Our References

I highly recommend Headlines as a PR agency. Headlines was contracted by extrabold then Hospitality Property Fund to manage the communication of the refurbishment and relaunch of Mount Grace Country House and Spa, Crowne Plaza Johannesburg – The Rosebank as well as the launch of Holiday Inn Sandton. Headlines’ experience and understanding of the media was outstanding. The Headlines team were thorough in their execution of the brief and helped tremendously in successfully repositioning The Rosebank as a Crowne Plaza and in building on the reputation of Mount Grace as South Africa’s leading country house and spa. The team worked hard in crafting a communication strategy for each of the three properties and implemented and their knowledge and relationship with the press ensured excellent results. I am very confident in recommending them to any company requiring communication solutions. If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.
Luke Sacco – extrabold Director: Operations

I worked with Simone and the team from Headlines during my tenure as Head of Marketing for Popimedia. As a performance marketing company and Facebook Marketing Partner, we delivered results to clients through our Adtech platform. As an extension of my team, they delivered PR results and made my job easier. They would take the initiative in coming up with relevant stories and held the necessary relationships to bring those stories to life across relevant media. They’re a great team to work with and I look forward to seeing their continued success in delivery for clients.
Lisa Steingold – Popimedia: Head of Marketing

Thank YOU for all your help these past 7 months on Biz-community.com – your assistance has been invaluable and I look forward to working with you in 2005.
Louise Marsland, ex-editor, Biz-Community

This letter serves to confirm that Headlines PR Agency were engaged by Hospitality Property Fund “HPF” to launch the refurbished Crowne Plaza Rosebank Hotel and the renovated Mount Grace Hotel in Magaliesburg. Simone Appleton and her team were engaged after a thorough search and selection process was undertaken of several similar agencies. Headlines were absolutely incredible in their role – they clearly understood the brief and met with us a client several times, to ensure they had a proper understanding of the roles to be played and appreciate exactly where we were wanting to position the two properties. They tackled the projects with great energy and professionalism and ensured that the communication channels were kept open and that as client, we were appraised at all times of their plans and given detailed feedback from each of the project milestones. These two projects were very complicated, especially given the nature of the HPF ownership, Majormatic as the tenant, and two global brands IHG and Marriott with the African Pride brands as Franchisor. The projects also required a “hands-on” approach from our agency – which Simone and her colleagues excelled at, they were clearly properly networked with the correct travel media, industry role-players and relevant business journalists and time and again amazed us with their strong database of contacts. They were also incredible with their “value-add” offerings like training for the employees and assisted in drafting various sales and marketing techniques to enable our front line teams selling the property with greater confidence. They would host media events at the properties – working tirelessly alongside the teams to ensure the success, many times with that work taking place over the weekend and late hours. Needless to say, both the hotel openings were so successful, that we engaged Headlines on a permanent retainer basis post-opening to continue their excellent work. This continued until the Marriott team had their own in-house PR company and no longer required their services. I would have absolutely no hesitation to recommend Headlines for a similar Hotel Role in the luxury or five-star portfolio. They never allowed mediocrity to become their benchmark and continually impressed us with their innovation, strong network and on many occasions resourcefulness. The writer was the CEO for HPF and decision maker at the time. Please feel free to contact myself for any further clarification.
Andrew Rogers – Director

When I decided to list the company I founded, I approached Simone from HeadlinesPR to assist me with PR, media and brand building. By far the best money spend during the listing and afterwards was on HeadlinesPR – and then to be featured in the Brainstorm Magazine was the ultimate cherry on the top ! Thank you Simone – forever impressed by you and the team!
Antonie van Rensburg, Founder and ex CEO, 4Sight Holdings

Appointing Headlines is a decision that I have never regretted.  I just knew the work would be done”
Hapiloe Sello, Marketing Manager, Marketing Federation of South Africa

Headlines has a knowledgeable and proactive team which makes working with them a great pleasure. When it comes to implementation, they’re excellent – flexible, responsive and quick to adapt to meet the evolving needs of our growing organisation.
Maroba Maduma – SA Taxi: Communications Executive

My former agency, Proximity#ttp appointed Headlines in February 2005 to manage all the Public Relations for the agency. The relationship is still strong under the new management and continues to handle the entire PR for them. During the period I worked with Simone and her team, we enjoyed very visible media exposure in all relative publications (including Saturday Star, Marketing Mix, Biz Community, Marketing Web etc). The agency is highly proactive and pays due consideration to a sense of urgency and attention to detail. Due to the successful efforts and activities for our agency, in turn, I introduced Headlines to clients such as Toys R Us who appointed them to manage their PR agents, as well as to the Loeries Awards Company, a relationship that was then extended over a two year period. Headlines also managed the publicity for the Caples Awards on my behalf. Should I be in position to employ a PR Agency again, I would certainly work with them again, and when I do have the opportunity, I recommend Headlines to any business looking for their expertise.
Nici Stathacopoulos – Tipping Point: Owner

Headlines have ensured that all of their efforts have been aligned to the company’s overall Marketing and Communications strategy and have provided Tiscali with consistent and relevant publicity during this time. Their work has been a major contributing factor to our company’s overall success and has helped establish Tiscali as one of South Africa’s leading premier Internet Service providers to both the business and consumer markets.  I can confidently recommend Headlines as a solid and reliable Communications and PR partner as they are experts in their field.
Natalie Thayer – Tiscali South Africa: Head of Consumer Marketing

“Thank you for the support that Headlines has given Workgroup over the past three years in defining and managing our PR and media communications to the IT industry.  In this time your company and staff have acted in the most professional and dedicated manner and it is with a heavy heart that we part ways.  We have been very pleased with the results that your company has achieved for us and feel that you met our expectations extremely well.  Thank you for tailoring your business according to our needs in order for us to meet with all the various Business Units objectives. Again, it was a pleasure working with you.”
Doug Woolley, Managing Director, Workgroup

“Internet Solutions saw a significant improvement in its relationships and contact with members of the press as a result of Headlines’ efforts. This led to increased exposure in the trade and business press for Internet Solutions.”
Derek Wilcocks, ex Joint MD, Internet Solutions

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Headlines for outstanding effort on this account. I will have no hesitation in recommending Headlines as our PR agency of choice should the current BT strategic focus change.  In support of the above, I would like to commend Headlines on the ongoing work to support the ITS Netrix launch. Well Done.”
Craig Lowe, Strategic Initiatives Manager: BT Middle East and Africa