This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

The world is in turmoil, so it feels like it’s the right time for the PR professionals to get involved. It also feels like the right time to use Lenin’s famous quote – "there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen".

We have plenty of ground to cover on this edition of The Little Questions including Birmingham's bins, British steel, dead things (you'll find out why), the latest AI trend we're not sure about and what has to be the best PR of the month involving a Tunnocks teacake.

Hosting this one is Matt Young alongside fellow Apella Advisors partner, Andrew Brown.

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

By rights, the fly-on-the-wall workplace documentary should have died a death the moment The Office became a hit. At that time, BBC shows like Airport, set in Heathrow, and Life of Grime about environmental health workers attracted cult followings with their often banal interviews, wobbly camerawork and acerbic voiceover narrations. Ricky Gervais’ masterpiece took these stylistic devices and turned them up to 11 with the fictional Slough-based paper company Wernham Hogg, where “life is stationery”.

Since then almost every conceivable place of work has been considered – from registrars to zookeepers and cruise ships to police stations. Airlines, banks, butchers and bakers even a candlestick maker.

Their appeal lingers. It’s not hard to imagine why: we all work somewhere, we’re inquisitive (ok nosey) animals. We want to peer into others' lives, and imagine what it is like, or thank our lucky stars we don’t work there.

A question to ask then might be: who in their right mind would invite a camera crew into their business, with unhindered access? With minimal, if any, meaningful editorial control?

Quite a few firms it would seem.

Clearly the Corporate Affairs Directors who signs off on this (or perhaps even came up with the idea in the first place) see more upside than down.

So. Why would you? And why would you not? And if you do manage to persuade your boss, and your ExCo and your board what do you need to think about? What controls need to be in place? What might cause you sleepless nights?

These questions are answered, and more, on this edition of The Little Questions. Hosted by:

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Until the late 1980s, if the subject of engagement was raised at work, it was usually to sign a card and chuck in a quid for Terry in Accounts who’d just popped the question to Mandy in the typing pool.

This all changed in the mid 1990s when workplace academics began to opine on the idea that people could become engaged in their work. Fast forward a few years and a whole plethora of large consultancies and HR thought leaders had jumped on the bandwagon.

The theory goes that people will invest more physical, cognitive, and emotional energy when their work feels meaningful, safe, and supportive. This boosts productivity, lowers turnover and cultivates a better, positively reinforcing culture. They should also become strong external brand ambassadors. What’s not to like?

There are clearly critical areas that we corporate communicators can and should be playing. Are we responsible, or important enablers? Where should we focus? How do you drive good engagement? What can we learn from when its gone wrong? Is it something you can measure?

These questions are answered, and more, on this edition of The Little Questions. Hosted by:

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Trump is back. And back with a bang.

Be it old age or the fog of Covid but Little Questions had forgotten quite how discombobulating the stream of consciousness from the 47th President of the United States really is.

From waking up in the morning wondering, what has he said or done now, to then trying to work out what he meant, and if the latest u-turn was a u-turn or not. All before the coffee has properly kicked in.

There can be no question that his return has encouraged a wider shift to more conservative social and political stances and a celebration of capitalism. Across many sectors, businesses are either doing away with, watering down or simply trying to hide their DEI and ESG programmes – the find and replace function in Windows has surely never been busier.

Some business leaders have gone further, speaking out on previously controversial issues, no longer afraid of being cancelled.

For some the shift is a breath of fresh air. For others a return to darker times.

How on earth do we Corporate Communicators, the last bastions of common sense in an increasingly mad and angry world, respond? Are we ducking and covering hoping for things to return to normal in four years? Do we pragmatically and gently reposition? Do we rail against the dying of the light and to hell with the commercial consequences? Or do we drill baby, drill?

This episode is hosted by Andrew Brown. Formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

And this time we're joined by Apella colleague James Kirkup, former DG at the Social Market Foundation. James spent over 20 years in high-profile Westminster roles including Political Editor of the Daily Telegraph and Director of the Social Market Foundation. Extensive experience of thought leadership and advocacy work, with a particular focus on the relationship between business, politics and public policy.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Then, the dreaded happens - you take the call from the journalist, and they have the story. You feel weeks of planning slipping through your fingers, with limited time to respond and stakeholders panicked.

We know from experience that leaking is part and parcel of the communications world. So, where exactly do they come from? And what can you do to make sure – if they do occur – you are best prepared to deal with them? This is what we're unpacking on this episode of The Little Questions.

This podcast was hosted by:

Elizabeth Mobed, who joined Apella as a Senior Associate in November 2023. She spent the last three years at Teneo advising clients on a range of reputation and communications mandates. She has extensive capital markets and financial communications experience, advising on international M&A transactions and IPOs with FTSE 100 and private equity firms. She has also advised clients on ESG, issues campaigning and crisis communications. She joined Teneo in 2021 from FTI Consulting's Energy and Natural Resources communications team. She holds an BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

2025 marks our 4th year providing hopefully useful snippets of wisdom for all things Comms, Corporate Affairs and PR-related. Given the New Year, we decided to look forward and consider who has some of the trickiest Comms challenges in 2025 and given, we’re also solution-focused, how we’d go about fixing them.

Some of the organisations and subjects in our Little Questions crosshairs this time include HM Government, NATO, Hollywood, UK housebuilders and infrastructure, Net Zero and ESG, car makers and the London Stock Exchange.

This podcast was hosted by:

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Welcome to the third annual Little Questions PR heroes and villains. This is our excuse to look back over the year that almost was and consider who nailed their comms and who jumped straight into the proverbial pile of steaming.

In previous years we’ve considered caterpillar shaped cakes, Union leaders, ferries taking on German auto giants, some famous pieces of stone, the odd city, a book shop and a veritable confusion of politicians. Indeed, I’m sure you’re already wondering – will Matt Hancock make it three years in a row?!

Joining me to consider and cogitate are Father and Mrs Christmas of Apella, Matt Young and Jenny Scott.

This podcast was hosted by:

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Jenny Scott; Former Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England and co-lead for Bank wide strategy. Advisor to the Governor, sat on the Bank’s executive committee and risk committee. Formerly economics and politics correspondent for the BBC and presenter of the Daily Politics. Trustee of Pro Bono Economics.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing podcast@apellaadvisors.com and please consider leaving us a review.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.