Earned media is having its moment and Australia is very much at the forefront of creative consumer PR.
As advertising budgets shrink, and attention shifts more towards earned owned and shared channels, consumer PR agencies are not only delivering plenty of bang for the buck, they are often shifting the dial on how brands engage and influence consumer audiences.
Today’s Best of the Best list celebrates some of the finest consumer PR leaders in the business.
In compiling this year’s list, B&T consulted well placed industry sources to get a view from the market. We also considered how an agency has performed, the quality of the work, genuine innovation and industry leadership.
There are a few notable absentees from this last year’s list. They include Thinkerbell’s Taylor York, History Will be Kind’s Emma-Jane (EJ) Granleese and Simone Gupta, who recently left Supermassive. We expect to see these talented leaders return in future years.
Another who just missed out is WiredCo’s boss Ange Hampton, while one leader to watch who we expect could feature in future years is Manifest’s Isabel Thomson-Officer.
Before we reveal this year’s list, if you would like to nominate a colleague for future B&T Best of the Best lists, please use the form below.
Nominations for Best of the Best are still open! Get your entry in now!
Without further ado, here is the B&T Best of the Best Consumer PR Leaders list.
10. Donna Kramer & Adam Brunes, co-founders, Aruga
Aruga Co-Founders Donna Kramer and Adam Brunes have spent nine years building a ‘proudly Brisbane’ independent agency with a national reputation and deep roots in its home state.
And FY26 was Aruga’s biggest year to date, working with 112 clients, including 51 new clients.
These include Queensland Hotels Association, Shine Lawyers, Queensland Museum, BIGSOUND, FKG, Aviation Australia, Griffith University, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Tangalooma Island Resort and Victory Lap.
Aruga has built an enviable concentration of Queensland’s defining brands and institutions including Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Economic Development Agency, Brisbane Airport and Brisbane Lions, where it is Activations Agency partner.
Kramer and Brunes have expanded Aruga beyond its PR foundations into integrated marketing, design, content, partnerships, events and brand activations, while keeping connections between brands, audiences, media, partners and communities at its core.
9. Shane Russell (CEO) & Laura Cario (consumer and brand lead), Havas Red
Havas Red been a permanent fixture among the top 10 consumer agencies in the country, producing consistent award-winning work for organisations like Visit Tasmania, the Palau tourism board and more.
The business is led by chief executive Shane Russell and consumer and brand lead Laura Cario, and it has been going gangbusters (picking up an 8.4 in B&T’s Agency Scorecard).
Over the past year, Russell has refined Havas Red’s integrated model, bringing together all forms of earned and owned capabilities including PR, social and influencer, experiential, content creation and new offerings including GEO.
That strategic shift has led to high organic client growth and 97 per cent retention, more than a dozen new business wins, and just as many national and international campaign awards, including three PR Agency of the Year wins.
In just three years at Havas Red, Laura has transformed the consumer and brand practice. Under her leadership, the consumer business has grown 10 per cent, while the travel portfolio has grown 20 per cent year-on-year, contributing to one of the agency’s strongest periods of commercial success.
Recently the agency won the Tourism Fiji, Wise, GN Hearing, ECOVAS, Smartsheet and Tangerine Mobile while extending relationships with Toyota and Tourism Tasmania.
Work that stands out includes Tourism Tasmania’s globally recognised Winternships (see above) and ECOVACS’ Guinness World Record-breaking Dad Stance campaign, as well as skydiving Bundy R Bear into NRL Magic Round to launch Drop Bear Spiced Pineapple.
the agency has expanded its services and innovated by launching Havas Blak, which advocates First Nations Communications and EchoWeave, to help brands master generative engine optimisation.
8. James Curtis, head of consumer PR & influence, Ogilvy PR
James Curtis has developed a distinct point of view: that the most impactful campaigns are built at the intersection of genuine human insight, cultural relevance and creative bravery—ideas that find a way naturally and organically into conversation.
