Agencies Of The Future

“Keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other.”You’ll learn this and many other pearls of wisdom in our episode with Jennefer Witter, CEO and Founder of The Boreland Group and one of the nation’s top 10 black CEOs and entrepreneurs, according to MadameNoire. Self-care is critical — something Jennefer learned the hard way — as is self-promotion. She also shares the many benefits of authoring a book and simple ways that even introverts can network effectively.

Managing your health is an important, although often neglected, element of managing your career.  In this episode, Wendy Lund, CEO of GCI Health, shares data from the firms HealthiHER study and why the firm is expanding the campaign.  Spoiler alert: nearly 100% of the women in our industry report being stressed and anxious. Listen as she reveals more about the firm’s #BeHealthiHER movement and its multiple benefits.

Do you know what it takes to create successful influencer campaigns? In this episode, Jodi Petrie, Executive Vice President of March Communications, guides us through this phenomenon and the secret sauce that makes influencer programs successful and measurable. Listen in as we explore one of the fastest-growing areas of our business today.

Agencies need talent with new skills and competencies and the talent entering the PR field brings different goals and expectations. How can agencies keep up by creating the right initiatives to attract and retain exceptional talent? In this episode, Phil Nardone, President & CEO of PAN Communications, discusses how the industry has changed since he started his career, how he tries to prepare the next generation in his teaching at Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications, and the attributes and attitude he seeks in new graduates applying to his agency.

Have you and your team defined the attributes of good clients? In this episode, Michael Kempner, CEO of MWWPR shares how his agency builds and maintains relationships to deliver top-notch work. Since the definition might vary given where your business is, what’s the profile of a good client for your firm today and are there enough of them out there? Conversely, we discuss the incredibly high cost of bad clients.

Jason Schlossberg, Managing Director of Strategic Communications at Huge, shares how PR changes when it sits inside a digital firm and why his team’s spirit animal is a duck-billed platypus. Huge is known for UX design – actually making things – so Jason and his team work to bring this approach to every aspect of communications. It’s a different way to problem-solve that has his teams working with designers and engineers to think about how to make products more newsworthy at the onset and other “earned fuel consulting” across Huge’s client base. Download to hear more about this approach and the platypus.

Selling the business is a goal for many independent agency owners. In this episode, Alex Halbur, Managing Partner at Prosper Group, an expert consultancy for PR and marketing communications agencies, shares advice on this topic. Alex works exclusively with independent agency owners to ensure their business generates the wealth they need for what’s next. Tune in to hear what agency owners should be thinking about and doing five years before this transition, from solidifying a senior leadership team to creating a focused strategic plan for the organization, talent and clients.

With news coverage about Bayer calling into question the most basic PR practices, trust has never been more critical for an “Agency of the Future.” In this episode, we explore what trust means in business, including rapidly changing consumer expectations, with Matt Harrington, Global COO of Edelman and former Chair of the PR Council. He shares key trends from Edelman's Trust Barometer, which is in its 19th year. Listen to learn why trust is key to the future state of relationships and the most important "license to operate" issue for our agencies.

Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is an ethical and business imperative. As an industry, we have a responsibility and accountability to make this a priority. Check out our latest podcast episode featuring Soon Mee Kim, Executive Vice President, Global Diversity & Inclusion Leader of Porter Novelli and Helen Shelton, Senior Partner of Finn Partners. As leaders in the D&I arena, they shed light on the inherent need to take action to better our organizations.

What is the secret sauce to fostering a culture of creativity and passion for the work? Dale Bornstein, CEO of M Booth, walks the walk when it comes to balancing the needs of an agency’s talent with the needs of the business. Listen as she describes how she's helped create an environment where people show up to do their best work every single day. 

Why do leaders need empathy today more than ever? In this episode, we speak with Tricia Ewald, Managing Partner at ICF Next, as she describes how leaders can bring empathy to a team or organization, why empathy at work means a balance between compassion and objectivity, and how to recruit for empathy.

Many of today's agency leaders are thinking about the power of purpose, and specifically, how it works to engage and retain employees. C+C is no exception. In this episode, we speak with Suzette Riley, General Manager of C+C's Portland office, about the talent issue in the PR industry and how engaging young talent with purpose gives their work more meaning and motivates them to become brand ambassadors.

If the mention of this topic gives you a slight stomach ache, then you're in the right place. In this episode, Kimberly Eberl, CEO of Motion talks about the techniques she employs to win back an unhappy client, including how to identify some of the early warning signs and what it means to have "nirvana listening" skills when speaking with clients.

How can agency leaders empower people to excel at their jobs while also allowing them to live the life that they want? In this episode, we hear from Greg Tarmin, Executive Vice President - Managing Director at Padilla, about how he managed to keep momentum in his career while balancing being a single father to twins. According to Greg, when agencies consistently make the right moves to support families and work/life balance, the result is a culture that keeps employees committed and engaged.

We all know that solid data and analytics are critical to success, yet agencies and their clients struggle to know how to use them to measure marketing performance. In this episode, we speak with Chuck Hemann, Managing Director, Analytics/Head of Digital Analytics at W20 Group, about whether or not measuring the impact of earned media is any more complex than measuring other marketing disciplines. You'll get the expert scoop on the conversations PR professionals should be having with their clients to help them measure more effectively and efficiently. For good measure, Chuck also shares key data and analytics trends for 2019.

What’s required to forge and grow profitable client relationships? Ultimately, your business philosophy—and its impact on company culture and client service—is the most critical factor, according to Aaron Schoenherr, co-founder of Greentarget. In this episode, we talk with Aaron about how to build a culture around profitability.

A critical first step to a successful agency-client relationship is a balanced contract that covers every possibility. In this episode of the Agencies of the Future podcast, we talk with Donna LaVoie, President & CEO of LaVoieHealthScience, a specialist firm offering PR and IR in the health innovation space. According to LaVoie, agencies working with innovation companies need specific protective language in contracts, ranging from termination clauses to staffing provisions for client delays, and much more.

We all know that in client service businesses, the urgent often overrides the important, especially when it comes to being focused on your agency’s growth and development. In this episode, Renzi Stone, Chairman and CEO of Saxum, shares why he and his leadership team set a Wildly Important Goal (or WIG) and what happened when they did.

In this episode, Aaron Kwittken, CEO & Founder of KWT Global, chats with Kim Sample about the role PR professionals take on as storytellers and megaphones, and why agencies can and should prioritize purpose. According to Aaron, it’s the right thing to do and has the potential to build strong agency businesses with engaged employees.

In the debut episode of the Agencies of the Future podcast, PR Council President Kim Sample speaks with Gail Heimann, PR Council Board Chair and President of Weber Shandwick about what it means to be a "Fearless Futurist. Listen to Gail and Kim discuss how PR pros should be fearlessly embracing and inventing what’s new while thoughtfully applying earned and time-honored wisdom and insight to address the most significant challenges in our agencies, the industry, and the world.