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 How to be big on Biz - 3 Oct 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] First, some housekeeping: if you've been wondering what, when and how to send your contributor pieces and general news and press releases to Bizcommunity, especially now that we have launched 16 more content channels with corresponding newsletters, wonder no further! Take a look at our guide, "How to contribute to Bizcommunity, from op-ed pieces to news" and all should become clearer. (If not, let me know.) Secondly, on to the industry news: this week it's the turn of Gill Moodie to give the scoop on Scoop!, Media24's new Sunday tabloid that launches towards the end of October 2011 with Peet Bothma at the helm; Mike Abel has issued a challenge to the ad industry to make far better television work over the coming year, after an unmemorable showing at this year's Loeries for TVCs; Herman Manson chats to Godfrey Morley on transforming the ad agency business at Draftfcb Cape Town; and oh, yes, just in case you've not heard, Prakash Desai has indeed left the building - Avusa's, that is. read more Biz’s true story lies in the numbers - 26 Sep 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] There is a hidden story that dramatically improves the true value to readers and advertisers on Bizcommunity's set of portals, both old and brand-new. Curious? Read our MD Robin Parker's piece today for some amazing facts and figures to do with the Biz tribe. read more Viva, Right2Know, viva! - 19 Sep 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Thanks to a complete revisioning (which included changing the venue, black tie dress codes for both nights and rearranging the categories per evening ie radio and TV were split up), the Loeries ceremonies were short and sweet this year, and the two MCs, Riaan "I'm on a stage" Cruywagen and David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff, had their audiences eating out of their hands. This certainly left a lot of time for partying, of which there were plenty, judging by all the invitations and tweets. read more Hambe kahle, Deon du Plessis - 12 Sep 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] It is with much sadness that we pay tribute today to Daily Sun founder and publisher Deon du Plessis, who, as Mandy de Waal puts it, has gone on his great sabbatical in the sky. Tragically, Du Plessis died from acute bronchitis this weekend at the age of 59 in his home in Johannesburg, just as he was about to take three months' sabbatical. Du Plessis loved to say in his weekly blog posts as publisher, "This is how we roll it in Sunland" - and this swashbuckling phrase sums the man up, too, writes Gill Moodie. read more A green-and-gold Spring - 5 Sep 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] With the change in season comes the most gorgeous Spring weather (in Jozi, at least); a Bok-befokte South Africa - and Bizcommunity - thanks to the 2011 Rugby World Cup happening in New Zealand; and the usual outbreak of new account wins/new appointments/new launches/new beginnings/new partnerships (and allergies, of course). So, without much more ado, Bizcommunity has partnered with Aegis Media to bring you the monthly Thought Leadership Digibates, a series of marketing/media debates which will be broadcast and streamed live, starting this Thursday, 8 September 2011, with a cracker of a panel. Then, we've also partnered with Google South Africa to give all Bizcommunity readers R400 worth of pay-per-click advertising on Google - follow our "Google AdWord Free Trial" series every Monday for the next 12 weeks as we explore the benefits of Google AdWords and take you through the steps of setting up and optimising your first campaign. We'd also like to take the opportunity to congratulate South Africa's very own Raymond Louw on being named one of this year's World Press Freedom Heroes (the other being the late US journalist Daniel Pearl) by the International Press Institute. read more (1 Comment) Thank you for celebrating with us! - 29 Aug 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] To everyone who's commented, tweeted, facebooked, emailed and wished us and sang happy birthday face to face, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! It's an honour to be such a major part of your working lives and you sure know how to make all of us feel special. Winners of our birthday gifts to you have now all been announced on our Facebook page - congratulations! While my Cape Town colleagues were busy partying it up last week, I was privileged to be one of the participants at the annual Habari Media Symposium, which this year took a new name, Tuongee (Kiswahili for "let's talk"), and a different format (much smaller, more intimate and very much conversation-based). read more Biz Bang! Come celebrate 10 years with us! - 22 Aug 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] It's our 10th birthday and you're all invited to our virtual party! Join the merrymaking here on Biz on our Whizz Bang tribute page, which contains our Biz Bang Theory of how Biz began, as well as on Facebook and Twitter (#happybiz10). Feel free to say what you like about us and let us know what Biz has done for you or your business since the beginning.
Let’s talk about facts, baby - 15 Aug 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] Lately we seem to be oscillating between Sunday newspapers Sunday Times and City Press being the news, not just reporting on the news. So this week, we're back to good ol' Sunday Times and a controversial story alleging that there's something not kosher about a communications tender awarded to TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris by the DA-run provincial government of the Western Cape. read more Women's Day - 10 Aug 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] read more No smiles thanks to Sowetan, dammit - 1 Aug 2011[Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)] So here's the breakfast show on 94.7 Highveld Stereo, the Breakfast Xpress, trying its best to make the City of Joburg smile with its hairnets of colourful fake flowers on trees down William Nicol Drive and Atlas Road, when along comes Sowetan Live with a column by Eric Miyeni that should never have been published, dammit. Once again, Avusa's editorial controls have failed; there's opinion and then there's hate speech. read more |
In turn, we're giving away 50 cases of 