South Africa sponsors ad contest on zooppa.com

8/14/2019 South Africa sponsors ad contest on zooppa.com

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING COUNCIL SPONSORS GLOBAL AD CONTESTTO PROMOTE BRAND SOUTH AFRICA

IMC teams with CMO Council in First Ever People-Inspired Nation Branding Initiative Using a

Social Media NetworkGet Wildly Creative About South Africa Ad Contest on Zooppa.com Invites Global Citizens to

Dream Up Great Ways to Promote 2010 FIFA World Cup Destination

JOHANNESBURG (March 2, 2010) South Africa's International Marketing Council,custodian of Brand South Africa, is sponsoring a first of its kind online ad competition

to "crowdsource" creativity and insight from around the world to showcase South

Africa as a vibrant and competitive nation brand.

Launched in conjunction with the Chief Marketing Officers Council, a global

organization of senior marketing executives, the Get Wildly Creative About South

Africa ad contest is being hosted on Zooppa.com, a revolutionary social media site

which brands like Microsoft are using to generate people-inspired viral advertising.

The IMC, the CMO Council and its new GeoBranding Centre will use viral

communications, online conversations, blog postings and cyber chatter to talk up

interest and participation in this innovative country branding initiative targeted at the

worlds 1.7 billion Internet users.


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Current and aspiring creative professionals, digital media buffs, South Africans at

home and abroad, and anyone whose heart and soul are stirred by South Africa and its

continent are invited to come up with inventive ways to produce a fresh and

evocative message about a country on which the world's attention will be riveted

when the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in 100 days.

With the world's eyes upon it as host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa is

seeking to establish itself as a competitive and relevant nation brand, said Paul

Bannister, CEO of the International Marketing Council of South Africa. Were excited

about the potential for social media channels to generate greater discourse and

narrative about our brand from people who have experienced or researched our

special place in the world.

Entry information and a creative brief designed by the IMC, giving background on the

contest assignment and links to South African resources, are available on Zooppa.com.

Cash and prizes -- donated by SA Tourism, in-country partners and creative technology

solution providers -- will be awarded in a range of categories including Best Print

Campaign, Best Online Banner Campaign and Best Video Segment or Commercial. Top

entrants will have their work showcased globally to the CMO Councils 5000 members

who control more than $150 billion in annual marketing spend. Winners will be

recognized at a special IMC-hosted reception in New York City, the world's media

center and creative hub. They will also win trip packages courtesy of SA Tourism and

other travel, hospitality, lodging and merchandise partners in South Africa.

The CMO Council's founder and executive director Donovan Neale-May is a prominent

member of the Global South Africans "digiaspora" initiative the IMC has launched to

help mobilize the talent and knowledge of South Africans who live abroad but who,

like Neale-May, retain a deep commitment to the countrys success and the well-

being of its people.

Were looking for inspired messaging and out-of-the-box advertising executions that

capture and convey the essence, attributes and qualities of Brand South Africa, said


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Donovan Neale-May, who pointed to the countrys growing tourism, trade and

economic development success.

With Get Wildly Creative About South Africa and the digiaspora project, the IMC

extends its track record of pioneering exciting new uses of social media to build theSouth African brand. In addition to operating the hugely successful national portal,

southafrica.info, and mediaclubsouthafrica.com, which offers high quality copy and

royalty-free pictures for use by global media, IMC has launched the people-powered

brandsouthafricablog.com, plus an array of Twitter streams and Facebook pages. In

2008 the IMC scored another first by bringing top US bloggers to South Africa to live

blog the countrys accomplishments in science and technology.

The contest is part of a major Nation Branding research project being undertaken the

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the International Marketing Council of

South Africa, which is responsible for defining and shaping Brand South Africas image

throughout the world.

With social media networks hosting billions of monthly visitors, conversations and

connections, the CMO Councils GeoBranding Center is looking to evaluate the level of

voice, influence and creative pull in these interactive online communities,

particularly as it relates to shaping perceptions of countries, destinations, locations

and origin of products.

Separately, the CMO Councils GeoBranding Center will be conducting monthly

analytics on the tonality, sentiment and prevalence of conversations, commentary

and news about Brand South Africa leading up to the four-week FIFA World Cup event,

starting June 11. It will source Social Media Analytics from PR Newswire, which tracks

the tonality and sentiment of global media coverage through 30,000 online news

sources in 12 languages. It also intelligently agents and analyzes five million forum

posts a day, as well as conversations and commentaries in 20 million blogs social

media networks, news groups, bulletin boards, etc.


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With billions invested in this years Africa sports spectacular, the CMO Councils

GeoBranding Center will be looking at the host countrys effectiveness in shaping

perceptions and using the global football extravaganza to optimize its reputation and

appeal worldwide. Key determinants of Nation Brand value creation will be effective

message management and clarity of brand positioning relative to the visitor/player

experience, global media attention, and viral online community conversations and

content sharing. Special research in the area of Nation Branding and the measurement

of mega-sports event sponsorship effectiveness is a new area of authority leadership

by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.

About the International Marketing Council of South Africa

The International Marketing Council of South Africa was established in August 2002 to

help create a positive and compelling brand image for South Africa. At that time, the

world was unsure about what to think of South Africa, with many different messages

being sent out by various sources. This did very little to build the countrys brand and

it was evident that to attract tourism and investment there was a need to co-ordinate

marketing initiatives to make them more effective. This led to the creation of the

IMC. There are many benefits to having a consolidated brand image, with the most

important being that a consistent Brand South Africa message creates strategic

advantages in terms of trade and tourism for the country in an increasingly

competitive marketplace. More info at: http://www.brandsouthafrica.com/

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge

exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior

corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global


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industries. The CMO Council's 5,000 members control more than $125 billion in

aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing

and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest

communities include over 12,000 global executives across 100 countries in multiple

industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in

the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic

interest groups include the GeoBranding Center, Coalition to Leverage and Optimize

Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience

Board, LoyaltyLeaders.org, Online Marketing Performance Institute, and the Forum to

Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). www.cmocouncil.org.

For more information contact:

Simon Barber

US Country Manager

International Marketing Council of South Africa

Phone: +1 202 642 4994Cell: +1 202 276 5084 / +27 76 061 3295

Skype: barber.simon

Email: [email protected]

South Africa sponsors ad contest on zooppa.com

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