Coffee with Azadeh Williams, AZK Media, our B2B technology PR agency for the Philippines, Hong Kong and Malaysia 

COLLECTIVIST: What’s the elevator pitch?

Azadeh: AZK Media is a B2B technology PR agency, and our sweet spot is AI, big data, and analytics – anything that’s really ‘heavy-lifting’, enterprise software. The more complex, integrated, and global it is, the more we love it.

We’ve been running for eight years, and many of our team members were formerly technology and business journalists. We “moved to the dark side!” 

We have clients from the UK, Israel, the US, and the APAC region – all over the world actually – and we’re focused on growing further.

COLLECTIVIST: What does your day-to-day role look like?

Azadeh: We’re a small agency: five full-time staff and 20 contractors, so as Managing Director, I wear many hats. 

On one hand, I’m responsible for ensuring client satisfaction, overseeing accounts, making sure we meet scope, and delivering results. 

On the other hand, I need to ensure new business is coming in, especially in today’s volatile environment, so a big part of my role involves discovery calls, proposals, and negotiation.

An interesting new part of my work is our inbound lead-gen “walk and talks” and vox pops. These started during COVID to create content outdoors with influencers and stay visible on LinkedIn. They’ve now become an extension of our business, with clients and event partners integrating them into campaigns. Once a week I’m at an event recording interviews. I also have a lot of followers on LinkedIn, so beyond being Managing Director, I’m an influencer in my own right, and our videos get thousands of views. It’s become a bit of a beast.

COLLECTIVIST: What’s been the best year so far?

Azadeh: When you ask that, I immediately think back to how it all began. The first year was incredibly exciting. I can’t believe the agency started from one LinkedIn post saying I was starting an agency focused on tech content and PR. Within a week I’d handed in my resignation and had enough clients to leave journalism.

Those initial days were so exciting – building the rocket ship as it flies – but also challenging. I had some PR experience from my time in London, but diving into negotiation, scope creep, and burnout was all new. Actually, I went above and beyond to the point of burnout, which forced me to reevaluate how we run the business.

It’s a real family business now. My husband Wayne is the Business Director and handles operations. We’ve both learned to put boundaries in place to avoid burnout. It’s a marathon, not a race after all.

COLLECTIVIST: You mentioned offering content and PR services when you started the agency, but I feel like you’re broader now. What services do you offer today and how did that happen?

Azadeh: It was an evolution. COVID shifted everything. Previously we focused on content (long-form pieces, white papers, customer stories) and on PR campaigns, including video case studies.

But when COVID hit, traditional inbound channels changed. Event marketing moved online, and we saw opportunities to integrate inbound lead generation with PR. We expanded our services by listening to customer needs, especially global clients who have large teams overseas but only small local teams here. By understanding what they needed on the ground, we could support them more effectively.

COLLECTIVIST: Tell us more about the types of companies you support?

Azadeh: We tend to support two types: large global tech players who are well-established in North America, Europe, or the Middle East but unknown in APAC; or local scale-ups looking to expand globally. 

We also work with very small local startups, especially in AI, where there’s a lot of innovation and potential for growth.

COLLECTIVIST: Tell me about your team. Who are your key people?

Azadeh: A big mention to Michael Jenkin, our Head of Content and Comms. He was a technology and business journalist and worked across many mastheads. He also worked at Corinium Intelligence. He’s incredibly hardworking and has a great instinct for messages that resonate with the media.

Our social media and content specialist, Jess, was also a journalist and is wonderfully personable.

We also have Julie Cooper, who provides additional content and comms support. She’s a working journalist who writes for The CEO Magazine and used to work with us full-time before expanding her portfolio.

We also work with excellent consultants, like Dominic White, a former senior journalist and one of the most experienced PR professionals I’ve met.

In the services industry, people matter so much. Working with humble, intelligent people who just get it, require little handholding, and have no ego makes everything easier.

COLLECTIVIST: Was it a conscious decision to recruit current or former journalists?

Azadeh: One hundred percent. Absolutely. We understand each other intuitively and see both sides of the story. It’s worked extremely well for us over the past eight years. Even PR veterans like Dom originally came from journalism. We’re all singing from the same songbook.

COLLECTIVIST: What’s the agency culture like? Family-oriented, sales-driven, organised, or entrepreneurial and innovative?

Azadeh: Honestly, we’re a bit of all four. Innovation plays a big role now, especially with AI and new approaches to PR. We have to adapt to survive and add value to everything we provide our clients.

We’re also very family-friendly – many of us have partners or families – and we pride ourselves on that.

COLLECTIVIST: Last thing — what do we need to know about your local market? If I’m a tech company expanding into your region, what should I be aware of?

Azadeh: First of all, each country is very different. You can’t treat Asia Pacific as one market. You can’t send one press release on the wire, tick “APAC,” and think you’re done. 

Similarly, another big mistake global companies make is believing one person in Singapore can run all of APAC, or that one agency can apply a one-size-fits-all approach to the region. To get traction, you need personalised, country-specific work. It’s more labour-intensive, but it’s worth it. 

The journalists, the way you build relationships, and the stories that resonate vary widely across markets. Again, you must personalise and localise.

In Australia especially, PR is relationship-based. One wrong pitch can turn a journalist off quickly. 

Read more from AZK Media 

Collectivist expands in Asia-Pacific with AZK Media

Azadeh Williams to Judge 2026 Mumbrella Awards