The Media Online’s weekly round up of people, account and business moves in media.
Urgent: Deadline approaches for SANEF Media Relief Fund round two
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) has reminded journalists that the deadline for applications to its Media Relief Fund is Wednesday 30 September 2020. Journalists who lost their jobs and income as a direct result of the Covid-19 national disaster can submit their applications with all relevant and supporting documentation.
Practising journalists who have not received retrenchment packages, freelance or contract journalists. People need to have been retrenched or had their contracts cancelled from the date of the implementation of the national lockdown on March 26th 2020 – or thereafter – as a result of COVID-19. Photographers, print, broadcast and multimedia journalists are all included. Please see a link to the application form here .
This week’s BIG move: Caxton launches Introducing!SA
A new brand has been launched within the Caxton local media stable offering integrated campaign solutions on page, on site, via social and out of home with the added ability to deliver samples directly to homes.
Introducing!SA combines the best of all worlds from the group’s years of experience in lifestyle content writing and magazine editorial credibility, to the sophisticated delivery network of local papers by getting brands directly into the homes of consumers.
Use a single page within Introducing!SA, a double page or a four-page centrespread to showcase the latest brands, product launches and innovations, or to simply share new ideas about existing products and brands.
Introducing!SA’s on-site offering will include coverage on the stand alone Introducing!SA website and on the relevant Local News Network sites that the on page content appears in. The content would be produced as evergreen, lifestyle editorial. Advertising opportunities within this space include sponsored content and banner advertising, video, takeovers as well as the ability to do competitions, polls and newsletters.
By leveraging Caxton’s distribution, Introducing!SA can extend a brand’s message into the streets of the suburbs for two months at a time. Caxton trucks and runners can be branded enhancing visibility in selected areas.
People moves
FNB appoints Siya Kolisi as Brand Ambassador
First National Bank (FNB) has officially welcomed South Africa’s Rugby World Cup winning captain Siya Kolisi as its ambassador – a deal negotiated through Roc SNation Sports.
A global icon and a national hero, Kolisi has made strides in supporting sport development and community upliftment throughout South Africa. His contribution to social cohesion and upliftment is synonymous with FNB’s brand promise of #Realhelp, which is illustrated through the bank’s innovative solutions and programmes.
“Siya is a selfless global icon. He is a true embodiment of nation building, unity and demonstrates the true value of help, trust, leadership and togetherness. We are proud to have him onboard as our ambassador and look forward to working with him in driving our commitment to make a positive contribution to society through the principles of shared value,” said Faye Mfikwe, FNB chief marketing officer.
Kolisi said, “I’m incredibly proud to be partnering with a strong and valuable South African brand that continues to uplift and reimagine the concept of ‘help’. This partnership is a continuation of a journey which began many years ago with this brand. Coming together and unifying a nation is of utmost importance at this time and a little bit of help can go a long way in helping others. I’m excited to be part of a brand that believes in #Realhelp and hope.”
Max Kubwalo appointed as Xylem’s Metrology Sales Lead for Anglophone Africa
Xylem Africa has announced that Max Kubwalo is joining its operations as Xylem’s Metrology sales lead for Anglophone Africa. Having started on 17 July 2020, Kubwalo is based in Cape Town and covers non-French speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Kubwalo joins Xylem from Itron, where he established a stellar reputation among the utility markets of Southern and Eastern Africa. An experienced sales professional with a solid record in the water management industry, he has been responsible for projects exceeding US$ 10 million. Kubwalo’s interest in the continent extends to his academic achievements as well, including a research project on Malawi’s cut flower industry.
Business moves
Lerato Tshabalala tackles South Africa’s toughest topics in brand-new show, RLVNT
Delving into topics many often shy away from, Lerato Tshabalala launches RLVNT, a new talk-show series available through podcast channels and YouTube.
The author of the 2016 best seller, The Way I See It, Tshabalala is a writer and speaker who has used the Covid-19 pandemic to create something close to her heart, that reflects the dynamic times we are living in by connecting with real people. This is not her first foray into podcasting, she’s also hosted a décor and lifestyle podcast on CliffCentral.com.
The executive creative director and content creator launched RLVNT in August 2020, it is a series of vodcast interviews that tackles deep and sometimes controversial topics that are most pertinent to – but not exclusively to – South Africans. These 45-minute conversations tackle issues such as unconscious bias, being a female in the corporate world as well as gender-based-violence. After appearing in the Anthony Fabian documentary about South Africa, Good Hope this Soweto-born creative, has finally found her calling.
