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About 1 000 people gathered at the V&A Waterfront amphitheatre on Friday, November 11, to hear an announcement that had taken four years of dedicated marketing. Table Mountain was to be revealed as one of the New7Wonders of Nature. Flow did much of the work on the campaign pro bono, including developing the Vote for Table Mountain website and helping the campaign with social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which resulted in record traffic on the website at the height of the campaign. Flow also produced a video for the campaign that was shown at the announcement party. “We put in so much effort but it was such a great cause,” says Flow Communications CEO Tara Turkington. “We are so proud of the result, and of our staff that gave very generously of their personal time.” On the night of the announcement Flow’s Cape Town manager, Roy Barford, and media developer, Ingrid Sinclair, ensured content was kept up to date, while project manager, Leanne Pohlmann, and Leon Jamarie, also a media developer, played photographer, as they witnessed the fruits of their collective labour. Roy Barford says, “This is an achievement no person or organisation can claim full credit for, but it’s a huge honour to have been involved in the campaign to make Table Mountain a New7Wonder of Nature and I’m very proud of the work from Flow Communications in this regard. We facilitated an excellent online campaign, to which the citizens of South Africa responded brilliantly. It obviously wouldn’t have happened without their votes.” The Vote for Table Mountain website received 14 874 unique visits on Friday alone, with 69 424 recorded for the last week of the campaign (6 to 12 Nov). Twitter increased to a little more than 2 400 followers in a week, with special mention on Twitter from Western Cape Premier Helen Zille. Facebook fans doubled from 9 000 to 18 236 in less than a week. “This has been one of the most rewarding and challenging projects,” says Leanne Pohlmann. “We were on our toes right to the very end when the announcement was made.” Back to Top
So, you’re at a pub with friends (it can happen). Suddenly it becomes apparent that trying to remember the name of that actor who was in that movie is critical to any sort of conversation moving forward. You know that actor, right? The one from that movie?! “I need to google that” – mobile phones are whipped out, 3G networks start buzzing and multiple search queries are fired off into the cosmos and returned in 0.25 seconds (it was Jodie Foster by the way ... just so you know).
“Googling” is a verb for performing a search engine query, most likely, on The keynote address, presented by Nelson Mattos, vice-president of EMEA Product Management and Engineering, highlighted Google’s vision for South Africa, Africa and emerging markets. The three critical challenges are access, sustainability and relevance. Google aims to:
The conference then kicked off into a day of workshops and talks. Many things were +1’ed, some impressive tours of Google+ were given and many an API was explored. Ricardo Bittencourt (@ricbit) showed the power of the Google App Engine; Luisella Mazza (@luizela ) told us all to go use Google Page Speed to optimise our web front-ends; and Bob Aman showed us that it was indeed possible to create a remote-controlled, laser-shooting webcam in Google+ Hangouts. This conference, met with the fact that Google gives grants to one of our favourite clients, caused me to be even more in love with the company, its products and its crew of plucky travelling Google-zealots. I’d +1 to that. Back to Top
Social networking is the buzzword on everyone’s lips at the moment. Are you tweeting? How many followers do you have? What do you think of the latest trending topics and do you know how to manage your brand’s reputation on Twitter?
Flow has always been involved in the South African heritage sector, and is committed to helping preserve and showcase the country’s rich tapestry of traditions and stories. The Origins Centre has been a valued client of Flow for about two years. Flow’s CEO, Tara Turkington, first began working with Origins curator Geoffrey Blundell in 1999, when they worked together on developing the Wildebeestkuil Rock Art Centre near Kimberley in the Northern Cape. With Flow’s extensive portfolio of heritage sector clients, including Maropeng, the PanAfrican Archaeological Association and the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists, it seemed only natural that the Origins Centre be added to the list. Situated at the University of the Witwatersrand, Origins boasts a beautiful museum dedicated to an exploration of the history of modern humankind. Flow designed, built and continues to maintain the official Origins website, and also helps cover many of its events. Flow was tasked with creating an informative and engaging online portal for Origins, and much of the extensive information featured in the museum is also available on the website. Origins has also been involved in a number of significant and exciting discoveries and events, including the unveiling of the Australopithecus sediba fossils (read the story here) earlier this year, and Flowstars are always delighted be a part of documenting such prestigious occasions. Back to Top
On Saturday, 26 November, Dancewiththedevil kept her nose in front to win an exciting 2011 Sansui Summer Cup at the Turffontein Racecourse south of Johannesburg. As the horses streaked by, Flow’s Zintle Mtyeku lay on the grass at the finish line to get the best view of the horses’ hooves thundering by. Her colleagues, Kate Rau and Tara Turkington, were with her, taking pictures and video galore, while back in the hospitality tent, Flow’s project manager for Gauteng Tourism, Roshni Nana, was tweeting and Facebooking the winners before the winner was back for her photographs with the media. We did all of this in our pink outfits, in line with the “Bling Your Pink” theme. Since pink is Flow’s corporate colour, we thoroughly approved. After the race, we rushed for our computers and immediately published an article about the race, courtesy of a Cell C 3G card. Lucky Flowstars Kate and Roshni collected their winnings on the main race while consoling Tara and Zintle. Zintle’s horse, Seal, came dead last, so we won’t be asking her for any hot tips next year. Back to Top
