Briefly…Avusa Media lauds recruitment and HR professionals; Sport24 breaks records during the Rugby World Cup; bidorbuy helps buyers navigate the Christmas shopping jungle; Graffiti puts the monster on the road for Puma ocean racing; Dulux sponsors legal graffiti wall in Durban
Avusa Media hosted its second Avusa Media Annual Recruitment Awards (AMARAs) in honour of the leaders within the recruitment and HR industries who help transform and bolster South Africa’s economy.
Identifying the lack of recognition recruitment and HR professionals receive from their peers as well as the industries they drive and help mould, during the month of September 2011 Avusa Media called upon the public and industry leaders to nominate both their private and public sector candidates worthy of winning an award in their respective category at the 2011 AMARAs.
The winners announced in the Private sector categories are:
· HR Director of the Year (Private); Dr Barney Delport at Nationwide Security Holdings (Pty) Ltd. – SMADA Group
· Recruitment Officer of the Year (Private): Ilze Johnston at Anglo American Platinum
· Most Creative Recruitment Advertisement of the Year (Private): Ayanda Mbanga Communications for Shoprite
The winners announced in the Public sector categories are:
· HR Director of the Year (Public): Dan Vukela at Department of Environmental Affairs
· HR Officer of the Year (Public): Anker van Tonder at Eskom Holdings
· Most Creative Recruitment Advertisment of the Year (Public): Human Communications for National Treasury
Nominations for the Recruitment Advertising Agency of the Year and Recruitment Solutions Agency of the Year awards were open across both the Private and Public sector and saw Ayanda Mbanga Communications and DAV Professional Placement Group trumping the competition respectively.
Last but not least was undoubtedly one of the most deserved wins on the night – that of the Publisher’s Award which went to recruitment stalwart Paul Brand of The Niche Agency in Johannesburg.
“Paul is one of the leading recruitment professionals the industry itself has had the honour of recruiting,” explains Enver Groenewald, general manager of Advertising Revenue and Strategic Communications at Avusa Media. “Besides his outstanding reputation within the industry, Paul also seamlessly demonstrates what true dedication and passion for one’s profession really looks like.”
Sport24 breaks records during the Rugby World Cup
Sport24’s coverage of the biggest international rugby event had a profound effect on their traffic over the month of October. The site received 722 680 domestic users, 1 000 138 total unique users and one story on Bryce Lawrence had over 93 000 reads. The WAP site had a whopping 247 000 unique users which broke all previous records while the advertising revenue figures were the highest they have been in the history of Sport24 (stats provided by Effective Measure).
“As is the case with most traffic surges in our business, they are a reflection of what we get to report on. However, how we cover the news is what differentiates us from our competitors, so to be 174 000 domestic users ahead of our nearest competitor in October is a reflection of a top effort by the Sport24 team,” says Andrew Lanning, editor and publisher of Sport24.
“It was all hands on deck during the Rugby World Cup and to produce such amazing results is testament to the teamwork displayed by a very small team,” says David Brooke, commercial manager of Sport24. “It’s one thing to produce the traffic but it’s another thing altogether to commercialise that traffic so the fact that we were able to produce record results on both fronts is extremely special.”
New Media scoops gold in New York for DStv’s Dish digimag
DStv’s Dish Premium Digital Magazine has garnered a gold Award for Best Web Publication, Digital, at the prestigious Custom Content Council Pearl Awards, held in New York City on November 7, 2011. The Council is the leading association for content publishing in the United States, and holds an annual competition to honour the industry’s best.
Published by South Africa’s leading content marketers, New Media, for MultiChoice, Dish was one of 638 entries in the awards programme, which saw top content publications entered from all over the world. This is the second Pearl for New Media: in 2010, Woolworth’s TASTE was awarded a bronze for best cover.
Dish Digital has transformed television highlights into an engaging and exciting experience, with beautiful imagery and rich content since its launch in July 2010, says Nicci Brown, promotions and relationship marketing manager at DStv. “The New Media design and editorial team has succeeded beyond our expectations in developing this dynamic package, which highlights the best of the wide variety of programmes for DStv subscribers in a punchy, vibrant format and emphasises the premium nature of the brand. We are very excited to be part of this big win.”
Check out the winning edition: https://go.dstv.com/digimag/prem/06201101/#/cover/?pg=default
bidorbuy helps buyers navigate the Christmas shopping jungleThe familiar dread of Christmas shopping – the jammed parking lots, the impossible crowds, the interminable queues and the unhelpful sales people – is coming up. When some wise soul coined the phrase ‘It’s a jungle out there’, they were undoubtedly talking about shopping malls during the Christmas rush. And it was this well-known saying that provided the unique starting point for bidorbuy’s first television commercial.
