Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast

The Romans’ chief executive, Joe Mackay-Sinclair, discusses the past, present and future of the fast-growing agency on PRWeek’s latest podcast episode.

Mackay-Sinclair joins PRWeek UK editor John Harrington as this week’s guest on Beyond the Noise.

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

As PRWeek previously reported, Mackay-Sinclair discusses potential new overseas markets for The Romans, which currently has offices in London, New York, Dubai, Amsterdam and Berlin. He also reveals his ‘big bets’ for growth at the firm, which is backed by the global ad agency Mother.

Other topics covered include:
How business is “more hard-fought than it’s ever been”
How client expectations are shifting (and how they aren’t)
Recruitment as the agency’s biggest challenge
What he wants from new hires
The importance of the corporate offer
How agencies would be “crazy” not to have a dedicated sports offering
The Romans’ approach to AI and GEO
PR firms he admires
How agencies could get better at articulating what they do
Running an (arguably) ‘Marmite’ agency
Running an agency as a “social introvert”
The importance of face-to-face connections
Investing in start-up agencies
Being the “energy bunny” for The Romans
His personal ambitions.

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What is the true balance between human spaceflight and robotic exploration when it comes to science, inspiration, and decision-making capabilities? How is space transitioning from a niche frontier to an everyday commercial workplace? What role do regulatory frameworks, such as the United Nations, the Artemis Accords, and the Astra Carta, play in keeping orbit and the lunar surface safe and sustainable? And how can the UK Government act as an "anchor customer" to bridge the commercial "valley of death" for domestic space startups?

Join Alice and Jonners in this special episode recorded in Chichester Marina with British astronaut Tim Peake as he shares insights on space adaptation syndrome, commercial space stations, lunar research bases, global space traffic management, and the future of human exploration to Mars.

Contributors:
Alice Bunn, President of UKspace
Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn
UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Jonathan Davies, The Karman Line
Jonathan Davies | LinkedIn
The Karman Line | LinkedIn

Tim Peake, Astronaut
Tim Peake | LinkedIn

Key topics covered:
Human spaceflight vs. robotic exploration
Space Adaptation Syndrome (nausea & gravity adjustment)
Normalising space as a commercial workplace
Transition from space stations to commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Artemis programme & sustainable lunar research bases
Astronaut selection mindsets, psychological profiles, and stress testing
International space cooperation & soft power (ISS legacy)
Governance, leaseholds, and regulatory frameworks on the Moon
The Astra Carta & space sustainability
Human exploration of Mars
Government as “anchor customers

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What do clients really want, and not want, from agencies? That’s the focus of the latest PRWeek podcast, featuring Emily Vickers, strategic comms lead at the Ministry of Justice.

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

Speaking to PRWeek deputy editor Siobhan Holt, Vickers offers some dos and don’ts of client/agency partnerships and discusses the role of procurement.

She chats about the skills she values the most from agency execs and offers advice on working with public sector organisations.

Elsewhere, the comms professional discusses regional communications and shares top tips for professionals considering a role in government or public sector comms.

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PRWeek looks at more of your comms confessions in the latest episode of the ‘Am I the PR A***hole?’ (AITPRA) podcast.

In each episode of AITPRA, PRWeek will read out your anonymous 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.

Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen in the browser above or on your favourite platform.

This week’s confessions include:
Inventing a story about a car crash to cover for a client pulling out of a media briefing.
Resigning an account after the client behaved appallingly - but without the authority to do so.
Messing with colleagues in a team bonding session of ‘guess who from the baby photo'.

The episode is hosted by PRWeek UK editor John Harrington.

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How do you merge PR and communications agencies? PRWeek’s latest podcast takes a look.

On this week’s Beyond the Noise podcast, VCCP Roar chief executive Stephanie Brimacombe (pictured above, left) and VCCP founding partner and group chairman Charles Vallance (above, right) share their strategies on merging PR agencies.

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

Nine months after the launch of VCCP Roar, the product of the merger of sister PR agencies Good Relations, Harvard and Teamspirit, the duo sit down with PRWeek reporter Elizabeth Wiredu to discuss the process.

Together, Brimacombe and Vallance explain how they united three specialised agencies spanning consumer, corporate, tech and financial PR services.

They discuss the reasons behind the merger, what the biggest challenges were in the process and how they overcame them, and how to maintain agency culture at VCCP Roar. They also chat about the agency’s recent Starbucks account win.

Elsewhere in the episode, legendary adman Vallance discusses the rivalry between the advertising and PR sectors and argues that the PR sector is in a strong position in the current market compared to other disciplines, such as advertising.

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