Staying ahead of the game

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by admin in Avusa Media News

Staying ahead of the game is something Avusa Media knows all about affirming its vision with the unveiling of a special 2010 football pull-out supplement Let’s Go 2010. Launched in December on the weekend of the World Cup draw in Cape Town, it heralded the birth of what will be the shortest-lived newspaper supplements in the history of South African newspapers.

Let’s Go 2010 been designed to provide readers with a comprehensive, in depth coverage of every aspect of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. With 32 teams playing 64 games in 31 days at 10 venues, getting quality, moment to moment news out to the fans will be crucial to the success of South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup. In an analysis of the media coverage of the Confederation Cup in 2009 which had only 8 teams, Avusa Media realized that individual newspapers had neither the resources nor clout to offer the most inclusive coverage that an event of this magnitude requires.

Together with Peter Atkinson, Avusa Media Group’s Editorial Consultant, Lets Go 2010, a new Group initiative was designed and launched to coincide with that all important announcement of the World Cup Draw. Peter Atkinson , a veteran of 10 World Cups with the Daily Mirror in the UK was a natural to spearhead the project which would require enormous planning and financial investment to ensure the quality of news coverage that Avusa Media is synonymous with.

For the first time, writers, photographers and sub editors from all Avusa Media titles will work together to ensure that each of the 64 matches is covered in exacting day to day detail led and edited by the highly respected sports journalist Archie Henderson , current Sports Editor of The Times.

All together, 36 issues of Lets Go 2010 will be issued. It will appear once a month until May 16th and thereafter once a week until the whistle blows on the game between Bafana Bafana and Mexico signaling the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. During the ensuing 31 days, readers will be able to access their free copy of the pullout everyday except Saturdays. It will appear in Avusa Media titles including the Sunday Times, Sunday World, Sowetan, The Times, Daily Dispatch and The Herald reaching an estimated readership of 8.5 million readers per week.

Lets Go 2010 will be supplemented by a brand new Go2010 web site which will carry up to date World Cup News, as well as a mobile phone offering a minute by minute match reports for those soccer fans who are unable to watch a match on television. It was introduced in the UK and Europe four hears ago and is a first for Africa. Another first for South Africa and Avusa Media is the inclusion of the continent football fans into the distribution to ensure that the coverage of first ever FIFA World Cup to be held in Africa is available to all English speaking Africans .

Atkinson says, “We are able to offer the supplement to every English speaking country throughout Africa. Operating on the same basis, the supplement could be inserted in English papers all over the continent. In this way, the reach could extend to over 100-million people each week”.

For advertisers, Lets Go 2010 provides a unique opportunity to reach a broad cross section of South African society. Contact Riaan Malherbe (+27 11 280 5777) or Nadeem Joshua (+27 11 280 3266) to find out how you can be part of this initiative.

People, events and incidents that made the news

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

What a year 2009 has been! It’s not been business as usual for the marketing sectors as budgets were slashed, companies shut down and clients demanded more value for their buck. But we survived and the recession is lifting to reveal a silver lining for those with blue sky thinking and rock hard experience and pragmatism. As we look back, what made the news?

We were awash in Awards but some of the most notable were:

• The inaugural Media Owner Sales Team (MOST) Awards was held to celebrate the top media marketing and sales teams in South Africa, an initiative of Wag the Dog Publishers and the Overall MOST Award went to the team at Avusa Media: Newspapers.

• TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg and Net#work BBDO Johannesburg roared off with two Grand Prix – Outdoor and Radio respectively at the 56th Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival. TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg also won a record number of Cannes Lions for its Trillion Dollar campaign for The Zimbabwean newspaper. This is believed to be the single most awarded campaign coming out of South Africa in Cannes’ 56-year history.

