The Media Online’s weekly round up of people, account and business moves in media.
This week’s BIG move: New South African stock image site hungry for local talent
Marketers and advertising agencies know all too well there is a need for real South African stock images to engage local markets.
Now there is a proudly South African stock image site on the scene that meets the brief. Photie is a platform for royalty-free photographs, illustrations, and videos that is the brainchild of marketer and business owner, Alison Blair. Covid-19 created a shift in her thinking.
“I realised I needed to focus on my creative process and generate something meaningful,” she said. It was during this time that Blair shifted an exciting concept from ideation to reality. Drawn by South Africa’s distinctive culture, Photie aims to be as unique as the country’s stories.
As the Mpumalanga representative for the Businesswoman of the Year Awards presented by the South African Businesswomen’s Association, Blair is fiercely passionate about entrepreneurship, and with 20 years of diverse marketing experience, she has decided to personally fund the development of the platform. “Photie is a valiant step for me as a business owner to create something important for South Africans and the South African creative industry,” she said.
Photie enables local photographers and creatives who contribute to the platform’s image library to earn a 50% royalty on contribution, compared to other sites that start at 15%. Users get to support local talent and help grow this sector.
With a strict approval process in place for all of content uploaded to the platform, Photie prides itself on offering top quality images to ensure user searches yield the desired results.
As contributors earn a royalty for each image downloaded, they are incentivised to continue adding to their personal portfolios, thereby increasing the image library with photos, videos, illustrations, or designs that will appeal to users. By enabling local artists to earn an income from their contributions, not only will brands and agencies be supporting local talent, but they will acquire content that is relevant to the local market.
“The content is by South Africans for South Africa, so it is truly authentic and will allow advertising to be more relevant to its audience,” said Blair. “We’re not proudly South African, we’re pumped because we are South African, and we are the reflection of our uniqueness.”
People moves
Motheo Matsau appointed as acting CEO of Ster-Kinekor Theatres
Motheo Matsau, who was appointed as Deputy CEO in September 2019, will take over the reins form Ryan Williams effective 1 November 2020. Williams has been the CEO since January 2018.
Matsau has been with the company since May 2016 and was sales and marketing executive prior to his appointment as Deputy CEO. Before Ster-Kinekor, Matsau worked for several leading South African and multinational companies including Unilever, Standard Bank and Multichoice.
Commenting on his appointment, Matsau said he was grateful for the confidence shown in him by Williams, the Chairman and the Board. “I look forward to the challenge and am certain that working with Andrew and our superb management team we will continue to grow our business after the impact of Covid-19 has passed. I look forward to continuing to invite Guests to our cinemas to experience the world of movies in the best way possible for many years to come”.
Williams has tendered his resignation to commence a new chapter in his life with his family in Australia but will be consulting back to the business on a few key strategic projects on a part-time basis.
Natalie Roos to head Positive Dialogue’s specialist influencer division
Positive Dialogue, the award-winning, new-generation PR and communications agency in the DUKE Group of companies, has announced the launch of its specialist influencer marketing business division that will be headed by influencer and renowned content creator, Natalie Roos, as it gears up to offer its clients best-of-breed communication solutions in a post-pandemic world.
Positive Dialogue, which scooped top honours in the Influencer Marketing category at the 2020 New Generation Digital & Social Media Awards for its One Plus 7T Pro campaign, launches the division this month. It will offer its unique hybrid blend of authentic human connection underpinned by artificial intelligence and machine learning, a move that managing director Tracy Jones said hits the sweet spot where being culturally relevant overlaps with data and insights.
Roos has had a glittering career, with most of it spent in the travel sector, on influencer campaigns for major tourism brands such as Reunion Island Tourism and the Stellenbosch Wine Route. Her team is boosted by the arrival of PR professional Crystal Raman, who joins as campaign manager, while Kasheefa Meyer shores up the execution arm of the new division.
Craig Naicker appointed as group MD at CWDi
CWDi has announced the appointment of Craig Naicker to the role of group managing director.
Naicker joined CWDi at the start of 2019 as head of client service while also being actively involved with the strategic development of the group. During this period, he developed opportunities for substantial growth leading to his promotion as group MD.
CWDi CEO, Janine Kruger said, “Craig has been with CWDi for 18 months and has brought both above the line experience and leadership potential. He is well liked and respected by the team and I look forward to the value and growth he will bring to the team and the business in his new role.”
