Media Moves… TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. This week’s BIG move: Movember for marcusbrewster; Huisgenoot welcomes new editor Henriëtte Loubser; OHMSA elects new executive committee; Moneyweb’s future is bright; Halo appoints brand parents; SAS South Africa appoints new sales director; Acceleration Media clinches global partner award from Radian6; BrightRock appoints new PR firm; Billads signs Nampak; RamsayMedia and Snapplify – a mobilising partnership; Tin Can PR Short-Listed for Sport Industry Awards 2013. All the moves in media.
Who’s moved where
This week’s BIG move: Movember for marcusbrewster
Movember, the global men’s health charity, has appointed marcusbrewster as its South African PR agency of record. Every November, thousands of men (known as Mo Bros) around the globe get clean-shaven in preparation for the month long moustache journey to initiate a conversation around prostate and testicular cancer.
Last year some 18 000 South African Mo Bros and Mo Sistas registered as active participants in Movember and R4.9 million was raised.
“Movember started in 2003 as a conversation between mates,” says Movember SA country manager Garron Gsell. “Today it’s a bigger conversation about men’s health across South Africa and the rest of the world.”
“Regarding our choice of PR partner, we were comfortable with the marcusbrewster approach, their understanding of Movember brand values, our goals and objectives to deliver our messaging for our surrounding Movember’s communities and networks. Their commitment to making a success of the 2012 campaign has been reflected in the generous pro-bono allocation of resources afforded to our account”.
“We are passionate about the opportunity of working with the Movember team” says chairman Marcus Brewster. “Movember has re-written the rules about consumer engagement with health education programmes and it is a privilege to be exposed to this level of best practice”.
The Movember account was won by Brewster’s Cape Town office in a four-way pitch. Jeanri-Tine van Zyl has been appointed as Account Manager on the Movember campaign.
Huisgenoot welcomes new editor Henriëtte Loubser
Veteran journalist Henriëtte Loubser is coming home to Huisgenoot – this time as the editor. Current editor Julia Viljoen is retiring at the end of 2012, 31 years after joining the magazine’s staff as a sub-editor. Loubser, currently deputy editor of Die Burger, takes over from 1 December.
“Henriëtte is back at home,” says Izelle Venter, editor-in-chief of Huisgenoot, YOU and DRUM. “She is in essence a Huisgenoot person. I can’t wait to see her calm touch and quiet strength enriching our already strong team. She has not only an excellent sense of news, she’s also able to think strategically. So we’re really looking forward to having her back here.”
Loubser started at Huisgenoot as a writer in 1992, later becoming news editor and assistant editor. “When the editorship of Huisgenoot became available this year I couldn’t let the opportunity slip by,” she says. “You could say the magazine is in my DNA because that’s where I really grew up as a journalist.
“Readers have more choices today than ever before of where to find information and entertainment, so it becomes even more important for Huisgenoot to present unique content that they can’t get anywhere else – and to present it in the way only Huisgenoot can. That will be my main objective.”
OHMSA elects new executive committee
Out of Home Media South Africa (OHMSA) has announced its new executive committee to lead its members into what is predicted to be an unprecedented growth period for outdoor advertising in South Africa.
“The outdoor medium is growing in popularity – clients have embraced its scope to showcase excellent work. In the current challenging economic climate, the value of our-of-home advertising is becoming more and more apparent to media planners and clients. OHMSA is very excited about the future of the out of home media industry, and our current executive committee reflects this spirit,” said Sarel du Plessis, OHMSA’s executive director.
Sydney Mangena was appointed as the Chairman of OHMSA. Mangena is Comutanet’s executive for rights and development. Previously (he joined Comutanet in 2010), he worked for the City of Johannesburg, after having spent 17 years at what is now Continental Outdoor Media.
“OHMSA is the perfect platform for the outdoor advertising industry to engage with government, municipalities and private property owners. Moreover, all out of home media companies face similar challenges and so we can present a unified voice to our important stakeholders,” said Mangena.
OHMSA’s new executive committee is as follows: Sydney Mangena, chairperson; Sarel du Plessis, executive director; Billy Basson, vice chairperson; Sonnet Swanepoel; Peter Lindström; Mark Castel, Adreach; Rassie Erasmus; Angelo Tandy; and Tony Lovegrove.
Moneyweb’s future is bright
Moneyweb announced on Thursday that Alec Hogg has resigned as its CEO. “Alec in his time created a team at Moneyweb that has great depth, talent and experience, and for many years now, the business has not been reliant on any one person. The company is much bigger than that, especially given that it is a listed entity. Alec has spent a great deal of time in Mooi River in the last few years, in which time the Moneyweb team has grown in size and experience,” says chairman Paul Jenkins.
“The management structures of the business remain in place, and we continue to work on our existing plans and opportunities. As with any major business, there are succession plans in place, although it must be said that we will miss Alec; we cannot pretend that it will be easy to fill his shoes. He is however remaining on our board.”
Jenkins says Moneyweb has asked Sandra Gordon of the Iconic Group (publisher of TheMediaOnline and The Media magazine) to assist in the short term until the board can assess what the company’s staffing and strategic needs.
Halo appoints brand parents
Halo, a brand led communication agency, has appointed marketing and business heavyweights, Heidi Brauer and Paul Binikos to lead the agency. Brauer, former executive manager of group marketing for Comair, where she lead a team to successfully reposition the kulula.com brand, has been appointed as Halo’s new chairmama. Binikos, a former executive director of MetropolitanRepublic who has delivered multiple award-winning campaigns, has been appointed as Halo’s new managing director.
