The Media Online’s weekly round up of people, account and business moves in media.
This week’s BIG move: Matrix Group strengthened with acquisition of creative agency, SoulProviders Collective
The Matrix Communications Group (MCG) has bought creative agency SoulProviders Collective (SPC), which celebrated its 10th birthday in May. SPC is a 100% locally owned, owner-managed pan-African creative agency with vast experience in the ever-evolving digital and communications space. Founded by Sarah-Jane Boden in 2011, the SPC team has worked across a multitude of local, pan-African and global brands and organisations, creating outstanding creative content and campaigns that reflect their signature progressive touch and cross-platform expertise.
“Hearing Kgaugelo Maphai’s vision, I knew that the Matrix Group would be the right family for our vibrant agency to join,” said Boden, founder and creative director of SPC. Boden will step down at the end of June 2021, and the agency will appoint a new managing director to ensure a seamless handover to the new owners.
SPC has serviced clients from different sectors over the past few years. Their current clients include, but are not limited to, the AMKA group, Decathlon, Good Governance Africa, the V&A Waterfront, Flame Studios, AfricaCheck, Didi Global and Vivo Energy.
“The acquisition of SPC has come at an opportune time for the Matrix Group. We are happy to acquire a youthful agency with a rich culture, and an abundance of energy, that enables us to resolve clients’ challenges with imaginative, creative solutions,” said Dineo Mahloele, managing director of MCG.
Kgaugelo Maphai, chairperson of Magnia Investment Holdings (MIH) and chief executive officer of MCG said: “Our investment policy is to partner with owner-managed businesses which allows for agility and swift decision-making and this acquisition solidifies the group’s new positioning which will be announced later this month.”
Agencies within the group have already been invited to a number of pitches in the last few months and they are all looking forward to partnering with more clients who are brave, honest and looking for effective integrated marketing and communications (IMC) solutions.
People moves
Hamiltons Advertising agency celebrates 25-year birthday with the appointment of Deputy MD and move to new purpose-built office space
Full-service advertising agency, Hamiltons Advertising, is celebrating its 25th year of business this month with the appointment of deputy MD, Nicole Botha, and a move to their brand new offices in Brackengate Office Park. Said Lisa Currey, managing sirector of Hamiltons Advertising, “The past 25 years has been an exciting journey, with many opportunities and challenges – none more so than this recent year! Despite everything, I am thrilled to celebrate this milestone with a thriving creative portfolio, the appointment of new leadership, stunning new offices, and a growing team – the quality of which is reflected in the impressive roster of clients that we serve.”
The Cape Town-based agency has grown from strength to strength from its humble beginnings as a design studio in the centre of Cape Town’s bustling CBD – establishing itself as a fully integrated marketing agency, specialising in the retail sector.
During the 25 year tenure working with the Food Lover’s Market Group, Hamiltons Advertising has created a strategic partnership with the brand, which has seen the retailer grow from 5 stores to 120, and more than 300 FreshStop @ Caltex outlets nationwide. More recently, Hamiltons Advertising has created digital content for @home as part of their Yellow Room division (TYR). TYR is the content creation and digital division of the mothership.
Tribeca welcomes two new account executives
Tribeca Public Relations (Tribeca) has appointed two new account executives, welcoming S’phindile Garcer and Onela Mafu to the team.
Garcer brings her background in journalism and internal communications to the team that works with Royal HaskoningDHV, Malaria No More UK, Nimue Skin Technology, Vitaforce, and SOLAL. She holds a BA Journalism from the University of Johannesburg and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Management from the Management College of South Africa.
Mafu has four years’ public relations experience and works across Vuma, McAfee, Webfleet Solutions and GreenMatter. She holds a BA (Hons) in Corporate and Marketing Communication from the University of the Free State and is currently completing a course in programme and project management through the same university.
“S’phindile and Onela are vibrant, passionate, inquisitive, and are eager to learn and develop new skills, while achieving great results for the clients they work with,” said Nicola Tarr, business unit director at Tribeca.
Humanz steps up their game in South African influencer market with new manager
Humanz, an AI-powered platform for influencer campaigns of all levels, announces the hiring of Federico Dedeu as country manager for South Africa. Dedeu brings more than 18 years of experience in marketing and advertising, and has held positions at some of the leading advertising and media agencies in South Africa, having led accounts for brands like Coca-Cola and Standard Bank.
