In our twice-yearly review of the UK PR market PRmoment founder Ben Smith catches up with Warren Johnson.

Warren founded W Communications in 2009. It now has global revenues of £25m and a headcount of 200, with 120 in London at W, 40 at its travel PR specialist Lotus, 25 in Singapore, and 15 in New York.

Do check out the agency and in-house programmes for our new education programme PRmoment Leaders.

PRmoment Leaders is our new subscription-based learning programme and community, built by PRmoment specifically for the next generation of PR and comms leaders to learn, network and lead.

Thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

1. 30 mins Warren reveals why and how he has just sold his business, W Communications, to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT.)

“It’s a government-backed business structure designed to help business owners pass on their business, realise some value from it…and pass it into the hands of the next generation.”

11 mins Warren discusses the performance of the PR market for H1 2024.

“It’s a bit of a slog. The economy is still pretty weak. There is a lot of nervousness client side.”

“Productivity is poor. The Brexit impact is ongoing.”

“We (the UK) are managing our decline not very well.”

“A lot of the top agencies are doing a great job of land grabbing from other industries.”

20 mins Why Warren worries about UK PR’s productivity.

“Hybrid working has run its course…10% of the UK PR industry lost their jobs last year. If those people were all productive I just don’t believe they would have lost their jobs.”

“I don’t know a single agency which hasn't reduced their headcount in the last 12 months.”

“Hybrid working reduces productivity…in specialist roles, I can see how it can boost productivity in generalist roles, I question its value.”

“At pace is how I build my business…I just think not being around each other breeds legacy behaviour. All businesses need to re-invent themselves at a quicker pace and if you can’t work together to do that, you will become obsolete.”

Welcome to our H1 Recruitment Year in Review PRmoment Podcast, where we discuss the PR job market with Dean Connolly, founder and PR recruitment director at Latte.

We look back at the talent trends in PR for the first half of 2024. The last six months have seen a significant change in the PR recruitment market. Dean tells us the top 3 reasons why PR people leave their jobs and reveals the latest PR salary bands.

If you’re interested in keeping an eye on the best jobs that are out there each week, do make sure you subscribe for free to PRmoment’s Top 10 PR Jobs updates each week.

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Dean and PRmoment founder Bes Smith discussed:

2 mins Dean updates on the state of the PR talent market right now.

“There’s still a shortage of talent…agencies are still struggling to hire.”

“We’ve (Latte) had our best two quarters ever.”

“We’re up 6% on the number of jobs coming through, year on year.”

“PR tech talent remains really in demand.”

“We’re seeing a real decline in the volume of tech PR talent pool at account manager level.”

10 mins The top 3 reasons PR people leave their jobs: 1. lack of career progression, 2. Salary, 3. company culture

Dean reveals Latte’s PR salary bands for 2024 (To confirm this was a London-centric survey.)

16 mins “Consumer (salaries) have caught up with corporate in the past few years and that’s really a sign of the fight for talent.”

“PR salaries in tech have remained steady.”

“There are a lot more redundancies happening in-house…they don’t (tend) get absorbed into the agency landscape.”

20 mins A discussion on the demand for greater specialist talent within PR firms.

On the PRmoment Podcast, we interview UK public relations leaders, and today, we’re chatting with Alec Samways, CEO and founder of Splendid.

Splendid is an independent consumer PR firm based in London. Its fee income is over £6 m. Splendid was launched in 2004 and so celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here's a summary of what we talked about:

2 mins Alec reflects on the consumer PR market in London at the moment.

“We’re seeing way more opportunities at the moment.”

“The process has become really, really protracted. We’re waiting on ten decisions at the moment.”

6 mins Alec tells us when the UK consumer PR market started coming back.

7 mins Splendid is one of a handful of independent PR firms in the UK that has made multiple acquisitions in the last couple of years. Alec tells us why Spendid decided to start buying other businesses.

“We won 3 big pitches in one year, all in one year…So I said to my head of finance: ‘Is there a better way?’”

