Once again greetings to the masses. I am very pleased that my ‘drama’was of much amusement to many of you and secondly thanks to those that responded at least I know the emails get read by some and to those who called even from as far as London, England (not East London, SA) maximum respect! Trust all is well. If this is your first week back,

I must say I am pretty chuffed with the way my year has started. Got to work on Tuesday and on Wednesday I had my first deal sorted, long may it continue!

A lot of the responses I received to last weeks email was from people wanting to know what I actually do now, so I will take this opportunity to brief you on my new employer as it offers me an opportunity to get the word out there and to help me with my presentation. Budget this year is heavy, but ey if I can write +/- R230mil business (albeit off the back of a well known brand, namely Standard Bank), in the words of Happy Gilmore…”You can do it!”

So who are we?

Habari Media (www.habarimedia.co.za) was started 3 years ago by a gentleman called Adrian Hewlett. It has its head office in Cape Town, but has a Johannesburg presence too. The business is split into 2 ‘divisions’ namely Habari Media and Habari Direct.

The media side is an advertising media sales business. What that means is it manages the media space for websites, so if you want to place an advert on say MSN’s website you have to go through us. Up until a year ago MSN was the only client because it in itself was a task and a half, we now have SABC, SA Rugby and Career Junction as well.
The direct side, which is the side which I work in/for focuses on what advertisers call “Below the Line” which in lay mans terms means a direct means of communication commonly direct mail and email. But wait there’s more. We don’t just do random mail shots uh huh!
Today’s consumer is very lifestyle driven; I know this because that’s why I work. I work because I want to be able to afford the finer things in life, just like you do. I work so I can take my car to the carwash, when it gets out of the panel beaters, I work so I can catch a flight to Cape Town for the weekend, I work so I can go for lunch/dinner with a significant other, I work so I can go for a facial…k maybe not, but u get my drift. Now that’s today’s consumer.
So what do we do? We together with the marketing departments of our customers that are consumer driven come up with a concept that will help them achieve their objectives in terms of acquisition, loyalty and retention of their customers/employees. Once this concept has been devised (sometimes by us in isolation or working together with the client), we set about implementing and managing what we would term the consumer experiential marketing. Its something we call e2…experience and emotional ties…you do this and you get this reward i.e. sign up for a 2 yr contract and you get a free flight anywhere in the country. Our focus is on rewarding the masses, so rather than rewarding 5 people we try get to 5000 people, in that instance more people feel satisfied and content with their ‘service provider’ and spreading the word about the ‘service provider’ has a wider reach. The end result, consumer is happy because they got more bang for the buck, the service provider is happy because they have a happy customer who singing their praises and we are happy because we helped the customer achieve their objectives and hopefully they will sing our praises too and hopefully give us some repeat business/referals.
We have come up with many creative things in the past and have a gang of satisfied customers. Some of our clients include: FNB, Standard Bank, Diners Club, Appletiser, Vodacom, Coca Cola, Nederburg, American Swiss, The AA, DSTV, MWEB, Glenfidich….to name a few.
So what do I, as an Accountant/finance person know about being creative and marketing and advertising etc. The way I see it most of the jobs I have done have been on the marketing front be it selling debt or private equity, working at virgin active, for Camel, waiting on tables, bar tending…finance and accounting are things that I have studied and can definitely do…dealing with and understanding people and speaking k aak is as natural to me as waking up in the morning ;-). So why not try something new, set up a business of sorts (fortunately for me with a lot of support)…happy times…I like! (yes I have seen Borat J)
If you guys know of any people that would like to hear more about what it is that we do, please do send them my details.
There are definitely birthdays this week that I am forgetting. I have misplaced my birthday database, please do drop me an email with your birthdays, its not for you its for me so do it damnit!
11th Jan – my dear pops
If it is your birthday please do have a ripper day and a pearler of a year.
On that note back to work I go. Maximum respect as always.
Y