Visit The Sign Africa Durban Expo 2018

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February 5, 2018

The Sign Africa Durban Expo, taking place from 7-8 February at the Durban International Convention Centre (Hall 3), will allow visitors to explore the latest technologies and trends in wide format digital printing, garment decoration, screen printing, signage and more, right in their own city.

Product experts from various leading companies will advise you on the latest and most relevant products to help you grow your business.

The popular Speed Wrap Challenge will be held at the event. Contestants will race against the clock to wrap a vehicle door to the best standards. This event is brought to you by platinum sponsor Roland, vinyl sponsors Grafiwrap (distributed by Maizey Plastics) and Ri-wrap (distributed by Red Hot Media).

Compete in three easy steps:

1. Pre-register at the Speed Wrap stand.
2. Your registration will be confirmed with your time slot.
3. Be present at your time slot and wrap to the best standards.

Printing SA will hold a Members Fourm at 11am on both days on their stand at the expo, addressing training in the printing and packaging industry. Non-members are welcome to attend. RSVP to gwarren@printingsa.org.

For more information about the expo, and to register online, visit: http://www.signafricaexpo.com

Upcoming Sign Africa expo’s include:
Cape Town: 14-15 March, Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Bloemfontein: 10 May, Ilanga Estate.
Zambia: 6-7 June, Mulungushi International Conference Centre.
Johannesburg: 12-14 September, Gallagher Convention Centre.

SIGN AFRICA (+27 11) 450 1650 dyelan@practicalpublishing.co.za www.signafricaexpo.com

JCDecaux Partners Again With Foundation For A Better Life

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Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

For its third year, JCDecaux and charity Foundation for a Better Life have worked together to deploy a new ‘Pass It On’ campaign across JCDecaux’s digital network.

The charity’s goal is to offer inspirational messages to people everywhere in order to help promote good values and good role models.

This time, female activist Malala Yousafzai has been featured in the nationwide campaign alongside the statement: ‘Girls should learn history. And make it. Courage is in you.’

Past campaigns include messages promoting strength, fitness, determination, confidence and so on, all alongside inspirational figures.

Ben Maher, sales and partnerships director at JCDecaux UK said, ‘We are incredibly proud to be working with Foundation for a Better Life again on its mission to promote positive values within our communities. By using digital out-of-home, the face of Malala, an incredible activist for female education, will be spread far and wide across the UK, along with the powerful message: ‘Girls should learn history. And make it.’ This truly is a fantastic campaign to start 2018 with.’

The campaign was live from 2-8 January.

JCDECAUX UK www.jcdecaux.co.uk

Expandasign Shares Insight Into What Makes A Successful Brand Activation

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

Expandasign shares insight into pulling off (what the company believes to be) a successful brand activation. Below are some top tips the company has learned and that are critical for a successful brand activation.

A strong concept

Everything hangs on your concept, so you need a strong one in order for the brand activation to succeed. Obviously, a great idea is the crux but it’s not all there is to it.

Uniqueness

Coming up with something entirely unique will help position you as a thought leader and ensure that people remember your brand. If you can’t make the whole brand activation entirely unique, make sure you have elements that are.

Compatibility

This should be obvious but sadly it’s often overlooked. Basically, you need to be sure that your concept not only works but also works for your brand. Coming up with a great idea is one thing but if it’s not true to the nature of your brand, you risk the results being lukewarm.

Execution

It’s easy to get swept away with great ideas but you need to be sure that everyone else is on board and that you have the means to execute it. The problem arises when you have a great idea but you have to water it down in order to get it done. Sometimes it’s better to scrap a complicated idea that you have to dilute in favour of a simpler one that you can execute well.

