SOUTH AFRICA

Agency selection: Do it yourself, or get a consultancy to assist?

[Samantha Randall] 5.30 am wake up... 15 minutes to prepare breakfast and lunchboxes... 45 minutes to get the family ready, drive them to school and then on to a 45-minute gym workout. Then a 30-minute drive to work... followed by a 9-hour work day involving as many meetings, phone calls and presentations as possible... thereafter a 20 minute drop-in at Woolies, to organise the family's dinner for that evening... Read more >>

AFRICA

MTN withdraws adverts from CEO Magazine

[Walter Wafula] Mobile operator MTN Uganda has withdrawn advertisements from a popular business magazine in Uganda over a story that exposes mobile money fraud in its operations. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Project success...a mouth full of jargon?

[Reghardt Marais] What is success? And how does one go about achieving it? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the answer is simply "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose". Read more >>

SIERRA LEONE

No justice for slain journalist, one year on

A year after the death of Ibrahim Foday, reporter of the daily newspaper The Exclusive, no arrest, prosecution or trial has been meted out to the perpetrator(s) of this heinous crime. Read more >>

KENYA

Fraudsters target Kenyan phone users

[Carole Kimutai: @CaroleKimutai] As election campaigns gain momentum in Kenya, fraudsters have come up with an ingenious way of deceiving unsuspecting mobile phone users. Read more >>

KENYA

Photo costs the credibility of Kenyan newspaper

[Carole Kimutai: @CaroleKimutai] All eyes are on the Kenyan daily newspaper, The Star for allegedly publishing a fake image of a hellicopter crash that killed two Kenyan government officials on the morning of Sunday, 10 June 2012, bringing into question the credibility of the newspaper. Read more >>

NIGERIA

iROKOtv reaches 500 000 subscribers

iROKOtv, described as the 'Netflix of Africa' and reportedly the continent's first legal online source of Nollywood films, has announced that it has recorded over 500 000 registered users in less than six months since its launch. Read more >>

UGANDA

SAARF PAMRO Conference for Africa Diplomat

By bringing together the media research industry across African borders, the Pan African Media Research Organisation (PAMRO) aims to produce harmonised, compatible and comprehensive audience measurement data for the entire continent. By promoting media research in Africa, PAMRO aims to assist in uncovering the opportunities that exist for growth and development in all African countries. One of PAMRO's key vehicles for bringing people together from around the continent is its annual conference, the PAMRO All Africa Media Research Conference. Read more >>

MALAWI

Continental Outdoor Media release consumer behaviour findings

As global businesses begin to turns towards African developing markets, outdoor advertising companies need to understand the different segments in the economies and how best to reach disparate groups of consumers. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Ghana makes cocoa-farming fashionable

[Zeenat Moorad] Fashionable is not a word usually associated with farming. But elders in the Mpaem community in the Fanteakwa District of eastern Ghana boast of a wave of change sweeping the African country's cocoa industry. Read more >>

NIGERIA

Nigeria's First Bank sponsors CNN short-form films

Nigeria's First Bank has annouced that it will be sponsoring 'From Passion to Portfolio', a new series of short-form films on CNN International that will focus on individuals whose hobbies have evolved into profitable investments. Read more >>

CHILE

Latin America leads as the most socially-engaged global region

SANTIAGO, CHILE: comScore, Inc, a global leader in measuring the digital world, has released its latest report on social networking in Latin America from its comScore Media Metrix service. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

One Show Entertainment Awards: Gold, Silver & Bronze Pencil Winners

LOS ANGELES / NEW YORK, US: After weeks of intense judging by a jury panel chaired by Funny or Die's Chris Bruss, One Show Entertainment 2012 announced a total of 19 Gold, 22 Silver and 27 Bronze Pencil winners for the year's best in branded entertainment from across the globe. Among the top pencil winners was South Africa with 2 Silver and 1 Bronze. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

'The Power of Like: How Social Marketing Works'

RESTON, US: comScore, Inc and Facebook have released the second white paper in The Power of Like series, The Power of Like 2: How Social Marketing Works, including original analysis demonstrating ways in which exposure to earned and paid media on Facebook drives behavioural lifts in purchase behaviour. The analysis leverages data and insights from the comScore Social Essentials and comScore AdEffx products. This release follows the first in the series: The Power of Like: How Brands Reach and Influence Fans Through Social Media Marketing. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Cabinet welcomes judgement on mining rights

Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane, says Cabinet has welcomed the recent Supreme Court of Appeal judgment - which decided that the right to mine in South Africa in the sense of the right to prospect and mine for minerals and extract and dispose of them is vested in the State . Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

First National Evaluation Plan gets Cabinet's approval

Cabinet has approved the first annual National Evaluation Plan which identifies the evaluations to be undertaken over the next year. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Net tightens on poor quality financial advice

[Evan Pickworth] Any future pyramid scheme conmen beware - a new financial consumer advocate is on the prowl. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

New tax bill coming soon

[Michael Bratt] The new Tax Administration Bill will be coming into effect soon and law-firm Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) recently held a workshop to brief the public on how it will affect them as tax-payers and business owners. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Pravin warns taxpayers wary of misuse of funds

[Paul Vecchiatto] Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has warned that taxpayers are getting wary of the misuse of public funds‚ but also pointed a finger at how the private sector costs its products and services to government. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Citroen's classy SUV contender

[Henrie Geyser: motoring editor] Like many other carmakers Citroen has now also waltzed on to the rapidly growing SUV market enticed by the sweet tunes of the Jewish Harp and confident that its new three-model Aircross range is sexy enough to lure SUV-addicted South Africans away from the brands that dominate this lucrative market segment. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Radisson Blu's Top Hotel contest kicks off new challenge

Europe's largest upscale brand Radisson Blu launches a new contest: "Radisson Blu's Top Hotel", an online competition between 200 Blu hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa which compete for the customer's votes by promoting their uniqueness. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Playing with politics in Adapt or Fly

[Eugene Yiga] Government censorship. Racial tension. A country that could very well fall apart. With a democracy that's long since come of age, you'd think that we'd be over these issues by now. Alas, we're not. Our dysfunctional political scene gives comedians plenty of material to work with and who better to take advantage of the times than master satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys? Thirty years after his controversial show about the apartheid regime, he's back with more in Adapt or Fly. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Tough moral questions in Green Man Flashing

[Eugene Yiga] You're standing on the street. The green man is flashing, which means you have the right to cross. But a taxi is racing towards the intersection and will hit you as soon as you step off the pavement. What do you do? This seemingly simple question is the basis for Green Man Flashing, a wonderfully complex political thriller now showing at the Artscape Arena in Cape Town. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Swedish electro-soul band to tour SA

Swedish electro-soul band Little Dragon have announced that they will be performing with support from local artists as part two of the adidas Originals Live Performances series in Cape Town on 31 August and Jourg on 1 September, 2012. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

San Diego's Switchfoot in debut tour of SA

For the first time, Grammy-Award winning San Diego band Switchfoot are to tour SA on their Vice Verses tour. They will play on 8 August at The Big Top Arena, Carnival City, Joburg and on 11 August, 2012, at the Grand Arena, GrandWest, Cape Town. Read more >>