Industry heads join forces at Greater Than

Greater Than, award winning PR & Communications agency headed up by Galia Kerbel, has launched in Johannesburg with industry veteran, Janine Lloyd, at the helm. These two PR powerhouses join forces with a combined 43 years’ experience in the industry, bringing their breadth and depth of expertise to the PR industry.

Janine Lloyd has been in the communications industry for 25 years, having founded and led one of South Africa’s top PR agencies which she sold three years ago. Galia Kerbel has 18 years’ experience in the industry and opened the successful Greater Than agency in January 2006. Both Galia and Janine have led their respective companies to achieve major success in the industry and have won 20 PRISM and industry awards.

“The industry has not seen many big movements over the last few years and we believe this venture will strengthen not only our team but our PR practice areas, making Greater Than an even more formidable force in the industry. In the past Greater Than has been invited to pitch against some of the largest established PR agencies, despite the fact that said firms have triple the staff complement, through the line service offerings and offices throughout SA and overseas. This not only demonstrates the credible reputation the Cape Town agency has already achieved with clients, media and celebrities in the past seven years but is also testament to the fact that Greater Than is recognized as one of the top agencies in South Africa,” says Galia Kerbel CPRP, Member.

“I have known Janine for a long time and have been working with her over the last year: the synergy is powerful. I admire her as a businesswoman, as well as one of the country’s finest communications specialists. This is a match ‘made in heaven’ and together we will lead Greater Than to even further heights than it has already achieved. Janine shares my business values and vision of growing our clients’ brands, making them greater than they already are. I am excited for what our new venture will bring.”

Whilst Kerbel’s passion is consumer PR, it is not limited to lifestyle brands; Greater Than is so much more. The agency’s offering, strategic insight and skills in the corporate PR and B2B field are well proven. To illustrate this, Greater Than has been managing Mars Africa’s corporate communications for the past three years as well as its brand PR for six years. Furthermore, MWEB, has chosen Greater Than as its PR partner.

Lloyd brings significant expertise in many industries including ICT, Pharmaceuticals, FMCG, Property, Government and NGO’s. Her experience includes crises communications, reputation management, strategy, positioning, messaging development and planning across the entire communications landscape – both internally and externally.

Lloyd’s extensive reputation management and digital communications acumen will further help strengthen Greater Than’s existing social media and digital services strategy and offering to clients.

Although initially only based in Cape Town, Greater Than has always had a national offering. With the launch of the JHB office, clients will now benefit by having a strong team on the ground in Gauteng, thereby not only reducing hard costs budgets but also increasing the footprint into various target audiences and the overall media landscape.

Both Kerbel and Lloyd have big plans to expand their teams in the social media space. Lloyd comments: “I have met and worked with many PR professionals in the industry over the years and Galia is the best in the industry. It is amazing to work with someone that is on your same wavelength – creatively and strategically – and who has the same values and work ethic.”

Kerbel adds that clients at Greater Than will benefit from the collaboration by seeing hard hitting measurable results which positively impacts their business; doing things differently with traditional and non-traditional activities; solidifying strong relationships between their brand, media and key influencers; and insight and experience in targeting various consumers – main market, corporate, youth, consumers.
Greater Than has also been building its expertise in Cape Town – the team is now 10 PR professionals strong, and with Janine and Galia spearheading the team – the industry will definitely be hearing more about this expanding PR firm.