About

It’s simple really. We find creative solutions to help tell great stories about your business or organisation.

[We’re especially good at making the complex, seem simple.]

But if we have to get technical about it, then you could call us a public relations and communications agency. What our clients know however, is we’re a whole lot more than that.

Affectionately known as Commshake to our friends, the agency began in early 2016, when owner/director Courtney Blacker launched it from a laptop on her loungeroom floor. Fast forward t now, and we’re now operating a fast-paced firm with a local office, growing team and more than 50 clients on the books.

We’ve supported our clients to score major international media coverage, attract positive front page news, built creative communications strategies on national award-winning projects, delivered successful rebrand initiatives and deliver exceptional social media campaigns.

Our small, passionate team is made up of professional and creative communicators, journalists, photographers, digital marketing strategists, social media experts and more. We also work alongside exceptional local graphic designers, web developers and animation artists to ensure we can offer the full range of creative services to small, medium and large organisations.

Our goal is to boost the public reputation of our clients, recognising that good communication, takes great skill. Everyone can ‘communicate’, but few do it well.

People come to Commshake for support on their ideas. Often this is because they don’t have the skills in-house, or the time to deliver effective communications and media work (or complex PR and marketing strategies). Others simply understand the importance of good communications strategy and want to outsource this work to experts in the field (ahem, yes that’s us). Other times it’s because business owners are so busy ‘doing the doing’, that they don’t have time to do things like maintain their social media feeds, learn how to build Facebook ads, write press releases, publish e-newsletters, start blogging, or even contemplate an organisational rebrand.

Here’s the way we see it: You bring in an accountant as your expert in tax, a caterer to make sure you have good food (and wine) for events, a recruitment company to find the perfect person for your team … and you bring in Commshake (again, that’s us) as your expert in communications. Because of course, when all of these things are done well – you can just focus on doing great business.

Our Creative Team

Courtney Blacker

Courtney Blacker
Owner and Managing Director

Courtney’s sleeves-rolled-up, hands-on approach to public relations has won her accolades from clients around South Australia.

Dynamic leader, writer, strategist and savvy businesswoman; Courtney has earned a five-star reputation for the quality of her work, clear approach and ability to put her clients in the spotlight.

As Managing Director of Commshake – a business she has built in her beloved Murray River region – Courtney has developed strong working relationships with stakeholders from all walks of life. She has a natural flair for writing and strategy development, delivering numerous successful and highly praised multi-channel communication programs for a range of clients – all treated with the highest level of respect by Courtney and her team.

‘Through Commshake, my real desire is to help regional communities and businesses reach their potential, and to give our clients the support and confidence they need to succeed.’

When she’s not bending over backwards to reward clients with quality high-profile campaigns, social media content, creative marketing ideas or conflict resolution, Courtney dedicates time to her other passions – family (with two little ones she can almost recite Moana word-for-word), sport, the beach and wine.

Although her real life goal is to become a full time food/wine blogger (just imagine getting paid to eat and drink the world’s best produce on a daily basis and then write about it!), she’s pretty chuffed with the exceptional agency she’s created, which allows her help boast globally about the best parts of SA’s regions.

Lisa Phal

Lisa Pahl
Senior Consultant

Lisa has had a love affair with beautiful prose since she can remember. Her exceptional writing skills and love of sharing a everyone else’s great stories are the only things getting in the way of her real desire to become the next best-selling novelist.

Lisa began her writing career as a journalist and then Deputy Editor in the Riverland, before quickly being promoted to the senior journalist and sub-editor role at an Adelaide Hills newspaper. From here she discovered a passion for research and storytelling, uncovering some exceptional news across the State’s regions and picking up awards for her coverage.

Because being a mother-of-two and senior journo wasn’t enough, Lisa recently threw herself back in to uni and has graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Public Relations – adding this weapon to her creative communications tool-kit. From here she went on to freelance as a media writer, before being snapped up by Commshake as one of our best creative minds (and we’re wondering how we ever survived without her).

Lisa’s greatest asset is in the way she respectfully and thoughtfully approaches her work. She always wants to ensure our clients are getting the best of her skills to suit their specific goals, and quite often you’ll catch her fist-pumping the air when she knows she’s managed to land them a lead news feature somewhere.

Jessica Jellet

Jessica Jellett
Communications Consultant

Our digital savvy (almost millennial) Jess keeps us on top of all things social media at CommshakeHQ. Her constant desire to capture the perfect Insta-worthy moments – coupled with her knowledge of all things trending online – means we’re always at the forefront of new developments in Facebook, Instagram and every other worthwhile platform being used in the PR space.

