A new division created by full-service agency, HaveYouHeard, is innovating the broadcast media and branded content spaces.
Called inBroadcast, it was created in response to the many different and cost-efficient opportunities that are emerging to challenge the traditional broadcasters’ role, from bespoke platforms built to amplify a single message through to brands themselves becoming broadcasters.
inBroadcast is headed by Jon Savage, a leading figure in production and broadcast globally, and one of a handful of South African directors to feature at the Cannes Film Festival.
Savage explained that inBroadcast ensures the agency keeps pace with the evolutions enabling brands to reach consumers in the most relevant and powerful ways.
“Keeping up to speed with change is almost useless if done from a distance,” he said. “Running inBroadcast means we are actively recruiting and building the skillsets needed to take advantage of the new opportunities and media platforms. We want to ensure we always have the full knowledge and skill set. It’s the difference between knowing about culture and being immersed in culture.
“inBroadcast also incorporates The Eye, a facility that runs 3rd party radio stations, which is what makes it an economical solution for brands,” said Savage. “An innovation in digital radio, it uses the ways in which people engage with social media as the template for content and who hosts it. This is a massive departure from traditional radio and paving new roads for how brands can engage in the digital space.
“The Eye is also connecting more deeply with culture by hosting on-demand shows presented by developing new talent – like Lao Molele and her ‘Ask Nicely’ show (she started on The Eye at 14 years old) – to AMPD’s Live host Jo Lumka, to established culture icons like Slikour, Reason and Mos Def,” he said.
Co-Founder of HaveYouHeard, Jason Stewart, added: “Our online publication called in_ provides our clients and subscribers with insights into culture that matters, and explains how these cultural evolutions are shaping brands, society and people.
“But, part of what makes HaveYouHeard distinctive is our ability to evolve at pace by becoming a part of real-world culture, and not just providing a telescope in to it. That’s what inBroadcast is.
“By becoming part of the dynamic broadcast media landscape with our in-house facility we have the freedom to create, to experiment and to become part of the communities and cultures we are helping brands immerse into. It’s just the way we like to do it.”
The first HaveYouHeard clients to work with the new division include Old Mutual with its AMPD Studios in Newtown Junction, Johannesburg, and Sportscene, a high-impact 24-hour digital radio station dedicated to sports news and discussion, programming for this is led by current events, requests and cultural changes.
Savage has won two Liberty Radio Awards for The Eye digital radio station, numerous Loeries and has received international recognition such as an SXSW for digital broadcast innovation in 2018.
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