Who we are

We started Iron Heart in 2020 to help purpose-led businesses and non-profit organisations effectively connect and communicate with their audiences.

“For over 20 years we used our strategic and creative brains to help sell big brands, from cars to beer to pizza and everything in between. The time came for us to use our skills to create positive change in our society, and help give ethically minded and sustainably led businesses and organisations a share of voice.” – Toni Cheiman, co-founder.

Since our inception, we have done a lot of work in the social and civil justice space with non-profits like the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (who incubated us) and OUTA (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse), as well as the Fellowship Programme: Impact Amplifier. We have also helped to launch an eco-estate, Ukusa Estate, in KwaZulu-Natal, and we provide ongoing digital media strategy and buying to our health tech start-up client, LocumBase.

We call ourselves Iron Heart because we are a fearless collective of creative minds who love doing work that helps people and planet.

HEART is an acronym for our five guiding principles that underpin everything we do:

Hope; Ethics; Agility; Relevance and Transformation.

Founders

Kush has over 20 years of experience in the advertising and marketing industries and is an internationally awarded art director. He has won a coveted Cannes Lion award, multiple Loeries, a Pendoring and an Ad of the Year award. Kush’s experience is diverse, he has worked on telecommunications networks, automotive, FMCG, fashion, food services, financial services, broadcast & programming, and the alcohol and tobacco sectors.
 
“I am passionate about harnessing the power of creativity combined with technology to change consumer behaviour through purpose-led messaging and communication. I’ve learnt over the years that successful digitally-led communication campaigns are based on careful strategic planning, research and data.”

Since 2000, Toni has worked on everything from FMCG to financial services, fast foods to fashion, alcohol to automotive, telecoms to government. She was a co-creator of the famous NSPCA Fake Dogfight Billboard that trended on Twitter and went viral across all media, resulting in hundreds of leads, over a hundred dogs rescued and more than 50 arrests at the time. The campaign also won a Loerie, an Apex and a Kantar Millward Brown Special Award for demonstrating an ingenious response to limited advertising or research funds.

Our Strategy Advisers

Camaren Peter (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. He’s also the Director and Executive Head of the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC NPC). He graduated with a cum-laude honors degree in Theoretical Physics in 1997 (University of Natal, Durban), holds a masters degree in Astrophysics from the University of Cape Town (2002), and a PhD in Business Administration from the GSB, University of Cape Town (2010). He worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for eight years, first as systems engineer and then as a researcher. His research and practice leverages complexity theory to prepare leaders and decision-makers to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st Century. These range from political, technological and socio-cultural transitions and their implications to powerful global change phenomena such as urbanisation, resource scarcity, ecosystems degradation and climate change; particularly in Africa and the Global South. Camaren has worked extensively on the urban development challenges facing African cities.

Priniven has served as Head of Strategy locally at TBWA and Metropolitan Republic and was MD of the South African Tourism Unit at Ogilvy. Internationally he has worked at TBWA Singapore as Global and Regional Strategy Director and at WPP Tokyo, as Social Strategy Lead and then as North Asia Strategy Leader. He returned to South Africa from Japan in December 2022, and will be working with Iron Heart on projects that require in-depth strategic input. Priniven’s wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise in brand and integrated strategy, together with Iron Heart’s innovative creative thinking, makes us a formidable team.

Shane is a paid media specialist and digital nomad with a keen interest in lead generation, eCommerce sales and general brand awareness campaigns. He has worked at Hello Media and TMI Collective, creating digital media strategies for Ninety One (formerly Investec Asset Management); City of Cape Town; Western Cape Government; Toyota; Virgin Active and Rain amongst others. He attends regular Google training and is an expert in strategising digital media campaigns to deliver the best results. “My goal with every campaign is to make sure it’s tracked properly and that it delivers on set KPI’s”. Shane started his own company PPC Media in 2020 and has been working with Iron Heart since its inception on the CABC, LocumBase and Ukusa Eco Estate, all with impressive results.

Priniven has served as Head of Strategy locally at TBWA and Metropolitan Republic and was MD of the South African Tourism Unit at Ogilvy. Internationally he has worked at TBWA Singapore as Global and Regional Strategy Director and at WPP Tokyo, as Social Strategy Lead and then as North Asia Strategy Leader. He returned to South Africa from Japan in December 2022, and will be working with Iron Heart on projects that require in-depth strategic input. Priniven’s wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise in brand and integrated strategy, together with Iron Heart’s innovative creative thinking, makes us a formidable team.