December 2008 Edition

Season’s Greetings

While many of us are counting down the weeks, days and hours until our well deserved year-end holiday, Alphabet Soup are wrapping up what has been an insanely fast-paced year. This year saw numerous changes in the media industry, many of which reflected the changes in the world economy, along with some which illustrate optimism and opportunities for the year ahead. Over the past few months: Alphabet Soup and our client Cardies won two awards at the Assegai Awards 2008; we forged a new partnership with an established online agency; and we have started looking for some great media opportunities to suit our client’s needs and objectives.

There have been a number of casualties in terms of magazine titles which closed this year including Maverick Magazine, Empire, Mooiloop, True Love Babe, Instyle, The Wisden Cricketer, Zoo Weekly/ Weekliks, TopMotor, Max Power, Insig, Your Child and Mense.

Read all about these and other interesting media news updates in our last newsletter of 2008, and as usual please feel free to send us your comments and feedback.

We wish all of our clients, business partners and friends a merry and safe festive season and look forward to working hand-in-hand with you all in the New Year.

Assegai Awards

On Thursday, 6 November, it was announced that Alphabet Soup won a Bronze Assegai and a Merit Award for two Cardies campaigns which were entered into the Direct Marketing Association Assegai Awards.

These awards were received for the Cardies High School Musical Sponsorship (merit award) and for the Cardies Idols Sponsorship (bronze award) in the alternative advertising category (where no gold awards were given).

There were a total of 147 entries from over 40 agencies, corporate and Individuals. Of these entries, 78 made it through to finals and 43 finalists received awards. This is the first time that Alphabet Soup has entered the Awards, and Alphabet Soup was the only Independent Media Agency to win an award.

Rate Inflation

As we all know, 2008 has been a tough year in terms of the world economy, and the media and advertising industry have felt the effects of increased inflation and weaker rand.

These economic factors and the fact that research indicates Adspend Growth is estimated to decrease to 8.7% in 2009 compared to 15.3% in 2008 (according to the latest T-Sec Economic Forecast), have all contributed to an increase in the media rates for 2009.

Coupled with the increased prices of materials (such as paper, printing and so on) and transport (particularly due to a 40% increase in the petrol price year on year) media rates have increased between 7% and 14% for 2009 (particularly when looking at print and outdoor media).

Tot Siens Egoli

Since its first broadcast on 6 April 1992, South Africa’s very first local soap set the standard for many locally produced daily dramas. Now after sixteen years of creating one of South Africa’s most watched programmes, MNet and Franz Marx Films have decided not to renew the contract for Egoli – Place of Gold.

M-Net’s Director of General Entertainment: South Africa, Theo Erasmus has advised that changing viewership patterns and preferences did influenced the decision not to renew the contract and as the result the final episode of Egoli will be broadcast on M-Net on 31 March 2010.

Printing Questions?

Since launching earlier this year Printingquestions.com has seen good support from the online community, evident in the fact that they have slowly increased their unique visitors hit rate to over 50 a day and in September they had over 500 unique/ new visitors.

So what do they actually do? Printingquestions.com is South Africa’s leading print information portal that caters for all users’ graphics, printing and packaging questions, requirements and solutions. This is where browsers can find the latest industry news and happenings, browse their knowledge base to find answers to their questions and subscribe to their newsletter which is currently sent out to over 3000 readers.

2009 Sponsorships

With a new year comes a line up of new series and great sponsorship opportunities and Oracle have stepped up to the plate by releasing several sponsorship packages for some of the top rated TV series as well as some new exciting programmes.

Contact Justine Lottering for the sponsorship package details for any of the following programmes: Prison Break IV, 90210, Eli Stone II, Samantha Who II, The Mentalist, Ugly Betty III and much more, before Wednesday 17 Dec 08.

Learn something new everyday

Eighty20, a niche consulting company that has created new and innovative ways to access South African and International Consumer data, has an excellent fact-a-day mailer.

This mailer is sent out every weekday with an interesting fact about South Africans generated from one of Eighty20's consumer databases, according to a weekly theme.

Subscribe at http://www.eighty20.co.za/databases/fad/fad.cgi. If that doesn’t satisfy your need to learn something daily, you can also subscribe to a free “Word a Day” mailer to extend your vocal at the following link: http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/

Charity Drive

At the end of November, Alphabet Soup made Luca Mullionos our official charity for the year; and appreciate everyone’s support regardless of how big or small because every cent counts.

The Mullionos, Newbury and Presbury family’s 12 month old niece Luca Mullionos, has been diagnosed with a condition called ‘Moyamoya’ disease, after suffering from two strokes, in less than six weeks. This is an extremely rare condition in which the walls of the carotid arteries thicken and the arteries narrow, restricting or blocking the blood flow to the brain, causing a stroke. The disease is progressive, which means that the vessels will continue to narrow over time. (There is apparently only one other case documented in South Africa).

The disease led to little Luca suffering from two strokes this year which have left both sides of her body paralysed and has affected her sight. The only treatment for the disease is surgery which had to be be performed abroad and as this is extremely expensive. Alphabet Soup emailed our database of client and media contacts and we have managed to raise R16 000 to date. We have also added the correspondence from Luca’s parents on her condition to our website, so that everyone can keep up to date on Luca’s surgery and progress.

Since November Luca has travelled to the UK and undergone the surgery she needed, her recovery thus far has been speedy which has led to her being discharged from hospital only days after her surgery. Her blood flow is good and the swelling from the surgery has gone down considerably. At the moment Luca is scheduled to have a check up on Tuesday the 16th Dec 08, this will give Luca’s family a better idea of the progress she has made to date and they are hoping that doctors will clear Luca to fly so that she can spend Christmas at home with her family.

Eye Witness News Offer

Primedia are taking the online news media space head on by launching the Eye Witness News website, this decision was made based on the strength of the Eye Witness News brand, as a separate brand to their stations.

Furthermore with the launch of the website, Primedia Broadcasting has also launched annual on-air Eye Witness News Sponsorships. The sponsorship packages cost R 950, 000 and include a guaranteed 30 on air spots a month from Jan to Dec 09, a combination of Prime Time News and Traffic reports evenly split over four stations (94.7, 702, 567 Cape Talk and 94.5 Kfm) including opening and closing billboards, a banner on the newly launched Eye Witness News website, sms communication exposure and pre-rolls on exclusive website content.

There are only 5 of these excellent packages left, should you be interested in more information please contact Alphabet Soup before 17 Dec 08.

Check out the updated AS Website

We have recently updated the AS Website with new content, research, pictures and much more, point your browser to www.alphabetsoup.co.za and find plenty of useful information.

702 Increase

Talk Radio is considering increasing its rates by 20% from July 2009 as demand for advertising exceeds supply.

CEO of Primedia Broadcasting Terry Volkwyn has said that they are in a position to increase their rates because 702's audience figures have improved, as has the impact of the station, and the demand for advertising has grown to the point where demand is now exceeding supply.

Although this increase is not yet official, it is the figure that Primedia Broadcasting have taken to the industry to prepare them for the increase in July 09.

Conclusion

As the media industry evolves and presents us with new challenges and opportunities, Alphabet Soup will continue striving to find the best solutions, negotiate the best deals and run the best campaigns for our clients.

We thank you all for a wonderful 2008; wish you a wonderful festive season with plenty of bonding time with family and friends; and we look forward to meeting the challenges of 2009 with you.