World's Most Successful Agencies: Recent Episodes
PR Council
PR agencies routinely help their clients identify and articulate success metrics beyond the financials but now we’re turning the tables.
Listen in as we learn how the country’s best agencies are defining success to attract the best talent and the best clients. This is the PR Council’s World’s Most Successful Agencies podcast.
Creating stories that stop the scroll has kept the fast-growing Day One on the move. According to CEO Josh Rosenberg, the pandemic has only sharpened the agency’s focus and required the work to become fresher and more compelling. Keys to 2021 success have been an increasingly diverse, deliberately anti-racist organization; dedicated time for fresh thinking; a new video studio; and the Day One forest.
Raymond Crosby, President and CEO of Crosby, and team are reaping the rewards of Inspiring Actions that Matter. He shares how the firm -- launched 30-years ago to serve local Annapolis businesses -- this year landed a $20 million, 5-year integrated marketing assignment for the Peace Corps, created a six-figure community college scholarship program to groom diverse talent, and won a slew of industry awards.
Current Global’s growth is outpacing the industry, they’re winning awards – including a coveted one for Idea Creation at Cannes – and leading the industry in committing to making all work inclusive. Virginia Devlin, CEO, attributes these successes to constant reinvention, which has been necessary to balance the needs of employees and the needs of the business.
Since joining The Next Practice Group nearly a year ago, The Bliss Group has been tapping -- and being tapped by -- other founder-driven firms in the group. Cortney Stapleton, Managing Partner, says retaining the firm’s focus on integrated marketing communications for highly regulated industries and bringing in other experts as needed is driving opportunity and growth.
When Diana Littman took over as CEO of MSL US nearly three years ago, one thing she didn’t change is the firm’s positioning around influence and impact. Instead, she set about working with her new leadership team to bring it to life, and in the process, make it differentiated and ownable for the firm. During this podcast, Diana shares some of the ways they’ve kept this focus on every undertaking, including their DE&I efforts.
Ahead of the pandemic, Ketchum had stepped up workplace flexibility as part of a huge reorganization to bring clients more sector expertise. According to CEO Mike Doyle, this early jump allowed the firm to quickly shift their focus to developing timely products and services. Listen in and learn more about the firm’s progress on this and overall diversity efforts.
Lippe Taylor Group CEO Paul Dyer explores the failures of advertising in his new book, Friction Fatigue. He says this has created a significant opportunity for integrated PR firms, and Paul and his leadership team are building Lippe Taylor, Cheer Partners and twelvenote as the first Earned Marketing Agencies to capture it. Listen in and learn more about how they are gaining the lead role with clients.
Neil Mortine, CEO of Fahlgren Mortine, has led incredible growth in nine U.S. markets for the Columbus, Ohio-headquartered agency, but he’s been hard-pressed to build relationships with new hires during the pandemic. They’re about to learn that “Schocktober” is his favorite time of year and to be on high alert for his quirky brand of humor. The fun has a purpose -- Neil shares that colleagues who know and care for each other take great care of clients.
After a long career at Edelman and a short stint at Waypoint Partners, Julianna Richter, CEO of Ogilvy PR, saw the opportunity to rebuild a brand famous for big creative that delivered bigger results as too good to pass up. Working alongside a new global CEO, she and the rest of the leadership team are reimagining and rebuilding the Ogilvy brand for what clients need today. Listen in to learn about the work she and the team are doing and how it has already paid off with big wins from Coca-Cola and FEMA.
EGAMI Group and Zeno Group are partnering to help EGAMI scale its business, both agencies recruit and retain Black talent, and their clients tap the important and fast-growing multicultural US market. According to Teneshia Jackson Warner, founder and CEO of EGAMI, and Barby Siegel, CEO of Zeno, the decision to form a partnership was easy -- they joke that 1 + 1 = 11. Listen in and learn how the leaders are motivated to work together to make their agencies -- and the world -- better places.
Employment data is often seen as the most important metric for DE&I progress. According to J.J. Carter, Global Chief Operating Officer & President, Americas at FleishmanHillard, data transparency is critical but changing culture to create belonging for diverse talent is equally necessary work. Learn how FH is taking steps to achieve this internally, while at the same time applying the principles through a new service offering that more than 100 clients have already tapped.
How many people find a career where they are excited to show up every single day -- for decades? Maryellen Royle, partner at Evoke KYNE, shares how purpose-driven healthcare communications inspires her, and in turn, she is gratified to help her teams find that inspiration. Healthcare PR is a fast-growing field and Evoke KYNE has enjoyed the boon. The firm is committed to bring in diverse talent – ethnically to experience – not only to grow the business but also for the rich insights it brings to the work.
