AN AD GIANT AWAKENS

Awakening the sleeping SABC giant In November 2020, SABC 1 and SABC 2 achieved advertising sell-out status during prime time for the first time in over five years. GLENDA NEVILL caught up with the broadcaster’s new head of sales, Reginald Nxumalo, to find out how.

As anyone working in the media sector knows, the South African Broadcasting Corporation has suffered mightily under a series of boards beholden to whichever communications minister was in office at the time, and executive managers (Hlaudi, we see you) who were happy to facilitate such a state of affairs while continuing to spend and spend and spend as if the SABC’s advertising coffers were overflowing.

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the SABC since then, with a new board in place, new executives at the helms of key departments, a R3.2-billion bailout that came with a strict Treasury-approved turnaround plan, Special Investigative Unit investigations, sweeping retrenchments and then, of course, Covid-19.

Reginald Nxumalo was appointed head of sales at the SABC in May 2020, a tricky time to be tackling a new job and undertaking a massive restructuring of the public broadcaster’s commercial side. Six months later, the SABC reported an upswing in its advertising fortunes. Nxumalo had promised a new way of working, and it was starting to deliver.

At this point, it must be said that Nxumalo came into the job from the corporate world with his eyes wide open. “When they recruited me I said, ‘Guys, I’m not on the comrade path. If you want to run a business, then I’m in business.’ Because within the SABC stable, we’re dealing with customers and we’re dealing with money, and I’m not dealing with politicians.”

Nxumalo says the board has been supportive to date. “From that point of view it has been great. One way of describing my experience so far is that SABC feels like a sleeping giant. I’m fascinated by the potential reach I can achieve with the number of account executives that I have.” Nxumalo says he has already introduced a lot more discipline into his division, which lost 10% of its sales staff in the recent Section 189 retrenchments.

As part of the turnaround plan, the SABC introduced a targeted operating model. This, Nxumalo says, turned the whole organisation on its head. “It has given us an opportunity to do the kind of stuff that will leave a sustainable legacy. The changes are more than cosmetic; they are structural. You can cut as much fat as you like, but if you don’t get the revenue right, you still won’t become profitable.”

Nxumalo says the SABC has made changes in terms of technology, content and repositioning its channels. “But from from a sales perspective, firstly the division is no longer called ‘commercial enterprises’. It is now called a sales division. This puts things in fresher perspective, if you like.” In the past, agencies and brands found it frustrating working with the SABC’s siloed, product-centric approach. Sales people sold TV or radio and digital, sometimes. But asking them to come up with a cross-channel campaign was a nightmare. As a result, a number of commercial opportunities were lost in the confusion.

“We had to become customercentric,” says Nxumalo. “Our new model is built on customer-centricity, which means you call on a customer whether it’s Unilever, a shop or an agency.”

Now sales executives sell across product sets, providing turnkey solutions to clients, which Nxumalo says is a “service to the marketplace”. After all, he stresses, if you’re not on SABC you run the risk of missing people in different target audiences – and there are millions of them.

Of course, it goes without saying this required upskilling of existing sales staff, as well as those who’ve joined the SABC from other media owners. “We’ve committed the last few months to training. Research tells us that 70% of learning is done on the job. So you can have as much theory as you like, but you’re not going get up to speed until you actually try and sell.”

As of 1 April 2021, SABC Sales moved to a new system, segmenting its markets into small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs), corporate and government business, for example. “We’ve used aggregate ad spend as a benchmark, or threshold, for different enterprises in corporates. The idea is that enterprise clients are based on size and the value that they invest in your business.

“By default, you actually force your organisation to think about similarities in that particular segment, so that you can see if you’re serving the needs of your customers. SMMEs have specific needs: they need protection and a lot of help. In media planning, they’re too small to be significant within agencies, so we’ve got to come up with vanilla-type offerings to make things easy for them.”

Despite its recent successes, the SABC is still dealing with a legacy of mistrust from agencies and brands. How are they overcoming that long-term reputational damage? Nxumalo says evidence is anecdotal and data driven. “Some people are saying it’s the first time in years that that they’ve seen so many proposals coming out of the SABC sales division. Take Tiger Brands or Unilever, for example: brand managers and chief marketing officers battle to find a home for all their brands. Therefore, when we provided different homes or different proposals for those brands, they were able to do a bit of portfolio management, avoiding clashes and conflicts.”

