Etiqueta: South Africa

Heineken Rugby World


‘Continental Shift,’ an advertising campaign starting the countdown to the opening game of Rugby World Cup 2007 in Paris on September 7th. Heineken will once again be the Official Beer of the Rugby World Cup and holds Official Sponsor status.

Supporter roars a war cry in Heineken Rugby World Cup TV ad

Referring to their new campaign theme ‘One World, One Cup, One Beer’, Heineken presents a TV commercial in which thousands of fans from all over the world show their passion for the game of rugby and for Heineken beer. The television commercial was shot in a number of iconic locations around the world, and is based around the idea that rugby fans will do anything to get to Rugby World Cup 2007. The result: they scrum down together to shift the world’s continents closer to Paris.

 

 

 

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube

 

 

Melinda Eskell, Manager Heineken Brand Communication commented, “Bates Singapore have done a great job with the new campaign. It creates a unique atmosphere around the tournament and will bring enjoyment to Heineken rugby fans around the world. We want to show the epic nature of this world-class event and our world-class beer. It’s all about fans, the game and our beer working as one to literally bring the world closer together. Leer más “Heineken Rugby World”

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business.time.com | What Should Be Done About Growing Inequality?


 

business.time.com

America is becoming more unequal economically, and most people find that disturbing. Indeed, the trend toward greater inequality has been one of the consistent themes of the election campaign. Some believe that inequality is necessary to reward hard work, achievement and entrepreneurship but think that the current level is too extreme. Others blame unfair tax policies and see the extent of today’s inequality as a sign that the government has abandoned the goal of equal opportunity.

In fact, whenever inequality increases in a society, there are both good reasons for the trend — that is, reasons we should not discourage — as well as bad ones. To best address the genuine problems caused by inequality today, it’s essential to identify the bad reasons and focus on reducing those.

First, though, let’s be clear: there’s no doubt that the very richest in the U.S. have been getting richer. One of the often quoted indicators, albeit a simplistic one, is the share of pretax income going to the top 1% of the population. These data suggest that the U.S. was most equal right before the oil crisis hit in the early 1970s, and that it has since returned to levels of inequality not seen since the Great Depression.

More sophisticated indicators, like the Gini coefficient, also show the U.S. becoming notably more unequal. As a generality, countries such as Brazil and South Africa rate high on this scale, while most European countries have lower levels of inequality. The U.S. is in between – at almost the same level as China. Prior to 1980, the U.S. was much closer to the European level, and some countries — such as France and Italy — actually had higher levels of inequality at that time.

Leer más “business.time.com | What Should Be Done About Growing Inequality?”

Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money


Written by Mansur Hasib

As IT managers and leaders, it is our job to foster the professional growth of everyone who works on our team. If we do not do this we are failing as leaders.

I have had many discussions on the topic of training with both employees and managers. Many IT managers are afraid that certifications will make their employees more marketable and allow them to find better opportunities. Employees are frustrated that their managers do not allow them to grow and so eventually they leave to find better opportunities to learn and to grow professionally.

When I was negotiating my budget as a CIO, I asked for and received $2,000 per year for every employee that could only be used for travel or training. It required the consultation of supervisors and could be used for a conference or even a certification. Since some training is more expensive, employees were allowed to trade and give someone their training dollars for one year so they could get it back from the recipient in a subsequent year. At times I was able to recruit someone simply because I had this guaranteed annual training benefit.

Leer más “Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money”

Facebook Mobile Hits 543 Million Users [Update]


http://www.socialbakers.com

With the Facebook Mobile application becoming faster, how fast is its user base growing?

In May, the Facebook Mobile application for mobile devices had 488 million users. And by the end of June, it reached 543 million monthly active users. That represents a 57% Facebook mobile penetration from the 955 million strong user base.

Faster Application = Faster Growth?

The application has been often criticized for being too slow and unresponsive, but about two weeks ago, Facebook issued a massive update to its iOS app and it is now much faster and easier to use. Not to mention that iPads finally support Timeline and it looks great on the retina screen. Facebook for Android has also gone through a smaller update resulting in faster photo uploads.

Mobile Platforms – The Biggest Changes

North America continues to be the strongest Facebook Mobile continent with over 161 million monthly active users and South Africa, Nigeria and Japan still rule the ranking of the countries with the highest Facebook Mobile penetration. But check out the numbers concerning the penetration of individual mobile platforms! During the last quarter, Facebook for Android has grown the most in absolute numbers (22.5 million new users) and iPad increased its mobile Facebook base by 45%! Now that Timeline is available for iPad, it will be interesting to see how the numbers grow.

Facebook Mobile Infographic

Check out, Share and Like the infographic below and compare it to the results we issued in May.

An Opinionated Lead Gen Landing Page Discussion


http://unbounce.com

This page is actually a microsite with 4 pages – click the image to see them all.