Some of her guests include sports’ first lady, Mpho Letsholonyane, Amazon Live’s Makho Ndlovu, the award-winning medical doctor – Dr Sindi van Zyl; Lihle Mtshali-Hunt, a U.S.-based writer and editor, Yolanda Sangweni – songwriter and podcast programming director at Luminary,as well as curator and manager at the Standard Bank Art Gallery, Dr Same Mdluli.
RLVNT is available on audio on these channels: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player.FM and Pocket Casts. Subscribe to the YouTube channel here. for the visual version of RLVNT.
KLA, Local Market Research Firm, Joins YouGov Global Partnerships Programme
South African market research agency KLA has announced its new affiliation with YouGov, as part of YouGov’s Global Partnerships Programme.
An international research data and analytics group, YouGov’s data-led offering supports a global customer-base including media owners, brands, and media agencies via their on-stream, reliable data tools, working with the world’s most recognised brands.
KLA’s Research Director, Caitlin Bauristhene, says, “It isn’t enough to have data. You have to have the right data, of the right quality, at the right time. If the role of data is to empower business leaders to make fact-based decisions, and navigate changing times with a degree of sure-footedness, then the data has to be recent, robust and on-tap. This is why we have partnered with YouGov.”
By bringing YouGov’s ‘Plan & Track’ solution to South Africa, KLA will have at its disposal two connected data tools: YouGov Profiles and YouGov BrandIndex.
YouGov Profiles makes it simple to find and understand the audience that matters to clients, by incorporating 250,000+ data variables, while YouGov BrandIndex measures the public’s perception of brands within competitive sectors, on a daily basis.
These measurement tools enable clients to track brand reach and resonance, with deep consumer profiling that can be linked back to how each respondent reacted to the brand.
Young couple opens doors to a creative agency aimed at empowering business owners
This Johannesburg based couple is not only a duo in life but in business as well. Directors of The Craddock Group, Keagan Craddock and La-Tasha Pucoe (soon to be Craddock) have opened doors to a creative agency that aims to service business owners who need skilled professionals that can add value to their business from a digital and creative standpoint.
The Craddock Group’s recipe for growing an existing or new brand is simple: They make sure that your brand is suitable, memorable and tells your story. They strive to deliver excellent work, and treat their clients as co-creators. In return their clients view the company not merely as vendors, but as partners.
The Craddock Group’s creative strategies energise business objectives and keeps the client at the forefront of people’s minds with campaigns & constant interactions that work. Every client deserves the best team to always push their business out to new & existing clients.
EF-Active joins the 5FM 5Drive team on their Heritage Tour around South Africa
As Nick Hamman and the 5Drive team continue on their Heritage Tour around South Africa this September, they’ll need to keep taking the necessary precautions as they travel between hotels and tourism spots.
The team can be rest assured that all their sanitizing needs are being taken care of with the proudly South African brand, EF-Active, joining the tour as a new sponsor this year alongside Robertson’s.
Follow the team’s journey across the country on 5FM’s social media platforms and visit www.5fm.co.za for further information. Every week day for the next four weeks (21 September to 16 October), the 5Drive team will be showcasing one of the products and how it has ensured their protection during a variety of moments on tour and when they return back home.
Huawei Video app provides consumers with award winning content
discover.film, the streaming platform for quality short movies and entertainment, has been chosen by Huawei to be its short-form content provider for its video platform, on HUAWEI Video. This collaboration will see the discover.film app integrated into the HUAWEI Video app as a pre-installed app on over 100 million handsets globally, including South Africa. This app will be launched as an ad-based video on demand (AVOD) app with a strong monetisation solution of its video inventory, with subscription video on demand (SVOD) being introduced later in the year for customers who choose an ad-free experience.
discover.film is a freemium platform that has amassed subscribers from more than 190 countries since its launch in October 2019. discover.film hosts quality short movies, typically between 10-15 minutes in duration, featuring the world’s biggest movie stars and emerging talent across all genres and languages; from feel-good comedies to drama, sci-fi, documentaries and action.
HaveYouHeard achieves 7 consecutive weeks of online sales growth UK children’s clothing brand Trotters
South African based agency, HaveYouHeard, has broken its client’s own records by achieving seven consecutive weeks of online sales growth.
HaveYouHeard won theTrotters business late in 2019 and opted to run the account out of its London office while the Johannesburg team was tasked with research, strategy and creative execution. Cape Town provided essential client service skills.
“We were thrilled to be awarded the Trotters account, one of the favourite brands among the London and international elite and a firm favourite of the British Royal Family,” said HaveYouHeard co-founder, Cape Town-based Jason Stewart.
Since taking on the brand, HaveYouHeard’s far-flung team has created brand-specific content as well as run multiple ad campaigns for existing product groups, for example those called Dress Shop, Ice-Cream Edit and Spring Sale.
