Melanie Millin-Moore offers one-on-one PR consultations

Melanie Millin-Moore

Having run her own PR agency from the age of 22, she added Sol Kerzner to her client list for the opening of Sun City in the sixth year of running her own business. After two years, Kerzner persuaded her to join Southern Sun on a permanent basis. She worked with him for more than 36 years, from Southern Sun South Africa to Sun International South Africa, and Kerzner International.

The public relations hub she headed with efficiency and attention to detail included launching Paradise Island in Atlantis, the Bahamas, coping with superstars who each demanded their share of media attention and, thanks to her unparalleled network, got it.

Then came the most exclusive of them all, the One&Only brand and the launch of the One&Only Resorts, with her being a key part of the One&Only team in the UK.

“With the Sunday Times, we had more front pages than anyone else, other than probably President Zuma today, but going back to the Sun era, people just loved Sol Kerzner. There was something about his ‘rules can easily be broken’ attitude, his love of the big show time and his almost gleeful delight in being on the front pages of newspapers and magazines that just attracted the crowds. I am very good at getting front pages. It is about knowing the right angle. I also worked for three months in the newsroom on the original Rand Daily Mail in the early part of my career and there’s nothing like watching a big story going down to get a nose for what the media goes for,” says Millin-Moore.

She worked on John Travolta’s 50th birthday party and there was Sol’s 70th birthday party in Monaco. She opened Sun City and was part of every phase of the resort for over 15 years. She has organised gala events and launches involving Oprah Winfrey, John Travolta, Frank Sinatra, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Diana Krall among others. She has spent extensive periods with PR agencies in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Atlantic City in the USA, Mexico, Dubai, Maldives and Mauritius.

“I have all this buzzing around in my head and I want to share it with people in the same industry as me, who want to take on hectic international experience. There is very little I have not done in New York or London or anywhere that will not help small agencies or in house agencies or stand alone PR practitioners.”

The project is associated with PRISA (Public Relations Institute of South Africa). To book, email Cecilia Rigney at ten.asmoklet@yengir.ailiceC or call +27 (0) 79 405 0059.