AfriMonitor

Mobile devices fueling Africa’s advertising growth?

Annansi — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:15:01 +0000

There’s a reason many multinationals and entrepreneurs alike are scrambling to get into the Africa’s telcom business. The future of the mobile phone in Africa is looking quite promising. And as the mobile platform becomes more reliable new areas of enterprise are finding a foothold to grow. Reports reveal that in one major market, South Africa, average response rate for mobile advertising campaigns is from 10% to 25%. A luxury advertisers are certainly not enjoying in more established markets.

“Cellphone technology will play a vital role in Africa when the continent is marketing and selling itself as an international tourism destination online”, says Damian Cook, MD managing director of E-Tourism Africa, a new initiative to develop Africa’s tourism and travel sector was launched recently. But while the future looks promising, there’s still a great need for standards and overall advancement in the telcom industry.

African communicators plan Africa re-branding strategy for 2010

Annansi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:27:30 +0000

African communications experts will meet at the 3rd Annual 2010 National Communication Partnership Conference on 29 and 30 July to strategize about the steps they will take to maximize the tremendous advantage the upcoming 2010 World Cup will bring to South Africa in particular and Africa in general. Under the theme “Africa’s time has come – mobilising for 2010 and beyond”, the convention will provide a forum for discussion about how best to take advantage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and project Africa positively to the world.

The conference will make it possible for African communicators to exchange ideas and practical suggestions on how to improve the continent’s image and reputation in the world, using the opportunities presented by the world cup.”

via AllAfrica

Trend brief: Exploring ChinAfrica

Annansi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:05:51 +0000

As the 2008 Olympics in Beijing nears, China’s relationship with Africa has become one of the hot topics. Criticism of China’s relationship with certain African countries, particularly Sudan (Darfur) threatens to define the historical sports event. But when did China become such a major player in Africa and African politics. And what other areas of Chinese involvement are making an impact in Africa?

To help answer those questions we’ve prepared a trend brief exploring the growing relationship between China and Africa. The brief highlights the key issues which are of interest tothose who have an interest in this trend. While China has quietly been ramping up it’s involvement with African countries, the past couple of years has seen a significant increase in policies and events which continue to shape Africa’s future. Along with the brief, we have developed an interactive timeline which focuses on important events in the growth of the ChinAfrica relationship. Feel free to share both the ebook and the timeline in the Intelligence section with anyone you feel will benefit from the information we’ve gathered.

AfriMonitor launches in beta

Annansi — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:00:47 +0000

After many years of working on products with African culture as a central subject, I am again launching a product which I think is missing in the marketplace. Throughout my years as an entrepreneur, I have had to conduct endless market research and have found a serious lack of information about the African market. While I understand that the market is still very young, I feel that to help it grow and to encourage more entrepreneurs to develop products to help it grow, a product like AfriMonitor.com is necessary. While I still write about African business and culture trends at Annans Chronicles, much of the in-depth analysis of trends will be posted here on AfriMonitor.com. To read more about direction AfriMonitor will be developing towards in the next few months visit the About us page.

I am launching AfriMonitor as a beta for now to get some feedback and begin getting some information to those who can make use of it. We are working hard to get you much of the information which will make this site most useful, so check back often or better yet, subscribe to AfriMonitor’s rss feed or sign up for automatic email updates. For now the News tabs currently contain aggregated content from all the major news engines and is updated many times a day. As you can see we are also making our first trend brief “Exploring ChinAfrica” available as a free download in the Intelligence section. And we’ve developed an interactive timeline of China-Africa relations for those who want to more information.

In the next few months we’ll be adding more insights and reports and featuring interviews with newsmakers. We’ll also be updating our Resources and Events sections soon. Please feel free to submit a resource or event for inclusion in our directory or just contact us with any comments/suggestions.

- G. Kofi Annan
Principal