Jess has come to us fresh from uni, with a degree in XXX. A self-confessed wannabe travel blogger, Jess has the perfect talent and passion to help deliver social media campaigns and other digital activity for our clients.

Although quiet in nature, her natural flair for content creation, means she has an exceptionally bright future in the field and we’re excited that she’s starting it with us – helping to provide our clients with their daily, weekly and monthly social media calendars and strategies. Just ask her about hashtags… seriously, you’ll discover something you never realised about this iconic symbol-led social phrasing culture!

Jess regularly makes the rest of us in the office feel like geriatrics with her talk on how to take the perfect selfie, which gin bars are trending and her exceptionally on-trend wardrobe.

Gretchen Scannell

Gretchen Scannell
Office and Finance Manager

Gretch is the glue that keeps us all together. While her exceptional skill set and understanding of all facets of business are the primary reasons she works for us, her ability to keep us all on track and the ticking along in synch comes a close second (plus she keeps the biscuit barrel and coffee selections full).

Gretch ensures that the office runs smoothly and effectively for our team. Her efficiency is second to none and she manages all the day-to-day tasks that the business throws at her like a true pro. Our clients might hear from Gretch from time-to-time, but for the most of it, she gets her best work done behind the scenes at Commshake.

Amongst Gretch’s other talents are her ability to still do the splits (whaaaaat!), and do 400-odd calf raises without raising a sweat.

Seriously, we’d be lost without her.

Our Creative Partners

No Anchovies Studios

Brad Pickford
No Anchovies Studios

Hailing originally from Sydney, but now based in the Clarendon, Brad is an animation and graphic design expert, and the director of creative agency No Anchovies Studios. His work is meticulous, and his creative genius is second-to-none. Each time we see Brad’s graphics come through, there’s a collective ‘gasp’ in the office at his pure brilliance.

We’ve collaborated with No Anchovies Studios on some fun projects like the award-winning Coorong Healthy Highways program, The Davery Establishment rebrand and the new Coonalpyn Merchandise design portfolio (to name a few). He’s our go to guy on all things creative design, and a master of it all.

Outside of the work he does with Commshake, Brad has delivered major projects for companies such as XX, XXX and XXXX. See more of his work here

Kylie Martin Creative

Kylie Martin
Kylie Martin Creative

Kylie is and old friend of Commshake, but with brilliant new ideas on graphic design and web development. We love that Kylie does her work from a farm house based in Wynarka in the State’s Mallee district. She’s our favourite salt-of-the-earth type colleague, who delivers brilliant work every time, adding her beautiful style to all of the designs she puts together.

We’ve worked with Kylie to bring the Coorong District Council’s Coorong Connect community newsletter back to life, as well as giving some flair to advocacy flyers for the Murray Coorong Trail and brochures for fashion house Bridge Street Boutique.

Kylie’s also doing great things in web development and is an expert in creating new logos for small business and organisations. See more of her work here.

Jennings Media

Jacob Jenning
Jennings Media

Jacob Jennings is one of South Australia’s best emerging photographers. His exceptional talent for capturing moments, faces, landscapes and icons ensures we can trust him on any of our projects. Some of Jacob’s most recent work with us, has helped the Murray River, Lakes and Coorong Tourism Alliance land a finalist nomination as one of the State’s best tourism destination marketing campaigns in 2019. He also helps us build brilliant galleries for our clients websites and social media needs.

Ocho Creative

Paul Heidenreich
Ocho Creative

Paul and his team are experts in digital design and branding, and have supported our team to develop modern and unique campaigns. We love the subtle design and artistry in the Ocho concepts, making these guys one of our favourite partners on our most creative projects.

DSRPT Media

Shane Merchant
DSRPT Media

Shane is the young, gifted, intelligent and driven Millennial we all want working with us. He’s up to date on EVERYTHING happening in digital marketing, and is an expert on social media marketing, web development and other inbound marketing strategies.

Originally hailing from Murray Bridge, Shane made a move to Port Lincoln to explore another part of our great State (and attempt to catch more King George Whiting), but we never let him forget where he comes from and still tap into his skills from time to time, making sure we get the best of his brain on a range of social media projects.

Shane has worked with us on building the blogging profile of Murray Bridge accounting firm We All Count, designed and edited social media videos such as the Mid Murray Council’s Open Space, Recreation and Public Realm Strategy awareness campaign and helped us put together the regional tourism (Murray River, Lakes and Coorong) monthly industry e-newsletter.