Media Moves… TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. Dentsu Aegis Network acquires Premier Media Company and Adams Media in Ghana. Health24 appoints Sangoma to stable of experts. Amber April promoted to senior account executive at Jam Media. Jam Media appoints Danielle Van Wyk as account executive. New senior appointment at Grand Parade Investments Limited. FCB South Africa wins SA Tourism account. Mercedes-Benz South Africa Passenger Vehicles awards digital account to iProspect. FCB wins global Hero Masterbrand contract. FCB Joburg tasked to boost awareness for market’s number one. Wired now has a twin in the UK. Supermodel teams up with TRACE Foundation
This week’s BIG move: Dentsu Aegis Network acquires Premier Media Company and Adams Media in Ghana
Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of two leading media buying and planning agencies in Ghana, Adams Media Ghana Limited and Premier Media Company GH Limited (Premier Media). Adams Media and Premier Media will be rebranded as Carat and Vizeum respectively and collectively form Dentsu Aegis Network locally to become the leading media agency in Ghana, the second largest West African economy. Continuing its ongoing investment into the African market, Dentsu Aegis Network will be the majority stakeholder with the balance equity being owned by local management.
Established in 2009, Adams Media will be integrated into Carat, Dentsu Aegis’s global media agency, further cementing its existing relationship and success as Carat’s affiliate in the Ghanaian market. With a solid track record for helping clients grow their brands via innovative media ideas using the right media channels, its team of 24 staff members has serviced blue chip clients including Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Philips.
Premier Media was established in 1999 and was the first independent media planning and buying agency in Ghana. Led by CEO Andrew Ackah, Premier Media has 20 full time staff including digital specialists. Post acquisition, Premier Media will be integrated into Vizeum, one of Dentsu Aegis’ eight network brands and recently named as the world’s fastest growing media network by RECMA.
Andrew Ackah, will take the role of CEO for Dentsu Aegis Network in Ghana with responsibility for growing its business and presence locally. He will report into Dawn Rowlands, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network in South and Sub-Sahara Africa.
“This acquisition is another important step in expanding our growth and breadth in Africa and with Andrew Ackah’s extensive experience and understanding of the media landscape in the market, we are confident that we will see significant expansion,” said Rowlands. “Both Adams Media and Premier Media’s services are aligned with our vision of innovating the way brands are built, and this acquisition strengthens our desire to significantly increase Dentsu Aegis Network’s contribution locally and regionally.”
Who’s moved where
Health24 appoints Sangoma to stable of experts
Health24 have announced the appointment of a Sangoma, Gogo Moyo, adding to its already comprehensive resource of experts.
A Sangoma is a gifted individual who heals people through prayer or natural herbal medicine, always by the guidance of their ancestors. Being a Sangoma is hereditary, though it may skip a few generations due to the varying strength of ancestry in the family, one does not choose to become a Sangoma, Prophet or Inyanga, rather one needs to heed an inherent calling.
“Eighty percent of the South African population makes use of traditional health practitioners, which includes Sangomas and herbalists, so it made complete sense for Health24 to include these practitioners in our stable of experts,” says Laura van Niekerk, editor of Health24. “They are as much a part of the South African health fabric as an oncologist or psychiatrist.”
Moyo has been a healer since 2009 and completed her six-month training in Mpumalanga. “By joining the Health24 stable of experts I hope to teach, inspire and motivate people to live a more spiritually enlightened life. Most importantly I’d like to help people realise that spirituality is a personal journey, and no one size fits all,” says Moyo.
Amber April promoted to senior account executive at Jam Media
Amber April has been promoted to senior account manager at 360-degree communication agency, Jam Media. This is her first promotion since startingher PR career at the agency in 2015.
Having graduated in 2014 from Cape Peninsula University of Technology with a Diploma in Public Relations Management, April works primarily on the lifestyle brands at Jam Media. Over the past six months, she has managed accounts such as Carla Zara, Neill Anthony and Okuhle Media.
Jam Media appoints Danielle Van Wyk as account executive
Jam Media has appointed Danielle Van Wyk as account executive.
