FNB backs Pendoring for third year, girls' sports

"Pendoring gives FNB the opportunity to acknowledge excellent Afrikaans advertising, which allows this target market to make meaningful buying decisions, particularly in the current tough economic environment where money is scarce,” says Ilse Smuts, FNB marketing manager: core banking solutions.

Pendoring was established 15 years ago by all the leading players in Afrikaans advertising, specifically to reward and promote Afrikaans advertising. It has since evolved into a fully fledged project to create awareness of the importance of Afrikaans advertising to an important target market with significant buying power.

Smuts reckons it is more important than ever to acknowledge instances where companies successfully and meaningfully penetrate their different target markets.

Effective communication

"As a national bank that has the entire nation's financial interests at heart, FNB does not distinguish between the different languages. What really matters is to find the best possible way to communicate with the various target markets and to convey the bank's message as effectively as possible," she stresses.

With regard to communication campaigns and advertising, FNB carefully considers the product that needs to be advertised, as well as the different target markets it is aimed at, obviously within the parameters of the marketing budget, Smuts explains.

Entries for Pendoring 2009 open on Monday 4 May and full details will be available at www.pendoring.co.za. The closing date for entries is 17 July 2009.

Gender-equality sport

FNB has also sponsored the National Girls' Sport Festival, in which 20 of the country's top girls' schools will compete in various sporting codes, with R50 000. The festival, with a 15-year history, seeks to address gender issues in sports and education, promote opportunities to all learners in school sports, and dispose of gender disparities in the provisioning of school sport.

"Ensuring that female athletes are given an equal opportunity to excel in the sporting arena is of paramount importance in growing a sporting environment that eradicates gender discrepancies," says Francois Pienaar, head of sponsorship at FNB.

The event will have over 600 girls participating in the codes of netball, hockey, tennis, squash, debating, chess and public speaking. The festival aims to facilitate active participation of girls in sport and recreation from grass-roots level to elite performances across the plane of sporting codes.

Hosted by Pretoria High School for Girls, the event will take place 1 - 3 May. It will officially launch on the evening of 30 April, when guest speaker Oscar Pistorius will address the girls.