Less running, more action

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Breaking it down for you
On Sunday, 7 October 2012, 20 000 runners traversed the substantial divide between Sandton and Alexandra as part of Nike's ''We Run Jozi" 10km race. The impeccable organisation, challenging route and fantastic vibe, crossing the finish line left many feeling strangely fulfilled. Like its earlier incarnation, the second ''We Run Jozi" was by all accounts a hit. How often can a running race boast a 100% increase in entries in only six months?

The success of the concept is testament to an excellent global marketing campaign that has been adapted to local market conditions in a way that completely resonates with Nike's target market here. Driven by social media and PR, Nike has tapped into many uniquely South African emotions-anger (taking back the streets of Johannesburg), curiosity (the vast majority of runners had never set foot in Hillbrow or Alex), and our inherent need to cross the cultural, economic and racial divide once in a while to come together and achieve something great (something that only sports seems to be able to do).

But here's the problem: now that thousands of Joburg's better-heeled residents have seen how the majority of South Africans live, what are we going to do about it? Will this be just another campaign with all the noise but no action? Or will the conditions in Alex finally be bettered for those who reside there, through public action? Only time can tell I suppose

Possible business prospects in Brazil for SA?

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With the world cup looming in Brazil, i've decided to have a look as to how South African businesses will be taking advantage of the exposure which will be taking place in the South American continent. Basically what's happened is that a group of South African businesses has descended into Brazil to scour opportunities in the growing South American country.

They are part of a South African delegation comprising of twenty-five businesses plus the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) who are participating in the fourth Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) taking place in Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte. The DTI said the aim of the ITI Brazil is to increase exports of value-added products from South Africa to Brazil, by means of showcasing South African companies' diverse range of capabilities to produce world class products and services.The business delegation will participate in a series of seminars, business- to-business meetings and site visits to various companies operating in the mining and capital equipment, automotive components, aerospace, defence, safety, security and agro-processing sectors.

This shows that form a communication point South Africa wants to establish itslef as a force in the international market. After sponsoring the world-cup itslef, South Africa would be familiar with how things work when it comes to developing relationships with other countries in the buying market. Truly there must be some form of growth happening in the South African economy for its businesses to be expanding to this magnitude. Well played SA!!!!!!!!!!

Cell C spreads its wings

Cell C caused quite a stir in the local (South African) mobile world with their new super fast 3G services and a new revamped look spear-headed by comedian Trevor Noah. Cell C since then has established itself as a serious contendar with the likes of MTN and Vodacom in the wings, making for a rather competitive mobile network market. Today Cell C brings much needed data connectivity to the academic city of Potchefstroom, with coverage extending as far as Klerksdorp in the North West Province, with the launch of its 3G network using HSPA+ technologies.

The two small towns follow the launch of the network in Mafikeng, which was the first city in the province to enjoy high-speed data connectivity from Cell C after years of being considered an underserviced area. "The roll-out of our network in the province confirms our commitment to bringing connectivity to all South African. Since our launch we have brought access to all the major cities and have deployed 3000 base stations across the country," says Karin Fourie, Cell C’s Executive Head of Communications.

Cell C recently introduced a range of new voice and data products aimed at simplifying and making mobile services more affordable for the South African consumer. With the launch of 99c For Real, Cell C slashed prepaid rates by more than 34% and the company's new Straight Up contract packages help customers chose the simplest offer on the market. Customers with friends and family abroad will also benefit from Cell C's unprecedented rates for international calls, including the 99c rate to more than 50 countries.

"Cell C isn’t finished yet. The mobile consumer in South Africa has and will continue to benefit, and so will South Africa as a whole," concludes Fourie.

Affiliate Marketing: Where both sides benefit

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I've always wondered how life would've turned out had I gone down the path of a financial advisor...well this is me giving it a shot so ALL STUDENTS pay attention!!! Ever heard of affiliate marketing? No? Well the definition on Wikipedia gives it as such: "Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts".

Basically what that means is that affiliate marketing is promoting other people's (company's) product and earning a commision in return (if a sale is made). So you're essentially working for a company on an "unofficial" basis. As an affiliate you basically do a number of tasks such as promoting other people's or the company's product using a special link with a code only being used by you embedded into it, this is required by the advertiser to track the leads referred by you. Should someone buy that product (or in some cases complete a task like signing up or completing a survey) using your link, it gets tracked by the advertiser and you are rewarded a commission, which is a percentage of the sale price but can also be a fixed amount as set by the advertiser. This way both the advertiser and the publisher is benefited. Advertisers get more sales of their product when many publishers/affiliates promote their product and Affiliates in turn generate revenue by promoting the product.

