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Grey Africa wins big at Creative Circle Awards
G
rey Africa was recognised at the prestigious Cre-
ative Circle Awards for its work on its Satellife
and Duracell campaigns. Satellife won 1st Place in
Outdoor and the Duracell ‘Times Change’ radio advertise-
ments won 3rd Place in Radio.
Grey Africa started the industry talking last year when
it won a Gold Cannes for its Duracell campaign. ‘We’re re-
ally thrilled that the campaign was recognised again this
year at the Creative Circle Awards,’ said Fran Luckin, Chief
Creative Officer (CCO) at Grey Africa. ‘This past year has
seen the agency producing notable work which not only
served an aesthetic purpose but a functional one too, as
in the case of the Satellife campaign,’ she said.
2018 looks promising for the agency given its recent
successes with the Virgin Money and Uber advertise-
ments which recently came out of its creative studios.
‘We’re excited about 2018 and look forward to produc-
ing even more recognisable work this year,’ said Luckin.
The Creative Circle is a non-profit organisation dedi-
cated to promoting creativity as a business resource and
maintaining high levels of creativity in the SA advertising
industry.
Biomass: untapped potential in Africa
S
peaking ahead of the pan-African power sector
forum POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa 2018,
international power sector experts participating in
the conference noted that biomass optimisation present-
ed both challenges and opportunities in Africa.
As a renewable, carbon neutral and potentially cost
effective power source, biomass is being harnessed ef-
fectively around the world, with Research and Markets’
‘Biomass to Power’ report stating that by late 2016, there
were approximately 3600 active biomass power plants
throughout the world, with an electricity generation ca-
pacity of approximately 51GW.
Marko Nokkala, Technical Director at VTT-TECH Re-
search CTR in Finland, said biomass presents good oppor-
tunities for Africa, but that few new biomass projects are
actually being developed. ‘We fail to see why projects are
not happening,’ he said. ‘One major challenge appears to
be a lack of understanding of the pros and cons of the dif-
ferent biomass technologies available. There is also a lack
of capex – in South Africa, for example, we believe there
are five or six firm biomass projects being investigated,
but no credit lines for these projects.’
Dr. Jens Reich, Head of Sales of the Energy Technol-
ogy Department of STEAG Energy Services GmbH, said
biomass’s potential is still unlocked across Africa. ‘Key
reasons for this include challenges in securing the supply
chain. It is crucial for any such investment to have secure
feedstock and suppliers,’ he said.
A secure supply chain is simplified in countries like
South Africa, where there are large paper mills and food
processing companies to produce an ongoing supply at a
single source, he notes, but in less developed countries
where the feedstock might be supplied by family farmers,
collecting and bundling this supply could prove challeng-
ing.
‘In my view, this challenge is more a matter of organ-
isation than infrastructure. In countries where there is a
great deal of biomass available, there are opportunities
for entrepreneurs to bundle feedstock, with support from
institutional development agencies and governments,’ he
said.
But overcoming the challenges would present Africa
with a compelling new addition to the energy mix, they
say.
‘Biomass is a renewable energy source, which the en-
tire continent is looking for. It is also decentralised, which
is trending both in Africa and globally, and it presents a
potentially stabilising element for the grids on the renew-
able side,’ said Dr. Reich.
‘There are entities landfilling biomass. In effect, they
are sitting on free fuel instead of converting it to energy,’
Nokkala pointed out. He said, ‘In South Africa, the effi-
ciency of coal to energy combustion is dropping because
the quality of available coal is dropping. In that biomass
offers good opportunities. In addition, we need to reduce
fuel to emissions and to decentralise power plants, and
biomass offers opportunities here too.’
Optimising the potential for biomass would require
new approaches, however. Nokkala notes that African
planning horizons tend to be shorter than those elsewhere
in the world, he believes. ‘Investors tend to expect a pay-
back time of 2 – 3 years; but for biomass you have to build
something small and highly efficient to get payback in an-
ything under 5 years.’
Dr. Jens Reich and Marko Nokkala will be among the
numerous experts presenting and participating in the up-
coming POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa 2018 confer-
ence in Sandton, where biomass to energy will feature as
one of the focus areas. During the three-day event, panel
discussions and presentations will cover areas such as the
technology options and potential pitfalls in the generation
of electricity and heat from biomass, challenges in the
way of expansion of biomass generation in sub-Saharan
Africa, and unlocking the biomass value chain.
As Africa renews its efforts to take power access to
over 650 million under-served citizens, other power sector
priorities to come under discussion at POWER-GEN & Dis-
tribuTECH Africa 2018 will include Financing, Electricity
Industry Strategy, Digitisation, Thermal Power Genera-
tion, Renewable Energy, Storage, Environmental Impact
Technology, and Power Delivery & Customers.
POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa 2018 will be
staged from 17 – 19 July at the Sandton Convention
Centre. The event is attended by over 3000 power
industry stakeholders, utilities and sub-Saharan gov-
ernment officials from pan-Africa and abroad. For
more information on the conference programme go to
. Attendance to visit
the exhibition is free-of-charge.
TLC and Hubble sign new advertisers
P
rimedia Unlimited’s indoor lifestyle advertising
specialists TLC and Uber’s preferred in-vehicle en-
tertainment partner, Hubble, have jointly signed
advertising deals with Samsung, VISA and Nescafe Gold.
‘TLC has the exclusive rights to sell high viewability
video on Hubble’s interactive touch screens in Uber vehi-
cles,’ said Greg Bruwer, TLC’s Managing Director. ‘It’s an
ideal platform in which to engage on a one-on-one basis,
with tech-savvy, early adopters in the high income market,
and we’re thrilled to have signed on these three fantastic
brands.’
Samsung has secured 500 of Hubble screens in Uber
vehicles around Johannesburg, showcasing a brand chan-
nel and TV reel to promote the launch of two new phones,
Nescafe Gold has created a game that consumers can
engage with during their commute in 100 vehicles, while
VISA is showcasing a TV reel promoting various products.
‘The levels of engagement on Hubble’s screens never
disappoint,’ said Greg, ‘we’re constantly receiving posi-
tive feedback from consumers who regularly interact with
the screens, all displaying a high level of brand recall.’
Hubble’s Devon Brough backs these findings: ‘Sta-
tistics have shown the level of engagement on Hubble’s
screens to be exceedingly higher than traditional digital
advertising. Considering that the user is always in control,
it virtually guarantees a positive experience from interest-
ed passengers.’
The fully interactive advertising platform offers high
quality video and interactive content in a captive environ-
ment with measurable ROI. Content includes documen-
taries, comedies, neighbourhood insights, news, sport,
weather and things to see and do within Johannesburg
and Cape Town. Like the traditional media platform on
television, commercials are flighted in between standard
content without being intrusive.
‘We work extremely well with Greg and the team at
TLC and these campaigns are no exceptions – two heads
are always better than one, and in this case, we have dou-
ble the infrastructure, selling power and industry insights,’
said Devon.
