Media Moves… TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. TEAMtalk media Johannesburg expands. New appointments at The Media Connection. Nissan welcomes new sales and marketing managing director. Point selects 2014 learnership programme intake. Saatchi & Saatchi gets two No 1 global brands from Mondēlez International. Primedia Unlimited keeps Standard Bank ‘Moving Forward’, literally. Jewellex 2014 Appoints Lion’s Wing Brand. 2014 off to a great start for Tribeca Public Relations. Chappies activates TV engagement via Mxit. Reckitt Benckiser chooses Mxit. Burson-Marsteller announces further strategic moves in Africa. Fintech moves into the broadcast industry
Who’s moved where
TEAMtalk media Johannesburg expands
The start of 2014 has seen digital media company TEAMtalk media, a member of the Ole! Media Group, expand its Johannesburg bureau with talented journalists, sports fundis and IT experts adding their skills to the already vibrant mix.
Thapelo Moloantoa has joined TEAMtalk media as client relationship manager. A football fundi and well-respected journalist with a passion for sport, Moloantoa has strong relationships with various clubs, associations and key footballers in SA and will help to expand the company’s local football footprint.
Another welcome addition to the fold is veteran sports writer Michael Mentz. No stranger in the world of sports journalism, Mentz specialises in rugby and is an all round, highly experienced, sports journalist with past contributions to publications such as the SA rugby annual, Reader’s Digest and The New Age. The team is further strengthened by six additional members, all playing important roles at the sports desk and within the data systems network.
“As the demand for quality sports content and digital media services grows, so too does our team. With Mentz, Moloantoa and the other new Jozi team members on board, our expansion plans are well on track,” says Ant Pascoe, GM of TEAMtalk media.
New appointments at The Media Connection
A few changes have taken place at The Media Connection this year.
Dennis de Jongh was appointed as TMC’s chief financial officer.
Rachelle Jacques has been appointed as regional sales manager for Gauteng and Durban.
Charmaine Vincent has been appointed as regional sales manager for the Western Cape.
Donovan Visser has been appointed as account executive for The Brand Connection.
Debbie Williams has a new portfolio that includes North West FM, and special interest and airport radio stations.
Nissan welcomes new sales and marketing managing director
Nissan has appointed Stuart Norman as its new managing director sales and marketing in South Africa. Norman joins Nissan SA with extensive automotive experience spanning 23 years.
“We are delighted to have someone of Stuart’s calibre join Nissan. His portfolio experience and expertise, coupled with wide industry knowledge, is a great asset and will help drive our aggressive growth ambitions,” says Nissan SA’s managing director, Mike Whitfield.
Leading a strong team at Nissan SA, Norman will be responsible for all aspects of sales and marketing across the company’s three brands (Nissan, Infiniti and also Datsun, which will launch later this calendar year). This encompasses customer satisfaction, retail and aftersales objectives, dealer and shareholder returns, and brand value.
Point selects 2014 learnership programme intake
The Point Learnership Programme, launched in 2013 as a platform to equip post matric learners with the skills to enter a growing industry sector, sees three new interns joining the programme. Tshepo Senosi, Tshego Mmahlatji and Siphokazi Vice have been selected and will follow in the footsteps of previous participants who have graduated and now contribute to the print and print management sectors in this country.
The Point Learnership Programme is designed to teach learners the intricacies of printing, the print management process and how to best service both clients and printers through a strategic process addressing a number of factors from budget control, quality production, efficient reporting, matching the right supplier to the right job, to effective digital storage and use of brand assets. The new intake will be taught a wide range of skills required to excel in the print sector.
Gary Davies, CEO of Point, says, “We are proud to welcome these ambitious interns to the programme. Not only are we investing in their individual futures but in the print sector in South Africa as a whole.”
Who’s won what
Saatchi & Saatchi gets two No 1 global brands from Mondēlez International
Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa has been appointed the regional agency hub for Mondelēz International’s Trident gum, the world’s number one gum brand, and Halls, the world’s leading candy brand, for both Eastern Europe and Middle East & Africa, for a total of 14 countries
Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa will be responsible for strategic and creative development of the Trident brand for eight key markets in the Middle East & Africa.
As the appointed regional co-ordination hub for Halls, Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa will be responsible for the roll out of the global Halls positioning and deployment of the brand across Eastern Europe, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
Commenting on the appointment, Jonathan Webster, vice president, of Mondelēz’s Gum and Candy business, says that Mondelēz International were looking to partner with a communications agency with a great track record of building global brands across Africa.