For Inkhouse CEO Beth Monaghan, allowing talent to show up as themselves every single day is the guiding principle. Nowhere is this more evident than in “Aren’t We Lucky”, a newly published collection of staff stories highlighting resilience during the pandemic. This bolstering of authenticity is the cornerstone of Inkhouse’s diverse and inclusive culture. Learn more about how Beth uses personal storytelling and innovative thinking to not only deliver for clients but also to reinforce culture within her fast-growing agency.
When three friends banded together to parlay their Wall Street expertise into an agency, the goal wasn’t to build a big firm; rather it was to create a decent, balanced lifestyle for themselves. Listen in as Tom Ryan, CEO of ICR, shares how the firm’s growth to almost 300 strong with sector expertise across every communications discipline has meant great opportunities for the team.
People have been the focus of Kristin Cahill’s work in healthcare public relations and also what has kept her at GCI Health for 18 years. Beyond her close relationships with colleagues and doing purposeful work, she has enjoyed constant opportunities to learn and grow – the latest is being named global CEO of this fast-growing agency. In addition to her journey, she shares some of the ways she and her leadership team are supporting the mental health of GCI’s people through the pandemic.
Best-in-class expertise available when a client needs it was the inspiration behind The Sway Effect. Having just marked two years in business, the fast-growing concept has proven attractive to clients and a growing list of expert partners. Listen in and learn how founder and CEO Jennifer Risi taps experts across The Sway Effect network to assemble teams that are diverse in every way to solve client problems efficiently and effectively.
Bob Osmond, President of RacePoint Group, took the reins one month into the pandemic and only now is starting to meet colleagues face-to-face. Learn how this authentic servant leader worked to earn the trust of a team he only saw chest-up through Zoom. Employee burnout from the COVID pandemic and the emotionally charged racial justice movement provided numerous “moments of truth” for this new leader and Bob shares how he works to set a tone of accountability balanced with self-care every single day.
The rebranding of ICF’s integrated marketing communications and associated technology businesses into ICF Next was just over a year old when the pandemic hit. Kris Tremaine, Senior Managing Partner, who leads a 1200-employee-strong team, shares how everyone rallied behind a new brand promise to earn active participation to drive business results for clients. Listen in to learn how the active participation of ICF Next employees contributed to a year of successes.
A rarity in this field, Matt Kucharski has spent his entire career at Padilla, the agency he now leads. Thirty-two years is a long time to observe the evolution and ebbs and flows of a single business and it’s shaped Matt’s view of success. Learn how sustainable and diversified growth protects this agency’s culture, ability to deliver award-winning work and satisfy their holding company.
What if you didn’t look at your job as leading an agency but rather as creating leaders? And what if your measure of success wasn’t about the client writing a check (although that’s an undeniably important part of running a business) but rather the measure of how many people your work helped. Listen in and get inspired by Brandon Wilson, CEO of the purpose-focused Wilbron.
President & CEO of Double Forte Lee Caraher shares how simplicity and transparency have built love and loyalty for her agency amongst clients and employees alike. The agency is built to solve business problems through communications and they make sure every assignment stays true to that. After George Floyd’s murder last summer, she and her colleagues brought the same focus and tenacity to tackling their DE&I problem. Listen and learn how they worked together to tackle this business problem.
In this episode, Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of RuderFinn, shares her passion for serving clients and the constant learning that entails. Staunchly optimistic, Kathy has adopted a mantra of “What’s Next?” for the business. She keeps the entire RF team focused on learning versus languishing and has committed to initiatives like Tech Lab and weekly reports to the leadership team to remain future-focused. Listen and learn more about how Ruder Finn will remain one of the world’s most successful agencies.
H&S is a small agency that delivers for big clients. Founder and CEO Elizabeth Harrison attributes some of this success to long-term efforts to ensure their staff represents their clients' diverse audiences. Today, the firm boasts a leadership team that is 70% diverse and has attracted and retained diverse talent at all levels. In this podcast, Elizabeth shares keys to success, which include being intentional about creating positive experiences for diverse employees.
Founder and CEO of Imre, Dave Imre says his idea of a successful agency is one where you are happy to see your colleagues every single day. But COVID and the racial justice movement forced this agency to rethink everything to take care of their employees. Listen and learn how Imre reengineered employee processes and offerings to continue an aggressive growth path and keep everyone smiling when they see each other -- be it in the office or over Zoom.