The PRovoke Media Podcast

FleishmanHillard Fishburn's corporate managing director Steph Bailey joins the Echo Chamber to talk through the agency's latest Authenticity Gap report. Now in its seventh year, the research looks at the issues that consumers are now expecting brands to take a stand on, from data privacy and security to the climate emergency. 

The founder of Boston-based independent brand communications agency Adam Ritchie Brand Direction joins the Echo Chamber to talk about "Invention in PR". He discusses how public relations can be used to invent new products and services with newsworthiness built into them from the start, such as the first rock album launched on cans of craft beer using Twitter.

David Tiltman is the head of content at marketing intelligence firm WARC and a former editor of CampaignAsia. He joins Arun Sudhaman and Maja Pawinska Sims in the Echo Chamber to talk about all things Cannes, and walk listeners through the five key elements of effective brand marketing in WARC's new white paper, The Anatomy of Effectiveness. 

The rise of influencer marketing has sparked debate around how to measure the impact of these campaigns and the new rules of engagement — and how those differ from traditional media. Cathy Planchard, president of Allison + Partners' All Told Division, joins the Echo Chamber to discuss a recent report the agency published, Unleashing Influence, that shows that marketers aren't fully optimizing the potential of influencer marketing. During the conversation, we also reference an Influencer Marketing salon that Allison + Partners hosted with the Holmes Report earlier this year at the Innovation Summit — North America.  

Last year, former Weber Shandwick associate director Asad Dhunna founded The Unmistakables, a marcomms agency made up of minorities, with the aim of helping businesses understand minorities and create campaigns that are more representative of society. The agency now works with clients including the English Cricket Board, Unilever and Barnado's. Dhunna, who is also director of communications for Pride in London, tells the Echo Chamber about his experience of presenting 'We Don't Need Another Diversity Talk' on stage in Cannes, and the state of diversity and inclusion in the PR industry.  

Mars global external communications director Kimberly West joins the Echo Chamber in Cannes to discuss the company's evolution from a low-profile manufacturer of confectionary and petcare products, into a brand that is highly visible on issues of sustainability and governance. In conversation with Arun Sudhaman, West outlines why companies must move beyond rhetoric if they are to combat 'purpose fatigue'.

Janet Balis is EY's global advisory services leader for media & entertainment, a position in which she advises both media platforms and marketing leaders. As such Balis has a unique vantage point over the changes that are transforming the media and marketing worlds, enhanced by her previous leadership roles at AOL, The Huffington Post and Time Warner. In a wide-ranging conversation with Arun Sudhaman, Balis breaks down some of these shifts and explores what they mean for media platforms and CMOs.

Jenna Young, Weber Shandwick’s executive creative director in New York, joins the Echo Chamber in Cannes to talk about her Lions jury experience, cultural nuance in creative work, and being a long-time executive creative director in a PR agency.

Weber Shandwick global president Gail Heimann is not only a Cannes veteran but one of the more insightful industry voices when it comes to distilling lessons from the annual creative jamboree. In a post-Cannes conversation with the Holmes Report's Arun Sudhaman, Heimann breaks down her lessons from this year's edition, which include the PR industry's better showing, the colonisation of trust and purpose by ad agencies, the continuing gender imbalance among the creative ranks and whether PR is purely a craft. 

WE Communications international president Kass Sells joins the Holmes Report in Cannes to discuss the challenges posed by agency transformation, at a time of considerable industry disruption.