Africa’s Best App – How we built the Sliide Airtime brand in Africa

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Eight months after its launch Sliide Airtime was named as Africa’s Best App at the prestigious AppsAfrica Innovation Awards. This accolade was swiftly followed by the Oscars of the global telecoms market (the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress) naming it as the ‘Most Innovative App in the World’.

CEO, co-founder and proud South African Corbyn Munnik then found himself on the front cover of Forbes Africa after being selected as one of the magazine’s 30 under 30 African entrepreneurs.

So how did an unknown start-up go from zero to hero in such a short space of time? The power of strategic media relations, an expertly crafted story and a pro-active award and speaking engagement programme executed by the team at TelecomsPR Africa.

You can read more about the Sliide story in:

And Google Sliide Airtime to read many many other stories.

Other Awards to date

  • Most Effective Consumer Smartphone App at the Effective Global Mobile Marketing Awards
  • Mobile Marketing Company of the Year” at the 12th Nigerian Telecom Awards
  • Winner of the Game-Changing Innovation category at the West Africa Com Awards

TelecomsPR Africa is proud to have helped Sliide Airtime launch and establish itself as a major player in Africa’s apps market.  We continue to work with its team as it expands both across Africa and outside the continent.

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Media Launch of Nigeria’s Largest Tech Hub

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In July the team at TelecomsPRAfrica were approached by long-time VC investor Toro Orero to help launch Zone Tech Park, the largest tech hub in Nigeria.

The brief was straightforward:

  • To garner positive media coverage for Zone Tech Park, its aims and objectives – and to explain how it’s different to the multiple other hubs in Nigeria.

What we did:

  • Organised a press conference and tour of the hub
  • Invited key media and influencers from across Nigeria
  • Secured telephone briefings with media who are based outside Nigeria
  • Wrote and distributed a press release and background documents

Results

  • 54 journalists from 36 media houses attended the 1 August event. All enjoyed the tour, meeting Toro, and some of the startups already at the hub.
  • Multiple stories – print, online, videos and tweets.

Our highlights:

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CNBC Africa – a five minute primetime slot for Toro

BBC World Service – 2 separate interview slots for Toro during its morning news show

Independent newspaper: https://independent.ng/zone-tech-park-invests-6-5m-to-boost-start-ups-in-nigeria/

Punch Newspaper: https://punchng.com/firm-launches-tech-hub-for-b2b-start-ups/

Guardian Newspaper: https://guardian.ng/technology/zone-tech-park-begins-operations-with-6-5m-investment/

The Nation: http://thenationonlineng.net/zone-tech-park-plans-start-ups-sponsorship/

Technology Mirror: https://technologymirror.com.ng/zone-tech-park-unveils-6-5m-technology-hub-for-africans/

And much much more – try a Google search!

We wish Zone Tech Park and Toro all the best in turning great African ideas into products and services quickly, efficiently – and profitably.

 

 

Forbes Africa – our clients on the front cover in June and August!

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Awards for our clients

We’re really good at writing winning award entries. Really really good! Last year five of our clients won awards not just in Africa but on the global stage including the GSMA’s Global Mobile awards aka the ‘Oscars’ of the telecoms world:

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News from Algeria

We have worked for World Telecom Labs for five years now. It’s a very innovative company which works with operators across Africa on a variety of technologies.  Last year – with our help – WTL won five awards including this:

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This latest piece of news was a landmark for the team at TelecomsPR Africa as we’d never promoted a story from Algeria before.  Got some great pick-up including this piece in Communications Afrique.

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World Telecom Labs Helps Algerian Operator Provide SMS Services

13 July 2017 – World Telecom Labs (WTL) today announced that it has helped Icosnet, an established operator in Algeria, to rollout an A2P (Application to Person) SMS service that will primarily be used by domestic and international companies who want to communicate directly with their customers across the country.

Algeria has a well-developed telecoms infrastructure and its oil and gas industries have made it one of the wealthiest countries in Africa. Despite the increasing popularity of IP messaging services, SMS is still widely used across the country with the main operators offering bundled packages which include text sending and receipt. Businesses in Algeria are increasingly turning to SMS to interact with and inform their customers as it has a greater chance of being successfully received and read than email – and, of course, is far cheaper than print promotions.

Established in 1999, Icosnet was one of the first companies to emerge after the liberalisation of the telecom market in Algeria. Since then it has been providing data and voice services to businesses of all sizes.

Initially WTL helped Icosnet establish its service quickly and cost-effectively through the provision of SS7 signaling gateways. These enable traffic to transfer between Icosnet’s IP networks and the existing networks in Algeria. As Icosnet’s business expanded and evolved, WTL provided a variety of equipment including its award-winning VoIP switches.

Icosnet’s new SMS service will run over the existing WTL platform that was developed to support both VoIP and SMS services. This enables enterprises and Government agencies to communicate with their customers using text messaging. A simple IP interface connects the company to the Icosnet WTL platform and from here all the switching and routing of messages to the right operator is handled in an efficient, cost effective way ensuring the best possible delivery success. The WTL platform also means that Icosnet can accurately bill its clients for the number of text messages sent.

