Special PR Welcomes Natasha D’Souza as Senior PR Director

Special PR welcomes Natasha D’Souza as senior PR director to lead the agency’s lifestyle and consumer clients. 

The hire results from Special PR bolstering its offering, launching three sectors – Lifestyle, Consumer Business, and Social & Influence.

Natasha D’Souza joins from the Thrive PR & Communications senior management team, where she led major global accounts, including the likes of Airbnb, LEGO and Afterpay.

Working on campaigns that had significant local and global impact, Natasha has experience executing large-scale integrated PR work. Most notably, Airbnb’s ‘Hobbiton’ – a bookable experience allowing Airbnb customers to book an overnight stay at Hobbiton. She also led the launch of various LEGO campaigns, including bringing giant LEGO bauble builds to Aotea Square for Christmas in 2022. 

At Special PR, Natasha will be responsible for leading the agency’s lifestyle offering, team recruitment and development. Key lifestyle accounts include Jaguar Land Rover, Tourism New Zealand, Trade Me, Tourism Fiji, and Hawke’s Bay Tourism and several exciting, large-scale projects expected to launch next month. 

“I am joining Special PR at a very exciting time. We are expanding at an impressive rate, with some brilliant projects in the pipeline. I’ve always admired the team at Special and their commitment to delivering bold and progressive work that naturally demands attention and talkability. I’m thrilled to officially be a part of this talented group.”, says Natasha.

General manager of Special PR, Kelly Grindle, added, “I couldn’t be more excited to have Natasha in our corner. She has invaluable experience and will massively impact what we can offer as an agency.”

“As we expand and onboard more new and exciting clients, we want to ensure that our services remain world-class – so reorganising the agency to help us grow is a logical step.”

Special PR is actively seeking senior leadership to lead the Consumer Business and Social & Influence teams, which spans additional accounts, including the likes of Kiwibank, Contact, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, Datacom, and Better Packaging Co.