He has extensive experience in empowering content creators and social media influencers for successful collaborations. Stepping into the role of country manager means that Dedeu will not only be responsible for managing the existing partnerships between influencers and brands but also use his extensive knowledge and experience within the industry to implement new plans and strategies to ensure that Humanz maintains its aggressive growth within the region.
Before Humanz, Federico was the VP of Middle East & Africa for indaHash, where he worked for nearly four years on building, managing, and coaching remote teams of influencer marketing professionals. He has a postgraduate diploma in business administration and management from the University of Witwatersrand.
Business moves
SuperSport invests in the future of South African sport
SuperSport has launched of SuperSport Schools, a groundbreaking initiative to change the future of South African schools’ sport. As part of the strategy, SuperSport acquired a majority stake in Schools Sport Live, which will see the business rebranded as SuperSport Schools.
Schools sport is the foundation of South Africa’s sporting success and this venture will aim to identify and expose young talent by broadcasting as many schools sporting fixtures as possible, enabled by Nashua. The production plan will embrace new technology by giving schools access to innovative artificial intelligence-based production to deliver a dynamic multi-screen viewing of schools and youth sport.
Outside of the coverage across SuperSport channels, the SuperSport Schools mobile application will provide parents and other interested parties access to view schools sport anytime, anywhere, live and on-demand.
SuperSport chief executive, Marc Jury, said the success of schools sport is fundamental to producing a winning sporting nation. “This initiative is a natural extension of our mission to play our part to grow the pipeline for South Africa’s future sporting heroes. Schools Sport is the foundation from which great sporting nations are built. The stronger the foundation, the brighter our future sporting stars can shine,” he said.
Proteas netball captain, Bongi Msomi and World Cup-winning Springbok, Lukhanyo Am, will be leading the campaign with the hope of taking SuperSport Schools to every corner of the continent.
MAPS 9-month data to be released in June
The Marketing Research Foundation (MRF) is releasing the next phase of the Marketing All Product Survey (MAPS) in June. It encompasses nine-month data (July 2020 to March 2021) and will be released towards the end of June 2021 before fieldwork continues for the first full year dataset, set for release in October.
“The data collection for the first quarter of 2021 has been completed and is currently being verified in preparation for the MRF’s scrutiny process,” said MRF CEO, Johann Koster. “I can confirm that this is an intensive task that tests the integrity and stability of the data, which is managed by the MRF Research Committee.”
Just as the MAPS Wave 1 data was completed, the data will be prepared for final release together with the data tree going to the software bureaux beforehand enabling subscribers and their agencies access to the updated data. The exact release date will be confirmed at a later stage by the MRF.
“Conducting research during the global pandemic was challenging but it will be interesting to see how the consumer’s behaviour changed from the release of the first wave to the results of the 4th quarter,” said Virginia Hollis, the MRF’s Board Chairperson. “Notwithstanding the hurdles MAPS’s fieldwork faced during Covid, we and our subscribers are confident that this data will have a great impact in the daily planning and strategic focus of our marketers and agencies.”
Media Brokerage Africa brings Contrend AI-Powered Platform to Africa
Johannesburg-based Media Brokerage Africa will connect African corporations and marketing agencies with IMMedia’s ground-breaking platform, Contrend. This deal sees IMMedia’s official entry into the continent’s booming online marketing industry market.
Developed by Singapore-based IMMedia Holdings – which recently closed its Series A funding round – Contrend analyses large data sets to maximise return on investment for content marketing. Digging deeper than simple SEO and social-listening tools, Contrend uses a holistic algorithm to measure engagement across text, video and image media. The artificial intelligence then provides a complete picture of the types of content audiences are consuming, and the topics and formats that will be popular in the coming months. It works in any vertical, in any market, in any language.
“The days of traditional content marketing are over. Now, it’s essential for corporations to understand what, exactly, audiences desire,” said Peter Bakker, MD of Contrend and IMMedia Content.
REV Media Group chooses VSN for automated content distribution
REV Media Group (RMG), part of the Media Prima Berhad Group and Malaysia’s leading digital media company, recently renewed its solution for content scheduling and delivery to digital platforms with VSN’s VSNCrea and VSNExplorer MAM systems.
