The Media Online’s weekly round up of people, accounts and business moves in media.
This week’s BIG move: African Development Bank’s Fashionomics Africa launches digital marketplace for the continent’s fashion creators
The African Development Bank’s flagship initiative, Fashionomics Africa, has launched the pilot phase of a digital marketplace to help Africa’s fashion designers, textile and accessories professionals connect with global markets. The launch took place on 25 November at the Global Gender Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Fashionomics Africa digital marketplace website and mobile app, sponsored by the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance, is the latest innovation from Fashionomics Africa, a platform enabling African entrepreneurs from the textile, apparel and accessories industries to create and grow their businesses, with a focus on opportunities for women and young people.
“It is all really for connecting business to business, businesses to consumers and ensuring we are putting into place all we need to really transform the clothing and fashion industries in Africa,” said Dr Jennifer Blanke, the Bank’s vice-president for agriculture, human and social development.
Hub of Africa was one of the exhibitors at the Bank-organised Fashionomics Africa pop-up market at the Global Gender Summit. The pop-up market featured 43 regional fashion brands and showcased the ‘Made in Africa’ business case for fine garments. It celebrated the power of African culture as an economic asset, a driver for growth and regional integration, as well as a source of jobs for youth and women.
People moves
FCB Joburg announces a new creative leadership team
FCB Joburg is putting its creative future in the hands of young and ready talent. Suhana Gordhan and Tian van den Heever, both of whom are no strangers to the advertising industry, have been promoted to executive creative directors joining Neo Segola who became an ECD last year. The trio have consistently been creating highly contagious, well-awarded work for the agency for several years now.
The agency has also promoted five of its finest creative talents. Mbeu ‘Snooze’ Kambua, Khanyi Mpumlwana, Nhlanhla Ngcobo, Nobantu Sibeko and Jonathan Wolberg have all been promoted to creative directors.
According to FCB Joburg Chief Creative Officer, Ahmed Tilly, the agency has been known, for generations, as one that develops and empowers young talent in the industry, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the larger advertising and communications industry.
“The decision to invest in the future of the industry by placing the responsibility of creative leadership with a new cohort of young diverse talent is an indication of how serious FCB Joburg is about true diversity and inclusion; and in the future of South Africa,” said Tilly.
“These individuals have not just delivered excellent creative work but they have already been performing as leaders in the creative department. Promoting them to Creative Directors was the natural next step. We’re exceptionally proud to see them step up. It is this caliber of young and gifted leadership that will take the agency to new creative heights – in South Africa and the global stage,” he said.
Business moves
Jawbone Brand Experiences joins Iconic Collective
Iconic Collective CEO, Dermot Latimer, has announced that Jawbone Brand Experiences has joined the group as the brand activations, event management, experiential marketing, customer experience, and exhibition management service offering division.
“We are proud to welcome Jawbone Brand Experiences to the Iconic Collective group. Jawbone Brand Experiences are synonymous with providing flawless and effective on-the-ground delivery for experiential marketing and events, a service that will benefit our clients. We are now eight agencies with one voice, operating as a collective of creative businesses to deliver end-to-end solutions for our clients. Jawbone’s services will complement our existing shopper marketing, UX, development and technology, design, experiential, print, digital, creative production, public relations, and post-production services”, said Latimer.
The addition of Jawbone Brand Experiences to the Iconic Collective will see the group bolster their service offering to provide an omnichannel, multi-discipline turnkey solution for their existing and potential clients.
Established in 2014, Iconic Collective has grown rapidly, with a global footprint. Jawbone joins Iconic Media, Prototyp Works, CMG, Meraki, Real, Metriplex, Torque, and Fableist & Co. as a division of Iconic Collective.
Netcash evolves brand with Boomtown following management buy out
Internet-based payment facility, Netcash, has appointed Boomtown to develop its corporate identity following a management buy out (MBO).
Established in 2003 by Charles Pittaway and Sven Woxholt, Netcash was purchased by Sage in 2010 where it became Sage Pay. Following the MBO, the founders are returning to the Netcash name and require a new identity as well as a communication and brand strategy.
Netcash, has a solid reputation and is a name the industry trusts, which is why it is returning to its original name.
Talking about the design, Boomtown group head, Jesse Skarkie, said: “The logo colours were inspired by the bright RGB pixels on a digital screen. Being a digital payment and integration brand, we thought that the digital world was a relevant representation here.”
