Back in the mid-90s, Cape Town was a harsh and unforgiving city if you were one of the dozens of abjectly poor people eking out a living on the streets of the city. Harassment and sometimes even physical beatings were a daily reality for street people, more often than not at the hands of power drunk and out-of-control members of the police force and the city’s traffic department, as well as powerful private security companies that seemed to operate beyond the law.

But, unlike today, there were few resources available to help this vulnerable community who were a daily reality in the faces of the residents of Cape Town, even if many turned a blind eye and pretended they didn’t exist. It was into this climate of fear that The Big Issue South Africa was launched late in December 1996.  Today, now 15 years old, it is one of the world’s oldest street papers.

It was born out of a real need, and a sense that something had to be done to offer the desperate and marginalised street people of Cape Town an alternative to begging or petty crime; to help them earn a living and restore their dignity.

It is also the story of a group of people concerned about what was happening, who were thrown together by fate but over the years have contributed in different ways to make The Big Issue the success it has become. The key person in getting The Big Issue off the ground was community worker Debi Diamond who, determined to make some difference, was already running an informal soup kitchen from her home in Wynberg.

Passion for the downtrodden

Concerned that she merely plastering band-aids on a festering wound, Diamond began a conversation with other likeminded people working with the city’s homeless and downtrodden. One of the people she turned to for help and advice was father Declan Collins, a Catholic “warrior priest” working closely with the homeless and marginalised as part of his work at Salesians Missions in Cape Town. His passion for the downtrodden often led him into confrontations with the authorities and his own church but Father Declan was a man who was not easily cowed. He was tragically murdered a few years later while working among the poorest of the poor in the Orange Farm informal settlement in Gauteng.

The third person to enter the scene was Shane Halpin, a young Irishman who had come to South Africa as a volunteer community worker at Salesians, who soon fell under Collins’ spell and also became a passionate advocate for the city’s homeless.

At her own cost, Diamond travelled to London to meet with The Big Issue London, launched five years earlier by The Body Shop founders and social entrepreneurs Gordon and Anita Roddick, along with activist John Bird, to try and convince them to help her set up an offshoot of the magazine in South Africa.

The mother of the modern street paper movement, The Big Issue London, now in its 21st year, was the inspiration for the hundreds of papers and magazines that are today sold on the streets of the cities of the world by marginalised people. However, as a magazine based on people paying for a quality read rather than a pity purchase, they were not convinced that Diamond, a non journalist, was capable of putting together a team that would meet their high standards. What they did do, though, was give her a bit of money for a feasibility study and suggest she find a media person to assist, probably believing they had heard the last of her (ironically, the study found that a Big Issue in South Africa would not work, but fortunately this was ignored).

And so I was drawn in. By sheer fluke, a cousin met Maria Clancy — another champion of The Big Issue South Africa — at a cocktail party in London and passed on my details when she asked if he knew of any journalists in South Africa.  Soon afterwards I received a call from Diamond asking me to get involved. My initial response was that it was impossible to pull off; I raised issues about funding and printing, and many other obstacles I envisaged would stand in the path of such a venture. But Diamond is someone not easily distracted and soon others came on board as we met around her kitchen table, smoking and drinking endless cups of tea and coffee, as we plotted Cape Town’s very own street paper.

No money, few staff

It soon became clear that without a reliable and cheap printer — preferably free, as we had no money, premises, equipment or staff — the dream of a Big Issue at the southern tip of Africa would remain just a dream. Not one to take no for an answer, Diamond managed to persuade the then Independent Newspapers Cape boss, Rory Wilson, to print the first few editions of a three-monthly The Big Issue Cape Town (now South Africa) for free, with a 50% discount after that. Premises, consisting of a small office, were secured in a community centre in Salt River. It was a dodgy neighbourhood and we often watched from our office window as smartly dressed people in fancy cars pulled up at the crack house across the road, to buy their fix of cocaine rocks. We also saw how the cops occasionally arrived to collect a payment in exchange for turning a blind eye.

