Adidas won the World Cup?
No, not another 2014 FIFA World Cup surprise, but a valid question. As one of the major sponsors of this global event, was the return on investment received what Adidas was expecting as one of the official sponsors, after having spent huge amounts of money?
Speculation is rife that FIFA's World Cup partners pay a hefty price for the privilege to be so closely affiliated with the event – apparently $1.5 billion revenues are taken to be associated as some form of World Cup Sponsor.
Gauteng-based media monitoring company, ROi, who has been reporting to the South African media on World Cup statistics during the event, generated an insightful study that contains the editorial mention of these brands in relation to this event.
“It is surprising how little editorial coverage there is from each of the sponsors given the massive fee there is to be associated with this world event,” says ROi Managing Director, Tonya Khoury. “I do recognise that media publicity is not the only benefit a company like Adidas will get from such a sponsorship, but I was surprised that it was so low.”
The study, which does not include logo exposure or advertising in relation to the brands, focused on media mention of the various brands on millions of global social networks and 60,000 global online newspapers.
“As could be expected Adidas was the most exposed brand in the editorial space. With almost one third of the coverage against other sponsors, Adidas’ #allin campaign was a massive success,” says Khoury.
Another factor for the sponsor’s success is “largely attributed to the fact that Adidas was the main sponsor of the two teams playing in the final. They are also the sponsor of arguably the best football player in the tournament, Lionel Messi. To add to this 46 goals have been scored by players wearing the adizero F50, including three of the World Cup’s top scorers: James Rodriguez of Colombia, Thomas Muller of Germany and then of course Messi.
“The official soccer ball has also been a success. Brazuca, under the @brazuca Twitter handle, it gained more than 2.75 million followers during the tournament (more than 3.25 million overall), making it the fastest growing profile of the World Cup,” she adds.
When isolating the data set into “Partners” only, Adidas and Sony accounted for over 50% of the editorial coverage. Adidas was the most talked about brand during the tournament across all social channels, like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr and attracted more than 5 million new followers across these social platforms - more than any other sports brand.
“A company like Adidas was planning to generate €2 billion (about 28 billion Rand) in football related revenue this year and one wonders whether they have received adequate return on investment to achieve this. They have definitely achieved more than the other sponsors and they have gained valuable publicity, but I am seriously questioning whether they have received enough,” Khoury concludes.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tonya Khoury
Tel: 073 874 5377
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Twitter: @tonyaroi / @roiafricaFacebook:
Facebook.com/roiafrica
Ornico Publishes 2nd Africa Annual
Ornico Publishes 2nd Africa Annual Growth is the dominant theme in this 2014 edition of the yearly magazine brought out by the brand, media and reputation research company.
Sandton, South Africa – Wednesday, July 9, 2014: “Growth – that’s what it is all about. Whatever way we look at it, Africa’s time in the sun has arrived,” said Oresti Patricios, CEO of brand, media and reputation research firm, Ornico, by way of announcing the company’s second annual on Africa.
Called “The Africa Annual” the Ornico publication looks at economies in Africa that are growing at rates pegged at about 5.5% for this year according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Africa has growth rates that are making western economies green with envy,” Patricios said, adding that this new annual explores growth economies on the continent.
Patricios said that the big challenge for those economies that fared well in Africa would be to implement beneficiation, and to create sustainable economies focused on long-term development. “While Africa’s growth rates are exciting, what is important to realise is that part of this growth is being driven by ‘raw’ exports of resources, (mainly to China.) The big step of change for this continent, and one that will help create sustainable growth, is to make the move from being a massive source of raw material to becoming a manufacturer, or adding value to the production process through beneficiation,” he said.
“The focus in Africa shouldn’t be wealth creation or growth for the sake of growth. Rather what is needed is growth that drives education, job creation and the stimulation of industries that seed development,” Patricios said, adding: “In the resources sector, beneficiation would contribute significantly to adding value to this part of the economy. It would bring employment creation, skills development, and would help uplift regions where metals (and the like) are mined. What is needed here is a long-term view. Businesses and government in Africa need to forgo short term profits for long term gains.”
