SA companies get Smarties
Late last week, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a global trade association for the mobile industry, celebrated 56 winners across key mobile categories at the seventh Annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership. South African companies were among the winners to receive the Smarties, the new name unveiled during the ceremony's opening.
The new name is meant to reflect the growth and unique character of the mobile channel.
Winner of the Global Gold Social Impact award was the Praekelt Foundation for its YoungAfricaLive project. others were the Relationship Building - EMEA Regional Winner: Mobitainment for 'AVBOB Funeral Services' and in Branding - Second Runner-up and EMEA Regional Winner: OMO washing powder and Brandtone for 'OMO 'Door To Door Challenge' - Brandtone mobile engagement'.
A panel of international marketers and agency leaders reviewed and chose the award winners from hundreds of entrants.
Social programme changes lives
"We're really thrilled at the recognition given to the project by this award," said Praekelt Foundation's creative director, Jonathan MacKay who was in LA to accept the award. "We faced some intense competition from some really strong international projects doing great work.
"That it is recognised as having the most potent social impact is a real boost to the project, a credit to our partners and an accolade that deserves to be shared with the whole YoungAfricaLive community, whose passionate participation makes it the success that it is."
YoungAfricaLive was nominated for the Social Impact category alongside Giorgio Armani and R/GA's Aqua di Gio Armani Drops for Life App, Waterfall Mobile's Waiting for 'Superman' Social Action Campaign and Busday and TELiBrahma's Busday gets buzzier project.
Hosted on Vodafone Live and available free to Vodacom users in South Africa, it is a community that shares and discusses critical issues facing Africa's youth, including love, sex, relationships and HIV/AIDS. It celebrates its second birthday on 1 December 2011 and counts over 600 000 active users as part of its rapidly growing community.
In October, a new addition to the platform came in the form of Africa's first mobile career opportunities social network, Ummeli. Since its launch, it has attracted over 20 000 active users, all taking advantage of a supportive community of young jobseekers that can offer advice, suggestions, ideas exchange, connections and information on jobs, bursaries and grants.
Winning the Global Gold follows on the heels of another recent Foundation accolade in late October, when its appointment reminder system for people on chronic medication, TxtAlert, was named the first winner of the Tech4Africa Innovation Award, created to encourage innovation in solving uniquely African problems whilst also encouraging global thinking.
Its projects embody the foundation's mission of building open source, scalable mobile technologies and solutions to improve the health and well-being of people living in poverty. Already, with the support of funders like Omidyar Network, programmes that have emerged out of the foundation and its partners have reached over 50 million people across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information on the foundation, go to praekeltfoundation.org. View all the MMA winners.
