The Media Online’s weekly round up of people, account and business moves in media.
This week’s BIG move: Business Day TV welcomes Arabile Gumede as a presenter
Financial journalist and broadcaster Arabile Gumede has joined Business Day TV as host of a new weekly show, Africa Trade & Business. The show aims to tell the story of the challenges and opportunities across the continent in the wake of the signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Gumede is a perfect fit for this show as interrogating the world of money, finance and economics is his passion. He is a respected and leading commentator, reporter, anchor and writer on radio, TV and digital platforms across SA. He is also an advocate for financial literacy and has garnered respect through working at prestigious companies such as CNBC Africa, eNCA and Bloomberg News.
Gumede has hosted numerous debates featuring African heads of state such as Presidents Paul Kagame, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. He also co-hosted SA’s first and only morning business radio show, Classic Business Breakfast and has produced and presented business and market news on SABC News and Radio 702.
The series is produced in association with Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (Absa CIB), which serves a wide market of industries involved in economic activities across the continent. Business Day TV is on Channel 412 on DSTV.
People moves
Positive Dialogue appoints new account director following recent business gains
Positive Dialogue, the strategic communications partner within the DUKE Group, recently added industry heavy-heavyweight Nicola Pykstra to their staff complement. Her new appointment comes as part of a recruitment drive to assist with the agency’s recent new business haul, following the addition of five new clients in Q1 of 2021.
Pykstra is a communications specialist with extensive industry expertise in public relations, communications, digital marketing and brand management. With almost a decade of agency experience behind her, she has worked on a diverse range of clients within the consumer, corporate, government and non-government sectors.
Commenting on the new appointment, Positive Dialogue Managing Director, Tracy Jones said, “We are thrilled to have Nicola join the business and have no doubt that her impressive skills and experience will have an extremely positive impact across all our new and existing client brands.”
Siphiwe Mpye appointed editor of Business Day Wanted
Arena Holdings has announced the appointment of respected journalist and magazine editor, Siphiwe Mpye, as editor of Business Day Wanted, South Africa’s leading award-winning luxury, lifestyle and culture magazine.
The Wanted Editor position has been vacant for a few months. In Mpye, Wanted has an experienced writer and leader with over 22 years’ experience in the media landscape of South Africa.
Mpye is the founding Editor of Bl!nk Magazine – Africa’s first independent men’s magazine and has also occupied a senior editorial role at GQ South Africa as an Associate Editor. He held a stint at Yfm 99.2 — a Gauteng based radio station that has been the epitome of youth since its inception in the 1990s — as the station’s spokesperson and as co-editor of YMag. The now defunct magazine became the “youth culture bible” in the early years of its existence.
As an entrepreneur Mpye founded and managed his own digital media assets including notedman.com – a men’s style and culture platform. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic, he was running Imbawula, a live storytelling platform. Mpye’s work has been featured by all of the top weekend newspapers in South Africa including the Sunday Times, Mail & Guardian and City Press.
Henley Africa’s Sol Plaatje scholarship winners announced
Thabiso Thakali has won this year’s Sol Plaatje scholarship to study his MBA at Henley Africa Business School. The Sowetan executive editor was one of the two inaugural winners of the scholarship, along with investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk, when they were selected at the start of 2020.
Thakali graduated last year with his PG Dip in Management Practice, the traditional pipeline for the executive MBA. He becomes the first double winner of the scholarship and the first to progress through Henley Africa’s unique ladder of learning. Van Wyk is in the process of completing her MBA.
This year’s other Plaatje scholar is seasoned journalist and writer Adam Oxford, who is currently head of digital at the Mail & Guardian. Last year the scholarship was awarded to broadcast journalist Macfarlane Moleli, who is best known to the South African public through his work on Carte Blanche. Moleli is on track to complete his PG Dip in Management Practice later this year.
The Sol Plaatje scholarship was launched by the business school to address the crisis in the South African media industry, where legacy media houses, both print and broadcast, have been devastated by the digital disruption.
Business moves
The DUKE Group launches NUDE, a new market research Ppartnership with Instant Grass
The DUKE Group has partnered with Instant Grass founder, Greg Potterton, to launch NUDE – Africa’s first dedicated ethnographic, market research agency.
NUDE will focus exclusively on ethnographic research that, unlike traditional Q & A research, allows the client to step into the lives of actual people and watch how they live, how they make choices and how products and services actually fit into their daily routine, lifestyle and culture. This human-centric approach gets to the root of why people do what they do, versus what they say they do.
Utilising the latest video and mobile content creation platforms, NUDE will ensure that projects are implemented quickly and efficiently with the aim of eliminating the lengthy timing and budgetary constraints associated with traditional research.
