Cape Argus (City Late)
Opening the door to future careers

Client: UCT Graduate School of Business (Corporate Department)
The Business School is one of our first clients, having been with Rothko for 11 years. Over time each department within the GSB has become a client in its own right with its own positioning and PR needs.

For this piece, the GSB needed something written up about the MBA class project for Strategy Design and Creativity (SDC). So we thought it best to have first-hand experience of what we were to write about and arranged that we joined the two students at the motivation workshop they were giving to informal business owners in Langa, a township outside Cape Town. We spent the entire day there, listening, and watching. The work being done was touching and needed to be reflected accurately. It required a feature, with juxtapositions between city and township; an article that somehow gave voice to the concerns of the informal business owners while bringing out the most important possible solutions the students offered in response. The Cape Argus newspaper picked up the piece and the SDC students used it for their portfolio.

CEO Special Edition
The best of the best

Client: CRF Institute South Africa
We have been working with the CRF Institute for almost two years, helping them to communicate the importance of their three campaigns and associated publications (SA’s Best Employers, Careers SA and SA’s Leading Managers) to different target groups.

Best Employers SA is the CRF’s flagship campaign and publication. This annual campaign profiles and markets South Africa’s best companies to work for are through print, as well as through a series of online and social media communication channels. The companies are put through rigorous investigation and must comply with an internationally researched HR benchmark in order to be certified as one of SA’s best employers.

This particular article presents the number one Best Employer for the 2010/2011 campaign. Each year the announcement is made at an exclusive gala award ceremony event, which is where these photos were taken.

The Thinker
CHSA proves that poverty need not stand in the way of success

Client: Christel House South Africa (CHSA)

Rothko has been working with the Christel House school since 2006 and has been part of the school’s steady increase in public awareness since its inception in South Africa in 2000. CHSA first came on board as a pro-bona client but later – due to the need and desire to be more visible in the media - they became a retainer client. We continue to offer PR services to them at a reduced fee as part of our social responsibility efforts.

CHSA gives underprivileged children, from some of the poorest areas in Cape Town, scholarships and the chance at a new life, and has achieved great success, obtaining a 100% pass rate for the Grade 12s two years in a row. Rothko profiled the top achiever for 2010 and wrote a story about the 100% pass rate and how this school is able to achieve such stellar success where other schools in the country fail. It received wide coverage in the media.

Fair Lady
How to have it all

Client: UCT Graduate School of Business (Executive Education)

This is a profile we wrote on Elaine Rumboll, the Director of Executive Education at the UCT Graduate School of Business, and pitched to Fairlady magazine. At the time Elaine had just been recognised by the Businesswomen’s Association in the Western Cape as regional businesswoman of the year in the professional category, and in addition was named as finalist in the Most Influential Women in Business and Government awards for 2010. It was a great reason to heighten her profile in the media, and not only did Fairlady accept the profile, they arranged to meet with Elaine for a photo shoot as well. This was a great success, as it benefited both Elaine and the UCT GSB for her to be profiled in this popular publication. 

Business Report
Green paper fails to address climate change challenges

Client: The Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL)

This is one of Rothko’s newer clients, who came on board in the first quarter of 2011. The CPSL works to inspire sustainability, leadership, learning and change and strives to be a thinking partner for leaders in business, government and society in the pursuit of sustainability and growth. It works with organisations to map out a practical pathway to move purposefully and profitably toward that future.

This comment article, published in Business Report, was based on a sustainability discussion by Jorgen Randers, a professor of climate strategy at the Norwegian School of Management and faculty member of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL). His talk on how ‘Economic growth and sustainability can coexist if governments take a long-term view’ yielded this comment and was well received by the media. 

iAfrica.com
Leading Managers of 2010

Client: CRF Institute South Africa

SA’s Leading Managers is an annual campaign that promotes leadership excellence by researching and profiling successful leadership in the country.
The very best of South Africa’s management talent is sought every year and this culminates in an annual multimedia campaign that communicates leadership and organisational achievements. This article announces the organisations that achieved top ten status as judged by a panel of experts.

Achiever
Building knowledge, growing skills.

Client: Insurance Sector Education and Training authority (INSETA)

Rothko has had the privilege of working with INSETA since 2007. They are always newsworthy, which tends to make our job easier, but also means that a measure of complexity is involved in the processes. However their commitment and involvement in social and entrepreneurial development ensures that working with them is always a pleasure.

After identifying a lack of, and need for, actuaries in South Africa, INSETA partnered with the South African Actuaries Development Programme to ensure that high-potential university students from second-year onwards received financial and motivational support. The article was well received by the media, and the programme has gone on to achieve great success.

Cape Business News
FT Ranking

Client: UCT Graduate School of Business (Corporate Department)

The UCT GSB full-time MBA programme recently moved up 29 places to 60th place in the latest Financial Times (FT) of London’s Global MBA Top 100 Ranking released in January 2011. This is the seventh consecutive year that the school has featured in the rankings. The UCT degree is also ranked as the best value for money MBA in the world today, while the GSB remains the only business school in Africa in the FT MBA Top 100. The news went out to several media houses and did well online as well.