2019.
In conversation with PRovoke Media editor-in-chief Arun Sudhaman at the PRovokeGlobal Summit last week, Jeyanayagam talked about the lessons he has learned along the way, including the qualities communicators can bring to broader management roles within businesses, and the challenges they need to overcome if they are to make a similar shift.
Jennifer Risi, Cheryl Overton and Alyssa Garnick — owners of The Sway Effect, Cheryl Overton Communications and Agean PR respectively — are part of a growing number of independents who are teaming up to win and service accounts that require more than individual small shops can handle on their own. They join Diana Marszalek on the PRovoke Media podcast to discuss the new network model, and how it’s helped them grow.
As COP26 gets underway, two leaders from strategic communications consultancy Fourtold, Omar Mockbil and Tatu Liimatainen, who head up the firm’s EU advocacy and EU public affairs businesses respectively, join Maja Pawinska Sims on the PRovoke Media podcast to talk about the regulatory and policy milestones around environment, climate and sustainability leading up to the summit, and what it might mean for public affairs and corporate communications consultants, and effective messaging around climate change.
This episode tackles mental health from the pharmaceutical new perspective with Robert Murphy, head of external communications at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical and Kelly Dencker, EVP, Director of healthcare at Coyne PR. We anchor the conversation in a piece that Otsuka published in Forbes' BrandVoice platform: These 3 Changes Can Help Us Overcome The Mental Health Pandemic by Jodi Helmer. In the conversation, we explore each three factors and dive more deeply into the the role that communications can play in each.
Murphy's views are his own and do not necessarily reflect Otsuka America Pharmaceutical.
Topics covered:
01:35 What is it like working at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical?
03:41 How communications can help improve access to care
08:17 Why mental health community outreach requires a multi-layered approach
11:21 The role comms plays in leveraging the power of digital technology
16:41 How to create a more compassionate culture around mental health
21:55 How the language we uses can shift acceptance of mental health
In this episode of the PRovoke Media podcast, PRovoke Media's executive editor Aarti Shah talks to Gabriel Stricker who has been immersed in Silicon Valley for two decades with senior roles at Google, Twitter, Niantic, the Emerson Collective, and most recently at Color. They talk about how Stricker nearly took on the top communications job at Theranos — and the lessons he learned from that near miss. Drawing upon Stricker's experiences, they talk about what happens when CCOs and CEOs clash on values, ethics and purpose. The conversation happened on the backdrop of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony before the Senate.
Topics:
01:30 Gabriel Stricker on almost working at Theranos
03:50 The importance of having moral alignment with the leadership team
06:17 Is it possible to vet for character during the interview process?
10:05 Is the gold rush mentality in tech normalizing people compromise their values for big payouts?
13:34 Having a healthy internal culture and building harmful products aren't mutually exclusive
17:36 Should CCOs be chief conscience officers?
28:43 The tricky economics of the agency world
36:33 Stricker's rule for vetting companies
In this PRovoke Media podcast, Lippe Taylor CEO Paul Dyer discusses his new book Friction Fatigue, in which he challenges brands to accept the failures of advertising and start engaging consumers on their own terms.
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, now the power of technology has been realised. This third episode features AxiCom’s Aaron Virola and Emily Denton, as well as executive leadership coach Michael “Coop” Cooper in conversation with PRovoke Media's EMEA editor, Maja Pawinska Sims. The panel discuss the reality of starting a job, and even a career, without meeting colleagues, and the challenges for employers of onboarding and mentoring team members, and maintaining agency culture and on-the-job learning and professional development in a remote or hybrid working model.
In this episode of the PRovoke Media podcast, Walgreens Boots Alliance CCO Aaron Radelet talks about how the Covid pandemic elevated the role of pharmacies and health & wellness retailers like Walgreens, Duane Reade and Boots as part of the larger healthcare system.
Lenovo Asia-Pacific communications head Genevieve Hilton joins the PRovoke Media podcast to discuss how the in-house communications role is changing. In conversation with PRovoke editor-in-chief Arun Sudhaman, Hilton discusses the changing balance between global and local communications, the importance of inclusivity, the rise of sustainability as a function, and more.