Commenting on his new role, Naicker said: “As managing director, I will continue to push the business forward, driving the company values and culture, which make CWDi the business it is. Apart from driving the business strategy, my other goals are to drive collaboration both internally and externally, change the way agency models are viewed and collaborate with other agencies for a better client offering.”
IAB South Africa digital content marketing committee announced
Following a process of nomination of industry leaders representing advertisers, agencies, publishers and media specialists, the IAB South Africa has announced the members of its digital content marketing committee, led by Sarah Browning-de Villiers, Chief Content Officer at Machine_ (Publicis Groupe).
The newly formed committee will encourage and develop content marketing in South Africa as a unique, independent discipline and an effective tool for brands to communicate with their audiences. An increasingly critical marketing strategy to build authentic, long-lasting relationships with customers for brands, content marketing has lacked distinct representation in the digital marketing landscape of South Africa – this committee hopes to transform this.
| Sarah Browning-de Villiers | Machine_ |
| Emma Odendaal | John Brown Media |
| Zodwa Gunuza | HelloFCB+ |
| Maxine Mboweni | Digitas Liquorice |
| Helena Gavera | Cedar Communications |
| Bronwen Bowley | Jellyfish Online Marketing |
| Roxanne Marthinussen | Ogilvy |
| Thabo Ramushu | Nestlé |
| Nina Amri | FNB |
| Busi Mabuza | Standard Bank |
| Gavin Kennedy | Solid Golid |
| Zodwa Kumalo-Valentine | Arena Holdings |
| Jerusha Raath | 24.com |
| Anelde Greeff | 2Stories |
| Megan Perks | Joe Public |
| Natalie Pool | VMLY&R |
Business moves
Honoris United Universities welcomes Red & Yellow Creative School of Business to its Pan-African network
Honoris United Universities, Africa’s first and largest pan-African network of private higher education institutions, has welcomed Red & Yellow Creative School of Business into its network in South Africa, serving to enhance its provision of education in the advertising, marketing and design professions, with added focus on the digital skills and creative thinking required to thrive and to be competitive in the 21st Century world of work.
The announcement is particularly welcomed as Honoris’ Education for Impact mission continues to expand in the midst of the global challenges of Covid-19. As a member institution of Honoris, Red & Yellow Creative School of Business will complement Honoris’ employability agenda, a continent-wide strategy focusing on entrepreneurial and workplace skills and credentials.
The addition of Red & Yellow further reaffirms Honoris’ position as the preeminent pan-African private higher education network focused on educating the next generation of African leaders and entrepreneurs with industry-ready 21st Century skills. With expertise in
such as Jason Harrison and Faheem Chaudry of M&C Saatchi and Abel; Veli Ngubane, Avatar; Dorcas Onyango, Coca Cola; and Steph van Niekerk of Grey JHB, ranked as SA’s No. 1 Creative Director and No. 1 Copywriter in 2019.
Moments to melt into with the Good Things Guy #AeroFeelGoodFridays
Aero has launched a campaign to celebrate the good things in South Africa and hopes to share all the ‘Moments to Melt Into’ to spread feel-good stories across the nation. The Moments to Melt Into will be shared every Friday where ordinary South Africans will be celebrated for doing extraordinary things.
In a time where negativity is higher than ever, we need to celebrate the moments that make us smile and spread love. These moments make the world a better place.
Now more than ever, South Africans are looking for good news stories to lift our spirits and counter the negativity that 2020 has become synonymous with. To this end, Brent Lindeque, South Africa’s Good Things Guy, has teamed up with Nestle’s Aero brand to launch a new web series entitled Moments to Melt Into which focuses on ordinary South Africans doing extraordinary things.
The series will comprise episodes of three to four minutes each where Lindeque shares a round up good news stories focused on ordinary South Africans doing good within their community, or for the betterment of their fellow South Africans. Moments to Melt Into will be available on all Good Things Guy’s digital platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Mantsho teams up with 1st For Women and Zozibini Tunzi for an exclusive range of Fearless statement Ts
Mantsho, a clothing label established by Palesa Mokubung in 2014, has launched an exclusive collaboration with 1st for Women Insurance and Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi to encourage South African women to live fearlessly.
This collaboration coincides with the launch of 1st for Women’s new fearless campaign that features Tunzi – an icon of strength, courage and resilience.
The T’s feature Mantsho’s characteristic and quintessential bold prints symbolising a path of a woman who is ready to deconstruct in order to rebuild and is emblazoned with the word “fearless” – making them a statement T with a confident edge. 20% of the proceeds from the sale of the T’s will be donated to the 1st for Women Foundation to assist in the fight against women abuse.
