Australasia’s largest independent public relations agency, thrive pr + communications, has launched a new division, Thrive Media, made up of a collective of Australian and New Zealander specialist journalists, editors, creatives and content producers.

Thrive Media delivers a ‘pop up’ or ‘always on’ media unit for brands with a specially assembled team based on the client brief. It has been established in response to COVID-19 and will help brands find and tell their stories at this unprecedented time.

It will be directed by two of Thrive’s recent recruits, Snezna Kerekovic, former PPR COO and Health Director at Edelman who joined Thrive in February as Chief Strategy Director, and Georgia Bainbridge, who returned to Thrive in a newly created role as Business Director of Integration and Social. Georgia spent the last ten years at Dentsu Aegis Network, most recently as General Manager of Content and Social at Haystac.

The Thrive Media collective features media subject matter experts including Brad Howarth (Business & Technology), Noel Whittaker (Finance), Stuart Corner (IT, Telecommunications, IoT), David Braue (Enterprise and Consumer Tech), Krishan Sharma (Consumer Tech & Gaming), Melissa Hoyer (Fashion & Lifestyle), Nicola Conville (Health and Wellness), Sami Lukis (Travel & Entertainment), Joanna Hall (Travel & Tourism), Paul Ewart (Travel & Lifestyle), Adriana Donnola (Beauty & Lifestyle), Elisabeth King (Beauty Business), Grant Jones (Hospitality, Food & Beverage), Stephen Fenech (Technology), Nikki Goldstein (Luxury Brand Marketing), Nick McArdle (Sport) and Natalie Yoannidis (Sport). Thrive continues to recruit journalists and content producers.

Leilani Abels, founder and Managing Director, thrive pr + communications, said: “In a world that’s been thrown into chaos, Thrive Media empowers clients to be their own media outlets. It compliments our wider agency offering. We will give clients their own newsrooms for a day or ongoing. With mainstream media channels nearly exclusively focused on COVID-19 and regional media outlets in hibernation, it’s critical that organisations deliver purpose-led communications with their audiences in multiple ways.

“Thrive’s “corp-sumer” approach, combining corporate and consumer communications, has never been more relevant and we want to help our clients and others navigate this period of uncertainty.

“In this climate, we also want to try to create as many work opportunities as possible for our wide network of freelancer and journalist friends whom we have worked with across our twenty years in business.  We already have an incredible network and we are continuing to recruit specialist writers and content producers who will collaborate with our Thrive consulting team. These journalists and our content production team, know how to find and create great stories. We welcome freelancers and journalists to get in touch with us.”

Melissa Hoyer, Thrive Media Fashion, Lifestyle & Pop Culture expert, said:  “We all know the news cycle is committed to delivering us the most up-to-the minute and real news during such an unprecedented time. As a long-standing media communicator, I’m thrilled to be part of the collective of media names who can help deliver important business and brand stories.

“Yes, we will eventually turn the corner but until then, brands need to ‘virtually’ deliver their latest news and stories. Thrive Media is a welcome initiative at this time providing a platform for us to use this time to work together in more innovative and credible ways.”

Thrive has established very strict guidelines around filming and production that exceed government social distancing and other requirements. All of our crew are being trained to meet these standards.”