Stories and Strategies with Curzon Public Relations

Stories and Strategies
  • 5.0 (14)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Stories and Strategies is the podcast for public relations and communications professionals who want substance, not slogans. The show drops every Tuesday and unpacks what is really shaping modern PR: the changing media landscape, measurement beyond dashboards, leadership, behavioral science, and the ethical principles that keep persuasion honest. Reaching nearly 10,000 downloads each month, Stories and Strategies has earned its place among the most listened-to PR podcasts in the world. If you are responsible for the story people believe about your organization, you cannot afford to guess. Follow Stories and Strategies wherever you listen.

  1. The New Role of Public Relations | Ipsos

    1D AGO

    The New Role of Public Relations | Ipsos

    Public relations used to be seen as the function that shaped the message after the decisions were made. That is not enough anymore. In a world shaped by geopolitical shocks, cultural division, AI disruption, and rising reputational risk, communications leaders are being pulled closer to the centre of power. They are no longer just storytellers or spokespersons. They are becoming strategic sensemakers: the people expected to read the moment, interpret the pressure, and help leadership decide what to say, what to do, and sometimes whether to say anything at all.  Our job is evolving to help brands survive the storm. If you work in PR, corporate affairs, or communications leadership, this episode will feel familiar fast, because it names the job as it is now, not as it used to be. And if you have not yet felt that shift in your own role, you will soon.   Listen For 3:00 How Has the PR Professional Evolved into a Strategic Sense-Making Role? 5:58 When Should CEOs Speak Out. And When Should They Stay Silent? 10:23 What Is Strategic Ambiguity, and Why Are Companies Using It Now? 13:09 What Skills Do Future PR Professionals Need to Succeed? 15:01 How Do Communication Leaders Really Feel About AI? Guest: Tom Fife-Schaw, Uk Managing Director of Corporate Reputation, Ipsos Email | LinkedIn | Navigating Through Turbulence Report  Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    23 min
  2. Why Public Relations Still Has a Leadership Problem

    MAR 24

    Why Public Relations Still Has a Leadership Problem

    Communications is often described as a female-led profession, but that label can hide a harder truth. Women may make up much of the industry, yet the balance often shifts when it comes to senior leadership, influence, and decision-making. So, what’s still standing in the way, and why has progress been slower than it should be?  Natasha Plowman argues gender equity cannot remain a women-only conversation, yet many men still hold back because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing, unsure how to contribute, or feel the issue is not theirs to address.  In this episode, why silence protects the status quo. And change usually starts when more than the excluded group speaks up. Listen For 2:33 Why Does a Female-Powered Industry Still Struggle to Put Women in Leadership? 5:12 Why Are Men Reluctant to Join Gender Equity Conversations? 7:24 What Does Real Allyship from Men in the Workplace Look Like? 11:45 Is the Backlash Against DEI Actually About Performative Policies? 14:21 Would Simply Adding More Women to Leadership Solve the Problem? Guest: Natasha Plowman Spinning Red Website | Antiquoted Website | Email Break the Silence | Natasha LinkedIn Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    22 min
  3. Visual Drift: Why Brands Stop Looking Like Themselves

    MAR 17

    Visual Drift: Why Brands Stop Looking Like Themselves

    You know that feeling when you look at your own brand and it somehow doesn’t feel like you anymore? The logo is the same, the words are mostly right, and the message is still “on brand”… but the visuals have started to wander.  A new template here. A new font there. Someone’s “quick” Canva edit. A LinkedIn graphic that looks like it came from a different company.  None of it is a big mistake. It’s just… a hundred small ones.  And in PR, you can’t afford that moment when a stakeholder sees your work and thinks, Wait—who are we today? Because we’re living in a scrolling, skimming world where people decide in seconds. They don’t stop to decode your intent; they feel something fast, or they move on. So how do you keep creativity alive without letting your brand drift into a different personality every week? And what actually makes a visual work now? What makes someone feel something immediately?  Listen For :15 Why did Boaty McBoatface become the perfect lesson in brand control? 3:17 What is visual drift and how does it quietly damage brand credibility? 4:53 Why should brands resist changing logos and colors too often? 6:14 How are Canva and easy design tools changing the role of visual experts? 8:55 How do brands win attention in the first 0.3 seconds of scrolling? Guest: Stewart Cohen Website | Email | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | IDMB    Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    23 min
  4. Synthetic Populations & Their Impacts on Public Relations

    MAR 10

    Synthetic Populations & Their Impacts on Public Relations

    What if the best market research started by IGNORING what people say? What if, instead, you started modeling them based on proven behaviour? Right down to the regional level? And what if political polling was done this way too  A new term is showing up in research and strategy circles with major implications for communicators: synthetic populations. This is not a cheap AI focus group. It is a data-built population model that reflects how people are distributed and behave at scale using high-quality inputs like official statistics, mobility patterns, and registration data, rather than relying only on interviews and surveys. That matters because self-reported data is often aspirational, incomplete, or socially filtered. Synthetic populations offer another path: estimating market potential, testing where campaigns should start, understanding regional differences, and pressure-testing assumptions before rollout. The real question is not just what synthetic populations are, but what happens when strategy shifts from asking people to modeling populations.   Listen For 3:07 What’s the difference between a synthetic panel and a synthetic population? 5:13 How can a synthetic population be realistic without using real individuals? 8:49 Why do surveys over-claim luxury brands? And how does official data correct it? 11:58 What did Germany’s flat-rate transit ticket reveal about commuting by region? 14:15 Could synthetic populations change how political polling is done?    Guest: Eike Hartmann, Vice President Custom Research & Insights Business at Statista+ Website | LinkedIn White Paper on Synthetic Populations   Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    16 min
  5. The 7 Reputation Drivers Every Leader Should Know

