AMP disrupts on the newsstand with innovation set to change perceptions around magazine media .OFM brings SA’s newest stand-up comedian to the region. Mark Meehan appointed Managing Director of Travelport’s newly formed APACMEA region. Big Ambitions, has snapped up the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA). The most advanced online advertising marketplace to launch. OATH unifies ad tech under new brand. Guzzle revamps premier retail offering. MainOne and Orange ink deal to boost internet access into Francophone West Africa. Ringier Africa’s media & marketing business venturing further into Francophone Africa. Scotland to host the World News Media Congress 2019. Social Media Week launches in Durban.
This week’s BIG move: AMP disrupts on the newsstand with innovation set to change perceptions around magazine media
Associated Media Publishing’s QR code campaign goes live on 24 September with all October editions wrapped in bold QR codes. The campaign heralds the launch of an entirely new consumer journey: a shopping platform that delivers easy, instant purchasing of products on all AMP platforms.
“We have always put our readers front and centre of everything we do,” said AMP managing director, Julia Raphaely. “We see this as a natural progression: we are closing the gap between content and commerce across all our channels, leveraging AMP’s editorial influence, brand authority and audience insight to serve our content consumers better.”
From now on, selected merchandise featured in Cosmopolitan, Marie Clare, House & Leisure, Good Housekeeping and Goeie Huishouding can be purchased simply by using a phone to scan the associated Quick Response (QR) code, which instantly links the user directly to AMP’s Ready to Shop portal.
‘We have created a solution that delivers an instantly shop-able, highly curated expert edit of merchandise, utilising existing functionality that our readers already engage with, through the Facebook QR code scanner. This makes our brands even more relevant and gratifying for our content consumers,’ explains Elrike Lochner, group head: digital and marketing.
People moves
Okuhle Media welcomes new group managing executive
Okuhle Media has welcomed Prejlin Naidoo as the company’s new group managing executive. Naidoo joins Okuhle Media from global management consulting firm, Accenture, where he led the development and implementation of key corporate initiatives for blue-chip multinationals.
Naidoo’s broad experience, ranging from digital transformation and strategy to marketing, product development and customer experience, is expected to provide Okuhle with the type of visionary leadership that is needed in a time when unpredictability and change are the new normal.
He will head up a new-look Okuhle Group that has undergone immense change over the past year following the conclusion of an investment and recapilisation transaction with ASO Capital in August 2017. The company is known for its long standing daily-live youth show, Hectic Nine-9 and many others, including Sarah Graham Food Safari and Neill Anthony Private Chef, which have been distributed globally to territories that include Europe, the Middle East, North America and Australia.
The business has added two new offerings over the past year, namely Boost Collective, a content creation and Marketing Agency and Cooked in Africa, the producers of Ultimate BraaiMaster and other major reality entertainment brands.
OFM brings SA’s newest stand-up comedian to the region
OFM is the proud new media partner of the funny man with the moustache, Schalk Bezuidenhout (aka Snorseun) who is touring the region.
Snorseun represents a brand new voice in South African stand-up and has performed in front of sell-out crowds across the country. His show is a social commentary on life and living in South Africa.
He has won numerous accolades, including two Comics Choice Awards and a recent SAFTA. Many listeners will also know him as Danny in the kykNET series Hotel.
Said Nick Efstathiou, OFM general manager: “We are proud and excited to be a media partner to the amazing tour of Schalk in Central South Africa! His brand of comedy is certainly unique and we look forward to an evening of laughs and wisecracks from the one and only Snorseun!”
Women playing larger role at SA’s oldest agency
The promotion of two extremely talented women to executive creative directors and the appointment of three new Exco members – all of them women – at FCB Joburg has highlighted the commitment of South Africa’s oldest full-service marketing communication agency to ensuring women’s voices are not only heard, they are acted upon.
The two new ECDs at FCB Joburg are Neo Segola and Collette Wasielewski. Both have also been appointed to FCB Joburg’s Exco along with integrated executive business director on the South African Tourism Business Unit, Annicia Manyaapelo. The trio’s appointment brings the number of women on FCB Joburg’s 11-strong Exco to six, or 56%.
Making the announcement, FCB Joburg managing director, Thabang Skwambane, praised the trio’s talent and tenacity.