Graduating this year from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology with a Diploma in Journalism, Van Wyk began work at Jam Media in July, after completing her one-year internship with online news and digital agency, 24.com – News 24. She has also worked at Media 24 for titles like Huisgenoot, You and Drum magazine as well as Women’s Health magazine. Van Wyk also worked at the Expresso and Top Billing shows in a social media assistant capacity.
“I worked closely with Danielle a year ago while contracting to Expresso. I noticed her young talent then already and asked her to join me after her internship was complete. Being a journalist by trade myself, I recognize the value any level media experience has on a career in PR and look forward to having her on board,” said Jess Mouneimne, Jam Media director.
New senior appointment at Grand Parade Investments Limited
Tasneem Karriem has been appointed as the corporate finance executive at Grand Parade Investments Limited. She will head up the group’s corporate finance division.
Karriem is a qualified chartered accountant who graduated with an honours degree in accounting from the University of the Western Cape and a registered Chartered Accountant with SAICA. She has extensive experience in the corporate finance management industry and was the transaction services senior manager at leading global firm, Ernst and Young before joining GPI.
Who’s won what
FCB South Africa wins SA Tourism account
In one of the most prestigious – and biggest – account moves this year to date, the agency widely regarded as responsible for building many of South Africa’s iconic brands has been tasked with building on the country’s already impressive reputation as a tourism destination.
SA Tourism, the organisation mandated to market South Africa locally, in Africa and internationally, has engaged FCB South Africa as its total communication partner with responsibility for guiding through-the-line marketing solutions including strategy, creative, above-the-line, below-the-line, digital, activations, public relations, and media planning and buying.
The win puts FCB South Africa on the world stage as the lead agency for SA Tourism’s advertising internationally and at home. It beat out two other short-listed agencies in a creative pitch to land the business, and has been tasked with providing a seamless integrated solution for both the domestic and international market.
FCB South Africa CEO and chief creative officer, Brett Morris, said FCB was naturally over the moon with the appointment, and looking forward to promoting South Africa to fellow South Africans, Africans and global citizens.
“There is no better South African brand to build than South Africa itself … and fitting that the agency that has built so many of South Africa’s iconic brands is now contributing to the country’s reputation locally and abroad,” he said.
Mercedes-Benz South Africa Passenger Vehicles awards digital account to iProspect
iProspect South Africa, a member of multinational media and digital marketing communications company Dentsu Aegis Network, has been appointed as the digital performance partner to Mercedes-Benz South Africa Passenger Vehicles, following a rigorous pitch process which spanned six months.
The award-winning global digital performance agency will implement an integrated digital strategy across all the online properties of the passenger vehicles division of Mercedes-Benz South Africa, a Daimler AG brand.
Justin Hartman, group managing director for iProspect Sub-Saharan Africa said, “Mercedes-Benz is a brand that demands only the best and being awarded this prestigious account demonstrates our ability to deliver on excellence, as well as the client/agency partnership which we have been working on over the last four years.
“We are particularly excited to continue working on the unique collaboration with Mercedes-Benz Passenger Vehicles on powerful projects like GLA Adventure, which recently won a Gold Award at the DAN Innovation awards in Tokyo earlier this month,” said Hartman.
FCB wins global Hero Masterbrand contract
FCB Zürich has beaten the competition to secure a global contract as the new advertising agency for the Hero Group, a Swiss-based international food company. The Hero Group operates in over 30 countries and has a mission to delight consumers by conserving the goodness of nature. The main food categories include jams, food and milk for babies and toddlers, and healthy snacks.
FCB, which will work on all Hero masterbrand categories and products, was selected through an international tender that included top network agencies across Europe. The FCB pitch was led by the Swiss office in Zürich.
“FCB Zürich and the entire FCB network not only convinced us with their strategic vision and creativity regarding the Hero masterbrand, but also with their way of working and collaborating with us,” saidSandra Echecopar, marketing director at Hero Group.
FCB is now working on the first campaigns, which are expected to be launched at the beginning of 2016.
FCB Joburg tasked to boost awareness for market’s number one
FCB Joburg has been tasked by Tiger Brands to boost awareness for Perfect Touch, the number one hair styling brand in South Africa. Does that brief sound a little odd? A leading brand with low awareness?
