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The Rise Of Fake News And Anonymous Advertising

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The Rise Of Fake News And Anonymous Advertising
Image source: livemint

Media Monitoring Africa recently hosted Media Freedom Week and during the panel discussion, Chris Louw, Digital Strategist at Caxton Local Newspapers, said that the rise of fake news, anonymous advertising and the influence of political leaders on the media is concerning.

As a guest on the panel discussion ‘Are we ‘post-truth’ or ‘post-journalism’, and does it really matter’ Louw said that number of questions were raised, one of them being, whether or not journalism is under threat.

‘Too often the media is deemed to have ulterior motives around their reporting. Due to terminology like ‘fake news’, someone like Donald Trump can look at something that is reported and if he doesn’t like it, he says it’s fake news,’ said Louw. ‘This phenomenon is being repeated around the world. The credibility of things is being incorrectly questioned. The people who say the media has ulterior motives often have ulterior motives themselves.’

In recent times, brand safety has been in the spotlight, along with credible journalism. Chris feels that accountability is an important solution to this problem. ‘The media needs to start questioning itself more and asking itself more questions,’ he said.

He reiterated that one important aspect to keep in mind is the fact that the media still acts as a fourth estate, and still holds power to account. Local media publications are one example of how the media continues to act as a fourth estate, giving citizens the platform to be heard, as local media is often the first point of contact.

‘Local media should continue speaking to what they know and that’s reporting on local issues without fear of favour. If local media can maintain a standard of quality and credibility, they will be able to stand out from the rest,’ he said.

He added that the solution to the current problems faced by media requires a multi-focal approach, with innovation being an important avenue.

‘One of the most important things that are not spoken enough about is that we need to innovate. The days of regurgitating are gone. We need to ensure we are more involved with our communities. People don’t feel heard and local media has a massive role to play in that sense. They are the first point of reference.’

Marc du Plessis, Joint CEO of SPARK Media commented, ‘Fake news is a global problem and very difficult to identify and avoid. To combat this, an easy solution is to make use of whitelisted, trusted, known publisher marketplaces and websites. We also agree that local media has a crucial part to play in maintaining journalistic credibility.’

SPARK MEDIA
+27104928391
info@sparkmedia.co.za
www.sparkmedia.co.za

Mall Ads And Precious Love Boutique Open Retail Kiosk

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Mall Ads And Precious Love Boutique Open A Retail Kiosk

Precious Love Boutique recently opened a retail kiosk, which was facilitated by Mall Ads, at Davenport Square. The retailer’s original business model was selling cosmetics, fashion handbags and weaves via their online and social media platforms and now with a brick and mortar presence, it is increasing its customer base and total revenue.

Precious Love owner, well-known radio presenter and entrepreneur JD Mdu, decided that it was time to provide a physical experience for both current and potential customers and furthermore, grow the business. To meet these objectives, Mall Ads erected a strategically positioned kiosk at the recently refurbished Davenport Square.

‘After wanting to establish our business within a commercial space, our feasibility study steered us comfortably towards Davenport Square in Berea, Durban. After a few successful weekends of exhibitions, between August and September, we decided to pursue a permanent kiosk with Mall Ads. We felt at home dealing with Mall Ads as they have our business’ best interest at heart,’ said Mdu.

MALL ADS
john@provantage.co.za
www.provantage.co.za

 

 

DigitLab Releases Online Personal Branding White Paper

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DigiLab Releases Online Personal Branding White Paper

The Online Personal Branding white paper is presented as a valuable resource that’s not just relevant to digital marketers, but anybody trying to make a statement or achieve significant influence in their field. 

Many people are catching on to the value of building a strong personal brand after seeing great brands and celebrities using the internet to grow influence and leverage it to launch successful careers and campaigns.

According to Mike Saunders, DigitLab CEO, ‘Building a personal brand will help set you on a path for personal development, challenge you to improve, collate your thoughts and give you a clear vision of success. A personal brand will help you find focus and will drive your ability to take the steps needed to achieve your goals.’