Customer insight

This principle is as simple as ‘look before you leap’. Before you even start thinking of an idea you need to know your target market inside. Create a buyer persona and make sure you’ve done exhaustive research. If you’re a new brand, you’ll need to create an ideal buyer persona to think about the type of customers you want to attract.
Think through your brand activation from your customer’s perspective. This means you should consider everything from the social media you use to promote it to the time of day you launch it. Get inside their head and decide what works best for them, not you.
Remember that your customers will relate the brand to the activation, so make sure it’s sending the right message to the right people. If your brand activation is high energy but your brand is zen you’re sending mixed messages, or even worse: if your brand activation is sloppy people will assume your brand will be too.

Good promotional merchandise

No brand activation is complete without the right branding and promotional merchandise, particularly if you’re hosting an event.

The human brain remembers imagery well, so make sure you capitalise on the hype by having branding that’s good quality and easy to see. Don’t just go for numbers. Having something custom or novel makes more of an impact than sheer number or size, allowing you to save on your budget and have a bigger impact.

A realistic budget

Budget plays a massive role in planning brand activations and you want to be sure to strike the right balance between quality and affordability. Below are a few things to keep in mind to help you do that:
Get quotes before you begin to plan your budget – that way you can get a realistic idea of what you’ll need to include.
Plan your budget together with your concept so that you don’t commit to something you’ll struggle to execute.
Allow sufficient time to shop around for prices and deals.
Be upfront with your suppliers about your budget.
Remember that a substandard brand activation can damage the brand image, so be sure that you’re committed to investing in a good one.

An engagement tactic

Engagement helps to imprint a brand into a customer’s long-term memory system. In addition, allowing someone to touch and hold something also triggers feelings of connection according to psychologists, so letting people interact with your branding and products is a great way to foster brand loyalty.

Finding an engagement point generally involves supplying customers with something they need, want or can make use of.

Sufficient planning

For a brand activation to run smoothly, you’ll need to have planned for every eventuality.
Ensure you have enough products, samples and staff as customers can feel hard done by if they are left out.
Ensure you have enough space and enough branding if you’re hosting a brand activation event.
Make sure you have a plan for crowd control.
Ensure that you have a plan B if your brand activation event is weather-dependent.

An amplification strategy

You’ve done all the hard work, now it’s time to make sure you get a decent ROI on your brand activation. For that you need to make sure you’re promoting it through a variety of channels. Encourage social media sharing and make it easy for people to do so – event hashtags and competitions are always good for this purpose.

Share as many photos of the event as possible and get participants talking about it by tagging them. Allow those who missed the brand activation to participate through social media by engaging with their comments after the activation. Make sure you do this timeously as people tend to expect responses within the hour.

Make the most out of your investment by creating some sharable content (videos, slideshows, mixed-media etc.) from the event and sharing it on your social media and website.

EXPAND A SIGN +27 11 466 0304
www.expandasign.co.za

Street Network and JCPZ Combine Efforts For OOH Communication

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

Street Network and JCPZ Combine Efforts For OOH Communication

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) recently collaborated with Street Network to get its recent campaign’s messaging out to the public.

JCPZ is mandated by the City of Johannesburg to manage the City’s cemeteries, parks and designated public open spaces as well as to ensure that its environmental conservation function is carried out. This includes the maintenance of all street and park trees within the City’s borders and the Joburg Zoo. JCPZ is entrusted with the preservation and management of biodiversity through direct conservation action, education, research and recreation.

As the custodian of Joburg’s green heritage, the JCPZ is currently running a campaign which highlights the valuable work it does in terms of Capital Infrastructure Development; Open Space Management; Zoological, Horticultural and Ecological Services and Urban Forestry. Its portfolio consists of 20,000ha of green open spaces and 3.2 million trees, while the Zoo has 326 species consisting of 2096 specimens, all housed within a 54ha area.

‘Key to the #WelcomeOutside campaign was ensuring that multiple messages related to the range of services offered were delivered effectively. By selecting Bus Shelters, the JCPZ was able to not only get the messaging out to the general public, but the flexibility of out-of-home and bus shelters in particular allowed for each service offering to be unpacked further,’ commented Jonathan Everest, head of sales at Street Network.

