Author: Mark

Earlier this year, the new look Whisky & Gin Live awarded the full event management contract to OrangeBlock, the bespoke events business operating within The Nfinity Group of companies. This includes three Celebration events in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban as well as the annual Festival, to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in November this year.

 “Whisky lovers that have been attending this popular event over the last few years will have started to notice a change,” says Michelle Kirby, Managing Director of OrangeBlock. “On being awarded this contract, we introduced a change to the Celebration events to introduce a new look and a special focus on gin and live music.

We realised that the Celebrations taking place in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban required an offering that would appeal not only to the whisky connoisseur and emerging whisky drinker but to the gin lover too.”

The perception that the whisky market is dominated by an older profile is no longer accurate and the emergence of craft liquors, especially gin, is a trend that deserves attention. With two Celebration events under the belt, these changes have already been well received by both exhibitors and visitors alike. Guests enjoyed the expanded range and ambiance at Whisky & Gin Live, while exhibitors relished a broader range of consumers visiting the event – many, for the first time.

Running an event of this magnitude is no small task but when it comes to executing tasks in triplicate, it’s no cut and paste solution. The events all ran back to back over a seven-week period with extremely tight deadlines and timelines.

Managing the individual Celebrations across three different provinces comes with its own set of challenges. “The different municipalities and applications for each event is totally different and they have their own unique rules, regulations and time frames,” says Michelle. “Every event has to comply with various rules in terms of health and safety applications which can be very time consuming.”

According to Kirby, time management is of the utmost importance and critical in any event planning space – an attribute that OrangeBlock hails as one its key competitive differentiators.  “If you are not able to manage your deadlines and outputs expect to run into trouble.  Take for example Whisky & Gin Live, there are 34 exhibitors at every Celebration event with each one equally important and each has to be dealt with individually.”

“However, we work with some of the best suppliers and support staff in the business and honestly without their support and services we really wouldn’t be able to execute any form of event as well as we do,” concludes Kirby. “We are exceptionally grateful to an amazing group of clients and support staff and thank them for their tireless efforts to make magic with us.

OrangeBlock is on the brink of some very exciting new opportunities, keep an eye out for four brand new projects on our social media pages and user-friendly website.”

OrangeBlock DNA

OrangeBlock services a variety of areas that includes corporate events, marketing programmes, special corporate hospitality events, award ceremonies, launch/release parties and public events. They are able to offer a specific scope of services for any given event which includes all creative, technical and logistical elements providing much more than just the planning and execution. It’s all about effective brand building, taking into account essential marketing and communication plans.

OrangeBlock is a proud Nfinity company. Connect with them at https://orangeblock.net/ or www.nfinity.co.za

Denene Erasmus, editor of Caxton Magazines’ Farmer’s Weekly, has been awarded the inaugural IFAJ-Alltech International Award for Leadership in Agricultural Journalism at the Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE19) in Kentucky, USA.

 This accolade is a new award from the IFAJ (International Federation of Agricultural Journalists) that recognises excellence and leadership by young journalists. After a nomination process by IFAJ guilds around the world, international judges from Alltech and IFAJ declared Denene, editor at Farmer’s Weekly, the largest English language agricultural publication in South Africa, the recipient. ONE19 attracted approximately 3,500 attendees from 68 countries across the globe.

Denene says: “The Farmer’s Weekly brand has been serving the South African agricultural industry since 1911. The publication is dedicated to agriculture and agribusiness reporting mainly throughout the Southern African region. This award is definitely not only a recognition of my personal achievements, but also a testament to the high standard of our publication and agricultural journalism in South Africa in general. We will continue to provide both commercial and new farmers with the most practical advice across our print and digital platforms to increase farming profitability.”

“It is more important than ever to give agriculture a voice and communicate our stories to the world,” said Dr Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “Through our continued partnership with the IFAJ, we are able to support future leaders in agricultural journalism who are passionate about connecting our industry to a global audience.”

Anton Botes, General Manager of Caxton Magazines adds, “We’re beyond proud of Denene for being awarded this incredible honour. She is just one example of the excellence that each of our brands in the Caxton Magazines family continues to strive for. We thank Denene and her team for putting Farmer’s Weekly on the global map.”

Caxton Magazines DNA

Storytelling is our business. Content is our currency. Caxton Magazines is a division of Caxton CTP Printers & Publishers and houses 12 brands in print and digital formats, primarily aimed at the women’s lifestyle segment across life stages, lifestyles and income groups. These brands are: Vrouekeur; Woman & Home; Bona; Living & Loving; People; Food & Home Entertaining; Your Family; Garden & Home; Farmer’s Weekly; Essentials; Rooi Rose and SA Country Life. Visit www.caxtonmags.co.za

Set in motion with in-field interviews in March 2018, South Africa’s largest quantitative community survey #ROOTS2019 is ready to be launched in June across South Africa. The all new ROOTS 2019 will unveil new and insightful stories coming out of local geographic areas.

