Creative Communications for Clever Brands: A PR Agency in South Africa
TL ; DR
Hook, Line & Sinker is an award-winning PR agency based in Cape Town, working with South African and global brands since 2019. Recognised by the African Excellence Awards as Best Integrated Agency in South Africa in 2026, HLS delivers PR strategy, media relations, crisis communications, executive profiling, influencer campaigns, and content across South Africa, wider African markets, the Middle East, and Europe.
At HLS we connect strategy, content, media relations, social media and digital creativity through an integrated approach. In addition to the business or communication outcomes specified, our reporting features messaging and media quality alongside audience reach and engagement, website activity, and marketing conversion signals for campaigns.
- Best Integrated Agency in South Africa 2026
- Client relationships spanning more than five years
- Regional and international campaign delivery
- Level 4 B-BBEE status
- Retainers from R35,000
Trusted by recognised organisations
What Does a PR Agency Do?
A PR agency manages how your organisation is understood by the people who influence its future: journalists, customers, employees, investors, regulators, and online communities.
In practice that means deciding what’s worth saying, shaping it into something an editor will run, preparing the person who’ll say it, and reporting honestly on the result.
Where agencies differ most is that last part. Ours is set out below.
What Makes Us Different
Long-standing client relationships
SAP, CBi-electric, DKMS Africa, and Luxity have each worked with HLS for more than five years. Client references are available on request.
Measurement across the full campaign
We assess media coverage for credibility and quality, then report against the wider campaign objectives. Depending on the brief, measurement can include social engagement, likes, website analytics, and QR code activity.
Newsjacking that moves in hours
Our daily news tracking enables us position our clients as the industry experts when relevant stories break. Within minutes we can have a media response developed for you. When Rolex announced its exit from South Africa, our client, Luxity, was immediately featured on Radio 702, the Business Day, and CNN.
A newsroom and a studio in one building
HLS combines in-house journalism expertise with a dedicated television and podcast studio featuring three versatile sets. Our journalists assess ideas through an editorial lens, while the studio gives clients an integrated space for podcast, video, interview, and panel content.
Senior-led strategy with fresh digital expertise
Our senior strategists stay actively involved throughout PR campaigns, supported by specialists who track conversations across newsrooms, LinkedIn, TikTok, and the channels most relevant to your target audience.
Public Relations Services Designed to Deliver the Ultimate Campaign Sinker
HLS supports focused projects and annual PR programmes. The scope is tailored to the organisation and the outcomes the campaign needs to achieve.
PR strategy and messaging
We begin by defining the business and communication objectives, priority audiences, and the change or impact the campaign needs to achieve. From there, we develop the PR strategy, creative tactics, positioning, key messages, and newsworthy campaign themes.
Media relations and press office
We pitch to broadcast, online, print and trade media, plus regional and community titles. Every media list is built customised and updated for each individual press release. Daily media tracking means that when news breaks in your sector, your company insights land first.
B2B and technology PR
We handle enterprise software and complex technology communications for clients including SAP and Cisco. We take a complex and technical brief and craft it into a newsworthy story or social media content that everyday consumers understand and engage with.
Consumer PR, launches, and influencer campaigns
For CBi-electric’s Astute Smart Range, research showed 62% of South African consumers knew about smart home technology while 33% found it intimidating. We built a PR campaign on that gap, using influencers across tech, DIY, and comedy, including TikTok content that went viral.
Reputation and crisis communications
We have handled crises for multinational clients under sustained media scrutiny. HLS helps orgainsations prepare for a crisis, respond quickly when one occurs, and communicate clearly and consistently across media, internal, and stakeholder channels.
Research and data-led campaigns
Original research can give journalists and audiences evidence they cannot find elsewhere. HLS commissions and packages research into reports, white papers, and media-ready insights. Luxity’s State of the Luxury report ran for three consecutive years and generated recurring media interest.