With only one computer and space at a premium, producing the magazine was a real challenge, forcing us to operate on a “hot seat system”. Early in the day Diamond, the social director, and Halpin, the project director, would use the computer to write fundraising appeals and policy documents. Then, later in the day, editorial would move into the same space to produce the magazine on the same painfully slow, donated PC. Pulling all-nighters on deadline was the norm, but no one complained.

Journalists, swept up by the excitement of a new independent voice in the media, donated copy and pictures to fill the pages.

In those days it was printed on newsprint, a far cry from today’s sharp, glossy product. Top journalists and photographers today still contribute to the magazine for free, or at rates far below what they would normally charge. From the very beginning the policy was to produce a quality, issues-driven magazine, with a mix of advocacy and entertainment, which reported on stories and issues largely ignored by mainstream media. It would also have to be a product vendors would be proud to sell — and that people would buy because it was a good read, not because they felt sorry for the vendor. It is a policy followed by successive editors over the years and the line “Not just a good deed, but also a good read”, best captures the ethos of The Big Issue.

The first distribution debut was in the doorway of the entrance to a building on Church Street Mall in Cape Town’s CBD. Many of the early vendors were drawn from the ranks of the city’s homeless. Today that has changed to a few genuinely homeless vendors and mostly the long-term unemployed and those in between jobs selling the magazine. As an aside: should you ever want to know what social ills afflict a city, you need only look to the make-up of the vendors of the local street paper. It changes from city to city, ranging from the homeless, to the unemployed; from those afflicted by drugs and alcohol to refugees, or whatever that city’s problems happen to be.

Finally, after months of kicking down doors and bulldozing aside obstacles, the first edition was launched on Cape Town’s historical Parade in December 1996, with then Minister of Welfare and Population Development Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi symbolically buying the first copy. Bemused passers-by looked on as a parade of homeless people led by a crude “float” built on the back of a municipal truck, and some pushing decorated shopping trolleys, descended on the Parade to bop to the sounds of a live Bush Radio broadcast.

That day a flame was lit — and it burns strongly today as The Big Issue South Africa marches confidently towards its second decade, with plans to move onto the streets of Gauteng and beyond in the coming years. © The Big Issue South Africa

 Follow Raymond Joseph on Twitter @rayjoe

 Main photo: The Big Issue’s staff and vendors launched at picket at the entrance to the V&A Waterfront after repeated efforts to place a vendor at Cape Town’s top tourist attraction failed. Now it is one of the top sites for vendors to sell the mgazine.

The 192nd magazine on sale now, which celebrates a decade and a half of publishing, is the product of nurturing by several editors before me. She (I designate a female identity to all my inanimate objects — from cars to washing machines) was born to Charmaine Bruins in December 1996 as a wrinkly, crinkly and somewhat smudgy black and white baby. Raymond Joseph then nursed her from the fourth edition and fattened her up from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication, now in full colour.

Glenda Nevill took over the parental duties when The Big Issue was a toddler, increasingly testing her boundaries and sometimes throwing temper tantrums which had the powers that be stand up and take note, if only to shut her up. Glenda raised her, taught her manners, discipline and structure over her five-year editorship before handing over a now gangly tween to James Garner. And what a rebellious teen she became under his watch, questioning authority, protesting war and challenging the status quo in general.

Donald Paul then had a go at taming the teen. Under his guidance she calmed down a bit and discovered new interests, like good theatre, gourmet food and even the ballet. And she began going out more frequently — every 21 days instead of monthly.

I was handed the reins as The Big Issue was beginning to become a young adult, which was lucky for me because I’ve never had much patience or ability to handle naughty kids or gawky teens. Over the past two years I’ve been in the fortunate position to watch her grow into her own, blossom and become more self-assured, thanks to all the grooming and nurturing by the guardians before me. She’s still growing in size and maturity, and we have some big plans for the coming year, so watch this space.