According to the UK office’s Simon Read, a combination of tactical placements and smart copy helped increase conversions by 37%. During the same period, cost per conversion dropped 31%, meaning Trotters is spending less to attract more, and return-on-advertising spend is up 50% month-on-month in the UK.
Filmtela signs ‘Last Night in Rozzie’ starring Jeremy Sisto
Filmtela, an international film marketing agency, founded by Brenden Hubbard, award-winning producer and film festival manager at ‘Bearly There Media’ and Marianna Boguslavsky, founder & MD of digital strategy agency ‘Boguslavsky & Co’ in South Africa, has signed ‘Last night in Rozzie’ indie drama starring Jeremy Sisto, Nicky Whelan and Neil Brown, Jr.
‘’This is the perfect fit in terms of our capabilities with the focus on amplifying the reach of this film by focusing on both a smart film festival strategy, and data focused social media implementation. We look forward to working with Ryan McDonough and Sean Gannet to bring this indie film to a much larger audience,’’ said Boguslavsky.
NESCAFÉ RICOFFY celebrates Heritage Month with Design-the-Tin campaign from Boomtown
NESCAFÉ RICOFFY, is celebrating Heritage Month (September) with three new tin designs sourced via a nationwide campaign created by Boomtown.
The theme of Heritage Month this year is ‘Reclaiming, Restoring and Celebrating our Living Heritage’ and recognises aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and intangible, including creative expression such as music and performances, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat, and popular memory.
To commemorate this – as well as reinforce its new strategic platform of meaningful shared connections around the smooth taste of NESCAFÉ RICOFFY – Boomtown created a design-the-tin competition and asked consumers to enter designs depicting their personal pride, things or events that make them feel proud.
From the hundreds of entries, a shortlist was compiled and put to the vote on social media. The top three most liked tin designs made it onto South Africa’s retail shelves as limited edition 750g tins.
They were designed by Tanya van Deventer (left in the photograph), Morena Moletsane (middle) and Lindi Jonker. Each received R10 000 in prize money.
UNWTO and Google host first Tourism Acceleration Programme in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Covid-19 crisis has disproportionately affected tourism, a sector that accounts for millions of jobs around the globe. While no one can say with certainty when the sector will recover, people are starting to dream of getaways again, whether closer to home or to remote destinations. As more and more people go online to search where and when they can travel, accelerating the digitisation of the tourism sector will be key to adapting to the new tourism reality.
This is why the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Google have partnered on an online Acceleration Programme for UNWTO Member States’ tourism ministers, top travel associations and tourism boards to further develop innovation and digital transformation skills.
The organisations hosted the first UNWTO & Google Tourism Acceleration Programme focused on insights from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
“We’re here to help the tourism sector rise up from this unprecedented crisis and emerge stronger. Our travel data insights and tools can help tourism authorities identify and understand the barriers and drivers to visit travel destinations for better tourism planning,” said Doron Avni, Google’s Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Emerging Markets.
InSites Consulting launches global Culture + Trends solution
To help brands navigate these extraordinary times, InSites Consulting has announced the global roll out of their Culture + Trends solution.
With primary research, and more specifically online insight communities, still at the core of the agency, Culture + Trends research takes consumer understanding even further. With this extended offering, InSites Consulting aims to identify and understand how culture and/or trends impacts brands, providing them with actionable, future-facing insights that bridge the ‘now’ and ‘next’.
Originally developed by Kelly McKnight at Join the Dots (acquired by InSites Consulting in July 2019), Culture + Trends offers in-house trend analysis by an awarded specialist team of trend consultants, psychologists and sociologists, combined with the input of their proprietary Illume Network of cultural curators, or leading-edge consumers rooted in local culture.
The solution has been applied across sectors for niche as well as global brands, amongst others GSK, Twitter and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
CELL C partners with Primestars to equip learners with STEM knowledge
As the fourth industrial revolution becomes reality on a global scale, the need for learners to master STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects has never been more important.
Learners in 2020 are in uncharted territory and the pandemic has thrown privilege into sharp relief. While some children have been able to continue their school year with a slight interruption, lack of access to data or online connectivity has made 2020 more difficult for most.
It’s for this reason Cell C has partnered with youth development company Primestars and its YouthStart Foundation as part of the #SavingTheClassOf2020 project, which is geared towards helping under-resourced learners across South Africa, prepare for their final exams. They will collaborate on the EDUCATE IS A COVID-19 RESPONSE campaign with Cell C participating as the digital partner to the Matric Maths and Science Revision programme, named eduCate. Cell C has also zero-rated an online platform specifically created for the project.
