TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. Franz and Watermeyer retire from MindshareSA. Game-changing loyalty solution coming to South Africa – and beyond. Grey Group EMEA is agency of the year. Stone Soup PR website relaunched. NAB Africa renamed SPARK Media Africa. Leading tech agency joins AfricaCom as media partner in Africa. Cognition Holdings acquires 100% ownership of BMi Research. Beachhead Solutions introduces channel programme for emerging markets
This week’s BIG move: NAB renamed SPARK Media Africa
Following the creation of SPARK Media, the fusion between NAB, the local newspaper’s advertising sales company, and Habari Media, specialists in digital sales; NAB Africa has been rebranded SPARK Media Africa with immediate effect.
SPARK Media Africa represents 17 newspapers in the neighbouring countries of South Africa namely Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with a combined print order exceeding 1.3 million copies per week.
The division is headed by managing director Robin Dukoff-Gordon and supported by sales manager Eddie Khosa.
The division remains based at Caxton House.
Who’s moved where
Franz and Watermeyer retire from MindshareSA
Mindshare South Africa has announced that Shirley Franz and Janet Watermeyer – long-standing members of the management team who have been instrumental in the historic success of Mindshare SA – are retiring from agency.
“Mindshare believes that in today’s adaptive world everything begins and ends in media. Our role in this world is to help clients grow their business and to become their lead business partner and we achieve this through a culture of original thinking driven by speed, teamwork and provocation,” the group said in a statement.
“As the South African media environment evolves we will continue to drive a radical agenda focused on better connecting brands with consumers, leveraging the full suite of available data and new communications channels including content to drive real time business success.”
Who’s won what
Game-changing loyalty solution coming to South Africa – and beyond
Mortimer Harvey and Loyal Solutions A/S of Copenhagen, Denmark have entered into an exclusive partnership that will bring Loyal Solutions’ state-of-the-art loyalty programme management technology into the Mortimer Harvey portfolio, providing new opportunities for clients either running a loyalty programme or contemplating initiating one. The partnership covers Africa, the Middle East and India.
Andrew Fradd, Group Managing Director of Mortimer Harvey, explains that Loyal Solutions has developed a unique Cloud-based platform, LoyalTfacts, which has proven to be very effective in managing complex loyalty and membership programmes in a straightforward way. “The platform is able to manage any type of programme, be it cash-back, instant cash, coupons, points-based, omni-channel, closed-circuit or open-loop – and all with the full capability to separately control rewards accrual and redemption. LoyalTfacts® captures all relevant data for use in one-to-one communications, offers, VIP promotions and so on, and it delivers valuable data and insights.”
Grey Group EMEA is agency of the year
UK agencies won NINE out of 20 Euro Effies awarded at the Euro Effie Awards Gala in Brussels’ Cercle de Lorraine business club this week. Grey scooped Agency of the Year with three Gold awards (FMCG and Small Budget (2)), 4 Silvers (Brand Experience, Consumer Goods, Long-term Effectiveness and Product/Service Launch) and 2 Bronzes (FMCG and Retail). The agency was also rewarded with €100,000-worth of free advertising spots from Euro Effies partner, Euronews.
Gold awards were awarded to ZenithOptimedia for their ‘Aygo. Go fun yourself’. campaign created for Toyota Motor Europe, to TMW Unlimited for the campaign ‘’Turn off to turn on“ created for Reckitt Benckiser and to Grey London for the campaign Gillette BODY created for Procter & Gamble.
Silvers were awarded to TMW Unlimited and Reckitt Benckiser for ‘Turn off to turn on’ (2), JWT London and Mondelez for their ‘Coffee Vs. Gangs’ campaign, Grey London and Procter & Gamble for “Fairy: the longer lasting brand legend” and ‘Gillette BODY’. A bronze award went to Grey London for their “Sweeet” campaign created for United Biscuits.
Twenty winners from five countries across Europe were selected by an international jury of senior agency and client representatives
Who’s making moves
Stone Soup PR website relaunched
Stone Soup PR, specialists in media and marketing communications and part of the ICONIC Group which includes Wag the Dog Publishers (The Media, The MediaOnline, The MOST Awards and EASYDIY), Ideaology (Advertising and Design) and Snippet Video, has recently relaunched its website. The advantage of being part of the group is the ability to offer 360° communications with each element handled by a senior expert within the group. The redesign reflects this, as well as having links to social media and other useful features.
The website has a fresh look and feel and a media office provides a multi-media hub from which press releases, thought leaders, pictures, audio clips and videos can be downloaded for each client. To keep up to date with what Stone Soup is up to follow them on Twitter @StoneSoupPR or like their Facebook Page.
“Stone Soup is firmly entrenched in the media and marketing space, we represent top players in the industry and are able to help them influence the influencers. Our knowledge, expertise and contacts within the industry are unrivalled. We specialise in B2B communications and aligning communication strategies to our clients’ business objectives,” says Sandra Gordon, CEO and founder of Stone Soup.
Leading tech agency joins AfricaCom as media partner in Africa
DUO Marketing and Communications, a specialist B2B Tech PR and digital marketing agency, is joining this year’s AfricaCom conference as a media partner. AfricaCom is taking place from 17 to 19 November in Cape Town and the theme is innovation, transformation and leadership for a digital Africa.
“The digital economy is evolving at a rapid pace and as a digital PR consultancy servicing technology clients, we’re well aware of how digital consumption is impacting our clients, their customers and partners,” says Judith Middleton, CEO of DUO Marketing and Communications.
The conference brings together senior decision makers from the entire digital ecosystem who need to find ways to maximise investments, fuel innovation, drive transformation and encourage leadership for Africa to become a digital world leader.
AfricaCom will have more than 300 visionary speakers and the conference provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing, business networking and industry peer meetings.
Cognition Holdings acquires 100% ownership of BMi Research
BMi Research, a leading South African research house specialising in consumer and industrial research, has been acquired by Cognition Holdings Limited. This follows the successful conclusion of an agreement for the acquisition by Cognition from the three minority shareholders of the remaining 60.30% of the shares in BMi Research not yet owned by the company.
Cognition previously held 39.70% of the issued shares in BMi Research. These shares were acquired in two separate transactions concluded in July 2014, when 35% of the issued shares in BMi Research were acquired, and in August 2015, when Cognition acquired an additional 4.70% of the issued shares in BMi Research from an existing minority shareholder.
Gareth Pearson, CEO of BMi Research, says the acquisition is positive for both parties as it aligns with the two companies’ visions and their growth strategies.
Beachhead Solutions introduces channel programme for emerging markets
Beachhead Solutions, provider of cloud-managed PC and mobile device encryption, security and data access control for businesses of all sizes, has announced the introduction of its Emerging Market Channel Programme and the expansion of product availability to IT resellers and MSPs in the India, Middle East, Africa (IMEA) regions as well as in Mauritius. The programme is designed to grow the California-based company’s reach and serve the specific needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing the growing IT security risks and regulatory requirements prevalent in these emerging markets.
A look at the market potential and demand for Beachhead’s SimplySecure mobile device and data security management products in these emerging markets reveals environments ripe for the company’s cloud-based device security solutions. Both Africa and India have high mobile device usage and large populations under the age of 25, setting the stage for a new wave of business employees that are expectant of mobility in and out of the office. At the same time, increased regulations around the protection of personal information are being implemented across Africa and in India, necessitating that SMEs gain the proper technological safeguards to defend all personal data in their care, even when accessed by employees over mobile devices.
On this front, South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information act (POPI) is expected to see enforcement begin in the next few months.