According to Gail Curtis, Saatchi & Saatchi Group CEO, South Africa, being appointed as the regional hub on both Trident and Halls allows the South African office to develop great ideas and work that travels successfully across the continent.
Primedia Unlimited keeps Standard Bank ‘Moving Forward’, literally
South Africa’s largest group of out of home companies, Primedia Unlimited, has secured a deal with Standard Bank that sees 33 branded Tuk Tuk vehicles dominating the Sandton and Rosebank areas for the foreseeable future.
Primedia Unlimited has secured the exclusive advertising rights for the passenger initiative since inception in Sandton, offering advertisers the largest number of branded, legally operated Tuk Tuks in the country.
“The Standard Bank campaign has been translated quite literally to ‘Moving Forward’ in terms of transporting future and current Standard Bank customers. The Tuk Tuk drivers who earn a living driving these vehicles, and who are essentially franchisee owners, also benefit by enhancing and progressing their own lives,” says Primedia Unlimited’s Pieter Groenewald.
Jewellex 2014 appoints Lion’s Wing Brand Communications as its PR agency
Jewellex Africa, Africa’s premier jewellery and watch showcase is set to take place from 2 – 4 August this year, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. The event has been hosted by the Jewellery Council of South Africa for over 40 years.
As Jewellex Africa has reduced in size in recent years, the Council felt it necessary to breath new life into the event by appointing a PR and reputation management agency to handle these aspects of the event.
The appointed agency is Bryanston-based Lion’s Wing Brand Communications, specialists in reputation management. “We are both excited and proud to be given the opportunity to represent this world-renowned event. Not only does Jewellex Africa showcase African talent to the world, but also brings exciting international bodies to our beautiful continent,” says Lion’s Wing MD, Greg Forbes.
2014 off to a great start for Tribeca Public Relations
Tribeca Public Relations (Tribeca), the multiple award-winning PR agency, has hit the ground running this year having signed significant new retainer clients in the first two months of the year, as well as an exciting project to give the year extra ‘wings’.
Tribeca won the Cathay Pacific account in a multi-way pitch, and has been appointed by the airline to manage its profile and oversee any crisis communications in South Africa. Cathay Pacific is the international air carrier of Hong Kong, with flights daily to and from Johannesburg, connecting South Africans to hundreds of destinations worldwide.
Imperial Auto has appointed Tribeca to manage the public relations in launching its new brand, with the purpose of introducing consumer and business customers to the varied offering that Imperial Auto brings to market.
Retroviral Digital Communications, an online communications agency, has appointed Tribeca to build awareness of its services, products and successes in South Africa and globally.
Tribeca is also working with Red Bull to build awareness of the Wings for Life World Run, a global sporting event taking place simultaneously around the world on the 4th May 2014 to raise funds for research into a cure for spinal cord injuries.
Chappies activates TV engagement via Mxit
Identifying the link between its TV audience and the Mxit user base, iconic local chewing gum brand Chappies has partnered with the mobile social network for a strategic consumer engagement campaign.
Leveraging the power of mobile as an of extension of the Chappies Did You Know slot on SABC youth entertainment show Hectic Nine-9, the Chappies Mxit campaign attracted 112 688 new users to the Did You Know app in just three months, alongside TV engagement.
“The results of the Chappies campaign highlights how integrating mobile and TV strategies can be a highly effective marketing tactic. Building on the Chappies Did You Know legacy, Mxit offered Chappies an opportunity for the brand to engage directly with its target audience and effectively encouraged participation with the brand on the TV platform,” says Andrew Kramer,VP of sales.
Reckitt Benckiser chooses Mxit
Confirming its leadership position in the mobile advertising space, local mobile social network Mxit has signed multinational consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser to its portfolio of blue chip media clients. Leveraging the platform to promote its top-selling skin care brand Clearasil, Reckitt Benckiser goes to market with a Mxit Splash Screen campaign to promote the Clearasil.SA app alongside its ‘Win a gig at your school with Roger Goode’ competition.
