Digital Communicators Podcast: Recent Episodes
Babel PR
A monthly show investigating issues affecting the tech sector from a PR and marketing stand-point. Brought to you by Babel PR.
B2Human Marketing, Brand Transformation, and Proving Value - with Sarah Roberts of Boldyn Networks
Ash Lockett hosts Babel’s Back to Brave podcast, welcoming guest, Sarah Roberts, a top marketing leader and former Global CMO of Boldyn Networks, discussing how to champion a B2Human mindset in B2B by focusing on customers’ ambitions, fears, and motivations, alongside their product requirements. Roberts explains, combining research, internal stakeholder input, and iterative customer dialogue to shape messaging, especially across M&A, where Boldyn unified multiple businesses under a single purpose (centered on an interconnected future). She describes bringing teams along on the rebrand journey, using AI-generated imagery to create a distinctive visual identity that also built credibility with engineers, while noting AI’s limits for repeatable style and originality. Roberts outlines the “grit work”, that marketing leaders can't avoid, as piloting foundational initiatives to build trust and gain internal advocates. She also details aligning marketing metrics to business strategy, by moving from vanity metrics to value metrics tied to true revenue outcomes.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:45 Sarah Roberts Background & Bio
02:04 What B2Human Means
04:48 Finding Human Insights
08:38 Listening and Iteration
09:43 Unifying Brands After M&A
12:56 Rebrand Change Management
17:09 Engineers and AI Credibility
22:12 Brand Versus Performance Trap
23:16 Grit Work and Pilots
27:16 Turning Naysayers Into Champions
30:32 Measuring Brand Value Metrics
35:42 Brand Metrics Beyond Campaigns
38:04 Dashboards to Business Alignment
39:21 Sales Marketing Metric Handoffs
42:16 AI Visual Identity Experiment
48:25 Originality Trust and Human Edge
53:26 Implementing AI Without Tool Sprawl
57:35 Quickfire Bravery Takeaways
01:01:23 Create Value Without Permission
01:03:38 Closing Thoughts and Thanks
Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brands ready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk and standout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave.
Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
Timestamps
0:00 - 1:21: Introduction to the podcast and guest Andrew White, detailing Sapio Research's focus on B2B and tech audience and brand research.
1:22 - 6:57: Ash introduces the Mental Availability Index and discusses the growing reliance on AI in B2B purchasing, highlighting the debate on whether brands should optimize for human memory or machine recommendation.
6:58 - 10:56: A breakdown of the research methodology, which included surveying 400 UK and US B2B tech decision-makers and auditing various LLMs to rank top brands.
11:08 - 15:05: Key findings on buyer habits: 87% of buyers still choose familiar vendors, but a staggering 32% of those choosing net-new vendors use AI tools for discovery.
15:06 - 22:33: Exploring the four brand quadrants: Titans, Algorithmic Disruptors, Sleeping Giants, and The Untapped. Ash and Andrew discuss how broad product portfolios from larger brands can cause "algorithmic dilution".
22:34 - 27:53: Best practices for conducting brand research, including the importance of using problem-specific questions over general ones, and the ideal frequency for tracking brand changes.
27:54 - 32:14: Tips for creating unique thought-leadership research by finding the intersection between audience interest and brand attributes. Andrew explains why specific AI centric use-cases perform better than generic AI surveys.
32:15 - 39:58: Advice on securing robust sample sizes (recommending a minimum of 400 for B2B) and ensuring audience representation. Andrew highlights common pitfalls to avoid, such as self-serving or rushed questionnaires, while Ash advocates for including "joker questions" to uncover unknown data points.
39:59 - 44:11: Final actionable tips on being bold with research methodologies, such as using monetary data extrapolations and maturity models to properly educate audiences.
Read the full Mental Av-AI-lability Index HERE.
www.babelpr.com
www.sapioresearch.com
Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brands ready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk and standout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave.
Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
In this episode, we cover:
- Defining AI Search: Why GEO is just an extension of good SEO, and why Google still owns 90% of the search market.
- Tracking the AI Traffic: Practical advice on setting up GA4 custom reports to track exactly how much traffic and how many conversions are coming from ChatGPT and Gemini.
- The Death of the Gated PDF: Why hiding your thought leadership behind forms, or inside PDFs, is akin to telling AI bots (and buyers) to ignore you.
- Proving Your Expertise (E-E-A-T): How to structure your website, case studies and testimonials so that AI models trust your brand enough to recommend you.
Links & Resources:
Read Babel’s Brave Benchmark AI Audit
Connect with Ash Lockett on LinkedIn
Connect with Alice Widger on LinkedIn
Connect with Kyle Rushton
Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brands ready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk and standout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave.
Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
Jenny Mowat, CEO of Babel, launches Babel’s 2026 Bravery series on the Digital Communicators Podcast, focused on what “bravery choices” mean for B2B brands. She is joined by Sophie Hodgson, Communications Director at Cisco, who discusses how bravery can range from simply getting out of bed to voicing the “elephant in the room” in meetings, emphasising “progress, not perfection.” Sophie shares a personal example of posting “my name is Sophie, and I have ambitions,” and reflects on how being a “yes person” can backfire when issues arise later. She outlines her career path from studying public relations at Bournemouth University, working in agencies, moving into tech PR, then going in-house at Cloudera during the pandemic, which helped her understand internal approval processes, before joining Cisco.
Sophie explains the importance and difficulty of saying no as a people pleaser, reframing no as the start of a new conversation, and highlights guidance from coach Alison O’Leary on not over-validating a refusal. She recounts advice from Susan Space at Cloudera about only apologising when necessary, and references Mel Robbins’ “Let Them” framework as a tool for letting go of draining pressures. On managing demands, she describes protecting her peace by delaying checking messages in the morning, inspired by CEO Charles Sweeney’s approach of aligning messages to daily goals, and notes the constant expectation of instant replies. On AI, Sophie argues increased automation will make communications “more human,” citing Petri (SVP and GM for Splunk EMEA), and says audiences increasingly value authentic, less-produced content.
She describes AI as useful for research, summarising documents, identifying trends, and journalist targeting, while warning about bias, limitations, fact-checking, and confidentiality; she notes Cisco provides AI courses to build awareness. Sophie also explains how global comms should keep a consistent core message while adapting tone and storytelling to local contexts and political environments. Her advice for ambitious communicators includes being curious, reading the news, asking questions, shadowing other functions, trusting your gut, and “talking truth to power,” echoing Cisco’s CCO Steve’s message to be truth tellers.
Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brands ready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk and standout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave.
Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
Jenny from Babel hosts the Back2Brave Podcast with guest Emily Wearmouth, Director of Content and Communications at cybersecurity company Netskope and host of the Security Visionaries podcast. Emily describes entering tech PR accidentally, how her work evolved from press-centric PR into broader content ownership, and why PR is often treated as an “awkward child” within integrated marketing because it cannot be as self-promotional. They discuss separating the corporate “story” from the act of “storytelling” to diagnose challenges, arguing that splitting PR and marketing narratives creates inconsistent messaging for buyers. Emily shares examples at Netskope, including the global “Bringing Balance” campaign on how CISOs balance risk and innovation and the follow-on “Crucial Conversations” campaign focused on CIO engagement with CEOs, emphasizing internal adoption by proactively involving teams across the organization, expanding channels (web, social, events, podcasts, press, paid media), and improving collaboration year over year. They cover practical execution issues such as shifting timelines due to Netskope’s IPO quiet period, the role of paid versus earned media, and measuring success using business-recognized metrics like share of voice and generating net-new C-level contacts in specific geographies while tracking content touchpoints in pipeline. Emily highlights cultural and operational tips—being collaborative, crediting others, and using shared project tools like Asana—and argues that long-term separation of sales, marketing, PR, and digital reduces economies of scale and confuses customers. Looking ahead, they predict continued strategic alignment around a simplified corporate narrative, with specialists still owning channels or audiences, and conclude that consistency across all channels requires building a story that works for every function and involving stakeholders early so they become storytellers. Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brandsready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight withintegrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk andstandout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave. Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
From AI and data breaches to business resilience, there's a lot of noise in the cybersecurity news cycle. Every cybersecurity provider wants to be heard, and every threat feels critical. That's a challenge for any B2B cybersecurity vendor looking for exposure. What do journalists actually want to hear from you? On the latest episode of the Digital Communicators Podcast, prolific UK cybersecurity journalist and former analyst Dan Raywood shares his insights with Babel PR based on his two decades of experience in covering the beat. Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brandsready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight withintegrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk andstandout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave. Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
You're a tech vendor. A story just broke that you could provide valuable insight on. But how do you hijack the news? Tune into the conversation between Jennifer Mowat, CEO at Babel PR, and Susie Evershed, Corporate Communications EMEA at Secureworks, as they dig into questions like: - What do journalists want to hear? - What would add value to the conversation? - Is it always about being the first to the punch? - What do you if your comment doesn't get picked up? Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brandsready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight withintegrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk andstandout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave. Visit us at www.babelpr.com.