• At the BASA Awards, The Times earned the fiercely contested Media Sponsorship award for its Art Page with other notable awards being Increasing Access to the Arts to First National Bank for the ‘Joburg Art Fair’ and Exclusive Books for ‘Ndodeni Library’

• Above-the-line advertising agency DDB SA won the ANGY trophy as South Africa’s top advertising agency. More than 70 local agencies were asked to vote for what they thought was their best performing agency of the year and DDB came out tops.

High flyer Scandals

It was a year of scandalous revelations as big, not so big and very big names hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Everyone profited – the media, the PR agencies and even the infamous famous who got to sell lots of their belated “I’m telling the truth – now” stories.

Adultery, child molestation charges, gender testing, golden handshakes for the good for nothing and physical abuse sent the guilty scrabbling to the media to tell their side of the story. Joost, Amor, Khanyi, Zola, Jurie, Hestrie, Joelle and Minki among many others loved, lost and lied about their relationships, marriages and sexual peccadilloes to an agog public. The ever enterprising Khanyi Mbau even launched her own website to ensure everyone knows just how famous she is.

Winners, Losers and Scam Artists

Voting gone wrong, rigged voting, competition scams left egg on the face of a number of big brands like Idols and MTN.

When M-Net announced that both Sasha Lee Davids and Jason Hartman were the winners of Idols, both Idols judges and the public disagreed furiously about the decision. About 600 000 SMSs had been delayed during the final round of the competition resulting in Sasha Lee being declared the winner. Lo and behold, one week later and the results showed Jason’s standing increase from 47.23% to a majority of 54%. Sasha-Lee eventually got 46% of the vote. Everyone blamed the mobile network providers!

Network provider MTN’s 15 competition was run to celebrate the company’s 15th birthday. Users were asked to subscribe to the competition at R7,50 an sms. Supposedly persons who sent in the most correct-answer SMSs could win laptops, a car and finally a R1-million house bond. From the beginning it was dogged by controversy. FNB the major partner pulled out because MTN was supposed to have charged R1 per sms. Story after story emerged about many of the winners knowing each other, rigged voting and internal employee corruption. What a fiasco.

The SABC was rocked by scandal…sagas of high level corruption, mismanagement, power hungry board members, blacklisting and financial disaster. A new interim board, umpteen inquiries later, high level suspensions and a R1,6 billion government bailout is supposed to result in a sleek new public broadcaster. Others who got quite sleek as the result of the debacle were hunger striking actors like Sello Maake Ka Ngube!

District 9, the innovative Sci-fi political satire directed by South African born Neil Blomkamp was shot in Chiawelo Soweto and took the world by storm rising to the Top of movies charts in the US taking $37 million in its first week! Not bad for a film produced for $30 million!

Teazers’ advertising is risqué at the best of times but consumers considered the billboard showing a naked woman lying on her back with the payoff line, “No need for Gender testing ” offensive to the extreme. The advertising authority found the billboard mocked the gender controversy involving 800m world champion Caster Semenya.

Roll on 2010…

Avusa Media Print Schedules Over The Holidays

Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Lifestyle product (includes Travel & Food)

• Last edition will be dated 13 December 2009.
• New Year edition will commence on 17 January 2010.
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 6 January 2010
• Material deadline: 8 January 2010

Extra

• Last edition will be dated 13 December 2009.
• New Year edition will commence on 10 January 2010.
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 5 January 2010
• Material deadline: 6 January 2010

Careers

• Last edition will be dated 13 December 2009.
• New Year edition will commence on 17 January 2010.
• Booking deadline – Direct: 12 January 2010. Tuesday 12h00 prior to publication.
• Booking deadline – Agency: 14 January 2010. Thursday 11h00 prior to publication.
• Cancellation: any cancellations after Wednesday prior to publication will be charged a 100% cancellation fee.
• Material deadline: 14 January 2010.

