Comings and goings, winning and losing - 6 Feb 2012

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] So we've made it to February 2012 and, with the start of a new month in what is still the beginning of the year, comes a continuation of announcements of major comings and goings: Francois de Villiers, Happy Ntshingila, Vino Govender, Simon Camerer, Ishmet Davidson, Noel Studti, a new DMMA exco, etc etc. Of course, the big news of last week was Woolworths vs Frankie's, with the ASA ruling in favour of the little guy. read more

Hamba kahle, John Farquhar - 30 Jan 2012

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] With much sadness, we at Bizcommunity.com extend our condolences to family, friends and colleagues of John Farquhar, the legendary ad man and commentator who passed away this weekend after a long period of illness. In conjuction with AdVantage magazine, which he co-founded in 1993, we have set up a special page to commemorate his life and legacy and we invite everyone to add pay tribute to this man of fascinating contradiction who had such an impact on the South African advertising, marketing and media industries. Details of wake:

• Date: Friday 3 February
• Time: 12.30pm-3pm
• Venue: Bryanston Country Club, Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, Johannesburg

Birth and death - 23 Jan 2012

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Being wished "Happy Birthday!" reflects the paradigm shift that communications has been experiencing lately. Thanks for making my day special yesterday, whether it was by Facebook, Twitter, email, BBM, Whatsapp, SMS or by phone! On a sadder note, we at Bizcommunity.com extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Michael Mayer, the South African voice artist extraordinaire who passed away over the weekend. read more

So what’s trending, baby? - 16 Jan 2012

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] It's mid-January 2012 already and mostly everyone should be back at work by now. A Happy New Year to those of you who've not been around in the past two weeks and boy, oh boy, do you have a lot of reading to catch up on since we commenced with our 2012 Biz Trends Report Series last Monday! And what a bumper crop it's been so far, with loads more still to come! Plus we're thrilled to announce Aegis Media as our VTS (Very Trendy Sponsor). Talking about Aegis, the third Thought Leadership Digibate takes place this week at 9am on Thursday, 19 January 2012, and the theme this time around is search-based marketing. read more

Sawubona, 2012! - 9 Jan 2012

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Hello, hello, hello and welcome to 2012! This is the future speaking! I know there were a lot of readers out there who couldn't wait to see the back of 2011 and we're all desperately hoping for a bigger, better and brighter year this year... although what's been happening economically in Europe and America does cause some trepidation. read more

Hamba kahle, 2011! - 12 Dec 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] We have now reached that point where we pause to take stock of the old year and set some intentions for the new - yes, this is your final Bizcommunity Marketing & Media South Africa newsletter for the year! We will resume again on Monday, 9 January 2012, although news will still be published on the portal by a skeleton staff over the holiday season. And don't forget that our annual Biz Trends Report Series commences in January. For some of us, this festive season break just hasn't come quickly enough after what was both a long, tough and tiring year that managed to whiz by and leave us gasping, gobsmacked and all a-twitter, too. read more

Shakeup in the ad industry - 5 Dec 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Once again, with it being both month- and year-end, it's people shifting jobs which has been generating some of the hottest news in the ad industry, eg: TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris's Damon Stapleton is heading off to Australia, not London; the VWV Group's Abey Mokgwatsane is joining Ogilvy South Africa; DDB SA's Matt Ross and Michael Udell are off to King James, and Brand Activation's Jason Knight is leaving for 180LA in Los Angeles. In terms of account news, the big shock has been the announcement that Woolworths is moving its account in-house, so it's goodbye to The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) after five years of service at the end of January 2012. Meanwhile, Edcon has put its business out to pitch and this may mean that The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg), which has held parts of the Edcon business for as long as 14 years, might lose some or even all of the business and may also have to retrench staff if that is the case. Nando's controversial TV ad, "Last Dictator Standing", continues to hog headlines and online discussion as well, after it announced last Thursday afternoon that it would no longer air the spot as part of its festive season campaign on TV. read more

World attention on South Africa yet again - 28 Nov 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] It's not just because of COP17 and CMP7, which started in Durban today, Monday, 28 November 2011, that all eyes are once again on South Africa. In the past few days, the outcry and outrage over the Protection of Information Bill and Black Tuesday have gone global, too, and then our communications industry have also managed to attract attention, both positive and negative. Last Thursday, Blackriver FC and Retroviral Digital Communications launched the Last Dictator Standing TV ad as part of Nando's festive season campaign. read more