The Personal Branding Paper covers everything from the introspective to the wildly practical, like how to make good hashtag decisions on social media and which apps make creating content easier than ever before.

DigitLab has presented the game plan on how to succeed in the cluttered world of the internet. Those who follow these guidelines will see their effectiveness, goals and influence grow steadily.

For access to the white paper, click here.

DIGITLAB (+27 10) 003 0200  info@digitlab.co.za digitlab.co.za

Boxer And Mindshare Launch Durban Media Service Offering

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Boxer And Mindshare Launch Durban Media Service Offering

As part of its media partnership with Boxer Supermarket, Mindshare’s responsibilities will consist of media planning and buying for the full-service supermarket and empowering the latest digital initiatives part of the *SHOP + service, which attributes location-based marketing to its online media activations.

Zia Namooya, Mindshare CEO, said, ’True and genuine partnership in client-agency relationships is something of a rarity in these challenging times. We hit it off with Mills and his team almost within the week of engagement. His energy is infectious and hard to ignore. To find a client who is also willing to help MS launch its offering with the Durban marketplace is also a winning combination. I cannot wait to welcome our brand further amongst media owners, talent in the area and also other exciting brands to work with.’

Andrew Mills, Boxer Marketing Director said, ‘We wanted to collaborate with a full media service agency that comprehensively understands the competitive retail environment that Boxer operates in, and in our ‘never settle for less than the best’ ethos, it is a natural progression that Mindshare and Boxer would forge such a partnership. This formidable arrow in the Group M quiver is well recognised by us and Boxer has thoroughly enjoyed all of the professional and objective discussions we have had to date. Welcoming Mindshare to Durban perfectly aligns both businesses on a voyage towards unlocking mutually beneficial opportunities.’

MINDSHARE
+27115826400 
namooya@mindshareworld.com
www.mindshareworld.com

Newcastle Municipality Appoints Outsmart As Taxi Rank Branding Partner

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Newcastle Municipality Appoints Outsmart As Taxi Rank Branding Partner

The Newcastle Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal appointed 100% black female owned outdoor advertising agency, Outsmart, as its preferred partner in the design, maintenance and operation of taxi rank branding, taxi rank TV and billboards in the municipality’s taxi rank network. 

Joyleen Mahanetsa, Managing Director at Outsmart said, ‘This is another feather in our cap that we are incredibly proud of. The OOH market is extremely competitive, so as a growing player we are humbled to take on this responsibility. We can’t wait to bring value not only to our advertisers but to that community too.’

This follows Outsmart’s successful tender bid to the Newcastle Municipality to exclusively operate in that OOH market. Newcastle is the seat for KZN’s Amajuba District and is the province’s third-largest urban centre.

Outsmart has proven itself a leader in unconventional and innovative OOH media solutions that are targeted at the LSM 4-8 markets. Their work in the tax rank environment is particularly notable, executing pioneering campaigns for their clients, including McDonald’s, MTN and African Bank.

Outsmart manages several mixed media OOH rights in Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. The company has also executed several campaigns at the country’s major airports.

The company is a member of FEPE International, a global OOH association that seeks to promote and improve the industry on behalf of its members. It is also a member of the Advertising Media Association of South Africa (AMASA).

‘Growing our footprint across South Africa will not only allow us to extend our reach for advertisers, but it is a massive win for small to medium enterprises. It showcases entrepreneurship and how those small companies can deliver superior results. Winning this latest tender affirms that our work ethic and values stand strong; that the work we deliver is carried out with integrity; and that the respect we have in the industry was honestly earned,’ said Mahanetsa.

OUT SMART
+27117813765 
info@o-s.co.za
www.outsmartooh.co.za

Acquia And Elastic Path Offer Content Experience Touchpoints

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Acquia And Elastic Path Offer Content Experience Touchpoints

Acquia has partnered with Elastic Path to offer ‘content-rich experiences across touchpoints’ for brands and merchants. Acquia will offer customers its content management system Drupal alongside Elastic Path’s commerce platform.

