We believe in the power of authenticity and creative storytelling to help our clients gain visibility, make connections that matter, and take their businesses to new heights of success and impact.
We focus on people, not products, to create campaigns that resonate with the media and target audiences.
We are big believers in research and strong writing to bring our clients’ stories to life.
We are proudly based in Lagos, Nigeria.
Early-stage African startups (pre-series A) usually first consider PR when they have a newsworthy announcement. With this in mind, we recommend a laser-focused PR campaign.
We help clients maximize exposure from their news with placements in international, regional, and local media to connect with target audiences.
We know exactly what the media is looking for when covering news and features. Working together, we will discover your powerful stories and insights, packaging them in a way that will grab journalists’ attention.
With a fixed project fee, pegged to milestones, this approach is good for companies new to PR, those building out their marketing and/or communications teams, and for post-seed/pre-series B startups who are working with a publicist for the first time.
As startups grow into fully-fledged companies, they often find that they need more than a 3-month PR campaign. What they need is to establish their brand.
We will research and master the high-level fundamentals of your business, and identify opportunities for interesting stories that drive brand awareness, teasing out the editorial approach and informing the creative treatment.
We tailor each project to specific client briefs and provide bespoke budget proposals based on the scope of work.
An inimitable brand is built not on what you want to sell but what audiences find interesting -- creative and beautifully crafted stories that matter.
If you’re a company going Pan-African with the makings of a brilliant story, we’ll create an on-brand content strategy that is creative, compelling, and committed to igniting a conversation.
Whatever your level of PR experience is, we will support you with effective media engagement, cultivating win-win relationships with relevant journalists. Our clientele has appeared in leading global publications including the FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, BBC, CNN, Quartz, The Africa Report, CNBC Africa, Next Billion, Impact Alpha, and Project Syndicate.
Omnibiz is a Nigerian e-commerce company for the informal retail sector. In recent years, B2B e-commerce has become extremely competitive. There are dozens of startups targeting informal retailers and raising large rounds.
READ MORENot your average publicist, Victoria combines a nuanced understanding of African markets with creative flair. She brings her unique experiences and insights from her past work as a commodity analyst and financial journalist to help her clients gain visibility and turn into global leaders. Victoria has 15 years experience and has lived in West Africa for nearly a decade.
Public relations (PR) is all about shaping the public perception of your company.
PR helps to raise your profile, build a strong reputation, and connect with your key audiences: investors, international partners and talent.
While there is a lot of overlap between the two, PR is not marketing. (To be more precise, it is not product marketing - which is the focus of most early stage companies.)
Product marketing aims to acquire customers. It’s about sales.
PR is about reputation building and getting on the radar of key audiences who can move your business forward.
As PR goals are not the same as those of marketing, you need to use a distinctly different approach.For more on this topic, check out this article I wrote for the All Killer/No Filter newsletter.
Startups begin to work with a publicist when they’re between seed and Series-A. The catalyst event for PR is a Series-A fundraise announcement. Not only are you at the stage where an investment in PR makes sense, you’re guaranteed to secure media coverage in international media. A Series-A fundraise is newsworthy and will attract media attention.
Fundraise campaigns last for 4-weeks.
I require a minimum 3-month commitment for a PR project.
That gives me enough time to research the startup and founders, deliver a communications strategy, and tease out the tactics to deliver real results.
You are a thought leader when you’re perceived as a go-to resource and authority on your industry. You contribute interesting and forward-looking ideas in the public forum. You write op-eds, blog posts or Twitter threads that get shared because they add something new to the conversation - a new take, data, or counter-intuitive analysis.
The more good content you put out into the world the more you attract inbound requests from journalists or policy analysts that seek your perspective and commentary.
An op-ed is an article published in a media platform. It is a concise argument on a topic that is relevant to your brand. It could be on your industry, a subject you’re passionate about (jobs for African youth) or a response to a controversial subject.
Op-eds cannot be advertorial. Media platforms all have their own stylistic preferences but you cannot plug your company in an op-ed. The byline - with your name and company - is the opportunity for people to discover you.
Editors choose whether to publish pieces from outside contributors. Publicists do not control whether an op-ed gets picked up. If the first choice platform rejects the piece, I proceed to pitch it to other media. This can make the op-ed cycle from drafting to placement quite long.
In contrast, self-published content has no gatekeepers. You control publishing by putting it on your company blog, Medium page, and sharing snippets (and a link to the piece) on social media.
For traditional PR and thought leadership projects, I offer the following services:
Working with Dunbar Creative, my design partner, I can give a face lift to your brand kit: logo, colors, typography and images. Get in touch for a consultation to discuss your branding needs.
No, I do not offer a la carte services. I find that an end-to-end PR approach - strategy development to tactics - guarantees the best results for clients.
Most people associate PR with media relations or "earned media” -- when journalists write stories (profiles, features, etc) about your startup.
But the media only writes stories that are considered newsworthy. Of course the definition of newsworthiness is different depending on the publication. I wrote more about this here.
If the international media a is going to write about you, you need a newsworthy story: big fundraise, partnership with a big international player (think Visa, etc) or a
Traditional PR in which media relations plays a big role is largely about amplifying newsworthy announcements.
Multimedia storytelling solves a different pain point. At a certain stage, companies want to be intentional and deliberate in their brand building.
Traditional PR isn't the right tool for raising low brand awareness.
Companies can't consistently earn media coverage due to a lack of newsworthy announcements. Or, if a company is highly technical and product-focused, their story might fail to capture the attention of a broader audience.
They need a more creative approach to grab the attention of their key audiences.
When companies turn to brand storytelling, they have bigger budgets for working with creative talent (photographers, filmmakers, and writers) and the patience to engage in a long-term endeavor.
PR campaigns and projects can run from 4-weeks to three to four months. Thought leadership and multimedia storytelling projects vary in length depending on the scope of work. I do not accept success fees.
I only accept payment in US$.