Boomtown account manager, Anina Pienaar, added, “In addition to the return to the Netcash name which holds considerable credibility, there is the introduction of a new strapline to reflect the brand evolution, Payments. Delivered,” adds
Sovereign Foods digital community grows
Since Sovereign Foods briefed Boomtown to handle its social media marketing and content creation in May 2019, the Eastern-Cape poultry company has seen brand awareness and engagement with the brand rocket.
Experiencing 170% growth on Facebook and 133% on Instagram to date, Boomtown has brought the Sovereign Foods brand positioning, Valuing Goodness, to life. The increase stems from engagement with the brand’s growing community through inspirational and educational content, and relevant targeting.
Talking about the account, Marion Marais, Boomtown senior social media manager says: “From day one our content has been performing well, and our target audience is fully engaged with the brand. This first phase exceeded all goals. Next we’ll be launching a fresh new website, and continue to drive brand loyalty by digging into the insights we gain daily.”
ZASpace Inc launched as first of its kind industry body to grow geospatial sector
When we think of space, we generally think of SciFi shows such as Star Trek, or humanity’s current plans to send manned missions to Mars. Most people don’t think about space as a business enabler, and yet that is exactly what it has become over the years.
The convergence of earth observation, space navigation and positioning, telecommunications and location intelligence is generating massive opportunities for companies in every sector. Observing the Earth, location and geospatial intelligence have rapidly gravitated to the core of digitisation and innovation.
However, our space sector remains highly fragmented, massively under-transformed and sub-optimally skilled and capacitated. Our levels of country readiness to truly benefit from these unprecedented growth rates need to be accelerated. The industry fabric required to facilitate structured investment in geospatial skills development as well as funding and incubation of geospatial innovation are not mature.
That is all set to change with the launch of ZASpace Inc. Driven by key industry stakeholders with support from the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), ZASpace is a broad-based industry forum that has been designed to demystify space for business while developing skills and funding innovation to propel the growth of the sector across the continent – across the space value chain from upstream to end users.
Making moves
Amarula wins big at the annual World Branding Awards – again
Amarula, the distinctive South African cream liqueur, has been honoured yet again as a winner at the 2019 World Branding Awards, with a Brand of the Year title – National tier. Amarula was the only brand in the Alcoholic Spirits – Cream Liqueur category from South Africa to be selected for this year’s Awards. This is the third consecutive year that Amarula has been acknowledged with this accolade, solidifying its reputation as South Africa’s most awarded liqueur.
Speaking on the win, global brand director Michael Lloyd said that the award speaks to the brand’s consistent commitment to retaining its authentic African roots while also expanding its global footprint. “Being honoured with this prestigious award once again cements Amarula’s status as a truly global brand. Amarula is Africa in a bottle, and its distinctive Marula taste inspires people to explore the unexpected cultural diversity and rich natural beauty of this continent.”
SABC calls on class of 2019 to use its SABC Education Matric Results Service
SABC Education in partnership with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is encouraging all the 2019 Grade 12 learners to register on the SABC’s 2019 matric results service in order to easily access their final examination results. All Grade 12 learners are eligible to use this service from 05 December 2019 until 31 January 2020.
The Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga will announce the National Senior Certificate results on 07 January 2020. The SABC Education matric results service will release the results to all students across all provinces who registered on its database on the morning of 08 January 2020.
Learners are advised to register on one of SABC Education matric result mobile services to access their results and should use their 13 digits ID number and exam number to register on the platform of their choice to access their results. In 2018, more than +/-400 000 students received results via the SABC Education SMS and USSD services.
Learners are encouraged to register on the following mobile services to receive their 2019 matric results.
- MatricsMate App
- SMS – 45856
- USSD – Dial *120*45856# enter exam number to register,
You will be charged R1-50 per minute.Results will be sent to your phone as soon as they are available
Should the learners have queries relating to registration and use of the SABC Education matric results service, they can contact our call centre on 011 507 4630, Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. However, on the day of the release, the call centre will operate from 6am to 5pm.
For the Diary
ABC dates to remember
The Audit Bureau of Circulations ABC will be closing on Friday 13 December and re-opening on Monday 06 January 2020.
Below are the deadlines for 2020.