Berkeley Communications launches in Australia under Povel Torudd
Berkeley Communications has this week launched into the Australian market, adding to the UK-head-quartered agency’s presence in the US and Germany, Mumbrella can reveal.
The agency will be headed up locally by Povel Torudd, who has recently returned to Australia after eight years working in international roles for security tech Kaspersky.
During his previous stint in the Australian market between 2004 and 2014, Torudd held roles at Porter Novelli, Sling & Stone, Professional Public Relations (PPR) and Hausmann Communications, amongst others.
The business launches with several global clients on the books, with Torudd so far the sole hire in the Australian market. The agency will commence recruitment in the new financial year, with the vision being to grow the team out to around 10 staff over the next few years.
Berkely Communications offers a “fresh and new” offering to the Australian market, Torudd said, with the focus being on its legacy in “deep vertical storytelling development”.
Specialising in storytelling for brands in the B2B tech scale up space, Berkeley Communications is at the same time launching its Berkeley Storytelling Academy, which will host its first session with business leaders in Sydney this week.
“Storytelling is talked about a great deal, but nobody really has codified it,” global CEO Chris Hewitt told Mumbrella. “That’s why we created the academy.”
The academy teaches business leaders with a six-step storytelling process Hewitt has created to “bring a little bit of Hollywood to the more prosaic world of B2B comms.” While the course is itself a standalone service, Hewitt explained that it often acts as a “Trojan horse” into more ongoing PR work.
“We are bringing people in to learn and to experience that formula and leave the room with a new way and a mindset around how they’ll communicate in the future,” he said.
“On one level it’s a marketing tool, but we’re just spreading the word,” he continued. “The way to do that is to get people in the room and give them value.”
Chris Hewitt (L) and Povel Torudd (R)
Torudd said that the biggest opportunity for the agency is in being part of the maturing of the “storytelling movement” in Australia, and continuing to push it forward locally.
“There’s so much innovation happening here. There’s a lot of opportunities for businesses to go out and spread their wings. Whether there is a recession or not coming, who knows? But, regardless of that, there’s a lot of exciting stories in Australia happening and them out there I think is really a cool thing.”
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topics
Berkeley Communications
Berkely Storytelling Academy
Chris Hewitt
Povel Torudd
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