    MAR 3

    The 7 Reputation Drivers Every Leader Should Know

    In today’s world, PR leaders need to build and protect their brand’s reputation in an AI-shaped, polarized world, where owned media matters more than ever.  Reputation is no longer a soft metric but an economic multiplier and an insurance policy. From the difference between brand and reputation to the growing tension between character and competence, this episode explains what actually moves corporate standing up or down in today’s environment. We also share why owned media now plays a disproportionate role in shaping not just earned coverage, but AI-generated search results and stakeholder perception.  Listen For 3:45 What Is the Real Difference Between Brand and Reputation? 5:07 What Are the Seven Drivers That Shape Reputation? 6:28 How Has AI Changed Third Party Advocacy and Media Influence? 9:58 Do Character Crises Damage Reputation More Than Competence Failures? 16:13 Why Is Reputation a Business Tool Rather Than Just an Image Strategy? Guest: Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, RepTrak Website | LinkedIn     Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    23 min
  6. Public Relations in the Age of Insularity

    FEB 24

    Public Relations in the Age of Insularity

    Trust used to flow upward. To experts, institutions, and authority.  Then it shifted to “people like me.”  Now even that circle is tightening.  The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a growing insularity: smaller tribes, hardened perspectives, and a widening mass-class divide driven by whether people believe the system works for them.  Persuasion is shifting to trust brokerage, and what communicators, leaders, and businesses can do when trust itself has become the battleground. Listen For 3:10 Skip the opening story and go right to the interview with Tim Weber 3:47 What does it mean that we’ve moved from echo chambers to “turtle shells” 7:21 Is polarization economic, cultural, technological—or all three? 12:35 How can companies blunt fear and become true trust brokers? 20:13 Will AI reinforce our biases and deepen our personal echo chambers? Guest: Tim Weber, Managing Director & EMEA Head of Editorial, Edelman LinkedIn | Instagram | Bio | Website 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer   Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    22 min
  7. Why Brands are Too Serious… and Paying the Price

    FEB 17

    Why Brands are Too Serious… and Paying the Price

    Can a joke really sell a brand? Or save it from sameness? Most campaigns sound the same because they’re afraid to sound wrong. Safe language, serious faces, purpose-heavy messages that all blur together.  And yet one of the most successful creative agencies in North America has built its reputation by doing the opposite. Zulu Alpha Kilo lives by a simple motto… Fight Sameness… and they do it with humor, sarcasm, and a willingness to say the quiet part out loud. Why does that work? Why does making people laugh end up being the fastest way to earn trust?  Why does honesty often land better as a joke than a lecture.  Listen For 3:01 Fast-forward to the start of the interview 5:19 Check out an example of a funny (sarcastic) ad by Zulu Alpha Kilo 5:36 Why does ad satire feel so personal to marketers? 9:11 What tiny detail annoyed people in that absurd ad?   Guest: Michael Siegers, Zulu Alpha Kilo  Website | Instagram Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn  Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    21 min
  8. When Your Message is Consistent, But Your Audience Isn’t

    FEB 10

    When Your Message is Consistent, But Your Audience Isn’t

    You can be the same person across every channel.  Your social media accounts. Your YouTube. Your newsletter. Your blog. The same principles. The same voice. Often even the same message.  And many of the people following you on LinkedIn are the same people who see you on Instagram, hear you on a podcast, or read your newsletter. Yet those same people can understand you, trust you, and remember you very differently simply because they encounter you in a different place. Not because you changed. Because they did. They arrive with different expectations. Different attention. Different patience. The channel shapes what they notice, what they believe, and what stays with them, even when the words don’t change at all.  In this episode, we explore how platforms shape perception, why fractured identities are now the norm, and what that means for communicators who already know better but are running out of time and headspace. Listen For 4:30 How do you tailor one piece of content for different platforms? 6:04 Is it better to master one channel or be on many? 7:49 Can AI help create content that still feels human? 12:21 What’s the right way to use emojis on LinkedIn? 16:35 Are we choosing content or are algorithms choosing for us?   Guest: Molly Demellier, Sounds Profitable Email | Website | Sounds Profitable LinkedIn Doug Substack | Website | LinkedIn Farzana Substack | Website | LinkedIn   Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it. Apply to be a guest on the podcast Connect with us LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest Request a transcript of this episode Support the show

    20 min
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About

Stories and Strategies is the podcast for public relations and communications professionals who want substance, not slogans. The show drops every Tuesday and unpacks what is really shaping modern PR: the changing media landscape, measurement beyond dashboards, leadership, behavioral science, and the ethical principles that keep persuasion honest. Reaching nearly 10,000 downloads each month, Stories and Strategies has earned its place among the most listened-to PR podcasts in the world. If you are responsible for the story people believe about your organization, you cannot afford to guess. Follow Stories and Strategies wherever you listen.

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