Sound Story acquires The Comms Department, Bec Brown joins as Strategic Advisor

Sound Story have announced the acquisition of The Comms Department and with it Comms Department founder Bec Brown (pictured) joins them as Strategic Advisor, expanding Sound Story’s capabilities across crisis and issues management, reputation advisory, executive communications and organisational change.

The Comms Department was founded in 2012 and has built an award-winning reputation for advising brands, leaders and organisations through complex, high-stakes, and reputation-sensitive moments across the media, entertainment, lifestyle, and corporate sectors. It continues to operate as a specialist brand alongside Sound Story, with the two businesses retaining complementary positioning.

Sound Story’s focus is on strategic comms and reputation with The Comms Department specialising in crisis and issues, change and transformation, mergers and acquisitions, executive advisory and media training.

Bec Brown works with Sound Story founders and Managing Partners Jake Challenor and Brian Lawlor, senior leaders Jane Elliott and Zanda Wilson as well as Jono Harrison, who recently joined as General Manager to oversee business growth and performance.

The two businesses have collaborated across several client projects in the last year, getting a clear sense of the strategic fit and shared standards.

Jake Challenor said:

“The role of communications has fundamentally changed over the last few years, with reputational issues sitting even closer to business strategy. Organisations are navigating more complexity, more scrutiny and faster-moving stakeholder environments than ever before.

That has made trusted strategic counsel significantly more valuable.

Bec has built an incredibly respected business with deep expertise across crisis, reputation and executive communications. Bringing that capability to the group strengthens the advice and support we can provide to clients during high-stakes moments.

This is an important next step in Sound Story’s growth and reflects where we believe the communications industry is heading – closer to business strategy, leadership and reputation.”

Bec Brown said:

“The Comms Department has always done its best work in complex situations where judgement, trust and communication genuinely matter.

Joining Sound Story gives The Comms Department a bigger platform for the next stage of its work, while protecting the relationships, discretion and values that have shaped the business over the past 14 years.

“Having partnered with Sound Story on several client projects, this next step isn’t theoretical. The work has been strong, the trust is already there, and we genuinely enjoy working together. There’s real alignment in how we think about communications – commercially grounded, deeply human, and always connected to long-term reputation.”