10. Proving PR’s Value with James Crawford

James Crawford is the founder and Managing Director of PR Agency One, and a board director at AMEC, the International Association for PR Measurement. In this conversation, we talk about why James started his agency, what the early days really looked like, and why he has spent his career pushing PR to prove its value beyond headlines. We get into measurement and attribution, the limits of what you can and cannot track, and how PR teams can use evidence to protect budgets, win trust, and show commercial impact. We also cover GEO and how brands should respond right now, why “everything is dead” is usually the wrong take, and what it takes to build long term momentum in an industry that is constantly changing. Find James Crawford: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswdcrawford/ PR Agency One: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pr-agency-one/ Find Josh Wheeler: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwheelerbroadcast/ Follow Be Broadcast: https://www.linkedin.com/company/be-broadcast/ https://www.pragencyone.co.uk/ https://bebroadcast.co.uk/ 00:00 Intro 02:49 Meet James Crawford, PR Agency One and AMEC 04:25 Why James launched PR Agency One 06:51 The first wins, risk, and backing himself 09:44 Competing, then shifting to doing the work better 10:44 Why measurement became the edge 11:32 Roots, direct response, and early proof of impact 13:06 The limits of attribution and what to accept 14:30 Planning, prediction, and “interest graphs” in media 18:24 Early days of the agency, SEO and opportunity 19:44 Why media relations is tougher now 20:47 Moving from soft stories to bolder campaigns 23:01 Reactivity, brand purpose, and being ready for the BBC 24:03 Research that lasts longer than one news day 26:28 Cost of living era, weak leads, short term thinking 29:33 OneEval explained: Brand, Reputation, Commercial, and planning 33:03 Why evaluation protects teams when leadership changes 35:18 Innovation, AMEC, and staying on top of measurement shifts 38:27 Training the whole team to understand measurement 39:36 GEO, threats and opportunities 41:31 What actually influences LLM visibility right now 43:43 What clients are asking, and what they are missing 45:19 A practical GEO split: classical PR first, tests second 46:56 SEO is not dead, and why “everything is dead” is lazy thinking 48:17 Experimentation as the only sensible approach 48:50 BBC visibility, the long game, and building a track record 50:58 The thread through James’ career: hard work and showing up 53:24 “Accidentally brilliant” and managing people   #PublicRelations #PR #PRAgency #Communications #MediaRelations #Measurement #AMEC #Evaluation #Attribution #Marketing #Reputation #BrandStrategy #DigitalPR #SEO #GEO #AI #ChatGPT #Leadership #AgencyLife #Podcast