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 SPARK Media teamed up with comedian, actor and MC Jason Goliath and gave him the most unusual brief – to share media research at Mindshare’s Huddle initiative.

The Huddle provides media owners with an opportunity to engage directly with Mindshare’s teams and clients with the purpose of showcasing their services and strengths but in an innovative way.

“We went through a pitch process along with several other media owners to be part of the annual Huddle initiative. We had a lot of fun while briefing Jason to present an overview of ROOTS to a very savvy marketing and media audience but in a fun and memorable way, and boy did he deliver,” says Justine Williams, SPARK Media’s Strategic Sales & Marketing Director.

“The end result was a 20 minute stand up comedy session where Jason expertly intertwined ROOTS insights into his comedic routine. He was able to get salient points across including that ROOTS offers buyer behaviour insights at a local level.”

For instance, while taking a stab at race, religion and vegetarians, the comedian surreptitiously shared geographical, marketing and retail data with the audience.

“We’ve had very positive feedback from those who attended and importantly, received queries from clients that we hope will open doors for us to share this valuable data with more of South Africa’s marketing and media professionals.”

To contact SPARK Media call 010 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, follow us on Twitter – www.twitter.com/SparkMediaSA or connect with ‘SPARK Media’ (sparkmediasa) on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Spark Media DNA

Established in 2015, SPARK Media, a division of CTP Ltd, are experts in retail and location based marketing solutions. The company owns and represents a myriad of print and digital products that deliver locally relevant, effective audiences for advertising clients. SPARK Media are Strategic Partners in Audience Research and Knowledge and offer ‘Insights that Ignite’.

 

One year ago NAB, Caxton’s local newspaper’s national advertising sales company, and Habari Media, specialists in digital sales, joined forces to form SPARK Media as a brand new media sales powerhouse. One year down the line the company has reinforced its core business as experts in localised retail marketing.

 “We have over the past year done a lot of soul searching, gaining and losing team members and partnerships but now we’re extremely pleased to be living our true purpose in print and online, and that is to be the go-to team for retail and location based marketing solutions,” says Gill Randall, Joint CEO.

The company recently announced the appointment of long standing staff member Marc du Plessis as Joint CEO and that COO John Bowles will be stepping down from his current role. John will still be working with the SPARK Media team in Cape Town while getting his new business off the ground: Turn Left Media.

“SPARK Media has always taken the best practices of online and print and grounded these in evidence-based research, with a vision to share valuable consumer behaviour insights to help our clients grow their brands, and that won’t change,” says Gill.

Moving forward SPARK Media will continue to represent local traditional and digital media platforms, namely Caxton owned local newspapers and online assets as well as current and future partners that are in line with their clear objective of delivering locally relevant, effective audiences for advertising clients.

To contact SPARK Media call 010 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, follow us on Twitter – www.twitter.com/SparkMediaSA or connect with ‘SPARK Media’ (sparkmediasa) on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

“This is the biggest news for print in a very long time,” says Olav Westphal, Sales Director of SPARK Media. “The Kodak Prosper S30 Imprinting System represents the first variable print technology on African newspapers. It’s a game changer for retailers and all advertisers.”

“Newspapers have always been a mass media channel and due to the technology involved a single run will produce exactly the same content. This technology allows all printed Caxton products to create real interactive advertising in print form that is hyper targeted and hyper localised. Because the basis of the technology is digital, information (the advertised deals or promotions) can by updated in real time. Retailers will effectively be able to create direct one to one connections between ads and consumers but in a print format.”

The innovation effectively closes the loop from print to digital allowing a consumer to access a special deal, discount or service through a special unique numbered code or barcode that is printed in a specific Caxton newspaper. That will then take the consumer to the advertiser’s website where the deal can be activated and further details obtained from the consumer.

“The imprinting system will be seamlessly added directly on to our current printing presses eliminating the need to disrupt the manufacturing process,” says Olav.

Through the unique advert on every newspaper, additional opportunities include gaming and contests, interactive adverts, variable promotion by location and unique daily access codes to specialised online content. Each display advert is assigned a unique code which opens the doors to a variety of creative campaigns, in-store promotions, discounts, website visits and lucky draws.

An example is a reader logging onto an online site and entering their distinctive code, completing an information form and automatically receiving a discount coupon or being automatically entered into a bigger competition.

“Blue sky thinking, images, maps, QR codes and serial numbers, the sky’s the limit now!” he concludes. “We are beyond excited to be the first in Africa to be able to offer this innovation, in black and white for now, to our advertisers and to be at the forefront of print’s next move. Exciting times ahead, we look forward to fantastic feedback from our advertisers.”

For more information on SPARK Media, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, contact them on 010 492 8329, or connect on Twitter @sparkmediasa or on Facebook at SPARK Media.

SPARK Africa, a long standing division of Caxton CTP Publishers and Printers has been incorporated as an additional business unit into SPARK Media. The division will continue to represent the 18 publications across 6 African countries.

“The move was a natural progression for SPARK Media to integrate this division into our 360° print and digital offerings,” says SPARK Media CEO Gill Randall.

