CYBERTORIAL* Ads24 recently launched the revamped Compass24 research study. It offers comprehensive information and provides reliable and current readership figures and insights into 76 Media24 local newspaper titles, competitor local newspapers within the Media24 footprint and daily and weekly newspapers. The latest Compass24 release went deeper into consumer behaviour and broader into the value of local newspapers. Besides the Compass24 research data being available on Telmar it is now also available on IMS and on the dedicated Compass24 website.
Special projects
Vernacular advertising has a high return on investment and Ads24 with their bevy of Afrikaans titles have designed the Think Afrikaans competition as a fun platform for Afrikaans advertising professionals to hone their skills in creating in their mother-tongue, an opportunity that is not presented as often as it could be. Ads24 ran their fourth annual Think Afrikaans competition from July to August 2013. There were two parts to the competition, phase one involved completing a cowboy themed Fotoverhale (based on the retro Afrikaans graphic novel) and phase two involved designing a funky-retro design for a T-shirt that could serve as a Fotoverhaal cover and captured an essence of thinking in Afrikaans.
The top three finalists were sent to the Pendoring Awards in Cape Town where the final winner for the Think Afrikaans – T-shirt Design Competition was announced. Ads24 are Gold sponsors of the Pendoring Awards, which celebrate South African vernacular advertising. In their attempt to further extend the reach and encourage inclusion of vernaculars other than Afrikaans, the Pendoring Awards will be introducing a new category in 2014, The Government Advertising Vernacular Award, of which Ads24 will be the proud sponsors.
In addition to this, Ads24 runs a quarterly ‘Makietie Dag’ competition where agency staff is encouraged to participate by celebrating Afrikaans culture by hosting a ‘Makietie’ day. The winning agency per region viz., Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, wins a catered lunch for the entire agency as a prize. This promotion has further assisted with improving engagement with trade.
Awards
Ads24 continued with its sponsorship of the ‘Best integrated digital marketing/campaigns’ category and proudly announced its sponsorship of the ‘Best media planner’ category at the sixth annual Bookmarks Awards held on 14 November 2013 at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. Ads24 are also increasing the industry’s knowledge base in regards to digital advertising and publishing through their countrywide digital workshops for stakeholders and media agencies. At present there are two phases of workshops being held with increasing levels of complexity, to ensure that media planners are kept up to date with the latest trends and options.
Ads24 titles Tygerburger, Potchefstroom Herald and Paarl Post were winners at the MDDA-Sanlam Local Media Awards 2013, held in May 2013. These awards aim to encourage excellence and to reward meritorious work in local journalism.
At the 2013 Standard Bank Sikuvile Newspaper Journalism awards City Press, Daily Sun, Beeld and Die Burger emerged as winners in a significant number of categories.
* Cybertorial is paid-for content