But it has to be said that The Big issue is, and always has been, so much more than “just a magazine”. It is, fundamentally, about people.

A group of dedicated people went against all odds and grim predictions of failure to create this multi-pronged organisation. [See story by Ray Joseph.] They did it, quite simply, to help other people, some of whom have journeyed with us since the beginning and are still going strong. This is why this edition pays tribute to the pioneers of The Big Issue SA and to the vendors who are the life force of street papers, both here and in countries across the globe.

But, despite the mammoth effort and dedication of all these people, it would have been impossible for The Big Issue to grow from strength to strength over the last decade and a half — or to even exist at all — if it wasn’t for our readers. Their loyalty to the magazine and our vendors is the single biggest reason for our success, and so it is for them that we reserve the main tribute and the most gratitude. © The Big Issue South Africa

Follow The Big Issue on Twitter @BigIssueSA

Follow Melany Bendix on Twitter @MelBendix

Note: Big Issue vendors are independent salespeople. They purchase the magazine for R9 and sell it for R18. When they first “badge up” (sign on as vendors) they receive five free magazines to get them started. From then on vendors manage their own money, and in this way are given the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to being responsible, independent and business savvy.

All income from sales and advertising is put back into producing a better magazine and providing jobs and social support for the unemployed and destitute. The Big Issue relies on funding from national and international donors to cover the majority of operating costs.

There are clusters of African countries that work together, making production more viable in these areas, such as in West Africa. However, to ensure successful communication efforts in 2012, marketers and advertisers need to ensure that they speak local lingo and already understand the market in which they operate.

The telecoms and financial sectors particularly, both enormous growth sectors in Africa will continue to boom in 2012. More than 130-million Africans own cell phones, which creates opportunities for innovative and consumer-engaging media platforms in these areas.

Africa’s banking sector has also seen enormous growth. With only 20% of the continent having their own bank accounts, the potential for further growth in 2012 is huge. As this figure continues to increase, the need for handy communication applications also rises. Marketers will have to communicate with inexperienced banking consumers to create awareness and educate them about various banking procedures.

Each African country offers its own distinct market. These are the countries I believe will deliver growth opportunities in 2012.

Kenya

Kenya will see more advertising agencies and marketers selecting the destination in which to operate their East African hubs in 2012.

According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, Kenya has a population of over 41-million and serves as the regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa.

M-PESA, a mobile phone-based money transfer service, already has over 2.3-million registered users in Kenya, marking the telecommunications industry for a boom in 2012.

Kenya offers opportunities for growth in various other sectors including tourism and banking. Government sectors like health, education and safety and security are also solid markets for 2012.

Botswana

Botswana’s Gross Domestic Product, per capita, is high in relation to most other African countries. Although the population is small, there is potential for good business as Botswana has a relatively sophisticated market.

The country offers the opportunity for growth in various sectors in 2012 including telecommunications, tourism, banking and mine safety.

While traditional media such as television, radio and print already exist in the market, there are numerous gaps for other media platforms to fill in 2012.

Nigeria

Nigeria is recognised as one of the fastest growing markets in the world, with over 130-million consumers with which to interact.

The country’s economy is one of the most developed in Africa. According to UN classification, it is a middle-income nation with developed financial, communication and transport sectors. It is also the 12th largest producer of petroleum products in the world.

The financial, petroleum, telecommunication and FMCG sectors are among the largest industries in Nigeria, and marketing and advertising opportunities to reach consumers in these industries in 2012 are endless.

Mozambique

South Africa has always supplied the largest number of tourists to Mozambique, with just under a million visiting the country in 2010.

Mozambique offers a lucrative marketing economy for brands. While much of its economy was devastated by almost three decades of internal warfare, meaningful reconstruction started in late 1994.

Impressive economic performance and heavy investment in human capital has had a strong impact on poverty reduction and the Mozambique economy is growing fast.

