The Media Online’s weekly round up of moves in media.
This week’s BIG move: Omar Essack steps down as CEO of Primedia Group
Omar Essack will step down as CEO of the Primedia Group at the end of March 2020. The Group said it was reviewing its leadership requirements as it settles into a “new management structure”.
That’s the word from the broadcasting and out of home media company’s chairman, Phumzile Langeni. “Omar has played a critical leadership role at Primedia, steering us through a challenging time for the industry, both locally and internationally, while successfully driving a repositioning of the business, first as CEO of Primedia Broadcasting, and subsequently as Group CEO,” she said.
“On behalf of the board I would like to sincerely thank Omar for his service and wish him every success in his new endeavours,” Langeni said. She added that she had agreed to “undertake a more hands-on role as we make this leadership transition to ensure we continue to deliver on our strategic objectives”.
Essack will in future be focused on writing, training and consulting projects and on emerging opportunities at the confluence of media and technology. “I have really enjoyed my time at Primedia. The board backed my vision of creating an accountable and responsive media company and I was able to put in place a data analytics practice whose strategy is on a par with our peer group in Europe and the US,” he said. “The Group will yield the benefits of this approach over the next 18 months and I will be delighted to watch it come to fruition.”
People moves
Neo Mashigo appointed chairman of the Creative Circle
Chief creative officer of the M&C Saatchi Group South Africa, Neo Mashigo, is the new chairman of Creative Circle, taking over from TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris’ CCO, Peter Khoury,
Mashigo will hold the position for a period of two years, having previously served on the executive committee.
The Creative Circle is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting and maintaining creativity in the South African advertising industry by inspiring the transformation of product, people and perception through the power of creativity.
“It’s a privilege to be appointed as chairperson and I’m excited to embrace the opportunity of driving the Creative Circle’s efforts in promoting creativity as a business resource,” said Mashigo, whose position on the role of creativity is clear. “I believe that creativity should be leading the charge in the effort of solving South Africa’s many challenges.”
In 2019, Mashigo was honoured as Industry Leader of the Year at the 2019 FM AdFocus Awards, while he is also a former Chairperson and current board member of the Loeries.
Trinity Mohlamme joins The Media Connection board
After a successful and award-winning career in the music industry, fashion retail and entertainment in the 1990s, Trinity Mohlamme joined Alex FM in Johannesburg. Now he has been appointed to The Media Connection’s board of directors.
“It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to have Trinity on the executive team,” said the company’s founder, Judy Milne. “He is arguably one of the most knowledgeable brand strategists in the industry at present. He has an almost freakish ability to understand brand behaviour, consumer behaviour and then find a way to glue the two together.
“He exemplifies the company’s vision of ‘Connecting Brands, making a difference’ and adds a vivid new enthusiasm to our already cemented culture of integrity, access, and thriving in the industry through experience and insights driven forward thinking,” Milne added.
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Dylan Rogers departs as Business Traveller Africa Editor
Future Group has announced the departure of Dylan Rogers as editor of Business Traveller Africa magazine to pursue new and exciting projects. He joined the Future Group in April 2011.
“Dylan joined us nine years ago with a strong background in news and content and quickly got to grips with the intricacies of the South African travel market, as well as embracing the client-facing aspect I envisioned for the role,” said publisher Richard Lendrum. “As a result, Business Traveller Africa has enjoyed some of its most commercially-successful years under his stewardship.”
Rogers will be pursuing a number of independent projects in the content space, which remains his passion, as well as continuing with his MC work and role as contributor and sports anchor on Hot919’s Big Jo’burg Drive.
WASPA invites nominations for board
Nominations are open for four of WASPA’s seven 2020/2021 board positions. The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association said while nominees do not have to be affiliated with a WASPA member, WASPA members in good standing elect the Association’s Board members after receiving written nominations outlining nominees’ industry-related experience, interests and other pertinent information.
WASPA’s mission is to create a fair and equitable mobile landscape that values consumers while advancing the interests of the plethora of small, medium and large mobile firms that make the WASP industryin South Africa.
In terms of WASPA’s Constitution, four of the Association’s current board members are required to stand down at this year’s March AGM. The remaining three will each serve for one additional year, until the 2021 AGM.
If you are personally interested in serving on the WASPA Board, or if you would like to nominate someone else to serve, please email secretariat@waspa.org.za by no later than 29 February 2020. Please include an abbreviated half-page biography as well as a succinct motivation for wanting to serve on the WASPA Board.
Business moves
Fast Company Symposium’s Crowdfunding Challenge to assist start-ups raise funding
In response to the shortage of funding options for some of South Africa’s yet to be realised innovations, the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies Symposium – technology and innovation for the advancement of society – has invited Uprise.Africa to collaborate with it, and help a start-up grow.
The alliance will assist as yet unfunded innovators attending the event, who will have the opportunity to pitch their inventions to the team, for a coveted spot on the Uprise.Africa crowdfunding platform.
