Innovator 25: PR Game Changers Across EMEA In 2024

(MENAFN- PRovoke) LONDON
- PRovoke media today launches the 2024 Innovator 25 for EMEA, our annual listing of 25 PR professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa who are changing the game in the communications industry.

This year marks PRovoke Media's 10th annual Innovator 25 class in EMEA . Once again, this year's list features remarkable innovators who are addressing the industry's challenges with ingenuity and creativity to make meaningful (and hopefully lasting) change during tumultuous times.

Many of the innovators on the 2024 list are leading the way – often vocally – on big societal issues from DEI to women's healthcare. The breadth of our 2024 class shows that innovation is found across the PR industry - our innovators across the EMEA region this year include experts in creativity, AI, data and intelligence, social and digital, corporate and crisis, and public policy.

This year's Innovator class in EMEA is made up of 64% women and 36% men. The list is 28% people of colour, of whom 12% are Black. Agency-side professionals represent 76% of the list, with 12% in-house and 4% working in other kinds of organisations. The UK makes up the majority of the list – although many are in region-wide roles – and our innovators are also based in Sweden, the UAE, South Africa, Portugal and Ukraine.

The 2024
list breaks with tradition by actually including 26 individuals, as we've counted the co-founders of innovative crisis simulation firm Polpeo, Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton, as one entity.

Profiles of all the EMEA innovators, including their insights, advice, career learnings and sources of inspiration, can be found here . We have also collated insights and trends among this year's Innovators, including their collective take on the PR industry's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation.

The members of this year's class across all three global regions, including our
Americas
and
APAC
innovators, were mixed in their responses to the question around the PR industry's innovation compared to other marketing disciplines. Some 37% see PR's level of innovation as equal to other marketing disciplines, whereas 39% see it as more innovative and 21% less.

Overall,
our 75 global innovators rank the industry's greatest opportunities to take the lead in innovation as: creative ideas (40%, up from 22% last year); integrated marketing (16%, down from 44%) last year; data, analytics and measurement (16%); business transformation (12%); AI and martech (6%), DEI (5%); and content creation (5%).

• Alex Wood, chief creative officer, London, Golin
• Allison Spray, EMEA chief data and intelligence officer, Burson
• Ann-Marie Blake, co-founder, True
• Effie Kanyua, founder and CEO, We Are Warriors PR
• Elisabeth Lewis-Jones, founder and CEO, Liquid PR
• Gaurav Bhatnagar, senior director corporate comms, Middle East, Africa & Turkey, Oracle
• Gavin Spicer, chief AI officer UK, Edelman
• James Dunn, government and regulatory affairs; public policy, DXC Tech
• Jonas Palmqvist, CEO, Paritee
• Kalay Maistry, partner, head of corporate reputation and advisory, Razor
• Kat McGettigan, founder, Fine Lines
• Kate Baldwin, founder and MD, The Flywheelers
• Kate Hartley & Tamara Littleton, co-founders, Polpeo
• Katie Clift, director, Maybe Agency
• Kerry Parkin, founder and CEO, Sway
• Khalifa Al Suwaidi, marketing and communications director, Sustainable Water Solutions
• Koray Camgöz, CEO, Taylor Bennett Foundation
• Lewis Iwu, CEO and co-founder, Purpose Union
• Lisa Hale, head of consumer PR, social and brand, Specsavers
• Lizzie Earl, CEO, Stakked
• Louise Jacobson, managing partner, Brazen MENA
• Marian Scala, VP external communications, NTT Data (Middle East and Africa)
• Peter Wilson, head of digital reputation EMEA, FleishmanHillard
• Rachael Pay, president health, EMEA, Weber Shandwick
• Viroslava Novosylna, founder and CEO, Slova Tech PR.

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