Bus Shelters can be used in a targeted and contextually relevant manner, with the JCPZ campaign taking full advantage of this. Visible in the vicinity of a number of key locations such as the Joburg Zoo and to targeted audiences along major routes, the campaign successfully delivered multiple contextually relevant messages.

‘The JCPZ’s vision is to develop, maintain and conserve public open spaces, cemeteries and animal life for present and future generations. Street Network delivered a solution that amplified and extended the reach of the current campaign in a bold and creatively engaging manner,’ concluded Everest.

OUTDOOR NETWORK +27 11 234 7861 billboardsales@on.co.za www.outdoornetwork.co.za

JCDecaux Sub-Saharan Africa Announces Staff Appointments

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

JCDecauxb — Janice De Jong, Uyanda Manana and Diana Mtombeni.

Three new staff appointments for the JCDecaux Sub-Saharan Africa have been announced.

Uyanda Manana has joined JCDecaux Sub-Saharan Africa as head of sales, regional and direct. With more than 14 years experience in marketing communications, Manana has managed and led campaigns at several prestigious advertising agencies.

She started her career at L’Oreal based in Johannesburg, South Africa then later moved to London where she joined Publicis working on a client portfolio that included L’Oreal, Garnier and United Biscuits.

After returning to South Africa, she joined The Jupiter Drawing Room to head up MTN. During this time, the agency produced the iconic and award-winning FIFA World Cup-MTN Ayoba campaign.

Manana has also worked for activation agency Hariz M.E in Dubai on the Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management account, as well as for Saatchi Abel in the capacity of account lead on key brands, including Nedbank and Nando’s.

Janice De Jong has been appointed as client services manager. She has a combination of over 11 years’ managerial experience in production, printing, manufacturing, flighting, outdoor and special projects.

Prior to joining JCDecaux, she has been involved in a number of outdoor campaigns with top end clients and their projects. These include, but are not limited to, the iconic Guinness World Record soccer balls that were erected on the Telkom Towers for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Diana Mtombeni is the newly appointed sales executive for Africa. Diana holds a BCom Marketing degree from Unisa and a PMD from GIBS.

She has over eight years’ experience in sales, marketing and customer service across Africa. Mtombeni’s passion is account management and client service delivery and she has a proven ability to develop and grow relationships across diverse groups and levels within organisations in Africa.

JCDECAUX AFRICA +27 11 514 1400 uyanda.manana@jcdecaux.com www.continentaloutdoor.com

3M Graphics South Africa Hosts Vehicle Wrapping Workshop With Industry Experts

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

file_1516790536-1 — Vaughn Repsold demonstrates on a vehicle at an advanced vehicle wrapping workshop brought together by 3M Graphics South Africa.

International wrap installer Ivan Tenchev from Bulgaria and local 3M endorsed vehicle graphics installer Vaughn Repsold hosted an advanced training workshop at the 3M Graphics South Africa Woodmead Head Office.

The workshop brought together various business owners from the wrapping industry to discuss ideas and understand the much finer and advanced factors involved in wrapping a vehicle.

The event created a platform for different nationalities to compare a number of different factors to consider when wrapping a vehicle – namely climate, choice of detergents, wiping materials and overall surface preparation.

Tenchev and Repsold spent the day demonstrating on a vehicle and imparting their application knowledge, which has contributed to them winning or entering the next phases of various wrap competitions around the world, such as FESPA World Wrap Masters.

Repsold made it to the quarter finals in the Battle World Tour Hamburg Messe, 2016-2017. Tenchev won last year’s FESPA Wrap Masters Eurasia in Istanbul, Turkey.

