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A question of trust

A new survey on levels of trust between the public and governments, business, NGOs and the media has just been released. The Edelman 2011 Trust Barometer tries to gauge the attitudes regarding the state of public trust in these institutions across 23 countries. Although the survey does not extend to Africa, it does draw some interesting conclusions on how, why and when people trust.

The survey participants make up a well-educated and media literate group.

Trust in NGOs is relatively high, with 61% of participants saying they trust NGOs to do what is right, while 56% will say the same for business, 52% will trust government and 49% expressed trust in the media.

Differences in developing vs developed

Differences in the developing vs developed economy markets emerge quite clearly in the survey, with people in emerging economies such as Brazil (81%), India (70%) and China (61%) largely believing that business will do what is right, compared to developed markets such as France (48%), the UK (44%) and the US (46%), where the majority of survey participants are sceptical.

In emerging economies, the media might well be less-focused on issues that may negatively affect brands, including green-washing, labour exploitation and consumer issues, at the same time as people are looking to corporations to improve living conditions through employment. Trust in NGOs are on par with that of business in emerging markets but remain more trusted than business in developed markets, according to the survey.

In terms of trusting specific industries to do what is right, participants scored tech (81%), automotive (69%) and telecom (68%) firms highest. Insurance (52%), banks (51%) and financial services (50%) made up the bottom three sectors, not surprisingly given the recent global financial crisis and following recession. Trust in the financial sector was hurt hardest in developed economies, dropping from 71% to 25% in the US, and from 46% to 16% in the UK.

Asked what matters most for corporate reputation, product/service quality (69%), transparency (65%), trust (65%) and employee welfare (63%) ranked highest while financial return to investors ranked lowest (31%) (once again the financial sector misses the trust boat).

Read the full story on BizCommunity

Ogilvy & Mather expands investment in local office

Ogilvy & Mather has upped its stake in local subsidiary Ogilvy South Africa from 49.9% to 59%. According to Moss Mashishi, chairman of Ogilvy Africa and Ogilvy SA, the deal signifies the maturing relationship between the global and the local office, which he says has always been a flagship in the larger Ogilvy & Mather network.

Mashishi told Bizcommunity.com that discussions have been ongoing for a while now as Ogilvy & Mather had previously expressed a desire to increase its exposure to emerging markets in Africa and elsewhere.

Few operational changes expected

As Ogilvy SA is a private company, financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. According to Mashishi, the transaction will not affect the company’s BEE score level. He expects few operational changes as Ogilvy & Mather is already represented at board level at the local group and has expressed confidence in the local management team. Nunu Ntshingila, CEO of Ogilvy SA, was recently appointed to the global board.

The investment gives the local group access to equity needed to drive further expansion in to Africa, says Mashishi. Ogilvy Africa is already operating in 25 African countries and territories and the SA office will help drive growth of the group’s current African footprint.

In a media release announcing the share acquisition Miles Young, Global CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, stated, “Obtaining majority share of our South African operations was an inevitable next step for our growth strategy in Africa, which I passionately believe is one of the last great frontiers in global communications… It is one of our network’s strongest performers in terms of creativity and business growth.”

Increase stake in Mindshare SA

WPP, owner of the Ogilvy & Mather network, also announced that it has agreed to increase its stake in Mindshare South Africa – acquiring shares previously held by Ogilvy SA. Mindshare will now form part of the GroupM network of companies within SA. According to Mashishi, Ogilvy SA will exit the media buying business in a bid to focus on its core offering and to properly consolidate it investments.

Ogilvy SA has over 700 staff based in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Clients include BP, Cell C, KFC, MultiChoice and SABMiller.

Mindshare, a media buying and planning operation, has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town and employs 96 people. Key clients and partners include Kellogg, KFC, LG, MTN, MultiChoice, Sun International and Unilever.

Originally published on Bizcommunity.com Marketing & Media | South Africa – click to see more comments.