Show your support against Secrecy Bill: wear black for Black Tuesday - 21 Nov 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] The Right2Know Campaign and the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) are calling on all citizens to unite in the fight against the passing of controversial Protection of (State) Information Bill (POIB aka 'Secrecy Bill') in its current format, which is due to be voted on at 2pm in the National Assembly in Parliament tomorrow, Tuesday, 22 November 2011. Apart from the call to dress in black or wear a black ribbon or an armband - initiated by the National Press Club on the weekend - all citizens are encouraged to protest in person at the six Right2Know pickets that will be happening across the country, as well as to make their voices heard via social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Citizens are also encouraged to go attend Parliament tomorrow, as any member of the public may attend any plenary sitting of Parliament, by arriving at the Visitors' Centre with his or her ID or driver's licence - seats are given on a first-come, first-served basis. SANEF is also mobilising all editors who are able to be in Parliament to attend, and SANEF chair Mondli Makhanya will be addressing the media outside Parliament before and after the voting The voting was originally supposed to be on Wednesday this week, hence the campaign moniker "Black Wednesday", a direct reference to the Black Wednesday of 19 October 1977, which saw the apartheid regime ban The World and Weekend World newspapers and Pro Veritate (a Christian publication), alongside 19 black organisations and detain scores of critics. read more    (1 Comment)

Paying tribute to Alan McClarty - 14 Nov 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Helpful, generous, hard-working, free-spirited, mischievous, hard-partying, humble, brilliant, unassuming, mentor, friend, prankster are just some of the words that have been used to describe the late Alan McClarty, also known as McClarts, who died at the beginning of this month in Lagos, Nigeria of complications caused by cerebral malaria. A South African memorial service will be held later this week, and Bizcommunity.com has also created a a tribute page in his honour. read more

Biz contributor the first-ever Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year - 7 Nov 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] As you can imagine, I was one extremely thrilled editor when freelancer and regular Bizcommunity contributor and columnist Herman Manson (@marklives) was announced on Friday night, 4 November 2011, as the first-ever Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year - the look on my face, Herman tells me, was something to behold, as it came as a complete surprise to me. Anyway, it tickles me pink that Herman, who'd written a story here on Biz about the launch of this new category, sponsored by Cerebra, should be the inaugural winner. read more

Plague of PR scandals - 31 Oct 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Well, well, well, it's certainly been an interesting few days. We've had the ASA's asinine axing of the Axe ad, which features winged angels smashing halos - an idea the papacy ditched 500 years ago, Foschini and its sexist t-shirts faux pax, this morning's outrage over the suspension of the Outsurance/702 Traffic Freeflow pointspeople in Jozi, and, oh look, another sex scandal involving a minister splurged across Sunday papers. Don't say we didn't tell you... read more

More prestige for Draftfcb - 24 Oct 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] This year it was the turn of Draftfcb to dominate the Pendoring Afrikaans advertising awards: out of 16 Golds and 21 Silvers awarded in total, not only did Draftfcb claim five Golds and five Silvers, its Cape Town office scooped the Prestige Award for its advertising for Cape Town daily newspaper Die Burger. Congrats to all the winners, and the organisers for a well-run and entertaining evening (tip: ear plugs are still a necessity, though). Congrats go as well to Cape Town director Tim Greene, whose comedy-adventure movie Skeem won the Audience Choice Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this weekend, as reported by IOL, and to Marina Penderis from Absa for winning the 2011 International Public Relations Association Golden World Award Grand Prix for the internal communications campaign "Absa rings the bell", as tweeted by Johanna McDowell (who is the 2012 IPRA president). Meanwhile, in our homegrown local soapie, SABCwatch, there are further reports of mismanagement of funds and infighting... read more

Celebrating Media Freedom Day - 17 Oct 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] In commemoration of Black Wednesday, 19 October 1977, and to celebrate the 15th birthday of the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF), the editors' forum and the Institute for Advancement of Journalism (IAJ), supported by Media Monitoring Africa, will be jointly hosting an event at 12 noon on South Africa's Media Freedom Day this Wednesday, 19 October 2011, at the IAJ, 9 Jubilee Road, Parktown, Johannesburg. All parties interested in protecting and promoting our precious media freedom are invited to attend. Refreshments will be served and seats are limited. read more

Andrew Human bows out after seven years - 10 Oct 2011

[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] So the unexpected local news of the moment is that Andrew Human has decided to exit on a high note and step down as CEO of the Loeries after seven years, although his organising expertise will not be totally lost. Bizcommunity.com looks forward to a more media-savvy Loeries CEO. Talking about Loeries, there's been an interesting thread of discussion running on Bizcommunity since last Monday, starting with Mike Abel lamenting that there were no TV ads at Loeries this year which took his breath away and wondering what has happened to those wonderful big brand ads from yesteryear, followed by Chris Moerdyk commenting that great advertising requires real talent, and that we shouldn't allow university degrees to be barriers to advertising and journalism, and then Anton Crone tackling the lack of African and South African identity in our creative work. read more