MELBOURNE — Bastion has launched a new division, Bastion Advocate, to harness the power of influencers and drive audience interaction. Bastion Advocate will sit within the agency’s integrated communications arm Bastion Amplify, bolstering the latter’s influencer practice. The Advocate division will be led by senior client director Morgan Sutherland (pictured). The move comes as Bastion joins forces with multicultural marketing agency CulturalPulse to develop content and effectively engage diverse communities. The expansion means Bastion will be able to provide an end-to-end advocacy offering, from strategy to sourcing, negotiation, briefing and campaign management,  adding to the agency’s expertise in PR, social, creative, digital, and experiential marketing.

SYDNEY — Melbourne’s Think HQ has expanded its presence to Sydney by opening an office in Surry Hills, staffed with a team of four professionals. The team includes account directors Tom Hines and Nickie Flambouras, group account director Blake Mason and account manager Evie McCullough. This team will spearhead the agency's foray into Sydney, introducing its approach to inclusive communications and creativity to a broader range of organizations. Mason joins from Herd MSL, where he held a diversity and inclusion lead role. Flambouras most recently spent four years at Multicultural NSW. Hines is a former senior account manager at Bite Communications and McCullough served as communications manager at the Institute of International and European Affairs.

MUMBAI — Adfactors is offering a new scholarship for students at India’s School of Communications & Reputation. Launched in partnership with the Future Communications Foundation, the Adfactors PR Future Communicators Foundation Scholarship will provide two annual scholarships at US$2500 for students enrolled at the school, which covers the cost of tuition for the 10-month program. The 2023 Scholarship theme is “Sustainability Communication — Addressing the Challenges.” Students are asked to create a brief for a mock campaign emphasising communication strategies that address the waste management issue in India. The aim of the FCF Scholarship is to think creatively about sustainability as an environmental issue of major concern, as well as how to circulate important ideas using low-cost and limited means in their local community.