“Halo was born out of our passion to make brands memorable, it is why we exist. It takes time, commitment and a strong team to build a strong brand, which is why Heidi and Paul’s appointment is super exciting for Halo”, says Dean Oelschig, Halo’s creative director. “They are a great fit; they complement each other well and together they will undoubtedly make a formidable partnership.”
SAS South Africa appoints new sales director
The SAS Institute South Africa has appointed Dion Harvey to the position of sales director. Harvey has spent more than 21 years in the local and international information technology industry. He has joined SAS after 15 years at IBM where he led sales for a range of their software brands, and ultimately served as general business sales executive for IBM Software in the MEA region, and software brands sales executive for IBM South Africa.
His experience has gained him strong ICT leadership skills, particularly in the software industry, and he has capabilities in development, technical and sales leadership areas.
“We are delighted to welcome Dion to SAS South Africa, and we are confident that his wealth of experience and integrity are the right mix to refine and deliver on our sales strategy and do great things with us,” says Riad Gydien, SAS Vice President Middle East and Africa.
Who’s won what
Acceleration Media clinches global partner award from Radian6
Social media monitoring solutions firm Radian6 has recognised its South African authorised reseller Acceleration Media as its ‘Partner of the Year’ at its recent partner awards ceremony held at Dreamforce ’12 in San Francisco, USA.
Competing against Radian6 partners from around the world, Acceleration Media won the award for being the Radian6 reseller who achieved the most significant annual growth year on year. Acceleration Media has been a Radian6 reseller for more than three years.
“We are proud to be recognised for the strong revenue growth we have achieved with the Radian6 platform over the past year,“ says Gordon Geldenhuys, head of online reputation management (ORM) at Acceleration Media.
“Acceleration Media has invested in the growth of this set of solutions because we see a strong need for it in South Africa as our customers approach to social media matures. As a result, we are able to offer the right mix of local expertise and global best practice to our clients.”
BrightRock appoints new PR firm
Bright Rock has appointed Corporate Communications Consultants as its PR firm. “After conducting a robust appointment process BrightRock has secured the services of Corporate Communications Consultants (Corpcom).” Corpcom has over 25 years’ experience in managing communications programmes for local and international companies with a focus on both the insurance and financial services industries.
In March 2012 BrightRock launched needs-matched life insurance products to South African independent financial advisers. The response from the market has been positive, exceeding the company’s expectations.
“Thanks to the successes that we’ve enjoyed thus far and our desire to maintain and develop positive media relationships, we saw the need to appoint a fully-fledged public relations agency with a local and international footprint that is able to assist us as we move forward,” says Suzanne Stevens, executive director of marketing.
Billads signs Nampak
Nampak has incorporated Billads’ bill folder advertising medium into its marketing mix for its latest campaign, which is designed to drive awareness of the company’s incredible eco-logical savings.
Who’s making moves
RamsayMedia and Snapplify – a mobilising partnership
RamsayMedia is set to expand its role in the digital space. A partnership with leading SA mobile solutions provider Snapplify will see the media house provide content, service and support though mobile apps developed by the award-winning tech start-up, which will also manage their hosting in app stores.
The partnership – the first joint venture for Snapplify – brings together “the respective strengths of great content and great technology” and will enable RamsayMedia to deliver rich-media content to its subscribers and those of its subs fulfilment clients, explained RamsayMedia’s audience development manager, Ian Dinan.
The apps will be revenue-generating once they are linked to the company’s subscribers system and made available on its MAGSsatHOME i-store.
“When we were looking for a mobile app provider, Snapplify stood out as a local company with an excellent record globally. It has some traction in the Middle East and is increasingly moving into emerging markets in Africa, which is an exciting prospect for us,” said Dinan.
“Snapplify’s expertise allows for agile development into the app world – something that would involve heavy financial and resource investment if we were to undertake it ourselves.”
Snapplify’s CEO, Wesley Lynch, said he was ” extremely excited” to be working alongside RamsayMedia. “They’re an innovative company with great ideas and expertise. With our technology and their content combined, we foresee great potential and a long and fruitful partnership.”
Tin Can PR Short-Listed for Sport Industry Awards 2013
Tin Can’s ‘I Play Fair, Cape Argus Cycle Tour’ PR campaign for the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS), has been short-listed for the prestigious Virgin Active Sport Industry Awards 2013 for ‘Best Use of PR in a Sport Campaign’ it was announced today.
This is the second year in a row that Tin Can PR has been shortlisted for the awards, which are judged by key industry figures. “We are passionate about this campaign and very proud to have made the Official Shortlist for the 2013 Sports Industry awards, which represents an immense achievement,” says Tin Can PR head, Debby Reader.
She adds that the campaign created mass awareness and helped spread the messages of ethics, fair-play and anti-doping in sport, through harnessing participation of two formidable political opponents – namely Sport & Recreation Minister, Fikile Mbalula and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who cycled along with celebrities and public figures in the I Play Fair branded team in activations that received front page and prime time TV media coverage.
The campaign was also bolstered by bringing on board strategic partners including Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA), Western Cape Government, Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust, Cycle Lab, New Balance South Africa, KTM Bike Industries and Cycling South Africa.
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