“The ROOTS survey has been conducted every three years since 2001 and a large portion of the question set has remained the same, with necessary additions to remain relevant,” says Debbie McIntyre, Marketing and Research Director at SPARK Media. “This year, the survey boasts some different areas and communities, and more insights that ever before”.

A partnership with Ads24 means the inclusion of 16 new areas to gain insights from. This enables the building bricks of the survey to be a total of 112 surveyed areas.

ROOTS’ quantitative research explores shopping behaviours and decisions, and can be used to create an in-depth analysis on areas where the economically active population lives. Want to know how many homes are owned or rented in your suburb? Overall, 37% of homes are owned and bond-free. Most bond-free homes can be found in Umzinto (64%), as well as Sedibeng and George (58%). 24% of homes are rented, with the highest percentage found in Burgersfort, Berea (Durban) and Kensington (Johannesburg).

36% of households have dogs, however only 5% of pet owners have pet insurance even though 57% took their pet to the vet in the past year.

The research methodology model provides a national snapshot that is designed to enable detailed analysis and decision making at a local level. 77% of Randburg residents purchase take-aways at least once a month. Seapoint has the highest percentage of people that travel (41%). Social media usage ranks highest in Bellville.

“Every local area is different in terms of structure and shopping behaviours, and the data continuously proves this, showing us changes and new trends”, says Debbie. “Shoppers are not willing to travel too far to buy food and groceries; 61% of consumers will only travel a maximum of 15 minutes to shop.”

“The best read and used papers across the ROOTS sample areas are still, by far, local papers, with 65% of shoppers having read them. The gap has widened significantly in this category, with only 17% of shoppers having read weekly or weekend newspapers”, Debbie adds.

“For these and other exceptional insights about people and their preferences, we encourage the industry to join us at the launch of ROOTS 2019,” concludes Debbie. “The countdown is on. We can’t wait!”

ROOTS launches in Durban on the 4^th of June, Johannesburg on the 6^th of June and Cape Town on the 11^th of June. For more information or to book your seat, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za/about-roots/ or contact info@sparkmedia.co.za

For more on SPARK Media, visit their website and follow them on social media @sparkmediasa.

Newly formed specialist digital media agency, Hive Digital Media, formerly the digital sales unit of SPARK Media, has announced the appointments of its Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Parmeshan Moodliar, Chief Operations Officer (COO) Kristin Louw and Group Programmatic and Data Manager Ashleigh Footit.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce changes in the management structure of Hive Digital Media effective 1 July of this year,” said Marc du Plessis, Group Executive: Digital Investments at Caxton. “In his role as Chief Revenue Officer, Parmeshan will oversee the sales, PR, Brand Management, Trade Marketing and

Finance units, as well as work with Ashleigh on the Programmatic and Data divisions, while Kristin as Chief Operations Officer will manage the Channel, Marketing Services, Traffic, Adops, Story Studio (content production) and HR functions of the business.

Both Parmeshan and Kristin have been with the group for several years now, are well respected by their teams and are backed by an established client base,” says Marc.

According to du Plessis, the business has taken the strategic decision to split their digital sales unit from SPARK Media in order for each business unit to concentrate on the platforms they know and can best represent, giving their clients the best service & value possible.

 The executive committee of Hive Digital Media will begin working immediately in planning for the new fiscal and embedding the new structure, while focusing their energy and B2B messaging on  their offerings such as LNN (Local News Network), All4Women, Health Spas, Guzzle and Ignition (programmatic offering).  SPARK Media will once again focus solely on being the strategic sales arm for Caxton Local Newspapers.

The Nfinity Group, in partnership with Mediamark, is gearing up to launch episodes of The Lucky Listener Radio Show on Jacaranda FM and East Coast Radio to air seven days a week. “The show is an exciting and groundbreaking product partnership with radio trailblazers Mediamark, forging a new way of thinking to provide another level of engagement and interaction for consumers and brand advertisers,” says Ken Varejes CEO of Nfinity.

In this joint venture, Mediamark and the Nfinity Group are focused on bringing media innovation to the market with a world-first radio show that delivers interactive brand education, retail and service solutions for its clients.

