by MediaSlut (@mediaslut) The best international and local magazine covers in MagLove this week: Esquire Spain, Interview US (model issue), Thursday Magazine, My Tyd (Rapport) and Objekt South Africa.
Monthly archives: August 2013
Shelf Life: Redesigned Sodastream so hot we need a soda
Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
Olli Organic baby food range rebarnds; New rice brand from Allsome; Whiskas shelf stopper and Dotty over Sodastream design.
Media Future: LG is back
LG has long lagged behind Samsung in the smartphone market, but the new G Pro marks a convincing return, writes Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee)
Do you remember LG? If you do, it’s possibly because you have a TV set, washing machine or air conditioning unit carrying that brand. And then you’d know that it goes hand in hand with the slogan, “Life’s good”.
That’s not really what LG stands for, of course; it began life as a merger of the Lucky and GoldStar brands, and the Life’s Good handle is what’s known as a backronym.
Now LG wants to go back to the future it had envisaged for itself before its Korean compatriot at Samsung became the behemoth of cellphones.
Green Sky Thinking: Know your foodprint
by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) Nearly half the world’s food production never makes a plate. That’s two billion tons of food wasted, every year. Perversely, nearly one billion of the world’s population are malnourished. Put these two facts together and there’s clearly a distribution problem at the crux of the global food crisis.
Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Mnandi-licious
A no-nonsense fast food product that caters to the Everyman, the King Pie brand could retain its crown with a new ad that is fun, watchable and plays strongly to local culture. In terms of advertising, King Pie has been absent from television screens for quite a while.
A part of the South African fast food landscape since the dawn of democracy (which makes the brand 20 years old), King Pie’s ads haven’t always been this great. Previous attempts included a few “candid camera” style scenarios that didn’t quite hit the mark. But I think that this television ad is right on the money: it’s funny, it’s relevant, and it has a clever twist.
Tech Law: ANN7 sings the Streisand Effect blues
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) News channel ANN7 has been the object of both considerable ridicule and controversy lately. On the one hand, the 24 hour news channel launched by the similarly controversial Gupta family has been criticised for poor production values and content and, on the other hand, an Indian company known as Aiplex Software has been filing take down notices with YouTube in an effort to remove a growing number of satirical videos targeting the fledgling station.
Design Annotator: Shield and Spear
We are in full swing with our Creative Women series – our way to profile women in creativity who are breaking new ground in their respective fields. We have a chat to one of the most respected ECD’s in South Africa, Kerry Friend, who has been working at HelloComputer to merge the traditional advertising world with digital. We like her approach and the projects she has been head of recently. On the other side of the spectrum we also interview the duo behind Supernatural Floral Design – Emma Frost and Jessica Ellis – who have been behind some of the more creative floral designs we’ve seen in a while. Be sure not to miss our Black and White Film Photography Exhibition happening this week in Cape Town, as part of the Open Design Cape Town Festival.
KZN’s Vuma FM: breaking new ground for vernacular media
by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) Of the three new FM stations to hit the air waves in the past year, Vuma 103 FM in KwaZulu-Natal is the least talked about in media circles – and yet in many ways, it is the most interesting.
Both Smile FM in Cape Town and the Johannesburg-based Power FM got a lot of buzz when they launched (in March and June respectively) but Vuma FM has been on the air since November last year, quietly gaining audience. According to the latest RAMS figures from the South African Audience Research Foundation, out last week, Vuma FM was at 93 000 listeners (past seven days) – and that was only its urban audience.
Based in Durban but reaching most of KwaZulu-Natal, the station goes out in 90% isiZulu with 70% music – most of which is gospel and also more broadly inspirational.
Owned by KNI, a consortium led by Revered Abe Sibiya who also heads the One Gospel satellite TV station, Vuma is unusual in the South African media landscape because it is a vernacular product that targets upper LSM groups.
Most vernacular media offerings, such as the very successful Isolezwe newspaper, target the lower LSMs.
M&C Saatchi Abel revenue jumps 80%
by Herman Manson. M&C Saatchi Abel, the agency launched by Mike Abel and a senior team just over three and a half years ago, is expected to hit R100m in annual revenue (not billings) by the end of this year.
[Digital Grandad] 5 steps to better user experience design
Dear Digital Grandad – what the hell is UX all about?
We have appointed an agency to re-build out website and the costs include what the Account Director has line itemed as UX which is quite high. Regardless I haven’t got the foggiest what it is for and what it entails to build a website? Please help Grandad. I am getting all grumpy.
Regards
Mrs Gruppy
Dear Mrs Gruppy
WOW so you are in charge of rebuilding your website which is fantastic news (assuming the old is old) and you haven’t got a glue what UX is all about. Well little Missy here’s my thoughts in less than 140 characters
“Would you build a house without appointing an architect? Well the same goes with building a best in class website”