The exponential growth of the Internet and other new technologies globally continues to re-shape the South African consumer and business landscapes. Media and entertainment group Johnnic Communications Limited has invested more than R1 billion in new technologies in the past 10 years alone. However, the company still has to realise the desired returns on this investment – a situation that is forcing management to review all its online activities. This research project sought to determine what the key success factors are for the local and international online media industry, with a view to recommending potentially viable Internet strategies that could turn around operations such as Johnnic Communications’ online offerings from being nice-to-have cost centres, into exciting and key profit-generating streams. The research found that while Internet offerings cannibalise the readership of printed newspapers in South Africa, new technologies also present media houses with the opportunity to tap into new and broader markets, and hence new revenue streams. To that extent, it concluded that continuing to invest in the Internet is an imperative for Johnnic Communications, rather than an option. In addition to recommending new digital strategies, the research also concludes that developing critical mass and having a clear online strategy are crucial factors towards the company making money out of new technologies.

This study aimed to provide South African advertising professionals with insights into the current state of online and mobile advertising in South Africa, highlighting areas in which this sector of the industry can develop in order for professionals to perpetuate successful and innovative use of the mediums available to them and their clients. The study draws on literature from the fields of traditional advertising, digital advertising and new media. Research on the South African digital advertising climate is not as readily available as that of international studies based in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The study therefore used two data collection methods namely, telephonic semi-structured interviews with advertising professionals employed within the South African advertising and marketing industries as well as an electronic survey also aimed at advertising professionals employed within the South African advertising and marketing industries. The data collected aims to provide an insight into the professional opinions and feelings of these professionals as to how the South Africa digital advertising landscape is perceived, how it compares to its international counterparts and whether online and mobile technologies have had an impact on the South African advertising industry in terms of ad-spend not only on digital but on traditional advertising. The data from both the semi-structured interviews and survey were analysed in terms of the aforementioned aspects and correlations were found between the qualitative and quantitative data. Five advertising professionals from various agencies from around South Africa were interviewed telephonically while 27 advertising professionals attempted the electronic survey with 21 completing the survey. The study found that advertisers acknowledge that online and mobile technologies have had an impact on the South African advertising industry as digital advertising is now seen as an important fixture within the advertising industry and is considered to now be as important as traditional advertising. However, although advertising professionals acknowledge this importance, the medium is still underutilised due to a number of determining factors. These factors include insufficient knowledge in the field of digital advertising by advertisers and clients as clients are still unwilling to allocate similar levels of ad-spend to digital as they would to traditional advertising, this despite a notable increase in digital ad-spend. Traditional advertising still dominates ad-spend and advertisers are of the opinion that despite the growth of digital media, this trend will remain prevalent in South Africa which continues to trail behind its international counterparts.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: One of the characteristics of discourses about people who are marginalised such as sex workers, in many societies, is the way they are rendered through these very discourses as "Other‟ through, for example, forms of generalisation and homogenisation, attributions of immorality and infantilisation, which construct sex workers as bad or as helpless victims with little or no agency. In opposition to these discourses, my research is primarily concerned with advancing the voices of sex workers engaged in particular contemporary forms of sex work made possible by the access to the internet, and exploring with them how they construct and experience sex work: how they present and identify themselves. A qualitative, netnographic methodology influenced by grounded theory was employed, drawing extensively on semi-structured interviews with 15 independent escorts who advertise on a South African escorting website, referred to as Redlace.com. Content analysis of this website provided an additional source of data. The construction of the sex worker as someone who is simply controlled and exploited by others and who has no mind of her or his own, I found, was very much at odds with the manner through which the independent escorts in my study presented themselves. As I started conducting the interviews, I discovered that even the term "sex worker‟, which I had always understood as non-judgmental, was considered inappropriate and pejorative by most of the women in my study. In my discussion, I illustrate how, by soliciting clients via the internet, escorts are able to gain control over their working conditions allowing them to work independently and anonymously, which in turn renders them less publicly visible compared to other sex workers who solicit clients form the street. While I identify various continuities and discontinuities between independent escorting and other forms of sex work, the most profound and unanticipated difference was how some independent escorts whose independence and dissociation from organised forms of sex work in institutions such as brothels or escorts, placed them in a position where they were able to, and wanted to, present the "girlfriend experience‟. Herein the independent escorts performed and/or became like girlfriends offering sex, but sex mediated by "dating‟, and expressions of care and warmth symbolically associated with developing girlfriend/boyfriend relations.

This research study put together was based on whether marketing media strategies have an effect on consumption.The purpose of this investigation would provide alternate methods of improving product advertising and client service in the consumer market, as well as influencing the advertising and marketing industry.Marketing media strategies provides a series of tactical actions, which are applied during strategy sales of the product and create awareness in the market amongst the consumer. This will provide an organization with an opportunity to concentrate on the scarce amount of resources and energies available,to apply the best approachfor utilizing these resources, to efficiently target the consumer market. The research approach utilised is the quantitative method, which involves a non-probability sampling technique and a descriptive research type. The research tool implemented is a questionnaire, which consists of two sections, a profile of the participant and the survey section. The survey section explores the perceptions of these participants relating to the awareness of the marketing media strategies and how consumers perceive brands and media consumption in the market currently. Questionnaires were selected based on a high response rate when distributed to respondents. It also provides a possibility of anonymity because the respondent’s names are not required on the completed questionnaires. This research tool wasdistributed in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal to random consumers,media and marketing strategists and people in different professions. The method in which the questionnaire was distributed provides an insight on how people in the market perceive advertising of brands and influences their consumption. A consumer’s insight on advertising would be based on a shopper influence compared to a professional individual who would create a strategic insight. Information in this study was collected from primary and secondary sources, which consist of books, internet sources and past dissertations. From the findings which were collected during this study, it concludes that marketing media strategies play an instrumental role in consumption. These strategies provide a foundation for brands that are advertising and competing in the market, by tactically targeting the consumer market. Consumers’ value advertising in the market, as it provides a guideline before a purchase decision is made. Advertising also serves as a direct method of communicating the emotional and functional benefits of brands and products. Individuals make purchase decisions, which would improve their lifestyle based on emotions; therefore marketing media strategies serve as an awareness mechanism in the market, and drive education to the consumer about the product. The outcome of this study will serve as a guideline for future marketing and media strategists. The key findings gathered during this study states marketing media strategies play a substantial role in brand life and consumption; it allows organizations to focus more on limited resources and energies available and to utilize these resources to their best ability to gain competitive advantage and drive sales in the market which contributes to a higher share of volume and market leadership. The main reasons for executing marketing media strategies in the market is based on developing relationships between the consumer and the brand, which is essentially to expand on repeat purchase from new acquisitions and current consume. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.