Initially, REV Media Group was looking to replace its content management system, and VSNExplorer MAM was the system of choice to expand its capabilities and meet specific requirements for metadata automation, video ingest and archiving and social media publishing, as well as being deployed 100% in the Cloud (GCP) to enable remote access and integrate with local systems to extract scheduling information and create customized workflows.
Changing the face of Africa’s Advertising
This Africa Day, 25 May 2021, marks the rise of a new era in African photography as the African nation, media and advertising houses, business, and stakeholders in need of authentic African stock footage as well as creatives from all parts of the world are called to join a World-changing event, that will not be empowering and showcase the authenticity of African visual storytelling but also save the photography perspective in Africa.
Afristock and Afrikaren Media have agreed to collaborate and host a virtual event that seeks to highlight the importance of promoting and celebrating African creatives and storytelling.
This free event will cover a wide variety of issues regarding the accessibility to African stock footage and the lack of positive representation of African photographs in advertising. Discussions regarding how we can promote platforms for African creatives and showcase positive images which could greatly contribute to the growth of the African continent will be raised and discussed. These key issues will not only be hosted on Hopin platform Moderated by Karen Mwendera, an award-winning journalist and founder of Afrikaren Media, but key African speakers will too be present to help answer and provide insight on the broad landscape of photography in Africa.
World Out of Home Organization to unveil new audience measurement initiative
Audience delivery is critical for the development and trading of all media, with credible, transparent and accountable measurement needed by advertisers, buyers and sellers alike.
Accordingly, the World Out of Home Organization unveiled its Creating Global Guidelines for Out of Home Audience Measurement initiative at its European Forum on 18 May.
WOO is the only global organisation for the collaboration, development and promotion of OOH media. They have formed a Technical Committee to include the leading independent OOH audience measurement bodies from 13 countries, across six continents, alongside four leading international OOH businesses.
Meltwater now listed and trading on Euronext Growth
Meltwater, a leading global provider of media intelligence and social analytics Software-as-a-Service solutions, has been admitted to trading on Euronext Growth Oslo (ticker code: MWTR).
“We founded the company because the world is drowning in data and we saw a need for a software that could cut through the noise online and help people stay on top of their competitors, customers, and industry in real-time. Twenty years in, we realise that this need is much bigger than we ever dreamt about,” said Jørn Lyseggen, founder and Executive Chairman of Meltwater.
The company offers a fully integrated offering that cuts across and bridges a variety of use cases such as public relations, communications, marketing, lead generation and customer relations.
PwC back in the saddle at Great Zuurberg Trek
Long-standing title sponsors PwC have renewed their backing of the Great Zuurberg Trek (GZT) mountain bike race after the event was put on hold for more than a year due to the Covid pandemic.
The three-day boutique offering will be held as usual at the Zuurberg Mountain Village, which overlooks Addo near Port Elizabeth. But this time the dates have moved from the traditional May slot to August 27 to 29.
It is the seventh edition of the GZT and professional services firm PwC have been involved each year to provide a memorable race experience.
Event co-owner Trevor Hayter, from Hayterdale Trails, said those efforts created the core of their relationship with the sponsors. “I think the reason we work so well together is that each year we have delivered what they expected. Every time we hold the event we try to add extra value for the riders and the sponsors, which is particularly important to us.”
The 2021 South African Workplace Equality Index (SAWEI) is live
The South African Workplace Equality Index (SAWEI) is a biennial nationwide study seeking to recognise the most inclusive and LGBT+ friendly companies in South Africa.
By measuring internal policies and behaviours around LGBT+ issues, SAWEI allows companies to identify their relative strengths and areas for improvement within a clearly structured framework based on international best practice. Businesses are more successful and more competitive when everyone comes to work with equal respect, support, and opportunity for advancement, no matter whom they love or how they identify.
Conducted for the third time this year by the non-profit organisation, the LGBT+ Management Forum, this index is the only one of its kind in the Africa-Middle East region.
Corporate participation in SAWEI is growing year on year. The first survey in 2018 saw 17 companies employing 30 000 people participating in the survey. In 2019 the numbers increased to 27 companies with 144 000 employees, including Gold recognition for Microsoft, EY, Accenture, P&G and PWC.
First ever chess-focused sports agency launched
World Chess, the company behind the game-changing rise in the popularity of chess and the organiser of the recent Chess Championship Matches in New York and London, has launched a chess-focused sports marketing agency. It’s the world’s first sports agency focused exclusively on chess.
