DISBOOK - The Africa 2012 Edition - (Page 102)
Disbook AfricA 2012 - Trends and bus i n e ss
Duncan Irvine, CEO of Rapid Blue, is sponsoring a DISCOP AFRICA’s session focused on the business of formats. This session might, just might, find Africa’s first break out international success. Irvine tells us what he’s looking for, so as to whet entrants’ appetites and give them a sense of the opportunity on offer. The producer of shows such as SOUTH AFRICA’S GOT TALENT and the local versions of STRICTLY COME DANCING and THE WEAKEST LINK, told DISBOOK Africa, “What I hope will come out of this session is the uncovering of something really special, or at least the uncovering of the start of something really special. I think,” continued Irvine, “I’ll be looking for two things in particular. Firstly, I’ll be looking for something that is fresh—I don’t want to see clones of shows that are currently on air around the world. But secondly, what I would like to find is a show that has the ability to travel… And,” he concludes, “I would also say to people that I am not necessarily looking for a big shiny format; even if it is original, it doesn’t have to be designed to fill a WIPE OUT slot. It could easily be niche like drama-reality such as THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX.” to co-create content that meets the objectives of both brands and audiences, and to cooperatively engage with the consumer to drive both brand affinity and television viewership. Brand association with programme content can be amplified through PR, publicity, online, mobile, events and hospitality. A broadcaster working cooperatively with a brand can optimise exposure through these amplifications.” So important does Irvine regard this approach that, as mentioned earlier, Rapid Blue not only has an extensive catalogue of formats and depth of production talent, but it also has an in-house team of media experts who spend their time with media agencies not only discussing brand positioning, but also crunching numbers. “And this,” insists Irvine, “is a much more comprehensive approach than any other company can offer. Once,” he reminisces, “advertisers were always pitched on the benefit of ‘association’ with a series, now we never use the word association, we offer them a full, year-long marketing strategy with the show at its heart. We match the personality of the brand with the show in question, and suggest ways in which this can be used to leverage the brand. For example, we are looking at working with a brand whose tag line is ‘much, much, more,’ and we will find ways of integrating that into presenter links.” This holistic approach to branded programming, a model Irvine clearly sees as crucial to the future development of formats in Africa, has importance extending beyond the benefits to the advertiser. As Irvine explains, “in the rest of Africa, outside South Africa, this is the only realistic way in which to fund a production. In most countries the majority of broadcasters offer few, if any commissions, and most of these are on very low budgets. Producing television content is not a cheap business. So while the lack of commissions in Africa really puts the producer in the middle, one of the huge advantages of branded entertainment is that it offers great, and just as importantly, measurable ROI, which is vital as you have to be able to demonstrate to the advertiser exactly what they are getting for their money. The upside of this is that more and more advertisers and agencies really do get this, and that is why we are seeing more and more quality, branded, entertainment shows across Africa, and,” he reveals, “we are now beginning to take this to the next level, and are in discussions with brands and their agencies about the possibility of designing shows to meet the character of the brand in question.” But this is not the end of Rapid Blue’s activities and expansion. Its newest division is Rapid Blue Digital. Here, the company produces content for the digital space, on-line and mobile. RBD leverages off the long form skills within
the business, and stretches this into all aspects of digital. One of the latest thrusts is in Augmented Reality, which can be accessed via the site www.b-ar. co.za. The company is working on its first mobisode series called GET ME TO THE DAISIES, so RBD has the capability not only to produce long form and short form content for digital, but also to consult on clients’ digital projects, as well as helping to create platforms and/ or content that will engage audiences in a far more compelling and “sticky” manner, including the entire spectrum of social media. The company’s capabilities are further enhanced by Rapid Blue On-Air Promotion & Design, a division specialising in broadcast promotion and design. It has worked with all the MNet and SuperSport channels, the SABC, and some of the terrestrial broadcasters in Africa, and has just finished producing the channel branding and over twelve programme title sequences for TPA, the public broadcaster in Angola, while also producing all the on-air promotions for Top TV in South Africa. The division provides a wide range of services in this area from consulting, strategy, design, production, training, and scheduling. Everything, in fact, a broadcaster needs to reposition, refresh and rebrand itself, and has won many awards for its work both locally and in the USA at Promax over the course of the last sixteen years. Its pool of clients is not drawn only from broadcasters across Africa, but also includes international broadcasters such as the BBC, the Food Network, MTV, ABC Family and MBC. Over the last five years, Rapid Blue has built studios in Nigeria, now has an active production division in the country covering all of West Africa, and is currently expanding into many other African countries and regions. Outlining this growth, Irvine reveals, “We now have a strong business in Nigeria, and productions from there tend to move easily into the rest of West Africa, especially Ghana. And we also now have a partner in Angola with whom I have now established a JV called Motion Media; and that, of course has opened up a lot of oppor-
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http://www.b-ar.co.za
http://www.b-ar.co.za
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DISBOOK - The Africa 2012 Edition
Cover
Foreword - Welcome to Johannesburg!
Content
Conference Program
- English Version
- Version Française
Joburg Vibes
- Street Talks
- Drum Archive
- Made in Maboneng
- The Bioscope
- Faces
First Look
- Watercolors of love - Siri
- Mooz-Lum - Meet the Adebanjo’s
- Irrational Heart - Destiny River
- City of Men - Black hands
Trends & Business
- Made in Africa / Made for Africa
- The titans of laamb
- Inside «Inside Story»
- Ecology of african audiovisual content industry
- Gems from the namibian film collection
- The century of formats
- Great formats will come from Africa
- Partners wanted
- How many people (really) watch TV in Africa?
- Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ?
- Africa’s digital switchover is coming - The question is when ?
- Intelsat’s epic
- China in Africa
- Zee : from a to z
- The Brazilians are coming !
- Against all odds
- Discover Discovery in Africa at Discop Africa
- Television with a purpose - A detailed look at educational television
- Branded Entertainment
- Hot docs-Blue ice, a unique opportunity for African documentary makers
- A solution to Africa’s thorny problem of dubbing costs
- Mission statement
Country report
- ALGERIA
- ANGOLA
- BENIN
- BOSTWANA
- BURKINA FASO
- BURUNDI
- CABO VERDE
- CAMEROON
- CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
- CHAD
- COMOROS
- DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
- DJIBOUTI
- EGYPT
- EQUATORIAL GUINEA
- ERITREA
- ETHIOPIA
- GABON
- GAMBIA
- GHANA
- GUINEA BISSAU
- GUINEA CONAKRY
- IVORY COAST / CÔTE D'IVOIRE
- KENYA
- LESOTHO
- LIBERIA
- LYBIA
- MADAGASCAR
- MALAWI
- MALI
- MAURITANIA
- MAURITIUS
- MOROCCO
- MOZAMBIQUE
- NAMIBIA
- NIGER
- NIGERIA
- REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
- RWANDA
- SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE
- SIERRA LEONE
- SENEGAL
- SEYCHELLES
- SOMALIA
- SOUTH AFRICA
- SOUTH SUDAN
- SUDAN
- SWAZILAND
- TANZANIA
- TOGO
- TUNISIA
- UGANDA
- ZAMBIA
- ZIMBABWE
Speakers
Participants
Index Advertisers
DISBOOK - The Africa 2012 Edition
http://www.nxtbook.fr/newpress/Discop-Africa-2012/Disbook_The_Africa_2012_Edition
http://www.nxtbook.fr/newpress/Discop-Africa-2012/Preview_Program_N2
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