Business Times

• Last edition will be dated 13 December 2009.
• New Year edition will commence on 10 January 2010.
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 5 January 2010
• Material deadline: 6 January 2010

Review

• Last edition will be dated 13 December 2009.
• New Year edition will commence on 10 January 2010.
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 5 January 2010
• Material deadline: 6 January 2010

Main body

• Sunday Times will be publishing a Christmas BROADSHEET edition (no tabloid as we have in the past). Edition dated 27 December 2009.
• Production page flow will commence as normal through Saturday 26 December 2009. Normal deadlines will apply.

20 December 2009
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 14 December 2009
• Material deadline: 17 December 2009

27 December 2009
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 21 December 2009
• Material deadline: 22 December 2009

3 January 2010
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 28 December 2009
• Material deadline: 29 December 2009
• Next edition will be dated 10 January 2010. Normal deadlines will apply.

Magazine

• Sunday Times Magazine will publish for all editions over this period.
• Normal deadlines will apply.

• Last edition will be dated 18 December 2009.

• New Year edition will commence on 04 January 2010.
• Booking & cancellation deadline: 29 December 2009
• Material deadline: 30 December 2009

• Normal deadlines will apply thereafter.

Main Body

• Friday, 25 December 2009 – No Publication.
• Monday, 28 December 2009 – Published as usual. Material deadline: Thursday, 24 December 2009 at 15h30 and Classifieds on Thursday, 24 December 2009 at 13h30.
• Friday, 1 January 2010 and Monday, 4 January 2010 – Published as usual. Material deadline: Thursday, 31 December 2009 at 14h30 and classifieds on Thursday, 31 December 2009 at 13h30.

Herald Motoring:

• Last edition on 22 December 2009.
• First edition on 12 January 2010.

Herald LaFemme:

• Last edition on 23 December 2009.
• First edition on 06 January 2010.

Herald T.G.I.F:

• Last edition on 18 December 2009.
• First edition on 08 January 2010.

Main Body

• Saturday 26 December 2009 – Material deadline: Wednesday, 23 December 2009 at 16h30
• Saturday, 02 January 2010 – Normal Deadlines Apply

Property Post

• Saturday 26 December – Material deadline: Wednesday, 23 December 2009 at 15h30 and Classifieds on Thursday, 24 December 2009 at 10H00.
• Saturday, 02 January 2010 – Material deadline: Wednesday, 30 December 2009 at 15h30 and Classifieds on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 at 15h30.

My Weekend

• Saturday 26 December – Material deadline: Wednesday, 23 December 2009 at 15:30
• Saturday, 02 January 2010 – Material deadline: Wednesday, 30 December 2009 at 15:30

Classifieds
• Saturday 26 December – Material deadline: Thursday, 24 December 2009 at 13H00
• Saturday, 02 January 2010 – Material deadline: Thursday, 31 December 2009 at 13h00.

• Friday, 25 December 2009 – No publication
• Friday, 1 January 2010 – No publication
• Booking & Cancellation deadline: Three working days prior to insertion, by 3:00pm.
• Material Deadline: Two working days prior to insertion, by 3:00pm.

• Sunday, 27 December 2009 – No publication.
• Booking & Cancellation deadline: Five working days prior to insertion, by 3:00pm.
• Material Deadline: Three working days prior to insertion, by 3:00pm.

• Publishing throughout

• Material deadline for:
o 28 December is 10h00 on 23 December 2009
o 29 December is 12h00 on 23 December 2009
o 30 December is 15h00 on 23 December 2009
o 4 January is 10h00 on 30 December 2009
o 5 January is 12h00 on 30 December 2009
o 6 January is 15h00 on 30 December 2009

• Saturday 26 December 2009 – No publication
• Saturday 2 January 2010 – No publication

Sunday Times – Front page Billboard

Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Avusa Media wanted a big, bold platform to tell people that Sunday Times now have almost 4-million readers and we felt that a big, bold outdoor installation was the only way to go in this instance.