Tenchev, who runs his own vehicle application business Astra Folio with his wife and has travelled the world to learn as much as he can about the vehicle graphics installation business, said that he would like to establish an online training centre, as he is passionate about helping new installers and using quality materials. He emphasised that vehicle cleanliness and surface preparation is the most important thing when wrapping a vehicle.

The video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1P3C3lTWmg

3M GRAPHICS SOUTH AFRICA +27 11 806 2000 www.3M.co.za

Sign-Tronic Showcasing 3D XPS Illuminated Signage Solutions At Sign Africa Expo

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

Sign-Tronic Showcasing 3D XPS Illuminated Signage Solutions At Sign Africa Expo

Sign-Tronic will exhibit how to make amazing 3D Styrofoam illuminated letters, signage and decorative elements with the Obelisk plotter at the Sign Africa Durban Expo, taking place 7-8 February at the Durban International Convention Centre (Hall 3).

Obelisk allows sign-makers to produce not just plain signage, but complete illuminated 3D XPS foam signage or letters with a brilliant finish. Users can simply print, cut and dip coat the 3D letters in a unique, liquid coating for a high gloss, protective finish (there is a five year warranty on signage with the coating.) The 3D sign is ready for mounting after a simple three component assembly with quick-set adhesives.

A professional, easy to operate machine with a footprint of less than a square metre when in operation, the Obelisk is capable of a maximum foam sheet size of 1250 x 600mm and thicknesses up to 100mm. Because cutting with the Obelisk is so effective, the cutting surfaces are smooth and free of any jagged edges. Ultra-light and cost effective, XPS or EPS Polystyrene foam does not absorb water and is easy to finish using print, water-based or acrylic paint.

The Obelisk Foam Plotter is supplied with intuitive Stella Obelisk software that allows importing of objects from Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. Alternatively, users can create cut files directly in Stella-Obelisk and then combine objects in a single-lined project that is then ready to be cut on the plotter. By using the ‘Auto’ button, the software generates all the necessary lines and paths, making foam plotting as easy as printing.

Applications include: signage, illuminated letters, logos, architectural shapes, hobby, craft and toys, retail, decor, packaging and more.

Sign-Tronic will run live demonstrations of the Obelisk on their stand.

Upcoming Sign Africa expo’s include:

Cape Town: 14-15 March, Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Bloemfontein: 10 May, Ilanga Estate.
Zambia: 6-7 June, Mulungushi International Conference Centre.
Johannesburg: 12-14 September, Gallagher Convention Centre.

SIGN-TRONIC +27 21 510 8332 www.sign-tronic.co.za

Moving Tactics Introduces Digital Content Division

By

Meggan McCarthy

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February 1, 2018

MovingTacticsb — Ryno Colyn, Moving Tactics.

Moving Tactics has launched a Digital Content division to provide a specialised content service that will maximise the value their clients achieve from their digital signage investments.

Chris Day, Managing Director of Moving Tactics, said, ‘It’s very important for us to offer a comprehensive digital signage service from hardware, software and content. At the end of the day, the network is only as good as its content. For this reason we see the value in offering a content service to our clients to ensure maximum return. The industry growth has helped us gain experience in more than just content animation and with this growth, Moving Tactics has established a specialised service in content strategy, content development and content analytics.’

Moving Tactics’ Digital Content will be headed by Ryno Colyn, who has 14 years’ experience in the digital signage industry in content strategy and development, play listing, scheduling, networks and installations. In the retail space, he has worked within Woolworths to develop and grow their in-store digital offering and has also established the content strategy for the Clicks and Clicks Pharmacy’s digital signage networks. Most recently, he has developed the content strategy for the MTN digital in-store network as well as for their Brand and Touch channels.

‘Digital Content will provide an in-house digital content development team to produce bespoke content for all the departments within Moving Tactics. For our clients, we will specifically assist with the transition from traditional media to in-store digital. In-store digital signage content must be treated differently than traditional media content such as TV, print or radio. This can be a big challenge for a brand or it’s agency that is only used to producing content for traditional channels,’ explained Colyn.