City Press defends journo as ANCYL responds to ombudsman’s findings

City Press editor Ferial Haffajee says her reporter, Piet Rampedi, has been subject to a general campaign of defamation by the ANC Youth League and its leader Julius Malema. This follows a media statement by the ANCYL (published here on Politicsweb) calling on City Press to take action against the journalist, following a judgement by the press ombudsman.

Original complaint about five stories

The original complaint, filed with the ombudsman by Phuti Mosomane, the spokesperson of Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale, complained about five stories published at various times in the City Press.

The stories in question, “Pravin guns for fat cats – Limpopo first target in fat-cat fight” (14 February 2010), “Cadres – Finance minister orders investigation into corruption” (14 February 2010), Malema’s “R140 tender riches – Nationalisation’s frontman is a big entrepreneur” (21 February 2010), “Juju’s dodgy R27m bridges” (28 February 2010) and “Revelling and rallying mix at Juju’s big bash” (7 February 2010), related to allegations of corruption within the Limpopo provincial government and Malema’s business interests in the province.

The case was heard in September 2010 and taken on appeal by City Press. The appeal has since been dismissed.

Found against one of five complaints in first story

On the first story, reporting on a probe into multimillion-rand tender processes in Limpopo which are “likely to suck in a number of top ANC and government officials doing business with the state,” the ombudsman found against City Press in one of the five complaints lodged against the story.

The story, the ombudsman says, makes a national investigation (all nine provinces received a letter from the Treasury announcing investigation of malpractices) into corruption look like a local one focused on Limpopo. At the same time, it dismissed complaints that suggestions in the story – that the premier might be at the centre of the investigation or that the probe may extend to the Premiers cadres and friends – were unfair.

According to Haffajee, City Press was only aware of the one letter at the time of publication, and a call by her personally to the Treasury to ascertain whether other provinces had received similar letters, was dodged by officials unwilling to reveal the graft-busting theme of the upcoming budget speech. Haffajee says she has apologised to the premier of Limpopo if he felt singled out by the paper’s reporting.

Read the full story on BizCommunity

Cell C – from apologetic to annoying

Associated Magazines has just placed an audio ad featuring Trevor Noah on behalf of Cell C in the latest editions of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine and new collector’s edition House and Leisure Food. “Welcome to the World of Cell-C,” the sound insert squeaks out as you flip through the special four-page ad, “The power is in your hands.”

And, indeed, it is as users of social network Twitter launched an initiative to document sightings of torn-out Cell C adverts.

Vanessa Berger tweeted that “i never want to hear trevor noah’s voice again.can’t escape it: tv ads, my cell c voicemail and now magazine ads! what’s next honestly” while marketing blog Cherryflava tweeted, “Just received a magazine that has Trevor Noah audibly shouting about Cell C.Never felt like killing a magazine before.” Justin Zawyrucha wrote, “My missus ripped it out of 3 mags in bouts of fury, then stomped on device to ensure it never squawked again.”

Others have tweeted about ads torn out in the dentists waiting room, annoyed airplane passengers enduring Noah in a confined space with no (safe) exit, people ripping out ads in restaurants and even torn-out Cell C ads left in the lifts of buildings. It prompted one Tweep to ask whether Cell C might fast becoming South Africa’s most-hated brand.

This could not be the reaction Associated Magazines, Cell C or its ad agency Ogilvy Johannesburg could have envisioned.

At first glance, the idea seems like a win-win for all parties. Cell-C creates an ad that engages its target market, it positions the brand as innovative and pushing the boundaries, and, hey, it’s the world of Web 2.0 with all its interactivity and ‘conversations’ so why not translate this print media?

In the media release on the ad, Cell C marketing executive Mandy Waddington even talks about the “convergence of the digital channels into the print environment”. Associated, meanwhile, gets to show advertisers it is willing to stick its necks out and make some good money along the way.

In reality, the talking magazine ad simply underscores the single dimension that is magazines. There is nothing interactive or conversational (ie two-way) about a print ad that talks. It’s also nothing new, in spite of Associated’s claim that it is introducing “new technology to the print medium”. A quick search on the Internet reveals that Twix did it in Rolling Stone in 1995, the British Radio Advertising Bureau did it in a trade title in 1996, while Absolut did it in Vanity Fair as long ago as December 1989.