Said Potterton, “The industry seems to be infatuated with collecting more and more data, however we seem to have forgotten that consumers are people and are by nature irrational and unpredictable. We hope to take clients beyond the data points and into the lives of real people. We want to shape, not measure opinions.”
With the global perspective gained from launching Instant Grass in both the North American and Asia Pacific markets, Potterton realised that a South African partner was needed to truly unlock the potential of the Sub Saharan African markets. Having worked with DUKE C.E.O Wayne Naidoo for more than two decades, understanding his approach to business and having seen the continued success of the DUKE Group, the synergies between the two businesses were obvious.
Tru-Cape turns to TikTok’s six million plus local users for Kanzi apple campaign
Following the success of the 2020 campaign where Tru-Cape Fruit marketing used TikTok to engage consumers with a campaign that was globally recognised and referenced for its innovation in a CNN feature, the company again is turning to this interactive medium.
For Tru-Cape, the largest exporter of South African apples and pears, and wholly owned by its growers at Ceres Fruit Growers and Two-a-Day in Grabouw, this short-form animated social-media channel helps reach a younger demographic who favour the platform.
Tru-Cape’s marketing director, Conrad Fick, says that using TikTok, which reaches about six million people in South Africa, and fits within the company’s strategy to engage younger users, has proved successful.
OFM backs Cheetahs for Currie Cup 2021 Champions
OFM has announced that the Sound of Your Life has signed up to once again be the exclusive electronic media sponsor of the Toyota Cheetahs.
The radio station, through its on-air and online platforms, will not only keep fans updated on the blow-by-blow action throughout the Carling Currie Cup season, but also check in regularly with the squad to track their progress and build ‘gees’ amongst supporters so that although they’re playing to empty stadiums, they take their home ground advantage on the road with them to the field.
According to Nick Efstathiou, CEO of Central Media Group, Cheetah rugby is the heart and soul of rugby in Central South Africa.
“Not to mention that it’s everyone’s second-favourite team, but our number one! We’re looking forward this Currie Cup season as the media sponsor, partner, supporter and sponsor of the Cheetahs. I think the team has a fantastic opportunity to reclaim the Currie Cup. They have a great squad, great backing and great leadership. We wish the team well,” said Efstathiou.
Says Kobus le Roux, General Manager Commercial of the Toyota Cheetahs: “The Toyota Cheetahs are proud to have taken hands yet again with the Central Media Group, and specifically OFM. A proudly Central South African company like OFM is now yet again the official media partner of the Toyota Cheetahs. The Toyota Cheetahs thank OFM and Central Media Group for their unwavering support over the years and look forward to making you proud this Currie Cup Season.”
More exciting news is that for some of these fixtures, OFM will stream full, live match commentary online from veteran announcer Pieter Möller via its OFM Extra stream that can be accessed on ofm.co.za, our free mobile and desktop apps as well as iono.fm.
Free digital marketing textbook reaches 14 000 downloads to date
A new locally produced university textbook is helping South African students learn about the intricacies of the local marketing landscape, something expensive foreign textbooks are normally not able to do.
The work, called Marketing to the South African Consumer has already been downloaded 14 000 times since its launch in February 2021. The book, published by the UCT Liberty Institute of Marketing, forms part of an initiative to help relieve financial pressure on students by alleviating the cost of buying textbooks.
Aimed at learners at tertiary institutions, the book focuses on key marketing concepts but with a distinctly local focus. The book was born out of a partnership between UCT and Liberty, which is based on building South African marketing capability and knowledge.
“The book is written to form part of the curricula of marketing in South Africa and is written by local academics reflecting their own experiences in the field. Usually, lecturers have to adapt overseas textbooks, but this book talks directly to the local landscape. Crucially, it is freely accessible to anyone to download which will help thousands of students, most of whom are under immense financial pressure,” said Graham Easton, divisional executive for research and insights at Liberty. “The idea here is to provide access to the particular nuances of marketing in this country.”
“To ensure the book is accessible to everyone, it can be downloaded for free, demonstrating our commitment at Liberty to foster a culture of learning, especially because access to resources in education is a challenge,” says Nomaxabiso Matjila, Head of CSI at Liberty.
National Glass launches CSI initiative
Nelson Mandela Bay creative agency, Boomtown, has assisted National Glass in launching a corporate social initiative specifically targeting the youth in Gqeberha’s Northern Areas.
The safety of communities in the Northern Areas is threatened daily by violent behaviour driven by socio-economic factors, including a high unemployment rate.
As the first step in its CSI commitment, the family-owned and managed business head-quartered in Gqeberha commissioned a statue to remember the children killed in the cross-fire of firearm shoot-outs in the Northern Areas.
