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Open Media: Blockchain, will it revolutionise DOOH?

Open Media: Blockchain, will it revolutionise DOOH?

According to Rob Thomas, inbound marketing executive at Open Media, the word ‘Blockchain’ is almost inescapable in today’s media frenzied world. The technology has the capability to bring enormous changes to the way global business is conducted, but how will it affect outdoor advertising?

DOOH and location-based advertising

The out of home industry is experiencing somewhat of a mini-revolution. The premiership of static and conventional banners is now no longer enough to attract a loyal and long-lasting consumer base. In an increasingly digital and internet orientated world, brands are preparing to take the next step in order to create not only noticeable but receptive, engaging and influential outdoor advertising strategies.

Regardless of what you may have already heard about it, one thing is for certain – Blockchain has the potential to transform the digital outdoor advertising landscape. Blockchain can enable a brand to gain a big data insight into their customer demographic by facilitating and encouraging consumers to engage with their digital location-based advertisements (e.g. taking a picture and sharing it on their social profiles) in return for a customer reward, a process known as tokenisation.

Location-based data

Leveraging location-based data can make a big impact for digital out of home advertising. Fundamentally, allowing brands to tailor their campaigns to a specific audience, at a specific time and with a specific purpose, really makes a difference.

However, location-based advertising is not without its shortcomings. Tangible privacy issues arise when businesses harness consumer data to shape and adjust their advertising efforts. Furthermore, it is often considered to be a slow and ineffective way to target consumers as the data which can be mobilised is limited and does not necessarily lead directly to increased sales.

Smart Contracts, tokenisation and OOH advertising

Essentially, Blockchain is a decentralised record-keeping technology that facilitates secure and transparent peer to peer financial transactions without the need for centralised third-party administrators. These peer to peer exchanges are monetised and executed by an encrypted digital currency known as a crypto-currency.

The technology goes one-step further than current location-based advertising. With regards to digital signage, one of the most attractive possibilities is that Blockchain permits a form of mutually beneficial tokenisation to occur between a brand and its consumers.

For instance, imagine digital display that promotes users to interact with it by taking a picture and promoting the advert on their social media handles in return for a fixed amount of digital (crypto) store credit. In return, this would allow a brand to create micro-targeted adverts as they would acquire specific and invaluable data about their consumer demographic.

Tokenisation

This form of tokenisation between business and consumer can be actioned by a smart contract. A smart contract in its simplest definition is a piece of computer code that controls future exchanges between parties on the blockchain when certain conditions become triggered. For instance, a trigger event could be when a consumer engages with an outdoor advertisement by sharing a photo on their social media profiles. In turn, this can cause the contract to execute itself and they would be seamlessly and transparently rewarded with store crypto-credit from the advertising brand.

Moreover, consumers can ensure that their information is secure because the distributed ledger technology is powerfully encrypted. As the name suggests; each transaction represents a ‘block’ and all the blocks are connected to the next, creating a chain. Since this chain is distributed to every peer in the network and not controlled by a central administrator it would make it incredibly difficult for any hacker or third party to interfere with the data.

It goes without saying that the future of digital out of home advertising is certainly an exciting one.

OPEN MEDIA blog.openmedia.uk.com

Loeries Announces 2018 Jury Presidents

Loeries Announces 2018 Jury Presidents

The jury presidents for 2018 are Fabian Frese, chief creative officer at Kolle Rebbe, in Hamburg Germany; Nicolas Courant, executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore; Sebastian Padilla, co-founder of Anagrama in Mexico; and chief creative officer Swati Bhattacharya from FCB Ulka in India.

Loeries Creative Week will take place in August at Durban and the jury presidents will guide over 160 judges in the process of selecting the best of brand communication from across Africa and the Middle East.

The four jury presidents will also speak at the DStv Seminar of Creativity during Creative Week.