The reality is that Perfect Touch’s users – men and women between the ages of 15 and 50 from the LSM 7-10 groupings – select the brand with over 30% share of the hair styling market based on colour and packaging, not name.
Changing this was the challenge put to FCB Joburg’s team of strategist Rose Harman, executive creative director Jonathan Deeb, creative director Erin Brooks, art director Nyiko Mahange and copywriter Bongani Ntombela.
According to hair care brand manager, Wasiema Nassir, the brand’s competitors leverage off strong brand equity, but there is parity tonally within the category.
“This presented Perfect Touch with the opportunity to stand-out with a unique and interesting creative treatment and message,” she said, “and the Tiger Brands’ marketing team responsible for hair care briefed the agency to take advantage of that.
“We also asked that the strategy be driven by the consumer insight highlighted by research: ‘I want to look my best and have a style that suits my personality. But, I want the convenience of a product that is quick and easy’.”
Who’s making moves
Wired now has a twin in the UK
Cape Town PR and communications agency, Wired Communications, is now twinned with UK-based PR and communications consultancy Athene Communications. The arrangement allows both companies to share experiences and for employees to develop new ways of working.
Richard Astle, managing director of Athene Communications, said: “I came up with the idea after talking to my team about how we can develop our expertise. We thought it would be beneficial to link up with an agency from another country of a similar size and outlook to ourselves.
“I looked around for a PR agency or consultancy to match this criteria and found Wired Communications. I am impressed with Wired’s company vision and look forward to this exciting new partnership which I’m sure both companies will learn a great deal from.”
Athene Communications currently has 15 employees and works with a wide range of clients from across the UK, including Royal HaskoningDHV, Hopkins Homes, ABAX and Larkfleet Group.
Wired has a similar scope to its client base with a specialism in consumer PR, working with a range of lifestyle consumer brands, as well as some B2B and retail clients.
Karey Evett, owner of Wired Communications, added: “We are really enjoying the engagement with Athene – I think we can learn and share valuable lessons and experiences from such a professional agency. Maybe we’ll even get to meet face-to-face one day but meanwhile our regular Skype meetings are vibrant, fun and inspiring. This ‘twinning of agencies’ is such a great idea, it’s a wonder more agencies don’t do it too. We feel very lucky that Athene found us.”
Vital Health Foods is a development partner in this year’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon
Vital Health Foods, Africa’s largest nutritional supplement and vitamin manufacturing company, has announced that it will be a development sponsor for this year’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon.
“Our core belief is ‘healthy families, healthy homes,” says George Grieve, CEO of Vital Health Foods. “This is yet another way for Vital to impact communities through providing an opportunity to invest in talent, purpose and a healthy, balanced lifestyle while being active and achieving one’s goals,” says Grieve.
With a strong focus on sport as a tool for development within local communities, Vital Health Foods wants its involvement in this year’s marathon to play an important role in sport development and also build on its reputation as an active participant in assisting organisations fighting women and child abuse in South Africa through the Vital Foundation.
Re-launched in 2014, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon has achieved an unprecedented IAAF Silver Label status, and this year it will be going for Gold. The weekend festival of running, which takes place on 19-20 September, expects to attract over 20 000 entries across all events.
Supermodel teams up with TRACE Foundation
Model Joëlle Kayembe has teamed up with the TRACE Foundation to support South African youth who are embarking on promising new ventures within their community
As a non-profit organisation with an over-arching goal to support projects that address some of the challenges today’s youth are currently facing, the TRACE foundation has partnered with model Kayembe to provide sustainable youth development programmes to empower youth.
The foundation most current project involves 21 year olds Masego Mlangeni and Gugu Masilela from Tembisa, Johannesburg. Masego, who dropped out of university due to financial difficulties, found that the sheer lack of learning supplies she had to work with during her studies furthermore prevented her from receiving quality tertiary teachings.
Both Masego and Gugu have appealed to the TRACE Foundation to, not only help themselves, but to help other students in similar situations by moderating the direct impact this educational inadequacy has on learners.
TRACE Foundation’s project will, therefore, support the development initiatives of Masego and Gugu and see to it that resources be made available for the betterment of students with limited study materials who are striving to fulfil their basic right to a fair education.
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