“We’re all incredibly privileged to have these three accomplished, capable and strong women in our business, not only their creative vision and spirit, but their belief in themselves and their commitment to help transform our industry by nurturing talented and ambitious young minds – especially women – and equipping them with practical tools to be a success in the world.”
Mark Meehan appointed MD of Travelport’s newly formed APACMEA region
Travelport has announced it has appointed Mark Meehan as managing director of its newly formed Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APACMEA) region.
Meehan has built a distinguished career at Travelport, having been successful in a range of high-profile global and regional roles over his 19-year tenure with the company. Most recently, he was managing director of Travelport’s Asia Pacific operations, which grew by 10% during 2017. Prior to this, Meehan was MD for Travelport Africa, a role that saw him grow the company’s share across the continent and establish owned operations in both South Africa and Kenya.
In his new role, Meehan will focus on bringing greater alignment across Travelport’s operations in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa; high growth territories that share commonalities in customer needs and operational delivery. While he will continue to be based in Singapore, where he lives with his family, he will also regularly work from Travelport’s office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which acts as the company’s sub-regional headquarters for the Middle East and Africa.
Business moves
The most advanced online advertising marketplace to launch
Ads2Trade, an automated, web-based, outdoor media aggregator and trading platform, is set to launch in South Africa, promising to revolutionise the estimated R5 billion local out of home advertising industry. South Africa will be the first to rollout this global franchise.
A robust, secure, auditable and integrated online OOH marketplace, Ads2Trade will allow media buyers to effortlessly create an entire audience-optimised advertising campaign for their clients. Media owners, meanwhile, will be able to cost-efficiently market and sell their outdoor advertising inventory in a simple-to-use, central online location.
The solution based media aggregator is also poised to equalise the OOH advertising playing field by making trading efficient & cost-effective for both corporates and ad agencies whilst, simultaneously enabling small businesses to buy space easily and on an equal footing.
“Think of it as ‘the AirBnB’ solution for out of home advertising,” said Daniel Voros, CEO Ads2Trade. “On this trading platform, media buyers – whether they are a small, corner, mom & pop store, a SMME or a large corporate, – can all book directly or via their agencies by simply searching, selecting and booking ad-space, transparently and accurately.”
OATH unifies ad tech under new brand
Oath, a Verizon subsidiary, has introduced Oath Ad Platforms as its simplified suite of intelligent advertising and publishing solutions globally. Oath Ad Platforms combines the best assets from BrightRoll, ONE by AOL and Yahoo Gemini into a set of solutions that makes it easier for advertisers and publishers to drive growth. The suite activates Oath’s trusted data, high-quality inventory, innovative ad experiences and industry-leading programmatic algorithms. Additionally, the unified DSP offers access to new native and connected TV inventory as well as unique ad formats. New features and functionality will be rolled out on an ongoing basis.
“Oath Ad Platforms is the culmination of years of experience creating world class advertising offerings powered by data and designed to build brands,” said Tim Armstrong, CEO of Oath. “We’ve combined the best assets from our trusted platforms with new functionality to drive meaningful results for advertisers and publishers. Oath Ad Platforms is another example of our longstanding commitment to innovation, providing a solution to today’s digital advertising challenges.”
Ad Dynamo is the exclusive sales partner for Oath in South Africa.
Big Ambitions, has snapped up the Southern African Tourism Services Association
Specialist travel and tourism content marketing agency, Big Ambitions, has snapped up the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA) as a customer, bringing to three the number of travel and tourism associations to which the agency provides communications support.
“This is important because, with the addition of SATSA to our portfolio, we now cover most of the various spheres of the travel and tourism sector from a communications, PR and marketing perspective – inbound tourism, outbound travel, retail travel, wholesale travel, corporate travel, even conferencing,” says Big Ambitions MD, Natalia Rosa.
In addition to SATSA, Big Ambitions works with the Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA), African Business Travel Association (ABTA), Flight Centre Travel Group, Development Promotions, and The Travel Corporation, among others, ensuring the team has access to the travel and tourism industry’s most influential thought leaders.
New player in the media analysis industry offers co-created solutions
Focal Points has entered the media analysis industry with a fresh perspective, offering fully customisable solutions to suit each client’s unique set of reporting requirements. Using artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with human understanding, Focal Points offers its clients rapid analysis of their media coverage.
