by Erna George. One of my pet hates is those global brands who arrive on our shores thinking they can fill a gap in any market in Africa without altering their product, packaging or communication. While possibly an acceptable position in 1995 when our country was making its way back into the global economy, this has been a no-no for some time.
Tag archives: africa
Africa Annual – our Influential, Must Follow Twitter List
Ornico and MarkLives have teamed up to present our first ‘The Africa Annual‘, a compilation of some of Africa’s remarkable stories and resources for businesses; and media, marketing and branding enthusiasts. This is our list of influential, must follow individuals for perspective on and insight into the continent.
Samsung sales figures for Africa shows strong appetite for top-of-the-range phones
by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Thursday night will see one of the biggest product launches in the history of the technology. Samsung’s new flagship phone, expected to be called the Samsung Galaxy S4, has already been declared the new all-things-to-all-people smartphone, further dethroning the faltering Apple iPhone 5 even before the S4 is unveiled.
It’s easy to see why so much is expected of it: the current top-of-the-pile, the Galaxy S III, was declared by many (including this column) the 2012 phone of the year. Its successor, due out as much as six months before the next iPhone, will rule the roost by default.
As a result, many will see the phone market as a war between the S4 and the iPhone 5, with the Sony Xperia Z and BlackBerry Z10 scrapping with each other for the number three position, the Nokia Lumia 920 fighting for the scraps, and the Huawei Ascend P2 as the dark horse.
But that is only the top end of the market, where the flagship phones play. While these phones also represent the highest profits on phones, and shape market perceptions, to take them as the whole would be a massive misreading of the cellphone market.
For one thing, the Galaxy S III remains, for now, the most popular high-end phone in the world, as well as in South Africa. By mid-January, it had sold 40-million units, making it Samsung’s best-selling phone yet. Now, for the first time, sales figures for South Africa and the rest of Africa have been revealed.
SA EXCLUSIVE: Euro RSCG network rebrands as Havas Worldwide
Havas is rebranding its Euro RSCG network, including its agency in South Africa, as Havas Worldwide.
The Havas group will now operate under two primary brands, Havas Media for its global media agencies, and Havas Creative for its communications agencies.
The 316 Euro RSCG offices are all renamed Havas Worldwide. Euro RSCG South Africa will now become Havas Worldwide Johannesburg, Euro RSCG 4D South Africa will become Havas Worldwide Digital Johannesburg and Euro RSCG Worldwide PR becomes Havas PR.
New generic top level domains hold dangers for brands, democratisation of Internet
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the Internet’s naming system, is working its way through nearly two thousand applications for New Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) names.
South African mobile media market to hit a R1 billion this year
M&C Saatchi Mobile, the full service mobile agency that is part of the M&C Saatchi network, has launched in South Africa in co-operation with M&C Saatchi Abel. M&C Saatchi Mobile will operate from Cape Town and Johannesburg as part of a network of offices stretching from London, New York and LA to Paris.
The SA operations will be lead by Zeyad Davids – Managing Partner, Digital at M&C Saatchi Abel.
Zeyad Davids, Managing Director, M&C Saatchi Mobile South Africa, Tracy Burger, Mobile Business Consultant and James Hilton, Global CEO M&C Saatchi Mobile
Davids says the mobile media market in South Africa will be worth a R1 billion a year by the end of 2012 with annual growth of between 40-50% annually through to 2016.
Finding answers, but not in focus groups
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Already as an advertising grad trainee at O&M in London Craig Irving realised he had little understanding of people outside his office environment. Who were these people he was thinking up campaigns to sell stuff to?
Hitting the streets with first a voice recorder and later a video camera he began finding out. His rebellion against conventional qualitative Township Youthresearch methods created a nice little profit centre at O&M, and when he wasn’t offered his share, he picked up and launched his own business, the Consumer Insights Agency (c.i.a).
Brands like Unilever, Diageo, brandhouse, Coca-Cola, FNB, Woolworths, PEP, Old Mutual and Pick n Pay have all found benefit in using the agency, which has grown to a team of 20, to gain real insight into the people who buy their products, all around Africa.
International Council of Communication Design has designs on Africa
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Gaby de Abreu is the executive creative director of the Switch Brand Agency, believes the graphic design industry around Africa has much to benefit from associating with international industry organisations, and a lot to offer.
De Abreu was recently voted onto the board and became vice-president of the International Council of Communication Design (Icograda) as the representative from the Brand Council of South Africa. Icograda, a world body for professional communication design, represents 224 member organisations across 129 cities and 67 countries.
With his election de Abreu hopes to introduce South African designers, and their counterparts in key and growing African design markets, to Icograda, and use its established credentials to help enhance the standards of design, professional practice and ethics in the industry. He wants to regulate the pitching process for greater benefit to designers, for example.
Jupiter Joburg wants ‘more skin in the game’
by Kim Penstone. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear Jupiter Joburg’s Alison Deeb describe the current state of affairs at the agency, post the soul-destroying loss of the Edcon account in March this year, as “very exciting”.
BizTechAfrica – IT in Africa finds a (anonymous) voice
Here is a site that launched below the radar of both the South African start-up scene and many media watchers.