On Saturday, November 19, Flowstars Kate Rau and Mildred Thabane joined some of South Africa’s top comics and 5fm DJs at Hugh’s Haven in Yeoville to show commitment for the ethos of Mandela Day. Along with the comics – who recently took part in the It’s No Joke comedy show – and the DJs, the Flowstars spent some time painting the walls of Hugh’s Haven, helping bring joy to the children who spend time there. Hugh’s Haven is a nursery, pre-school and aftercare facility that cares for about 80 children, all from financially and socially disadvantaged backgrounds. The children’s living room and the bedroom, which really needed a lift, were painted. The house is beginning to deteriorate somewhat, and the murals painted by the DJs and comedians gave it a new spirit. Said DJ Milkshake from 5fm, “I come from a giving family so I’m really excited to be here and give the little that I can.” The walls in the house are now covered with cartoon characters and inspirational messages that will go a long way to cheering up the children each day and making their world that much brighter.
Although Mandela International Day is recognised and celebrated on Nelson Mandela’s birthday each year (July 18), anybody can contribute to Mandela Day on any day of the year just by spending time doing something good for someone else.
Climate change has become a global topic of major concern. One cannot miss the messages flooding all forms of media and encouraging people to make “green” choices from hybrid cars to organic food and natural energy sources. Since 1995, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been meeting annually to assess progress in dealing with climate change issues. Following the success of a major event such as the 2010 Fifa World Cup™, South Africa has taken the hosting baton from Kenya, which hosted the Presidency of the Conference in 2006 with the COP12/CMP12 in Nairobi. The latest COP17/CMP7 United Nations Climate Change Conference has been underway from November 28 and will continue through until December 9, 2011 in Durban. Flow PR is pleased to be involved with this important conference, which will help shape and change the direction in which the world is moving, in terms of climate change. Flow PR CEO Shoni Makhari says, “It is common knowledge and an emotive issue that there is still a group of people in the scientific fraternity that don’t believe greenhouse gases and human activity are contributing to climate change. “We are pleased COP17 is taking place in South Africa, allowing Flow PR to participate. We are helping with information dissemination both nationally and internationally and we hope the conference outcome will have a marked effect on South African behaviour and the individual choices we make, especially our consumption choices. “Flow PR will also be playing a major role in matchmaking and connecting media with different thought leaders, CEOs of major corporations and political leaders, locally and internationally.”
The organisation will be managing the press conference, which will officially open the World Climate Summit on 3 December 2011, amongst other activities.
Complete client satisfaction is what we at Flow strive for, from small tweaks on a web page to the efficient execution of large communication projects. Flow’s writing studio manager and wordsmith extraordinaire, Colin Ford, was recently approached by Hollard Wealth, part of the Hollard Insurance group, to help them write up a communication to position the division – and Hollard as a whole – to a new client. Against almost impossible deadlines, he managed to deliver comprehensive, well-crafted copy that will not only be used in Hollard Wealth brochures, but will also be adapted by the Hollard marketing team for use in other departments within the company. “Hollard Wealth exists as a bespoke provider of wealth solutions to a very focused part of the adviser community,” explains Shaun Clacey, managing director of Hollard Wealth. “We recently decided to increase the awareness of our business and better position ourselves in the greater adviser community. “Quite frankly, going about this terrified me. However, the need to get it done was pressing, as the new head of our largest client had no knowledge of our business. We engaged with Colin, who ultimately did an outstanding job. “He has an incredible gift in understanding how to take the complexities that reside in one’s mind and convey them in beautifully crafted words, before translating these words into a beautiful story. He does all this while maintaining the integrity of the Hollard story,” says Clacey. Back to Top
What’s your biggest fear? Unearthing a nest of Parktown prawns? Having to make it through a day without the internet? Being interviewed on live television by an adversarial host? If you relate strongly to the last scenario, you’ll be most interested to note that Flow Communications provides training and facilitation to the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ) for its “Dealing with the Media” course. The three-day course offers a theoretical background, useful tips and practical sessions aimed at helping professional communicators to be more prepared when it comes to facing members of the media.
“Flow Communications has a wealth of journalistic, public relations and training
experience, which positions us perfectly to facilitate this course for the IAJ,” says Flow CEO Tara Turkington.