Anja Cavanagh, team leader at Focal Points, said media analysis was a vital tool for businesses that want actionable insights into their coverage. “In today’s world, data is being generated faster than anyone can analyse it. This makes keeping track of your business’s media coverage extremely difficult,” she says. “AI-assisted media analysis serves as a fundamental solution to this problem.”
Through encouraging the co-creation of reports with clients, Focal Points ensures that the insights and reporting that they deliver are relevant and align with each client’s unique requirements.
Guzzle revamps premier retail offering
South Africa’s premier online retail aggregator Guzzle, which allows consumers to browse the best deals from South Africa’s largest retailers, has revamped its look and feel.
Partnering with SPARK Media and Caxton, Guzzle has led the online retail catalogue aggregator space since its inception in 2011 and has seen some impressive growth. “By July 2018, Guzzle’s audience grew to 534 000 unique browsers and, with a 15% month-on-month increase in site users, we expect the site to reach 700 000 unique browsers by November 2018,” says joint CEO of SPARK Media, Marc du Plessis.
“Our retail and media agency clients have in the past seen fantastic returns on this platform. With the site’s recently refreshed functionality, Guzzle will undoubtedly remain the leader in its field.”
In addition to the new ad units and slicker user experience, Guzzle users can now set alerts for when their preferred retailers’ catalogues go live, or when catalogues that contain products that they’re interested in become available. By deep-linking client catalogues into Guzzle’s ecommerce site, the site helps drive consumers straight to “Buy Now” pages.
Ringier Africa’s media & marketing business venturing further into Francophone Africa
With headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, Ringier Africa Digital Publishing (RADP), Ringier Digital Marketing (RDM) Afrique and Pulse Live Afrique have now been established to serve users and clients in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and further countries in French-speaking Africa.
Over the past years, Ringier Africa Digital, Ringier AG’s African integrated media group, has grown rapidly to develop quality publishing and creative, data-driven digital marketing solutions in Africa with offices across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Its two major initiatives are on the one side its new media publisher Pulse with its mass media publications and social channels in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Pulse now reaches over 175 million unique users across its platforms and channels combined and over 170 million video views per month covering news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and more. Its license brands New York Times, Business Insider and Men’s Health/Women’s Health hosted on the Pulse infrastructure in Africa complement this content offering.
MainOne and Orange ink deal to boost internet access into Francophone West Africa
French Telecoms company, Orange and leading West African Connectivity and Data Centre services provider, MainOne, have struck a partnership that will see the French telecoms giant co-invest in two new cable landing stations in Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire while the broadband infrastructure provider will provide additional capacity via its 7000km cable system from Europe to Africa with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal, reinforcing the position of both companies in the African telecommunications ecosystem.
Thanks to this new cable connection, several countries in West Africa will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. Orange will benefit from multiple Terabits per second of additional bandwidth for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa to meet the increasing demands for Internet access via 3G and 4G network. More specifically, this cable extension is an opportunity to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire & Senegal’s Sonatel. In addition, neighboring countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania will benefit from enhanced capacity.
For MainOne, the partnership underscores the company’s vision for a better connected region, its CEO, Funke Opeke said. “MainOne continues to lead the digital transformation of our sub-region
Making moves
Scotland to host the World News Media Congress 2019
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has invited the world’s press to attend the 71st World News Media Congress, the 26th World Editors Forum and the third Women in News Summit to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 1 to 3 June 2019.
Organised in partnership with the Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS), the events will take place at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, situated on the north bank of the River Clyde.
Glasgow is a significant center for journalism: it is Scotland’s most important location for broadcasting, media, digital and the creative industries, and is home to the headquarters of BBC Scotland, STV and a range of major press titles including The Herald, The Daily Record, The Scottish Sun and Scottish Daily Mail.
“Scotland is a market with a remarkable diversity of national, regional and local media. We are privileged to be hosted in Glasgow by the SNS and their affiliate members,” said Vincent Peyregne, CEO Wan-Ifra.
“The Congress, incorporating the one-of-a-kind Women in News Summit, and the World Editors Forum, is a milestone on our annual programme of professional events. It is of value to every news professional seeking to better understand and address the unprecedented forces at work at this time. The Congress is a vital forum for discussions – on the future of news, press freedom and issues facing our society and its citizens,” said Peyregne.