We briefed our agency, Ochre Media, to come up with a creative way to spread the word and celebrate the growing Sunday Times family in a simple but effective way. Bearing in mind that we simply did not have the budget for multiple sites, agency was also briefed to identify a site that would be impossible to ignore. Ochre proposed using the front page itself as a vehicle for the message – and what better way to promote South Africa’s best-loved weekend newspaper?

Ochre also sourced the site via outdoor media and activation company Brainjam. Sunday Times is now an integral feature of the Joburg city skyline for the next six months!

The print and creative size is 31400mm x 48340mm i.e. 31metres x 48metres.

And the winner of the MacBook Pro is…

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Thank-you to everyone who entered the Informer competition! There was a fantastic response to both the main questions and the bonus tasks. Times LIVE readers really are more informed!


The lucky winners of our Push Print / Times LIVE Grand Prizes are:

Grand Prize

MacBook Pro + 100 000 impression ad package (worth R35 000) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Barret Whiteford, FNB

 

2nd Prize

50 000 impression ad package (worth R17 500) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Eugene Botes, The Agency

 

3rd Prize

25 000 impression ad package (worth R8 750) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Edu van Rijswijk, Aegis Media

 

Daily Prize Winners:

Zukile Dotwana – BlackBerry Curve
Nico Olwagen – iPod Touch
Robin Clark – Lenovo Netbook



Click here for the full list of winners including the daily spot prizes

Be more informed with Times LIVE, South Africa’s liveliest news and information website.
www.timeslive.co.za and http://m.timeslive.co.za from your phone.

For more information on advertising opportunities on Times LIVE, get in touch: info@wesellwebads.com

Greening South Africa

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

South Africa is a nation of vociferous highly politicized protestors – one of the better legacies of apartheid! Everyone has an opinion about everything which bodes well for a democracy. We write letters, take to the streets, call radio stations, most importantly – we talk!

And we are starting to talk green.

But as a developing country, we also have a number of major societal problems related to primary health care, housing, education, job creation and so we may be forgiven if we were not paying too much attention to environmental practice for sustainable development.

And yet we are.

New age environmental policies, a strong NGO lobby and advocacy sector, an informed media, as well as world-class research agencies all combine their efforts to protect this amazingly beautiful country and its natural resources. In line with world trends, this year saw the tabling of the draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill 2009, an income tax incentive proposal for any business that takes part in a UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. If approved, it could prove as effective as the 2003 imposition of a levy on plastic shopping bags.

With the establishment of agencies such as Indalo Yethu, DEAT’s independent trust and Southern Africa’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative, aggressive public awareness campaigns have been launched to educate South Africans about incorporating eco-friendly practices into their day to day lives.

Coupled with big business initiatives, we are gradually becoming a more environmentally aware citizenry. CFL bulbs, solar heating, tree planting, recycling waste, energy efficient appliances, hybrid cars, wind farms… are all part of our daily lexicon.

Major companies including retailers like Pick and Pay and Woolworths, packaging companies like NAMPAK and banks like Nedbank are contributing to an integrated approach to sustainable development by embracing its ethos in how they do business.



Companies are beginning to offer consumers healthy green alternatives in the form of organic foods, cleaning products and services. Even smaller businesses understand the imperative. Fashion, furniture, lifestyle and architectural designers have embraced the green movement. Utilising sustainable materials like bamboo, eco-friendly building designs that minimise the need for artificial heating and light, recycling material for décor and art are rapidly becoming a mindset blueprint.

Unfortunately most green alternatives tend to be more expensive and therein lay the challenges.

Poverty is a reality and until a greener lifestyle is also a cheaper one, a developing country like SA will have to focus its efforts on the big environmental wins.

It could begin by sorting out the contradictions between policy and practice since financing Eskom’s capacity expansion programme, 99% of which is coal-based violates our stated policy to curb emissions by 2020.

Ironically state-owned Eskom is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the continent making SA the continent’s No 1 offender!

But all journeys begin somewhere and ours has started.

