The PRovoke Media Podcast

Being Human in a Tech-Enabled World: The Workplace

Being Human in a Tech-Enabled World is a new four-part video series from PRovoke Media in partnership with AxiCom. In this series, PRovoke and AxiCom will invite in-house communications leaders and experts in their field to join the conversation on what different aspects of what life and work – as humans and communicators – look like now and how they might look in the future, through the lens of technology.

This first episode on The Workplace – available below as video and audio – features three guests: Sasha Watson, the people director of Moonpig, the personalised greeting cards, flowers and gifts business, which has been firmly at the intersection of technology and human touchpoints during a time when we haven’t been able to be together for celebrations; Helen Brown, chief operating officer at WPP People Operations, who has been overseeing modernisation of the people practice across all of WPP’s companies and defining the scope of how technology will support that transformation; and Ed Gemmell, the global head of brand and communications at market research, data and insights giant Kantar.

This first conversation, hosted by PRovoke's EMEA editor Maja Pawinska Sims and AxiCom’s president of Europe Kate Stevens, covers the impact on the creative industries of being forced overnight into the “future of work” as Covid struck; how we have adapted to our virtual working existence in terms of work/life balance, culture, relationships and wellbeing; and what's next for the workplace as we emerge into a post-pandemic world.

Future episodes will cover creativity, psychology and leadership, and learning.

The Complexity Of Transforming Iconic Brands

General Mills’ chief communications officer Jano Cabrera is charged with bringing the 154-year-old food company and its classic brands — from Gold Medal Flour and Betty Crocker desserts to Wheaties and Green Giant — in line with 21st century tastes and expectations. Cabrera joins Diana Marszalek on the PRovoke podcast to discuss his multi-fold approach, spanning marketing, CSR and new product creation.

PRovokeNA Recap With W2O Group's Aaron Strout

In this episode, Aarti Shah and the W2O Group's Aaron Strout reflect on key takeaways from #PRovokeNA, which took place virtually on February 24. Among the topics they discuss: how emerging platforms were transformed by Covid-19, why ESG has supplanted CSR, how public affairs has transformed with the democratization of media, and how healthcare communications was permanently changed by the pandemic. To read more about the sessions and takeaways from #PRovokeNA, full coverage from the event can be found here  and videos of each session can be seen here.

State of the Asia-Pacific PR industry, with Emma Dale

Prospect Resourcing co-founder Emma Dale joins the PRovoke podcast to discuss the 2021 State of the Industry Report. Produced by Prospect and PublicAffairsAsia, the study reveals a tough year financially for PR and communications professionals, but also finds a greater appreciation of the value and importance of the communications function. Dale discusses these trends, along with hiring patterns and the future of work.

A public relations textbook for a new era

The first edition of "Exploring Public Relations and Managing Communication", the textbook used in teaching PR across UK universities, was published in 2006. For its 5th edition, co-authors Ralph Tench and Stephen Waddington have, with a cohort of respected industry leaders and academics, comprehensively overhauled the content. Tench and Waddington join Maja Pawinska Sims on the PRovoke podcast to talk about how they have endeavoured to create a vital resource for students, lecturers and practitioners in a very changed world, blending theory and practice with critical analysis and case studies, and how to ensure PR education itself is fit-for-purpose.

Misinformation Battlefields with WHO and NewsWhip

This conversation features AbdelHalim AbdAllah, crisis communications officer for the African Region at the World Health Organization, and NewsWhip CEO Paul Quigley. PRovoke Media executive editor Aarti Shah hosts the conversation that covers how WHO is preparing for the largest vaccine rollout on the continent — and addressing specific misinformation threats that involves adapting strategies to align with various countries and cultures.

Nepean's Gavin Davis on "corporate body language" and ESG

Former Sky corporate comms director and Bell Pottinger partner Gavin Davis set up reputation and communications agency Nepean in 2019. He joins EMEA editor Maja Pawinska Sims on the PRovoke podcast to talk about how business leaders can effectively express their "corporate body language" to stakeholders, particularly as the focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) grows.

Mastercard's Raja Rajamannar

Raja Rajamannar is chief marketing & communications officer for Mastercard, and president of the company’s healthcare business. He joins PRovoke editor-in-chief Arun Sudhaman to discuss his new book Quantum Marketing, which declares that the obsolescence of marketing has begun. Rajamannar also explores the importance of genuine integration between marketing and communications, the rise of risk and reputation management, and the underrated virtues of 'decency'.

Vaccine Confidence with Novavax's Silvia Taylor and Crisp's Adam Hildreth

In this episode, Paul Holmes talks to Silvia Taylor, SVP of corporate affairs at Novavax, and Adam Hildreth, founder/CEO of Crisp, about the reputation issues facing the pharmaceutical industry as the largest vaccine effort in the world rolls out to combat Covid-19. The group also addresses the disinformation Novavax had to deal with as part of their clinical trials and how the global pandemic has accelerated the urgency for transparency and humanity in healthcare communications.  

Connect2’s Rich Williams on the human side of tech PR

Connect2 Communications founder and president Rich Williams is a big believer in the persuasive power of telling very real, very human, stories, and putting them at the center of communications strategies — even when clients are tech companies through and through. Williams joins Diana Marszalek on the PRovoke podcast to discuss the art of mining for and promoting those stories, and the role they play in furthering B2B tech clients’ business.