“SPARK Africa represents community focused African based newspapers that are credible and reliable information sources in the countries they serve. Since 2006 these products have been providing local editorial and advertising content that is extremely relevant to their countries and communities within growing economies. Now, the division has the added advantage of extra resources, facilities and personnel to support these products.

SPARK Africa represents newspapers in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For more information on SPARK Media, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, contact them on 010 492 8329, or connect on Twitter @sparkmediasa or on Facebook at SPARK Media.

SPARK Media recently hosted Dr Nicole Hartnett, marketing scientist and Senior Research Associate with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for marketing science. She addressed marketers, media strategists and planners, discussing “the real reason why marketers need advertising.”

“This is in line with our promise to continually share ‘Insights that Ignite’ with our valued clients,” said Gill Randall, joint CEO of SPARK Media. “Our membership of the institute is now into its 13^th year, and hosting the various EBI academics over the years has really seen many of South Africa’s marketing and media professionals buy into the EBI world view of evidence-based marketing.

We at SPARK Media, are proud to be firm believers and strong advocates for the scientifically proven marketing principles and laws, espoused by the world’s largest group of marketing scientists.”

Nicole’s main research area is, advertising, with a particular focus on brain-friendly creativity, and its relation to ad-effectiveness.

The presentation made reference to the major advances in neuroscience and our understanding of how the brain works, to provide additional evidence to the established EBI principles. “Because after all, we advertise to ‘brains’ not people” said Nicole. “It’s a gate-keeper to our consciousness”.

Our brains use both emotion and rational centres when making decisions, not one or the other, as previously thought. We are never fully emotive without cognition and vice versa. Most of the decision making happens unconsciously, so ‘catching’ a brain in a distracted and cluttered environment becomes a real challenge. We are task-orientated, so we tend to screen out anything that is not relevant at the time.

So, how do we best create the ‘mental availability’ needed to leverage the probability of your brand been thought of in a buying situation (the real goal of marketing)? Emotion trumps rationality in creating memory structures and retrieval of messages. But you need both for brand-building efforts.

The stronger the network of association brands can build over time, the higher the probability of the brand being thought of in more situations. Advertising and marketing interventions that can evoke an emotion does this more effectively than just a rational message. Having said that, a simple message like “50% off” elicits emotion too!

Most consumers are more inclined to ‘notice’ brands they use (relevance), than non-users of the brand. This makes it harder to try and engage light and non-users; and we know from the EBI, that it is critical to do this, in order to grow your brands.

Nicole went on to offer a few tips to help achieve this:

1. Cut through mental screening – emotions and relevance.
2. Use easy to notice branding! Use consistency and leverage distinctive assets
3. Refresh existing memory structures (know what’s in people’s heads – and make the message clear and simple).

Advertising works best when it refreshes (and sometimes creates new) existing memory structures, but it is poor at making arguments to get us to think rationally about it.

To hear more, contact SPARK Media on 010 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, follow us on Twitter – www.twitter.com/SparkMediaSA or connect with ‘SPARK Media’ (sparkmediasa) on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Spark Media DNA

Established in 2015, SPARK Media, a division of CTP Ltd, are experts in retail and location based marketing solutions. The company owns and represents a myriad of print and digital products that deliver locally relevant, effective audiences for advertising clients. SPARK Media are Strategic Partners in Audience Research and Knowledge and offer ‘Insights that Ignite’.

Justine Williams has been promoted to Marketing Services Director at SPARK Media. The duties in her new role include delivering tailored marketing and sales insights to agencies and clients to help them understand the South African consumer on a local level.

“Justine has dedicated 15 years to the team at NAB and now SPARK Media in various roles, and we’re confident that she’ll soar even higher in her new role,” says Joint CEO of SPARK Media, Gill Randall. “Justine has the full backing of her team and management and we look forward to seeing her work more of her magic over the next few months and years.”

Justine adds: “We have access to the best local and international data and insights but we don’t scrape the surface of what we can do with it. Along with our team of super bright youngsters, we’ll be delivering the great value that our clients have grown to expect from SPARK Media coupled with fresh new ideas and opportunities to help them grow their brands.”

With a BA in Law and Psychology, Justine also gained a diploma in Media Management from the AAA. “I knew just ten minutes after meeting Gill Randall for the first time that this was the place for me. Who knew that 15 years and two kids later I’d be loving media more than ever and learning something new every day.

SPARK Media’s investment in research and passion to empower, inspire and educate has resulted in a dynamic and vibrant team, who really understand how people shop and consume media, and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”

To connect, discuss and engage with SPARK Media, call 010 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, follow us on Twitter – www.twitter.com/SparkMediaSA or find ‘SPARK Media’ (sparkmediasa) on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Spark Media DNA

Established in 2015, SPARK Media, a division of CTP Ltd, are experts in retail and location based marketing solutions. The company owns and represents a myriad of print and digital products that deliver locally relevant, effective audiences for advertising clients. SPARK Media are Strategic Partners in Audience Research and Knowledge and offer ‘Insights that Ignite’.