Mozambique’s economy is closely integrated with those of southern and South Africa, and various industry sectors including agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism are on their way up in 2012.

Angola

While oil is the backbone of the Angolan economy, with the sector making up over 90% of the country’s exports, it also enjoys considerable agricultural potential having a climate, soil and topography appropriate for modern and large scale agricultural production of a wide range of crops.

The country’s underground is immensely rich with minerals including oil, diamonds, gold, and iron ores. Furthermore, it has an important hydropower, forest and fishery potential, ensuring valuable economic opportunities for various brands in a wide range of industry sectors in 2012.

The rebirth of the Angolan economy, after the civil war, has seen increasing competition in the corporate market. Until recently, the Angolan economy was centered on government and the private entities were thus not as competitive as they are since the market has opened up to foreign investment.

With competitiveness comes the need to advertise products and services in an attempt to increase sales and consequently, income. Luanda, where over 95% of Angola’s business decisions are made, is the best place to position your marketing efforts in 2012.

While business is certainly different in Africa, marketers and advertisers still need to know how to effectively communicate with their intended market it they want to ensure sales. Tailored solutions will be on the increase in 2012 to ensure successful marketing efforts in Africa.

Lyn Davis is marketing director of Pocket Media who works extensively in Africa. Follow PocketMedia Solutions on Twitter: @PocketMedia_SA

The ‘My Dream Interview’ international youth reporter festival of success stories, supported by the Fundacion Acindar of Argentina, asks school teams of 11- to 15-year olds to choose a prominent person they would like to interview, then come up with the questions to ask. 
The school teams submit their idea and questions to the participating newspaper, which chooses the best set of questions, helps the winning team conduct the interview, and publishes it.

WAN-IFRA is also providing a guide to newspapers to help teachers work with students on creating a journalistic interview.

“This activity is a great one for raising the profile of newspapers among this age group when most children develop – or don’t – a news consumption habit,” said Dr. Aralynn McMane, WAN-IFRA executive director of Young Readership Development.

“It’s also an excellent educational exercise to teach about how to do a journalistic interview, involving careful verification and fact-checking and smart question construction. And the resulting interview is sure to be popular.”

Newspapers can then enter the interview in a worldwide WAN-IFRA competition, with the winners presented at a ceremony at the IFRA Expo in Madrid in October.

Winning interviews will be distributed globally by The Interview People, with all royalties going to winning schools.

Already on board are La Nacion of Argentina, The Monitor of Uganda, Polskapresse of Poland, The West Australian, and many others. There is still time to join them; the registration deadline is 29 February and full details can be found here.

Newspapers interested in participating have until the end of February to sign up by writing the project manager, Roxana Morduchowicz, at wanifra.mydreaminterview@gmail.com or joining the World Young Reader My Dream Interview Group.

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18 000 publications, 15 000 online sites and over 3 000 companies in more than 120 countries. 

Compass24, revealed that:

• Societies are becoming more community-focused;
• Community newspapers are becoming a differently relevant advertising medium; and
• Community-centricity implies a different attraction to community newspaper titles.

Linda Gibson, Ads24’s CEO, maintains that media planning for community papers needs to be carefully structured and supported by tools similar to those employed for mainstream papers.

“It has been proven time and again that return on investment for mainstream papers impact sales directly. For community papers there is no continuous planning tool enabling planning and positioning. This is why we embarked on the Compass24 project. “It will enable more informed planning for advertisers, making it less of an intuitive process that is the case at present. The ultimate aim is to create a sophisticated, scientific tool able to support and justify the credibility of community paper ad-spend.”

Ads24 will be rolling out the results to these regions over the next few months, starting with the Western Cape – hence the info-graphic, the highlights of which include:

• The Western Cape community paper reading community is 1,8 million people or 52% of the province’s population;
• 94% live in formal urban areas and 91% are LSM 6+;
• 72% prefer advertising in the newspapers to knock-and-drop publications;
• 62% are aged between 20 and 49; and
• 29% have accessed the internet over the past

As we pass through an education system that I would argue is often blithely and benignly destructive to creativity, we can count ourselves lucky if we emerge with much confidence in our own creativity, an intact imagination or a lively sense of questioning and experimentation. And all too often, creativity becomes a special case – a magic attribute of the “creatives” rather than being owned as a fundamental capability at the core of each of our identities.

