Sibabalwe Sesmani

What does your company do?

Unorthodox Group is the holding company of two subsidiaries, namely Unorthodox PR and Unorthodox Sport. Unorthodox Sport is a multifaceted sports management company that assists professional athletes and teams both locally and globally. Unorthodox Sport is poised to fill the gap in sports management – by offering all around services in brand management, talent management, public relations and financial planning services. Through a diverse team of professionals and strategic partnerships, the company is able to ensure that clients, who are in various sporting codes, are successful on and off the field of play. Head quartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, Unorthodox PR is a boutique pan-African public and media relations company focused on telling creative, strategic and impactful brand stories. The company services a diverse list of clients, from personalities, to health and lifestyle brands as well as corporate entities and NGOs, among others. Our mission is to deliver messaging through traditional and digital media to audiences across the continent, and we have successfully reached audiences in Southern Africa, Ghana and Nigeria. The main promise to every client is to ensure that messages reach their targeted audiences – whether they be in the macro or micro market.

What is your biggest success?

In the close to 5 years of opening our sports agency wing of the company we can say we have done the following ; - We represent 4 Springboks namely; Makazole Mapimpi, Lukhanyo Am, Jaden Hendrikse & Babalwa Latsha. - We have worked with international brands namely ; Emperio Armani, Apple, Nike, Adidas, Puma. - We have participated in the Netball World Cup held in Africa for the first time through one of our clients. - We have done work for the Bulls Daisies, which is the first women's rugby team to be professional in SA. - We have assisted the national SA hockey women's team in creating awareness about their fundraising efforts leading up to the olympics. - We worked on the first Laliga Camps in partnership with Ibercup bringing together international brands on South African soil.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

Our biggest hurdle are the hurdles that still face many women, young South Africans currently. Generational contracts in South Africa are still a big issue that keep the large companies in long contracts ensuring that the smaller business do not compete in attaining bigger contracts to fully grow. Often structures are not tailored to accommodate smaller companies to be able to compete. Over the years we have still tried our best to overcome these hurdles in order to gain new clients and deliver exceptional service.