INDUSTRY PROFILES

My first full-time job in media was over a decade ago, working at Woman’s Day. I started in an admin role and worked my way up to editing the 24-page pull-out, TVDay. I then chased the American dream and landed a job at an awesome PR firm in New York. After four years I moved back to NZ to a role at Bauer before launching my own PR agency, EAST. I loved the experience of growing and running my own business and was forever looking for new ways to expand our offering. When Leilani Abels, Thrive’s founder and managing director who’d I’d known for years, approached me about partnering with Thrive when they opened in NZ, I knew the stars were aligning. In 2016, Thrive acquired EAST and we officially opened Thrive’s first brick-and-mortar New Zealand location. I was appointed country lead and have been here ever since, growing the team and our client portfolio.

We’re the biggest independent PR agency in Australasia, which means we have all the benefits and resources of a large international agency but with the agility and adaptability of a boutique independent. We intimately know the NZ market, and we collaborate closely with our Aussie counterparts, setting global best practice in the campaigns we deliver and sharing insights and key learnings across our five offices. For example, our Aussie work with clients like ANZ, Twitter and Air New Zealand informs our NZ work, and vice versa. It’s an incredibly powerful advantage not just for our clients but also for our team, who are provided with accelerated learning opportunities and unrivalled experiences. I don’t think there are many agencies who fly their staff in and out of Australia and other regions to learn and grow like we do.

Being a corpsumer agency means we work across B2B and B2C, balancing corporate and consumer-focused work. In NZ, we’re particularly strong in the food & beverage, retail, agriculture, travel, tourism and technology industries.

Thrive is a fully integrated agency, which means we go beyond traditional PR to offer content and media services.

Thrive’s clients include Twitter, Air New Zealand, ANZ Group, Wesfarmers and more. In New Zealand, our diverse and dynamic portfolio stretches from technology giants like Cisco and Brother, through to international retail brands like Spotlight, Triumph and Hasbro. These clients provide great opportunities for our team.

It’s hard to pick just one recent campaign, but I’ll shout out some work we’ve done recently in local, community-led PR. At Thrive, we’re all about big, national campaigns feeding regional activity and local campaigns seeding up. We’ve done some really interesting work in this field for brands like Subway and Spotlight.

The PR industry faces massive changes in the earned media space. We have to be innovative and deliver new service offerings around content, influencers and social media.
PR also has a reputation for long hours and poor work-life balance. Thrive has been active in combating this stereotype, introducing progressive policies like paid parental leave and advocacy for side-hustles. We have not only been local leaders in this space, but are delivering global best practices.

Industry-wise, I love the increasing influence PR has at an executive level. The importance of PR, both internally and externally, is immense. It’s such an impactful commercial contributor to businesses.
Business-wise, being a heavyweight independent agency that is family-owned and female-led delivers incredible people. I learn so much each day from the whip-smart inspiring colleagues who I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by. We also get to have a seat the table with--and learn from--the brightest up-and-coming minds, talented entrepreneurs and global business leaders.

The misconception that PR is fluff and its practitioners don’t add as much value as some of their counterparts from other areas of the marketing and communications industry. I find that really frustrating and, frankly, a sexist sentiment driven by our industry’s female dominance. At Thrive, PR is strategic, it mixes logic, data and insights with that razzle-dazzle magic.

Creating a business that the best PR company in Australasia deemed worthy of acquisition; building an unbeatable team of Thrivers who have grown our business here so quickly in two years; ...and once sitting next to Iris Apfel at Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List luncheon.

Let’s just say I learned the hard way how important it is to keep a change of clothes in the office incase you’re pulled into a formal meeting, or - as in my case - a black tie event, at the last minute.

Right now we’re in a period of rapid growth and on the hunt for two fabulous new Thrivers to join our amazing team (so if you know anyone - get in touch on the email below). We’ve grown our business very quickly in the past two years, which is a testament to the amazing work Leilani and team have been doing in New Zealand since 2000.

I'd love to be a magazine editor, living in NYC. Like most people in PR, I love media and magazines. I fangirl over media personalities like Eva Chen, Radhika Jones, Tina Brown and Laura Brown, as well as all the editors we get to work with here at home.

E: lucinda.kennedy@thrivepr.co.nz
I: @lucindaeast @thrivepr @thriveprnz
T: @thrivepr