Ornico’s The Africa Annual 2014 explores Nigeria’s much-delayed rebasing of its GDP in April 2014 and what this means to South Africa, and looks at the truism that ‘Africa is not a country’. “It has become a cliché that brands wanting expanding into the rest of the continent need to beware of trying to transplant their existing, successful strategies to markets here – or even transplanting strategies from one market in Africa to another,” Patricios explains. “Some SA and global brands have learned the hard way that marketing in each new African territory demands a local approach,” he said. Other themes in Ornico’s The Africa Annual 2014 include the massive push north by South African retail brands; what’s been behind Nollywood’s contribution to Nigeria’s economic growth; the ‘peculiar’ radio habits of Kenyans; and much, much more.
“Growth is happening in Africa, and what we’ve tried to do is to offer a snapshot of where and how this growth is happening, and insights that brands and marketers need to know about growing in Africa,” Patricios said.
Ornico’s The Africa Annual 2014 is published in collaboration with MarkLives.com and a free copy of the magazine is available through South Africa’s authoritative, independent marketing site. Alternately the marketing magazine is available free to download at www.ornico.co.za
Download Ornico’s The Africa Annual 2014
ABOUT ORNICO
Ornico makes sense of the tsunami of brand, advertising and media information flooding the marketplace. By collecting and analysing adverts and brand publicity, Ornico helps put marketing decision makers in the know about the most important strategic decisions they’ll ever make regarding their brands.
Ornico has the largest and most comprehensive library of TV, radio, outdoor, print and Internet reference material, and offers a tracking service for emerging advertisements or Newcomers™. The company tracks competitive and category advertising spend, and verifies media schedules to ensure the investment that brands make in advertising is fully realised. Editorial services include publicity monitoring, SMS alerts and the analysis or comparison of own and competitive brand images.
Established in 1984, Ornico has offices in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town as well as Nigeria and Kenya. The largest supplier of advertising visual references in South Africa, Ornico employs a team of over 100 people and has clients that include many of Africa’s top companies. Ornico – Know how. To grow.
CONTACTS
Oresti Patricios – CEO Mobile: 083 326 2250
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Francois van Dyk - Operations Manager
Call: 011 884 5041
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ornico Head Office:
Tel: +27 11 884-5041 Fax: +27 11 783-6931
Twitter: @OrnicoMedia | Web: www.ornico.co.za
Tonya Khoury resigns from DDI Africa, starts own company
Tonya Khoury, the former Managing Director of DDI Africa, announced that she has resigned from the company.
“The great news is that I will remain in the media monitoring space but this time with vastly innovative technology at my new company, ROi AFRICA (ROi). I have been privileged to secure the financial and administrative support of one of South Africa’s most exciting listed companies. I am building a media monitoring solution that promises to be the first of its kind in the world and for the first time, South Africa’s marketing and PR industry will have monitoring work for them,” she says enthusiastically.
They will achieve that by using:
- Smart Technology that learns and identifies trends across all media platforms.
- Specifically designed for Big Content Management and its measurement.
- Full media monitoring across global and local print, radio, television, online and social media.
- The largest social media pipe in the world – over 190 million social platforms.
- From high level to infinite detail in a click.
- Presented in an interactive and innovative platform.
- Manage your brand and make immediate, clever media decisions with foresight.
She continues, “ROi AFRICA will offer the clients access to editorial coverage across print, radio, television, social media and online in near real time but in addition to this the technology thinks ahead of the media and helps brand reputation management to react before the media peak.
The data set consists of:
- 190 million social networks (Global)
- 60 000 online newspapers (Global)
- Thousands of printed publications (South African and Rest of Africa)
- 40 radio and TV stations (South African)
Khoury says that ROi will be one of a select few media monitoring companies in the world to offer immediate analytics and sentiment. “My new company’s link to the listed company means I have BEE credentials, added to a global footprint and several African Offices” she adds proudly.
