Disney Africa brings advertising sales in-house. Bona welcomes new deputy editor. Kfm 94.5 welcomes Tracey Lange to heavyweight daytime line-up. Shaneel Singh appointed chief strategy officer for iProspect CPT. Top women execs join Zoona board. GFH signs to acquire 85% of The Entertainer. Ask Afrika sign significant B-BBEE deal with ENCHA Green Brands. Sowetan launches Dipapadi – its new, bumper sports section. Clickatell launches Touch Go: live-chat for customer care. The winning Business Insider and Fin24 combination gives advertisers access to 4.5 million targeted users. Even more in store at at this year’s Madex exhibition. Effective Measure rebrands as Narratiive.
Disney Africa brings advertising sales in-house
The Walt Disney Company Africa has announced advertising sales for the Disney Channels Multiplex (Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD) on DStv will be brought in-house to be handled directly by Disney Africa based in Johannesburg from 1 August 2018.
The move means that commercial ad sales for the Disney Channels Multiplex will be handled directly by Disney Media Sales and Partnerships Africa. Agencies and direct clients will not only be able to book traditional TV advertising with Disney but also be able to capitalise on wider opportunities by partnering with Disney off-air on brands including Disney, Disney•Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel.
“With the addition of commercial TV ad sales for the Disney Multiplex into the mix, Disney Media Sales and Partnerships offers partners and clients a one-stop shop and access to the world of Disney,” says Christine Service, senior vice president of The Walt Disney Company Africa. “We look forward to working with direct partners and media agencies on a variety of opportunities to leverage the strength of Disney’s brands for their own marketing activities.”
Collectively, the Disney Multiplex reaches over 9.5 million individuals every month and over 1.6 million every day, reaching over 81% of kids 4-14 in DStv homes in South Africa (Jan – March 2018), bringing together Disney’s high-quality programming targeted to kids and families across the continent for advertising clients.
Disney closely monitors all advertising and promotions across its channels and non-linear platforms. As well as conforming to local regulatory guidelines, Disney has strict internal guidelines related to the brands that can advertise across its portfolio, ensuring all advertising is age appropriate and of the highest quality experience for its audience.
People moves
Kfm 94.5 welcomes Tracey Lange to heavyweight daytime line-up
Kfm 94.5 has unveiled the details of the station’s rebooted line-up, with a big focus on daytime shows, which will take effect in June 2018.
Popular TV personality Tracey Lange has been lured back into radio by the station and she will host her new show – mid-mornings with Tracey from 9am – 12pm weekdays.
“I love Kfm’s world-class approach to broadcasting and when the opportunity to lend my voice to daytime radio on a station which perfectly marries entertainment and a sense of community came up – I could not resist. I look forward to creating a fresh sound for workplace listeners,” said Lange
Bonga Sibisi appointed Broll account manager for Mall Ads
Bonga Sibisi has been appointed Mall Ads account manager for the Broll portfolio, managing the NON-GLA Broll team across the country. Sibisi comes with a strong agency background, having cut his teeth in brand consulting, corporate communications and entrepreneurial ventures. These skills were honed during his time at Intergroup Brand Consulting, PR Worx and Blue Moon Corporate Communications, where he also gained a wide understanding of various industries, brands, products and insights into consumer purchasing psychology.
Part of Sibisi’s role is to ensure that the teams on the ground meet targets. His is also responsible for building and maintaining solid relationships with stakeholders.
“Creating maximum impact for clients is what it’s about. I believe OOH is the future as people are really spending less time on traditional media that is easy to ignore. OOH is in your face and can often not be ignored. OOH in the mall environment offers really good opportunities to engage with target audiences in captive spaces. I look forward to the challenges and developments in this exciting environment,” said Sibisi.
Bona welcomes new deputy editor

Caxton Magazines has announced the appointment of Gugulethu Mhlungu in the position of deputy editor of Bona magazine. Self-confessed ‘wanna be’ Marvel Avenger and current Nightalk host on Radio 702 Monday to Thursday, Mhlungu is ready to add a new adventure to her mantle of skills.
“My media career began at the age of 17 when the radio bug bit in Grahamstown at Rhodes University’s campus radio.
Shortly after that the print bug bit and I’ve been privileged to have had experience as a former lifestyle editor and writer at a Sunday newspaper. Now, I’m excited to join the Caxton Magazines stable and to be working on a strong South African heritage brand with an incredibly loyal reader base,” said Mhlungu.
Herformer bi-weekly newspaper column won her the 2015 Columnist of the Year at the 2015 Media 24 Legends Awards. She is also a 2015 National Arts Festival/Business Art SA silver award winning feature journalist. Her interest in young black South African women and magazines led her to apply for the deputy editor position at Bona – a magazine she’s had the utmost respect for, for many years.
Shaneel Singh appointed chief strategy officer for iProspect CPT
Shaneel Singh is the new chief strategy officer for iProspect CPT. Singhholds a Bachelor’s Degree with a quadruple major in marketing, media, English and performance studies, as well as an Honours Post Graduate Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences. He has worked in all tiers of the digital advertising ecosystem from bidding on ad networks, through to programmatic and training new staff on digital platforms. He will be reporting to Jaco Lintvelt (Managing Director AMNET SSA & iProspect South Africa).