And what is the secret to creating great content? According to Colyn, ‘It must be great visual effects and hours of animation, right? Although effects and animation has its place, it doesn’t necessarily make content great or engaging. Visual appeal will make you look but will it influence your buying decision? A relevant and measurable content strategy paired with well-produced content will allow for a solid foundation. The science behind content development is the ability to skilfully manage your content sources and marketing strategy in order to deliver on engaging, relevant and measurable content.’

MOVING TACTICS (+27 21) 462 7977 chris.day@movingtactics.co.za www.movingtactics.co.za

JCDecaux UK Deploys Sound Showers

By

Meggan McCarthy

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January 31, 2018

JCDecaux and Twentieth Century Fox deployed a collection of ‘Sound Showers’ in malls across the UK to celebrate the musical soundtrack of new film ‘The Greatest Showman’ upon its release.

Shoppers were able to stand under the special speaker, positioned on top of each D6 screen, where they were immersed in the film’s music and could feel like they were a part of the mesmerising spectacle.

The campaign was booked through JCDecaux by Rapport and was a part of a wider campaign running on M-Vision, Mall D6, Euston Motion and Motion@Waterloo.

JCDECAUX UK www.jcdecaux.co.uk

FMIDecaux Awarded Contract For Yangon City

By

Meggan McCarthy

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January 31, 2018

FMIDecaux Awarded Contract For Yangon City

FMIDecaux Co. recently won a 20-year contract with Yangon City Development Committee for advertising street furniture in the city of Yangon. FMIDecaux is a new joint venture between JCDecaux and First Myanmar Investment Co.

FMIDecaux will combine JCDecaux’s global expertise in outdoor advertising and street furniture with FMI’s decades of experience in the local Myanmar market. The first contract in Myanmar covers the design, installation, operation and maintenance of 500 brand new advertising bus shelters equipped with USB ports and LED screens on the roof with Estimated Time of Arrival display, as well as 500 city information panels city information panels (CIPs).

Some CIPs will be equipped with battery recycling containers or drinking fountains, and all downtown bus shelters will be replaced within 18 months with installations starting in June 2018.

The provision of all street furniture is backed by second-to-none cleaning and maintenance. The whole duration of the project is financed by advertising according to the business model invented by JCDecaux in 1964. This contract will be of no cost to Yangon city or its citizens.

His Excellency U Phyo Min Thein, chief minister of Yangon said, ‘This contract is a key milestone for Yangon. We are enhancing and improving people’s lives by building a smart city. This alliance between FMI and JCDecaux is a great complement to the improvements we’ve seen after the reforms of the Yangon Bus System, making operations safer and more efficient.’

His Excellency U Maung Maung Soe, mayor of Yangon stated, ‘The contract between YCDC and FMIDecaux is going to take the city of Yangon further as we are enhancing people’s convenience and improving passengers’ commute. With the beautiful street furniture, from bus shelters to CIPs, we are not only beautifying Yangon, but making the city innovative. Yangon will be a smart city of the future.’ Serge Pun alias U Theim Wai, the executive chairman of FMI stated, ‘With JCDecaux’s industry expertise, our local knowledge as well as shared values of respect, transparency, commitment and shared vision of a great future for Yangon, I’m confident we will achieve and deliver quality street furniture for the city.’

Jean-Charles Decaux, co-CEO of JCDecaux said, ‘We are delighted to enter Myanmar thanks to this strategic contract in Yangon, in line with our unique model of organic development in partnership with local companies in faster-growth countries, which now account for 36% of our revenue. Each project is unique and we have tailor-made this offer to bring Yangon the best of our 53-year experience and passion for street furniture. We are totally motivated to enter the long-term partnership, contribute to the beautification of Yangon and its transformation into a smart city as well as offer exceptional visibility to advertisers.’

JCDECAUX www.jcdecaux.com