Thanks to Mxit’s ability to target advertising messages to specific individuals, Clearasil taps into the sweet spot of Mixt’s users aged 13 – 24 years, across 6.5 million monthly active users in South Africa. Driven by Mxit’s Splash Screen advertising, the Clearasil.SA app saw substantial growth of its mobile community from a relatively small campaign. Mxit’s Splash Screens delivered an impressive 2.7 million impressions over a one month period.
Digital agency NXT alternated two Clearasil creatives during the campaign in order to drive sales and trail with the consumer. Consumers where then asked to use the last four digits of their bar code on their Clearaisl product to enter the competition on the Mxit app.
Who’s making moves
Burson-Marsteller makes further strategic moves in Africa
Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public-relations and communications firm, has announced further important strategic moves in Africa. Arcay Burson-Marsteller, which celebrates 25 years in Africa this year, and became a majority owned subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller in September 2011, has been renamed Burson-Marsteller with immediate effect. In addition 12 of the company’s long-standing exclusive affiliates across the continent have entered into new partner agreements, bringing them even closer to the network by now using the name Burson-Marsteller in a total of 27 countries across the continent.
With its 53 country reach and more than 20 years of client service experience Burson-Marsteller in Africa represents the pre-eminent network across the continent. The Burson-Marsteller Africa network is headquartered in Johannesburg and continues to be run by chairman and CEO for Africa, Robyn de Villiers, who founded the network 25 years ago.
“The African continent is one of the world’s strong emerging markets and key to our clients’ global business strategies. Today’s announcement shows our ongoing commitment to ensuring that we are where our clients need us to be, ready to offer them strategic communications services that will contribute to their overall business success,” said Don Baer, Global CEO of Burson-Marsteller.
Dentsu Aegis Network announces rebranding
Dentsu Aegis Network, the first truly global communications network for the digital age, today announces the visual rebranding of the Aegis Media and Dentsu Network businesses, collectively known as Dentsu Aegis Network. The rebranding creates visual alignment across the whole organisation to ensure global delivery of best-in-class brand, media and digital communications to its clients, as one group.
The rebranding commences with the launch of the new website, profiling Dentsu Aegis Network’s seven network brands of Carat, Dentsu (operations outside of Japan), Dentsu media, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope and Vizeum and its growing specialist and multi-market brands including Amplifi, Amnet, Data2Decisions (D2D), mcgarrybowen, Mitchell Communications (PR), psLIVE and 360i.
All network, specialist and multi-market brands will maintain their individual brand identities whilst benefitting from being part of the world’s first truly global communications network with the ability to deliver integrated and specialist services that add real value to their clients’ businesses.
“Today is an important and exciting next step in the evolution of our business, as we begin the process to create visual alignment across the whole organisation. With commonality of vision and strategy, highly complementary geographic and product portfolios and a shared focus on the development of digital technologies for all platforms, the combination of the two businesses creates strong opportunities for future growth,” says Jerry Buhlmann, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network, and executive officer of Dentsu Inc.
Fintech moves into the broadcast industry
Fintech has broken out of its mould, as one of South Africa’s largest independent equipment financing providers, having been widely known for its office automation financing solutions, the company has been expanding into new territories and now offers a diversity of equipment types.
A recent deal with Timbre Broadcast Systems (supplier of turnkey solutions for broadcasters, audio and video post-production houses) was a first for Fintech in the audio-visual sector. The deal culminated in a tailor made financing solution for HD in Motion, a company specialising in high definition production and editing. Fintech is serious about broadening its horizons and is fast refining expertise in the broadcast industry.
Nordex sponsors Chaeli Campaign Argus Cycle team
Nordex Education Trust, empowerment arm of Nordex Energy South Africa, the local subsidiary of the German wind-turbine manufacturing company, will sponsor the Cheali Campaign’s participation in the Argus Cycle Tour on 9th March 2014.
The R63 750 sponsorship includes Cheali Mycroft’s buggy, a hospitality tent at the finish line to host the Chaeli Campaign cycle team, the three participating Nordex staff members – Matthias Breu, Wayne Smith and Ilse Botha in the 109km race as well as their supporters.
The Chaeli Campaign is an NPO based in Plumstead Cape Town that seeks to mobilise the minds and bodies of differently-abled children throughout South Africa.
Says Anne Henschel, Nordex South Africa’s Managing Director: “We were especially inspired by Chaeli’s story and drive to provide ‘Hope in Motion’. Her story mutually aligns with our own goals as a global turbine company in Africa.”
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