Lowe Bull is rebranding as Lowe + Partners South Africa after the international parent company acquired a majority share in the local agency, with Peter Badenhorst to be ECD of Lowe Johannesburg - read all about it in Herman Manson's exclusive for Bizcommunity.com. This should really come as no surprise, considering that in September 2011 it was announced that Matthew Bull had teamed up with FoxP2's Andrew Whitehouse to launch the New-York-based The Bull-White House, a sister agency to FoxP2. Last week we announced that Joe Public had not only won the Jet account but that it has gone international with Joe Public Amsterdam. Well, it's a wee bit more than that and you can read all about the vision behind Joe Public United, which is a new international 'union' of agencies, rather than the traditional agency network model. On the media side, Danette Breitenbach is taking over from Louise Marsland as editor of AdVantage magazine; Danielle Weakley has been appointed as the very first editor of Grazia South Africa; and, in the Action Publications stable, Phuti Mpyane will take the helm at Cars in Action magazine and Deon Ebersohn at the new AutoWeek newspaper. Talking about magazines and newspapers, the ABC Q4 2011 presentation takes place this week in Cape Town on Thursday, 23 February 2012. Good luck to Gugu Duda, who's (rather bravely) become the new CFO at the troubled SABC... And the countdowns to this year's Design Indaba - both conference and exhibition - are in their final stages! Blast off for the conference takes place on Wednesday 29 February and on Friday 2 March for the expo. Don't forget that the Design Indaba Young Designers Simulcast will now be broadcast in three cities: Cape Town, Joburg and Durban! Biz is a media partner once again, of course. Please please please don't forget to lend your financial support to the ABF Vital Support Fund - which will close without industry support and be unable to help our peers who have lost their jobs or find themselves unable to earn a living for whatever reason - and the Save Our Rhinos campaign. Have a great week :) Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz) Managing editor PS Welcome to AvStage, Ipsos, Mikateko Media, The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town, Thirst Bar Services and Urban Tree, which have just opened press offices on Bizcommunity Marketing & Media!
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