Acceleration Media’s Di Charton recently returned from Edinburgh where she and her team – a mixed over-30s crew – of ‘touchboks’ scored a bronze medal in the touch rugby world cup.
“I love being part of a team and working together for a common goal,” Charton says, who adds that it is t hrough touch rugby that she met her husband and made many of her best friends. She discovered touch rugby in 1999 and has represented South Africa at three world cup events. [https://www.touchworldcup2011.co.uk/]
Charton is managing director of one of South Africa’s leading digital marketing consulting firms, one of the fastest growing media and technology sectors. A former civil engineer, she discovered media when she worked at United Stations. It was Fashion Week that did it, as Charton discovered she a knack for strategic thinking coupled with social interaction.
Charton was offered the job at Acceleration Media – then a part of South African multinational e-marketing group Acceleration – when she and her husband were looking to move to Cape Town in 2006.
Charton says that she was attracted to the digital environment because of the rapid growth and change that characterise the sector.
Charton started working in this sector when it was still a fairly male-dominated environment, but she says that staying on top of the changing technology is a challenge whether you are a man or a woman.
She says that her philosophy as a manager centres around transparency and compassion. The Acceleration Media office is completely open-plan to facilitate communication.
“There’s a new challenge every day,” she adds. “My job today is very different to what it was two years ago and it will be different again in two years from now.”
When Charton was first appointed to Acceleration Media, it was a small company of just four people and focused mostly on online media planning and buying. The company, now owned by a joint venture between leading empowerment group Kagiso Media and French-based Lagardère, has since grown to more than 20 people and offers a full spectrum of digital marketing services.
