Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast16 Apr 2025

Vodafone: getting merger comms right - PRWeek podcast

How do you handle the communications strategy for a company merger? That’s the topic of PRWeek UK’s latest Beyond the Noise podcast.

Joining UK news editor Siobhan Holt this week are PRWeek reporter Eliza Wiredu and Andi Donovan, head of communications at Vodafone, alongside Mandy Sharp, founder and CEO of Tin Man Communications.

Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest issues affecting communications and PR. Download the podcast via Apple, Spotify, or listen on your favourite platform.

Last year, it was announced that a £15bn merger between mobile networks Vodafone and Three had been approved by the Competition and Markets Authority, setting the stage for the creation of the UK’s biggest mobile network with about 27 million mobile phone customers. The merger is set to be complete in the first half of 2025.

In the episode, the two bosses discuss the communications strategy around the imminent merger. Donovan explains how Vodafone is being supported by its agencies, including Tin Man, which has been Vodafone’s consumer PR agency since 2022, and Teneo.

The two leaders chat about their client-agency partnership and campaign work. In light of the recent Netflix drama Adolescence, which raised the issue of toxic masculinity online, the pair discuss Vodafone’s previous award-winning campaign work on harmful algorithms online, and how the mobile network is continuing to highlight the issue.

The pair also chat about AI technology and the current PR and comms recruitment market.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(262)

Should PR ditch phone calls? Gen-Z pros debate

A pair of young PR stars are guests on this week’s Beyond the Noise podcast, discussing AI, office attendance, navigating LinkedIn and more.Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications...

8 Jul 35min

Cannes: where are the UK indie winners?

What were the biggest lessons and talking points from Cannes Lions 2026? PRWeek’s latest podcast takes a look.Beyond the Noise looks at some of the biggest communications and PR issues. Download the p...

26 Jun 22min

‘I gave honest feedback to a colleague and they cried’ – Am I the PR A***hole?

We put more of your confessions under the spotlight in the latest episode of PRWeek’s ‘Am I the PR A***hole?’ (AITPRA) podcast.In each episode of AITPRA, PRWeek will read out your anonymous confession...

24 Jun 28min

Lord Heseltine: "You’re just playing in toy town”

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Wh...

19 Jun 15min

Edelman, Burson and Smarts on Cannes predictions

In a Cannes Lions special, PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise speaks to communications professionals from Edelman, Burson and Smarts about this year’s Festival.Ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival ...

18 Jun 40min

‘PR is having an extraordinary renaissance with this World Cup’

‘If you’re talking about brand reputation, this World Cup is probably the most important comms and strategy campaign for nations and for an organisation (FIFA) that we’ve ever seen… and it’s fraught w...

11 Jun 42min

Where are PR’s LGBTQ+ leaders?

In a Pride Month special, PRWeek UK speaks to two prominent LGBTQ+ PR professionals on the comms industry’s progress, as well as analysing what ‘corporate pride’ looks like in 2026.Christina Peach, di...

3 Jun 41min

Space comms: why rockets really aren’t the story

Why do people in the space sector think they have a comms problem and yet the public at large think space is sexy? Should we stop evangelising about the technology that gets stuff into space rather th...

1 Jun 35min