Marcus Brewster, the man behind the hype

A publicist or “PR guy” was something only the Hollywood types had. People who planned their look, ensured they stayed in the headlines, and who did damage control when they were caught with drugs or when an illegitimate child showed up. It was not a profession you would have expected a South African to be involved in, much less be highly successful at doing. But then Marcus Brewster appeared, as if from nowhere, judging a singing competition – and suddenly, PR was an abbreviation everyone knew.

While business was quite brisk prior to his appearance on the first season of Idols, Brewster concedes that since then, it has
been phenomenal.

It is undisputable that currently, if you are someone who requires the services of a public relations agency for whatever reason, Marcus Brewster’s name has certainly crossed your mind.

Leadership spoke with the PR impresario about fame, Idols and his involvement in the Fidentia/J. Arthur Brown debacle.

Successful people tend to come in two varieties: those who planned their future from the beginning, and those who ‘lucked’ into it. You strike me as the former variety. Is that correct?

No, quite on the contrary, I would have to acknowledge that my success came from my classic good education. I certainly ticked all those check boxes: a good school, a good university, good degrees, etc.

I did know that I wanted to get into the record industry, but where I am now, my success now has nothing to do with that [education]. The luck came because I said I wanted to be in the record industry and I was prepared to do anything to get into a record company. I would have worked in the parking lot, I would have worked in a recording studio, I would have worked in publishing.

I simply wanted to be in that industry and the luck was that the position which was offered to me was in something that I had never heard of before – the PR promotions department. I did not even know what that was. So that was one of those incredible strokes of good fortune.

And how did that translate into Marcus Brewster Publicity?

After five years in the record industry, I realised it was such a goldfish bowl.

I lived and breathed the theatre of it. I loved it, I was passionate about it, I did not regret a single second that I spent there; but it came to a point where I realised I was done and it was time to move on.

Penny Stein, who was a boss of mine, is a very good friend and we shared a house at that stage, and she had started her own PR agency called Profile after she had left the record industry.

Profile operated out of the house that we shared, and when I left EMI and did not know what I was going to do, Penny said: “Well, why don’t you come and work with me at Profile? You know everything that’s going on.” Every day after work, that is what we talked about.

So I worked for Penny at Profile for a year in Johannesburg and then I simply knew I had to come back to Cape Town.

This was one of those things that, as a businessperson, it made no sense whatsoever because there was no business plan, there was no client list, there was no research done.

I simply thought, “I know I have to move to Cape Town. What am I going to do? Why don’t I just start a PR company? Because my friend Penny started a PR company and it seems to be okay, so why don’t I just go and start a PR company?”

And the ridiculous thing was that within three weeks of having started from the spare room of the house in Sea Point I was co-renting, it became so busy that I opened premises in the CBD.

Why do you think it became so successful that quickly?

I think it is because there is what I call the mañana (tomorrow) phenomenon, and that is that Cape Town has always had a reputation for being quite slow.

I had come from a Joburg training and a Joburg background. If you were a journalist and you needed something – and this was pre-email – I would run and I would give that to you within 25 minutes.

So I was so used to deadlines and working fast and meticulously, and I think there was simply a gale of fresh air in Cape Town.

Do you think that if you had started in Joburg, it would not have worked out as well?

Yes, because I would simply have been level-pegging with everyone else. I think in Cape Town, my energy and drive was definitely ahead.

Also, what is interesting in my story is that even though I am this “PR guru”, I have no formal PR academic background.

If that is true, why are you the most well-known public relations person in the country?

The “most well-known” thing is very simple. I used the tools and the talents that I apply on behalf of my clients, on myself – and I picked up many clients because of it. People see me all over the place and figure, if he can do that for himself, he can do the same job for us.

Is it fair to say that your appearance on Idols promoted the use of public relations in South Africa in general?

I do think that we cannot underplay the importance of Idols in this whole evolutionary process because certainly, in terms of my business, it put a rocket under the business. It was huge for the growth of my company.

Clients would phone me up and I would ask: “Just as a matter of interest, why did you choose my company? It’s not like I have other clients in your sector.” And it happened more than once that they would answer: “We saw you on television.”

So that was a very interesting lesson.

But your name must have carried some cachet for you to have been invited as a judge on Idols in the first place?

There were a couple of factors behind the scenes. One is that one of my former colleagues from EMI was with M-Net on the panel to select judges for that first season.

And it did not hurt that you had worked in the record industry?

It certainly did not hurt at all. I think that would have been absolutely critical. There were any number of PR people at that time who were bigger names, and I think of Adele Lucas who has just recently died.

So I was not the biggest name, but I certainly had that critical record industry background.

The second thing that I think was instrumental in the decision to approach me, was that we had just created and launched a
celebrity division.

When the J. Arthur Brown/Fidentia case was still heavily in the media, you received much bad press for taking him on as a client. What was the issue there?

I am still surprised to this day as to how much negativity there was about J. Arthur Brown.

At the time, he was not allowed to engage with the media. I think it was a 21-day period and at about day 17 or 18, I received a call from one of his handlangers. I went to meet with them and they told me [Brown] wants to meet every single journalist who wants to talk to him, everyone who has accused him. Brown was adamant that he was being wildly maligned in the press and that he had an answer for everything, and he wanted to set the record straight.

So my take on this was very straightforward: In law, you are entitled to your defence and it is very simple. If the media were going to be adversarial toward Brown, and he felt that he was innocent, why would he not be entitled to the forum of being able to step up to every individual journalist who had some critique about it, to be able to put forward his side of story?

So for five days, literally, from that Monday to Friday, that is all we did: set up interviews for Brown to meet the press. There was not a single accusation that he was not prepared to talk about and face up to, and we summarised them all for him.

We went through all the media reports. We said, “Right, this is what’s being said and by whom. These are the people that you want to meet with. These are their particular points, this is what they’re saying about you and what you’ve done.”

But you did not anticipate that the association would affect you negatively?

I did not anticipate that at all. At the time, it was merely unsubstantiated reports and allegations in the newspaper, and Brown saying: “It’s all a load of lies. I can answer everything and I can prove my innocence and everything.”

What was I supposed to say to him?

If you had known then what you know now, would you have taken him on as a client at that point?

Absolutely. I would still do it because every client is entitled to have his/her say in a court of public opinion. Exactly in the same way that I feel a person is entitled to a legal defence.

The same should hold true in communication and media.

So if Julius Malema phoned you, wanting to make use of your services, would that be a difficult decision?

No, it would not be a difficult decision at all because these are people who need the benefit of my 20-plus years and my staff’s hundreds of years of experience collectively in the agency.

It is crisis communication.

Crisis communication and reputation management are two of the core pillars of full service public relations.

So obviously, I must be able to help any client.

So is there anyone you would not represent?

(laughs) Technically, there is not anyone we would not be able to represent because from a professional point of view, everyone is entitled to avail themselves of whatever professional services are in the marketplace.

Given the J. Arthur Brown example, you must now consider whether the association would be damaging to your business?

That would come into play, that would have more gravitas for me more than the moral issue.

Because the fact is that it is my company, it is the livelihood of many people – their salaries have to be met. So do I risk that?

“There is no such thing as bad PR”.

Is that true?

No, there is such a thing as bad PR. It once again depends what the objectives are. Because there is a defined objective, then the quality of the coverage will very much move the needle on whether it is meeting, or not meeting, its particular objective.

When it comes to celebrity PR, then all publicity is good publicity because at that level, it is simply about getting your name known. So whether you are bonking a hooker, or kissing a baby, or whatever, all publicity is good. ▲

Zaid Kriel