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

E-Toll event fails as about 40 people turn up

Electronic tolling has caused a bit of havoc lately in our country in the past few months, resulting to a massive strike formed by unions who call on the banning of the e-tolling systems. the strike that has took place has caused the country billions of rands due to the fact that during a strike everything comes to a standstill meaning business do not run like on normal basis because most workers go out to support the strikes that take place.

www.google.com

The first strike on the electronic tolling was organised by the union COSATU and it took place on the 7th of March 2012, its turn out was positive and the strike was successful as thousands and thousands of people from all over the country participated. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the second protest organised by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), the National Taxpayers Union, the South African Caravan Association and various motobike club. This event was to take place on Thursday 29 March 2012 at the Ultra City on the N1 highway between Pretoria and Johannesburg, this event failed because:

• it was not well organised
• a proper research was not conducted
• lastly its because only about 40 supporters turned up for the protest.

Protersters voicing their views

In public relations I have learned that in order for an event to be successful the company or an organisation should plan the event, conduct a good research and do some sort of advertising which is a way for an organisation to be able to communicate with their target audiences. Had the organisers done these three things I am pretty sure that the protest would have not failed as it did. the Joburg metro police clearly said the protest was illegal, this is because no one had communicated with them before the day of the strike.

Leader of Freedom Front Plus Pieter Mulder

Freedom Front Plus spokesman Anton Alberts on Thursday morning said the idea behind the protest was to make sure that a "certain section" of the population was heard, not just the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions, he added that there are certain organisations and sections of the population who are still unhappy with the tolling system and they also want to encourage other sections of the population, other political parties and civil organisations to come out and hold various actions on their own.


Besides the protest failing the only positive incident that erupted was the public relations stunt that was pulled by "Mal Jan " van der Merwe who is the stuntman at the Jacaranda 94.2 FM breakfast show, he decided to show up with his camel at the march. The camel had attracted considerably more attention than Freedom Front Plus stikers which were encouraging R15 SMS donation to their cause

Mal Jan van der Merwer and his camel

Hopefull the organisers of this event will learn to organise properly in order for their event to succeed next time.

An end to end action Soweto derby

The much supported soccer teams in S.A-Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates

Some hearts were broken and some hearts were filled joy, this is after a thrilling soccer match which took place on the 17th of March 2012 in front of a whooping 87 171 fans at the FNB stadium. The teams that took part in the game were the glamour boys from Naturena Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. A match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates is famously known as the Soweto derby, its considered one of the most fiercely contested matches in Africa football. The very first match played by these two big teams was on the 24th of January 1970.

FNB stadium

Matches between these two rivals seem to attract a large fanbase seeing that the tickets had been sold out earlier in the week prior to the big match. A public relations practitioner from Metrorial issued out a press release on the 16th of March 2012 just a day before the Soweto derby, to inform the fans who were going to the stadium that a train service was going to be available for the fans travelling from Vereeniging, Leralla, Pretoria and Johannesburg directly to Nasrec station, which is a five minute walk from the stadium. A total of six trains was made available and fans were suppose to purchase the tickets for the train at Metrorail stations from as little as R20 for a return trip. As a public relations student i would say that the Metrorail did a good to issue a press release, this was a good way to communicate with the fans who were going to the stadium. Motorists were also advised to use alternative routes because the Soweto highway was closed between the N1 and Mentz road and the Nasrec road was closed between Rand Show road. The roads were closed from 10:00am and were re-opened at 19:00pm. These road closure usually happen when there are huge events taking place at the stadium.

Chiefs and Pirates fans joined together to watch their teams play

This soccer event was supported by alot of soccer lovers and die-hard fans of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Fans walked in the stadium with their different funny outfits. From men sporting grofesque masks, miniskirts, bras and church robes and women in odd wigs and kitted in full soccer gear.This is truly one event that does bring people together.