Loeries CEO, Andrew Human, said the Loeries is globally recognised and the jury presidents are selected from the world’s top creatives.

Comment from Loeries CEO

‘We have jury presidents who represent the creative diversity of three continents and four countries,’ said Human. ‘Each is a leader in their fields and cover the range of film, radio, digital, out-of-home, print and design sub-sectors of the advertising and brand communication industry.’

A total of 18 countries from across Africa and the Middle East entered the Loeries in 2017, the benchmark for creative excellence in the advertising and brand communication industry.

DStv Seminar of creativity

Human added, ‘The DStv Seminar of Creativity is a once-off opportunity to hear these industry leaders speak and anyone involved in marketing, advertising and design should attend.’

The jury presidents are four of the eight speakers in the DStv Seminar of Creativity, which takes place on Friday, 17 August 2017 at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) and forms part of Loeries Creative Week, which runs in Durban, South Africa, from 16-19 August.

The Loeries recently extended the deadline for entries to 31 May. For more information click here.

LOERIES 
www.loeries.com

Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg Appoint Head Of New Development

Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg Appoint Head Of New Development

Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg announced the appointment of Nick Bedford as head of new business development for the Johannesburg campus.

Bedford will work across all domains to champion Ogilvy’s new business agenda and ensure they are responsive and effective in meeting their new business ambitions.

OGILVY 
www.ogilvy.co.za

Speed Wrap Winner Crowned At Sign Africa Bloemfontein Expo

Speed Wrap Winner Crowned At Sign Africa Bloemfontein Expo
Pooven Pillay from Roland with winner Bheki Mthembu and Robbie Lambe from Maizey Plastics.

Bheki Mthembu won the Speed Wrap Challenge held at the Sign Africa Bloemfontein expo on 10 May.

He won R3500 and will compete at the main Speed Wrap Challenge in Johannesburg for a place at the FESPA Speed Wrap Masters in 2019. Contestants had to race against the clock to wrap a vehicle door to the best standards.

The second place winner was Nico Van Tonder who won R1750 and in third place was Daniel Botha who won R1000.

Sponsors

The event was sponsored by platinum sponsor Roland and vinyl sponsor Grafiwrap (distributed by Maizey Plastics).

Upcoming challenges

If you are a wrap champion, then enter the Speed Wrap Challenge at the upcoming Sign Africa expo’s:
Zambia: 6-7 June, Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Lusaka
Johannesburg: 12-14 September, Gallagher Convention Centre.

SIGN AFRICA
+27114501650 
dyelan@practialpublishing.co.za
www.signafricaexpo.com

Relativ Media Acquires Graffiti

Relativ Media Acquires Graffiti

Brett Tucker, Chairman of Relativ Media Large Format announced the outright purchase of Graffiti Media. MD Richard Wilkinson and his team have already joined the Relativ Media Large Format team, to become renamed Relativ Impact, at their new offices in Sandton.

‘Relativ Media has experienced a fantastic growth spurt over the last few years and with the addition of the Graffiti Media solution, our advertisers are spoilt for choice with high impact sites and media platforms across South Africa. Wilkinson will take over the MD position of Relativ Impact,’ said Tucker.

Wilkinson added, ’The purchase of Graffiti by Relativ Media Large Format was a natural progression for us. Being able to use a strong national sales team and Relativ’s existing infrastructure is a massive bonus. Added to that, and under the guidance of Andrew Cooper as National Sales Director, we have a winning combination to really ramp up our business offering.’

Wilkinson has more than twenty years in the media industry, beginning in radio and running his own media consultancy before establishing Impact Media with Graffiti Designs in 2005.

‘The opportunity arose for Relativ Media to acquire Graffiti Media in May 2018, one which made complete business sense,’ said Wilkinson. ‘As a combined entity, my focus will be to develop the Relativ Impact brand into one of the largest and most innovative out of home media companies in South Africa.’