In this episode, Babel's Senior Director, Paul Campbell, sits down with Nadine Hawkins, Editor at Capacity Media, to discuss Capacity Europe, the leading telecoms event in London focused on "Keeping the World Connected." They explore key themes and trends shaping the event, highlight the industry's top players in attendance, and offer insights on how to effectively engage with the media around this major gathering. Tune in for an inside look at what’s happening at one of the most important telecoms events of the year.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
According to Babel’s B2B Tech Comms Barometer, the single most influential channel for B2B tech buyers is analyst industry reports, with 58 per cent of IT decision-makers relying on them for influencing and making purchasing decisions. In this episode Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with Philip Benton, Principal Fintech Analyst at Omdia. Philip talks about some of the hot topics he is focusing on, including open banking and digital identity, as well as what fintechs need to offer when speaking with analysts.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Declan speaks with TechInformed editor James Pearce, who provides insight into launching a new publication during the pandemic and current content trends.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Fintech Week London is where traditional financial institutions come together with new fintechs in one of the world’s leading financial districts. From high-street banks to challengers, technology giants to disruptors, this five-day event is a great opportunity to understand the global themes of fintech. Ahead of the 2024 event (10-14 June), Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with Fintech Week London CEO Raf de Kimpe about his career, how he has helped evolve the event, and what attendees can expect in 2024.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Vivien Boche is a regular keynote speaker and evangelist for platform technology and women in tech, and appointed before the age of 30 as a senior director at the SAP Center of Excellence. Aside from her day job, Vivien has gained an impressive social media following thanks to her unique approach to promoting SAP technology on TikTok.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
David Linthicum is an internationally recognised cloud computing & AI expert and thought leader. He has authored and co-authored 17 books on computing, the latest of which is An Insider’s Guide to Cloud Computing. David’s industry experience includes tenures as CTO and CEO of several successful software companies, and upper-level management positions in Fortune 100 companies. Until recently he was chief cloud strategy officer at Deloitte, and in February he joined The Cube as an enterprise technology analyst. In his busy schedule, he keynotes leading technology conferences on topics including cloud computing, enterprise application integration, and enterprise architecture.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
In this episode Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with Miya Knights. Miya has more than 25 years' experience as a retail technology analyst, editor, author and consultant. She is the owner and publisher of Retail Technology magazine and has co-authored two best-selling books about Amazon and Omnichannel Retail. Miya serves as a consultant and advisor to a number of technology companies, judges a number of industry awards, and is also a member of the Retail Influencer Network, Customer Strategy Network and the KPMG Retail Think Tank. She talks about the hottest trends in retail tech and reflects on the 2024 Retail Technology Show.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
In this episode Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with Hannah Duncan, a former banker who now writes about fintech and investment. She talks about the benefits and challenges of being a freelance journalist, the types of stories that inspire her, and why she loves attending industry events.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Effective marketing and PR works primarily by reaching the 95% of customers who are not yet in-market, increasing the odds your brand gets remembered when those customers do decide to buy. The challenge faced by B2B marketeers when allocating budget to their brand awareness goals, is convincing the budget holder that they will see a return on their investment. Babel director Simon Coughlin discusses the issue with Chrissy Tansey from Babel client Doit, Jon Lombardo, who until recently was the Global Head of Research at Linkedin’s B2B Institute, and Babel campaign director Holly Abbott, who outlines some of the best tactics to help your brand raise awareness to ensure you are front of mind when your target audience makes a purchasing decision.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Jen speaks with Teresa Cottam, a distinguished industry analyst and expert in the digital economy. In addition to being renowned for helping companies create compelling experiences that transform their businesses, increasing value and building engagement, Teresa is a judge of the GSMA Global Mobile Awards and for the World Communication Awards, and a contributing analyst to the TM Forum. For the last - nearly seven years - Teresa has been the Chief Analyst at Omnisperience, the company she founded after nine years at the helm of Telesperience, and analyst roles at Analysys Mason, Informa and Ovum (both of which are now part of Omdia). Teresa talks about the role of women in the tech sectors, how she likes to work with AR and PR teams, and offers her predictions for 2024.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
As part of our B2B tech trends 2024 series, Simon speaks with Dr Sarah-Jayne Gratton. Sarah-Jayne is an award-winning technology evangelist, specialising in emerging technologies and covering trends in AI, machine learning, and digital transformation. Her clients have included the global tech giants Ericsson, Siemens, IBM, Vodafone and Intel. Sarah-Jayne is also host of the Tech Uncorked Podcast and she is the Editor-in-Chief of Agritech Future Magazine.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
