From R175 Petrol Money to fFont-Page News: The Cold Email That Launched a South African PR Success Story
Businesswoman. Anneke Burns remembers the drive better than the meeting.
She was pregnant with her second child, completely out of clients, and living with her in-laws. Her husband had handed her the very last of their money—just R175—and she used it to put fuel in the tank.
“It felt like I was a millionaire driving on the N1,” she recalls, “going to meet these potential new clients.”
Months prior, her first client contracts had wrapped up, forcing her family to move in with her in-laws. Working strictly from her mobile phone without a
laptop, Burns spent weeks sending cold emails to any organization that might need a communications adviser.
The Free Market Foundation answered. They invited her to an in-person pitch, liked her sharp strategic insights on their governance challenges, and signed her on.
The timing proved electric. As South Africa began debating coalition governments and the Moonshot Pact, Burns’s boutique agency, ABPR, secured the Foundation front-page coverage in The Star.
Suddenly, her client was driving the national political conversation, giving much larger, long-established think tanks a run for their money.
“Taking them from obscurity into the national conversation was riveting for me,” Burns says. Her drive came from a refusal to fall by the wayside. While she deeply loves being a mother, she adds, “having a career is such an integral part of who I am.”
Today, ABPR represents a thriving roster of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across property, consumer goods, and healthcare. The agency consistently places client stories on SABC News, the Sunday Tribune, and Power Talk radio.
Yet, looking at the broader economic landscape, Burns is deeply concerned by how many small businesses remain invisible.
She argues that because most small businesses never tell their stories, society loses out on hearing from the very people keeping South Africa running.
She is equally quick to warn entrepreneurs against desperate media tactics. “Bad publicity is not good publicity,” Burns cautions. “Bad publicity can destroy years and years of hard work.”
- ABPR communications agency, Anneke Burns, Anneke Burns ABPR success story, cold email strategy, Free Market Foundation, MDNTV, mdntvlive, mdntvnews, public relations South Africa, R175 business story, small business media coverage, SME communications strategy, South African media relations, South African PR entrepreneur, women entrepreneurs South Africa
