Telum is looking to highlight the diverse and vibrant agencies in the Australian and NZ PR agency landscape in upcoming editions of our PR Alert. We are looking to encourage networking, business opportunities, and to celebrate the great initiatives being worked on. If you'd like your agency to feature, get in touch at alert@telummedia.com.

In this edition, we are featuring Kate & Co PR, an independent public relations and events agency with offices in Melbourne and Sydney.

What services does the agency offer?
Kate & Co. PR offers a broad range of intersecting services across both international and national brands, including:

• Strategy development
• Media relations
• Influencer engagement
• Social media management
• Event management / production, including developing tailored guest lists
• Brand collaborations
• Sponsorship amplification

What size is the agency?
We currently employ 10 full time staff, and we work closely with two contractors. Our clients are both local and national, and sometimes international. Currently, we are working across three large and two small retainer clients, two projects, and we have nine clients that we represent in our fashion showroom.

Where does your agency have an office?
Our head office is in Cremorne, Melbourne and we have an office in Sydney.

Do you have a particular area of focus?
Our key areas of focus currently include lifestyle, food & beverage / hospitality, fashion, retail and events.

Who is the founder and why did they start the agency?
Kate Keane is the Founder and Managing Director of Kate & Co. PR. She founded the agency in 2008; a natural transition after having worked at a leading fashion and lifestyle agency for eight years.

Kate’s passion for PR, and in particular high-profile events such as Melbourne Cup Carnival and Melbourne Fashion Festival, was the real driver to grow Kate & Co. PR into a place where the best of the best want to work, and the most interesting brands want to engage.

What is next for your agency? What is the five-year goal?
Post COVID, we are thrilled the industry has bounced back! We are keen to continue the momentum and build on our client base. We will offer more services going forward, such as podcast producing, including launching our own agency podcast.

We’re very keen to get back into events, which are our forte - our social media following in particular love seeing our events!

In a sentence, describe your ideal relationship with a journalist.
Our ideal relationship with a journalist would be based on mutual respect, with honest and timely communication.

Tell us about a campaign you are currently working on or are particularly proud of?
For last year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival, we navigated the PR for Lexus’ sponsorship of the week-long activation. Challenging due to COVID, we are very proud of the campaign we delivered whilst working in Stage 4 lockdown, and the subsequent ever-changing restrictions.

Any key PR trends your agency is keeping an eye on?

• The increasing importance of digital media and power of influencers
• Working with new mediums such as augmented reality

What skillsets do you look for in new hires?
We love authenticity! Someone with a hunger to succeed, they must have a good work ethic, but also like to have fun. Confidence is important, particularly in the PR industry. In fact, we’re recruiting for a new Account Director now.