2024 Review: Top 10 Podcasts

(MENAFN- PRovoke) Last year we published around 40 PRovoke media podcasts, including content with our partners, with agency, corporate and NGO guests from around the world joining our editors to talk about big topics from strategic communications to sustainability, AI to mergers and acquisitions, and misinformation to tech and healthcare. Here are the 10 episodes that were most listened to this year.

Not surprisingly, the highest listener figures skew towards podcasts we published earlier in the year, so do check out our full 2024 archive for many other fascinating conversations.

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1.
The Burson mega-merger: is bigger better?
Not surprisingly, the biggest industry news story of the year was mirrored by the most-listened to podcast. In the immediate aftermath of the January announcement of the mega-merger of BCW and Hill & Knowlton to create PR agency giant Burson, Arun Sudhaman and Maja Pawinska Sims had a lively discussion about the deal. The conversation covered bringing the legacy name back to the industry, the talent implications of the merger, whether we'll see more consolidation across other networks, and the potential impact of AI on business decisions within big agencies. The duo also caught up on the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, and the apparent retreat of corporate activism in the wake of geopolitical and social tensions.

2.
KPMG's Jane Lawrie on AI and ESG
In April, KPMG corporate affairs chief Jane Lawrie joined the PRovoke Media podcast to talk to Arun Sudhaman to talk about two of the biggest themes of the year: artificial intelligence and ESG. Their discussion covered areas such as performance evaluation, identifying future trends, and defining the roadmap for ESG reporting. In our second most-listened to podcast of the year, Lawrie discussed the future of AI as it relates to corporate affairs professionals, in terms of potential opportunities and threats, along with the reputation risks entailed for business. The duo also examined the role of ESG in the context of ongoing political debates, as well as the emergence of 'green hushing' and its impact on transparent sustainability reporting.

3.
Team Farner and the new strategic communications landscape
After a couple of years of rapid growth for European strategic communications powerhouse Team Farner, two senior leaders from the agency group joined Maja Pawinska Sims in April to talk about the evolving landscape for strategic communications in complex times. Team Farner executive chairman Roman Geiser and Lansons CEO Gordon Tempest-Hay discussed the rapid growth of the consultancy across Europe, its acquisition of leading UK agency Lansons in 2023, and their ambitions and plans for the future. In our third most-listened to podcast of the year, the leadership duo also looked at how creative work and AI are impacting on the remit and impact of reputation management firms, and how clients' needs from their comms advisors are changing, including during a pivotal election year.

4.
The power of communications in accelerating sustainability adoption
While some countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan, have witnessed a strong rise in ESG coverage, investing, and consumer adoption of sustainable products, others have progressed at a slower pace. In February, Weber Shandwick's Asia-Pacific corporate affairs head Carolyn Devanayagam joined Arun Sudhaman on PRovoke Media's fourth most-listened to podcast of the year to examine the latest trends in this area, and how corporate communicators can drive progress amid the twin threats of greenwashing and green-hushing.

5.
Truth, trust and trickery
Our fifth most-listened to pod of the year covered two of the most pressing issues in the comms industry: misinformation and disinformation. While the genesis of each is fundamentally different – the former is created by happenstance, the latter by intent – they wield the same power to erode truth and trust if allowed to flow unabated. In this episode, Gil Bashe, Finn Partners' chair of global health and purpose, talked to Diana Marszalek about the urgent need for the communications industry to rally around stopping the spread of false information, particularly during the biggest-ever global election year.“Between our ethical response to fixing misinformation and our moral imperative to stamp out disinformation lies the baseline for keeping society from sliding further into the chaos and mistrust that could damage our democracy” Bashe said.

6.
APCO founder Margery Kraus
It's not often that PR agencies hit the headlines, so when they do, it's notable. In the wake of protests at APCO's London office , APCO founder Margery Kraus joined Arun Sudhaman on the PRovoke Media podcast in September to discuss those protests and the broader scrutiny that PR firms now attract in the mainstream media. The discussion also marked the consultancy's 40th anniversary of operations, with Kraus talking about the lessons she has learned along the way, the benefits of independence and the perils of private equity, and the crucial intersection between politics and business.

7.
The lowdown on analyst relations
Analyst relations typically falls to in-house teams, which can have many as 30 staffers at the country's largest technology companies, but Guyer Group, a Boston-based tech agency, has built a robust analyst relations offering that takes some of that pressure off clients. In this episode from January, our seventh most-listened-to podcast of the year, Guyer Group managing director Kevin Whalen sat down with Diana Marszalek to talk about the opportunities and benefits for agencies of having an AR offer, and the specialist discipline's place among more traditional PR offerings.

8.
Global healthcare campaigns: myth or reality?
In January, Paul Holmes was joined by GCI Health global CEO Kristin Cahill and Europe and Middle East president Kath Harrison, along with Aimee Christian, VP and global head of corporate communications and engagement at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, to talk about the success factors for modern global healthcare campaigns. The discussion, in eighth place on the lists, covered how to translate campaigns from one country to another, drawing a thread through global strategy to local implementation while taking cultural and language differences into account and maintaining consistency of the corporate brand. The guests also talk about engaging internal stakeholders, patients, advocacy groups and healthcare providers across markets, and the importance of finding 'universal human truths' that resonate beyond local nuance.

9.
MikeWorldWide's Tom Berry on the evolution of PR
Since 2020, we've recorded most of our podcasts remotely, which frees our guests around the world from the constraints of different time zones and in-person studio scheduling, but this lively conversation between MikeWorldWide UK managing director Tom Berry and Maja Pawinska Sims in August, together in the Markettiers studios in London, is proof that there's still added value in a face-to-face chat. The wide-ranging and often personal discussion, which comes in at the ninth-most listened to pod of 2024, ranged from the challenges, opportunities and changes facing the PR industry, to agency leadership, AI, people and purpose.

10.
Using AI to supercharge success
In October 2023, Unlock Health chief executive Brandon Edwards and managing director of innovation Kathleen Perley joined Paul Holmes to discuss the PRovokeGlobal Summit in Washington DC. In January 2024, the trio sat down again to discuss the main lessons learned from a diverse and provocative event. The trio's wide-ranging discussion, our tenth most-listened-to podcast of the year, took in major industry challenges from the growing use of artificial intelligence to the spread of disinformation, from the“pink economy” post-Barbie to the need to address social inequality in all its forms at future events.

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