New brand advisory firm breaks from traditional PR model
Aura, a new brand advisory firm founded by industry mogul Nicole Mirkin, who serves as the entity's chief executive officer, and Lee-Ann Caboz, as managing director, is breaking from the traditional PR or marketing model.
Brand and communications strategists, Lee-Ann Caboz (left) and Nicole Mirkin (right) have launched a brand advisory firm, Aura (Image supplied)
"Auras is not just another PR agency executing one-dimensional communications, nor a traditional marketing agency that occasionally steps into communications," explains Mirkin.
"We see ourselves as intentional brand curators. We don’t simply manage reputation, we build the world your brand lives in."
Aura represents the deliberate convergence of two highly complementary disciplines: consumer brand mastery and strategic communications power.
It’s in the name
The name itself reflects this approach.
An aura is the intangible atmosphere that surrounds a premium brand, the impression it leaves before a word is spoken, the feeling it creates before a product is seen.
"Our manifesto is not simply a tagline, but a guiding principle," she adds.
"It allows us to carry a consistent golden thread through every engagement, whether navigating complex legal or reputational challenges, or bringing a brand’s visual narrative to life across a fully integrated ecosystem of earned and paid media, spanning both digital and traditional platforms. Our approach is intentional, senior-led, and cohesive."
Years of experience
Together, Mirkin and Caboz bring 27 years of experience spanning global retail brands, multinational technology firms, and complex institutional and political environments to the firm.
As CEO, Mirkin draws on 12 years of expertise in strategic communications, reputation management, and stakeholder engagement.
Her career spans high-stakes political communications within Parliament, the South
African Presidency, multinational tech companies, and the founding of her former entity, Omnia Strategic Counsel & Communications, a communications and advisory firm.
She is also the founder of Fight Back SA, the NPO that brought 30 000 people to the gates of Parliament to protest GBV in September 2019. To date, her NPO has delivered free self-defence classes and free pepper sprays, to over 500,000 women in SA.
"I have sat in rooms where the stakes could not have been higher, where the wrong word, or even silence, could have had consequences far beyond a company’s bottom line," says Mirkin. "Reputation is not a communication function. It is a business asset. And at AURA, we treat it as one."
As managing director, Caboz also brings 14 years of hands-on consumer brand expertise, having shaped the South African market presence of global lifestyle and retail brands including Crocs, Under Armour, Birkenstock, Zando (and their partners throughout Africa), MTN, and Distell.
Her mandate focuses on client strategy, integrated brand development, team leadership, and building culturally relevant brand platforms.
"The South African consumer is sophisticated, layered, and deeply culturally aware," says Caboz.
"Aura exists to serve brands that understand this, and to help those that don't yet grasp it. We are building a strategic home for brands that want to grow with intention and genuine cultural intelligence."
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Inflection point
The timing of Aura's launch responds directly to an inflection point in South Africa's brand and communications sector.
Clients are increasingly demanding accountability, integration, and senior-level strategic engagement over junior account teams and templated solutions.
Simultaneously, the speed at which narratives travel across social media, earned media, and political discourse has blurred the line between brand communications and reputation management.
"We are not building Aura for the market as it was," says Mirkin."We are building it for the market as it is, and will become.”