It’s a belief that has been particularly relevant over the past 12 months, with James taking on more responsibility to lead the Ogilvy PR Australia business’ consumer practice, where he has led a number of culture-led campaigns that have captured attention and driven strong commercial results for key clients.
One example that really caught the eye at B&T is the KFC Postie campaign. KFC sent out postcards that needed to be delivered to local KFC restaurants, offering post is a legitimate reason to collect a free meal. This happened in response to Australia post sacking a postie eating KFC on the job.
In what has been a challenging market, Curtis has secured and retained several accounts collectively worth millions of dollars in annual revenue. These include Airbnb, Movember, Specsavers and Tourism NZ.
It’s little surprise that Ogilvy PR is a Consumer PR finalist for this year’s B&T Awards.
7. Katie Raleigh, managing director of Sydney, alt/shift/
Katie Raleigh established herself as one of Australia’s top PR operators under the guidance of Rob Lowe at Poem.
When she joined alt/shift/ last September, industry observers noted that the Sydney office had been struggling of late.
In the space of a year, Raleigh has turned the Sydney business around with a strong slate of new business wins.
These include the likes of OMODA JAECOO, ASICS, Transport NSW, El Jannah, Growthpoint and Tixel.
Raleigh is admired for creativity and ability to deliver for clients. An industry observer told B&T: “Her team adores her”.
Alt/shift/ cop-founder and chief executive Elly Hewitt has found a genuine superstar in Raleigh.
6. Stuart Terry, founder and director, We Are Different
We Are Different founder Stuart Terry is an out-of-the-box thinker behind some of the most creative consumer PR campaigns in Australia. And he has been consistently making his mark over several years.
At this year’s CPRA Golden Target Awards, We are Different took out the gold and silver awards in the consumer PR category, while also winning the coveted Gold Cairns Crocodile for a Kleenex campaign that reminds Aussies to ‘check your poo’ for symptoms of bowel cancer.
Terry established We Are Different in 2019 and it has become one of the most distinctive and award-winning independents across the earned, owned, social and influencer space.
One industry insider told B&T: “He has consistently led award-nominated and award-winning work. It’s a business that punches below its weight. It should be three times the size.”
5. Alexandra Bryant, managing director, Special PR
Alex Bryant is an earned communications leader with over 15 years of experience growing some of Australia’s biggest brands.
As the managing director for Special PR Australia, she leads the earned offering for Special Sydney and Melbourne across PR, social, experiential, content, influencer, and events.
Under her leadership, Special PR has rapidly transformed into an award-winning powerhouse, recently earning a B&T finalist nod for Consumer PR Agency of the Year and recognition for recent standout campaigns like Virgin Australia’s ‘Last Flight Club’ (see bleow), HBO Max Christmas Knight Bus and Split Scream.
Previously managing partner at Red Havas, Bryant built an enviable business with a who’s who of travel and lifestyle clients – winning and leading accounts for Tourism Tasmania, Tourism Fiji, BIG W, Ben and Jerry’s and Booking.com.
Her impressive track record spans agency leadership at Finchco (previously Map & Page), alongside in-house media and communications roles at Westpac and Colgate-Palmolive, driving landmark campaigns across the years for Westpac 200 years, Palau, Menulog and Booking.com.
4. Skye Lambley, CEO, Herd MSL
With 25 years’ experience shaping some of the world’s most recognised brands, Skye Lambley has established herself as one of Australia’s most influential consumer communications leaders.
As CEO of Herd MSL ANZ, Lambley has led one of the strongest periods of growth in the agency’s history, delivering double-digit revenue growth (19 per cent), high client retention and major new business wins.
Recent wins include Coles, Roblox, Australia Post, Tinder and Contiki, while the agency also retained Telstra. Herd MSL also works with the likes of Microsoft, P&G, Airbnb, Uber and Nestle.
