The Media Online’s weekly round up of moves in media. indaHash continues expansion into sub-Saharan Africa. John Davenport new chief creative officer at Havas South Africa. The One Club promotes Lauren Cole. Showmax: Why we chose Hoorah Digital as performance marketing partner. Tribeca is appointed to work with the Hollard Daredevil Run. Growth in International Public Relations Network reflective of growing trend of global collaborations. Legal eagles Adams & Adams adopt .Africa. YPO to host largest annual gathering of global CEOs in Cape Town.
This week’s BIG move: indaHash continues expansion into sub-Saharan Africa
indaHash, a global technology influencer platform, continues its exponential growth into the African continent with its expansion into Nigeria. This move forms part of the global platform’s strategic plan to provide full coverage across Africa with Morocco, Tanzania and Kenya set to follow from early 2019. The Nigerian office will be led by Olatomi Kolawole, who will be based in Lagos, and will be supported by Federico Dedeu, vice president: Middle East and Africa indaHash.
Kolawole has numerous certifications to her name along with an impressive career history. Her roles include social media manager, account manager, customer relationship manager and head of strategy at the digital marketing agency she co-founded. She brings a wealth of skills and expertise to the Nigerian office.
“Having offices in South Africa and Nigeria, and soon in Tanzania and Kenya, will provide us with strong footholds in Africa that will allow us to operate seamlessly across the region,” said Dedeu. “Middle East and Africa is a dynamic and challenging market that we felt was critical for the continued growth of indaHash in Africa. The people are go-getters and trendsetters making them a superb fit for the indaHash ethos.”
indaHash’s vision is to connect brands, social media influencers and content creators across the African continent and the globe. Today, anyone with a smartphone, internet connection and a story to tell is able to grow an audience, which can be a very valuable asset.
People moves
John Davenport new chief creative officer at Havas South Africa
Havas has appointed John Davenport as its new chief creative officer. He will be based in Johannesburg, leading creative across all disciplines within the Havas Village in South Africa.
Davenport joins Havas as the agency group continues to elevate its offering through continued collaboration with sister companies within its parent holdings group, Vivendi. In South Africa, these include Universal Music Group and gaming developer, Gameloft.
“When a friend called me late last year and told me that John Davenport was interested in joining Havas, I was thrilled,” said Havas South Africa CEO, Lynn Madeley. “We are an agency that is doing some really smart stuff in terms of content and deep connections with consumers and we needed someone to join us in getting some work over the line. Enter John. Not only is he highly awarded but he also understands that an agency is a business and he knows how to navigate the business of creativity. It’s a great match for us.”
Davenport is a copywriter by trade and has been entrenched in South Africa’s creative economy since 1996. He has worked with Ogilvy, Hunt Lascaris and co-founded Ireland/Davenport which went on to win numerous industry awards locally and globally.
The One Club promotes Lauren Cole
The One Club for Creativity, the nonprofit organisation that supports and celebrates the success of the global creative community, has promoted Lauren Cole to lead its wide-ranging One ID inclusion and diversity department.
In her new role as senior diversity programme manager, Cole will oversee all of The One Club’s global inclusion and diversity programmes and events. She joined the club two years ago as programme manager, and previously held HR and talent recruiting positions at iCrossing, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and MSLGROUP.
Central to One ID are the four-day Creative Boot Camps, where multicultural students from diverse backgrounds around the world showcase their creative talents by working directly with the industry’s best agencies and creatives on client briefs. Creative Boot Camps will take place throughout this year, including in Johannesburg.
Business moves
Showmax: Why we chose Hoorah Digital as performance marketing partner
Online video streaming service Showmax has revealed why it chose Hoorah Digital as its performance marketing partner.
“Our goal is to drive user-base growth,” said Jonathan Lawoyin, senior manager: performance marketing at MultiChoice Connected Video. “One of the best ways to do that is to improve the efficiency of our online media buying.”
While Showmax had a number of options on this front, Hoorah Digital’s offering really stood out.
