Kim Barty, Trojan Horse, Cape Town

What is your busi­ness and how did it start?

Tro­jan Horse is a spe­cial­ist PR and com­mu­ni­ca­tions busi­ness. I’d worked in cor­po­rate PR for years and had always longed to do my own thing. Two friends started a brand devel­op­ment busi­ness and asked me to join them, so I waved good­bye to my boss, packed up my desk and set up office in a cor­ner in my lit­tle cot­tage. I used my pen­sion pay­out to buy my first lap­top – R25,000 in 2001, con­sid­er­ing they are now under R10, 000, I thought that showed commitment!

Words hold magic, and over the last year Tro­jan Horse has con­cep­tu­al­ized and imple­mented some large scale com­mu­ni­ca­tions cam­paign in the finan­cial ser­vices industry:

• The Cof­fee Cam­paign for Board of Executives
• The Fine Art of Wine for Nedbank
• Sweet Suc­cess for Old Mutual
• Bon­sai Cam­paign for Citadel

In addi­tion to these cam­paigns, Tro­jan Horse has focused on pub­lic­ity in the lifestyle and sport­ing cat­e­gories. Some of our clients include the Gourmet Fes­ti­val, The SA Golf Open, Penin­sula Bev­er­age (Bot­tler of the Coca-Cola Prod­ucts in the West­ern Cape), MyCube and William Grant & Sons’ whisky brands.

Why Tro­jan Horse?

In keep­ing with the Greek myth, Tro­jan Horse cre­atively accesses peo­ple, places and spaces.

What are some recent events you’ve organ­ised and how stress­ful was the process?

I don’t orga­nize events really, I part­ner the event orga­nizer in pro­vid­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pub­lic­ity. One of my most excit­ing projects is the PR and com­mu­ni­ca­tions for the SA Open, held at Pearl Val­ley Golf Estates and sup­ported by some of the world’s great­est golfers – Ernie Els, Trevor Immel­man, Rory Sab­ba­tini, Tim Clark and Hen­rik Sten­son. We ran an inter­na­tional media cen­tre and pro­vided the com­mu­ni­ca­tions and media releases from the launch to the event. Moment of extreme stress when Ernie Els decides which jour­nal­ist he will talk to, when we have a whole process and tim­ing set up — takes con­tin­gency to a whole new level.

What is your favourite event?

Two of my favourite events are the SA Open and the Gourmet Fes­ti­val. I work with a fan­tas­tic team at the SA Open and Pearl Val­ley is a gor­geous golf course, the Gourmet Fes­ti­val is very chal­leng­ing from a client liai­son point of view, but then I get to meet some of TV’s top celebrity chefs and I love food!

What do you love most about what you do? Least?

I love writ­ing and love see­ing my words in print, or on the air­waves. Least … clients who think they are PR experts – why don’t they do it themselves?!

What is your pas­sion? What keeps you motivated?

I love peo­ple and I love see­ing solu­tions to a prob­lem, in my case com­mu­ni­ca­tions prob­lems. I’m a hard worker and I don’t like to let peo­ple down, so I guess that would be part of my motivation.

How does a typ­i­cal day pan out?

I have the priv­i­lege of work­ing from home, and so far in eight years, have man­aged not to come to my desk in my PJ’s! I drop my five-year old daugh­ter at school at about 08:30 and then its all hands on deck for the work at hand. I fetch Zoe from school at about 12:30, and share lunch with her before I’m drawn back to my desk. Have to con­fess that if let loose, I’d be a worka­holic – have played that game, it’s really easy for me to work. It takes a con­scious effort to be present with Zoe and not dis­tracted by the work at hand. My house­keeper leaves at 3 each day, then I’m a ‘real’ mom – bak­ing, going to the library, tramp­ing to the park in our gum boots, chas­ing after her as she learns to ride a bike.
I usu­ally real­ize at 6pm that I have no clue what’s for sup­per, try and rus­tle up some­thing and just man­age to get Zoe to bed by 8pm. For­tu­nately, my hus­band, Jeremy, is a chef, so sup­per is a synch to him, it’s just the kitchen we have to con­tend with after, I don’t know how he always man­ages to splash the tiles behind the stove – but the sauces are worth it.

What do you do in your spare time? Hobbies ?

I love being in the out­doors, so walk­ing or run­ning in the gen­er­ous open spaces in Cape Town. I started surf­ing last year, but I’m not a real surfer, but would like to try again some time. I’m a rookie gar­dener, dis­heart­ened by cater­pil­lars eat­ing our broc­coli and Chi­nese cab­bage and some rust attack­ing the toma­toes, so this win­ter I’m focus­ing on my com­post heap and start­ing a worm farm.

What do you love about Cape Town? Dislike?

I love the sea­sons that at the end of sum­mer, I pack away my sum­mer clothes and san­dals and haul out the coats, scarves and bean­ies. I love bundling up and walk­ing on the moun­tain in win­ter, but I hate the inces­sant rain, a glimpse of sun­shine lifts my mood.
I love the fact that you are free to be you – whether you’re a rasta, a hip­pie, a yup­pie or a trendy, there are no rules here. Smart casual on an invi­ta­tion means any­thing!
Only in Cape Town, would a toi­let lead directly off a restau­rant and be accept­able, only in Cape Town would unmatch­ing fur­ni­ture – retro and junk be cool, only in Cape Town can you park on both sides of the road, only in Cape Town is every­thing a half-hour away, only in Cape Town can you always see the moun­tain.
Dis­like? Only in Cape Town is it impor­tant where you went to school.

Favourite spots? Favourite restaurants/ cafes?

I love the Bird Café in Bree Street. Only in Cape Town could you sit on milk crates and it’s trendy! The food is gor­geous, espe­cially the wheat­less, sug­ar­less, nut, fruit and choco­late muffins (don’t know how they get that right), so huge it’s too big for two.
I love Kalk Bay – the ecclec­tic­ness (if there is such a word), the cob­bled streets, the views that make up for hav­ing no garage, off-street park­ing or gar­den, the second-hand stores where junk is designer, the almond crois­sants from the Olympic Café, the fish and chips at Live Bait where you can lean out and touch the waves.

I love the Sea­point Prom­e­nade where all is dis­cussed from pol­i­tics to pas­sion, where grannies walk their dogs, north Africans play soc­cer, kids ride their bikes and the rest of us try and get fit along­side the ocean.

Kim can be con­tacted at Tro­jan Horse on +27 (0) 83 630 6861