Part of the problem is that the idea of creativity itself has been put into a box. Ken Robinson, in Mind the Gap, puts it like this: “Creativity has become hopelessly stereotyped. First, creativity is associated with particular types of activities, mainly the arts. For that reason, it is thought to be marginal to academic and economic success.

Second, only certain sorts of people are thought to be creative. As a result, it’s often thought that creativity can’t be taught. Third, creativity is thought to involve free and spontaneous behaviour. In that respect, it’s sometimes thought to be the opposite of discipline and high standards. On all counts, promoting creativity seems to strike some people as at best irrelevant … and at worst positively disruptive.”

Creativity, to me, involves acts of imagination that add value. In the world we are in and the world to come, we’ll need to make sense, together, of social and technological complexities and challenges we can barely imagine, and come up with new answers and new ways of making life worthwhile, safe and inspiring. This is true of business, of government, of medicine, of science, of politics, of community, of family and of us individually.

But who and what are the creatives? Creativity is not locked into the creative industries.

In fact, according to research done by London School of Business and Creative London, only about a third of creatives (and by this I mean those engaged in the arts, design, music, multimedia etc.) work in the creative industries rooted in those skills.

The others work in the rest of industry and government. In addition, we talk now of a rising creative class independent of the creative industries. This ‘Creative Class’ – which makes up 30% of the US workforce – has enjoyed job growth at three times the national average and higher incomes too.

Richard Florida, author of three leading books on the topic, defines the core of the Creative Class as people whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or new creative content. “In addition,” he says, “all members of the Creative Class – whether they are artists or engineers, musicians or computer scientists, writers or entrepreneurs – share a common creative ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference and merit.”

We all know we need discipline, co-ordination and intellect – with these in place, add initiative and you have a new level of competitiveness.

Add creativity and then passion, and you are operating at a new level of ability. The first three you can probably buy, the last three you can’t – they are voluntary, and emerge from the conditions and encouragement you set up for them.

So, how do we re-learn creativity? My own practice in education and a raft of research shows that it is remarkable how quickly, under the right conditions, we can “re-create” ourselves. I have found that in a bruised South Africa, learners often lack confidence in themselves as thinkers and creators. But, with appropriate encouragement and method, the intellectual and creative transformations are nothing short of astounding. Creative educators such as LEAP, TSiBA and Synergy in Cape Town will attest to this.

Skills we can learn to reclaim our creativity and practice include questioning, suspending judgement, keen observation, reflection and sense-making, experimentation and working with “fast forward failure”. When we practice open-minded, open-hearted questioning we allow ourselves to see beyond the everyday assumptions we hold.

By suspending judgement we allow ourselves to accept the new. By observing well we gather more information to fuel our minds. By reflecting we allow our minds to change and see new patterns and possibilities.

By experimenting courageously we test and learn quickly. ‘Fast forward failure’ is simply trial-and-error supported by an acute focus on learning and risk management, achieved by capturing mistakes early while they are small, correcting them and moving forwards.

Ambition and optimism are not easy in tough times, but survival and success demands it. The first important step to building a more original and dynamic business, organisation, family, city or country is learning how to effectively become more innovative in one’s own work, life and strategies. Your first innovation needs to be on yourself.

Find Henley Business School on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HenleyAfrica

Follow Henley Business School on Twitter: @HenleyAfrica

eBay’s iPhone app boasts 12 million downloads and has generated $700 million in the first year, with $ 1.5 – $2 billion predicted for the second year.