The agency, Chess and Company, represents top chess talent and events, and aims to help brands across transport, technology, retail, hospitality and luxury sectors, to connect with chess in a way that has a long-lasting effect on the sport and to bring 600 million chess players closer to the brands’ offerings.
Nadia Panteleeva, who signed the biggest sponsorship deals in chess, including Kaspersky, PhosAgro, Algorand, as a head of partnership for World Chess, will lead the new agency.
Making moves
YFM and Smirnoff Team Up For #BeTheNext Radio DJ Search
As trendsetters in the radio industry, YFM has partnered with Smirnoff giving one campus DJ the opportunity to win a spot on Gauteng’s biggest youth radio station.
Over the next few weeks, host of The Nightcap, Lula Odiba will be co-hosting her show with aspirant radio presenters, which will culminate in one of them eventually earning a 3-month contract with the station.
Contestants from TUKS FM, UJFM, PUK FM, VOW FM, BMH RADIO and TUT FM will showcase their radio talent every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday live on-air between 7PM and 10PM.
Voting will be up to the listener and the final Top 3 will be announced after 12 weeks where they will compete for the opportunity to join YFM. #BeTheNext is one way the station is looking to develop, nurture and showcase the country’s best young talent.
5Drive on Africa Tour
In celebration of Africa Month the 5FM afternoon drive team, 5Drive, have taken to the road exploring Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia. Nick Hamman, Nadia Romanos, Jude van Wyk and Bibi Mbangula set off on their adventure last week and have already had an unbelievable, snowy experience in Lesotho.
The team have been documenting their trip across their own and the 5FM social media platforms and have met some incredible people along the way and experienced some of the best the countries have to offer. From climbing the steep hills of the Moteng Pass to a true cultural village experience at Momohase, a visit to the popular Afriski Resort and Liphofung Caves and dancing in the snow, the team enjoyed being outside of South Africa.
“I had the most beautiful experience and what I want people to understand from my experience is that we live in an exceptionally beautiful part of the world and we should be telling the stories and visiting the people and places and hidden gems that make Southern Africa so great. The more we do that, the more we’ll build ourselves as a continent” said Hamman of his experience so far.
The team are currently in Botswana with highlights in the country that will include a visit to Chobe National Park, a Chobe River Tour and game drives and of course a trip to the UNESCO World Heritage site the Okavango Delta. The team are staying at Chobe Game Lodge – their home of for the rest of the week before they head to Namibia.
Volkswagen celebrates local languages by filming the TV ad for the new Tiguan in isiZulu
In an effort to celebrate the country’s diverse cultures and languages as well as to connect authentically with South African customers, Volkswagen has produced its first-ever television and digital advertisements in isiZulu.
Creating locally-produced advertising material, that tells uniquely South African stories and reflects local characters, has been a consistent priority for the Volkswagen marketing team.While most automotive brands adapt centrally-developed creative assets, especially within the current financial and logistical challenges of Covid-19, Volkswagen remains dedicated to crafting award-winning work that celebrates the inspiring human truths of South Africa and its people.
To produce the new advertisement Volkswagen partnered with local filmmakers, Egg Films and director Zwelethu Radebe. On directing the advert Radebe said, “As a black South African filmmaker, I am incredibly proud to have worked on Volkswagen’s first isiZulu television commercial.”
World-class speakers lead 2021 Highway Africa Summit Conference
World-class media and journalism experts have lined up to speak at the 2021 Highway Africa Summit Conference, which will be held virtually from 21-23 June. In a series of high-level keynotes, testimonies from the field and research-led debates, the experts will delve into the future of African media and journalism in the age of the platform economy, which has deprived media of critical advertising and audience revenue just as Covid-19 has exacerbated the media’s deepening economic and financial crisis.
The speakers, researchers and media bosses will take a hard look at the business models of media companies in Africa, emerging journalism practices and news organisations, and probe practical and novel solutions that seek to take advantage of the ‘new normal’ that is emerging in the wake of Coviid-19, which has decimated media firms and entire economies around the globe.
Join Professor Zizi Papacharissi and Professor Tawana Kupe, leaders in their respective fields, who will kick off the Highway Africa summit conference on Monday, 21 June, from 9.45am-10:30am (Southern Africa Standard Time) as they zoom into “Africa’s rising in the platform economy: A focus on creativity and innovation”.
