We started listing the 30 most trafficked stories on MarkLives in 2012 on Monday and yesterday we hit the top 20. Today we publish the 10 best-read stories published on MarkLives during 2012.
10 The biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA (November update)
The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period July 2012 to September 2012. Here are a couple of numbers that popped out for us. We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA!
9 The agency blueprint that rocked the ad market
Two years ago the scene was radically different for Mike Abel, who had just returned from a stint in Australia, to start his own agency. As any agency person departing that market for these home shores will tell you, the locals instantly starts talking tail between the legs, didn’t cut it, running for home wounded stuff. The 2010 edition of the Financial Mail’s AdFocus simply ignored him and his new agency, M&C Saatchi Abel.
He hired a bunch of high-profile, high salary partners into a start-up business, which had yet to sign a single client. How much money can one man burn?
8 The biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA (August update)
The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period April 2012 to June 2012. Here are a couple of numbers that popped out for us. We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA!
7 Cell C puts new agency decision on review
Cell C has put its new agency appointments, which was formally announced to the media and industry on February 10, under review. Cell C had announced the appointment of FoxP2, King James, Prima Plus and Trigger/Isobar as its ad agencies.
In a rather terse statement Karin Fourie, Senior Manager: Public and Media Relations at Cell C, stated that “the new CEO is currently reviewing the appointment of an agency or agencies” and refused to comment further or to respond to a request to clarify the one-liner.
6 Capitec’s 6 P’s of marketing
Today’s consumer is bad news for the banking industry. They are an unhappy bunch, as the Global banking survey 2011 by Ernst & Young revealed, when it found that nearly half of SA’s banking consumers felt unsatisfied with the service they experience from their bank.
Service quality was given as the primary motivation for switching banks by 96% of South African customers according to Ernst & Young who also found that South African customers are the most sensitive to price, with 57% citing it as a main reason for a change of bank.
It’s easy to hate banks. The bureaucracy, the hidden costs, the soulless, soul destroying slog of resolving any issue that doesn’t fit the clearly templated existence of their customer “support” personnel, the stupid office hours…
5 Thorsten Heins interview Pt 2: Secrets of BlackBerry 10
In the second part of this interview, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins tells Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) about competing with Apple, how the BlackBerry’s notorious freezes have been overcome, and reveals the company’s secret weapon.
4 In SA Samsung tablet sales figures are closing in on iPad numbers
The days of the iPad’s dominance of the tablet market are numbered. Until recently, more than two thirds of tablets sold across the world have been made by Apple. That has afforded the manufacturer the luxury of dictating the direction of the market, from size to functionality to case studies of ideal uses.
But that is all about to change. And the South African market offers a good indication of the coming shift in the balance of tablet power.
3 EXCLUSIVE: Cell C drops King James, FoxP2 – retains Ogilvy
Cell C has decided to drop King James and FoxP2 as its advertising agencies. Cell C had announced in February that it had appointed FoxP2, King James, Prima Plus and Trigger/Isobar as its ad agencies. King James and FoxP2 were to replace Ogilvy Johannesburg. Ogilvy will now be retaining the Cell C business.
The news in February that FoxP2 and King James would take over the account had hardly been announced when the account move was frozen. Alan Knott-Craig had been appointed new Chief Executive Officer of Cell C and had not been party to the decision on the new agency appointments, while Cell C brand and marketing communications executive Mandy Waddington, who presided over the agency appointment process, left the company.
2 The most popular mobile phone in South Africa is …
Mainstream media tend to be heavily focused on the very latest, very shiniest phones on the market, or on the very coolest apps that feed these phones. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, it is all about what can dazzle the most. As a result, no one seems to notice the humble devices that truly underpin this market.
So, despite only 20% of phones in use in South Africa being smartphones, the category gets 99% of the attention. Yet, 32-million South Africans use devices called “feature phones”, the regular phones that can’t be upgraded.
1 BBC interview with father of Chad le Clos and why it is a loss for the free Internet
In a stunning victory South African swimmer Chad le Clos took gold in the 200m butterfly at London 2012. Le Clos’s father, Bert, was being interviewed by the BBC shortly after Le Clos received his medal. His father, emotional and excited at once, gave an interview pundits in the States have referred to as the “media moment of the games so far.”
South Africans accessing the BBC website wanting to watch the interview with the father of their newly minted national hero will receive nothing but the le clos farther bbc interviewfollowing message “Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.”
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