As part of our B2B tech trends 2024 series, Simon speaks with Shelly Kramer. Shelly is the managing director and principal analyst at theCUBE Research, the analyst arm of popular enterprise technology media platforms theCUBE and SiliconANGLE. During her career Shelly has worked with some of the world’s largest tech brands to help them embrace disruption and to successfully navigate the process of digital transformation. She regularly advises and collaborates with senior leaders at major technology companies, covering a wide range of products and services, including Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, ESG, 5G, Enterprise Apps, and Automation. Shelly has been recognised as one of the world’s leading technology analysts and a B2B Marketing influencer.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
As part of our B2B tech trends 2024 series, Simon speaks with Christina Trampota. Christina is a technology industry leader with a passion for commerce and connectivity. She has more than 20 years of experience working with early-stage startups and large enterprises, including Meta, Visa, and Motorola, to name a few, helping brands enhance their product development and marketing efforts. She has been recognised by various channels and events as a Top B2B Influencer and Whos Who in Fintech, and when she is not building and scaling companies and communities, she enjoys teaching and mentoring tomorrow’s leaders. Topics under discussion include the importance of 'responsible AI' and the potential for tech to reduce the impact of climate change.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Kamales Lardi has more than 23 years of cross industry experience. She formed her own consulting business in 2012 and has helped many multinational companies harness the power of emerging tech including AI, augmented reality, automation and blockchain. Kamales has been widely recognised as an industry thought leader and is also a Teaching Fellow at Durham University Business School. In this podcast she gives her views on the B2B tech trends for 2024, outlines why tech firms must continue to focus on workforce diversity, and reveals what it takes to be a technology thought leader.
Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PR agency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
As part of our 'B2B tech trends 2024' series, Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with San-Francisco based Eric Siegel, a leading consultant and former Columbia University professor who helps companies deploy machine learning. Eric is the founder of the long-running Machine Learning Week conference series, the executive editor of The Machine Learning Times, and a frequent keynote speaker. He wrote the bestselling "Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die," which has been used in courses at hundreds of universities.Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PRagency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with digital transformation influencer Cyril Coste. Cyril is an experienced digital transformation expert having worked with some big global tech brands including IBM and AWS to enhance their product development, digital innovation and customer experience. Among his accolades, he has been named in Onalytica’s Global Top 100 Digital Transformation Influencers list since 2017. As well as giving his top tips for tech trends in 2024, Cyril provides an insight into life as a technology influencer.Digital Communicators is a podcast from Babel, a leading technology PRagency. For more information head to www.babelpr.com
The European Union is set to create the world's first broad standards for regulating or banning certain uses of artificial intelligence (AI).The AI Act will establish a framework for assessing the relative risk of different kinds of AI systems. This podcast is a recording of a Babel webinar discussing the potential impact of the Act on consumers, businesses and technology vendors.
To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2023, Babel Director Simon Coughlin spoke with PRCA Head of Apprenticeships, Stephanie Umebuani, and Babel apprentice Lauren O'Harrow about the value of apprenticeships within the PR industry."
A discussion with Katrina Manson of Bloomberg News and Ciaran Martin CB, founding chief executive of the UK National Cyber Security Centre
Jessica Haworth, web security reporter at The Daily Swig, joins Babel director Simon to discuss the cybersecurity space, women in tech and more.
To mark Earth Day, our Director Paul Campbell spoke with Shelli Zargary, the Marketing Content and Strategy Manager at GenCell. Earth Day is a global environmental holiday, which occurs every year on 22 April and is celebrated by an estimated 1 billion people, per EarthDay.org – from schoolkids to heads of state. The day is meant to serve both as a reminder of the threats to our planet and a chance to appreciate everything the Earth offers. As a company with the primary objective of delivering ‘green power anywhere’, Shelli offers her views on how businesses can help reduce carbon emissions and specifically, the role of hydrogen and ammonia in this process.
This month we are talking to Scott Bicheno. Scott is editor of Telecoms.com and also hosts the title's weekly podcast along with Light Reading's Iain Morris. Scott talks to Babel's Declan Bradshaw about his entry into journalism, the stories that interest him and how companies can get on his radar (without winding him up).
This month’s podcast is a conversation between Babel’s Simon Coughlin and freelance journalist, Cecile Bussy, who has most recently been working with Sifted, part of the Financial Times Group. Sifted covers startups and the technology scene.. As well as talking about her background, Cecile discusses what it takes get coverage in titles like Sifted.
Chloe's articles for Internet Retailing
Chloe's Twitter
Music:
Ahjay Stelino - Break Away
Ketsa - Good Vibe
Discussed whitepaper on the impact of Covid on cybersecurity:
https://babelpr.com/covid-19%3A-the-impact-on-cybersecurity
Music:
Ahjay Stelino - Break Away
Ketsa - Good Vibe