“To add, we will be continuing on the groundbreaking media statistics that I provided on big events like the Oscar Pistorius Trial, the 2014 Elections and the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” adds Tonya. Details on the market launch of ROi AFRICA will be released soon, but it is expected to take place in August.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Tonya Khoury 073 874 5377
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Twitter: @tonyaroi / @roiafrica
Facebook: Facebook.com/roiafrica
Somerset West’s Own Indie Game Studio
Indie games are fast becoming a trend in South Africa, catching on from the overseas markets. These days, children and adults alike are playing mobile games as never before. People are always hungry for something different, which is where indie games – or ‘independent’ games – come in, providing players with something other than the mass-produced mainstream products.
Now, Somerset West can boast with its very own game studio that started turning its cogs in February this year. For its first month of existence, the studio was run out of the founder’s mother’s basement – typical indie game studio protocol, if history is anything to go by. Now, running from a house close to De Hoop Primary School, the studio focuses on creating mobile games (such as their recently released Afrikaans game, Fanie de Beer) and has oodles of style, creativity, skill and initiative.
While the Apmil Game Studio has only been up and running for a few months, the people who daily put their shoulders to its wheels have been building up relationships for the last three-and-a-half years. Even though the studio officially started up in February, the idea of an indie game studio had been brewing in the mind of Studio Head, Pierre Bezuidenhout, since 2011. Pierre started lecturing in the Animation Department of Cape Town’s City Varsity in 2011 – and this is where he met the three students who would later join him in this grand venture.
Pierre, as leader of the team, is Apmil’s Programmer and Technical Director. He has previously worked in advertising and animation for Wicked Pixels in Woodstock and held the position of lecturer at Concept Interactive as well as at City Varsity. His impressive skill set includes a sharp eye for detail as well as design flair and programming aptitude in different digital languages and platforms – he is also quite the people-person. Altus Barry is the Technical Lead, taking charge of rigs, renders and other related tasks. Mabet van Zijl did her major in 3D Narrative and, as Generalist, leads Apmil’s marketing and writing in between her usual workload. Louren Hattingh takes the roles of Lead Animator and Concept Artist. While each person has their area to lead, the workflow runs with a ‘rock-paper-scissors’-style in which one falls under the delegation of another while dealing with respective area-specific tasks. Sitting around a whiteboard, each armed with a marker, they discuss character design, story line, player motivation, level arrangement, time constraints and load division before jumping in with the actual development.
The first released game, Fanie de Beer, is a 100% physics-driven, full 3D, indie puzzle game with a distinct South African flavour. Playing as Fanie de Beer, a 12-year-old farm-boy, the player utilizes simple little rocks by tapping once on the screen to clear best friend Jaco Kriel’s fields of strategically placed, ancient landmines. Built in Unity, the game takes place in a single day – with the story starting early in the morning and ending in the evening – transporting the player through a dynamic day/night cycle and colourful, saturated farm fields as they progress through the 84 levels, meeting new mine types and increasingly difficult challenges as they go along. Written and designed in Afrikaans, then carefully translated into true farm-style English, this game is unique, fun and proudly South African. The demo is available for download from the Google Play Store, while the full game can be purchased on Samsung Apps and Amazon.
The next game in the pipeline is different from Fanie de Beer in virtually every way. Where Fanie is a very colourful 3D puzzle game with just enough back-story to set the player up for the context and flavour of the game, the current project is a heavily story-driven platform-game that takes place in a fictional world made up of parallaxing silhouettes and strange characters.
Apmil Game Studio has not only been created as a platform to build games, but also as a springboard for fellow animators, developers, designers and illustrators. It’s a breeding ground for collaboration, ideas, innovation and learning. Each person hones their skills while doing fun and challenging work through creating games and stories as well as fulfilling the creative needs of small to medium-sized businesses in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
Apmil Game Studio services include animation, app creation, game creation, rendering/stills, asset creation, video editing and UX. The creative division of Apmil, led by artist Janet Botes and writer Michelle Albinson, offers logo design, graphic design, online/web design, interactive design, writing, editing, proofreading and illustration.
