Our Strengths

Brand
Story

We work together to define your purpose, then we craft your tone of voice and narrative for all earned and paid media.

Conscious Marketing & Communications Strategy

We bring to life creative ideas that align with your resources, your purpose, and deliver maximum impact. 

Media Buying
& Strategy

With our extensive knowledge of media channels, we ensure your ad spend is intentional, strategic, and worth every cent.

Media & Influencer
Relations

We offer extensive and influential networks in both traditional and social media.

Culture and
Diversity

We help you navigate diversity, inclusion, and culture in an authentic way, and build it into the heart of your business.

Campaign
Management

We manage your entire campaign: from strategy, to execution, to reporting your impact.

Editing / Publication
Management

Newsletters (eDMs), speeches, contributed articles, media releases and websites.

Artist
Promotion

Strategic music and entertainment industry advisory. Promotion, publicity and marketing expertise for music and creative artists.

Communications
Coaching

We host media training and strategy coaching for your team.

Crisis / Issues Management

A cool, collected approach to authentic resolution through communications.

Mihi
Blake

Co-founder

Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngai Tuhoe, Ngāti Maniapoto

Mihi knows her way around the NZ media landscape, having worked across all traditional and new media platforms.

She spent 15 years in NZ’s largest media companies integrating campaigns across digital, TV, radio and print before moving to specialise in communications.

Mihi applies her media strategy know-how and long term connections in the industry to ensure maximum impact for our kaupapa.

Mihi has a passion for supporting and empowering businesses and enterprises who have bold aspirations and a genuine desire to change their world. She specialises in advising companies to build diversity into the heart of their business and has a particular interest in helping to build cultural capability in organisations.

Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Mihi holds close connections in te ao Māori and alongside Noenoe guides Māori world view in the Māia team.

Bee
Stevenson

Co-founder

Bee brings two decades’ experience as a creative, publicist, brand strategist, marketer and writer. With qualifications in journalism, creative writing and creative advertising, Bee has led communications campaigns for a number of national and international brands.

Bee set up her own practice – Brave Bear Publicity – in 2013, with the goal to deliver brave ideas for brave clients driven by social impact.

Bee and Mihi partnered in 2020 over a shared value base and a desire to scale up their impact. Under Māia, Bee heads up our Māia cause and Māia conscious commerce pou. She works on creative strategy and brand positioning across all clients, while leading the writing team.
Based on the Kāpiti Coast, Bee is passionate about community, whānau and equipping the next generation with creative communication skills.

Tilly
van Eeden

Senior Communications Manager

Originally from the deep south, Tilly’s grandparents brought tulip farming to Aotearoa. After a 5 year-stint studying and working in the capital Tilly has made her way north and is now based in our Tāmaki Makaurau office.

She joined Māia in 2021 after completing her Bachelor of Communication degree at Massey University, where she received a Massey Scholar Award, a Dean’s List Award, and the PRINZ Prize in Public Relations Management. During her study, she gained top student awards in seven different courses.

Tilly’s star continued to rise quickly at Māia – she’s been published multiple times in the NZ media, she was behind the #GlowUpShowUp campaign for Rare Disorders and she spearheaded the 2021 launch of the award-winning MindTheGap a pay equity campaign.

She has also developed a proven formula for promotional success with recording artists, which is now used with all our independent artists.
Her ability to craft a brand narrative, crack a strategy or explode a story has led to real change for a number of the kaupapa we support. Also she’s a really nice human!

Noenoe
Barclay-Kerr

Communications and Ahurea Māori Lead

Waikato, Ngāti Māhuta, Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Māhanga

Noe worked in the media industry before joining Māia, where she gained skills presenting, translating, directing, producing, in content development and consulting – with a focus on progressing kaupapa Māori in that space. Her path has seen her working with large organisations and smaller companies who aim to build the cultural capacity of their business.

She is deeply involved in her community, which is heavily influenced by te ao Māori. Raised fully immersed in te reo Māori she has a BA in Te Reo me ngā Tikanga Māori from the faculty of Indigenous Studies at Waikato University.

Media and communications have become a passion for Noe, and this passion led her to Māia. At Māia Noe leads te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, and marries her growing skills in traditional communications with her innate knowledge and wisdom of all things Te Ao Māori, to help clients create truly integrated communications strategies that consider both business and kaupapa.

In her downtime, Noe sails waka hourua, and helps her whānau trust to educate rangatahi and tamariki on the importance of mātauranga Māori and the achievements of their tūpuna.

Phil
Howling

Campaign Manager

Phil is our Campaign Manager at Māia and brings a massive punch to our music and entertainment pou.

A highly experienced senior music and entertainment industry consultant, Phil has over 25 years experience working within both the highly competitive domestic and international music markets. He most recently spent 12 successful years heading Warner Music New Zealand. Previously, Phil held long and successful senior level positions in sales, marketing, publicity and promotion with Universal Music, Sony Music and EMI.

At Māia, Phil helps to onboard new clients across all pou and project manages social media campaigns and activations. He also works on building strategies, especially for our whānau of recording artists. Phil is also involved in the building of Māia Music, our platform for independent artists in Aotearoa.

Katie
Johnson

Communications Advisor

Ngāti Awa, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui

Passionate about purpose-driven mahi, Katie joined Māia in mid 2023 after completing a Bachelors of Arts (majoring in Screen & Media and Theatre studies) at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato (University of Waikato) in 2021.

During her tertiary journey, Katie became a student mentor and utilised social media platforms to provide tauira with support. She gained work experience in leading music projects with a local artist in Kirikiroa and set up online performances during COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2020 Katie was inducted as a member of Golden Key International Honour Society for her academic excellence.

Katie’s “work smarter not harder” approach to life stems from her two-decade relationship with cricket and hockey as a representative player through the school levels and coach as an adult in both codes.

A true all-rounder, Katie works across the Māia Kaupapa Māori, Conscious Commerce, Arts and Entertainment, and Causes Pou.