Mokubung says that the designs represent courage coupled with a good dose of colour and charisma.
The 1st for Women X Mantsho X Zozibini T’s can be purchased via:
- Mantsho Online
- Mantsho at Victoria Yards, 14A Viljoen Street, Unit 9B, Portion Lorentzville, Johannesburg, 2094
Africarise – Sandton City
Boomtown enhances its digital service offering
Following the promotion of Cayleigh Zambonini to digital integration manager, Lisa Snyman to digital project manager and Liesl Silverman to digital copywriter, as well as the appointment of Brenda Ulay as community manager and content creator, Boomtown has enhanced its digital service offering to ensure a ‘digital first’ mindset across the business and for its clients.
At the same time, these appointments have added extra heft to an existing power team and created an all-women digital department; a first for the agency. The other women in the division are Senior Social Media Manager Marion Marais, Digital Product Manager and User Experience Specialist Helna Brown, Art Director with a digital focus Tamarin Fraenkel and Digital Strategist Lara-Anne Derbyshire.
According to Zambonini, Boomtown’s forward-thinking and agile structure fosters effective creative and digital expansion to achieve efficiencies and measured results, with digital at the core and the addition of an in-house content studio.
Asked about the women-strong status of the department, Zambonini said that putting together an all-woman team was never the objective, but the best applicants just happened to be women.
The Lime Envelope launches new offering
As lockdown restrictions ease to a greater extent under Level 1, thousands of small-to-medium businesses (SMEs) will be vying for consumers’ attention. Sarah Martin, agency director at The Lime Envelope public relations and events agency,believes that the antidote to a crowded marketplace is the magic of great PR, and is launching a specialised new service to bring out the best in SMEs.
“South African entrepreneurs and business owners are finally emerging from lockdown after a difficult six months. They have survived and are ready to thrive again,” said Martin. “But standing out is going to be quite a challenge as everyone pushes for business. So, The Lime Envelope team put our heads together to formulate a ‘cure’ to the clutter that is specifically aimed at SMEs, who don’t have the PR budgets that corporates do”.
The Lime Envelope’s SME PR in a Boxsolution offers smaller businesses an affordable six-month campaign that is strategically geared at getting maximum exposure in the COVID-19 economy.
The package includes one press release a month; a monthly Google Ads/Keyword campaign to improve SEO; four social media posts every month, and a monthly email campaign to existing and potential customers.
New features for Facebook Groups to Help Communities Stay Connected
Facebook has launched a range of powerful new tools and programmes for Facebook Group administrators and leaders, to make it easier for people to engage, discover and support communities. The new features introduced in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Facebook Groups, include the Brand Collabs Manager, which assists admins to make money from public groups.
“As we continue to move through the Covid-19 crisis, we’re reminded how online communities can be a lifeline while people practise social distancing,” said Kiran Yoliswa, community partnerships lead, Facebook Middle East and Africa. “More than 25 million people in South Africa are members of Facebook groups active in the past month, coming together to talk about their interests, learn new things, be entertained, support each other and make connections. With that in mind, we are excited to offer new features that will help admins and groups spark discussions.”
Red Hat unveils enterprise customer advocacy programme, Red Hat Accelerators
Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions, has announced the introduction of its enterprise customer advocacy programme, Red Hat Accelerators. Drawing on its extensive community-building history, the customer-facing programme serves as a natural extension of its customer-focused approach to both its open source and enterprise product portfolio, enacted to form deeper and more engaging relationships with its customers.
Red Hat experts, product teams and even business leadership were included as a way for customers to voice their critical product and solution feedback, provide the business and product teams valuable insights, and help influence and improve development. The programme also integrates a continued focus on customer advocacy and maintaining an environment that encourages public advocacy through blogging, social media, speaking engagements and more.
Stellar line-up announced for The Directors Event on 20 October #TDE2020
Following news that Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter, and Chairman of the Absa Group, Wendy Lucas-Bull, will be headline speakers at the 6th edition of The Directors Event, the full line-up of speakers for the half day online conference has been announced.
The Directors Event – billed as ‘SA’s biggest board meeting’ – is futured by BCX and presented in association with the Institute of Directors in South Africa (IoDSA). It will be streamed live online on 20 October.
The theme for this year’s conference is Building a sustainable new normal, where senior management and C-level executives from South Africa’s business community will unpack major issues affecting the country’s economy.
