Joining us now is Jacob Joseph Puthenparambil, Founder and CEO of Red Hill Communications. Jacob, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
So as mentioned, you started out of Singapore and have now grown to more than 30 offices worldwide. Was there a particular inflection point where you realized this was going to be more than just a regional Asian agency?
Well, I never wanted to start a regional agency. My background was working for WPP and other large agencies, and when I started my own, I didn't want it to be another boutique. I started the agency when I was 35 years old, and I said to myself, by the time I'm 50, I want to create something big enough that it has made a name for itself. Luckily for me, there wasn't an Asian-centered communications agency of scale at the time. The agencies that existed were boutique-sized, started by expats, with no long-term Asian-founded presence. So we set out from day one to be a global agency. People thought that was quite audacious — sitting in a tiny, windowless office on Boat Quay in Singapore trying to convince someone you were going to be a global agency. But there are inflection points at different times. Running a business, I often compare it to a video game — you have different levels. We're now in year 12, and when I look back, every challenge we faced as a business was preparing us for the next level. I'm quite grateful for all those inflection points.
You have a strong global background and have seen a lot of the world before setting up the agency. You were actually the first PR agency to set up in ADGM in Abu Dhabi. What drove the decision to make that your hub for serving clients across the Middle East and Africa?
I have a background working in the Middle East and have always been a fan of Abu Dhabi. The decision to set up our regional office here was made during Covid. I visited Abu Dhabi at that time and saw the infrastructure, the packages, the framework — everything that was in place. When we set up an office, we think five to ten years ahead. We were very confident in the infrastructure provided and knew there was going to be significant growth coming out of Covid. The setup process was straightforward, and we felt we could make Abu Dhabi our hub and spread out across the region from there — which is exactly what we've done over the last few years.
The industry is ever evolving, and we now live in a time of information overload and AI-driven narratives. What does a good story look like to you in this environment?
It's an ever-changing scenario. Whenever I'm asked this, I try to explain it through the lens of how people consume media and how the media industry is shaping up. The key is the attention economy. We went through a phase where clickbait dominated, and on platforms like TikTok there is rage baiting — bad news travels fast. A crisis can spread everywhere before a company even has time to issue a clarification, and misinformation follows quickly. The media industry itself is under pressure. But I think governments are increasingly realizing that battling misinformation and protecting the quality of information is critical. I compare it to food — if your population consumes non-nutritious content, you end up with a population that struggles to think clearly, work effectively, or understand policy. The same applies to information. Nutritious, positive, and accurate information results in a population that thinks long-term and does the right thing. We are seeing more countries move in the direction of battling misinformation and building public confidence. People have become more skeptical because of clickbaiting and rage baiting. Countries like Australia have already introduced strict social media regulations for younger audiences, and I think that is where more of the world is headed.
Yes, in Australia they have very strict rules for teenagers in particular.
Under 16, yes — YouTube Kids but nothing else.
That's the information consumption side. How are you actually incorporating AI into what you do, and is there an overlap with using AI to spot misinformation?
This is something we recognized about two to three years ago and started building toward. Because we specialize in crisis and reputation management, even 15 minutes of advance warning about something can make a significant difference. So we focused on creating tools to get ahead of it. The second aspect is that the integrity of information has been diluted by AI. We had a case where two competing companies — small businesses, but with founders who had big egos — saw one side use an AI system to publish around 300 fake websites and false news articles, all submitted to search engines in under 30 minutes. By the time you can respond, it has already spread across social media. For a listed company, the damage that could cause is enormous. That opened our eyes to a new kind of reputational warfare. We then spent about a year building systems specifically designed to detect and take down that kind of AI-generated attack. It is an arms race, and you have to keep developing. Those are the two areas where we focus our AI specialization.
That comparison to an arms race is apt — and just as dangerous in terms of reputation damage, which takes a very long time to recover from. Last question, Jacob — alongside AI, what are some other key trends you're seeing in the PR industry right now?
Anything linked to content generation will see a depletion in value because AI is producing content at scale. But anything focused on giving advice, managing reputation, and handling crisis requires far more human touch. I often joke that lawyers and PR people have less to fear from AI than most — we share a great deal with our clients, they trust us, and those relationships are very sticky. That dynamic is very difficult for AI to replicate. The grunt work — drafting, formatting, producing — that will be taken over by AI, and we will see dramatic change there. But when the going gets tough and someone has to make a real decision, that's when you need a PR person or a lawyer in the room.
And those are also the people you want by your side in a crisis — the human element matters most then. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jacob, and thank you for choosing ADGM as your home here in the Middle East.
Thank you so much.
