CommsCon Conference and Awards to return in 2025
Mumbrella’s CommsCon Conference and Awards are returning once again in 2025 with some of Australia’s leading PR professionals and in-house comms specialists locked in to speak at a brand new venue.
Taking place on March 27, 2025 in Sydney’s CBD – Ilumina – the Conference and Awards will celebrate rising and established professionals in the industry, provide connection with industry peers, and help PR teams stay on top of evolving trends and technology.
Situated above Sydney’s vibrant streets, Ilumina is a unique, state-of-the-art space located in the heart of Sydney’s historical and cultural civic centre of Martin Place.
As always, the CommsCon Awards will celebrate the best of the best, giving attendees the opportunity to highlight their achievements across the various campaign, people, and business categories.
2025 will feature 24 categories across the PR and comms industry, including the coveted PR Agency of the Year (Large, Midsize, Boutique/Small), PR Leader of the Year, and Best B2C Campaign, among others.
The 2024 CommsCon Awards saw alt/shift take home PR Agency of the Year (Large), Domain Group’s team win Best PR Team of the Year – In-house, and History Will Be Kind take home the Best PR Employer award.
History Will Be Kind also won Best Social Media or Digitally-led Campaign, and founder and chief executive of the agency, EJ Granleese, received the PR Leader of the Year accolade.
Entries to the CommsCon Awards are now open, with the first deadline on December 13, 2024 and the final deadline on January 24, 2025.
The shortlist will be announced on February 18, 2025.
Meanwhile, the CommsCon Conference will feature thought-provoking, industry-shifting sessions and will see an impressive lineup of top talent share their expertise on the state of communications in today’s day and age.
The first confirmed speaker at next year’s event is Tinder Australia’s director of communications, Kirsty Dunn.
Since its inception in 2012, Tinder has revolutionised how people meet and connect. So much so, it grew from one match to one billion matches in just two years. Fast forward to today, and the app has been downloaded over 630 million times, with over 97 billion matches.
But dating apps still have a lot of stigmas, and as the largest in the world, Tinder often bears the brunt of these negative perceptions. However, with proactive, earned-first approaches and partnerships – including the Tinder x WESNET Dating Safety Guide which won Best PR-led Brand Partnership Campaign at the 2024 CommsCon Awards – Tinder is working to challenge the stigmas and build brand trust and loyalty.
Dunn will walk delegates through how it is doing so, and will also unpack some of the hurdles and learnings that became key moments for the brand.
Next on the line-up is the 2024 CommsCon Award PR Agency of the Year – Midsize winner, Poem.
Founder Rob Lowe will be joined on stage by creative director Jess Cluff to share what it takes to be an ‘earned creative’, and why the industry need more of Cluff’s kind.
As the lines between advertising and PR begin to blur, and the expectations of PR become less distinct, earning consumer attention has never been more important.
The lines are blurring so much so that Poem even took home Ad Campaign of the Year at the 2024 Mumbrella Awards, which would not have previously seemed possible.
Poem at the 2024 Mumbrella Awards
But advertising creatives, who rely on media money for people to see their work, rarely understand earned creativity. So now, earned creatives are an extremely rare breed.
The duo will discuss what the future looks like for creatives, what makes good earned creative as opposed to advertising creative, and how the communications industry can foster talent to find the earned creatives of the future.
Also confirmed to return to the CommsCon stage is Third Hemisphere’s founder and chief executive, Hannah Moreno. She will be joined by Comms Declare’s founder, Belinda Noble, in a session titled ‘Is Big Fossil Fuel the Next Big Tobacco, and Just as Unhealthy for your Agency’s Reputation?’.
In 2014, the term ‘greenwashing’ appeared in Australian newspapers just 62 times. A decade later in 2024, it appeared over 10,000 times. It is not something that can be ignored. While some comms agencies think a bit of greenwashing will protect their clients from the stench of pollution, others think it’s not that deep at all.
But what do you do as a comms agency when you find out a client’s ‘green’ product is not so green? Or when staff refuse to work on certain projects for ethical reasons?
Moreno and Noble will delve into it all, and ask if more nuance is needed in the conversation when it comes to climate change.
The pair will be joined by another panel guest, to be announced in due course. The panel will be moderated by Third Hemisphere’s managing director, Jeremy Liddle.
The remaining CommsCon roster will be announced in the coming months.
Early bird tickets are now on sale until February 14, 2025, available here.
Additionally, the CommsCon newsletter will go from monthly to fortnightly in the new year, led by Mumbrella associate editor, Lauren McNamara. You can subscribe via the link below.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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2025 Mumbrella CommsCon
Alt/Shift
Belinda Noble
comms declare
CommsCon
CommsCon Awards
CommsCon Conference
Elly Hewitt
Hannah Moreno
Jess Cluff
Kirsty Dunn
Poem
Rob Lowe
Third Hemisphere
Tinder
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