DOES anyone really understand public relations (PR) in Africa? Robyn de Villiers has spent more than a quarter of a century championing PR across the continent, but even she comprehends why newcomers often underestimate the available skills. After all, she’s done it herself.
De Villiers, Africa CEO of global PR consultancy Burson-Marsteller, was honoured for outstanding individual achievement last week at the annual Sabres, the world’s biggest PR awards programme.
At the event in Berlin, she was applauded for “being ahead of her time” in recognising Africa’s potential importance in the global PR business, and for helping turn that potential into reality.
It wasn’t always so. Johannesburg-based De Villiers recalls that in an early African foray by Arcay Communications — the agency she founded and which was later absorbed into Burson-Marsteller — domestic partners in a Nigerian PR campaign were relegated to chores, while South African project leaders did the “real” communications work.
“It was disrespectful,” she says. “The event itself was a success, but that did not justify the way we achieved it.”
She speaks from guilty experience when she says some clients and their communications agencies continue to misunderstand the continent. One assumption is particularly prevalent among multinationals: that Africa is a common market — that what works in this country, will work in the rest of Africa.
This isn’t limited to PR. South African-based advertising, media, branding, and activation agencies all experienced similar naiveté.
Every African country, they tell their clients, is different.
Some countries are multiple markets in one. The main difference, though, is in the way messages are shared. Consumers generally want similar things. But not all markets share the same exposure to radio, TV, newspapers, or the internet. In some countries, events-activation is king.
A long time ago, none of this would have worried certain PR agencies. They were bit-part players in the communications field. Rather like rugby substitutes, they were brought on for impact late in the game.
But the PR agency of the 21st century is a different animal. For many, it’s about corporate communications in its broadest sense of the word.
Another Johannesburg agency, Magna Carta, which was named Africa PR consultancy of the year at the Sabres, doesn’t even identify itself as a PR entity. It’s a reputation management agency.
Other skills of the modern agency include communications strategy development, crisis communications, public affairs, investor relations, and communications skills training.
Instead of being called in as an afterthought, De Villiers says PR agencies have become a true business partner. “I think the PR industry has come into its own.”
She was among the first to take this message north of the Limpopo. And she hasn’t limited herself to sub-Saharan Africa.
She’s operated in almost all Africa’s 55 countries. Burson-Marsteller Africa provides services in 52, with offices in more than 30. These affiliates and partner agencies are “independent, self-sufficient businesses” run by locals.
This on-the-ground presence is critical, says De Villiers. Only locals truly understand their own market. While Burson-Marsteller Africa’s Johannesburg head office may decide on overall strategy on behalf of clients, individual operations tailor and implement.
She says: “When I started my original business and began operating in Africa, I determined that one of the chief values would be a partnership approach.”
Not everyone shares that ideal. Some South African and global communications agencies still drop staff in and out of countries when the need arises, to manage campaigns they are involved in.
“You must trust your people on the ground,” De Villiers says. “Our job in SA is to co-ordinate.”
And to train. With its greater resources and access to skills, SA is a natural training hub. With Arcay Communications, she founded an African training academy 20 years ago, and she now heads the training arm of the African Public Relations Association.
Demand for skills will continue to grow, she says. After decades of economic underperformance that made it the continent a virtual sideshow in the global consumer market, growing numbers of global companies believe it is starting to break out of the cycle.
“Clients see Africa as a place of opportunity,” De Villiers says.
“As it becomes more wealthy, people will buy more things. It is becoming a significant market. Clients now realise they have to concentrate on reputations in Africa, but have to do it differently.”
Last week wasn’t the first time De Villiers and her network have been noticed. Burson-Marsteller Africa has won Sabre’s African agency award twice — most recently in 2015 — and in 2015, it also won the Financial Mail’s AdFocus Award for African agency network in 2015. For this, it beat off challenges from networks across all brand communications and marketing disciplines.