Michael Sullivan, Acquia CEO said, ‘Together with Elastic Path, we’re creating the potential for disruptive brands to redefine the customer experience and bring true elegance to content and commerce. Our combined approach provides the ultimate flexibility that enables rapid innovation along with the security and scalability that global brands require and that our customers are demanding.’

With the systems, retailers can deliver personalised content to various customer touchpoints such as digital signage, mobile phones and more. The solutions are also scalable.

Key capabilities of a combined Elastic Path-Acquia solution include:
• Flexibility: best of breed and built to fit a brand’s unique business model.
• Personalised: create content-rich, personalised content experiences for all customer touchpoints.
• Unified experiences: present a unified experience of content and commerce for buyers.
• Future proof: headless CMS and commerce architecture enables rapid innovation.
• Enterprise scale: compliance, security, scalability, and governance for enterprise demands.

Rajiv Rohmetra, CEO and co-founder, TA Digital said, ‘Monolithic systems stifle business agility. Single-stack turnkey solutions are purposely built for a web-commerce only paradigm and undermine innovation because of their poor extensibility. With Acquia and Elastic Path, our customers get the best of both worlds, an API-first solution for multichannel digital experience and commerce.’

ACQUIA www.acquia.com

ELASTIC PATH www.elasticpath.com

How To Improve Your Website’s Visibility

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Starbright: Four Stages of Making Your Website Search Engine Friendly
Image source: inwayhosting.com.

According to Starbright, when creating your business website, there are a few foundational elements which need to be implemented from the planning and development stages in order to boost its search visibility. The company unpacks each of these elements and what is considered important during these phases to improve your website’s visibility.

Stage 1 – website copywriting

With the help of search engine marketing specialists and keyword research, website copywriters will create content that contains the search phrases that’s relevant to your business. The inclusion of these words shouldn’t be unnatural and should be crafted in a way that creates an excellent user experience.

By combining great copywriting with keyword research, the likelihood of your website appearing in search results above the websites of your competitors improves. As an added benefit, creating the content before your website is designed will give the designer insights on the way the website structure should be planned. This will ensure that navigation will be easy for the user and search engines, which is a ranking factor.

Stage 2 – web design

Experienced website designers will always keep user experience and ease of navigation in mind. One of the most important elements of user experience is the website’s responsiveness, which makes it accessible to visitors accessing the site from their phones or tablets.

Additionally, there should be clear next steps for the user on each of the pages. Next steps enhance user experience and reduces your website bounce rate, which will in turn contribute a great deal to your keywords’ rankings.

Stage 3: website development

Leading website development companies use the latest technologies on both the content management system (website platform) they use to build your website and on the server (from a reliable hosting company). With this, they ensure that they create your website with the use of lightweight code that downloads quickly, a key ranking factor on Google since 2010.

In the website development phase, a quality controller will also check other elements that have a big impact on a positive user experience:
• Font size and colour – that makes the content easy to read
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• Tap element sizes – which is especially important for mobile users
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• Page layout – keeping the important content in places of prominence even when the user changes devices between completing a goal.

Stage 4: post-launch optimisation and continued improvement

Once your website has been launched, you should make it easy to find with the help of SEO and digital marketing services. Some website development and digital marketing companies offer a once-off SEO service that helps Google find and index your site for their search results pages. The once-off SEO service will include various technical elements but will focus on adding keywords to the relevant meta-tags to improve Google’s understanding of your website.

Keep in mind that a once-off SEO service won’t be the magic bullet that dominates Google’s results pages, it’s merely the final step in the website development process that gets your business noticed by Google’s bots.

A well-executed digital marketing strategy that includes SEO, content creation, Google Paid Advertising (Google Ads) and Social Media marketing will be the differentiating factor when you’re looking to grow your business.

STARBRIGHT (+27 12) 004 0080 starbright.co.za

OLC Runs #ScreamForFantaZA Campaign

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OLC Runs #ScreamForFantaZA Campaign

Offlimit Communications (OLC) and Fanta took over Halloween 2018 in a fun and refreshing way, by giving consumers an opportunity to score a free can of ice-cold Fanta with the #ScreamForFantaZA campaign. 