“In Hoorah Digital, we saw a great combination of skills and technical capability,” says Lawoyin, “but what really resonated was the focus on people-based marketing”.
The relationship will kick off with Hoorah Digital conducting a full media audit and collaboration on structure/strategy to unleash full power of GMP.
Tribeca is appointed to work with the Hollard Daredevil Run
Hollard has one again appointed Tribeca Public Relations (Tribeca) as its partner to help raise awareness of male cancers by providing public relations support for the ninth annual Daredevil Run taking place on 15 March 2019.
The Daredevil Run highlights the importance of early detection of male cancers, with participants running through the leafy streets of the Johannesburg neighbourhood Parktown, wearing nothing but a cheeky purple Speedo.
“This will be Tribeca’s fourth year managing the PR campaign for the Daredevil Run which is testament to the continued great work that is executed on this project each year, and also to their passion for working on a project that has such a great impact on the lives of so many South Africans. The team always manages to find new ways to get South Africans talking about what has historically been a taboo topic,” said Warwick Bloom, Group Marketing at Hollard.
Growth in International Public Relations Network reflective of growing trend of global collaborations
The International Public Relations Network (IPRN), an organisation of independent public relations agencies representing more than 40 countries, announced that it has expanded its global reach with the addition of eight new member agencies from numerous countries in the world.
IPRN’s new members are:
– Crest Communications, from Prague (Czech Republic)
– Headline, from Santiago (Chile)
– INC and L45/The Van Group, from Rome and Milano (Italy)
– Lopito, Ileana & Howie from San Jose (Puerto Rico)
– Publik Kommunikation based in Stockholm (Sweden)
– W7 Worldwide based in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), and
– TDUB from Hamburg (Germany)
The member growth in Quarter 1 of 2019 is indicative of the growing power of global collaborations in the PR industry. Nicole Capper, MD of MANGO-OMC, the South African PR agency in the network, said the “massive shift in the nature of PR due to changing technologies, coupled with growing globalisation and a undoubtedly need to remain ahead of the skills game has meant that as an agency, we’ve had to find ways to remain relevant. Partnering with the IPRN was one of our strategies in 2018 – one that has definitely shown value.”
Making moves
Legal eagles Adams & Adams adopt .Africa
Major businesses continue to adopt the dotAfrica (.africa) geographic Top Level Domain (gTLD) in an effort to secure their African digital space.
Most recently, leading intellectual property and commercial law firm, Adams & Adams, announced a digital identity switchover to www.adams.africa on its social media accounts.
“Seeing respected brands proudly supporting .africa URLs is thrilling. We congratulate Adams & Adams on their .africa transformation agenda,” says Lucky Masilela, CEO of .africa administrator, Registry Africa.
With branches and associates in more than 15 African countries, the changeover “celebrates our African identity and heritage”, said Adams and Adams. The next step is to transform “our email and web domains to reflect our changed identity and proud heritage”.
Africa’s new home on the worldwide web is steadily making its way into leading brands’ DNA with the likes of Adams & Adams, ABSA, Lifetime TV Network and others realising the benefits of actively associating themselves with the Bright Continent and its one billion consumers.
For the Diary
YPO to host largest annual gathering of global CEOs in Cape Town
YPO, the leadership organisation for chief executives in the world, will host more than 2 000 business leaders at YPO EDGE in Cape Town, South Africa, 6-7 March 2019. One of the speakers is South Africa’s own Trevor Noah.
YPO EDGE is YPO’s annual showcase of thought leadership and innovation, bringing together visionaries, talented leaders, subject matter experts and unique voices from around the world to engage and inspire all that attend this invitation-only event.
“Cape Town is the ideal host city for YPO EDGE,” said Paul Berman, YPO member and host city chair. “The city is a renowned gateway to the worlds of business, technology, culture and innovation, and we are delighted for this opportunity to showcase all that the city has to offer to the talented group of global leaders who will be attending this premier event.”
