Haystac Sydney has signed on Greenstone, Bedgear, Graham & Brown, and JAX Tyres as new clients after accepting Haystac’s competitive pitches.

Under the new partnership, Haystac will manage JAX’s media relations and content marketing programme.

Haystac will run an influencer and media programme for Graham & Brown, a British wall-decoration company, and Bedgear, an American producer of custom bedding solutions. Both companies are moving to enter the Australian market.

For insurer Greenstone, Haystac will develop a master branding strategy and special campaigns for the company’s various insurance products.

In other company news, Haystac announced the hiring of former Red Agency group practice chief Anna Denby as fintech accounts group director, and April Davies and Jack Davy as account directors.

“It’s really exciting to see Haystac Sydney continue to go from strength-to-strength with massive growth across both the consumer and fintech sides of t

James Keeler (pictured) has become communications agency whiteGREY’s new chief strategy and customer experience officer.

WPP AUNZ chief strategy officer Rose Herceg said Keeler earned the position after working for the past nine years, including the last 11 months as the agency’s head of strategy after the merger of The White Agency and Grey Group Australia.

“I’m very happy to play a bigger leadership role for whiteGREY and our clients. We live in exciting times, with technology enabling ideas and experiences that weren’t possible in the past.

“In the past year we’ve brought together an amazing mix of strategic, creative and technology focused minds, and we’re evolving our culture to get the best out of this team. I’m very confident that we have exciting times ahead,” said Keeler.

Sydney boutique agency Girl PR is now officially known as Girl Communications.

Agency creative director Juliet Potter said the rebrand came about as a result of the company evolving over the course of ten years, from a simple PR outfit to offering a variety of services, such as SEO, creative content, and brand creation and management.  

“The ‘fast-food’ approach to PR has had its day and for a brand to benefit long-term, we have to deep-dive beyond any obvious media hooks… At our core, Girl Communications will always be unpinned by creative, impactful campaigns and content, and always ahead of the curve,” said Potter.

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has bestowed a second consecutive Gold Quill Merit Award on WPP satellite agency Ogilvy Impact.

The Merit Awards honours, for the internal communication category, were for Ogilvy Impact’s campaign with mining firm BHP to educate it’s 65,000-strong labour force about the company‘s strategic direction. The work concerned an inhouse research project on employee attitudes towards the company then discover ways to address them in pursuit of the firm's long-term goals.

The IABC will present the awards at the IABC World Conference in Montreal on June 5, 2018.

A full list of honours is available at the IABC website. 

The Daylight Agency has added four staff members onto the roll.

Katya Ginsberg and Emma Catchpole are onboard as senior account managers. Catchpole is a veteran of the UK consumer marketing communications circuit, while Ginsberg’s niche is in the hospitality and beverage sector.

Mimi Poole signs on as an account executive.

Karen Keech is back into the fold as senior consultant after years living interstate and abroad. She previously ran travel and tourism accounts under Daylight’s precursor, Icon International Communications.

“We are building a solid team of account managers and creative professionals to deliver our unique proposition of brand promotion coupled with brand protection. The Daylight Agency is all about ensuring our clients sleep well at night knowing that proven strategies are in place to protect their brand and then helping them build that reputation when day breaks,” said agency MD Chris Gray.

Photo (L to R) – Katya Ginsberg, Emma Catc

Integrated agency Filtered Media has established a new department called the Social Enterprise Practice (SEP).

Catering towards not-for-profit organisations, corporate foundations, and cause-oriented groups, among others, the SEP is meant to change notions that creative communications for social enterprise clients are mostly pro bono work.

To this effect, Filtered Media has appointed former Royal Foundation media manager Louisa Sampson as SEP director. She is seasoned in working social campaigns for private and government charities in the UK, the most notable of which is doing media relations for a mental health campaign spearheaded by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Filtered Media has put in Consumer + Lifestyle practice campaigns for Diabetes NSW & ACT and KYUP! Project into the SEP portfolio alongside new partnerships with City West Housing, the Crisis Prevention Institute, and 4Community.

“The Social Enterprise practice fulfils a long-held dream of

WPP AUNZ satellite agency Ogilvy CommonHealth Australia has appointed its medical communications director, Kristina Luburic (pictured), as its new general manager.

She assumes the post from five-year incumbent Gary Pattison, who stays on as WPP Health & Wellness AUNZ CEO. The move allows Pattison room to manage WPP’s health and wellness portfolio.

Luburic is an experienced hand within the Ogilvy CommonHealth Australia family, having spent the past nine years in the company in director-level positions, plus nine years in other medical communications agencies.

“I’m truly honoured to take the position of GM at OCH and lead our passionate and uniquely talented team in creating inspiring and life-changing work for our clients,” said Luburic.