With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days. Kaizer Chiefs manager Bobby Motaung and the Mbombela Stadium fraud case was of obvious interest to South Africans. Also in the news were the Lonmin strike and shooting of mine workers by police and ongoing student protests at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). (For past data click here)
Tag archives: south africa
ABC Analysis Q2 2012: The biggest-circulating consumer magazines in SA
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!
Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google
With the help of Google Insights for Research we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days. A look at the fastest rising searches show the weather was top of mind for most South Africans as snow and heavy rain blanketed the country. The Olympics featured with searches for Caster Semenya and Usain Bolt quickly gathering pace.
IOL deal helped transform Primedia Online as turnover jumps 38%
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Primedia Online is evolving from an online publisher with a sales capacity into a major online sales house following its partnership with Independent Newspapers to take over the sales function of its online properties held in IOL at the start of the year.
The company absorbed the online sales team of IOL and its impact on revenues and the company has been significant says Primedia Online CEO Tanja Lategan.
Lategan has been spending the past year consolidating the business after taking over from Nikki Cockcroft. Sales and traffic staff have been moved into a single space – Lategan says although they have traditionally been seen as two teams their goals are closely aligned in terms of delivering returns to clients. Incentives have been aligned for both teams as has work schedules (same incentive means same overtime when required). Turnover has jumped 38%.
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.
Smartphones surge by 40,9% at Vodacom
Vodacom issued a trading statement yesterday morning that shows smartphones active on the network surging by 40,9% in South Africa in the last quarter, even as local revenue growth remains flat, writes Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee)..
Smartphones active on the Vodacom network in South Africa surged by 40,9% in the quarter ended 30 June 2012, according to a trading vodacom pontestatement issued by the Group yesterday morning.
Highlights of the Vodacom Group Limited trading statement for the quarter ended 30 June 2012 included:
– Group service revenue growth up 8.7% (5.7%*)
Brand Journeys: MWeb – not quite ‘just like that’
For many people MWEB is still the big black box, which it launched in 1997, the same year the business was established by MIH Limited (a Naspers company). The big black box, in case you don’t get it, was a box, and black, and offered wary South Africans everything they needed to connect to the Internet via dial-up modem, with the payoff line “Just like that” (I still hear the finger snap in the background).
The commercial Internet was new, exciting, and big business was getting in on the act. The first dot com bubble had yet to burst and MWEB was spending large swathes of money buying up rival ISPs before its 1998 listing on the JSE.
Today it is a friendly consumer brand wholly owned by Naspers. Its pay-off line has changed to Connect & You Can to reflect the growing acceptance and integration of the Internet into daily lives. It serves a user base of over 300 000 subscribers (which is not that much higher than figures available for 2005 – although it has had success in converting many of those to ADSL) of whom more than 200 000 sits on ADSL. They consume 4.5 petabytes (4,500,000,000,000,000 bytes) of bandwidth per month.
EXCLUSIVE: Draftfcb acquires Hellocomputer
by Herman Manson. Draftfcb has acquired independent digital agency Hellocomputer. The move follows widespread industry speculation that the two parties were about to announce a deal.
Drop the banner ad niched local online media brands told
by Herman Manson (@marklives) The great global online media brands like MSN, Yahoo!, Google and Facebook are well represented in the South African market, either through locally owned sales partners, through JVs with local media companies or through a local subsidiary.
Their big numbers mean they get a lot of attention, as does a series of established home grown online brands, like iafrica.com, ITWeb, and Moneyweb. But what of the young guns, the content start-ups, the independents making do without well resourced sales teams?
Sites like Mahala, the pre-eminent online youth mag in South Africa, 10and5.com, SA’s leading creative portfolio site, or ZA News, which hosts the show Zapiro created show no local TV station would touch?
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.