We provide context and re-assurance

Stakeholder and Public Relations

STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS

In the past six years, we have come

to appreciate the robustness of the

IMC mandate. We are convinced that

the only way Brand South Africa will

have international impact is through

reach and critical mass. Whereas

strategic and smart leveraging may

have been regarded as a “necessity”

in the past, the 2010 event makes

it an “imperative”. We took a

conscious decision in the past year

to invest more in strategic partnerships,

leveraging on synergies and coll-

aborating with stakeholders.

The following campaigns demonstrate

the extent to which leveraging was

achieved in the past year:

a. Collaboration on Trade and Investment Missions

Our key partners on strategic

missions are the Department of Trade

and Industry (the dti), Department of

Foreign Affairs (DFA), SA Tourism

and the SAT/ Provincial investment

agencies.

Under the leadership of Minister

Pahad, we collaborated with Trade

and Investment South Africa (TISA),

SA Tourism, the departments of

Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs

as well as provincial investment

agencies in facilitating a mission to

India. The objective was to streng-

then already existing India-South

Africa trade relations, but also to

pursue fresh opportunities in what

we consider to be a largely untapped

market. During this mission, we

interacted with close to 200 Indian

businesses.

b. Collaboration on Key 2010 Projects

Our key partners during this financial

year were the 2010 LOC, the GCIS

and host cities. The 2010 event has

created an opportunity for South

Africa to change the master narrative

on the continent and influence

how the world writes about us. We

identified the need to collaborate

with some of our key partners on

initiatives geared to put South Africa

on Global Agenda.

State of

Readiness

c. 2010 Projects Media Tour

The collaboration with Germany: Land

of Ideas and the City of Johannesburg

coincided with our Youth Day

celebrations in June. We benefited

from a visit by well-known European

football players in an event aimed

at displaying solidarity with South

Africa’s hosting of 2010.

We used this opportunity

to expose the media

to tangible evidence

about our state of

readiness and used endorsements by

high-calibre players to boost our PR

effort.

d. 2010 Legacy Projects Media Tour

After achieving a resounding success

with this initiative, the partnership

took a decision to sustain

our communication effort

by repeating these tours

quarterly in the period

leading up to 2010.

We took a slightly different approach

with the second tour. This time, the

focus was on the macro-economic

benefit (legacy) of the 2010 event.

Through education, we highlighted

the impact of the country’s investment

in the event, by demonstrating in a

t a n g i b l e w a y h o w l i v e s w i l l b e

changed.

e. 2010 National Communications Conference

For the second year, the annual 2010

National Communications Conference

drew significant attention from both

the media and the communications

industries. In collaboration with

the 2010 National Communication

partnership, we have established

a platform to exchange views and

ideas. This aims

to ensure commu-

nication alignment

in the next two years

leading up to the

host ing o f the

World Cup.

32

f. Strategic Partnerships

We partnered with the Newspaper

Association of South Africa and the

World Association of Newspapers

(WAN) to host an event which was

attended by editorial decision-makers,

media owners and senior executives

from 102 countries representing

18 000 newspapers. The significance

of these partner-ships for us, was in

establishing relationships which will

guarantee us immediate access to

a constituency with a broad global

footprint and significant influence.

g. Brand Champion Program

We continued with the campaign to

mobilise national pride and patriotism

by leveraging the goodwill provided by

the 2010 event. This year, we adapted

the current business model by

integrating an element of sustainability

in the program as well as utilising

mass media to reach large numbers of

people. The training model was revised

and we added a broadcast element

through which we pick up stories of

people making an effort to live and

articulate the Brand South Africa

values. These are then publicised

through the mass media for inspiration.

The new training program was piloted

at the department of Public Services

and Administration with the executive

team and front line staff, at Sports and

Recreation and at the bank services

SETA for executives from the banking

industry.

The focus for the next two years

will be on government departments

responsible for client service delivery

to enable us to impact behavior at

critical points of contact as we prepare

for the 2010 event.

WAN CONGRESS

34

PUBLIC AND MEDIA RELATIONS

A recent brand equity study valued

Brand South Africa at over R516

billion, up from R379 billion in 2003.

