Waving goodbye
to 2021

Aprio Credence, our crisis and issue management division has had a busy couple of months with deliverables including:

• Supporting a financial services client through a criminal data breach, where Aprio Credence’s proprietary, battle-hardened cyber breach “playbook” served as an invaluable resource Providing ongoing advisory and reputation management support to a major alcohol industry player through the complex challenges of COVID-19 lockdowns and alcohol bans
• Successfully delivering more than 100 executive media training sessions in the “new normal” of remote, video conferencing-based learning sessions
• Implementing elements of Aprio Credence’s ARMOUR reputational risk and resilience programme – spanning vulnerability audits, policy, playbook and protocol development, crisis leadership training, and simulation stress-tests – for a range of JSE-listed and private companies.

Aprio Investor Relations (Aprio IR) has maintained its momentum and recently worked together with Aprio Strategic Communications to help position the rationale for the potential combination of two prominent and large-scale companies. Aprio IR’s deep capital markets experience helped identify certain risks that shifted our role from communications adviser to trusted partner. The Aprio IR team assisted a client to communicate a costly outcome that impacted multiple stakeholder groups, including employees, consumers and shareholders. The division’s valuable advice was integrated across multiple communication strategies and was instrumental in ensuring the company held the narrative and maintained a strong message. Although the message was difficult and the impact material, the company was lauded for its transparency and openness towards its shareholders and other stakeholders.

Aprio IR was also appointed in an advisory, messaging and media monitoring role by two large international lenders, who had significant exposure to a South African company heading towards business rescue. The lenders offered a debt-for-asset swap deal to the company. This saw the emergence of a vocal activist shareholder group, using social media to rally support and oppose a total asset strip. The debt-for-asset swap was the first of its kind in the South African context, which is more accustomed to the debt-for-equity route. Aprio IR’s extensive understanding of the South African market coupled with lateral thinking and analytical interpretation of media coverage ensured sound and proactive advice. The assignment brought to the fore how quickly and effectively even a small band of shareholders can organise themselves into a meaningful voice, that not only has to be acknowledged by company management but can also influence the share price.

Aprio Digital has had a busy couple of months, as the demand for digital communications increased during the pandemic. This included the development of a LinkedIn strategy to position Capital Appreciation’s leadership team, and the leaders of each of its underlying investments as tech-savvy thought leaders in the Fintech industry. We teamed up with the marketing experts at Synthesis, one of Capital Appreciation’s underlying investments, to align our strategy and co-create a fit-for-purpose marketing approach for Capital Appreciation.

The shift from traditional communications methods towards more digitally led channels is well underway and our clients are already seeing the benefits of some of our cross-channel efforts. We’ve helped a number of high-profile investment clients unpack and understand the online conversations that impact their reputation and the reputation of their investments, using the powerful insights provided by Brandwatch. The team continued to deliver high-quality digital magazines that present thought-leadership in a high impact, reader-friendly and long-form medium. Absa Evolve is now entering its 10th edition – the result of a four-year partnership with the Absa team that has seen the launch of several new digital products.