In this post Carlos and myself (Oli) are going to analyze one of our customers –Vinoetic.com – landing pages (after they opted to allow us to get our opinionated hands on it). Our goal is for it to be an educational exercise that can hopefully help improve the page, but let’s have a little fun too, shall we? We’ll be scoring each point in our discussion with + or – points to arrive at a total score and we’ll be arguing on certain points to show that everyone has a different opinion – which shows the importance of testing.

Warning for the creator of the page: There are going to be some criticisms, but our goal is for this to be useful to you so that you can have a more successful campaign in the future.

Let the battle commence!

1. The Main Headline… Leer más “An Opinionated Lead Gen Landing Page Discussion”

Win the Pitch: Tips from Mastercard’s “Priceless” Pitchman


http://blogs.hbr.org

As a growth officer in my early career with the mad men and women of McCann Ericksson, my mom could never quite grasp what I did for a living. But, when we pitched, won and delivered the phenomenon now globally known as Priceless for MasterCard, she could finally brag to her friends at my Aunt Rose‘s kitchen table. From the moment the very first television commercial appeared (You remember it, right? “Two tickets: $28. Two hot dogs, two popcorns, two sodas: $18. One autographed baseball: $45. Real conversation with 11-year-old son: Priceless.”), Mom told practically anyone who would listen that I wrote and executed the entire campaign single-handedly. My role, in fact (promise not to tell her) was that of the Pitchman.

In one of the industry’s most hotly-contested advertising accounts, dozens of agencies’ pitches were winnowed down to two contenders. In a surprising twist, MasterCard declared that the agency with the highest score in consumer testing would win. The heart-wrenching result: Our Pricelesscampaign did not test well. In an act of courage, and confidence, the MasterCard team awarded us the business anyway. When I asked Larry Flanagan, who went on to become MasterCard’s celebrated CMO, about their decision to award us the business for the Priceless campaign, he said, “We bonded because McCann Eriksson understood the deep desire of the MasterCard customer, but they understood MasterCard’s deep desire, too.”

We all make pitches every day — for that highly-prized account; to a client who’s reluctant to accept your scary proposal; for a skeptical CFO to loosen the purse strings; or for a wary new team to believe in you. Here’s what I’ve learned about winning pitches like these… Leer más “Win the Pitch: Tips from Mastercard’s “Priceless” Pitchman”

South Africa: New Reports Chart Progress – and Costs – in HIV Fight

Funding shortage

The HST also launched the South African Health Review, an independent review of the public health sector funded by the South African government. While the report notes that spending has increased substantially since 2007, it predicts the country will need up to US$5.3 billion extra every year to sustain its response, particularly treatment.

The review notes that this year alone the government will spend about $3.1 million on HIV and AIDS; less than a fourth of this comes from donors such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria or the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The South African government already shoulders about 80 percent of its HIV treatment costs domestically and authors of the review predict that treatment will be the main driver of the escalating costs of the country’s response.

In late 2009, the World Health Organization revised its HIV treatment guidelines to recommend that people living with HIV start treatment sooner, at CD4 counts – a measure of the immune system’s strength – of 350 or below. Since then, South Africa has gradually fallen into line, first extending earlier treatment to at-risk groups, such as pregnant women and TB patients in 2010 and finally to all patients in 2011. While activists bemoaned the wait, policy-makers argued they had to make sure the country, which shoulders about 80 percent of its treatment costs domestically, could afford it.

As of March 2011, about 1.5 million people were on ARVs in South Africa. The review expects that number to rise to about three 


http://allafrica.com


Johannesburg — Mothers, babies and newly diagnosed HIV patients are receiving more of the services they need but progress comes at a cost, according to a new report that predicts a funding shortfall for HIV treatment in South Africa.

On 23 February, the Health Systems Trust released the latest versions of its annual District Health Barometer and South African Health Review.

Although in its sixth year of publication, this year’s barometer is the first to include data on early infant HIV testing for babies born to HIV-positive mothers and shows that about half of all babies born to HIV-positive mothers are now being tested for the virus at six weeks of age, an important step to ensuring they access the early HIV treatment recommended for all children younger than one under national guidelines. In 2009, only about a quarter of such babies were being tested using the sensitive polymerase chain reaction – tests that confirm whether HIV-exposed infants are HIV-positive.

The report also found that almost all pregnant women are now tested for HIV, which has helped lower mother-to-child HIV transmission to below 4 percent in the country.

The latest barometer is also the first to include data on tuberculosis (TB) screening among newly diagnosed HIV patients. In 2008, only about a third of new HIV patients were screened for TB; in 2011 about 70 percent were checked.

People who have both HIV and carry latent TB are up to 30 times more likely to develop active TB as their HIV-negative peers and TB remains the leading cause of death in South Africa and among people living with HIV worldwide. Leer más “South Africa: New Reports Chart Progress – and Costs – in HIV Fight”