Launching a company from stealth sounds exciting. In reality, it’s usually messy, rushed, and full of competing voices.

In this episode, Richard Midson is joined by Andrew Healey from Water & Wall (New York) to unpack a real fintech launch that had everything happening at once:
a new company reveal, a multi-million dollar seed round, strategic partners, and multiple stakeholders who all needed sign-off.

This isn’t theory or “best practice”. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how an agency actually pulled off a high-stakes launch in a tight window, over Christmas, with limited margin for error.

They also get into how AI and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) are quietly changing media strategy, why some “low-status” sites now matter more than CMOs expect, and why embargo pitching is becoming less optional and more essential.

If you work in an SME PR agency or in-house comms role and you’ve ever had to launch something fast, complex, and political, this episode is for you.

Practical takeaways

• How to structure a launch when you have multiple announcements and can’t afford for one to bury the others

• Why longer embargo lead times are now helping reporters, not hurting coverage

• How to think about stakeholders when there are investors, partners, and comms teams all in the mix

• What GEO actually changes about media targeting, and why some overlooked sites now influence AI search results

GUEST
Andrew Healy - Water and Wall
LOCATION: New York, USA
WEB: waterandwall.com
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Most AI conversations in PR are theoretical.

They talk about where things are going and what you might need to prepare for.

This conversation is about what is happening in AI today and how to use it today.

In this episode of The Public Relations Podcast, I speak with Ben Jacobson from Inbound Junction.

Ben talks us through how he is approaching a current B2B tech campaign and explains how PR, SEO, and GEO are overlapping in practice.

As someone who has always been focused on inbound techniques, Ben and his team consider the AI landscape crucial.

Practical takeaways

1. Ideas on how to identify the prompt clusters your clients actually need to appear in, starting from audience pain points not keywords

2. Why earned media and credible citations influence AI visibility more than owned content alone

3. How to test whether your PR coverage is being used as a source by AI tools.

GUEST
Ben Jacobson, Chief Content Officer
LOCATION: Tel Aviv, Israel
WEB: inboundjunction.com
NEW TO PR?
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CONNECT WITH ME
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-midson/
- Website - https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/
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There is a growing gap between what people think PR jobs need and what agencies and in-house comms teams actually hire for.

In this episode, I pause the usual interview format to share some early findings from the research behind our sister show Getting a Job in PR.

Based on conversations with agency owners and comms leaders, this episode breaks down the small but decisive things that make candidates stand out or quietly fall away. Not theory. Not motivation. Real behaviours that hiring managers notice.

• How to test whether you are actually suited to PR before you apply
• Why visible proof beats enthusiasm every time
• How agencies really judge curiosity, energy, and initiative
• Why being easy to work with matters more than being impressive
• What internships are actually for when they work properly

Join us for more at: GettingAJobInPR.com

Most PR and comms teams say they are “data-driven” Very few actually are.

In this episode, Richard Midon is joined by Komal Lath from Tute Consult in Mumbai to talk through how PR work changes when you stop relying purely on instinct and start using real audience data to shape campaigns.

Komal shares details of a recent cosmetics brand refresh campaign she worked on in which one national message was replaced with multiple local campaigns across India, without extra budget or people. The difference was not the outlets, but how they used data to decide what mattered to different audiences.

They also talk honestly about where AI genuinely helps PR teams, where it does not, and why long format content is quietly outperforming short form in some unexpected places.

This episode is for agency teams and in-house comms pros who are tired of generic advice and want to understand how modern PR is actually working on the ground.

GUEST

Komal Lath
LOCATION: Mumbai, India
Web: www.tute.co.in
NEW TO PR?
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CONNECT WITH ME
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Most PR teams have faced this problem. You have a smart client, they know their audience, they want to target that audience directly and rightly so, but the trades just aren't biting at the moment, distracted by other things. What do you do?

In this episode, Amanda Proscia from Lightspeed PR explains how her team broke that deadlock and turned a niche brief into hundreds of national and global placements by identifying one news hook, reshaping the pitch for consumer press, and keeping political noise out of the story.

If you have ever struggled to scale coverage for a niche client or tried to convince leadership to trust a wider media approach, this will feel very familiar and immediately useful.

Takeaways

Why this B2B client resist wider visibility rightly and also why they should look beyond that too.

The hook and how it unlocks national press

How to build fresh angles once the obvious one is gone

Keeping subject matter experts out of political traps

The new shift toward micro and nano influencers

GUEST

AMANDA PROSCIA - lightspeedpr.com

LOCATION: New Jersey,USA

Web: lightspeedpr.com

NEW TO PR?- Check out the new podcast 'Getting A Job In PR' - https://gettingajobinpr.com

SUBSCRIBE- Video and Audio links here - https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/listen/

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CONNECT WITH ME

- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-midson/

- Website https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/

- 'Getting A Job In PR' - https://gettingajobinpr.com

FUTURE GUESTS-

Check out: https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/be-a-guest/

PR is changing, and you can see it in the news stories.

