Catch the latest PR news & updates with PRovoke Media's PR Podcasts. Lifting the lid on key industry stories & trends, join our listeners of PR podcasts today.
Latest video interviews and campaigns from PRovoke Media, previously known as the Holmes Report.
Long-form journalism that analyzes the issues, challenges and opportunities facing the business and practice of PR.
Explore PR profiles and interviews with leaders from the marketing and PR worlds.
PR Crisis & Business Crisis review. PRovoke Media's annual analysis of the top reputation crises to rock the corporate sector. Read on here.
PRovoke Media's coverage of the Covid-19 crisis, focusing on corporate communication, public affairs & PR industry fallout.
PRovoke Media's PR Trends round up. PRovoke Media's annual forecast of PR trends and news that will impact the PR world in the year ahead...
Dedicated to exploring the new frontiers of PR as it dives deeper into social media, content and analytics.
Our coverage of key technology PR trends and challenges from around the world of digital communications.
From brand marketing to conscious consumerism, coverage of key marketing and PR trends worldwide.
PRovoke Media's coverage, analysis and news around the rapidly-shifting area of employee engagement and internal communications.
Sports PR news, diversity & inclusion trends, views and analysis from PRovoke Media. Subscribe today for the very latest in the world of sports communications.
PRovoke Media's definitive global benchmark of global PR agency size and growth.
Enter PRovoke Media's 2025 Global 250 Agency Ranking; Agencies of the Year; and Best Agencies to Work For competitions now.
PRovoke Media's annual selections for PR Agencies of the Year, across all of the world's major markets.
PRovoke Media profiles marcomms innovators from across North America, EMEA and Asia-Pac.
In-depth annual research into the PR industry's efforts to raise creative standards.
APACD/Ruder Finn annual study of Asia-Pacific in-house communications professionals.
The world's biggest PR awards programme, dedicated to benchmarking the best PR work from across the globe.
The biggest PR conference of the year, a high-level forum designed to address the critical issues that matter most.
A global network of conferences that explore the innovation and disruption that is redefining public relations.
Unrivalled insight into the world's best PR agencies, across specialist and geographic categories.
Our Roundtables bring together in-house comms leaders with PR firms to examine the future of communications.
The PR industry’s most comprehensive listing of firms from every region and specialty
Find the latest global PR and communications jobs from PRovoke Media. From internships to account executives or directors. See all our PR jobs here.
PRovoke Media's editorial series published in collaboration with partners.
When McDonald’s chief communications officer Robert Gibbs stepped down amid the company’s restructuring in 2019, then-CEO Steve Easterbrook divided the top job between two communications leaders: Michael Gonda and Dave Tovar. Shortly after, however, Easterbrook was fired for violating corporate policies on personal conduct.
Can you share a moment in your career when you saw PR's direct impact on business performance?When you champion – with real authenticity – an issue that transcends the product or service you offer, you see it pretty quickly. Without name checking each (or any), those are the moments when heads turn quickly within the building and people go: “wait, what just happened?” No doubt, affinity building programs drive significant business performance, and there are tons of examples of this. But often you're pulling on multiple levers to drive growth. The former really isolates the unique role of communications or PR.
What are the communications industry's biggest challenges and opportunities in the year ahead?
There's been a long conversation about gaining a seat at the table that I walked into when I started my career and didn't fully appreciate how hard fought the battle had been. The nice thing is that the bridge has been crossed: we’ve got a seat. One challenge is that the paths many had to forge to get that seat feel unlikely, unrealistic or even unappealing (too hard, too long, too confusing) for future leaders. We have many challenges facing society and our industry, but I think chief among them is creating and clarifying the path to the seat of the table that many occupy, and getting future leaders excited about it and seeing themselves in it. Otherwise the seats won't be filled by the best, but rather the most willing, and we'll be back to square one before long.
What have you most admired about this industry over the past year?
There's been a real gravitation towards authenticity, transparency and humanity. Not just in how communicators are communicating, but in how they’re leading and showing up for their teams. I'm not sure that's been a big mark of the prior decades, and I’m proud that the team's showing up in big ways today are often focused on how they've worked, and not just what they've done or delivered.
What has most disappointed you about this industry over the past year?
Signs of opportunism in light of social atrocity.
How have you switched off from work and maintained wellness in lockdown?
Yes. In fact, I'm pretty open about it. I had (have) amazing mentors, but often the most senior or successful leader was she or he who would grind it out for 20 hours a day and create this long wake behind them. To miss the evidence that both are recipes for failure is, at this point, wilful. So I try to be very conscious of that and model it to the best of my ability. And when I or another leader is working late or long, we don't need the whole team to know it.
Which book/movie/TV show/podcast/playlist/other cultural source has helped you get through this year or provided inspiration?
Smartless for fun. Yellowstone for life's lessons. The West Wing and Wag the Dog for pilgrimage.
If I wasn't working in marketing/communications, I would be...
Living on another continent.
Sum up 2021 in one word.
Seriously?
Intelligence and insight from across the PR world.
About PRovoke Media Contact Us Privacy & Cookie PolicyWe feel that the views of the reader are as important as the views of the writer. Please contact us at [email protected]
Signup For Our Newsletter Media Kits/Editorial Calendar Jobs Postings A-Z News Sitemap© Holmes Report LLC 2025