Executive profiling
Your CEO is a media channel. We help leaders define a credible point of view and express it through media commentary, contributed articles, speaking opportunities, and LinkedIn. HLS currently manages 14 executive LinkedIn profiles for global clients.
Media training
Our in-person media training uses a camera crew and an experienced TV presenter to run interviews. Spokespeople answer difficult questions on camera, review the playback, and receive practical guidance on message delivery and interview technique.
Social media and digital
We provide full-service management; from strategy to community management, to influencer identification and contracting. Media buying, SEO and performance marketing run through our digital partner, iLEAD et al.
Tell us what you need to achieve and let's explore the most relevant PR approach.
Schedule your free PR planning consultationHook, Line & Sinker: Our Three-Step Formula
Our name is our process:
Hook
We craft news and storytelling narratives that hook the audiences you need to reach.
Line
We distribute your campaign through the right communication platforms and channels.
Sinker
We create the ultimate campaign sinker, focused on measurable business impact and results.
PR Results with Commercial Relevance
The campaign figures below are reported by HLS and the relevant clients. Reach figures are cumulative media or campaign estimates and should be considered alongside coverage quality, engagement, and business outcomes.
Luxity: building trust in South Africa's pre-owned luxury market
HLS developed a three-year earned-media strategy for Luxity centred on consumer education, authentication, original market insight, and rapid expert commentary. The campaign positioned Luxity as an authority on pre-owned luxury while addressing consumer concern about counterfeit goods.
Reported campaign and business results:
- 288 media placements, with 93% in Tier 1 titles
- R15.4 million in earned media value
- 820 million cumulative media reach
- Luxity reported a 79% increase in 2024 sales
- Expansion from three retail stores to five, including a flagship at the V&A Waterfront
- Named by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies, two years running
Testimonial: “Hook, Line & Sinker helped us to achieve our goal of making pre-owned luxury part of the day-to-day conversation.”
— Michael Zahariev, Luxity co-founder
Read the Luxity case study
Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year®: 20% above target
The awards needed established entrepreneurs, in a media environment saturated with startup stories. Our “Rooted in Excellence” theme used the protea as its symbol and led with past winners’ own voices.
Reported results:
- 620 entries, 20% above target
- 90% Tier 1 coverage including SABC News, CNBC Africa and Daily Maverick
- R3.5 million in PR value
- 2,454 website clicks, 22% above target
CBi-electric: trust in smart home technology
HLS combined media relations, expert content, influencer partnerships, social media, and news-led opportunities to educate South African audiences about smart home technology and position CBi-electric as a trusted category authority.
Reported results:
- 259 million earned-media reach
- More than R5 million in AVE
- 292% of the influencer reach target achieved
What our clients say
HLS understood from the start that we were trying to help South Africans feel personally connected to conservation, and they matched that thinking with real inventiveness and the discipline to execute it well. They’ve been collaborative throughout, and across the work we’ve done together they’ve become a partner we rely on.
WWF
Natasha Jones, Communications Manager: Brands & Campaigns, WWF South Africa
What HLS does well is take a technical product and make it matter to ordinary people, and they’ve reached audiences we wouldn’t have found on our own. They take the time to understand our brand and our market, and they consistently bring fresh thinking to the table. They’ve been a real extension of our marketing team.
CBI Electric low voltage
Aletta de Jager, Marketing Manager
HLS understood early on that our story needed to reach business and investment media, not only the travel desks, and that regional nuance matters when you’re working across so many markets. Since then, the relationship has grown well beyond that, from consumer storytelling to campaigns that got people talking. Few agencies could cover that much ground as consistently as they have.