The global tech and innovation start-up ecosystems are rich picking fields for investors looking to get on board with innovations that have the hallmarks of being the next ‘big thing.’ Significant returns are available for those who get in quickly and when the lucky break happens.
South Africa (and the greater African continent) has had its fair share of winners over the years and in 2020, as the country and continent continue to leapfrog legacy technologies, there is a stream of opportunities for the savvy to throw their money behind.
Uprise.Africa will join Fast Company at the Symposium on 5 March, at the CTICC, (limited free delegate passes are still available), along with a number of young companies (pre-chosen by the team at Fast Company SA), for a Crowdfunding Challenge pitch session, which will land one of them the opportunity to raise the necessary crowdfunding to take them to the next level.
Time remains for start-ups to submit their pitches to zurina.morgan@fastcompany.co.zafor consideration on the day, and young entrepreneurs are all invited to attend the event.
Hoorah Digital wins Nestlé content business account
Hoorah Digital has won the account to build Nestlé’s global content studio for Africa. Nestlé’s ask of their new partner was the capability, in line with their global mandate, to internalise digital content. Hoorah Digital demonstrated the best understanding of Nestlé’s global in-house content structures, and how this can be adapted to local requirements.
“With this move Nestle have demonstrated that they are at the forefront of a new way of doing business, one that understands the importance of being hyper-agile in an increasingly digital world,” said Shaune Jordaan, Hoorah Digital’s CEO.
With a focus on content adaptation, trans-creation, translation and rollout of assets to 23 countries in the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) from their Head Office in Bryanston, Johannesburg, the aim is to build an agile and rapid content development competence.
Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies collaborates with Huawei to provide 5G training
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies has collaborated with Huawei Technologies South Africa to provide 5G training to a group of 100 final year Information Technology (IT) students at the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) campuses in Mthatha, Butterworth and East London.
The 5G training is designed to enable students to understand 5G protocol standardisation, key industry applications, ecosystems, network architecture and key technologies. It forms part of the Minister’s multi-stakeholder collaboration of ‘Building A Capable 4IR Army’ and will be rolled out at other identified institutions across the country.
Following the Mthatha training, Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams will also conduct a local stakeholder engagement with the business sector, academia, media, traditional leaders and faith-based organisations; amongst others. This engagement session seeks to unpack the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) and engage on pertinent sector issues that will enable them to harness opportunities presented by emerging technologies.
HaveYouHeard benefits from organic growth
Cape Town-based full-service agency, HaveYouHeard, which kicked off the new year signing five new clients, has continued along the growth path in February by adding another new client, Virgin Active, and landing new projects from three existing clients.
The agency, which has satellite offices in Johannesburg and London, added Absa, Campari Africa, Jameson Global, Jeep Clothing and Trotters UK to its client list at the close of 2019.
Additional work taken on board since then include a project for Virgin Active (radio, digital content and digital out-of-home production); a contract renewed with Old Mutual to manage its content hub, AMPD Studios, after exceeding targets in 2019; the corporate identity refreshment and internal campaign creation for Innovoice, a division of Old Mutual Personal Finance; and new content development and influencer strategy for Martell.
rooi rose is proud to announce the start of season 3 of rrRADIO in February 2020
rrRADIO, rooi rose and Caxton Magazine’s first, free Afrikaans podcast channel for women, is expanding its programming for a second time, since its launch in June 2019.
rrRADIO offers clients a new innovative and cost-effective way to connect to the Afrikaans market and sought-after rooi rose audiences. “Over the first two seasons, rrRADIO downloads and impressions have grown organically at an exponential rate and we foresee that, during season 3, it will rise to 40 000+ impressions per month”, saids rrRADIO executive producer and rooi rose deputy editor, Hannelie Diedericks.
Season 3 will see the launch of two brand new series: Lam in Wolfsklere, a serial fiction series, and Ons diere & hul giere, a new pet care series hosted by Ilse Salzwedel.
Making moves
M&C Saatchi Abel supports SA survey on diversity in the industry
Diversity of Thought is something that M&C Saatchi Abel believes in and pursues actively every day and so the agency has pledged its support for the SheSays Survey on Gender Representation, a first-ever look at gender diversity in the South African advertising and marketing sector. The agency is also the headline sponsor of the next SheSays event in Cape Town.
Led by the Cape Town chapter of SheSays, the world’s largest network for women in creative industries, the survey engages the local industry on the advancement of gender representation and diversity within the creative sectors.
“Although the advertising industry has made strides to diversify over the past number of years, it is vital to see an organisation such as SheSays actually working to quantify these changes,” said Mike Abel, founding partner and chief executive officer of M&C Saatchi Abel.
The SheSays survey, done in collaboration with Kantar, collects data anonymously, with agencies having until 28 February 2020 to take part.
The SheSays Cape Town Get Unstuck will be held at Nasdak, 26th Floor, Media24 Centre, 40 Heerengracht St, on 10 March 2020, starting at 17h30.