Andile Khumalo – MC for the event – will introduce Sunday Times editor S’thembiso Msomi and BCX CEO Jonas Bogoshi, after which the keynote address by de Ruyter and the annual Chairman’s Report by Lucas-Bull will follow.
To register for this free online event, visit: //arenaevents.africa/events/the-directors-event/
Zapper exits Masterpass interoperability
Following last week’s FNB announcement of the rollout of their QR-enabled Speedpoint terminals, some confusion as to the status of the current and future interoperability within the QR code ecosystem has arisen.
Independent mobile payments, loyalty and rewards platform, Zapper, has exited their interoperability agreement with Masterpass, Mastercard’s QR payment service, which powers FNB’s Scan to Pay. The interoperability will cease effective from 25 October 2020, following the culmination of the 90-day notice period.
“The unfortunate result is that this will affect not only FNB, but all entities reliant on Masterpass as the ‘base’ for their payment apps and QR acceptance. Post the decision to terminate our interoperability with Masterpass, we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes, reaching out to all necessary parties, to mitigate any adverse effects,” explained Brett White, CEO of Zapper. “Zapper is committed to broadening QR payment adoption within South Africa, in partnership with other QR affiliated providers; but it must be done in a sustainable way that safeguards user experience.”
Grobank, Access Bank in gateway to Africa transaction
In an exciting move expected to deliver a robust banking operation that connects key African markets, Access Bank Plc has entered into a definitive agreement with the holding company of Grobank Limited, GroCapital Holdings Limited, to invest up to R400 million into the Bank over the next two years.
The investment will be made in two tranches with an initial cash consideration for a 49% shareholding, and a second transaction, increasing to a majority equity stake, with both tranches subject to various regulatory approvals.
Grobank CEO Bennie van Rooy said the transaction remains subject to shareholder, regulatory and Competition Commission approvals, and that the initial transaction is expected to become unconditional on or before 31 October 2020.
Making moves
Huawei Joburg Day is back and online
Huawei and 947 have announced the return of Huawei Joburg Day with a virtual twist. The iconic event – one of the biggest musical events on the SA music calendar – will return on 23 October with brand fans being invited to enjoy the epic two-hour event virtually via web, social and on the 94.7 radio frequency. Huawei Joburg Day is styled by the Huawei Watch Fit.
Music fans can look forward to an amazing line-up of top local artists on the 23rd of October at 17:00. Thando Makhunga, 947 station manager, said the artists are excited to give Joburgers a virtual experience like no other.
The two-hour event will execute from two locations. The first location is Blueberry Hotel, famous for its stunning 360-degree view of Johannesburg. The second location is a customised studio that allows for the virtual spectacular to be seamlessly produced. The objective is to create an integrated audio-visual experience for listeners, as well as a world-class production for artists.
Pan African Media Research Organisation celebrates 21 years
This year Pan African Media Research Organisation (PAMRO) celebrates its 21st anniversary – that’s 21 years of research experts from across Africa, and the rest of the world coming together to exchange knowledge and to learn from one another’s successes and failures. Registrations for the annual conference on 27,28,29 October are now open. It is ideally suited to individuals, brands or companies interested in media research activities.
Sifiso Falala, president of PAMRO, explained: “For the first time in all these years we will not be able to get together in person but we are going to go ahead with a virtual conference. And, another first for us is that all our sessions will be free of charge. The goal of the organisation is to harmonise research methodologies and encourage excellence in the industry. We are also working toward building a continental media research database.”
The 2020 e-conference is aptly themed ‘The story of African resilience’. “We have people from all over Africa and around the globe joining us, so the best suitable time to run our daily sessions to ensure maximum attendance is from 11am to 13h00 CAT (Central African Time) (GMT+2),” said Falala.
If you are interested in attending the e-conference made possible by Telmar, Nielsen, Borderless Access and DSTV Media Sales, register here: www.pamro.org
JIL leaders programme and scholarships at UCLAN
Following a pandemic-induced pause, UCLAN is now accepting applications for it part-time blended learning Journalism Innovation & Leadership postgraduate course, starting in January 2021.
UCLAN has worked closely with industry advisory board to ensure the programme connects the development needs of employees with the current innovation challenges of their employers Participants will also be offered mentorship by the likes of Lisa MacLeod, Joanna Geary of Twitter, Alison Gow of Reach Plc, Jethro Goko of Associated Newspapers and Ian MacGregor of the Telegraph,” said
Scholarships are available, which might be of particular interest to folks in South Africa. Information can be accessed here.