“It was a reaction. It was about controlling growth.”

15 mins Splendid has bought Riot, Kingdom Collective, and DIY. Alec talks us through how those deals come about.

“Intuitively, PR has to be the authentic channel because we are the ones that earn it. We don't buy it. Do (outside) people see us that way? No.”

“I’ve always felt the answer is strategy and measurement.”

28 mins Alec talks us through the life cycle of Splendid. Where did it start, what have been the ups and downs and where are you now?

“The last five years (for Splendid): Rock & roll with a plan.”

29 mins Splendid has had a good couple of years. It has outgrown the consumer PR market over the past five years.

30 mins Was the COVID period a necessary step to allow Alec to simplify his business?

37 mins Alec describes himself as an inverted snob. What did you mean by that?

41 mins How does Alec look back on 20 years in business?

44 mins How many people has Spendid employed in the 20 years?

47 mins “Praise in public, constructive criticism in private.”

Welcome to our review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch. Here we discuss the biggest pitch wins and mergers & acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in June 2024.

Andrew is the lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR and a partner at PCB Partners, where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.

Andrew launched Andrew Bloch & Associates in 2020.

Before we start,a reminder that the final entry deadline for the Creative Moment Awards is coming up on Friday, June 28th. So you need to get a wriggle on if you’ve got good creative work that you want to enter this year.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Andrew and PRmoment podcast founder Ben Smith discussed:

“It feels like confidence is building and returning, especially in the consumer sector.”

5 mins Andrew updates us on Jumnes biggest PR pitch wins:

The Academy wins Fullers London Pride

Alfred wins Perfect Draft

Here Be Dragons wins Koppaberg

Premier win Wireless Festival - (Live Nation)

Tin Man win Blue Light Card

Stakked and Munch win Netflix Buying London Cast and separarelty Kabuto

W win Extreme E

Hatch win British Cycling

Tin Man/Lucky Generals win EDF

“This was an integrated pitch where the client wanted the PR agency and the ad agency to come together at the outset to create a campaign that had earned at its heart.”

The Earnies win The Royal Academy of Engineering

Brand Nation win reebok

Wild Card win Ask Italian -

TrunkBBI win Moonpig

Unlimited Group win National Highways

Coolr win Britvic

Pitch win global brief for les Mills

Mischief MHP win Pringles

Shook win Soare

The Heard - Monster Energy

Golin win Unilever

36 mins This month’s M&A run down:

Pagefield sells to PPHC

Candid (a Netherlands-based marketing and comms group) acquires Houston PR

Lewis acquires Tayburn

Welcome to the PRmoment June 2024 iteration of the Global Creativity Review collection. In this series, founder of PRmoment Ben Smith joins a host of PR industry creatives to discuss, and sometimes dissect, the standout creative moments of the month.

This is the audio version of the Global Creativity Review: you can watch the video version, with all the campaign/work films on PRmoment's YouTube Channel.

The Global Creativity Review is produced In partnership with our sister title Creative Moment.

The only catch? Guests are not allowed to choose their own work.

Speaking on this review:

• Kat Thomas, founder and chief creative officer at One Green Bean
• Lora Martyr, executive creative director at Taylor Herring
• Olivia Mushigo, senior creative at Good Relations
  

Not got time for a whole podcast? Don’t worry, here is the TL/DR discussion points for time-pressed listeners:

1 mins: Sweethearts - Situationships by Tombras

5 mins: Heineken - Pub Museums (Ireland)

13 mins: NUFC x Sela - Unsilence The Crowd

21 mins: Red Bull - Flying Through London’s Tower Bridge

29 mins: Burger King - 70th Anniversary, Old Flames

32 mins: Heinz - Reviews For Naturalisation in Brazil

39 mins: Just Eat - More Beef Than Kendrick and Kanye

40 mins: Dove - Mom Experience Translator Tool

This is part of our regular series of creativity reviews, so if you like what you hear, look back at the PRmoment Podcast archive on iTunes or Spotify to listen to more creative ideas.