The real question nobody seems to have asked is why this hasn’t ever taken off in a big way? There might be a reason talking magazine ads haven’t really caught on.

They are invasive in a medium whose lack of invasiveness remains one of its strongest selling points. They are also irritating as those Tweets so clearly indicate. It’s great fun for three-year-olds; for everybody else trying to escape the daily grind in the peace and familiarity of a good magazine read, less so.

Vanessa Raphaely, editor of Cosmopolitan, maintains she is happy with the ad. “We would certainly do it all over again,” says Raphaely. “What else is creating buzz right now? The ad is new, fresh, bold and attention-grabbing. It cuts right through the clutter. For all the haters (and bloggers sometimes must stir things up to drive traffic) there have been far more positive responses. (I can send you the Twitter streams, if you like.) We’re happy.”

“The advert has caused a wonderful buzz for Cell C, and has got readers talking about the ad as well as Cell C’s technology,” says Jaco-Louis Groenewald, PR manager at Associated Magazines. “Most of the feedback we received thus far was positive and we will definitely look at doing a campaign like this again. Our strategy is to continually innovate and integrate new technology into our products, allowing for multimedia campaigns for our advertisers.”

Not all the online feedback have been negative. Andrew Louw got to use the Cell C ad’s batteries to power an old Donkey Kong game from the early ’90s. Claudia Dantas tweets “cell c ad in cosmo is amazing. Wow. Well done cell c. Lol. Gets annoying when ur trying to flip the pages but still genius I think.”

Cool (the first time you open up the magazine) but annoying seems to just about sum up the campaign, which is designed to fit in with Cell-C’s drive to “consumer centricity”, engagement and ambitions at two-way marketing communication.

Personally, I think it’s all part of a master communication strategy designed to roll out phase two of Cell C’s brand repositioning – taking it from apologetic to annoying in one giant leap forward – in a bid to boost, well, something. Don’t be surprised if a full page ad shortly appears in the Sunday press. It will start:

Dear South African Cellphone User

… Several media are insinuating that talking magazines ads are downright annoying and that we are becoming South Africa’s most annoying brand and that Trevor Noah is possibly the most over-exposed (and annoying) brand spokesperson in the country.

We’ll be terminating their calls shortly.

Annoyingly but no longer apologetically yours,
Lars

Originally published on Bizcommunity.com Marketing & Media | South Africa – click to see more comments.

Avusa to discontinue SoccerLife 442, remains committed to consumer market

Avusa Magazines is closing down SoccerLife 442, the soccer lifestyle title it has been publishing for the past seven years. News of the closure comes in a memo from Avusa Magazines GM Justice Malala to staff that was leaked to Bizcommunity.com. The February 2011 issue, currently in the process of going out on newsstands across the country, will be the final one.
“After months of deliberation, Avusa Management has today taken the decision to discontinue publication of SoccerLife magazine,” Malala noted in the memo yesterday, Tuesday, 18 January 2011.

“The title has been with Avusa for seven years and the decision to terminate publication was taken after much painful discussion. Although SoccerLife has faced tough times in the past the extremely tough economic conditions of the past two years proved too hard for the title to survive.”

The title changed frequency a year ago, moving from bi-monthly to monthly in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and while it achieved good subscription and retail sales, it failed to garner support from advertisers, Malala told Bizcommunity during a phone interview. Statistics by the ABC reveal a total paid circulation of 21 483 for the title, 9185 from subscriptions and 11 631 from single sale copies.

Read the full story on BizCommunity.

BCCSA upholds “Justice Factor” right to editorial comment

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) has upheld the right to editorial comment of ‘The Justice Factor,’ a weekly political talk and current affairs show hosted by Justice Malala and broadcast on the eNews Channel.

The complainant, an individual, felt that Malala’s statements on former president Thabo Mbeki’s “no crisis in Zimbabwe” comments and current president Jacob Zuma’s call for lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe, which, according to the anchor, earned him the “Loser” title on the Justice Factor Show, was “distortion of facts and outright lies.”

