Press Release 2 February 2009

Dear friends and colleagues!

We trust that you all had a wonderful festive season and have got back into the swing of things quickly.  Walking around  the offices at MediaShop, it seems that everybody is working at full steam, with very few memories of annual holidays left!

To kick start this year, we thought it would be a great idea to share this inspiring letter.   Alan Knott-Craig, former CEO of Vodacom who retired in December, sent this to all his staff at the end of last year. 

It does seem that over the last week, there has been a lot of commentary from the employment agencies saying that there is an increasing interest from professionals to come back to South Africa! Could the brain drain be slowing down and possibly be turning around?   Property enquiries have definitely increased over the last three to four months with ex South Africans wanting to purchase property again.  These are just a two positive signs ….

But here is one that will interest you, our clients. For those of you who are TV advertisers, we have some positive news for you too!  We have received notification from SABC that their advertising rates from January – June 2009 have been set lower than the same period last year.   A small breather to help make our advertising budgets go a little further.  Please find a couple of slides attached demonstrating the decreased rates by various time channels (as supplied by SABC TV).   The last slide reflects that projected CPP (cost per points), against various markets for 2008 vs 2009.   Please note that ETV and M-Net have been included in all of these comparisons.  From our perspective we don’t believe that M-net should be included in the CPP analysis as its unfair to compare them to the broad target markets used for the analysis.  If we analysed SABC 1 against an LSM 10 filter, SABC 1 would also come out extremely expensive!  We obviously take cognisance of the DSTV Compact offering aimed at lower LSM groups than LSM 9&10, however rates that have been used for analysis are for M-Net only and do not include DSTV.

This has hopefully cheered you up a little and we will endeavour to bring you more positive news on a weekly basis during 2009!   If however there are a couple of less positive newsletters, please don’t hold it against us!

Until next week!

Fond regards

Your friends at The MediaShop
 
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Formed in 1988 and located in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, one of SA’s leading media agencies, The MediaShop’s 360-degree offering goes beyond merely planning and buying, instead follows carefully defined strategies. The MediaShop modus operandi is to integrate with each client’s business goals and objectives across all communication channels. The MediaShop integrates into client’s marketing team, ensuring the target market not only sees, but internalises, the advertising message. This is The MediaShop. “Open 24 hours… no problem!” For more information, visit www.mediashop.co.za

 

 
Hi guys,Why am I writing this email? Because I'm getting the impression there are some depressed people walking around. So let's recap:

 At the beginning of the year people were panicking about the oil price, inflation, electricity and economic recession. Of those big 4 concerns, 3 have taken care of themselves.

1. Oil is now below $40 a barrel, almost one Quarter of the price of 4 months ago

2. inflation is not such big deal because oil is cheap nowadays so food & all other costs are falling

3. and .. we haven't had any crazy power outages since February (the Eskom saga is a complete mystery to me - The NEWSPAPERS said it would last 4 years??)

4.  What about the Recession? Well, as it turns out, that was something that deserved panic. 

After the merry-go-round of bad news at the beginning of the year, capped by the xenophobic attacks  it's been quite surreal to watch the "u-turn" executed by those heading for the exit door! It's a bit like watching naïve tourists run into the sea off Camp's Bay, scream in pain, and then race back onto the beach. The water looks so nice.. but don't go in there unless you're an Eskimo! Suddenly foreign shores aren't as attractive when there are no jobs, no credit, and no sunshine so people who left are returning to tell those who haven't left not to go.
Just to put a couple of Financial things in perspective, here is some info on the year-to-date performance of world stock markets (as of 10 Nov):

Iceland              -89%

China                -64%

Russia               -64%

India                 -48%

Hong Kong       -46%

Brazil                -40%

Japan                -40%

USA                 -36%

Australia           -35%

UK                   -32%

New Zealand    -29%

South Africa      -26%  ..SA is not so bad is it? I'd rather be here than in Iceland?? !!

Sunny SA is certainly not immune to the global economic crisis. Our companies are suffering too, which means fewer bonuses and more retrenchments (always a winning recipe for unhappiness). How long will it last? Who knows, but brace yourselves for a tough 2009.  The good news is that after every tough time comes good times, so at least we all have something to look forward to!

 What is the silver lining for SA? Our interest rates are still high, but will decrease soon to ease the burden on your back pocket. The UK and USA do not have that luxury, their interests rates are already too low to cut further and it hasn't helped them at all yet!

 What else? "Mad Bob" can't last forever. When he heads off into the sunset there will be an absolute bonanza of investment and aid flooding into Zimbabwe, and a large chunk of that windfall will be via sunny SA... oh happy days. Who said there were no plusses to having a failed state as a neighbour?

 What else? Anyone noticed the cranes everywhere you look? Seen the Gautrain progress?  I went down to CT 2 weeks ago, and virtually the entire highway is under construction. Durban has a new Stadium; a bigger harbour AND a new Airport all finishing in the next 18months The unintended consequence of the government procrastination on infrastructure investment over the past 10 years is that now that it's finally underway  - just in time to prop up our economy! Gotta love those bureaucrats.

 What else? The Soccer World Cup is coming. If we get it right we'll be the hottest spot on the planet - and we'll have a real shout for hosting the Olympics in about 2020.

 But don't crack open the champagne just yet, we still have our fair share of challenges. Your average Yank may be swapping his house for a trailer, but at least he's not worried about being shot in the head on the way to his next job interview. If any of you have a relative or friend in the government, please pass on this message, "Crime is out of control and most of our schools and hospitals are in disarray." Don't for a second fool yourself that we can ignore these structural problems and live the rest of our lives in blissful ignorance. We must constantly remind the politicians to do their jobs, but we cannot absolve ourselves of our responsibility to make individual contributions.

 It is our business to make this land a success. Report crime, pick up litter, give to the needy, create jobs, look after the children, practice safe sex, drink filter coffee. We've all got a responsibility to make the magic happen, otherwise you'll just end up lying in bed in 50 years time, looking back and saying "What if?"
 The time of opportunity is upon us, now it's up to us to seize the day. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Life is not about waiting for storms to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.

Looking forward to dancing in 2009!