Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast

Nils Leonard, co-founder of renowned ad agency Uncommon, is a guest on this week’s PRWeek Beyond the Noise podcast episode – speaking alongside Randy Manicks, managing partner of the firm’s PR arm.

The Uncommon leaders discuss how the firm’s PR, Culture & Influence practice – which launched in February – has performed so far.

Leonard discusses how he caused a stir in the PR industry by setting out his ambition to “carve out a new space in a tired category” with the launch of Uncommon’s PR offer.

Speaking with PRWeek UK deputy news editor Evie Barrett, he explains how he believes traditional PR agencies could improve their offer, and reveals the types of briefs that Uncommon’s PR division has worked on so far.

Meanwhile, Manicks, a former managing director at comms agency John Doe, dissects the difference between working at a traditional PR firm versus a creative agency that has expanded into PR.

Elsewhere, the pair argue that more PR agencies should be boosting their own profile with independent projects alongside launching client work.

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In each episode of the new podcast series Am I the PR A***hole? (AITPRA), PRWeek will read out your anonymous PR confessions and our judges – Lynn Advisory founder Shayoni Lynn and Hoffman Agency UK co-MD Richard Fogg – will decide whether an ethical line has been crossed. Confessions can be submitted via this link.

This week’s confessions include:
Purposely uploading unflattering images to a press portal
Pitching the same ‘exclusive’ to two rival newspapers
Asking juniors to sort travel admin
And finally… booking a destructive thrash techno band for a credit card launch.

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How should public affairs and political comms in the UK navigate political upheaval? PRWeek’s latest podcast takes a look.

This week’s episode of Beyond the Noise features Damion Potter, executive chairman, public affairs in the UK, at H/Advisors; Emily Fermor, partner at Hanbury Strategy and chair of the PRCA Public Affairs Professional Board; and Fraser Raleigh, MD, public affairs and government relations, at SEC Newgate.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

As Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces his first proper challenge as Labour leader since coming to office, our guests discuss how their workload has changed since the crisis began following the elections on 7 May.

They talk about what clients have been looking for specifically in this period of uncertainty and how they know which politicians, spads and civil servants to target in particular.

Speaking to PRWeek UK editor John Harrington, they discuss whether they think the expected leadership challengers are likely to be more or less amenable to businesses and lobbying should they come to power. How the Starmer government has differed from expectations from a public affairs perspective, and how this has changed over time, is also examined.

The guests also give their perspective on how they think the political crisis might end – and whether Starmer will last the distance.

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What does PRWeek’s UK Top 150 Consultancies project tell us about the agency world in 2026 and beyond? PRWeek’s latest podcast takes a look.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

This week, PRWeek journalists Danny Rogers (editor-in-chief), John Harrington (UK editor) and Siobhan Holt (deputy editor) delve into some of the main findings from PRWeek’s flagship UK Top 150 Consultancies project, which went live this week.

They look at how agencies are increasingly having to run to stand still, especially given the pressure on margins, despite the agency sector overall being in growth.
The trio discuss what agency leaders are saying about trading in 2025 and so far this year, and look at trends across different sectors, including consumer, health and tech PR.

The journalists also discuss trends such as the apparent deprioritisation of media relations and the growing importance of AI, and look at changes in headcount, redundancies and more.

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PRWeek speaks to Sarah Lester, editor at Manchester Evening News (MEN), for the Future of the Media series.

Among other things, Lester discusses what stories work, and how that has shifted PR and media relations; the rise of fake ‘experts’; whether press releases are getting worse; the advantage of video content and social media channels for news; how MEN journalists use AI; misinformation in the media and how to stop it; the future of the media and how she feels about the publishing industry.

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