You can watch previous episode of The Global Creativity Review on PRmoment’s YouTube channel.

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

I’ve been looking forward to this one. We’re chatting with James Wright, the global chairman of Havas PR.

James is one of a decent number of British PR folks who have moved to Australia.

Havas PR has had a good run globally and in the UK over the past few years. Global revenues are reported to be $236 m in 2023, up 5% on the previous year. Havas PR has 1600 employees globally.

Before we start, a plug for our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies, PRmoment Leaders. The programme of activity, including the tutorials, is now underway. If you're interested in learning more about this bespoke training programme for agency leaders, we’ll include the link in the show notes.

Also, do take a look at our latest PR Masterclass: PR and AI, which will be held on July 2nd in London.

At this one event, 12 experts will give 10 Masterclasses on PR & AI. Face-to-face and virtual tickets are available.

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.
Here is a summary of what James and I discussed:

3 mins James talks us through the recent growth of Havas’s PR revenues.

“Some markets are going really, really well, some markets are sluggish this year.”

“2023 was a very good year for us.”

“Havas Red started at $19 m in 2019, now $57m. Part of that is through acquisition. A great deal of that is organic.”

4.30 mins James talks us through the shape of Havas PR. Where do Havas Red, H/Advisors and One Green Bean fit together?

“We’ve gone from having 28/29 PR brands to 5 or 6.”

“Our global PR group is now Havas Red. It now exists in 19 markets, soon to be 20 and 21 before the end of the year.”

8 mins How does PR fit into an integrated offer within Havas? What type of work and what channels is PR responsible for?

“The strategy for Havas Red was to continue to own the earned but now to earn the owned…Over time, we have put social content and data solutions at the centre of our agency. In the US, when we started, only 3% of our revenues were social content. It’s now 40%. In the UK, it's a similar number.”

“For me, the concept of earned has changed from earned coverage to earned conversations.”

“Ad agencies just aren't set up to fast turnaround content.”

22 mins “The UK has been a massive success for us since we started in 2019 with just a few hundred thousand pounds to where it is now. The team there, led by Rachael Sansom, have done a phenomenal job.”

24 mins PR revenue-wise, Havas seems to have outgrown your holding group peers, albeit from a lower base.

24. 30 mins Does the Havas PR group follow the broad revenue model of most other international PR firms? Are the bulk of the revenues in North America?

25 mins What’s it like doing a global role from Sydney? Does James ever sleep?

“Sydney is the only place in the world where you can live a world-class lifestyle and do world-class work.”

28 mins James talks about the Australia PR scene in Australia.

“Consumer confidence is super low at the moment.”

“We hub some of our global accounts from here now. They just love the talent here.”

31 mins James talks about Havas’ approach to digital technology.

36 mins How big does James want Havas PR to get to?

“There is a very good opportunity in the next five years to break the $300 m mark.”

37 mins

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

On the show today, I’m chatting with Jim Hawker. Jim has returned to PR. We lost him to performance marketing for ten years, but he’s now back amongst old friends. But it seems he’s still criticising us!

Over the past three months, Jim has been on a bit of a tour de force around the PR sector, assessing its digital credentials in the context of his ten years working mainly in performance marketing.

Today, he will give us a critical report on the state of digital in PR firms.

Jim is the co-founder of Threepipe Reply, which he started in 2004.

Threepipe was an interesting case study for PR because it transformed itself from a traditional PR agency to a fully integrated brand and performance agency with 90 experts in PR, data and analytics, paid media, SEO, creative, and social channels.

This was achieved by merging the original Threepipe, a PR and organic social agency, with a paid media agency before acquiring a creative agency and then an SEO agency. Specialist teams were built across data science, marketplaces and retail media channels.

In 2019, Threepipe was acquired by Reply, a global technology consulting firm. Jim left the business in April 2024.

Before we start, a plug for our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies: PRmoment Leaders. The line-up of speakers for the first semester is now complete and even if I say it myself - it’s almost perfect!