SPARK Media has officially launched its Programmatic advertising offering entitled SPARK ignition BUY. SELL. TARGET.

ignition SELL. is a private market place (PMP) tool incorporating premium South African websites that are part of, or affiliated to, the Caxton CTP Group of Publishers.

This PMP is unique to the South African digital advertising market not only because it has access to inventory that is hyper-local (owing to the local newspaper websites), but it also has access to inventory that covers a broad range of interests such as breaking news, female lifestyle interests, sports, business and many more.

“This is a very important step taken by SPARK Media in allowing advertisers to target relevant audience segments across our Group’s sites as an alternative to buying site specific impressions,” says Marc du Plessis, SPARK Media’s Joint CEO.

“We know that more advertisers are starting to allocate increasing budgets to Programmatic advertising buys, but often are not certain of the quality of the inventory they’re buying, or where their brand actually ends up.  This is where a PMP comes in, eliminating transparency and brand safety issues.”

“While we’re very excited about the prospects of ignition SELL. we’re still firm in the belief that a true and transparent South African market place should exist for South African publishers.  Something we would most certainly support and become a part of,” added du Plessis.

SPARK Media believes that the success of programmatic advertising relies heavily on the ability to target the right audience, with the right message in the right place.

Inventory bought through ignition SELL. can be overlaid with audience data layers improving the quality of inventory to buyers, further enhancing and improving the user experience and performance metrics. In simple terms we can target the right person with the right message on the right website.

ignition SELL is the perfect one-stop online display and mobile shop for clients who want to buy advertising space through premium direct (IO buys), preferred deals or private auctions. Reaching 6.1 million unique browsers, 31 million page views (Effective Measure: October 2016) and over 50 million ad impressions every month.

Publishers that form part of this offering include The Citizen, Woman and Home magazine, Caxton’s Local News Network (LNN) (+76 local news websites), All4Women and many more premium publishers.

ignition TARGET. is an offering run off an internationally recognised DMP (data management platform). It is a programmatic and direct audience (IO buys) solution providing advertisers with the opportunity to target unique audiences across a network of premium, news and lifestyle focused publisher websites. Advertisers have the option to target audiences based on their browsing behaviour as well as demographic targeting.

For more information about our ignition BUY. SELL or TARGET offerings please send an email to Ashleigh Footit on af@sparkmedia.co.za or call us on 010 492 8390

 

Jecy Kalume, long-time resident and member of the Mother of Peace Community received a R10 000 sponsorship boost from SPARK Media to enable him to attend business school and further his studies.

“This year, instead of the traditional client Christmas gifts, we will be adding to the sponsorship of Jecy’s future education to make his dream a reality,” says Joint CEO of SPARK Media, Gill Randall.

“We feel that he has earned this sponsorship by evidence of his hard work and dedication at school, backed by his ever infectious enthusiasm for everything that he does. His intention has always been to study further and we believe that with our support he will become a considerable asset to his community and to the local business industry.”

Jecy is originally from the Congo DRC. He grew up with his grandparents in Johannesburg. Due to their elderly state, Jecy entered the community of Mother of Peace in Northriding. Proving to be a conscientious student, and a hard working community member eagerly assisting with daily errands, he has earned to opportunity to take his education to the next level.

“This sponsorship forms part of our overall corporate social investment programme strategy to enable and educate possible future business leaders,” concludes Randall. “We look forward to seeing Jecy grow from strength to strength in any of the business fields that he chooses and we will be keeping a close eye on his progress.”

Mother of Peace Northriding is the smallest of the three foster homes and is run by a group of volunteers who dedicate their lives to looking after 24 amazing children. The home’s aim is to provide children with an opportunity to live within a structured family environment, be cared for, nurtured and loved. Children are fostered by full-time, dedicated and committed members of the Community.

To contribute to this worthwhile charity, please visit http://www.pulsa.co.za/ or make contact on 082 562 7438, 076 279 7963 or motherofpeace@global.co.za.

To connect, discuss and engage with SPARK Media, call 010 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za, follow us on Twitter – www.twitter.com/SparkMediaSA or find ‘SPARK Media’ (sparkmediasa) on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Spark Media DNA

Established in 2015, SPARK Media, a division of CTP Ltd, are experts in retail and location based marketing solutions. The company owns and represents a myriad of print and digital products that deliver locally relevant, effective audiences for advertising clients. SPARK Media are Strategic Partners in Audience Research and Knowledge and offer ‘Insights that Ignite’.

Primedia Unlimited, South Africa’s leading provider of out of home and ambient media solutions has moved offices.

 The company’s new address is 151 5^th Avenue, Sandown. The reception team can be contacted on T: 010 306 5100 or lindaw@primedia-unlimited.co.za for general queries.

“We’re delighted to be in a new space – it’s given us an opportunity to optimise how we work, and more importantly, has given our people a happier, more modern home,” says Group CEO Ryan Williams. “I can’t wait to host our great clients and partners here.”