The Relativ Impact company currently has digital properties including airports, 180 out of home sites and eight digital sites countrywide. Coupled to this, several new and innovative platforms are planned for the near future. ‘This acquisition has significantly strengthened our sales force and amped up our overall leadership team, each holding their own areas of expertise in the industry. We’re confident that we have a bright future ahead,’ said Tucker.

RELATIV MEDIA 
+27832357509
info@relativmedia.co.za
relativmedia.co.za

McCann, Picture Tree And TEARS Form #MeToo Movement Collaboration

McCann, Picture Tree And TEARS Form #MeToo Movement Collaboration

McCann, Picture Tree And TEARS Form #MeToo Movement Collaboration
McCann Worldgroup Johannesburg, Picture Tree and the Transform Education About Rape and Sexual Abuse (TEARS) Foundation collaborated for a campaign that promotes awareness of child abuse via the #MeToo movement.

The #MeToo movement gained prominence late in 2017, when the hashtag sparked frank and meaningful exchanges about the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. The famous women who first dared to speak out, the ‘silence breakers’, were consequently named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2017 and the movement is still going strong.

With millions of online mentions to date from dozens of different countries, it has splintered into sub-conversations and pledges from groups who undertake to change their behaviours. Ultimately, it has legitimised the once-taboo topic of sexual violence and paved the way for ongoing global dialogue.

McCann’s new #MeToo campaign, consisting of executions for television, print and social media, aims to build on the momentum of the original movement with a specific focus on young children who cannot yet take advantage of the online conversations.

A hero commercial recently started flighting on South African television screens and aims to point out that child abuse victims are often left to deal with the pain and trauma of violence in isolation. The narrative kicks off with slow and languid shots of children in a classroom, enjoying typical activities like playing and colouring in.

One child is shown to be considering her artwork more carefully than the others, and her masterpiece is not shown until a sudden and stark revelation that she had written #metoo instead of the typical childlike drawings of her classmates.
According to director Bevan Cullinan, the contrast between the initial light tone and abrupt and dark twist helped to bring the message home that child abuse is going on right under our noses and where we least expect it.

Perhaps best known for his comedic work, Cullinan and a highly skilled crew felt compelled to tackle this serious subject matter for a worthy cause. ‘I hope that the commercial will resonate with victims as well as those carrying knowledge of abuse and will ultimately empower them to take action and to report crimes of this nature,’ he said.

Mick Blore, chief creative officer at McCann Worldgroup South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa said, ’It’s a sobering statistic that 34% of children in South Africa are the victims of sexual violence and physical abuse before they reach the age of 18. The problem is that the #MeToo movement is essentially a social idea, and this automatically excludes young children who don’t make use of social media.

Ironically, children are one of the age groups most taken advantage of, sexually molested and raped.’

The TEARS Foundation is a local NGO specialising in assisting and supporting young victims of sexual violence. Mara Glennie, founder of the foundation said, ‘It is our collective legal duty as responsible citizens to protect all children against abuse and to report abuse when we suspect it.’

She continued, ‘Through the #MeToo campaign, we opted to communicate a USSD number that can be dialled to access the contact details of the nearest help centre. Although abuse cannot be officially reported through the foundation, we provide access to crisis intervention, advocacy, counselling, and prevention education services for those impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault and child sexual abuse.’

MCCANN 
+27112354600
www.mccann.co.za

Guerrilla IMC Unveils Sandton Mega Format Site

Guerrilla IMC Unveils Sandton Mega Format Site

Guerrilla IMC unveiled its latest iconic Sandton Mega Format site situated at 92 Rivonia Road. The new icon is directly over the road from Sandton City, perched between Webber Wentzel and Werksmans Attorney’s office complexes and is visible to consumers as they leave the Gautrain station.

Printed on ContraVision with impressive dimensions of 30m x 17.5m, this icon creates a full 525 square metre canvas for a blue-chip brand. MTN and their media agency OMD were first to grab this opportunity and manoeuvred a number of other big brands to take ownership of Sandton with this iconic structure.