Cut through the staggering amount of noise in the marketing and PR space and you start to spot a few items that show a genuine shift in the way things are happening. Things that will impact PR and strategic communications in the future.

I read a lot of newsletters, and as I say, there is a lot of noise.

But I picked out four stories that seem at first glance to be nothing special until you look into them. I explain why they matter for how PR and communications.

I look at:

- What the erosion in trust in traditional media means, according to Reuters, and why it is more nuanced than it first appears.

- How tool makers are using AI to analyse whether campaigns will work, and more importantly, whether you can do something similar for free on your own computer.

- The quiet return of experiential PR as an answer to digital and AI fatigue and slop. Will this continue to grow?

and

- Why one podcast industry newsletter shows that, without getting the product right, no amount of marketing will work.

I also talk briefly about a new research project I am working on.

This episode is an experiment. I wanted to try looking at a small number of news stories that genuinely stood out from the noise. As usual, I will look at the data, and if people find this episode useful, I will do more like it. If not, enjoy this one off.

NOTE: This was recorded in late October 2025

AI is already inside the tools you use. Waiting it out is no longer an option.

In this episode, I speak with Karen Sutherland, author of Artificial Intelligence for Strategic Communication, who, at the time of the recording, was fresh from a Marketing AI Conference in the US.

We cut through the noise and talk about how PR and comms teams are actually using AI day to day, what works, what breaks, and where people are getting it wrong.

This is not about replacing people or chasing shiny tools. It is about saving time on the work you hate, protecting quality, and building skills your team will still need in five years.

If you run an agency or work in-house and feel stuck between curiosity and fear around AI, this episode gives you a clear place to start.

We cover

• Why AI agents change how work gets done, not just how fast

• The real risk for junior staff and how to avoid hollow skills

• How teams are using custom GPTs to speed up reporting without sounding generic

• A simple framework for integrating AI safely and sensibly into comms work

• Map your tasks before touching tools. Start with repetitive work that drains time, not creative judgment.

• Use AI as a first draft assistant, then edit like a professional. Quality control becomes a real job, not an afterthought.

• Train AI on your own writing and reports so outputs sound like you, not the internet.

• Regularly check whether AI is saving time and protecting standards, not just pushing content out faster.

DescriptionPractical takeaways
GUEST
Karen Sutherland - Senior Lecturer, Public Relations, University of the Sunshine Coast
LOCATION: Sunshine Coast, Australia
Book: Artificial Intelligence for Strategic Communication by Karen E. Sutherland
NEW TO PR?
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CONNECT WITH ME
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-midson/
- Website and newsletter - https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/
- 'Getting A Job In PR' - https://gettingajobinpr.com
FUTURE GUESTS
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AI is already inside every corner of PR and comms, but very few teams have real safeguards in place. In this episode, I sit down with Dr Lukasz Swiatek from UNSW (The University of New South Wales) to talk through the real risks facing agencies and in-house teams.

Luk researches the impact of AI on communication and education and he lays out the pitfalls that PR teams keep tripping over. Accuracy problems. Deep fakes. Reputational slipups. Ethical blind spots. The slow erosion of trust.

If you are trying to use AI while still protecting your organisation or your clients, this episode gives you a straightforward way to think about boundaries and guardrails that actually work.

What you will hear
Luk on the big AI concerns people are ignoring
The accuracy trap and why comms teams keep falling for it
How to build real boundaries around AI in your organisation
What AI means for trust and authenticity
The future of PR roles and whether humans still matter

Practical takeaways

1. Create a simple yes or no list of what AI is allowed to do in your organisation, then make staff sign off so there is shared responsibility.

2. Treat all AI output as unverified until checked against a real source. Never publish raw content.

3. Build a rule that any AI assisted content must be reviewed by a human who understands tone, risk and context.

4. Set expectations with clients or leadership about what AI can and cannot reliably do. This reduces pressure to use it in unsafe situations.

GUEST
Lukasz Swiatek - School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales
NEW TO PR?
- Check out the new podcast 'Getting A Job In PR' - https://gettingajobinpr.com
SUBSCRIBE
- Video and Audio links here - https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/listen/
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CONNECT WITH ME
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-midson/
- Website and newsletter - https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/
- 'Getting A Job In PR' - https://gettingajobinpr.com
FUTURE GUESTS
- Check out: https://thepublicrelationspodcast.com/one-sheet/