Fairfax Media’s brand and content studio ‘Made’ appoints Mike Thomas in creative director role

Fairfax Media’s brand and content studio, MADE, has appointed one of Australia’s most experienced and awarded creative minds Mike Thomas as creative director. Respected journalist and editor Kate Cox has also joined, appointed editorial director and David Rogers has joined as commercial director – Custom MADE.

Led by managing director, Simon Smith, MADE is Fairfax Media’s brand and content studio, established to help brands engage with audiences to tell their story in an authentic and genuine way.

As creative director, Thomas leads MADE’s creative offering across all media channels. During his career at Clemenger, Ogilvy, McCann and Dentsu, Thomas won awards at major festivals including D&AD (British Design & Art Direction), Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, AWARD and The One Show.

Thomas has also won the FACTS ‘Commercial of the Year’ and has helped to build some of the world’s most famous brands including Qantas ‘I still call Australia home’, creating ‘Dougie the pizza boy’ for Pizza Hut, co-writing ‘Share the Spirit’ for Sydney’s successful bid for the 2000 Olympics and launching A2 Milk in Australia.

As editorial director, Cox will lead MADE’s content creation arm and manage an extensive contributor network of talented and influential writers, bloggers, producers, videographers and editors. She is responsible for ensuring a high editorial standard for all commercial content, including native advertising, and will have a strong focus on client-owned media channels.

Cox began her career at The Sydney Morning Herald and has worked across news and lifestyle in print, digital, mobile and strategy. The former editor of the Sun-Herald and Sunday Life most recently held the role as Fairfax’s national managing editor of Food, which she will continue in the interim.

As commercial director – Custom MADE, Rogers will be responsible for identifying new custom publishing business opportunities and spearheading key content collaborations and partnerships. With a passion for custom media and content creation, Rogers brings a wealth of experience having previously worked at NewsLifeMedia as group sales director for the

​Premium Food Group and Partnerships, and Australian Consolidated Press Custom Publishing (now Bauer Media) as the national advertising director for Q Media.

Says Simon Smith, managing director, MADE: “MADE by Fairfax Media has a world-class team to offer advertisers and agencies a range of content solutions, from publishing via owned channels to creating brand messages to engage and entertain the Fairfax audience. The appointments of such industry heavyweights in Kate, Mike and David to the MADE team demonstrates our commitment to delivering best-in-class content marketing services to advertisers and agencies.”