ECLIPSE COMMUNICATIONS LAUNCHES IN-HOUSE MEDIA TRAINING OFFERING

media training

Eclipse Communications has expanded its service offering to include professional media training, led by Chief Strategy Officer Shahan Ramkissoon.

As an independent and agile, full-service communications agency, making the most of every engagement with the media, is Eclipse Communication’s forte. Through its media training programme, clients can benefit from the agency’s learnings and insights, robust theory and best practices related to the media. These sessions will be facilitated by one of South Africa’s most prominent news anchors, Shahan Ramkissoon.

CSO ECLIPSE100

“Drawing on my almost two decades of experience as a journalist and news anchor and Eclipse Communications’ depth of public relations knowledge and experience, we have developed an in-depth media training programme that will ensure company spokespeople not only land their messages with finesse and flair but also have the understanding of how the media operates, breaking the divide of ‘news to us vs news to them’. This will equip our clients with the techniques necessary for delivering a memorable interview,” explains Ramkissoon.

With his experience of challenging people with hard-hitting questions for years, Ramkissoon is well positioned to help spokespeople navigate difficult conversations and confrontational interviews.

The Eclipse Communications media training includes but is not limited to:

  • Making the most of a multi-studio setup
  • Best practice on how to a handle hard-hitting news interview
  • Significance of body language and non-verbal communication
  • The domestic media landscape and how newsrooms operate.


In the modern day, investing in media training for C-suite executives and spokespeople should be a key consideration for all brands and companies. It is one of the pillars of an effective reputation management strategy.

Cheryl Reddy, Eclipse’s Chief Executive Officer, says preparing ‘crib notes’ for clients that they use to parrot premeditated talking points is not the objective of the media training experience Eclipse Communications seeks to provide.

CEO Cheryl reddy100

“Instead, we aim to empower, by giving clients the skillsets they will need to field complex and critical questions from journalists, guaranteeing they portray themselves and their organisations in the best possible light while also building long-term relationships with the media. For years, we have partnered with numerous journalists to help us media train our clients and today, we are able to offer this service in-house with a prominent news anchor and our Chief Strategy Officer. We have already soft- launched the service and media trained the likes of Pfizer SA and other key clients on our books,” she concludes.

Eclipse Mobile

About Eclipse:

Eclipse Communications opened its doors in 1998. Today, we are one of South Africa’s fastest-growing, independent communications agencies, acknowledged as the Best Large PR Consultancy at the 2020 PRISM Awards and Public Relations Agency of the Year at the FM AdFocus Awards 2020.

Our footprint extends beyond the three major city centres in South Africa, to Mauritius, our first African-owned office outside of South Africa. Additionally, we have in-country communications partners in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda Namibia and Israel.

Our success story is rooted in our uncompromising and bold commitment to a diversity of people, skill sets, cross-functional teams and ‘can-do’ entrepreneurial spirits – responding to clients with insights and agility. We are a team of diverse, channel-agnostic out of the box thinkers who continuously strive to produce the next award-winning campaign and are quick to adapt to the ever-changing landscape. We offer personalised full-service communications solutions that guide our clients’ growth.

Our diversity of people has resulted in us achieving a Level 2 BBBEE status, a shareholder structure benefiting employees with 51% of our agency being black-employee-owned, with 35% in the hands of black women.

Read More

Book a free consultation

Please provide us with your information and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

CONTACT US

Please provide us with your information and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Reputation Management

Crisis avoidance and speed of response form the backbone of our crisis communications offering. Our decisive, experienced senior team ensure that a brand’s reputation is always protected.

  • Consulting
  • Issues and crisis communications frameworks
  • Messaging matrix
  • Creation of response banks
  • Media training
  • Stakeholder mapping
  • Internal communications
  • Data & Analytics

Digital Media

Our digital media team creates out of the box, innovative strategies and plans, delivering on our clients’ objectives through personalised content and messaging, the right channel matrix, SEO and paid media plans that reach new audience and creating engagements that matter.

  • Digital strategy and implementation
  • Social media strategy and implementation
  • Content calendar development
  • Community management
  • Paid media strategy and execution
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Website development

Media & Influencers

With media and influencers at the heart of our agency, we have built solid relationships that ensure our clients receive credible and targeted exposure, across print, online and broadcast media.

  • Media audits
  • Media relations (list development, media lobbying and engagement)
  • Influencer contracting, relations and management
  • Measurement and reporting
  • Agenda surfing
  • Research and planning
  • Media movements

Events

Our dedicated events team conceptualise and execute events of any scale. Eventing in the age of our new norm means that our experience ranges across physical, virtual and hybrid events.

  • Event conceptualisation, planning and execution
  • Event management
  • Project management
  • Procurement of goods and services
  • Logistics management
  • RSVP management
  • Budgeting

Content & Creative

Our team of ex-journalists, content creators and proofreaders are experts in creating and positioning the right content to the right audiences. Bolting on a team of creatives, we have the ability to create omni-channel, creative strategies to further this reach.

  • Writing (media releases, thought leadership, white papers, reports, speeches)
  • Copy editing & proofreading
  • Corporate identity
  • Advertising
  • Print & digital
  • Newsletters (HTML, mobile, PDF)
  • Layout & design
  • Videography and photography
  • Animation
  • Motion graphics
  • Social media design
  • Website development

Public Relations & Communications

We develop and execute robust omni-channel communications strategies to drive credible conversations that resonate with desired target audiences across Arts & Entertainment, Consumer & Lifestyle and Corporate clients and industries.

  • Omni-channel communications strategies
  • PR plans and execution
  • Account management
  • Data & Insights
  • Research and planning
  • Conceptualisation
  • Agenda surfing
  • Media and influencer relations
  • Stakeholder relations
  • Internal communications