Affiliate marketing isn't so simple however...this is due to the fact that the product you are advertising should be advertising friendly for your specific market. This brings us to the fact that not all products or services can be marketed on this new platform. However depemding how well one can communicate with their public almost any product on earth can be marketed with the correct insight and knowledge so this will serve as a key factor in whether your company ends up being a success or not.

The end of an era

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A Little Intro:

The reign of the keyboard and mouse is slowly coming to an end. I mean we may not see it right now, but gradually technology is moving away from the point and click system and going into a more intuitive system. The way we use computers has remained largely unchanged for nearly 40 years. Even with the advent of touch screens and tablets in the past 10 years, we have only experienced a slight modification of the familiar point-and-click paradigm. Hoewever this will change very soon, we are currently going through the most significant evolution in the way we work with computers since Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh in 1984.

I will be rasing just a few interface revolution just to support my theory:

• touch and mulitiple touch
• gesture control
• voice
• HUD
• wearable computers
• holographic displays
• bain machine interfaces

The above points that I have rasied are both from protoypes which you see at science exhibitions and actual devices which are currently being made, so keep your eyes peeled!!

Business App of the year

A lil intro:

The build up and excitement over the last few weeks leading up to the first ever MTN Business App of the Year awards event, proved worth the wait as the ICT industry awarded innovation in application development. The awards, which took place at "The Venue" in Melrose Arch, it saw the announcement of the FNB Banking app team winning the overall best App of the Year for 2012.

Nomalanga Nkosi

The General Manager for Business Marketing at MTN Business, Nomalanga Nkosi says "The MTN Enterprise Business team congratulates the FNB Banking app team on this achievement and title. The team's passion for application development, innovation, alongside an understanding of the broader business market, expertise and dedication has certainly paid off. We found an innovative application, born from a forward-thinking and creative idea that will no doubt positively impact the way business will be undertaken going forward, and will empower businesses to conduct work seamlessly and effectively."

There is a need to develop apps that address the demands of businesses and individuals. The awards aim to recognise local app developers that are spearheading innovation in this space.

Hayley Horan, the journalist for Creative Space Media says "The event was a huge success and one that we are proud to have initiated. We commend and thank every application developer who entered the awards as they exhibited the depth of talent and creativity we have in the South African ICT market. Selecting the finalists and the winner was certainly no easy task and it certainly points to the enormous talent that exists out there."

With various award categories throughout the evening, winners included:

• FNB Banking for the best iOS consumer App
• Health ID for the best iOS enterprise App
• FNB Banking for the best Blackberry App
• TransUnion Dealer Guide for the best Android enterprise App
• FNB Banking for the best Android consumer App
• Rapidtargets for the best HTML5 App
• Matchy for the best Windows App
• Plascon Inspire Me for the most innovative App
• PhraZApp for the best Garage developer App

I think awards like this serve as a good indication as to how companies like MTN are dominating the respective fields they're in and doing a good job of making sure services for all customers are met. GOOD ONE MTN!!!!

Banking in a new way?

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The future is something no-one can truly predict or fore-see, this is a fact on almost all aspects of life. However the same sentiment cannot be shared for cellphone banking which is full of predictions which may come true. For example using your cellphone to pay for your bill or your grocery purchases isn't some distant, dreamy idea.

This idea would truly be something extraordinary in the market we live in which is confined by the plastic cards called debit and credit cards. Jonathan Houston the digital marketing lead executive in the Deliotte consulting technology division said, "It is obviously far fetched to think that the use of debit and credit cards will be completely eliminated, but a time will come when you open a bank account, you will be asked to choose between having a card or a phone (as a means) to pay". This raises the question just how far will technolgy grow(in terms of banking) in the 21st century? Houston answers this by saying "The rapid convergence of mobile and banking technology which started  with such simple functions as money transfer was increasingly making the cellphone a virtual bank itself".

Bankers say that South African's high mobile penetration rate made it the perfect maket to launch banking technology and products using cellphones to reach an under-banked and unbanked population estimated at more than 11 million. An initiative which particularly caught my eye in terms of banking which took place in May was by FNB which launched a person-to-person payment option called "Geo Payments", using its banking app which allows users within close range of each other to make payments to one another without using their bank account details. This shows great promise for our local market.