OLC Experiential brought an innovative vending machine to Montecasino. The task was to stand in front of the Fanta vending machine and scream to score a free Fanta. The machine was equipped with a scream-o-meter that gauged the decibels of the scream. If a person screamed loud enough, the meter filled up and a released a free Fanta.

‘Fanta is a fun youth brand, and when we were tasked with executing a Halloween stunt, we were excited to bring this idea to life. This is what we do, we create nuggets of buzz-worthy stunts that live on way after everyone has gone home and we have packed everything up. It’s about memorable moments that can be captured and shared,’ commented OLC Managing Director, Jerome Cohen.

OFFLIMIT COMMUNICATIONS www.offlimit.co.za

IAB Announces 2019 Bookmark Judges

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IAB Announces 2019 Bookmark Judges

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of South Africa (IAB SA) has announced a panel of industry leaders who will judge the 2019 Bookmark Awards. The awards, an IAB SA initiative, recognise and reward digital excellence and empower all members of the digital media and marketing industry to thrive in the digital economy.

Jerry Mpufane, chairman of the M&C Saatchi Abel JHB Group and jury president of the 2019 Bookmark Awards said, ‘I’m excited to be joined by this Bookmarks jury, a group of professionals who bring a diverse point of view to judging the best in digital. Our job is to define what is considered to be the brave and innovative in digital, setting apart what the industry will agree is the benchmark. We are experiencing a great response in the number of entries submitted, and cannot wait to get stuck in.’

‘We have a curated strong, highly-skilled, diverse panel of judges that represent the evolution of the digital industry, and South African audiences. We feel privileged to hear their unique insights on this year’s work,’ said Paula Hulley, CEO of the IAB SA.

This year, the entry criteria and measurement process for the Bookmark Awards was simplified, empowering all those entering to demonstrate what they have achieved to best set them up for success.

Ernst van der Merwe, creative director at Creative Spark and IAB SA Bookmarks Committee lead commented, ‘The Bookmark Awards celebrate the body’s key strategic pillar to ‘build brands digitally’ and the award’s core values of creativity, innovation and excellence. The awards consistently strive to offer a host of practical examples of how marketers, agencies and publishers have executed digital campaigns to deliver a sustainable impact on their business. Bookmarks 2019 is about allowing brands to be brave and giving them the platform and tools to illustrate the business impact of their campaigns.’

The IAB SA is proud of its multi-faceted panel of judges and is excited to see the result of their work in the coming months – specifically regarding business impact and creativity.

The IAB has divided the judging of work into seven jury panels: marketers, builders, publishers, innovation engineers, gamers, performance marketing and special honours.

List of judges

Marketers

• Jury chair: Tseliso Rangaka, executive creative director at Ogilvy.
• Thandeka Mali: lead creative strategist at Showmax.
• Leigh Augustus: CEO and strategist at The Niche Guys.
• Lorraine Landon: head of agencies at Google.
• Camilla Clerke: creative director at Hellocomputer.
• Zia Namooya: CEO at Mindshare Worldwide.
• Samu Makhathini: account director at Kantar MillwardBrown.
• Gareth McPherson: group executive creative director at Publicis Machine.
• Emma Carpenter: creative director at Accenture Interactive.
• Ryan McManus: chief creative officer at VML South Africa.
• Suzanne Myburgh: digital marketing and media head at FNB.
• Priya Thakoor: chief digital officer at Coca-Cola.
• Veli Ngubane: CCO/founder at Avatar.
• Aviv Weil: creative strategist at Facebook.

Builders

• Jury chair: Luke Jedeikin, Co-CEO at Superbalist.
• Hayley Doron-Weil: digital creative director at FCB.
• Rory Jacobs: multimedia creative director at The Niche Guys.
• Phillipa Hickman: tech lead at VML South Africa.
• Audrey Naidoo: head digital marketing at Absa.
• Walter Madzonga: group executive at Independent Media.
• Danielle Mascher: head of development at Digitas Liquorice.
• Agisanang Masekela, creative director at Ogilvy Johannesburg.
• TinaShe Makwande: publisher News24 at 24.com.
• Annette Muller: CEO and founder at Flexy force.
• Riaan Wolmarans: managing editor, digitalat Tiso Blackstar.
• Emma Dicks: co-founder at Code Space.

