The popular Vodacom Caddie Foundation is threatened with extinction, following the decision by the sponsor not to renew its six-year contract. This innovative and socially responsible initiative by Golfcom, a division of Altmedia, created a sense of pride and developed career paths for a previously ignored section of the sporting world.
More than 4 500 caddies and their extended families benefited from the campaign. In addition, players were comfortable entrusting their precious golfing gear to those who formed part of the scheme and participating golf clubs saved money.
Paul Atkinson of Golfcom has been touting the opportunity around to alternative backers. So far no one will touch it as their view is that Vodacom is so closely associated with the brand that they would need to spend extensive amounts over and above their sponsorship fees to create a new brand association.
A spokesperson for Vodacom said the cellphone giant’s decision was based on “declining value for money”.
No ads, thanks
Outspoken publisher Craig Sims has had unexpected success with his youth titles Saltwater Girl, ZigZag and Blunt. He takes a strong line when it comes to the number-crunching decisions made by some advertising agencies and their clients.
Sims has declined to accept ads from Hunters Gold and Vodacom, based on their unsuitability. “They didn’t fit the editorial environment we carefully create for our readers,” he says.
He cheekily offered to redesign the Hunters Gold ads free of charge to better reflect the aspirations of the trendoids who pour over his titles. The creatives shunned his offer.
Slush funds
Every industry has them. The ad and media placement business is no exception. These “excess profits” arise when media owners fail to invoice agencies for ads placed and paid for by clients. Accounting policies acknowledge these as profits after a three-year period.
A recent high court decision brought the matter to the fore when the former owners of BLGK (an Eighties whiz agency) won their case against a seemingly disgruntled BLGK employee, Ralph Degni. They claimed that the funds had been used to pump up profit numbers just prior to the sale of the now defunct agency to Bates worldwide.
Daily Sun rises
In retrospect, it seems strange that Deon du Plessis had to wait for years before any of the big newspaper players would back his concept for a daily tabloid aimed unashamedly at the lower Living Standards Measure groups. ABC numbers for July to September show an increase from 177 900 to 224 821, a whopping 26%.
And this on the back of consistent growth since the Daily Sun’s launch. Media 24 must be happy.
What is most encouraging, though, is the fact that a whole bunch of new readers have come out of the closet.
Awards fever
Time for the Mondi journalism awards again. Entry forms are available from Print Media South Africa. Deadline for magazine and newspaper entries is mid-February next year. Darrel Bristow‒Bovey has been dropped from the magazine judging panel.
Maestro Marx
Frans Marx is arguably one of the most talented television scriptwriters around. Not only has his Egoli series on MNet recently passed its 3 000th episode, his new series, The Res, for SABC2 will be returning for a second run early next year.
According to station manager Arletta Alberts, the series will now be shown on Thursdays, as most viewers prefer movies on Saturdays.
Paper switches party?
Mandla-Matla Publishing, owners of Ilanga, KwaZulu-Natal’s Zulu- language biweekly newspaper, is to move its title’s headquarters to a R2-billion development in Durban’s Point Waterfront. This marks the paper’s first change of address from its old haunt in Umgeni Road, where it was launched a century ago.
Signficantly (or not), the new premises will be fronted by a statue of John Dube, founder of Ilanga and former president of the African National Congress. Is this a move by Mandla-Matla to correct the newspaper’s perceived status as the mouthpiece of the Inkatha Freedom Party?
Shorter queues?
The latest ad offerings from Standard Bank fits its pay-off line of “Simpler, Better, Faster” rather well. All feature South African parents and their offspring doing laid-back everyday chores such as gardening and wall painting. Hunt Lascaris is the agency.
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