This figure is a measure of the selling

power of the South African brand; that

is, its ability to attract foreigners to

the country’s products, industry and

shores. The Minister in the Presidency,

Essop Pahad, attributed the rise in the

value of Brand South Africa to the work

of the International Marketing Council

of South Africa.

This value can in part be attributed to

exceptional public and media relations,

the latter generating over R6 million

worth of unweighted editorial coverage

in the last year alone.

a. Kickin it in South Africa Media Function

A very successful campaign was the

Kickin it in South Africa media tour.

The tour aimed to boost confidence

in the country’s ability to host a

successful 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The IMC served as host to take

advantage of three coinciding

events:

The launch of its new domestic

ad campaign ‘“We’ve done it

before”

A visit to South Africa by well-

known German football stars on

behalf of the Germany: Land

of Ideas Campaign (which

was responsible for branding

Germany during the 2006

FIFA World Cup); and

A stadium readiness tour

hosted by the City of

Johannesburg.

The tour, which took place on 16

June, coinciding with Youth Day,

began with a press briefing at SAFA

House (where the new IMC ad

campaign was launched), followed

by a tour of Orlando Stadium and

surrounding legacy projects, as well

as Soccer City.

The function was a major success,

as evidenced by the almost

R1 million of unweighted media

coverage generated and newspaper

headlines announcing “German

players starry-eyed at the thought of

kicking off in SA” (The Star), “Euro

stars supporting 2010 effort” (The

Citizen) and “Germany stars back

2010” (Daily Sun). It also placed

the IMC squarely in the public eye,

and reinforced the close relationship

of the IMC with key stakeholders.

b. Support for the “We’ve done it before” advertising campaign

All marketing and business media

received copies of the IMC’s latest

domestic advert “We’ve done

it before and will do it again”.

Media coverage was very positive

and included a number of high

profile articles in Business Day

– “Advertisement to inspire SA”;

Saturday Star – “Glory days are worth

remembering – IMC ad awarded an

orchid”; and Beeld – “Advertensie

skep vertroue in SA vermoë”; not to

mention radio interviews.

“German players starry-eyed at thought

of kicking off in SA” The Star

“Advertensie skep vertrour in SA vermoë”

Beeld

“Advertisement to inspire SA”Business Day

“Glory days are worth remembering”

Saturday Star

36

c. Ad with a Twist International Advertising Campaign

A media release entitled Ad with a twist urges global business to

“invest in South Africa” was issued to publicise our latest international advert, which flighted on CNN during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2008. Media response was very positive, “‘Invest in South Africa’ ads hit CNN” (The Mercury Network) and “Advertensie op CNN wil Suid Afrika aan buiteland verkoop” (Sake 24). In addition, the commercial was uploaded onto Play24, South Africa’s own YouTube.

d. Viral Campaign

The IMC also launched a viral campaign in September 2007. Virals are short, topical and punchy e-mails on positive stories. Since inception, over thirty virals have been distributed by the IMC.At the core of the IMC’s work is building confidence nationally and internationally in the possibilities that are alive in South Africa. No better opportunity to do this was presented than the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup final in France, where South Africa was

crowned Rugby World Champion. As South Africans across the world united behind our team and celebrated victory, the IMC, through strategic media relations including an interview on SABC’s Morning Live, used the energy and optimism surrounding this event to inspire a vision amongst South Africans of what a united and confident South Africa looks like and is able to achieve.

Viral 1

The Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa is

investing a further R1.5 billion in its local

operations despite the current power supply

problems facing the country.

“We got into this investment with eyes wide

open and were aware of the power situation,”

explained Hal Federer, CEO. “It’s a long-term

and strategic investment. We view South Africa

as the gateway into Africa with a billion

people.”

Viral 2

You have it all, says Avis Charles, a fashion guru

from London. All we hear about is HIV and poverty.

We need to change people’s perceptions. “There

is an enormous amount of talent here. I’m here,

sourcing for trends, some of which are unique to

South Africa.”

“This country is sitting on a gold mine of cultural

wealth. You have everything here you need to be

succesful: the innovation, the landscape, the

beading and the culture,” says Charles.

(Based on The Weekender, January 26, 2008)