Beyond the Noise - the PRWeek podcast11 Juni 2025

Every brand needs to start planning for 'the biggest cultural event in history’; 2026 World Cup, PRWeek podcast

This week on Beyond the Noise, we hear from Pitch Marketing Group founder and chief executive Henry Chappell, who discusses why FIFA World Cup 26 looks set to eclipse all previous global sporting events, according to a new report from the sports marketing agency.

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

With exactly one year to go until FIFA World Cup 26 kicks off, the Pitch report predicts the tournament will have a global reach of more than five billion people, equivalent to about 63 per cent of the world’s population. A staggering 711 billion combined engagements across all media platforms are also anticipated.

Speaking to PRWeek editor-in-chief Danny Rogers, Chappell – who has topped the PRWeek UK Power Book Sports (Agency) list for the past two years – said the scale of the tournament was unprecedented, with 104 matches across 16 cities converging sport with culture, music and technology.

Sandy Doran, strategy director at Pitch, stated: “Geopolitics and legacy aside, the real winners will be the brands who use the ‘human intelligence’ of content creators the best, or at least bother to check that their AI content isn’t going rogue. And also the brands that represent football fans, first and foremost, and don’t get suckered into the ‘Super Bowl-isation’ of the tournament.”

The podcast also hears why brands will have to be decisive about the role of artificial intelligence in their campaigns, and how the report warns that authentic content from ex-professional footballers could prove more popular than anything produced by traditional broadcasters.

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

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(261)

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 Juni 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 Juni 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 Juni 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 Juni 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 Juni 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 Juni 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 Juni 35min

Uncommon’s Nils Leonard: ‘PR should be scared’

Nils Leonard, co-founder of renowned ad agency Uncommon, is a guest on this week’s PRWeek Beyond the Noise podcast episode – speaking alongside Randy Manicks, managing partner of the firm’s PR arm.The...

28 Maj 37min