Barbara Bates, global CEO of Hotwire on the PRmoment podcast

This week, on the PRmoment podcast, as part of our life stories series, I’m interviewing Barbara Bates, global CEO of Hotwire. 

Barbara was joint founder of the independent US tech specialist Eastwick and ran the firm for 25 years before selling to Hotwire, in what was Hotwire’s parent firm Enero Group’s biggest acquisition for the agency to date.

Following Hotwire’s takeover of Eastwick, Barbara became global CEO of the agency that had bought her company.

Hotwire has grown significantly since the acquisition and now has 250 staff in 12 different countries.

Here is a flavour of what we discussed:

Barbara outlines how the tech sector has grown throughout her career, particularly in the USBarbara tells us how Eastwick got its witch-themed nameHow to manage a PR firm through three different recessionsWhy PR firms need to be know as being really good at one thingWhy PR firms need to work with both larger brands and start-upsWhy PR firms should be able to prepare their clients for sale, don’t just roll over for the financial PR firmsBarbara tells us how she felt when she had to cut the number of  employees in half when the dot-com bubble hitWhy bravery is a vital part of leading a PR firmHow the 2008 financial crash did not impact tech firms in the US “anything like” as much as the dot-com crashWhether the growth the tech sector is currently experiencing is a bubble or the new normWhy the agency of record model has been “dismissed” and firms now want agile specialistsBarbara talks us through the positive growth in the US PR sector currently, with the exception of the large firmsWhy the dearth of available talent in New York and San Francisco is seeing the opening of offices in tier-two citiesWhy Barbara could have sold her business many times over the 10-year period prior to the Hotwire/Eastwick dealWhy cultural misalignment is the chief reason agency acquisitions often don’t workWhy Barbara didn’t think Hotwire would be able to afford EastwickWhat it is like going from being bought by Hotwire to working for HotwireWhy Barbara regrets losing the Eastwick brand so quicklyWhy Barbara taking over as CEO of Hotwire in 2017, replacing previous CEO Brendon Craigie, was not part of the original planThe challenges and lessons of the Hotwire/Eastwick “merger”Why Hotwire is trying to build a networked agency at a time when the networked agency is arguably going out of fashionBarbara tells us about the reasons behind the rapid growth of mid-sized firmsHow the London Hotwire team picked up $1m in fees “in a matter of months” after the Eastwick mergerWhat’s the longer term plan for Barbara and Hotwire?