His new role will see him heading up strategy for the iProspect CT office on the portfolio of clients, as well as working on new business for the company. He will work on aligning the company’s vision with existing clients as well as ensuring that they service their portfolio using the latest technologies and efficient media channels and tools required.
“I am honoured to be part of the DAN network and looking forward to adding value to the current portfolio of clients and future new business from a strategic point of view,” he said.
Braced for Scale: Top women execs join Zoona board
Zoona, has appointed two new non-executive board members to help steer the company’s strategic direction as it braces for growth in 2018 and beyond.
They are Shirley Maltz, group chief executive officer at Homechoice, and Ebi Atawodi, product manager, global payments at Uber. Both women are well respected in their specific industries.
‘Working with exceptional leaders is the critical starting point to Zoona building a pan-African business that helps communities thrive. These new board members will play critical roles in strengthening our core business and helping us scale new digital products that improve the financial health and well-being of our customers,’ said Mike Quinn, Zoona Group CEO.
Zoona is dedicated to helping communities thrive and aims to combine technology and entrepreneurship to meaningfully change the lives of the unbanked through the provision of digital financial services.
Business moves
GFH signs to acquire 85% of The Entertainer
GFH Financial Group have announced the signing of a landmark deal to acquire a majority stake in The Entertainer, an incentives provider and lifestyle app.
Founded in the UAE in 2001, The Entertainer has developed a strong global network of over 10 000 merchant partners based on its longstanding relationships and market-leading technology. The app has seen over five million downloads in 20 destinations across South Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
The Entertainer has four products across South Africa, covering Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and beyond with over 6 500 unbeatable offers and savings at fine dining restaurants, global restaurant franchises, attractions, leisure activities, golf clubs, safaris, spas, beauty salons, gyms and much more – delivering over R5.42 million in potential savings for customers throughout the country.
The transaction saw the existing financial investors fully exit, while the founder and chairman, Donna Benton, continues as one of the key shareholders and executive management members, contributing to the vision and growth of The Entertainer alongside GFH.
“Our core focus has always been on being leaders in what we do and providing the highest level of value, service, technology and partnership to both merchants and consumers,” said Benton.
CEO of GFH, Hisham Alrayes, said, “Investing in high-growth technology-based companies is now among the cornerstones of GFH’s investment strategy. Over the past 17 years, The Entertainer has established itself as a market leader and we are excited to be joining the company as shareholders during the next phase of development. With a strong and profitable business model, advanced digital platform and the successful global expansion currently underway, we see significant room for even greater value creation in the company’s existing markets as well as new locations in the Middle East, Asia, South Africa and Europe, where it was recently established and is experiencing impressive growth.”
Ask Afrika sign significant B-BBEE deal with ENCHA Green Brands
Following an 18-year search for the right B-BBEE partner, Ask Afrika – the largest independent market research company in South Africa – has signed an agreement with ENCHA Green Brands (EGB).
At its core, this partnership is centered around an aligned value system, dedication to developing African solutions, as well as sound business ethics and integrity.
“This partnership is a game changer for us. Having spent many years looking for the right partner, there is no doubt that EGB meets all our criteria. For us, culture fit is very important in all we do; we needed a partner that we could work with – one that could aid us in growing our private and public-sector business but, most importantly, a partner that is authentic and engages on our core principle of integrity,” said Andrea Gevers, CEO at Ask Afrika.
EGB is a relatively new, family-owned, diversified investment holding company, born out of the well-established, ENCHA Group. It remains a sought-after strategic, black-owned, investment partner for many, with a vast network of alliances and partnerships built over many years, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of its principals.
“Our investment ethos is based on identifying like-minded businesses that exhibit integrity, are sustainable and demonstrate technologically advanced and disruptive internal systems – these attributes have made Ask Afrika the perfect investment partner,” says Dr Ulime Moseneke at EGB.
Free tool to benefit journalists and PR professionals
Media Alerts is a free service to help journalists find relevant contacts or content for the stories they’re working on, while giving PR professionals and industry experts an opportunity to contribute their information, contacts or expertise to match the journalists’ requests.
It works for journalists who:
- Need an expert to interview for a story;
- Looking for someone with a real-life experience to share, usually the hardest people to find;
- Need information, products to review, or contacts for their next story deadline;
- Could benefit from a fresh voice for a radio/TV interview or panel discussion.
And it works for PR professionals who:
- Can find new publicity opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have known about;
- Build more win-win relationships with journalists by helping them get the content they need while finding more ways to get exposure for their own brands, clients and contacts.
After submitting whatever information or contacts they’re looking for on www.mediaalerts.co.za, the journalists’ requests are compiled into a daily email and sent to the subscribers, who are mostly South African PR professionals with their own (often vast) networks of experts, entrepreneurs, celebrities and other interesting individuals that journalists can benefit from.
The service is completely free to use for both journalists and PR professionals as a complementary service run by Encyclomedia – the provider of targeted and updated-on-demand media databases to the PR industry.