And although the Covid-19 pandemic has played havoc with advertising, Nxumalo says the SABC hasn’t done too badly. He believes his sales teams’ agility and willingness to trade and engage has turned declines into gains.

So what are Nxumalo’s three main priorities for the next year? “I’d like to see a very competitive, dynamic sales force. I want to see us hitting our numbers. I actually want to surprise the country, go beyond our projections and maybe deliver a break-even position based on the revenue. Finally, I’d really like to develop our capability and make sure that I’ve got a strong team in order to make it sustainable.”

Armed with his crazy sense of humour and infectious personality, KZN just cannot get enough of Darren Maule. This July, Darren Maule is celebrating 10 years as the Breakfast show host on East Coast Radio! We will be looking back at Darren’s decade on ECR revelling in the highs, and engaging with the people who Darren has made a huge impact on.

In true East Coast Radio style we love to reward our listeners when we celebrate a momentous occasion, so to mark Darren’s contribution to the station, we are giving away R300 000. The aim of the campaign is to be a helping hand to waiters, artists, musicians, stage crews, kitchen and cleaning staff, who cannot work during the Level 4 lockdown.

But that’s not all … Darren will have an exclusive podcast where he interviews 10 people who’ve impacted his life and vice versa and to close off the celebrations we are hosting a live “Roast of Darren Maule”.

These three are the most fun you can have in the morning! They are an essential start to your day the right way. You’ll love their wit as they take on current affairs, life in KZN and a give you a glimpse into their personal lives. Expect great music, the latest news, traffic, sport and loads of chances to win! Who needs coffee anyway when you’ve got Darren, Keri and Sky?

Most people have one favourite musical decade that deeply resonates with them. Often it’s linked to their coming of age or the years after school when studying further or finding their feet in the world.

For me, it’s the ’80s – the decade of my high school years, when my love for music turned into a passion. When I hear certain ’80s songs, I’m transported back in time to specific moments, celebrations and milestones in my life.

What a pleasure then to be working on – and helping to craft and grow – a digital radio brand that includes the ’80s in its mix, alongside the ’60s and ’70s. East

Coast Gold, the classic hits digital station brainchild of the team behind

Durban-based East Coast Radio, went live at the end of 2019.

In the first few months, our audience was primarily based in KwaZulu-Natal. East Coast Gold is a logical home for listeners who grew up with East Coast Radio, but no longer relate to most of the music it plays.

East Coast Gold targets 50+-yearold South Africans who love the music of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. We’re finding and connecting with them and they’re loving the music: we make them feel 21 again!

Audience numbers grew steadily throughout 2020, despite micro budgets and no formal marketing campaign, as great music and smart, entertaining banter from presenters provided the refuge many needed from the anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

East Coast Gold now claims over 32 000 unique IPs and more than 170 000 active sessions (SharpStream June 2021). Avid listeners stream our music programmes throughout South Africa and the world – the top three provinces are KwaZulu-Natal (50%), Gauteng (32%) and the Western Cape (8%).

We are proud of how our Gold fans engage with us: no throwaway tweet or Facebook comment; we receive long emails. Our listeners are incredibly invested in the station. One super-fan compiles a daily quiz feature for our award-winning breakfast show host, Gordon Graham. Another has sent a long list of contributions for a weekly Motown Magic feature. Our daily Birthday Roll Call – where we wish listeners’ loved ones a happy birthday and read a personalised message – resonates too.

For East Coast Gold, it’s about playing brilliant music and making authentic connections. It’s about feel-good radio with updated news, traffic and weather reporting. We strive to keep our programming mix at 90% music, 10% talk content.

For advertisers, East Coast Gold delivers an exclusive and affluent market at a very affordable price.

East Coast Gold is ready to step up and step out – this digital station is on the rise and seeking to connect with more individuals whose favourite musical decades include the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Listen to East Coast Gold via the ECR app or here . You can also find it on other platforms including Alexa (enable the ‘East Coast Gold’ skill), MyTuner, Radio Garden, iono.fm, Radioline or OpenRadio.