The complainant, C Ngcukana, seem to have spent some time researching Malala’s career, including his stint as the launch editor of the now defunct Nigerian-backed newspaper ThisDay. The complaint, which reads as much as a personal attack on Malala as any anything else, also refers to “gutter journalism” and calls the presenter a plumber.

In its submission on behalf of eNews attorneys Dan Rosengarten and David Feinberg of Rosin Wright Rosengarten, accompanied by Olefile Bop Tshweu (regulatory affairs executive at eNews), Justice Malala and Debbie Meyer (executive producer, current affairs at e.tv), argued that naming Zuma a loser of the week was “an honest expression of opinion and was presented in such a manner that it clearly appeared to be comment, and was made on facts truly stated or fairly indicated and referred to in compliance with clause 35.2 of the Broadcasting Code. In the result we submit that the complaint is totally without merit and must be dismissed.

As for comments relating to Mbeki saying “there is no crisis in Zimbabwe,” Malala was simply quoting Mbeki directly.

In its ruling, BCCSA commissioner Gerrit Olivier writes:

“Politics is a value-related phenomenon; it is not an exact science; the difference between what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ is generally blurred, subjective and imprecise. Politics, therefore, is about contestation in view of the prevalence of different, even conflicting, value and belief systems, opposing policies and opposing agendas; different perceptions and interpretations about social issues. People engage in politics to maximise their deeply-felt convictions about social and moral values. Conflict and contestation are, therefore, the essence, the nature of political debate. Hence disagreement, contestation, propaganda and debunking are common features, if not the essence of the political debate. Agreement across the political spectrum, particularly in party political context, is rare, if not impossible. What is ‘true’ is always relevant; objectivity is well-neigh impossible, hence the application of ‘fairness’ and ‘accuracy in order to assess the merits or demerits of political contestation’.”

Read the full story on BizCommunity.

CNBC Africa restructuring, retrenching staff

CNBC Africa, the financial and business television network, is in the process of an organisational restructure that will result in job losses at the broadcaster, Alexander Leibner, CNBC Africa marketing manager, has confirmed to Bizcommunity.com.

According to Leibner, the company proposes to restructure its staffing levels and to streamline its business “in order to meet its actual and forecasted business levels in 2011 and thereafter”.

“As in any star-up, our business has grown significantly over the last four years,” says Liebner. “Operational inefficiencies resulting from an excess in staffing have arisen in a number of areas. The exercise to optimise the company’s operation is primarily structural rather than economic.

“The restructuring process is being facilitated by the CCMA and the restructuring which takes place, if any, will impact on only a few people in our Johannesburg office.”

Asked to clarify the number of people possibly affected, placed as high as 35% by one source, Leibner said the final number will only be determined once the legal process is completed though the CCMA’s facilitation.

Read the full story on BizCommunity.com

Mandela ‘death’ hoax exposes weakness of Twitter as news platform

The retweet didn’t kill the newsman, after all. As it turns out, the growth of Twitter simply reiterates the essential role of journalists in sifting through and filtering the rumour mill that hangs around the neck of the information economy. And a good thing it is, too.

This past weekend, users on social network Twitter inadvertently spread a rumour that Nelson Mandela had died. Many contributed to its spread by asking in tweets whether the rumour of his death was correct, thus spreading news of the rumour, rather than the rumour itself, but the end result was pretty much the same.

Lots of South Africans were left asking whether the former South African president and struggle-icon, now 92 and for years subject to rumours on his health, was still alive.

As any journalist worth their salt would have done, phone lines to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which manages Mandela’s name and legacy, and the African National Congress (ANC) got especially busy.

The Foundation dismissed reports of Mandela’s death, telling the media he was “well and on holiday.” It would later place a rather terse statement on its website saying “Mr Mandela is on holiday, resting. We would like to ask the media to respect his privacy. We have made a commitment in the past that should anything happen to Mr Mandela, we will inform the public.”

While it’s nice to know that the Foundation “have made a commitment” to inform the public in the case anything “should happen” to Madiba, they must also realise that they are probably not the only stakeholder in managing such news.