‘bidorbuy came to us with a very clear brief,’ says Francois Boshoff, creative director at Volcano Advertising, the agency who conceptualised the advertisement. “Quite simply, they wanted a television commercial that would stand out from the clutter on our screens and make people talk. They also wanted to communicate a strong message that, as the country’s largest online marketplace for both new and second-hand goods, bidorbuy provides the ideal solution for the shopping mall weary when it comes to buying Christmas gifts.
The bidorbuy commercial follows a young couple as they navigate their way through a busy shopping centre, having one unpleasant experience after another. There is an intriguing twist, however – instead of being filled with crowds of people, the shopping mall is teeming with herds of animals, such as elephants, giraffes, warthogs, ostriches and even a fully grown tiger.
“Our concept for the advertisement was ‘it’s a jungle out there’, turning a literal association into reality,” explains Boshoff. “Seeing as the Christmas shopping experience seems to bring out our most primitive natures, we thought it would be apt to use animals to personify human stereotypes. For example, the commercial shows hyenas fighting over a handbag as if it were a kill, a monkey that is irritable, bad-tempered and a general nuisance, and a gorilla that has a very lackadaisical attitude to customer service to say the least.”
Graffiti puts the monster on the road for Puma ocean racing
Cape Town’s drivers beware, there’s a Monster of the Sea – on the road! In fact, thanks to vehicle branding and transit media experts Graffiti there are 10 Mar Mostro “Monster of the Sea” branded mini cabs currently on the roads for sporting giant, PUMA. Designed as a teaser campaign aimed at highlighting PUMA’s role as both a participant and sponsor of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011 – 2012, the branded mini cabs have been designed to mimic PUMA’s Mar Mostro Volvo Open 70 monohull sailing vessel, which will enter Cape Town waters around November 25.
Each mini cab depicts giant red octopus tentacles that envelop the white vehicle as if crushing it. The cab has been cleverly designed to appear as if dented by the tentacles and the rear passenger window has even been made to look like it has been smashed by the pressure of the monster.
PUMA South Africa, Marketing Director, Brett Bellinger, explains the rationale behind the decision to brand the mini cabs, “The Volvo Ocean race is a huge event taking place at Cape Town’s Waterfront and there are generally large numbers of seasonal tourists, as well other general public traffic in that area. The mini cabs form the perfect medium to attract people’s attention to PUMA’s involvement in this year’s race, as they are in and out of The Waterfront throughout the day. They also offer both a day and night-time branding option for us as the cabs operate 24/7 and can be spotted wherever they are.”
Whilst Cape Town residents and visitors might not understand the significance of the monster octopus tentacles upon first spotting the branded cabs, when the Volvo Ocean race enters local waters between 25th November and 11th December and PUMA’s Mar Mostro is spotted, there will be an immediate understanding of the unique advertising concept.
Dulux sponsors legal graffiti wall in Durban
Sydney Road in Durban KZN has been transformed as local artists with spray cans in hand, participated in a legal graffiti jam. The world’s number one paint company, Dulux put its full weight behind the event and the right of artists to express themselves freely, by sponsoring participants with Dulux Duco Spray, which is known to inspire endless creativity.
Following the recent controversial graffiti arrests made in Durban, the exhibition, titled “A Load Off”, aimed to “take a load off” the minds of municipal authorities and members of the police as artists weren’t expressing themselves on public buildings. “At Dulux we’re passionate about adding colour to people’s lives. While graffiti is often viewed as vandalism, when executed appropriately it is an art form that brings colour to the streets of our cities. For this reason we are in full support of this colourful initiative, particularly given that it was a legal and municipal approved project which also uplifted Sydney Road,” says Dulux communications manager, Bennum van Jaarsveld.
The graffiti jam was staged on the premises of freight firm, F.A.T.S (Forwarding African Transport Services) where a 258m² red brick wall was set aside for the purposes of the exhibition. Divided into 11 sections, each artist was allocated their own unit to decorate in the manner they saw fit. With that said, the graffiti wall was aptly given the theme of transportation and as such the separate divisions represented one of the following subjects: trucks, aeroplanes, trains, containers, cranes, shipping and world maps.
The writing is certainly on the wall that graffiti art is now set to be a permanent and colourful fixture on Sydney Road. And with Dulux Duco Spray as the artists’ tools of choice, viewers of this monument to transport are sure to feel uplifted whenever they bear witness to its vibrant splash of colour and professional finish.
For more information visit www.facebook.com/#!/LetsColourSA