The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Click here to view photos from this event

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Retailers narrowly beat their competitors to win South Africa’s top shopping outlet spot at The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards, which in its second year has broadened its scope to go beyond Gauteng and become a national survey. The hotly-contested awards, which proved that the retail environment is highly competitive with small differences in ratings, took place on October 8 and were fittingly staged in a retail wonderland at Northgate Ice Rink.

The survey, that provides retailers and retail advertisers with valuable insights into where South Africans love to shop ‘til they drop, saw quite a shake-up of winners in the different categories. This was due to new category spilts and changes, extended coverage of the study and an innovative research study conducted by TNS Research Surveys to ensure more niche outlets were included, which is in line with the new emphasis worldwide that specialist stores also form an integral part of the consumers’ shopping experience.

For new categories, the Grand Prix Award was the most coveted and was based on the scores of all the retail brands measured, regardless of category. This was easily won by KFC, which also dominated the fast food chicken category. Edgars came in second place and Shoprite in the third position.

Another big award on the night was for the Overall Retail Experience Award that took the four key retail attributes of quality, range, service and value into account. Pick ‘n Pay was crowned the winner by virtue of exceptional scores for quality, range and service while Shoprite took the second spot for a much-better-than-average score for good value. Checkers was third and Woolworths fourth for their image of offering very good quality.

In the new categories retailers that won the hearts and minds of South African shoppers included Tops at Spar for retail liquor chain, Shoprite in the supermarket and hypermarket category, Trade Centre as the top wholesaler, Spur easily won the fast food burger category and family sit-down restaurant while Mugg and Bean is the best place to grab a cup of coffee.

Specialist and niche outlets was a focus for the 2009 Retail Awards and one of the most desirable awards was for best exclusive brand store, which was won by Levi’s followed by La Coste and Uzzi.

As everyone knows a girl can never have too many shoes, so one of the major shifts on the night in the existing categories included Nine West and Green Cross pushing out Shoe City and Bata for the top three shoes stores with Spitz grabbing the top spot.

South Africans are still gaga for The Baby Company at Ackermans, the winner again this year for specialist baby and child stores category but have chosen new entrants, Reggies and Toys R Us over previous winners, Edgars and Baby City. Another exciting development saw Maponya Mall steal third position for leading shopping centre over last year’s two East Rand contenders.

Favourite outlets that are once again dominant winners include Edgars, Woolworths and Truworths in clothing with specialist sport and outdoor retailers Total Sports, Sport Scene and Nike winners again and Game, Hi-Fi Corporation and Makro the top shops for electronics and gadgets.

One of the luckiest winners on the night was Neil Van Schalkwyk from The Media Shop who won a lavish shopping spree at a shopping centre of their choice valued at R50 000.



Herewith the full results of The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards:

Avusa Media Launches Times Live

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Launched on Monday, 14 September, Times LIVE (www.timeslive.co.za) is the new and improved digital home of the Sunday Times and The Times. The revamped news site represents the first in a number of exciting digital developments at Avusa Media. Times LIVE combines a fresh new look and feel together with a new web content management system, the first milestone project in an effort to become SA’s leading online publisher. Times LIVE replaces the existing web domain of www.thetimes.co.za.

By revamping and rebranding The Times website to Times LIVE, groundwork is being laid to become the number one digital destination for South African and African news.

The site carries improved major news sections, new special interest subsections and sleekly redesigned multimedia and blog sections offering better functionality. The Times Mobile site has also been rebranded, but retains its award-winning layout and design. The website design was a collaboration between an in-house design team and internationally renowned web design consultants Roger Black Studios. The design process also incorporated key findings from audience research and insights projects conducted on the site.

