Briefly… DStv, Food Network title sponsors for Eat Out and Eat In Awards; Zigzag surf mag teams up with Tuffy to clean beaches; Algoa FM tunes in to prime Southern Cape market; Howzit! Motoring Channel zooms in on advertising; JustPlay giveaway drives leads; Tech start-ups to gain entry to the global stage
DStv, Food Network title sponsors for Eat Out and and Eat In Awards
DStv and Food Network are the naming rights sponsors for New Media Publishing’s Eat Out Restaurant Awards and the Eat In Produce Awards. The awards will now be known as the Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards and the Eat In DStv Food Network Produce Awards.
These awards are cornerstones of the foodie calendar. The Eat Out Restaurant Awards are South Africa’s most extensive culinary awards with more than 20 categories across a diverse range of restaurant types – from small, intimate bistros to high-end fine dining restaurants. The Eat In Produce Awards are in recognition of suppliers who provide top local produce to consumers as well as the trade. The honours include best new product, best organic producer and best food market, as well as a South African food heritage award.
“DStv and Food Network are ideal partners for these awards. We believe that they, like the awards, celebrate gourmet excellence and the art of great gastronomy, whether it is at South Africa’s top restaurants or at home around the kitchen table. We are thrilled to have DStv and Food Network on board as our title sponsors,” says Bridget McCarney, MD of New Media Publishing.
Food Network, broadcast on DStv’s channel 185, offers viewers a fresh approach to food programming and celebrates everything that is bold, fun and entertaining about food. The perfect platform for Food Network, DStv reaches more than 1.5 million South African viewers and provides a broad spectrum of entertainment and information choices.
Zigzag surf mag teams up with Tuffy to clean beaches
Tuffy Brands recently teamed up with the Zigzag surfing magazine to encourage beach cleanups around South Africa. The successful campaign has resulted in over 37 beach cleanups locally and internationally, as far afield as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Tuffy inserted 15 000 bags into the Zigzag magazine, and invited surfers to participate in the clean up and send in photos of themselves doing a beach cleanup or something cool with their Tuffy refuse bags. The prize for best picture was a Reef wetsuit, a most sort after commodity with surfers.
“The response to the campaign has been phenomenal and has resulted in a spin off that we never imagined,” says Rory Murray, marketing director of Tuffy Brands. “The initiative has resulted in the formation of two beach cleanup groups in Cape Town and KZN, who are now facilitating cleanups on a monthly basis.”
According to Will Bendix, editor of Zigzag, hundreds of photos have been received; some funny and some serious, but all promoting what people feel is an important part of saving the environment. “The uptake has blown us away. The campaign has gone so well that we have had to extend the entry dates to the next issue of our magazine,” he says.
“It’s so great to see the surfing community stepping up. It’s easy to let the enormity of environmental issues make us think ‘what difference can we make anyway?’ but this project proves that all it takes is one refuse bag, and the willingness to get stuck in.”
Howzit! Motoring Channel zooms in on advertising
Howzit MSN’s Motoring Channel, launched just three months ago in partnership with Cars in Action Online, has sold out advertising inventory and is planning completely new ad solutions to cope with demand, as well as adding on two new partners: Surf4Cars and Drive magazine, ensuring a well-rounded, informative and leisure read.
Renowned for it’s quick, current and comprehensive motoring content, the channel has swiftly climbed to 120 000 hits a month and has sold out its advertising options.
“There has been a clamour from both readers and advertisers for motoring content on the Howzit MSN portal, and we feel that these partnerships will give our readers a superb and compelling offering. Readership on the portal has shown steep growth in the last year, and by broadening the range of content available we hope to continue that trend and cement our place at the top of South Africa’s digital landscape,” says Howzit MSN editor Justin Zehmke.
Digitalmark’s sales manager Ian Drummond says the channel has created a new offering for motor manufacturers: “We are building bespoke microsites within the motoring channel with articles and videos as ad solutions to promote new vehicles.”
Drummond says the response from consumers has been phenomenal: “A recent Fiat ad placed with a Facebook link to garner ‘likes’ went viral and was viewed over 1 500 times. We had to buy 30G more server space just to cope with the demand.”
