A big happy birthday to Media-Wize and a huge thank you to all our clients and staff that have supported us on the journey to this milestone during a very challenging year. The Melbourne based cofounders, continued to work through pandemic restrictions, home schooled children and spent almost 300 days in lockdown since the pandemic started. 

We rolled up our sleeves and remaining just as positive and passionate as ever as we achieved another year of terrific growth with the agency expanding its retainer and project client portfolios. in 2021, the team won their first two US juggernaut technology companies entering the Australian market. 

We’re thrilled that during the pandemic and one of the toughest years on record that two of Media-Wize’s clients achieved outstanding growth and secured a spot on the Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 list. Huge congratulations to the team at Tesserent (ASX:TNT) and CIM!

To continue with the award winning momentum, Tesserent (ASX: TNT) also won ‘Best Editorial’ 2021 with CRN and The Secure Board Book was a finalist in ‘Best Marketing and Publicity’ at The Australian Business Book Awards 2021. We are delighted to collaborate with our clients and help them to uncover and tell engaging and impactful stories.

To keep up with the growth, Anthony Caruana hung up his press hat and went full-time. Anthony now shares the CEO role with his co-founder Kathryn Van Kuyk. 

Media-Wize expanded the team with Michelle Bong joining as account manager, having an extensive 20 year career in technology PR working for many of the world’s leading PR agencies. Michelle joins Jess Caruana, who entered her second year with Media-Wize, helping deliver our clients’ monthly coverage trackers and Coverage Books measuring reach, metrics and success. 

The co-founders enjoyed escaping Melbourne twice during the year to work with AusCERT in Brisbane on incident communications training and to produce a branded 12-episode podcast series with live interviews taking place during AusCERT’s national conference on the Gold Coast. 

We were delighted to enter a second year as Tesserent’s (ASX:TNT) Australian and New Zealand PR agency. We continued building the momentum and significantly boosting Australia’s largest ASX listed cyber security companies coverage, securing more than 150 clips across both the Tesserent and Pure Security brands in 2021. 

In June, an international panel of eight SugarCRM representatives across the US, UK, EMEA, Asia and Australia, selected Media-Wize following a competitive pitch for an Australian PR partner. Thousands of companies in over 120 countries rely on SugarCRM to achieve a high-definition customer experience and gain real-time customer insights. 

Media-Wize launched best selling author Claire Pales and Anna Leibel’s The Secure Board book and worked to raise awareness of The Secure Board advisory service’s five-step program and tailored coaching to help Australian board directors and c-suite leaders navigate cyber security risks. 

The launch was a tremendous success with the Media-Wize team securing the cover of AFR Boss, coverage in Company Director Magazine, The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and many other outlets. Within nine months more than 50 pieces of coverage were secured and cemented Claire and Anna as the leading experts in Australia for boards managing cybersecurity and reputation. 

CIM, a game changing building analytics platform helping the Australian property sector achieve zero emissions, became a retainer client. Media-Wize started working with CIM on projects two years ago undertaking media training for its senior leadership team and through the provision of content and thought leadership. 

Media-Wize has worked to raise awareness of how optimising the performance of buildings and transforming building operations by combining building analytics, machine learning and technical engineering into real-time, data-driven insights, can dramatically maximise efficiency, reduce energy consumption and improve environmental performance.

CiGen is a family owned Australian specialist in robotic process automation and intelligent automation. The founders appointed Media-Wize as its retainer PR and social media content agency, to raise awareness of how automation can help Australian organisations unlock greater efficiencies. Media-Wize has facilitated media training for all three co-founders and delivered content to enhance the value proposition of the new website. 

Media-Wize was honoured to be selected to work closely with Everbridge on their entry into the Australian market, providing media training for their Australian senior leadership team, working on government relations, media relations, communications strategy and copywriting. Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVBG) is a global software company that provides enterprise software applications that automate and accelerate government and organisations’ operational response to critical events in order keep people safe and businesses operating. 

During public safety threats such as bushfires, floods, pandemics, terrorist attacks, as well as critical business events including IT outages, cyber-attacks or other incidents such as product recalls or supply-chain interruptions, over 5,400 global customers rely on the Everbridge’s Critical Event Management Platform to quickly and reliably aggregate and assess threat data, locate people at risk and responders to assist and track progress on executing plans.  

Everbridge is the world’s most trusted critical event management solution and used by 8 of the 10 largest U.S. cities, 9 of the 10 largest U.S. based investment banks, 47 of the 50 busiest North American airports, 9 of the 10 largest global consulting firms, 8 of the 10 largest global automakers, 9 of the 10 largest U.S. based health care providers, and 7 of the 10 largest technology companies in the world. Media-Wize is thrilled to be chosen as Everbridge’s PR partner in Australia. 

Media-Wize has been excited to raise awareness of an Aussie fast growth startup that has come to the rescue during the pandemic, enabling the film and production industry to adopt hybrid working and continue productions during lockdowns and restrictions. 

Lumi.Media is a complete end-to-end workflow platform, delivered as a SaaS, that enables the entire team, from script writers to directors, producers and on-camera talent, to easily share information and collaborate to streamline the process of creating great film and television.  

Lumi.Media is transforming not just Australia. The visionary technology is also now powering TV productions in the US and UK. Successful teams using Lumi.Media now include ITV UK – Love Island, Endemol Shine Australia – Survivor, Eureka Productions – Luxe Listings Sydney, Beyond Productions – Pooch Perfect USA.

Mid-year Anthony worked hard on unveiling the agency’s new website. Check out our expanded list of service offerings and stop by our blog for useful insights and advice on how to succeed working with the media: www.media-wize.com

As Christmas fast approaches we wish all our clients, partners and team the very best and hope that in 2022 the world will feel more normal again and more events will take place in person.