Also, do take a look at our latest PR Masterclass: PR and AI. We've filtered out the snake oil salesman, the bluffers and the AI dead ends to create PR Masterclass: PR & AI.

At this one event, 12 experts will give 10 Masterclasses on PR & AI.

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what Jim and I discussed:

5 mins Does PR still have a digital problem?

9 mins What does the digital offer for most PR firms look like now?

“PR agency’s digital offer is still quite shallow”

“One of the things I always found odd was that people gauged your success by the number of people you employ, which I always thought was crazy. The aim wasn't to have a bigger Christmas party every year. The aim was to build profit and margin protection.”

12 mins Should PR firms be building their own tech?

17 mins How digitally curious are most PR people?

“The only way we were able to do it (bring in a greater range of digital skills into the agency) was through an acquisition strategy… it was a safer strategy.”

20 mins “One of the benefits of having a lot of paid media running through our agency was that we ended up having really close partnerships thiet eh technology platforms…the only way to get that is to spend money through them… Which meant we had a lot more access to insight.

“The net result of that is that your platform understanding becomes much deeper.”

23 mins Jim talks about how PR firms need to link attribution modelling and consumer behaviour to PR activity.

“I think the budget is going to end up going up the funnel, rather than further down it.”

On the PRmoment Podcast, we catch up with UK public relations leaders and today we’re chatting with Current Global CEO George Coleman. It’s a timely discussion as we seem to be celebrating a few PR firm birthdays recently, so this is the latest in our unofficial “Birthday” Series as Current Global celebrates five years of existence!

Current Global was born out of Weber Shandwick. It now has a reported fee income of over £35 m and about 300 employees globally, with about 30 in the UK.

It describes itself as a multidisciplinary PR firm that works in corporate, healthcare, technology, and consumer sectors. It’s an interesting example of a pretty young PR firm coming out of a holding group (in this case, Interpublic) and doing quite well. Over the past five years, most of the holding groups have mainly concentrated on merging their PR firms, not launching new ones!

Clients include Microsoft, Novartis and FedEx.

If you're listening to this podcast, it probably means you are interested in updating yourself on the challenges and opportunities that the future of public relations will offer. With that in mind, do take a look at our latest PR Masterclass: AI in PR. It’s a cracker!

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here is a summary of what George and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

2 mins Is Current Global one of those large, mid-sized global PR firms that many of our listeners might not have heard of?

3 mins George gives a brief history lesson on how and why Current Global came about.

“For us, it (the merger) was a positive, forward-looking move.”

“If your reason to merge is to save money, that is a more difficult brief.”

10 mins George talks about what it’s like being a global CEO of a PR firm based out of London, when the US is the largest market for Current Global.

“40-50% of my time is billable…I love the job… It’s less about operations and the admin and more about doing great client work.”

18 mins George reflects on the challenge of running a PR firm across global markets.

“Culture is an expression of connection.”

21 mins How have the complicated geo-political environment and the complicated societies that we seem to now live in impacted the type of work that PR firms do?

“There seems to be an ongoing process of polarisation in public discourse fuelled by social media. Traditional media plays less of an influential role in creating that common ground, that understanding. A lot of our discussions are becoming more polarised, more tribal…We (society) can’t even agree on facts."

“Communications sits in the middle of that.”

25 mins Brands face a challenge in leading conversations at the moment in this era of increased polarisation.

27 mins “The importance of what we do has never been greater.”

28 mins George reflects on how he thinks AI will impact the PR agency model over the next 18 months.

“There are two ways AI is going to transform public relations…”

“We’ve had ten years where search has been king. With AI, that dynamic changes.”

35 mins What do global PR clients want currently?

38 mins Why George believes that we’re seeing a fundamental change in the PR agency: employee relationships.

42 mins George talks about the need for the PR sector as a whole to make its communications more accessible, reminding us that much of the tech you already have access to can transform the accessibility of their communications to a broader r