S4 Episode 14: Heather Kernahan from Hotwire PR on the future of PR and communications

Public relations is no longer just about sending press releases - increasingly PR has become integrated with sales and marketing functions and relies upon practitioners having a solid grasp of data.

To find out more about the future of PR and communications, I spoke with Heather Kernahan, the Global CEO of Communications company Hotwire.

Heather has spent her career immersed in technology and moved over to Hotwire from Eastwick Communications after its acquisition in 2016.

Prior to this, she was at Autodesk, where she focused on integrated brand communications and led the development of the company’s first sustainability report.

Heather says she “builds outrageously successful teams, companies and brands”, and is the author of an upcoming book UNSTUCKABLE, to be published in 2022.

We recorded this episode live and in person at Hotwire’s London office.

Hotwire has a concept called "Behaving famously" - which means purposely going out and making connections with people; It’s an expectation of everyone that works at Hotwire, no matter the role - you need to behave famously.

We discussed a number of topics related to communications and PR including:

• How PR has changed during Heather's career
• The most effective campaign over the last 12 months
• How dynamic can communications be?
• The need for data literacy in PR
• The role of PR in revenue generation
• Selling more "shirts and shoes"
• Account-based Marketing (ABM)
• PR reps as business people
• The role of PR in remote selling
• The importance of your digital first impression
• Diversity and inclusion in modern communications practices
• The Hotwire Into Tech initiative
• Evolving the agency
• Hotwire's team "Behaving famously" 
• Content that cuts through the noise
• Coaching Executives around thought leadership
• Are print and broadcast still important in the comms mix?
• Meeting the needs of a 24-hour news cycle
• Branded content opportunities
• Heather's upcoming Book - "Unstuckable"
• The one key message from the book
• The importance of Podcasts in the PR mix
• Using LinkedIn for promotion & recruitment
• Lessons from the pandemic
• The role of data in the PR company of the future
• Quickfire round
• 3 Actionable tips for using communication in your business

Resources mentioned in the show
David Goggins: Can't Hurt me
Jane Wurwand: Skin in the game

More on Heather
Heather on LinkedIn
Heather on Twitter
Heather's Website
Hotwire Global website

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