Campaign highlights include Telstra’s award-winning Free Calls to Santa and Heritage Phones; NESCAFÉ’s TikTok-famous Iced Coffee Clutch Hack; Neutrogena’s Skinvestment Clinic; and Nicorette’s Quitaroos, which turned quitting smoking into a national footy team Australians could get behind.
Lambley also spearheaded the launch of Herd Elevate, one of Australia’s first earned-media and AI visibility solutions, while expanding proprietary measurement and intelligence capabilities and advanced data partnerships.
3. Rob Lowe, co-founder & CEO, Poem
Rob Lowe is described as a “consistent, reliable A-grade consumer PR leader”.
“His business has delivered consistently to great brands, and he’s basically a class act in the industry,” one industry commentator told B&T.
Lowe brings more than 20 years of experience in cmms, launching Omnicom’s Eleven, while also working at the likes of One Green Bean and Hausmann Communications, and even Freud Communications in London, one of the most storied communications agencies in the world.
He co-founded Poem more than 10 years ago and has grown it to be among the top consumer PR shops in the land.
Poem works with the likes of Amazon, McCain, Tourism Australia, Uber and SBS.
A couple of its campaigns caught the eye in the past year.
The ‘SBS World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association’ champion Aussies’ right to watch the World Cup at work (something which B&T certainly supported). It’s up for a bunch of B&T Awards this year.
Meanwhile Aussie NFL star Jordan Mailata was hired as Amazon Australia’s ‘official’ Packaging Reduction Officer in a tongue in cheek campaign that showcased Amazon’s attempt to reduce packaging waste.
Lowe could have more to celebrate come the B&T Awards in November.
2. Kiefer Casamore, GM Melbourne & Amy Ashworth, MD Sydney, Eleven
Amy Ashworth (Sydney) and Kiefer Casamore (Melbourne) lead Eleven as managing director, Sydney and executive general manager, Melbourne respectively.
Eleven has had a strong year on the awards front, winning gold at Cannes Lions for the mycar Sunburnt Car (in partnership with TBWA) along with PRWeek Global’s APAC Campaign of the Year Campaign of the Year for its work with Billie.
Citing brands like Macca’s, Mattel, Medibank, Nestlè and IKEA, Eleven’s creative output continues to deliver strong commercial and cultural impact, turning everything it does up to Eleven across PR, social, creators and activations.
Its RISE product, Australia’s first AI visibility service which helps brands understand and improve how they appear in AI-powered search and discovery environments.
1. Dena Vassallo, CEO and founder, SOCIETY
It’s been quite the year for SOCIETY’s Dena Vassallo. After successfully expanding into the US market, Vassallo continues to build a highly competitive business along Australia’s East Coast.
SOCIETY has won a spate of new business, including the likes of Movember, Rundle Mall, Navair, Hard Truth Distilling Co. and Do Good Crew, Magnum Ice Cream Company, City of Holdfast Bay, Rydges Hotels & Resorts, Violet Crumble and YPulse.
Vassallo has shown a boldness and bravery in attacking the biggest accounts in the country and winning them.
The agency already works with blue chip clients including Optus, Woolworths, Unilever, Endeavour Group and the Government of South Australia.
In 2026, Vassallo launched CREW, an independent communications intelligence company designed to bring together communications, audience, media, reputation, LLM visibility and broader market data.
The proposition moves communications measurement away from disconnected channel metrics towards integrated intelligence and AI-enabled analysis, and has been hailed as a groundbreaking initiative.
Vassallo is widely respected by her peers in this market and across the world.
She was highly commended in the prestigious PRWeek Global Professional of the Year Award, with judges noting the growth of SOCIETY as an “independent, female-founded agency and her broader contribution to communications”.
In this market, a well placed source told B&T: “If I was a client, she’d be first on my list for any consumer or brand communications challenge”.
And this year, she is the first place on our list.