Apmil prides itself on being different: Fresh ideas, innovative applications, strange and wonderful games – they are all things that receive the studio’s love and attention to detail. To find out more or to get involved, contact Pierre Bezuidenhout at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him on 082 499 3133
Studio ingredients:[A]ltus makes the bus and [P]ierre drives the bus; [M]abet takes the bus t[i]ckets and [L]ouren makes the bus move. Thus, [apmil].
Free demo: Google Play – bit.ly/fanie_demo
Full version: Samsung Apps – bit.ly/fanie
Official Trailer: Youtube – bit.ly/fanie_trailer
Apmil page: Apmil/Fanie – apmil.co.za/fanie-de-beer
Loyalty & Rewards Conference 2014
Johannesburg – After the major success of the previous Loyalty and Rewards Conferences, held in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, this event will tackle new and revamped topics, featuring highly distinguished marketing executives addressing the conference.
It will be highlighting the most important aspects regarding loyalty programmes such as customer service, customer retention, partnerships, implementation, technology, branding and measuring programmes, the event will bring marketing and other professionals the opportunity to successfully introduce and maintain loyalty programmes.
Speakers include the following loyalty and rewards experts:
* Louis Raubenheimer, Head: Rewards VAS Support/Enablement, ABSA Rewards
* Prof Mornay Roberts-Lombard, Deputy HOD & Head of Masters and Doctoral studies, University of Johannesburg
* Jainita Khatri, Director, Prana Business Solutions
* Andries Noeth, Chief Marketing Officer, Consulta Research
* Ros Siddle, Marketing & Loyalty Research Manager, Truth
* Preneshen Munian, Agency Director, TLC Marketing
* Magriet Leaper, Director, Voila Travel
* Paul Lange, Executive Director, WoW Marketing
* Deon Olivier, Executive Director, ValueplusNettwork
* Nick Evans, Head of Digital & Rewards, Global Choices
* Jide Kola-Banjo, EasyLoyalty
The conference and open-space exhibition will be held at Focus Rooms, Sunninghill, Johannesburg on 11 and 12 June 2014. To register please contact project manager Sian Wirth, on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 011 703 1553 to find out more about exhibiting and marketing deals.
Now is the time for all good writers
{PP}When people hear I’m a writer they often comment “I’ve always wanted to write…” So what’s stopping them? Quite simply fear of failure. Fear of other people thinking that what they have to say isn’t worth reading.
Fear of editors turning their work away. Fear of their family members laughing at their attempts. This is seriously sad. Sad because of the loss of new and vibrant writers coming on to the South African writing scene at a time when there’s more work available than ever before.
Workshop on writing for the media
{pp}For those of you who have tried, generally in vain, to get your company’s name in the newspapers or on TV or radio, there’s some good news for you.
Well known journalist and media consultant Marion Scher will be running a one day workshop on public relations writing skills on Wednesday April 2nd, in Johannesburg.
This course is for anyone who has to write to either the print or electronic media in the hope of getting theirs or their clients name in the news.
Industrial Marketing Workshop
Public Relations Writing Skills Course
{pp}This is a practical, one day workshop taking place on Wednesday 2nd April that will involve turning press releases/statements/brochures and lengthy information into news articles.
The Public Relations Writing Skills Course is aimed at those working in the public relations or communications fields, who have to produce press releases/news releases on a regular basis and anyone who has to get either hard or soft news articles printed in the media, as well as get the attention of radio and television producers.
Net-workingwomen
{pp} Networking and empowerment are two of the most important buzzwords of the 21st century.
Put those two powerful initiatives together with the words women and internet, and you have the means to connect and support working women globally.
With this in mind, www.networkingwomen.co.za has been created by women, and for women, as an A-Z online directory for working women to advertise their businesses, products, services, skills and resources.
It also aims to help raise the profile of all working women.