All well and good, but I would argue that retailers who focus solely on smartphone users are missing a trick or two, and will certainly miss out on the real benefits that mobile can bring to their customers and their bottom line.

Let’s first consider just how mobile can be used to extend and enhance the retail experience.

e-commerce to m-commerce

As with eBay, mobile commerce can be used to extend e-commerce activities to wherever the shopper is, day or night, via their mobile phones. Donahoe describes this as: “Bringing the world’s inventory to you.”

Here, however, m-commerce is essentially providing a parallel access method for customers who already have desktop access to ‘traditional’ e-commerce. It would be interesting to see just how much of eBay’s mobile revenue had shifted across from the e-commerce platform. As well as cannibalised revenues, there is not much in the way of a reduction in cost of sales or other efficiencies – in fact, I’d argue that cost of sales would actually increase, thanks to retailers servicing substantially the same customer-base via two electronic channels.

But, especially in a country such as South Africa, with very high mobile internet penetration compared to desktop internet, m-commerce may very well be a shopper’s first, or only, experience with online shopping. What’s more, in such a big country, with large rural areas, m-commerce can give shoppers access to stores and brands they would have previously had to travel hundred of kilometres to reach.

Now the retailer truly starts serving a customer-base that hasn’t been served via an electronic channel before, bringing in cost-savings and widening their market reach substantially. But, to capture this mobile-first or mobile-only market, retailers can’t rely on a smartphone only strategy.

To offer m-commerce effectively, retailers need to understand their customer-base, know which handsets they are using, and devise a mobile strategy that spans across mobile apps, mobile web and possibly USSD all running on feature phones, smartphones and tablets.

In-store mobilisation

Retailers shouldn’t overlook the huge benefits of bringing mobiles into their bricks and mortar stores. This cannot only give them a competitive edge over their rivals, but can help them profile customers, manage inventory and reduce the costs of servicing customers.

Some examples of retail application of mobile services include:

1. Augmented reality can provide the customer with nutritional information about a product, menus and recipes, healthier alternatives as well as tally up the total nutritional value of the basket.

2. Customers can budget better by scanning their items and having a running total of the price of their shopping basket. In addition, price comparison services can show shoppers if an item is available for cheaper elsewhere (great for shoppers and retailers offering good prices).

3. Loyalty and reward schemes can be consolidated onto the handset, giving retailers a better idea of who shops where and when, as well as which promotions are effective. For the customer, this can give them an excellent overview of their spending patterns.

4. Allowing store managers to access point of sale information while on the go can give them immediate view over inventory levels to allow faster restocking and also allowing them to react quickly to trends: making sure the ice cream freezer is restocked after a sudden hot spell, for instance.

5. Retailers can use money transfer services via mobile to not only provide their customers with a critical service, but also to help manage their in-store cash levels. In cash-based economies, retailers often end up with a lot of cash in their tills, which is both expensive to deposit and a security risk. If the stores in rural areas are paying out cash as part of a money transfer service, with the money typically deposited in more urban areas, this can go a long way to mitigating the cash level issue for the stores.

6. In the future, mobile payment options are also going to change the way people shop – for the moment though, it is still easier to pay by card or cash than via a mobile wallet, but this will certainly change with direct access to bank accounts and the introduction of NFC. Retailers need to gear up for this.

With both e-commerce and the in-store applications, there is unfortunately the misperception that only iPhone users have expendable income, and hence only these users should be targeted. Rather, retailers need to mobilise their businesses across their entire user base, from feature phones up, to really see the benefits.

Fortunately, using a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP), a mobile retail service can be rolled out immediately across the board, allowing retailers to reach customers no matter what their handset type, with the most suitable version of the service.

Arno du Toit is Virtual Mobile Technologies’ chief commercialisation officer.

Applications will open separately for each city, at least two months before auditions and are only accessible online. The online application process for the Johannesburg Auditions runs for 20 days from Friday (February 24)  to Thursday,  March 15. Applicants are encouraged to include a one-minute video of themselves, and 30 of the best applicants will be invited to each audition.

