BackBBC Radio 4’s When It Hits The Fan
I’m still getting my head around my new BBC gig. It feels a bit odd to have one foot in the BBC and the other in PR land. It’s getting easier each week as I get used to reading the news with a triple lens: stories for the podcast, stories that impact our Curzon client work, and stories that simply interest me.
One of the strangest shifts is the luxury of scanning world news for ideas. It’s a very different rhythm from PR, where you story-mine within the tighter parameters of client content, positioning, and goals.
I also realised that having a show on the BBC was on my goals list more than ten years ago. Every January I set radical, big-dream goals. I find life works better when you have them, a bit like a PR campaign. Now I just need to figure out how to apply the Barcelona Principles to my life!
Listen to the Podcast to Tune Into the Fan-Hitters We Covered This Week
Did Swatch PR backfire?
Not every product launch comes complete with tear gas, police dogs and angry crowds. But those were the scenes at various cities around the world as a new Swatch went on sale.
David Yelland and I discuss whether the chaos that surrounded the launch was PR heaven or hell. Advisors are paid handsomely to try and create such buzz – but can too much hype be a bad thing?
A path of the least resistance
A PR path that is not well trodden. Because Pippa Middleton owns it and she doesn’t want you anywhere near. The sister of the Princess of Wales is finding out being rich and famous is no use when it comes to matters of planning. It’s all very public and tryng to win over the locals is no easy matter.
Tall tales
The mysterious case involving President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. They are, apparently, wildly different heights. Are dark PR arts at play when trying to make the boss look dominant?
Please do have a listen on BBC Radio 4 every Wednesday at 4pm and Thursday at 8pm and let me know your thoughts.
👉 Catch the extended version on BBC Sounds, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Case Study for CEO Comms
Thank you to Marcus Dysch for tagging me on Jonny Harris brilliant take on all the PR lessons to be learnt from Channel 4’s CEO’s appearance on BBC News.
Podcasts in a PR World
At the Podcast Show London with Molly DeMellier and Joni Deutsch
I spoke at The Podcast Show LDN on a panel exploring how PR can turbocharge podcast audience growth and also how podcasts sit in the PR channel matrix alongside Molly DeMellier of Sounds Profitable and Joni Deutsch of The Podglomerate who flew over from the US to attend.
Saying Goodbye Can Be So Hard
This week also marked the final episode in my collaboration with the team behind the Stories and Strategies podcast, featuring author Advita Patel discussing her new book on confidence. I began my journey as a podcast host with the PRCA in 2023 before moving to Stories & Strategies.
Doug Downs and Emily Page were in London this week, so we spent some time together IRL reminiscing. The relationship between podcast hosts can feel a lot like having a business partner, so it’s always hard to say goodbye. Safe travels back to Canada!
Old School PR
At the CIPR x Lewis Silkin dinner
This week, I co-hosted a Chartered Institute of Public Relations Corporate Executive Dinner with Lewis Silkin partner Adam Glass . I have always loved the art of bringing people together. I learnt a great deal from my mother-in-law, who loved entertaining and taught me that arranging a table plan can be an act of kindness if you think carefully about who might be transformed by a new connection or conversation.
We discussed the soft power of Britain as an export, from higher education and the BBC through to the PR industry itself. We also spoke about how crisis communications can no longer sit solely with specialists. Increasingly, communicators need contextual intelligence across geopolitics, economics, regulation and technology, because everything now connects to everything else.
The evening reminded me that, for all the talk of AI and automation, relationships still matter in communications. People taking the time to gather, break bread, listen, lean in and exchange ideas can feel almost radical in a noisy world.
Old-school PR at its best.
A huge thank you to Adam Glass and the Lewis Silkin team for hosting us in their stunning boardroom, and to CIPR’s Catherine Morgan-Garrod, Curzon PR’s David Olajide and Solomon Ibeh for helping pull everything together behind the scenes.
Originally featured in Substack
