“We are thrilled to have been named the Financial Mail AdFocus African Agency Network of the Year for the second year in a row,” said Robyn de Villiers, chairman and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Africa. “Our commitment to growing partnerships has underpinned Burson-Marsteller’s activities across Africa and this award is a tribute to our partners and to every member of our African team, in all 53 countries we cover on the continent.
“Each one of our partners is individually respected in its own country, and collectively we are recognised as the pre-eminent African communications network.”
In 2014, Burson-Marsteller rebranded the network it acquired in 2011 to Burson-Marsteller Africa and simultaneously announced branded partner offices in 27 countries. Later that year, that number increased to 29 with the signing of two additional affiliate partnership contracts, both of which had been long-standing exclusive affiliates.
In October 2016, the number increased to 36 countries with the launch of Blast Burson-Marsteller in the Indian Ocean Islands, Marketing On Burson-Marsteller in Angola, and the extension of its existing partnership with Icon Burson-Marsteller in Cameroon into two new territories – Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon.
“In the case of Burson-Marsteller Africa, the African proverb ‘if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together’ is absolutely true. Partnership is everything to us,” concludes De Villiers.
