PR in Lockdown: Recent Episodes
Access Studios
PR in Lockdown is a guide to the PR and Communications industry post-lockdown. Each episode features a 1-1 conservation with a leading voice in PR & Communications, talking through their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including handling the transition out of lockdown and the long term impact of COVID-19 on the industry.
From employees permanently moving out of London, structuring the business for more uncertainties ahead and moving back to office working, Kirsty Leighton provides a candid, birds eye view of life in the Milk & Honey family.
ESGP - if you haven’t heard of it, Nik Govier believes those 4 letters will become essential in the World of PR & Communications where brand is purpose, and companies will become accountable through actions over words.
From reputation management, internal communications and litigation PR, Gus Sellitto brings in-depth insight into managing the extraordinary comms challenges for the legal sector throughout the pandemic.
As a sole consultant, Laura Sutherland tells PR in Lockdown about her experience of the coronavirus pandemic whilst working solo. From redesigning the PR festival, PR Fest, to dealing with losing work that ‘impacted the rest of my year’.
Taking on the role of Managing Director of The Romans in January, Roxy Kalha provides a fascinating insight of how she focused on people over profit during lockdown, and is still set to come out of the pandemic growing as a business. Realising that pausing clients meant "it's very easy to be forgotten", Roxy tells PR in Lockdown about how The Romans approached the COVID-19 pandemic with a unique attitude: "what if we ran out in the rain?".
“Big, flash campaigns might be few and far between”. Jenny quickly realised the power of virtual events. She tells PR in Lockdown how she developed new services for Babel’s client-base and managed her 20-strong team, including slack-free Mondays, time for tea sessions, and a virtual mind reader...
Nina Jaksic gives us a look inside in-house communications during the coronavirus pandemic. From moments which were “definitely terrifying” to being in “awe” of colleagues managing families during lockdown, Nina Jaskic explains why “the relationships you had prior to lockdown” were so important, and how “it was really really easy for companies to appear tone-deaf”.
Kate Hartley talks us through all things crisis in the coronavirus pandemic. From the "spread of misinformation" to a "pretty heart stopping moment" in early lockdown, Kate gives us an insight into how the world of crisis communications has changed over the last few months, and her judgement of what brands and communications professionals need to watch out for in the months ahead.
With 250 staff based in the UK, Jim Donaldson provides an in-depth insight into managing lockdown at scale. From keeping team culture with virtual working, to establishing new innovative virtual services for clients at FleishmanHillard Fishburn UK.
Effie Kanyua joins the podcast to talk about how she has managed PR & Communications at Hearst UK, where "work pretty much doubled overnight". Content is the focus of this episode: Rob and Effie discuss how publications pivoted to meet increased digital demand during lockdown, and how internal communications has become absolutely key as we transition into the new normal.
Jack & Grace has a very unique story to tell: it was an agency launched during the COVID-19 lockdown. In this episode, Co-Founders Nyree and Laura discuss the challenges and opportunities that the pandemic has presented for their early stage business, and how they are planning for the transition to the 'new normal'.
“My relationship with my competitors has become closer”. Vanessa Pine, Founding Partner of Atlas Partners, aims to lead the 'happiest agency'. From using voice notes in the team to prioritising internal communications, Vanessa explains the realities of managing lockdown from their hub in London and why "the sun is now coming out".
"It really has been a perfect storm". Taking on the role of President of Europe at AxiCom during lockdown, Kate Stevens provides a real insight into the challenge of managing different teams and offices across Europe, especially in different stages of the pandemic.
"The biggest challenge was the anxiety of the unknown". Nicola Koronka, Co-Founder of strategic communications consultancy, Missive, tells Rob Double why supporting her team was so important during the pandemic, and why her lockdown experience can be split into two halves.
"We’d had 387 applications for that one position”. Gareth Thomas, Managing Director, UK of PAN Communications, joins Rob Double to discuss how the agency is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Gareth describes the "absolutely heartbreaking decisions" during the lockdown period and his hopes for recruitment in PR as a result of the move towards virtual working.
“Historically there was a stigma around us being virtual”. Nicky Regazzoni & George Blizzard, Founders of international virtual PR agency, The PR Network, talk about being a virtual business throughout lockdown, moving to virtual working and the importance of honesty with staff and clients.
Richard Fogg, CEO of CCgroup, joins PR in Lockdown to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on his business and how the industry will change moving forwards.