Media Moves… TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. Kwenta Media sends condolences to family and friends of Carlien Wessels. Retroviral grows its talented team by three. New Good Hope FM weekend line-up connects Cape Town. Irvine Bartlett secures Via Afrika Publishers account. New high level food account awarded to MANGO-OMC. Retroviral signs three new clients. Voice Factory Communication is rocking it… again. Eastern Cape to host global Film Festival. Clickatell trusts Splunk Software for business analytics and customer service
Kwenta Media sends condolences to family and friends of Carlien Wessels
Kwenta Media has sent its condolences to the family and friends of Carlien Wessels, who died earlier this week at the age of 51. Wessels, who had 10 years experience as an editor in the field of parenting publications, joined Kwenta Media as the managing editor of Mamas & Papas from January 2011 until November 2011.
Nawaal Mdluli-Motlekar, CEO of Kwenta Media and the founding editor of Mamas & Papas and African Travel Market magazines, says, “I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. Carlien will continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Her love of writing, photography and parenting leaves an unforgettable imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared her love – may her soul rest in peace.”
Who’s moved where
Retroviral grows its talented team by three
Retroviral Digital Communications has welcomed three talented people to its growing team of social and digital communication specialists.
Cherry-Lee Axsel joins Retroviral from a below-the-line activation agency as a senior account manager, tasked with nurturing the company’s existing loyal client base, and managing its expansion and growth into new sectors.
Matt Bouch joins the team as a copywriter. He recently graduated from the Vega School of Brand Leadership in Cape Town, but was lured to Johannesburg from the Mother City after Retroviral founder, Mike Sharman, saw his impressive work on 10&5.com, and offered him a place in the team – after sharing a hotdog at The Power and The Glory.
David (Dave) Philip is a versatile PHP developer with eight years’ experience, specialising in cakePHP and jQuery development frameworks. He has been appointed as Retroviral’s lead developer. His background in creating multilingual communities and platforms when working with the Global Campaign for Education is particularly valuable to Retroviral as the company expands its reach into Africa and beyond.
“We have a ‘3R Mantra’ at Retroviral: Remarkable content, seeded to the right people, which leads to great brand results,” says Sharman. “This is true internally too. The remarkable people we work with make it possible for us to achieve this measure for our clients.”
New Good Hope FM weekend line-up connects Cape Town
Weekends on Good Hope FM have seen some exciting changes with new shows and faces taking to the airwaves. On Friday and Saturday evenings (18:00 – 22:00) listeners can now tune in to the ultimate party experience for four hours of undiluted music and live DJ mixes with legendary club DJ, Dr Jules on his new show ‘Dr’s in the House’. Another addition to the Good Hope FM team and new to the weekend breakfast slot is EBI who is now presenting the ‘Weekend Breakfast Show’ on Saturday and Sunday mornings (06:00 – 09:00).
Sundays have seen the most changes, with current Good Hope FM News Reader (The Ozone) and TV presenter (Expresso Breakfast Show on SABC3), Leigh-Anne Williams getting her own show on Sundays, ‘Mornings with Leigh-Anne’.
“Our ethos at Good Hope FM is to nurture and grow talent within the station, Leigh-Anne has been with us for many years. We believe her show will indeed be very popular,” explains Meegan Kieffer, (Acting) Station Manager, Good Hope FM.
Also new to the Sunday line-up is, Danilo Acquisto (TV presenter, Hectic 9 Nine on SABC2), who has joined the station ranks and will present his new weekly show ‘Sunday Lunch with Danilo’ from 12:00 to 15:00. Following on from Acquisto is DJ Loyd’s new show, ‘The Hangout’ from 15:00 to 18:00 and Bradley Knight who retains his 18:00 – 22:00 ‘Sunset Smoothie’ slot but has introduced a new 80’s and 90’s format which will include the best of old school, with two hours of slow jams. DJ Mixi ends the line up on a chilled note with her show from 22:00 – 02:00.
Few changes have been made to the consistently popular weekday line-up listeners are familiar with on Good Hope FM and all their favourite presenters continue to connect Cape Town on a daily basis, including Guy McDonald presenting the ‘Good Hope FM Breakfast Show’ (06:00 – 09:00) with the new addition of Erin-Lee Saunders as traffic presenter. No changes have been made to the Afternoon Drive Show, presented by Seano and the ‘Ozone’ team (15:00 – 18:00), recently announced winners of the prestigious 2014 MTN Radio Awards best ‘Afternoon Drive Show’ award.
Who’s won what
Irvine Bartlett secures Via Afrika Publishers account
Irvine Bartlett has secured the public relations account of one of South Africa’s leading educational publishers, Via Afrika.
Via Afrika has produced textbooks, e-learning materials and other educational material for South Africa and other southern African countries for over 63 years. Their material meets the requirements for learners from the early stages of childhood development to FET College level as well as adults in adult education and training.
“We firmly believe this is a team that thinks like we do, making working together a synergistic experience that will help us take the next step in brand development,” said Via Afrika’s CEO, Christina Watson.
Rachel Irvine, managing director of Irvine Bartlett says, “Via Afrika is a respected and trusted yet innovative company in South African education and we’re looking forward to helping them take the next step into the digital sphere.”