Andrew Kinnear, Executive Director at Icosnet, said “WTL is a trusted and much valued supplier. Our business and infrastructure have evolved over the years and WTL is always there to support us. We truly appreciate the advice and expertise of the team at WTL.”

Leigh Smith, MD of WTL, said “Of course, the great thing about text is that, unlike popular forms of IP messaging, it can be used to send and receive messages from anyone who has a mobile. Icosnet is setting the standard for African companies who want a cost-effective and reliable A2P SMS service to communicate with customers. Icosnet has always been an innovative operator and we are happy that our strong relationship continues.”

About World Telecom Labs (WTL)

Headquartered in Belgium with offices in Nigeria, Brazil and the UK, WTL helps operators in emerging markets to deploy cost-effective, reliable voice and data networks for both rural and urban environments.

WTL has deployments in more than 30 countries in Africa with a well-deserved reputation for excellent service, reliable products and an expert team with extensive experience in Africa.

WTL’s innovative, practical and cost-effective portfolio includes its:

  • Award-winning range of high capacity VoIP and hybrid VoIP/TDM switches which have been specifically designed to replace the huge, expensive, maintenance-heavy switches that have traditionally been used to transfer VoIP traffic onto other networks.
  • Vivada (Village Voice and Data), a multi-award winning system to Connect The Unconnected.
  • Signalling gateways and pre-paid applications for emerging carriers and telecom service operators.

For more information visit www.wtl.be, on twitter @worldtelecomlab or contact

Launch of Bloomberg Africa – Nov 2016

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Bloomberg has announced the launch of Bloomberg.com/Africa which will see an expansion of its coverage of African business and financial stories.

Bloomberg has more than 100 editorial writers spread across seven bureaus in Africa.  At TelecomsPR Africa our main contact is Loni at the JB office who covers a variety of telecoms stories every day.

Many people don’t realise that the Bloomberg journalist they meet will write their interview up in its entirety and send this to editors who will identify the angle of most interest to Bloomberg readers. This is why even the shortest story tends to have a writer and at least one editor.

Of course, Bloomberg readers are mostly interested in the news of listed companies, however, they also read Bloomberg to help identify promising early stage companies.  At Telecoms PR Africa we help craft stories and angles which will be attractive to both Bloomberg readers and its writers.

 

September 2016

September already and here are a few of the things the team at TelecomsPRAfrica are working on this month:

  • Entries for The AppsAfrica Awards  which celebrate the best in mobile and technology across the continent.  There are a variety of different categories to suit all apps and the winners will be announced on Monday 14 November prior to AfricaCom.
  • Preparing for Capacity Africa, the largest wholesale carrier event which takes place in Uganda 27-28 September.  This year will see the first Capacity Africa awards with the ceremony taking place on day one.  We have entered four clients across six categories so are hoping for a few wins!
  • And, of course, we’ve already started planning for AfricaCom – booths, award entries, news stories and sales meetings are just are a few things we are working on.

See you there!

MTN’s App of the Year Awards

Entry is now open for the annual MTN Business App of the Year Awards – offering winners some amazing prizes, invaluable industry recognition, serious networking opportunities and major publicity.

The categories include Best Enterprise App, Best Consumer App, Best Enterprise Development App, Best Breakthrough Developer, Most Innovative App and a Wild card for apps that fall outside these categories.

“The new categories and format are a total game-changer for the Awards”, says Mandisa Ntloko, head of marketing, MTN Business, South Africa. “The new genre-based categories are much closer aligned to the way that real app users evaluate apps when they choose to download them or not. And this means all app developers are on a more even footing.”

Entries will be evaluated on the bases of the problem the app addresses, design, creativity, usability, market impact, long-term sustainability and also by the presentation of shortlisted apps at the pitch event.

Submissions close on June 22, 2015 while the award ceremony will hold on August 5, 2015 at The Urban Tree, Kramerville in Johannesburg.

More info and entries can be made here http://www.appoftheyear.co.za/submit-your-app/#.VX_1wWTBzGf

 

 

Vote for your favourite Kenyan blog

Content is King…

Kenyans are now voting for their favourite blogs in an annual competition organised by The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). The awards recognises bloggers with great creative and innovative, useful and regular content and posts.

Over 1800 blogs were submitted and you can vote at www.blogawards.co.ke/vote.     BAKE_logo-672×320

Russell Southwood from Balancing Act Africa has also written about the awards.

New wire service for Africa

On 5 March Media24 anounced that it has developed a newswire to replace SAPA (South African Press Association which will close on 31 March.

It will be called News24Wire and will provide a newswire and daily diary service from 1 April.

According to Media24, “A 16-strong, national reporting team is being built by veteran editor and News24 editor-in-chief Andrew Trench and will be a resource for the country’s press.

Content from News24Wire will be free to use for all digital publications, and for syndication by print, broadcast, radio and corporate partners. Initially focused on text, the newswire will later expand to include images, data journalism and multimedia packages.”News24 will have an already-existing network of writers to tap into and at TelecomsPRAfrica we are already in touch with many of them.More about the newswire can be read @ www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Media24-launches-newswire-to-replace-Sapa-20150305