The ANC, in its statement railing against those behind the hoax and calling on Twitter to “stamp out misuse” on its network, described the (false) news of Mandela’s death as akin to creating “an atmosphere of panic and anxiety in the country.” It’s a clear indication of how they view the sad but ultimately inevitable demise of South Africa’s beloved statesman and icon. “Those behind this hoax are certainly people without any interest in the political and economic stability of South Africa, which we very much owe to the immense contribution by comrade Nelson Mandela – the country’s first democratically-elected President,” the statement concluded.

Social media has been playing an increasingly important part in people’s right to access to information. It bypasses censors and puts information, sometimes true, sometimes false, in the public domain, which effectively puts it in the laps of journalists. It’s a key part of the job of journalists to follow up on rumours, even (rather especially) if they prove to be untrue, and present that confirmation or denial to the public.

But calls on Twitter to monitor tweets and weed out false rumours are incredibly short-sighted and will impose an immense legal burden on the network. It makes the platform responsible for the content, and is a short skip and step to regulatory intervention, and the further curtailing of the free flow and exchange of ideas and information.

At the same time most users know to check reputable news sources when reading “breaking news” on Twitter, and while Twitter can break a story, news sites tend to have the confirmation up in a matter of minutes.

It is interesting to note that News24 published a story, from one of its newspaper stable mates, the Afrikaans weekly Rapport, on the rumour headlined “Mandela is ill” in which it dispelled news of Mandela’s death but noted that “Mandela’s health had recently deteriorated”.

The story, republished on the biggest news portal in South Africa, continued by saying that “several rumours about his health and imminent passing away were recently proven to be untrue.

But according to a reliable source, this time was different.” Rapport, a Sunday paper, is definitely more sensationalist than the daily papers and wires which News24 traditionally pulls its content from. The story seems to suggest that the rumours have some basis in fact, and that while the former President may still be alive, his condition is fast deteriorating.

It is worth noting that the original story, published on Saturday, differs substantially from the one published on in the paper on Sunday, which was headline “Mandela nié op sterfbed, maar wel siekerig” (Mandela not dying, only sickly).

Senior editors at News24 must be asking whether it’s worth the risk to their reputation as the go-to source for South African news when they pull content from such a diverse pool of newspapers, some with a more populist streak than others, and each with a different core audience in mind. It sounds like a reputational nightmare to me and intricately links their brand to that of another — one over which they have no say.

Read the original story here of the ‘death’ hoax here.

Reprinted from Memeburn.com

Media24 Magazines restructures: end of line for well-known publisher brands

Media24 Magazines is set to restructure into five new business units, John Relihan, CEO of Media24 Magazines, has confirmed. This follows publication of an internal memo outlining details of the process leaked to the blog MediaSlutZA. Media24 Magazines is the largest magazine publisher in the country.

Units affected

Current units affected include Atoll Media, 8Ink Media, Media24 Business Magazines, Media24 Family Magazines, Creative Living Magazines, Media24 Parenting Magazines, Media24 Specialist Magazines, Thought24, Touchline Media, Media24 Travel and Motoring Magazines, Uppercase Media and Woman360. Subsidiaries New Media Publishing, Famous Publishing and Ndalo Media are excluded.

According to Relihan, the restructuring aims to establish profitable, agile business units that can “deal with the challenges posed by a dramatically changed – and rapidly evolving – media landscape.” He says his company is no longer a traditional print-only magazine publisher, and its structures and business processes should reflect this.

