SA PR specialist awarded Sabre; 2 African agencies receive top award
Ford Motor Company's (Ford) communications director, Dustin Chick, will receive an Outstanding Individual Achievement award from Provoke Media. In addition, Provoke Media’s top African PR agencies for 2025 are Retroviral and the South African operation of global public relations agency We. Communications - the first time it has awarded two trophies for African agencies.
Dustin Chick will be awarded two Outstanding Individual Achievement awards while Provoke Media’s top African PR agencies for 2025 are Retroviral and the South African operation of global public relations agency We. Communications (Image @ Provoke Media Provoke Media
Chick, who recently joined Ford after six years at Razor, will receive the award next week at the Provoke Media and Public Relations & Communications Association conference in Johannesburg.
It is his tenure at Razor that earned Chick the Sabre Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Together with M&C Saatchi, Chick launched the PR agency during the Covid-19 pandemic; despite this, it has been the fastest-growing startup in M&C Saatchi’s history and the most awarded agency in Africa and from Africa.
Currently, he chairs the PRCA ethics and practices board in Africa and is an executive board member for Africa.
Earlier this year, he was named a Fellow of the Public Relations Consultants Association. He was named South Africa’s best PR Professional in 2021 by the Public Relations Institute of SA (Prisa) and among Provoke Media’s Top 25 Innovators in public relations across EMEA in 2023 and 2019
In his new role at Ford, Chick leads the end-to-end communications function, including corporate, internal, product, and CSR communications for one of the largest brands in Africa.
Best African agencies
Retroviral and We. Communications will receive their trophies at the African Sabre Awards on June 12 in Mombasa, Kenya, also part of the African Public Relations Association meeting.
Provoke Media’s new 10 Best Public Relations Firms in Africa list also includes:
- Blast Burson of Mauritius
- South African firms Clockwork and Razor
- African operations of multinationals Burson and Edelman
- Glass House PR of Nigeria
- Pan-African network Irvine Partners
- Public affairs specialist Ethicore.
“Our 10 Best list shows the increasing depth and specialisation of firms in Africa, with winners from several major markets and several different specialities,” says Paul Holmes, editor of PRovoke Media.
“These are firms that are innovative storytellers, using digital and social media and a wide range of content to tell those stories.”