Radisson Hotel Group
Saadiyah Hendricks, Director, Global Corporate & Area PR and Social Media, Radisson Hotel Group
Awards and Industry Standing
Our agency work has received regional and international recognition, including:
- African Excellence Awards: Best Integrated Agency in South Africa, 2026
- PRISA: Gold for PR Leadership, Best B2B Campaign, and Best Healthcare Campaign, 2025
- ABSA NSBC: SA’s Entrepreneur Champion, 2024
- PRISA: Silver for SA’s Best Small PR Consultancy, 2023
- PRISA: Gold for Best Pan-African Campaign, 2019
- Further PRISA recognition for technology, healthcare and emerging professional work
Managing Director Adam Hunter is part of the Public Relations Communications Association (PRCA) Africa board and the South African PR Sustainability Committee, and since 2024 has been Africa’s PR representative to the United Nations (UNDP) Global Climate Taskforce. He judged the PR Platinum Global Awards in 2024. HLS also sponsored the Global PRCA Conference in Cape Town.
Meet the HLS teamA Cape Town PR Agency Working Across South Africa and International Markets
HLS is based in Woodstock, Cape Town, and works with business, consumer, technology, education, hospitality, retail, healthcare, and purpose-led organisations. Our client portfolio spans South Africa, other African markets, the Middle East, and Europe.
Values that shape how we work
Excellence, Collaboration, and Community guide how we work with clients, support one another, and contribute to the PR profession.
Over the last four years, HLS contributed more than 63 volunteer hours to the Santa Shoebox Project. We also support emerging PR talent through internships and mentoring, while Adam Hunter contributes to professional standards through PRCA Africa and industry ethics initiatives.
Frequently Asked Questions About PR Agencies and Services
A PR agency helps a business manage its reputation and communicate with influential audiences. Its work may include PR strategy, messaging, media relations, thought leadership, executive profiling, content, crisis communication, campaign amplification, media monitoring, and reporting. The precise scope should follow the organisation’s objectives and audiences.
HLS offers PR strategy, media relations, press office support, corporate and B2B technology PR, consumer campaigns, executive profiling, reputation and crisis communications, influencer support, media training, research-led content, and measurement. Campaigns can also incorporate social media, podcasts, video, events, SEO-led content, and paid amplification.
No. HLS is headquartered in Cape Town and delivers communications programmes across South Africa, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The agency works with South African organisations as well as regional and multinational brands that need coordinated communications across several markets.
Yes. HLS offers tailored monthly retainers and focused project-based support. Projects can run for a defined campaign period, while retainers suit organisations that need sustained media engagement, reputation development, ongoing content, and regular measurement.
HLS PR retainers start from R35,000 per month. As an outputs-focused agency, we structure each engagement around agreed campaign deliverables and the scope required to achieve them. The investment is influenced by the markets involved, content and production requirements, media activity, and specialist support.
If the media coverage is not landing, then something needs to change. No credible PR agency can guarantee earned-media coverage because editorial decisions remain with journalists and publishers. An experienced agency improves the likelihood of relevant coverage by developing strong stories, targeting suitable media, preparing credible spokespeople, and building professional media relationships.
HLS monitors media coverage throughout the campaign and uses its own scoring system to assess quality and credibility. Reporting is aligned with the agreed objectives and may include coverage quality, message inclusion, reach, engagement, content performance, website activity, and relevant business outcomes.
HLS needs to understand the organisation, its objectives, audiences, priority markets, current communications activity, timing, internal approval process, and available budget. Existing research, brand messaging, campaign data, and spokesperson availability can help the team recommend an appropriate scope.
Schedule a Free PR Planning Consultation
You do not need a finished brief. Tell us what needs to change in how your organisation is seen, and we will use the consultation to assess where PR can add value and identify the strongest initial opportunities.
What happens after I submit the form?
A senior member of the team will review your enquiry. If your needs and budget align with HLS’s services, we will contact you to schedule your free PR creative planning consultation. The session will focus on your objectives and the most relevant PR opportunities.
If the brief sits outside what we do well, we’ll tell you that too, and point you towards an agency that fits.
Request your PR proposal
Share a few details about your organisation and what you need. A senior member of the HLS team will review your enquiry and contact you to arrange the consultation if there is a suitable fit.
Your information will be used only to respond to your enquiry and assess the requested scope.