The addition of the Via Afrika account comes as Irvine Bartlett recently celebrated its third anniversary. The agency has built a client portfolio that includes commercial heavyweights such as the Protea Hospitality Group, Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty and New Media Publishing.
New high level food account awarded to MANGO-OMC
2014 has been a busy and exciting year so far for MANGO-OMC. The agency has announced that it has been awarded a new food focused client who also happens to be its first Durban based brand.
As of 1 March 2014, Frys Family Foods appointed MANGO-OMC to manage their PR and communications portfolio. Frys Family Foods is a vegetarian food range with an international footprint.
Says Amy Chu, Brand Manager of Frys Foods, “We are very excited to be working with MANGO-OMC. With their track record in both digital and traditional media we are sure it will become a very successful working partnership.”
MANGO-OMC, owner Nicole Capper says: “We are gratified to be working with an international food brand of this calibre. We have built an extensive skill base in both food and health markets with solid media relationships across both categories. This will lead to a strong strategic offering to Frys.”
MANGO-OMC’s client base includes Professor Justus Apffelstaedt and Associates, Oranje-Kloof and Green Point CIDs, the Eat Out Zonnebloem Produce Awards, Premier Hotels and Resorts and 24.com among others.
Retroviral signs three new clients
Retroviral has signed up three new client campaigns including Truth About Money – a 1Life Initiative, Tabasco and RMB’s annual graduate recruitment drive.
For the second consecutive year, Retroviral will work with Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) on its graduate recruitment programme where the respected financial institution will seek to recruit top-notch graduates from South Africa’s leading universities and business schools.
Retroviral is in the process of completing a video component with 1Life on their initiative “The Truth About Money”, to help educate consumers about the importance of financial literacy. The agency’s ongoing campaign for Tabasco, the hot, legendary pepper sauce, encompasses a full digital brand strategy, including content development, community management, brand tracking and reporting,
“We have a four-pillar approach to achieving great results for our clients: a clear, succinct strategy, remarkable content, effective content seeding, and detailed reporting that closes the loop from strategy to execution,” says co-founder Mike Sharman. “We are looking forward to working with our new clients, using online storytelling and effective brand communication to help them achieve their outlined business objectives.”
Voice Factory Communication is rocking it… again
After working with Rocking the Daisies on its highly successful 2012 and 2013 media campaign, resulting in two sold out events, PR and Communications agency, Voice Factory Communication, has been appointed for a third year and will be putting its communications expertise to use for this year’s 2014 festival.
Rocking the Daisies, now in its ninth year, is the fastest growing eco-friendly music and lifestyle festival in South Africa, and will take place in early October 2014 at the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling.
Voice Factory’s roles and involvement in Rocking the Daisies will once again include full event PR, media management and social media management. Plans and campaigns for this year are underway and Voice Factory is looking forward to driving Rocking the Daisies’ brand value effectively through various communications efforts.
Voice Factory Communication was recently awarded a bronze PRISM Award 2013 for the Rocking the Daisies Media Relations Campaign and received a special mention last year for its Social Media Campaign.
Who’s making moves
Eastern Cape to host global Film Festival
Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape will host the biggest film festival in the southern hemisphere in December 2015. Already rumoured to South Africa’s most important Film Festival yet, organisers are pulling out all the stops to ensure a successful annual event that will focus the world’s film industry on South Africa and attract global interest.
Nkosinathi Benson Fihla, executive mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, says the Festival will further entrench his Executive Mayoral Committee’s commitment to real, vibrant and sustainable change in the region and will ensure strong growth within the metros that support the Eastern Cape.
The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency in partnership with Eastern Cape Provincial Government is backing the Film Festival project as this is a crucial part in helping strong economic growth in the Nelson Mandela Bay area. CEO, Luxolo Rubushe, says international trends are showing that cities themselves are becoming central to promoting tourism, which is a powerful economic stimulus.
While full details are still being kept under wraps, Eastern Cape economic development MEC, Mcebisi Jonas, says further details will be made public in the coming weeks. He went on to say that the Film Festival falls within his Department’s broad economic strategy to promote investment and economic growth in the Eastern Cape’s two Metropolitan Municipalities and to stimulate the economy in a different direction. The investment strategy will be in place for the next two years and will climax at the end of 2015 when the Festival takes place.
Clickatell trusts Splunk Software for business analytics and customer service
Splunk Inc, provider of the leading software platform for real-time operational intelligence, has announced that Clickatell, a global leader in mobile messaging and transaction services, has improved its customer service solutions with Splunk Enterprise.
With Splunk software, Clickatell reports that it has optimised the uptime and reliability of its services by collecting, monitoring and analysing valuable customer information in real time, such as errors, usage and other important events. Clickatell executives also use Splunk dashboards to monitor the key business performance indicators that impact revenue. To learn more, read the Clickatell case study.
“Splunk software has impacted how quickly we become aware of a potential issue before it becomes a real problem,” said Hugo Roux, solutions architect, Clickatell. “The team now has the ability to spot and react faster to anomalies, so we can be more proactive, letting customers know something is wrong before they flag it to us. In Africa, it is often difficult to identify problems early on and being able to do so is a key service differentiator for Clickatell in the local market.”
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