On Friday, November 4, Flowstars Colin Ford, Stuart Dickinson, Dimitri Kouvdis, John Kazembe and Ryan Levenson took on the Etana special edition gold Speedo. “It was a tough race, but it’s not about winning or looking good in this rather uncomfortable garment. It’s about raising awareness and letting people know that testicular and prostate cancer are dangerous diseases,” says journalist/media developer, Stuart Dickinson. “It’s a strangely liberating experience,” says Colin. “Running through the streets in peak hour in a Speedo is not something you’d normally do, yet it feels oddly okay when you’re in a big group and doing it for a worthy cause.” Back to Top
Flow is excited to welcome new staff member Caroline Smith to the team. Caroline has joined the Flow PR team, and we look forward to having her on board! In other news, the manager of Flow’s Cape Town office, Roy Barford, recently celebrated his second year as a Flowstar this week and Flowstars have this to say: Here’s to many more, Sugarlumps! “My only regret is the nickname (Sugarlumps) that I picked up after failing to complete a swearword during a game of foosball in Johannesburg.‘Shhhh-ugarlumps…’ is a quote I wish I could retract!” explains Roy. Roy met Flow’s CEO Tara Turkington at the Durban University of Technology while he was studying journalism. “Tara started a university website, of which several Flow staff members were a big part,” says Roy. “I was a farm boy who had barely used the internet before, but I quickly realised I really enjoyed the online environment and that it would form a big part of my career.” Back to Top
Flowstar Kate Rau reflects on her favourite client Never did I think I would meet government ministers, travel to Berlin, tweet at zalebs (and get them to follow me back) and go shopping with some of South Africa’s most prominent CEOs. Never did I think all of this could be classified as work. But that was before I started working with the Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA).
It’s been nearly a year since Flow Communications (with me as content coordinator) was officially appointed website developer for the GTA. And in just under 350 days, we’ve developed a web presence of note for my favourite client.
Flowstar Mildred Thabane on her very first Sterkfontein Caves adventure... Only an hour’s drive from Johannesburg, the caves are home to the amazing discovery of “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton dating back three million years. I was intrigued to see the place where my ancestors had been uncovered. Our knowledgeable tour guide, Maropeng Ramalepa, began the tour by telling us of the various fossils, such as “Little Foot” and “Mrs Ples”, before leading us down into the cave through the man-made opening. He warned that there would be some manoeuvering through tight nooks and crannies but that didn’t deter me at all. Inside in the darkness I was awed by the relics of ancient history that were surely lying there, waiting to be exposed; the discoveries made so far seemed but the tip of the iceberg. Back to Top
Flowstar Richard Frank explains Flow's work for the Adopt-a-School project For the third year running, Flow helped fundraising company BackaBuddy collect donations at one of Johannesburg’s premier events – the Adopt-a-School “Back to School Party” in Fourways, on 5 November 2011. Guests enjoyed top-notch live entertainment and dining, all in their school clothes! Flow developed an application that we used to capture the donations data on the evening. Learners from Dominican Convent School – another Flow client – helped collect pledges from over 1 000 guests. You know you’re mixing with blue-chip Johannesburg when you see pledges in the tens of thousands of rands coming through with a single credit card swipe. It was also inspiring to see event staff, waiters and school kids putting in pledges towards the project, which serves over 130 schools in South Africa. We were so busy punching in the numbers – over R700 000 was raised in pledges during the evening – we hardly had time to enjoy the show, which included a seriously funny gig from Loyiso Gala. Cyril Ramaphosa, the main force behind Adopt-a-School, told the story of how he nearly became a teacher, but then the Soweto Uprising erupted on his way to his first day of work! We were privileged to sit next to the production team running the lights and cameras and witnessed the behind-the-scenes action, which was hectic during the four-hour show. Together with the charity auction, the event raised well over R1-million. Back to Top
Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. Example: A rising bounce rate is a sure sign that your homepage is boring or off-putting. But… is this really the case? Properly maintaining and updating your website can do wonders for your business. In fact, an online presence is seen by many as almost crucial these days. More and more can now be accomplished online, including banking, shopping, socialising, entertaining oneself, planning a trip and staying in touch with loved ones. With so much going on online, it’s clear that being a part of it all is probably going to get you places. Figuring out how people are perceiving and using your site will help you get a better grip on how it needs to adapt in order to grow. Enter web analytics. Using software such as Google Analytics, ClickTale and StatCounter , you can determine how many people are visiting your site, how they are navigating it, where these people are from, which pages they prefer and lots more. Such valuable insight means that you can begin to understand where the problem areas are, and then make the appropriate adjustments to your site in order to improve it and reach more people. Bounce rate reflects the percentage of people who, seemingly, found themselves on one of your website’s pages, looked at only one page and left, without clicking through to other areas of the site (that is, if the option was there to do so).
