Archive
Opinions
-
Keeping Clarity when Creating Content
July 2, 2015
Nobody likes to explain a joke, you immediately lose your point and your audience. The same goes with content. You should never feel the need to explain your content, within your content. This following blog post is a look at different types of content for social networking platforms and some common mistakes made...
-
The 5 Reasons We Tell Stories and Why People Care.
July 1, 2015
I joined FleishmanHillard South Africa in November 2014. The company merged with ApexMedia, a creative agency I launched in 2010. My team and I had been discussing the move for a few months before taking the plunge. We realised we had the opportunity to tell richer stories for a global client base to a larger stakeholder group. The mission of FleishmanHillard is simple. To be the most complete communications firm, by telling great stories on...
-
How to Make Content Marketing Work for You
June 23, 2015
The media landscape is constantly changing with consumers moving toward digital platforms as opposed to traditional. The circulation figures for traditional media outlets have been on a continuous decline, while digital platforms have seen a substantial increase. With that being said, companies need to keep up with the trends and be smarter in how they engage with and sell their brand to the consumer...
-
What are you doing to grow girls in STEM?
April 23, 2015
Today is International Girls in ICT day. This day provides an opportunity for girls and young women to see and experience ICT in a new light encouraging them to consider a future in technology. To date, over 111,000 girls and young women have taken part in more than 3,500 events held in 140 countries around the world. Why is this day special and why should you care? In my opinion we should all care about...
-
Channel Fatigue and the Fight Against ‘Infobesity’
March 11, 2015
It's 3:45 am, I'm up and my phone is chiming with notifications, in a procession of continuous beeps and jingles as it has done for as long as I can remember. My wife suggests, the micro pauses between beeps are a waste and that my phone should just emit a singular uninterrupted tone. Years ago during a talk I was asked how we'd cope with the ever increasing volume of information that comes with the...
-
Media Relations, Content Development – It’s Time to Go Back to Basics
March 2, 2015
Under pressure to compete and stay abreast of current industry trends, the traditional public relations offering has had to evolve rather quickly in order to supply the integrated communications demand made by big businesses across the globe. Firms or agencies have taken to adding various multimedia specialists to their teams over the past couple of years, with the aim of being able to offer clients consolidated solutions through a ‘one-stop’ shop offering. However, as much...
-
A Killing: Does Charlie Mean More Than Boko Haram?
January 13, 2015
It’s a controversial topic on the minds of many, and although every loss of life is a tragedy, what makes one piece of news more newsworthy than another, if not the scale and local relevance? Are certain topics given a greater amount of attention based on media owners, whose socio political beliefs determine the importance of one topic over another? Or is one topic favoured in view of its impact on foreign policy; the beneficial...
-
YOU Got to be Authentic
October 24, 2014
There is a voracious appetite for innovation across the globe especially in the digital space. But innovation doesn’t necessarily mean losing touch with authenticity and personalisation of communications. Many brands, PR agencies and their clients are looking for ‘creative’, ‘out the box’ marketing or communications campaigns that will ultimately grab readers’ attention and translate into sales. No matter how creative the idea, Reputation of the brand should always be considered. One way of testing the...
-
Looking at Africa as a Single Market
October 23, 2014
A common mistake (even amongst communications professionals) is the inability to tailor business strategies to the various markets. In Africa, there are over 50 countries with over 2000 languages being spoken - religious diversities excluded. Africa is one big mixing pot of ethnic and cultural varieties. And like any big dysfunctional family, Africa is not joined by choice, but rather by geographical proximity (or in the case of family, blood...
-
Putting Ebola into Context
October 21, 2014
Striking a delicate balance between communicating a healthcare threat and managing public perceptions "Rumours and panic are spreading faster than the virus,” said Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation on Monday this week. In the same speech she called the Ebola outbreak “a crisis for international peace and security”...