Diary
Social Media Week launches in Durban
Digital Entrepreneur, 4th Industrial Pioneer and Dragon on Dragon’s Den South Africa, Lebo Gunuguluza, will be launching Social Media Week – Durban with publicist, entrepreneur and award nomine
e blogger, Loraine Sibanda who is also the director of the event.
The Hilton Hotel is the official venue partner for 2018 alongside Vuzane Studio, Intouch Africa and Weasy Africa. This event is an annual global conference, social media education and industry news platform for professionals in media, marketing and technology as well as digital influencers and entrepreneurs.
The mission is to give professionals at the intersection of media, marketing and technology the insights, ideas and opportunities that they need to advance themselves and their organisations, in a globally connected world.
It launches from 14-16 November.
Shopper Insights SA 2019
This takes place at the Bryanston Country Club, on 7 Nov 2019
- Banks gaining shopper intelligence far ahead of most retailers– how they are doing it
- Meet Generation Next; how wellness may be influencing their shopping habits
- 20% of shoppers matter; customer data science techniques at work boosting ROI
- Influencing influencers along the retail journey
- New technologies impacting real time retail right now
- Product differentiation & visualisation driving category growth
- Effective Brand Activation in Informal Fast Food Outlets
- New brand loyalty insights – Ask Afrika Icon Brands & Orange Index brand winners
- Brands adding value- New Shopping List multiple buyers
- Rise and rise of convenience retail
For more, click here.
FIBO Global Fitness Africa Presented by Dis-Chem
Is your relationship with exercise starting to lose its spark? Are your current workouts leaving you feeling unfulfilled? Maybe you’re looking for something different; something new to make you fall in love with fitness all over again. We’ll we have something special to introduce you to, meet the #FitAffair presented by Fitness Magazine.
FitAffair is the all new workout event that wants to whisk you away from your dull, lifeless routine and bring that first time excitement back into exercise.
“This is the very reason, why we are delighted to be able to host not one but two FitAffair fitness events at FIBO Global Fitness Africa presented by Dis-Chem Pharmacies in October. Both the FitAffair After Dark and FitAffair Sunrise Edition are guaranteed to have everyone finding their fit in fitness,” says Martin Hiller, GM of FIBO Africa.
FitAffair After Dark:
Friday 26 October 2018
18:00
R240.00
FitAffair Sunrise Edition:
Saturday 27 October 2018
08:00
R240.00
Book your spot at FitAffair After Dark or FitAffair Sunrise Edition now
Friends of Design Distinguished Talent Scholarship Applications Now Open
Do you have a passion for Graphic Design, Web Design, Game Design or Concept Art? Think you have the talent and dedication to back that passion up? The Friends of Design Academy of Digital Arts has announced that its Distinguished Talent Scholarship applications are now open for the 2019 academic year.
Here’s what you need to know to get in on the action…
Friends of Design’s Distinguished Talent Scholarships are private bursaries that cover 100% of tuition fees for the chosen candidates. They are awarded by the academy, based entirely on merit, to applicants whose talent and creative potential are just too good for our lecturers and selection panellists to resist.
There are four Distinguished Talent Scholarships available for 2019. Each corresponds to one of our core, full-time courses. These are:
- Graphic Design & Visual Communication
- Web Design & Motion Graphics
- Game Graphics & Multimedia Entertainment
- Concept Art
Eligibility Requirements
- A South African ID/passport
- A matric certificate (or international equivalent)
- Mad creative skills and a mind-blowing portfolio
Get your application started!
To demonstrate your abilities, you’re going to need a killer portfolio that highlights your talents in all their glory.
Once you have a showcase of work ready to wow us, send an email to info@friendsofdesign.net and request the application forms for your chosen course. Make sure to put “Distinguished Talent Scholarship Application” in the subject line, and we’ll send you all the info you need. (You can also download the necessary course application forms directly from the full-time course pages on our website.)
Good luck!
For more information on Friends of Design bursaries, or to follow up on your application, call 021 300 0298.
The Friends of Design Academy of Digital Arts is an accredited, private Higher Education Institution, an Adobe Authorised Training Centre (AATC) and a Certiport Authorised Testing Centre.
To find out more about Friends of Design’s unique approach to creative education, visit https://friendsofdesign.net/.
