The Best PR Strategies Come from Crunching Big Data – Jacques Du Bruyn, CEO – Flume Marketing

South Africa-based marketing expert Jacques Du Bruyn has leveraged years of experience in digital marketing to launch a full-service agency. His brainchild, Flume Marketing, is driving positive outcomes for leading brands on the continent. 

Business Elites Africa caught up with Bruyn to gain insights that’ll propel you, either a PR professional or an entrepreneur. 

BEA: What inspired the launch of Flume Marketing

Jacques Du Bruyn: In 2013 there were very few fully integrated digital agencies around. We started Flume with the ambition of creating a truly digitally born agency that could provide clients with a full spectrum of digital services and do that all in-house.

RELATED: A Look at Bukola Sawyerr Izeogu, the Nigerian Multi-facet PR Expert Extraordinaire

BEA: What’s most unique about your company?

Jacques Du Bruyn: At this stage of our journey (10 years), it’s the fact that we’re a 100-man full-service digital marketing agency that’s independent. Independence gives us the ability to create processes without asking for permission so that we can service our clients who have unique ways of working. This also makes us very responsive.

BEA: What strategies did you first use for marketing your business?

Jacques Du Bruyn: At first, it was all about exercising our network and running PR through the media. We also jumped at every speaking opportunity we could.

BEA: Have you ever felt like quitting, and how did you persevere?

Jacques Du Bruyn: I have never felt like quitting because I’ve loved every aspect of it. Yes, there are difficult times, and there are ups and downs. But I have a fantastic business partner and have built a solid leadership team. These people never make me feel like quitting.

BEA: Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you first started out?

Jacques Du Bruyn: I would have been bolder, more confident, and more deliberate about how I sold Flume in the beginning. I think I played small in the beginning and cared too much about what people thought of Flume and me personally.

BEA: Why is PR so important in the life of a business or organisation?

Especially in the B2B space, it is a tool for creating a trusted narrative around your organisation. Trust is hard to come by, perception is everything. PR builds both of those.

Read the full story in the magazine!

Buy Now

NEXT: Lamia Kamel the Egyptian Woman Zealous About Changing Her Country’s Narrative