However, it’s important to understand the various factors that have an effect on bounce rate, as well as those that may render it deceptive.
At Flow Communications, we pride ourselves on the good relationships we maintain with our clients. It’s always inspiring to receive positive feedback, and to hear about the impression we’ve made on our clients. Flowstars Bianca Bothma, Roy Barford and George Xafis decided to team up and put together a video of all the wonderful feedback we have received from our clients this year. Bianca and Roy were in charge of interviewing and filming those who contributed, while George worked his magic with the editing and video animation.
The clips for the project were shot in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, and then edited to create a vibey and engaging video – a real feather in Flow’s cap.
Putting pen to paper is something writers do every day, but is often quite a challenge. Writing a clever intro, using the active voice and mastering the art of showing and not telling in creative writing are things words people need to do instinctively. Members of the writing studio of Flow Communications, Sub-editor Julia Lloyd and Media Developer Bianca Bothma, recently imparted some smart strategies on how to overcome these obstacles to communication specialists from the national Department of Human Settlements in a three-day course. Five communication officers from the department participated in the course that was organised by the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. With more than 25 years’ newsroom experience, Julia led many of the theoretical discussions while Bianca concentrated on the workshop exercises. Being able to work together as course facilitators allowed us to keep the course dynamic and full of energy, and helped us to cover a wide range of subjects. Says Julia, “Feature writing is a pretty extensive topic and there was so much to cover in three days. But we concentrated on the most important elements, and used practical exercises to drive them home.” Even though there was a lot of work to be done, there was still time for loads of laughs and fun. Says Julia, “The students seemed to enjoy the course as much as we did which was fantastic and, judging by their final writing exercise, we unleashed in them the creative writer (to quote one of the students). What a compliment.” Back to Top
Flow recently added another feather to its cap by producing the St Mary’s School annual magazine. Flow handled the project management, design and proofreading of the publication, which included both the Junior and Senior Schools, and was an overview of their achievements, developments, awards and milestones for 2011. “Flow has a long-standing association with St Mary’s and, as always, it was a great project to be involved in,” says Linda Piegl who, together with Julia Lloyd, proofread the magazine. “Several drafts had to be checked before the final version went to print and it was exciting to see how all the hard work from the Flow teams involved came together to produce a strikingly beautiful magazine that the St Mary’s girls will no doubt cherish, filled with memories of their time there.” Designer Neo Male feels the final product came together well. “At 160 pages, the St Mary’s annual magazine looks pretty amazing, a job well done to all involved. Hope the girls are just as impressed as we are!” Marketing Director of St Mary’s School Lindy Bedborough, says she is delighted with the magazine. “The final product is exactly what I had hoped it would be – vibrant, informative and a superb record of a busy and exciting 2011. The production process went smoothly, and we even received our magazine before the due date!” Back to Top
Flowstar Richard Frank on bright lights, big city and lessons learned... Read more about the top 10 things I learned at the conference... Back to Top
On Sunday November 27, Flowstars Bianca Bothma, Colin Ford and George Xafis gave 67 minutes of their time when they accompanied orphaned and vulnerable children from crèches in Lenasia and Soweto on an outing to the Johannesburg Zoo. Lara Hirschmann, founder and trustee of the Thusanani Children’s Foundation, has been organising outings for these children, between the ages of two and six, for nine years now. Flow’s writing studio manager, Colin Ford, has been joining Lara and her team on their outings for years. When Flowstars Bianca and George heard about the project, they were quick to volunteer. Says Colin: “Seeing the kids’ reactions to the animals is just amazing. It’s a good feeling, knowing that you’re part of such an exciting experience for the children.” After visiting the animals, the children were treated to a special Christmas party. They enjoyed a lunch of hot dogs, and unwrapped presents given by Riviera Nursery School. Lara and her friends also put together Christmas packages for the care workers from each crèche. “We have literally watched the kids mature, grow and learn over the years, and the party nowadays is completely different,” says Lara. “We are dealing with more educated and interested children, as well as more educated teachers who have completed their college training.”
“Thank you so much to Flow for all the help! I really needed the help this year and you guys were amazing.”
On Friday 2 December, Flowstars from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban packed their bags and headed off to Maropeng, in the Cradle of Humankind, for Flow’s much anticipated year-end staff event. With lots of fun activities and a night in Maropeng’s luxurious boutique hotel to look forward to, it was time for everyone to let their hair down and celebrate 2011 in true Flow style. Thank you to Maropeng for having (putting up with) us! And, of course, BIG thanks must go to Tara and Tiffany for organising everything and spoiling all of us so much – a fitting end to an incredible year with Flow.
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