“Under-resourced public schools are bearing the brunt of the pandemic, and by not coming to their assistance, we are exacerbating inequality,” said Martin Sweet, managing director of Primestars
“Our educational system needs help teaching problem solving, critical thinking and creativity,” he says. “As the Private Tutor to public education utilizing cinemas at theatres of learning, we are reinventing education to provide the skills necessary to create a more prosperous and inclusive future for all.”
eduCate covers the entire matric Math and Science curriculum and the weekly cinema lessons are simultaneously broadcast to 17 digitized cinemas across the country, over 10 weeks.
Learners also interact with subject experts who are available at each venue to address questions from the learners. Each learner receives a revision textbook as well.
World Out of Home Organization’s global #OurSecondChance hits 40 000 digital screens with estimated media value to date of US$40m
The World Out of Home Organisation’s #OurSecondChance campaign has appeared on more than 40 000 digital screens worldwide, making it comfortably the world’s biggest all-format digital Out of Home campaign ever launched.
The rate card value of the media space provided is estimated at US$40m to date, way ahead of the original US$25m estimate. The campaign concludes on 30 September.
Among the biggest markets to embrace the campaign are China, Germany, and Australia.
The campaign which was originated by creative agency New Commercial Arts and distributed globally by Grand Visual, reminds people of the positive initiatives to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, as gradual recovery takes hold.
So far, the campaign has appeared in 60 countries and on every continent worldwide.
WOO president Tom Goddard says: “we hoped #OurSecondChance would have a major impact but its reach – it was ubiquitous – and the positive reaction from the public worldwide has exceeded all our expectations.”
AMPD Studios Live by Old Mutual clinches exclusive interview with SA jazz legend Caiphus Semenya
AMPD Studios Live by Old Mutual, an innovative new partnership between Old Mutual and HaveYouHeard, has secured an exclusive interview with South African jazz legend, Caiphus Semenya.
The interview, which will be conducted by local pop icon Riky Rick, takes place on 30 September at 21h30 during the final episode of AMPD Studios Live by Old Mutual. It will be live-streamed on MTV Base as well as Old Mutual and 947’s social media platforms.
The 80-year-old is considered one of the greatest composers and arrangers of all time, and has worked with numerous globally successful musicians and singers including Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Harry Belafonte and Hugh Masekela, as well as his wife, Letta Mbulu.
Making moves
SANEF calls for media access to rugby matches
As the country eagerly awaits Saturday’s first Rugby match at Loftus Versfeld and the normalisation of sports coverage, the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is surprised to hear that the number of photographers has been limited.
The Blue Bulls company has issued a letter stating that only two photographers will be permitted to shoot the upcoming match.
SANEF believes that hurdles to accreditation and unwelcome regulations should be removed so that the media including freelancers (both local and foreign) are not denied the opportunity to get back to work. Rugby authorities should note that the country has moved to lockdown level 1 as announced by the President. We thus appeal to SA Rugby to seriously consider opening up and enabling the sports media fraternity to resume working.
SANEF believes that journalists should strictly adhere to the regulations of wearing masks, sanitising and ensuring physical distancing but with this in place we believe that sports grounds, particularly as big as Loftus Versfeld, should not pose a threat to spreading the Coronavirus.
Our proposal is that 5/6 major SA and 4 International agencies be allowed to send a representative to cover the matches inside the stadium with COVID19 physical distancing protocols in place.
The National Film & Video Foundation has updated the funding policy
The National Film & Video Foundation provides film and video-related funding in the broad categories of Education and Training; Development (of feature films, documentaries and TV Concepts); Production (of feature films and documentaries) and Marketing and Distribution.
It has announced that the amended funding policy is now available on its website. The amendment of the funding policy follows extensive engagements with members of the film & TV industry, ensuring the funding policy meets the required standards of the industry.
Some of the fundamental changes include the increase in the budget caps, recognising the need to ensure that filmmakers have enough budget to produce quality content.
The amended funding policy has also developed a sexual harassment code of conduct that every applicant will be required to sign. This process intends to hold those successful in receiving funding, accountable for any claims related to sexual harassment, sexual violence and sexual misconduct. All recipients of NFVF funding should adhere to the code of conduct and make sure the industry is a safe space for all.
Ruptly launches online journalism school to support industry’s future talent
Ruptly, the award-winning international news and media agency, has launched of Ruptly Academy, a new virtual school that aims to discover the next generation of journalism talent.
Ruptly Academy’s first programme, a free 10-week course in Practical Journalism, will begin on 29 October. It will feature tutorials by Ruptly’s own senior team as well as assignments, feedback webinars and personal coaching.
Upon completion, outstanding candidates will be offered an internship at one of Ruptly’s international bureaus – underlining the agency’s commitment to becoming a home for the talent of tomorrow.
Applications for the course have opened and run until 15 October. The course goes live on 29 October.
More information is available at the Ruptly Academy website.
