From singer to designer-Victoria Beckham



Victoria at an event to unveil the Range Rover

Victoria is well known for being in the girls group the Spice Girls, to marrying one of the most famous football players David Beckham, to being a model, to being a fashion designer and lastly being a car designer, I definitly say she has built a brand for herself, to top it all she won Designer Brand of the year 2011 at the British Fashion Awards.
I see Victoria Beckham not only as a celebrity but as a brand because for me she is different from other celebrities who just focus on one thing. So Mrs Beckham will not be known as just a singer but also as a designer of not just clothing line but also cars

Victoria with the car she designed

Just this week ( Sunday April 22 2012) Victoria launched her limited edition off-roader bearing her name, Range Rover Evoque in Beijing. This car is aimed at well-heeled customers who think the standard Range Rover Evoque just is not posh or bling enough for them. This special edition of the Range Rover Evoque styling was created by Victoria in collaboration with the Land Rover bosses. This stunning event of unveiling of the car took place on the eve of the Beijing motor show at the trendy Cafa Art Museum, the guests included the British Ambassador to China Sebastain Wood and his wife Sirinat and the boss of her management company,Simon Fuller. This event attracted major luxury car firms from around the globe, from Rolls Royce and Bently to Ferrai and Lamborghini to the world's biggest and fastest growing car market


One of the Land Rover bosses and Mrs Beckham

Victoria Beckham attended the event wearing a beige gown from her Victoria Beckham line with a corset style top, her hair pulled of her face. Seeing that Victoria had fashion background and the fact that the Beckham family have owned series of top of the range and bespoke Range Rovers and other Land Rovers including mini replicar for their children and lastly the fact that the Beckham name is a significant 'brand' across the world, this made Victoria Beckham well placed for the job. This clearly shows how important branding is and it has become a major issue in marketing strategy

Range Rover Evoque

Terrific fun filled Event- Rand Show 2012

Schools were closed for the Easter holidays in South Africa and what most people, especially the young kids looked forward to was the Rand Show event which takes place annually during the Easter holidays. I personally must admit that I was excited about this years event at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec. This event started on the 6th of April 2012 and ended on the 15th of April 2012. With all the advertising that took place for this event most people wetre well informed about the dates, prices of tickets and the venue for the event. Seeing that the owners of this event had estimated 250000 number of visitors they had to use different types of channels to advertise this event to reach their target aydience or the public, this event was advertised by using:

• billboards
• television
• radio
• posters
• and newspapers

Rand Show including the Green initiative in their advertising

In public relations we mainly use advertising as a tool to advertise an event that would take place so that we create awareness about it for the public to know and support the event. Events such as the Rand Show bring opportunties such as sponsorship, brand activation and experiential marketing, exhibition opportunities, auction and sale room opportunities. So besides the fun and games that the Rand Show provides, it is a good platform for vendors to do good in their businesses, companies to market their product and for public relations practitioners to showcase their exhibitions. What I personally enjoyed about this event was the South African National Defence Force who exhibited at the event.

SANDF opened Rand Show with fire and noise

An eventful Gay pageant

Mister Gay World pageant which took place at the Gold Reef City's Lyric Theatre atrracted a sold out crowd on Easter Sunday ( 8 April 2012) when the international lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex ( LGBT) community crowned its new world ambassador. The aim for this year's competition was to highlight the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people across Africa as well as to give hope to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people themselves by showing them positive role models and that can be achieved if they persist. The tickets for this event were ranging from R100 to R750 at Computicket. The MCs for this huge event were Cathy Specific and Will Fennel. The guests who attended the even were entertained by Kamaliya from Ukraine, Umojo from South Africa and other various local artists. The day before the event on the 7th of April 2012 a charity auction was held at Fairway Hotel and Gold Resort, each competitor had to bring a memento from his home country, which was auctioned with the proceeds going to a children's charity. 

Umojo entertaining the crowd

With this year's competition, different events were held over five days ( from the 4th to the 8th of April)these events included physical fitness tests, interviews, nightwear and swimsuit competitions, what took place during these five days was the Bone Wear Model of the year, Best Sports Challenger, Best Charity Participant, Mr Congeniality and the new Mr Gay World 2012 was crowned.
Mr Gay World is an annual event for gay men that seek to appoint global ambassadors for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community and the event attracts contestants from all over the world. Mr Gay World was launched in 2009, with the first event held in Canda, Norway hosted the event in 2010, Philippined hosted the event in 2011, so this year it was South Africa's turn to host the event which went successfully. The mission of Mr Gay World is to advance national and international gay rights through education and public performance. Mr Gay World has to create authentic leaders who will take responsibility, not only in his community but on a global stage, speaking out for equal rights by inspiring those around him. He has to be genuine and be a positive role model that will champion equally and diversity in the media both gay and mainstream.

In this year's event gay men from 22 countries took part and this year's event was different because it was the first time it was held on African soil and the first time that black African men participated. This was a very important world event which took place for the first time on the African continents, which meant that the African participants faced the most intense discimination and prejudice. A lot of public relations elements was put in this event like the billboards advertising the Mr Gay World pageant, so that people could know about the event

Billboard seen in one of the highways in Joburg

 In this eventful gay pageant the lucky gentleman to be crownd that evening as Mr Gay World 2012 was Andreas Derleth of New Zealand. The following Mr Gay World 2013 will be held in Belgium, to be eligible to compete, the delegates must be over 19 and must be chosen to represent their country in 2012.

Mr Gay World 2012-Andreas Derleth