Sculpted using the clothing of 20 deceased children (donated by their parents), ‘The Last Child’ was unveiled on Youth Day (16 June 2021).
It was created by well-known local artist, Duncan Stewart in collaboration with family, community members and artist Zano Ntobela, and is encased in bullet-proof glass donated by National Glass to symbolise the communities’ desire to protect their children.
In addition to helping bring The Last Child project to a successful conclusion on Youth Day, Boomtown is assisting National Glass to raise awareness of this initiative using social media and other channels.
The project is supported by the Mandela Bay Development Agency, MBDA.
Netflix Mobile Plan launches
Last year, Netflix tested two Mobile Plan options to see if members would like them and following the test, the streamer has now launchd one Mobile Plan at R49/$3.99 which will sit alongside our other three Netflix plans; Basic, Standard & Premium.
The mobile plan can be accessed on a tablet or a smartphone. And allows one stream in SD (520p). Which means, at one time, only one device can play it.
Members who subscribe to the mobile plan will have the same access to the entire Netflix catalogue available in Africa and users can still have up to 5 different Profiles on the mobile plan. However, you can only stream only on one device at a time.
Non-profit FunDza scoops R25 000 in MTN Donors Den
Zilungile Zimela, head of marketing and PR for non-profit organisation FunDza Literacy Trust, secured R25 000 for the educational NPO thanks to a successful pitch at the MTN Donors Den session, held at the 14th Trialogue Business in Society Conference on 24 June. Runner-up Mihandzu Learning received R15 000 for its project, which focuses on developing key skills among high-school learners in vulnerable communities. The Global Teachers Institute, which aims to develop high-quality teachers and retain them within the profession, secured R10 000 to pursue its goals. Like its counterpart Dragons’ Den – a reality TV programme where entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists to secure funding – Donors Den sees three non-profit organisations (NPOs) pitch their projects to a panel of corporate donors, which then provides them with feedback on their pitching and fundraising skills.
Making moves
The Property Game to launch on The Home Channel
Property investing has taken off over the past few years as more people begin to understand and become comfortable with what it entails. Hosted by TV personality and property investor, Tebogo ‘Proverb’ Thekisho, The Property Game documents the gruelling, yet very rewarding world of South African property investment. Novice real estate investors who have been successful at getting onto the property ladder share their stories and show you how they did it. These are regular people with regular careers who wanted a piece of the property market for their own, and have achieved that ambition!
Shedding more light on their ventures is our resident multi-million-rand property investment entrepreneur, mentor and guru, Sylvia Milosevic. Sylvia will not only share her valuable insights, she’ll also help us better understand, from an expert point of view, each of these journeys and investment strategies.
The premiere is Wednesday 4 August at 20:30 – Exclusive to The Home Channel, DStv Channel 176.
MTV launches African first hit reality show Ghosted: Love Gone Missing
MTV Africa has announced the launch of an African first, hit US reality show Ghosted: Love Gone Missing gets a local makeover. MTV Base Culture Squad TV personality, Shamiso Mosaka, and actor, Oros Mampofu, have bagged the hosting gig for the show becoming the first hosts of the series in Africa. The new MTV reality format will explore the phenomena of “Ghosting”, the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly, and without explanation, withdrawing from all communication. In what is expected to be a dramatic first season, viewers can catch the premiere exclusively on MTV Africa (DStv Channel 130) on Monday 16 August at 21:30 CAT.
OPPO recolourises iconic tennis images to celebrate the return of Wimbledon
Wimbledon’s official smartphone partner, OPPO, celebrated the return of tennis through the launch of new campaign, Courting the Colour. Using impeccable craftsmanship and advanced technology, OPPO, in partnership with Getty Images, reawakened the colour of old iconic photographs to retell the stories behind each, bringing the most beautiful and poignant moments to life in a way never seen before. Inspired by the belief that compassionate technology can help inspire vivid emotions, the collection highlights powerful tennis stories that still reverberate in our times today.
Unveiled at an intimate workshop in London, Kevin Cho, Managing Director of OPPO UK, together with a special guest from The All England Lawn Tennis Club – Mick Desmond, Commercial & Media Director, and other distinguished panellists including tennis legend Greg Rusedski; the voice of tennis, Andrew Cotter; and magazine publisher and fashion consultant, Caroline Issa shared excitement for the return of the tournament. The panel unpacked themes within the collection, covering profound, pivotal moments in tennis history regarding race, gender and fashion. The workshop also exhibited the emotive collection, and a hands-on experience with OPPO’s flagship product of the year – Find X3 Pro.