Welcome to Pillar9

“A well-defined and proactive reputation management strategy is the central measurement for all of a business’ activities – it keeps all activities aligned and moving towards a common goal. Pillar9’s approach will ensure a strong and strategic start to this journey.”

Joanne Botha, Reputation Strategist and Owner of Pillar9

Pillar9 focuses on Strategic Development, Executive Profiling and Issues Management for leading lifestyle brands.

Established in 2015, Pillar9 develops and implements strategic reputation solutions, and where required, collaborates with other agencies throughout South Africa to provide the best implementation solutions.

Reputation management must be closely aligned to an organisation’s overall business strategy, and should be run in parallel. Through Pillar9’s experience and objective position, we can offer critical insight to the development, alignment and execution of reputation-related activities.

Reputation management traditionally has eight pillars, and Pillar9 provides the ninth, which brings and holds everything together. Pillar9’s model enables once-off solutions that support and strengthen existing client or agency communication teams.

Our Services

With over 20 years of experience as a leading corporate reputation strategist, Pillar9 offers:

Strategic Development

Strategic Development is a collaborative workshop that reviews your organisation’s business strategy and the current communication strategy.

During the session, we interrogate stakeholders’ needs as well as develop key messaging, activities and measurements.

We then work in collaboration with your management team to review all current activities and plan the year ahead.

The outcome is a proactive one-year strategy that can be easily implemented and tracked for adjustments and successes.

Executive Profiling

As the most important of the eight pillars of reputation management, leadership guides the perception of an organisation - both internally and externally.

Positive relationships with the press and a firm presence in key stakeholder engagement forums have a huge influence on what and how existing and potential customers think about you and your organisation.

Pillar9 works closely with CEOs and Executives to develop a thought leadership strategy that engages top media and stakeholders; as well as positions the individual as a key commentator with sought-out opinions.

Issues Management

Issues Management Workshops plan for proactive and reactive issues.

All issues and crises must be planned for, no matter how suddenly they appear.

Step one is to understand all the risks your company faces and what policies and procedures are in place to mitigate these risks.

Pillar9 plans the process and communications for these risks. We will work with organisations to develop a risk matrix and issues management framework that guides the processes, channels and content for a crisis.

This will enable companies to be as prepared as possible for and allow for quick, thoughtful responses in any crisis.

Media Relations

Media relations is a key function to reach a broad audience with a singular message.

Pillar9 has a wide network of media contacts from which to leverage your reputation and message.

We connect to the media on your behalf to create opportunities for media exposure across online, print and broadcast media.

We also manage ongoing relationships for mutually beneficial conditions in good times and bad.

Content Development

We focus on the development and leveraging of smart content and how can we create one thing and use it across omni-platforms.

Content development extends to writing and editing of opinion editorials, media releases, speeches, social media content as well as planning and development of video content and b-roll.

Pillar9 also assists in the coordination of photoshoots and photographic requirements.

Digital & Social

We have a full digital and social media capability through our network of suppliers.

This includes website content development, social media content, social media community management, strategic online advertising, SEO and Google Adwords.

What our Clients say

Our Experience

Pillar9 has worked with some of the best local and global brands from a range of fields including beverages, FMCG, infrastructure development, finance, automotive, consumer, multimedia, telecommunications, data analytics and technology.