Ronelle Bester, founder of Red Ribbon Communications. (Image: AI-enhanced)
Red Ribbon Communications has won the South African public relations mandate for Cloudera, which positions itself as the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, following a competitive pitch process. The Cape Town-based agency will run Cloudera's media relations and thought leadership programme, with an initial focus on hybrid data management and enterprise AI adoption among South African IT leaders.
In the wake of Cloudera’s recent launch of Cloudera Anywhere Cloud – a platform enabling organisations to scale AI applications across multicloud and on-premises environments with full data governance – the tech PR agency will focus on communicating these capabilities to the local market.
"This pitch came down to who understood the technical substance behind hybrid data and enterprise AI, not who could talk around it," said Ronelle Bester, founder of Red Ribbon Communications. "South African IT leaders have had enough of the generic versions, and what we're building for Cloudera is the specific, deeper story – and that starts with getting the language right for people who already know the category. The hype-phase needs Cloudera’s ‘AI realist’-insights, and we’re the ones who can give that unique voice the platform it deserves."
"We needed a partner in South Africa who understood the detail of data and cloud architecture over and above just the terminology. As we help organisations build, deploy and scale production-grade AI applications seamlessly across multicloud and on-premises environments with Cloudera Anywhere, we required a team that could articulate that technical substance," said Sara Lewis, Director of Communications, EMEA at Cloudera. "Red Ribbon's deep understanding of this space, combined with their local media relationships, made them the clear differentiator in our pitch."
"South African organisations are accelerating their data and AI strategies, and how we communicate needs to keep pace," said Warren Olivier, Regional Vice-President Africa at Cloudera. "Red Ribbon brings the local market depth we require to reach enterprise leaders directly, in language that matches where their thinking already is."
Red Ribbon Communications has worked in South African technology PR for 23 years, with a client base spanning enterprise technology, cyber security and fintech, to name but a few.