Guerrilla IMC’s Simon Allenberg was the man behind the deal and he said, ‘We’ve wanted to create something seriously impressive within the OOH Industry and especially in the Sandton CBD area, but this has taken it to the next level from both an impact and location point of view. 92 Rivonia Road is one of those prominent Mega Format sites that ended up being so much bigger and better once complete. It gives the whole of Sandton CBD a ‘New York’ Times Square feel and takes Guerrilla IMC down an exciting path for future developments. FYI, the next one is on the way.’

GUERRILLA IMC
+27110218347 
matthew@guerrilla-imc.co.za
www.guerrilla-imc.co.za

Hellocomputer And Umuzi Launch Creative Programmer Learnership

Hellocomputer And Umuzi Launch Creative Programmer Learnership

FCB Africa’s digital agency, Hellocomputer, partnered with Umuzi to establish a creative programmer learnership to address the chronic shortage of programmers and drive transformation.

Based on the premise that the closer the training environment matches that of future employers, the more likely its learners are to succeed and excel, Umuzi offers free one-year learnerships that produce entry-level but high-calibre creative professionals.

Hellocomputer managing director, Joey Khuvutlu and head of technology, Nick Bester, worked with Dibwe Kalangu and Niklas Peters of Umuzi to define the syllabus to prepare programmers for the creative industry.

‘With technology driving innovation in all sectors, and increasingly so in the advertising and marketing sector, there’s a dire shortage of programmers, despite barriers to entry being low and two out of three developers/programmers being self-taught,’ said Khuvutlu.

‘This space has historically been white male orientated, which provides Hellocomputer with an ideal opportunity to make a difference in a way that goes beyond ticking boxes on a scorecard.

‘Programming is, in a nutshell, a gateway for the previously disadvantaged to take part in the job economy of the future. The Umuzi model is ideal because learners get paid a monthly stipend, qualify with a National Certificate accredited by MICT Seta, and gain work experience at leading and established top employers. The learners are exposed to real-life work situations and environments while having the freedom to discover their creative identity and upskilling in critical thinking and technical skills.’

In addition to helping Umuzi create a highly-relevant learnership syllabus, Hellocomputer kickstarted the programme with R250,000 in 2017 to fund the inaugural learnerships of the new programme. The programme has quickly grown to 30 young people on learnerships, supported by several employers.

Umuzi’s managing director, Gilbert Pooley said, ’The product team is the cross-functional unit of production in today’s leading tech and creative companies. We’ve repositioned our learnership offering to prepare young people with the skills every product team needs: Coding, UX Design, UX Research, Product Management, and our newest learnership, Data Science. Essential to our model is that young people learn these skills on-the-job, in an integrated, product-oriented environment,’

Hellocomputer has committed to fund more learnerships in the coming years and to rally more digital agencies to do the same.

‘Hellocomputer works hard on transformation across all its departments and at all levels of management and leadership. The recent appointment of four women into senior positions in both Johannesburg and Cape Town offices is a testament to this. We do have a strong point of view on focusing our transformation investments and initiatives in programming and other technology disciplines.’

‘Umuzi’s holistic learnership framework is such a good fit on so many levels. Not only does it take into consideration the socio-economic realities faced by black youth, recruitment is done via social media with a focus on youth who have had to pause their tertiary education due to financial reasons. I’m so excited to see how far this can take us,’ Khuvutlu said.

Vicinity Media: Brand Safety And Viewability

The digital media industry’s latest obsessions are brand safety and viewability. Two closely linked topics born out of the controversial practice of programmatic advertising. Programmatic does serve certain purposes but more often than not it’s about trying to get inventory at the lowest possible rate, without actually knowing exactly where your ads are going. (Not knowing where your ads are going… bizarre isn’t it? Especially when some of the players involved claim to be location experts, but that’s the digital world we live in).