Applicants can apply to their nearest city even if they are from a different country and in exceptional cases TED may contribute to costs of attending the audition. The auditions will be held in Johannesburg on Thursday, May 3. 2012. Auditions will take the form of a three to six minute talk or performance in English only.

The line-up of previous TED Speakers includes former US President Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, writer Chris Abani, scientist Neil Turok, musicians Vusi Mahlasela & Paul Simon, and many others: Nobel laureates, CEOs, designers and inventors.

The rapid expansion of TED’s footprint across the globe and in Africa has largely been driven by its TEDx programme, where qualifying applicants can host independently organised TED events. With over 25 TEDx licenses issued to South Africans since 2009, the country is one of the most active on the African continent.

In South Africa, TED has partnered with TEDxSoweto to deliver the Johannesburg leg of the auditions. TEDxSoweto convener Kelo Kubu, who also happens to be TEDxAmbassador for Africa, had this to say: “Our goal is to find remarkable people doing great work, across disciplines, wherever they may be. This is a great opportunity to showcase Africas’ ingenuity to the world”.

For more information please visit: http://conferences.ted.com/TED2013/auditions/ or http://www.tedxsoweto.co.za

Due to the unprecedented number of entries received for the 2012 awards – totalling over 200 – four juries have been selected to judge the awards programme. A total of 20 judges, the highest number of judges the PRISM Awards has involved in this process, will judge the 31 categories of the professional awards according to their expertise. The categories include no fewer than eight new categories, predominantly focussing on digital and social media, as well as research.

The three chief judges for the 2012 PRISM Awards are Marilyn Watson, CEO of Cinnamon Public Relations; Daniel Munslow, director at Talk2Us; and Hayley Kuhn, communication manager from Sanlam.  The judging process kicked off last week in Johannesburg.

2012 PRISM Judges are:

·         Amanda de Langa, Nasionale Televisieskrywer,  Beeld/Die Burger/Volksblad

·         Andre Oberholzer, Group Head Corporate Affairs, Sappi Limited

·         Andrew Maluleka, Media Shop

·         Anton J van Rensburg, Public Relations Specialist

·         Ashraf Garda, presenter, Media@SAfm

·         Candi Guvi, Financial Journalist, Summit TV

·         Catherine Constantinedis, Miss Earth South Africa

·         Corne Meintjes, Lecturer, Monash

·         Florence Musengi, Vice President, Head of Communication & Public Affairs, Saab SA

·         Heather Robinson, Stakeholder Relations specialist

·         Ingrid Lotze, Owner, puruma business communications

·         Jaco Pienaar, Pear Factor, Chief Knowledge Officer

·         Linda Hamman, CEO, Talk2Us

·         Lucy Balona, Head of Marketing and Communication, CANSA

·         Roslyn Jones, Internal Communication Manager, Sun International

·         Tabby Tsengiwe, Divisional Executive, Group Communication, Nedbank

·         Tim Shier, BrandsEye

All winners will only be announced at a gala event scheduled to be held at The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank on Sunday March 25 from 16:00.

The road show kicked off in Cape Town’s over the holiday period, but has now moved up-country and as from February, the display will make its appearance at Sandton, Eastgate Melrose Arch and Design Quarter in Johannesburg, as well as in the Menlyn, Woodlands and Brooklyn shopping centres in Pretoria.

The activation consists of exhibiting the vehicles with ambassadors equipped with informational iPads to assist consumers. To echo the modern aspects of the Evoque, all information relating to the vehicles are presented to consumers on the interactive iPads, including specifications, features, colour options, trim options, picture galleries and the all-important pricing.

“By utilising modern technology such as iPads with 3G, we were able to instantly email interested consumers the Evoque brochures, book a test drive on the spot or arrange for a dealer in their area to contact them,” says Travis Brown, Mall Active’s GM.“After just six activations, Range Rover had secured 722 actionable leads.”