The team is constantly building new, innovative solutions around the channels to accommodate both users and advertisers.
Algoa FM tunes in to prime Southern Cape market
A highly sought-after audience of skilled professionals who have relocated to the coast, wealthy holidaymakers, and comfortably retired people, can now be reached through Algoa FM, which has been granted a license to extend its broadcast to the Southern Cape.
The Adult Contemporary commercial radio station currently has a listenership of over 800 000 listeners, mainly in the upper LSMs.
“We are confident that the expansion of our signal to include the George, Knysna and Mossel Bay areas will help grow listenership to the magic million mark,” says Algoa FM managing director Dave Tiltmann.
The 25-year-old station is part of the African Media Entertainment (AME) stable.
Packages will be drawn up to allow advertisers to select their audiences and to minimise wastage.
Algoa FM will be introducing advertising splits into the Southern Cape transmitter network that will offer local clients in that region the opportunity to talk directly to their customers.
“We expect strong demand for this over the main holiday periods, when the main market that many national and Gauteng-based companies want to reach is holidaying in the George/Knysna area.
“Algoa, with its mix of music, news, weather and entertaining programming will be their preferred radio station while they are in our region,” he says.
Tiltmann hopes to be broadcasting to the Garden Route towns in the Southern Cape by this December.
JustPlay giveaway drives leads
South Africa’s foremost online lead generation website, JustPlay, has just given away a Hyundai i20 car via its consumer competition portal, the biggest prize to date.
From over 306 000 entries, Port Elizabeth student Megan Snyman was chosen as the winner of the vehicle worth R150 000.
According to chief of play, Gidon Alter, the Johannesburg-based online marketing company used the web-based platform (www.justplay.co.za) to drive highly qualified business-to-consumer (B2C) leads for its clients
.We do this via customised consumer questionnaires. When users register on JustPlay, they select the prizes they’re interested in and fill in a questionnaire belonging to a client,” Alter says.
Alter said there were over 110 000 registered users on the site, with approximately 70% playing on a weekly basis. “We grow our database by around 400 a day.”
He said users had to be 18 or older to register and that most were in the 18 to 40-age range. “As a user clicks on the prize they want to win, the system randomly generates a conversational questionnaire sponsored by one of our advertisers. Through the questions, we qualify the lead. However, those that don’t meet the advertiser’s criteria are still entered into the competition,” he says.
Tech start-ups to gain entry to the global stage
A meeting between the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear, and a select group of South African technology companies has laid the platform that could well launch South Africa’s ambitions to become a global technology player. This follows the firm decision taken at the meeting to send a delegation of local companies to participate in the TechWorld Conference in London later this year.
The meeting in Cape Town this month, was facilitated by UK Trade Investment (UKTI), the UK government’s trade promotion body, the Silicon Cape Initiative, and venture capital fund Invenfin. The Lord Mayor met with 11 CEOs who were invited to explore opportunities of mutual benefit.
“This is very exciting and gratifying as it’s exactly the type of catalytic role that Silicon Cape has always aimed to play,” says Rob Stokes, chairman of the Silicon Cape Initiative. “What is most rewarding is that UKTI recognises the mutual interests that will be met: not only do they see South Africa as the gateway to Africa, but also want to attract businesses that see the UK as the gateway to Europe.”
The Silicon Cape Initiative is a non-profit, community owned and driven body that seeks to support the growth of the local technology industry by bringing together entrepreneurs, technologists, venture capitalists, angel investors, and IT industry professionals. Among its aims are to promote South Africa as a breeding ground of world-class technology solutions, thereby attracting local and international investment in the sector.
Among the companies present at the meeting were Motribe, the mobile community platform, OutProsys, a leading outsourced document-processing provider, RSAWEB, an established Internet Services Provider, and online advertising marketplace Ad:Dynamo. Other participants included Trust Fabric, Pinewood SA, DVT, Idea Bounty, Business Systems Group, Open Box Software, and Baird’s Renaissance.
