Graz Belli, co-founder of Third City, on the PRmoment Podcast

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.

This week we’re chatting to Graz Belli, Co-Founder of Third City. Third City has a fee income of about £2.5 million and grew by 20% in 2021. It was founded 11 years ago. Third City sees itself as a corpsumer PR firm, offering both brand and reputational advice.

Clients include the likes of BUPA, Starling, Zurich and G-Network.

Previously Graz was managing director of Band & Brown.

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Here’s a summary of what Graz and Ben Smith talked about:

2 mins Graz’s Italian parents moved to Wales to find work and she grew up living above a fish and chip shop in Newport. Graz is now a co-owner of a successful PR business which is a nice story. I asked Graz what 10-year-old Graz would have thought about it all?

4 mins The importance of role models and resilience in entrepreneurship.

5 mins Graz talks about why her work passion is the planning and strategy side of PR.

8 mins Graz reveals her Myers Brigg colour!

11 mins How do you maximise the likelihood that a campaign is going to have an impact?

13 mins How PR planning has evolved but it’s still a mix of art and science.

15 mins What percentage of PR campaigns actually create behaviour change?

17 mins Why “PR is the most persuasive part of the marcomms mix”

18 mins Graz joined Band & Brown in the early 90s as an account exec and became the managing director. What was it about Band & Brown that made it such an iconic agency of the 1990s?

20 mins Graz talks about the sprinkling of ex Brand & Brown people around the PR sector.

21 mins Graz reveals the reasons behind the rapid fall of Band & Brown.

23 mins Why did Graz decide to launch Third City with Mark Lowe and Gill Brown?

26 mins A discussion of whether brand comms and corporate comms have not always needed to be aligned? Has anything really changed?

29 mins What contribution does Graz think PR and comms people should make to a firm's ESG strategy?

32 mins How has the work of PR agencies changed during the pandemic?

36 mins Graz talks about her role as a mentor of Women in PR and what she believes can be done to help women who work in PR thrive.

38 mins “Why we need to redefine what’s meant by great leadership and performance.”

40 mins Graz tells us about why she’s recently started training for a marathon!