Programmatic media buys will typically target certain categories and buy inventory at the cheapest rate in a blind auction. This results in ad placements that are hidden below the fold at best, or behind other ad units at worst. Some of these ads are never seen by actual people but have achieved decent click-through rates. The fact that ads that can’t be seen are still being clicked exposed the problem of fake clicks and ad fraud and this has all led to the concept of viewability.

Yes, it’s a murky space and many CMOs have rightly called on their agencies to closely look at any programmatic buying. The simple rule for marketers should be, if a media owner can’t show you where your campaign is going to be live (for even a single impression), because they don’t know where it is, then don’t buy it.

Closely linked to viewability is the topic of brand safety. Marketers who are buying ads in blind networks have come to the rude awakening that sometimes these blind networks end up placing their ads exactly where they don’t want them to be. Next to terrorist communication or porn for example. While this is often amusing for the objective viewer, the brand damage can be massive.

Over the last three years, Vicinity has been hard at work fine-tuning it’s well over 200 placements to ensure viewability. All of our premium publishers have either an adhesion banner or an infeed, paragraph breaking MREC. These are the two best performing mobile units because they’re either always visible or visible in the article, so on screen for a number of seconds before being scrolled. And with great viewability comes great performance – our curated network consistently achieves over 1% CTR.

We have now successfully integrated with the majority of the viewability tracking software around and have enjoyed excellent initial results. Our first test campaign run with IAS tracking has had a 99% success rate.

Brand safety is easier to achieve. Simply buy premium inventory and there’s no chance you’ll end up with your ads in compromising environments.

Are these two industry buzzwords further death knells to the programmatic market? Probably not, but they will change it for the better.

VICINITY MEDIA
+27218346/7/8
info@vicinity-media.com
www.vicinity-media.com

FCB Connect Appoints Head Of Creative

FCB Connect Appoints Head Of Creative

FCB Connect appointed Rohan Reddy as Head of Creative with responsibility for curating the creative product of the group’s affiliate agencies on the continent, particularly for clients and brands with a global footprint or a presence in markets across Africa.

Highly respected as both a leader and a creative, Reddy has 25 years’ experience at agencies in several different African countries including The Hardy Boys, DDB, MetropolitanRepublic, Ogilvy Johannesburg and The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg, Roots255 in Tanzania and MetropolitanRepublic in Uganda and Rwanda.

During this period, he worked on brands like MTN, Jockey, Carmel, Total, Bayer SA, Chalkham Hill Press, DStv South Africa, DStv Africa, SABMiller, Glaxosmithkline, Sun International Resorts & Casinos, Highveld Stereo 947, Nedbank, Emperor’s Palace Casino, KIA Motors, Jack Daniels, Airbnb, Bidvest, Prudential Investment Managers and Heineken.

As a freelancer, Reddy contributed to Vodacom, KIA, Windhoek Lager, VISA, Nedbank, FNB, MORE Safaris and Dimension Data campaigns.

Reddy’s list of industry achievements includes wins at The Loerie Awards Festival, The Eagles, Creative Circle and FNB SAMA Awards (South African Music Award), as well as entries in ‘The Best of South African Advertising & Design 1994 – 2000’.

He was also invited by the South African Design Society to submit designs for the new South African Coat of Arms and for several years was the South African consultant to the Benetton COLORS magazine.

FCB Africa Executive Business Director, Cobus van Zyl said, ’We’re very excited to have Reddy on our team, particularly given his vast experience in several African countries’.

‘This includes having been responsible for overseeing MTN’s creative in the 21 countries that the telecoms operator was doing business in outside of South Africa during the late 2000s as well as work on blue chip brands in the banking and alcoholic beverages markets on the continent. This augurs well for FCB Africa’s clients intent on growing their presence in Africa,’ said van Zyl.

FCB  
www.fcb.co.za

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