Making moves
Clickatell launches Touch Go: live-chat for customer care
Following the launch of the enterprise version of Clickatell Touch in 2016, Clickatell is now transforming omni-channel customer care with the launch of Touch Go. Clickatell Touch enables live chat across a company’s website as well as social platforms (Twitter and Facebook) and mobile apps, bringing customer care and engagement into a single business platform.
“Today’s consumers expect to engage with your brand on the digital channel of their choosing. They want to message your business and instantly have queries resolved, find the information and services they are looking for, without the need for a voice call. Clickatell’s Touch makes that happen with the right level of capabilities for businesses of all sizes,” explains Deon van Heerden, Clickatell Engage CEO and Group CFO.
“Customer care has become a defining factor for sustained business success. In an ever-increasing mobile native world, customers often choose to interact digitally, but they also expect to be able to reach a human immediately, should they need,” said Nirmal Nair, Clickatell Engage EVP product and marketing.
Sowetan launches Dipapadi, its new, bumper sports section
Sowetan readers and sports lovers are in for a treat as the newspaper launches its new, weekly sports section, Dipapadi.
Dipapadi guarantees Sowetan’s 572 000 readers eight pages of sport every Friday. The main focus is on soccer, boxing, and racing with increased coverage of other sporting codes. It will also include news of sporting events from across the globe.
What sets Dipapadi apart, according to Nkareng Matshe, Sowetan’s sports editor, is that it will offer readers enhanced and well-thought-out features and in-depth interviews that will not be limited to on-the-pitch happenings, but will also include off-the-field lifestyle features.
“Our readers expect Sowetan to offer them well-researched previews of games; statistical analyses and informed opinions on the likely outcomes,” says Matshe. “With the World Cup kicking off next month, it will be the go-to section for all the updates, profiles, reviews and previews.”
Reardon Sanderson, GM Group Sales & Marketing at Tiso Blackstar Group, said: “There’s currently no other special Friday sports section in SA that caters to this section of readers, and we believe Dipapadi is essential in filling this gap and providing additional reach opportunities for advertisers too.”
Dipapadi will be published in Sowetan every Friday, or on the last publishing day of the week, depending on holidays.
The winning Business Insider and Fin24 combination gives advertisers access to 4.5 million targeted users
Fin24 and Business Insider have taken the first and second spots (respectively) within the Financial Sector in South Africa according to Effective Measure’s released April 2018 results.
Fin24 showed 2 291 054 Unique Browsers (UB’s) across web, mobile web and app combined, and a massive 15 595 000 Page Views (PV’s). Business Insider showed 1 523 398 UB’s and 5 570 930 PV’s on all devices. Interestingly, 63% of Fin24’s traffic is on mobile devices, while Business Insider’s mobile traffic was clocked at 89%.
Not only is The SpaceStation able to recruit users from Business Insider and Fin24, but their data segmentation means they are able to access audiences engaging in other financial content across the entire 24.com network, providing a broader range of targeted clients in the segments.
“We have a 4.5 million identified users who have consumed financial content across our tagged sites in the past 62 days. But our more nuanced segments such as our investment audience is proving popular and an effective buy not only for endemic investment clients but also with high end Lifestyle brands who are seeing the value of this high end audience segment,” said Natasha Fourie, head of strategy at The SpaceStation.
Even more in store at at this year’s Madex exhibition
Conceptualised and created for all in marketing – from digital and social media to advertising, PR and everything in between – Madex 2018 will take place on 6 and 7 June this year at Sandton Convention Centre.
Making a return visit to Madex is Kantar Millward Brown’s Best Liked Ads list, which will be showing at the seminar theatre twice a day over the two-day expo. Kantar Millward Brown’s most revered list celebrates South Africa’s favourite TV commercials and will focus on ads that were rated as best liked by the South African audience in 2017.
“This audience is the local advertising industry’s most important critic,” says Nick Sarnadas, portfolio director at show organiser, Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery.
“These are the people who ultimately choose to buy into your brand or not and so viewing and reviewing the Best Liked Ads is a useful exercise to participate in while at the show.”
The Best Liked Ads list is based on Kantar Millward Brown’s proprietary advertising testing system, Adtrack, which evaluates the impact and likes of all new brand advertising in South Africa and, with a database of feedback gathered across the past 30 years, is the largest database of its kind in the world.
In other huge Madex news, Cinemark will once again be running a sneak preview of the South African finalists in this year’s Cannes Young Lions Competition.
For those who don’t know, The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is an annual global festival for those working in advertising and related fields.
Earlier this year, Cinemark, as the official local representative for the Cannes Lions, announced that it would once again be sponsoring the Film category of the Young Lions in South Africa, and that it was searching for submissions from young professional teams working in creative communications, advertising and digital agencies.
The seminar theatre is the place to be for this twice-daily preview – not to be missed!
“We’re also pleased too announce that the Event Greening Forum will be launching its supplier database on 7 June at Madex this year,” Sarnadas adds.
Effective Measure rebrands as Narratiive
Effective Measure has rebranded to Narratiive. Apart from rebranding, the company also launching its new audience insights platform for publishers and advertisers. View our new website at www.narratiive.com. The global team stays the same.