Publishers

• Jury chair: Izak Minnaar, editor: SABC Digital News at SABC.
• Chris Louw: head of digital content at Caxton.
• Razia van der Schuur: group head: social media at Independent Media.
• Musa Kalenga: chief future officer at Brave Group.
• Terry Levin: creative director at Bizcommunity.
• Uno de Waal: MD at Between 10 and 5.
• Deirdre Ingpen: Head of commercial at 24.com.
• Lebogang Boshomane: Editor Sowetan Live and Sunday World Online at Tiso Blackstar.
• Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy: Strategic media partnerships at Facebook Africa.
• Charlotte Kilbane: Editor in chief at EWN.
• Jacquie Mullany: creative director at VML South Africa.

Innovation Engineers

• Jury chair: Jade Amic, creative director at VML.
• Ahmed Kajee: head of digital marketing and social media at Nedbank.
• Brendan Arries: senior front-end developer at Hellocomputer.
• Gregory King: creative director at Ogilvy.
• Amanda Louw Bester: founder – consultant at Pragmattica.
• Ricky Hendricks: digital marketing manager at Tencent Africa.
• Elizma Nolte: regional marketing manager at Facebook.
• Ernst van der Merwe: executive creative director at Creative Spark.

Performance Marketing

• Jury chair: Clare Trafankowska: Head of digital at Carat.
• Cherise Rogers: Head of Fast at Mindshare.
• Matthew Arnold: Chief engagement officer at VML.
• Parusha Partab: Head of strategy at Nova (formerly Creative Spark).
• Ariel Sumeruk: MD at Conversion Science.
• Farahnaz Thompson: General manager operations TSS at 24.com.
• Tasmin Kingma: Head of media at Hoorah.
• Antonio Petra: Innovation, data, and digital director at FCB.
• Pilira Mwambala: Ad operations director at Mark 1.
• Naledi Mashego: Managing director at Black Cherry Media.
• Bea Strauss: Head of supply at AdJoin Media.
• Naledi Mashego: Managing director at Black Cherry Media.

Gamers

• Jury chair: Candice Goodman, CEO at Mobitainment.
• Graham Talbot: National head of development and technology at Ogilvy.
• Adrien Dawans: Creative technologistat VML South Africa.
• Luane Swart: Head of development at MobiMedia.
• Smilo Gosa: Manager for Ekasi Esports mgo (Multi-gaming organisation) at Ekasies Sports.
• Carmen Murray: Founder at Boo-Yah!.

Special Honours

• Jury chair: Charlene Beukes: GM, 24.com News at 24.com News.
• Alistair Mokoena: Chief executive officer at Ogilvy South Africa.
• Andrew Levy: MD at Umuzi.
• Chris Borain: MD at One Republic.
• Lisa MacLeod: Head of digital at Tiso Blackstar.
• Julia Raphaely: CEO at Associated Media Publishing.
• Ben Schoderer: Digital manager at Yum! Restaurants International, Africa.
• Jarred Cinman: CEO at VML.
• Karabo Songo: Group CEO at Brave Group.
• Wayne Hull: CEO at Accenture Interactive.
• Asha Patel: Head of marketing at Google.
• Paula Hulley: CEO at IAB.
• Kantha Govender: General manager at IAB.

 

THE BOOKMARKS thebookmarks.co.za

JCDecaux Colombia And Baileys Create Milkshakes Through Interactive Bus Shelter

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JCDecaux Colombia And Baileys Create Milkshakes Through Interactive Bus Shelter

Baileys partnered with JCDecaux Colombia to create an interactive game at a bus shelter in Bogota. Passers-by were invited to create their dream milkshake with Baileys and a dozen of ingredients on the screen.

JCDECAUX www.jcdecaux.com.co

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