PRAgencyoftheYear

PR AGENCY OF THE YEAR: Eclipse Communications

More strings to its bow provides the winning edge

Eclipse Communications staff

he Covid-19 pandemic presented

Talmost unprecedented opportunities for public relations agencies, given that many of the responses around the pandemic required a communications intervention. This category demonstrated clearly that with every crisis comes a great opportunity to speak differently —and PR is a great tool to deliver this message.

Though this was a hotly-contested category, Eclipse Communications stood out as a c le a r w i n ne r . For a PR agency that opened its doors 22 years ago, Eclipse has had no problem in keeping up with fundamental changes in the media industry, evolving its services to ensure clients get full service solutions to their everyday communications challenges. From humble beginnings with just two clients, the agency has grown exponentially —t u r no v e r has increased by 300% in the past five years alone. It achieved 50% year-on-year growth of large retainer clients, with a focus on the entertainment, ICT, engineering and financial services industries.

The agency’s five biggest accounts are Netflix, Enel Green Power SA, EIE Group, M&C Saatchi Abel and Cape Union Mart.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic was a definite low point for the business, resulting in staff retrenchments, client losses and project delays. On the upside, over the past 20 months the agency has grown its digital business from a zero base in October 2018 to a point where its digital and content divisions now equate to 10% of the company’s annual turnover.

If there is a secret to Ec l ip s e Co m mu n ic at io n s ’s u cce s s , it would be that it is driven by its commitment to diversity in terms of the people it hires, the skills it offers, the cross-functional teams it builds and its entrepreneurial spirit which provides an agile and innovative response to the needs of its clients. Also central to its success is that despite its flexibility and responsiveness to c h a nge and the evolving needs of its clients, it has r e m a i ne d at hearta communications agency. Co-founder Steve Powellequates this diversification to the agency having “mo r e strings to its bow”. Global pandemic aside, in 2020 the agency has launched two new business offerings: AMPlify and Collide. AMPlify will cater to the arts and entertainment industry, while Collide specialises in digital and print design as well as virtual and hybrid events.

Edelman SA was also nominated in this category. The PR agency managed to grow by 34% this year, supporting its clients throughout the lockdown period. Since its establishment in Joburg in 2013, Edelman has had a positive track record, quadrupling in size over the past seven years. This is attributed to the agency generally maintaining its clients with little churn, as well as its approach to hiring staff. It s focus on diversity and entreprene u r s h ip means it often hires outside the traditional PR mould, resulting in a broad complement of skills.

Also a contender was Razor Public Relations, a member of the M&C Saatchi Abel group. Razor was launched in January 2020 just before the global pandemic, with no clients or employees. Yet it had a challenge in mind: for the PR industry to create better and more meaningful work. Since then, it has acquired work from some of the country’s biggest brands, including Investec, Tiger Brands, the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, the SA National Editors’Forum and Dimension Data, illustrating yet again that out of every crisis there is opportunity.