Wayne Bischoff, CEO of Mediamark anticipates a massive take-up in the market. “Mediamark prides itself in leading radio innovations, and this exciting new show is a unique approach to retail programming, where we offer clients an opportunity to extend their level of brand engagement through on-air and online two-way communication.  The partnership on the production and sales of The Lucky Listener Radio Show with the Nfinity Group, combines broadcast expertise with value-add marketing benefits, and we are looking forward to the results that this show can produce for advertisers.”

“Its full steam ahead on production as the show prepares for the first broadcast on radio from 3^rd June”, confirms partner Craig Clay-Smith, creator and Executive Producer of the shows. The shows are completely supported with a digital strategy covering the full spectrum of social media to grow audience engagement, market reach and provide an additional level of exposure. There are limited slots per show across the 52-week season, and with only three advertisers per show, early booking and confirmation is essential.”

Visit www.luckylistener.co.za to find out more.

In the Mckinsey and Company report on ’The coming era of on-demand marketing’, Peter Dahlstrom states that ‘digital marketing is about to enter more challenging territory. Building on the vast increase in consumer power brought on by the digital age, marketing is headed toward being on-demand – not just ‘always on’, but also always relevant, responsive to the consumer’s desire for marketing that cuts through the noise with pinpoint delivery.”

It’s exactly what the entrepreneurial creators of ABIE from Trial Run Media had in mind when they conceptualised the world’s first network of Automated Business Intelligence Engines (ABIEs), launching this Spring, that offers on-demand content like free samples and loyalty rewards, linked to automatic data collection. The Intellectual Property is owned by Trial Run.

While sampling isn’t new, it has never been automatically linked to data.

What Trial Run Media has created is a consumer experience radically integrated across the physical and virtual environment. With Trial Run, consumers are in charge of the marketing experience. They choose the ‘content’ – a FREE sample of the brand they want to try – by entering a campaign URL into the browser of their smart phones. They are then prompted to enter their name and cellphone number, after which, they effortlessly receive a code to enter into ABIE’s keypad to release the sample.

A live dashboard tracks each sample in real-time and connects it to the recipient’s mobile phone, creating an instant feedback loop that connects consumers to the brand world on their own terms.The holy grail of marketing is cracking the code that would see consumers choosing to interact with a brand or business. Trial Run allows consumers to choose their marketing experience and their engagement is tracked, leading them down a funnel towards purchase, loyalty and personalised engagement.

Appointment sampling is dead. Gone are the days where consumers have to purchase a magazine to try a new product or be harassed in a shopping mall to get their valuable attention. On-demand sampling is the new disruptor that puts the consumer in charge and gives brands and businesses access to instant business intelligence.

Founders Ursula McDonald and Pippa Capstick call it ‘Advertising on-demand’.

Ursula explains, “Trial Run will give brands the data they need to make informed business decisions, understand who their market is and reward their most loyal consumers.”

Pippa sees exciting engagement possibilities with consumers: “When someone has chosen to try your brand, they want to hear your brand story and with Trial Run the possibilities are endless – you can share videos, you can chat in real-time, you can invite consumers to events and even direct them to your online store in the moment when they have your brand in their hand.”

But much of their focus has been on creating value to the sales funnel. “Trial Run connects traditional advertising to the trial of a product effortlessly,” explains Ursula. “Brands can add a Trial Run short campaign URL to their TV or print adverts, social media posts and in-store collateral. Consumers will receive a code with a link that tells them which ABIE is closest to them.  Or they have the option of simply accessing the code whilst standing in front of the machine, with the added option of a QR code.  We know that trial is fundamental to getting consumers to switch brands and Trial Run makes this effortless for both brands and consumers.”

The marketing can also be time or location based. “Follow up marketing messages can easily be tailored for the time of day when consumers are receiving a sample or relevant to the location in which they are receiving them,” says Pippa. “Imagine the loyalty possibilities – who wouldn’t thank you for a FREE umbrella when it’s raining?  That’s the power Trial Run can bring to your marketing arsenal.”

It’s a new concept, never before tried anywhere in the world but these two marketing pioneers are excited about the measurable results Trial Run can deliver.  “We can offer 24/7 automatic sampling, automatic stock control, automatic POPI compliant data collection and an instant data driven marketing campaign,” explains Ursula. “There is no wastage, no pilferage and results are measured in real-time. Promotions can also be automated linked to real-time sales. It’s the switch machine marketers have been waiting for.”

At launch Trial Run’s footprint will extend across 50 malls in Gauteng, offering 1.9 million sampling opportunities monthly across multiple consumer profiles. This will soon extend to malls nationwide as well as corporate offices, gyms, airports, retail environments and schools nationwide.