The new site also provides a far more comprehensive digital advertising platform as the revamp seeks to unlock far more volumes of page impressions by introducing new sections and subsections. In the same way it will also provide an opportunity to target niche audiences through these new sections. Some of the new sections include all major sports subsections under Sport, Sci-Tech, the Food, Travel and Books subsections within the new Life & Style section. The site will offer a combination of existing successful advertising sizes as well as new ones and will incorporate new sponsorship opportunities. The dedicated areas for the print newspapers on the site also allows advertisers to target readers particularly loyal to the print titles. Advertising on the new Times LIVE site is managed by dedicated digital sales company, Avusa Media Digital Sales, which is tasked to grow revenues across the group’s digital properties.

 
From a base of just over 240 000 unique users in September 2007, the audience has grown 180% to 691,571 unique users, according to July’s Nielsen Market Intelligence results. The next milestone for Times LIVE is to surpass 1-million unique monthly users. With the new look site, a stand-alone digital brand and a world-class web publishing platform; this is firmly within their grasp.

Times LIVE is built on the Escenic web content management system, used by other major international publications including The Telegraph, Aftonbladet, The Schibsted group and The Sun. It will enable better editorial management of the site; allow for better content integration, referencing and archiving as well as facilitating the integration of the print and online content on the website, a further step in the already successful newsroom convergence at The Times.

Other Avusa titles will roll out on the content management system soon, signalling the intent of the group to continue to invest and innovate in the digital space. Existing digital businesses of I-Net Bridge, Career Junction and MapIT contributed 23% of the Avusa Group’s 2009 EBIT (earnings before interest and tax).

Be more informed and visit Times LIVE online at www.timeslive.co.za or on your phone at http://m.timeslive.co.za

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping!

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Despite the recession and rising inflation, we can’t stop shopping because all of us have to buy food and fuel, replace the dead toaster, laddered stockings and umpteen consumables that make life bearable. Yes, we wax lyrical about growing our own vegetables, sewing the family’s clothes and learning how to fix that leaking pipe ourselves but the truth is – it’s all talk. The middle class are creatures of habit. While big luxuries may be out and we’re eating at home most nights, modern urban living is characterized by consuming ready-to eat/wear/use products and services. It’s a fact of life and it’s never going to change.

What has changed in this recession is HOW we buy. Those changes have a lot to do with our bank balances, personal ideologies, aspirations and gender. According to Performics’ “2009 Buyer Economic Trend Study”, women are far more pessimistic about the recession and as key purchasers in most households, their approach to spending money will impact on how the world recovers from this recession.

Women are buying the necessities, squirreling away cash for unexpected rainy day expenses, scrutinising the shelves for bargains and being adventurous with brands. No-name brands are in and well-known household brands are fighting to retain market share with aggressive ATL marketing demonstrating valued added benefits. While we may not be splurging on huge luxuries, products like lipstick are a great pick-me-up and far more affordable than a pair of Jimmy Choo’s.

Kellogg’s is an old master at understanding the rules of marketing within a recession and is currently flogging the “whole grains” health angle, hankering to the health concerns that all women have for their families. In the 1930s, Kellogg’s maintained its advertising during the Great Depression while Post (Post WHO?) did not! Hyundai gave new car buyers the opportunity to return their cars without incurring a penalty if they lost their jobs and GMSA followed suit by offering to pay 9 months of car instalments if one got retrenched! For a frightened and despondent consumer, these showing we care value add on, make all the difference.

Unlike the UK, USA and Canada, South African retailers do not seem to be taking advantage of coupons and while washing powder manufacturers like Unilever do in-store coupon promotions, it really is an unexploited recession busting tool. Consumers have become distrustful of big claims with research proving they are more likely to switch allegiance if offered a taste, a coupon – an incentive to change.

All this gloom and doom is depressing and so we continue to need to laugh, have a little fun and relax. Local travel agencies like Flight Centre, Sure Travel and online booking sites are on top of this need, offering value-added, all inclusive vacation packages. By their account, business is good.

Stressful economic downturns often result in permanent retail behavioural change especially among the older age groups. The trend towards conservative spending will be with us for a long time and that is going to be the key challenge for the market and marketers.

Most Awards 2009

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Download PDF of results: downloadfile