Mar 10 2020 49 mins 4
This week on the PRmoment podcast, we've got Jo Carr, co-founder, and chief client officer at Hope&Glory. Hope&Glory was co-founded by Jo Carr and James Gordon-MacIntosh in 2011. It now has a fee income of circa £8.5 million, employs about 80 people and grew by 25% in 2019. [00:01:26 ] How Jo originally wanted to be a journalist or work in advertising. [00:03:33 ] How Jo was originally a corpsumer PR person and made the switch to consumer relatively late in her career. [00:08:15 ] Jo talks about the importance of being able to be yourself at work: “I'm a big believer that you should be the same person at work as you are at home". [00:09:30 ] Why Jo's time at QBO Bell Pottinger was such an important time of her career. [00:11:43 ] Whether the relatively painful merger of QBO and Bell Pottinger Consumer has had an influence on Jo not wanting to sell Hope&Glory so far? [00:14:57 ] How Jo meeting James Gordon-MacIntosh was a career-defining bit of luck. [00:17:11 ] Jo tells us how it felt being the new kid at 77PR – joining an established management team of Alan Twigg and James Gordon-MacIntosh. [00:18:32 ] How James, Alan and Jo approached Omnicom to try and do an MBO of 77PR, but got knocked back. [00:20:33 ] Why once you've thought about creating your own agency, it's very hard to put the "genie back into the bottle". [00:21:18 ] Why James and Jo decided to get backing from Lansons Communications when they launched Hope&Glory. [00:22:37 ] What it was like starting Hope&Glory with literally no clients! [00:25:50 ] How Hope&Glory won 02 just a couple of months after starting. [00:27:08 ] Why James’s and Jo's skills complement each other. [00:30:24 ] What advice does Jo have for any budding PR entrepreneurs out there? [00:36:53 ] How has Hope&Glory managed to hold on to so many large consumer accounts for such a prolonged period? [00:39:39 ] Why agencies don't want to "be a leaky bucket". [00:40:22 ] How Hope&Glory has improved its margins in recent years. [00:45:00 ] What's the plan for the next stage of Hope&Glory? Why James and Jo can't make all the decisions anymore. [00:46:34 ] Are independent agencies currently more fun, more flexible, and perhaps a bit easier to lead than their group-owned peers?