Etv Pulling Out Of The 2012 SAFTA Awards

The well known television channel Etv was once again in the news following the issue of the station pulling out of the 2012 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA). Etv is the fifth terrestrial televison channel in South Africa following three channels operated by the state owned South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC 1, 2 and 3) and privately owned subscription funded M-NET which is operated by Multichoice. According to [www.wikipedia.co.za] Etv is the first privately owned but free to air television station in the country. 

http://www.google.co.za/images

The SAFTA awards started way back in 2005 when the representatives of the South African Film and Television industry resolved to come together under the auspices of the National Film and Video Foundation of the South Africa to establish the annual SAFTA awards. The primary objective of the SAFTA awards is to honour, celebrate and promote the creativity, quality and exellence of South African Film and Television talent and productions and to encourage entrepreneurship and the development of new talent within the industry.

The 6th Annual SAFTAs were held at the Gallegher Estate in Midrand on the 9th and 10th March 2012. The first event on the 9th of March was for winners in the non-fiction categories and the second event on the 10th was for winners in the fiction categories. The Gallegher Estate was filled with the best actors and actresses that our country can offer.

Head of Etv Monde Twala

Even though the awards ceremony was supported by many people from the film and television industry unfortunately Etv had withdraw they programming from the SAFTAs, the channel refused to divulge reasons for its withdrawal. Etv issued out a statement  Monday afternoon prior to the awards confirming the withdrawal of its shows. Group head of Etv channel Monde Twala said in the statement " it is unfortunate that we have had to withdraw our programming from the SAFTAs but we feel that it is necessary to do so in order to achieve greater organisation cohesion." According to articles that have been written the channel felt that their shows and performers had been sidelined in both the nominations and events surrounding the ceremony.Does Etv feel that the SATTAs are only supporting the SABC programmes more than them? Do they feel they not well recognized as a channel? Or did they just withdraw because they felt they did not need to be honoured, celebrated by the SAFTA awards? We will just have to wait and hear the reasons of the withdrawal from the channel itself.

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The Glitz and Glamour at the Oscar Awards 2012




The day most actors and actresses have been patiently waiting for,the 26th of Febuary 2012,this years event took place in Hollywood at the Highland Theatre.The awards were hosted by Billy Crystals, it was his ninth time hosting the Academy Awards. He opened the show by acting in scenes from several faboulous movies. These awards were bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize the excellence of professionals in the film industry which includes directors, actors, and writers.

This well known event was covered by the Guardian film team through out the night. The event was set to start a 1:30am. The stars came walking on the red carpet looking stunning and elegant, some came with their partners and others just prefered to come and enjoy the celebrations alone. Some of the top well known designers had design some of the outfits that were worn by the stars, well known designers like Atelier Versace, Christian Dior and Tom Ford just to name a few. As from a public relations point of view a lot of prepartions were put in to making this a successful event.



The award most stars were
 anticipating to get their hands on



Angelina Jolie looked stunning in her black dress with a high split, her hair was out and flowing and this year she opted for red lip colour. New mum and last year's best actress winner Natalie Portman wore a red strapless polkadot gown which is said to be by 1954 vintage Christian Dior. Miss Jennifer Lopez wore a designer dress by Zuhair Murad, the dress had sleeve cutouts,low V-neck and small train. Princess Charlene decided to show off her swimming arms was accompanied by her husband, Prince Albert II of Monaco, she wore an ivory coloured, shimmers sleeveless gown. Baron Cohen was not even a nominee but he caused perhaps the biggest stir on the red carpet when he showed up with his Mummar Gaddafi inspired outfit from his upcoming film "The Dictator". Ryan Seacrest wore a Burberry suit, which was later on covered in fake ashes of Kim Jong-il, courtesy of the Dictator who spilled them down on the television presenter's front, and he was not pleased at all. The Dictator was accompanied by female security guards dressed in mini-skirts who were carrying large bouquets. One of the winners of the eveninng Octavia Speucer wore a stunning gown courtesy of designer Tadashi Shoji.                                                                  







Natalie Portman and husband






Jennifer Lopez better known as J-LO by fans

Princess Charlene and Prince Albert II

Merlyn Sreep in gold Lavin gown and chain link belt.