According to the memo, the five new business units look as follows:

* Weeklies (GM: Willem Breytenbach):
Huisgenoot, YOU, Drum, heat, Huisgenoot/YOU/DRUM Editorial projects and Infographics
Agriculture cluster: Landbouweekblad, Landbou.com, FarmingSA, SA Jagter/Hunter

* Women’s Interest (GM: Liezl de Swardt):
Sarie, Lééf, Tuis/home, Idees/Ideas, SA Garden/Tuin Paleis
Fairlady, Shape, Psychologies, Seventeen
Your Pregnancy, Baby & Toddler, Baba & Kleuter

* Lifestyle (GM: Charlene Beukes):
Weg/go, WegRY/Drive Out, WegSleep
TopCar, FHM
NG Kids, NG Little Kids, NG Traveller
Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Sports Illustrated, Bicycling, Runner’s World, Golf Digest
Zigzag, Saltwatergirl

* Emerging Market (GM: Jonathan Harris):
True Love, Move!, Real
tvPlus
Kuier
Kick Off

* Business Mags24 (GM: Jacques Breytenbach):
Business-to-business Portfolio
Medical Portfolio
Custom publishing Portfolio (portfolios formerly residing with 8Ink and Touchline Media respectively)

Incorporate

The new Weeklies unit will incorporate Family Magazines and Specialist Magazines, as well as heat from Uppercase Media. Women’s Interest will incorporate Women360, Creative Living Magazines and Parenting Magazines. Lifestyle will incorporate Travel and Motoring, as well as titles from 8 Ink Media, Uppercase Media, Atoll Media and Touchline Media. Emerging Markets incorporates Thought24 and Kick Off from the Touchline stable. Finally, the new Business magazine division takes over the B2B titles plus custom titles.

Asked if the restructuring signals the end of the road for what was once effectively standalone media companies, including 8 Ink Media, Atoll, Touchline and Uppercase Media, Relihan answered in the affirmative. “Yes. All of these are wholly owned subsidiaries and licence agreements with international publishers (where applicable) are with Media24. In some cases (eg Touchline) a company might live on as a legal entity,” he says.

“Most important is that the brands that really matter – the magazine and their related products – will be incorporated into business units.”

Five new GMs

According to Relihan, he has only just appointed the five new general managers. “They have commenced the process to interview and appoint the rest of the publishing management positions from the internal applications received from current incumbents,” he explains.

Job losses are not expected within the editorial environment as no changes are being made within the actual titles – besides a change in reporting structures for those being moved into a new unit – nor within the publishing management structure, where there is fewer staff than the existing number of vacancies, according to Relihan.

He says the next step will be consolidating and aligning the publishing support structures with the business requirements of the newly defined business units. “This process will only commence once the publishing management structure has been populated and the final operational structure will be arrived at through thorough consultation with all staff involved,” he adds.

Relocating unclear

It’s still unclear if individual magazine titles will be relocating their physical offices after the restructuring is completed.

On the year ahead, Relihan says he expects the industry to continue to be fairly stable in the circulation stakes, even though the economy is not yet fully out of the recession as yet and consumers and disposable income remains still under pressure.

“Expect some fluctuations in circulation numbers and advertising revenues,” predicts Relihan. “Hopefully, most publishers used the hiatus to regroup and gear up for when the economy turns again (as it will). So, I am looking forward to the announcement of some interesting innovations – in particular around the growth of tablets and other e-reading devices – from the middle of the year onwards.”

For more, go to www.media24.com/en/magazines.html (which still needs to be updated to reflect the new structure).

Originally published on Bizcommunity.com Marketing & Media | South Africa – click to see more comments.

Grey SA appoints Sizakele Marutlulle new CEO

Grey EMEA has announced the appointment of Sizakele Marutlulle (known as Za) to lead the South African office of the agency. Marutlulle replaces outgoing CEO Tim Byrne on 1 February 2011.

Marutlulle is a former COO at South African Tourism and has been running her own communications consultancy called Moonchild. She was also deputy MD of HerdBuoys McCann-Erickson until 2004.

According to Marutlulle, her stint as SA Tourism COO has helped give her a greater global perspective of the challenges brands face.

“The world of tourism deals with nations and countries as destinations so, yes, familiarity with the global landscape of country brands did indeed give one a sense of similarity between consumer brands and nation brands – both are about competitive distinctiveness, on-going innovation and investing in unlocking consumer insights in order to remain contemporary,” she says.

“Great brands, whether local or global, succeed when the brand promise meets the brand experience consistently…”

Her short-term focus for the year ahead will lie in new business growth, 360 integration and retaining current staff.

Read the full story on BizCommunity