SaleSearcher, www.salesearcher.co.za, the newly-launched online sales and specials listings site, gives South African retailers an innovative opportunity to capture additional customers during this time of economic belt-tightening.

The service offers online listings of special offers and sales from a range of retailers, both online and offline from across South Africa. The SaleSearcher site allows customers to search for sales according to merchant or by specific product category.

Despite the current economic situation in South Africa and around the world, the reality is that consumers are still going to shop for Christmas presents, buy new summer wardrobes and entertain during the festive season. However, with our Rands and cents not stretching as far as they used to, consumers are becoming more savvy and aware of how they are spending their money.

SaleSearcher provides retailers with a unique opportunity to reach these customers today and build them into loyal followers for when the financial situation improves – so stealing the march on competitors. Part of the service includes an aggressive online marketing campaign to take SaleSearcher and its listed suppliers to as many consumers as possible.

The site is the brainchild of young South African entrepreneur, Ryan Ferreira. After working and travelling abroad, Ryan spent six months this year researching the viability of SaleSearcher.

“I was amazed by the savings that a consumer can make if they have the time and energy to search out the sales in their area. It struck me that by bringing together customers and suppliers via a web site, I would be creating a win-win situation for both groups,” said Ryan, founder of SaleSearcher.

“This is a great idea,” said Eric Edelstein, founder of Springleap, www.springleap.com, the online t-shirt retailer. “Shops who don’t have an online presence instantly get one thanks to SaleSearcher. And companies like Springleap, which is primarily an online operation, get to widen their marketing footprint and compete head-to-head with the bricks and mortar guys.”

It is apt that a web site celebrating sales and special offers, kicks off business with a promotion of its own. Any retailer signing up to be listed on Salesearcher before the end of November will receive a free listing until February 2009. To sign-up – visit www.salesearcher.co.za or email media@salesearcher.co.za.

About SaleSearcher
SaleSearcher, www.salesearcher.co.za, offers a quick and easy way for consumers to search for sales and special offers from retailers located around South Africa. It allows consumers to make the most of their hard earned Rands by pinpointing the sales they are looking for, and gives retailers an additional platform to engage with South African customers that have money to spend.

Released on behalf of SaleSearcher by:
Vanessa Clark
Twokats Communications
Ph: +27 82 335 1117
Email: vanessa.clark@twokats.com

Earth™, the second novel by South African author Etienne Krüger, will be officially launched in Johannesburg on 29 November 2008. The book is a well-timed mix of sex, South African politics and religion – exactly the kind of satirical relief Mzansi needs as we approach the holiday season.

Earth™ is a helter-skelter corporate adventure that weaves IT, contemporary physics and pure fantasy (including the previous government’s theories on HIV/Aids) into a could-be-true plot. That said - it’s definitely easier to swallow than a stodgy mouthful of garlic and beetroot pie.

An early review from James Mitchell at The Star said: “Where the late, great satirist Robert Kirby left off, Etienne Krüger is now transporting the bizarre, the wacky, and the insanely near-believable into a new dimension.”

“I had huge amounts of fun writing this roller-coaster ride of a novel, and hopefully that comes through in the reading of it,” said Etienne Krüger, the author. “I’ve drawn my inspiration from the beautiful bizarreness of our fabulous country, and this book is for anyone who wants a good laugh and some (non-fattening) food for thought at the end of the year.”

Earth™ is independently published under the label Beet Root Press. It is being distributed by Quartet Sales and Marketing and will be available in bookshops across the country by the end of the month.

The book launch will take place at 12 pm on Saturday, 29 November 2008. The venue is BT Games, shop 244, Northgate Shopping Centre. Everyone welcome.

About the author
Etienne Krüger is 39. After graduating from the University of Cape Town, he went underground, courtesy of a mining bursary. A few years later he started an engineering and manufacturing business, eventually being foolish enough to employ eighty people. This, his second novel, draws on that experience.

His first novel, Getting Lucky, is an irreligious romp through campus life at the University of Cape Town. Contrary to the hero’s expectations, it’s not in the lecture halls but in the dark streets of Rondebosch and its local police station where he will face his most difficult tests.

Advance Information Sheets and artwork available on request.

Released on behalf of Beet Root Press by:

Vanessa Clark
Twokats Communications
Ph: +27 82 335 1117
Email: vanessa.clark@twokats.com

An Internet advertising opportunity, www.500K.co.za, was launched at the start of November by 19-year-old Johannesburg student Arye Kellman. The idea is to sell 500,000 pixels of Internet space, where you can place an online ad for R 1 per pixel. 60% of the profits go to Childline SA.

Similar things have been done before: in 2005 The Million Dollar Homepage earned English student Alex Tew enough money to pay for his first year at university in a mere two weeks. The irony is he dropped out of university after the first term thanks to the hype surrounding the site. Read more about Alex Tew here.

Later a US-based web designer called James tried to boot strap himself out of poverty using a similar tactic on his site The Million Penny Home Page. You can read more about that here.

The thing that I struggling to understand is: what is in it for the advertiser? Apart from the fabulous amounts of media interest that Arye is doing an amazing job at generating, what will attract repeat visitors to the site, to see your ad, and drive ROI for you – which, presumably, is the intention?

In my opinion we see ads for two main reasons: location and interesting content. Location meaning that I see the same billboard five days a week while sitting in traffic. Content meaning that I read a certain publication or website and watch a certain TV programme because I derive value from the content, and so form a captive audience for related advertising.

I like the Childline angle though, and maybe here is twist in the tale that I haven’t thought through or worked out. Perhaps the ad spend will be filed under corporate social responsibility and left at that.

This certainly will be an interesting one to watch.

Blaming a communications technology rather than how it is used for the social impact of the communication does nothing except fill our newspapers with insane headlines like the one above. So the story of Marlon Parker and how he is using social media tools such as Mxit, Facebook, Twitter and blogging to counsel drug users in the Cape Flats, nicely flips this argument on its head.

Marlon, an IT lecturer and PhD student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, has banded together a group of reformed drug users, gang members and dealers to provide peer support for drug users in the community. Based at the Impact Centre in Bridgetown the group has been getting a fantastic response from the affected members of the community.

Marlon hit on the idea when he realised how important mobile phones were in the youth market. Using digital and mobile channels that people are familiar with, provide a non-threatening way to make initial contact, which often results in the person visiting the counselling centre and starting on the road to rehabilitation and reconstruction.

“The main objective was to meet the youth on a platform that they are comfortable with as a first point of contact, where they can express themselves and receive counselling or advice on the issue of drug and substance abuse,” Marlon told Business Day Africa.

The next step for Marlon is his initiative to teach the mothers of the community how to use computers and get online. And it’s the reformed drug users showing their moms the ropes.

Marlon has been doing the rounds publicising the work they are doing, and I have been lucky enough to see him talk at the Nomadic Marketing dinner earlier in the month, as well as last night’s cracking 27 Dinner where counsellor King Ross shared his experiences.

His is a fantastically inspirational story amid current tales of doom and gloom and global recession. I particularly like the theme of reconstruction that runs through the project - take a look at the blog title “Reconstructed“. It’s also a great example of somebody using the strengths of particular communication channel as a means to an end, and not for its own sake.

And for any corporates out there looking for corporate responsibility projects to contribute to - this is a fantastic one.

Great article by Jo Duxbury of Freelancentral in ITWeb recently looking at what it takes to survive as an entrepreneur. Jo is single-handedly revolutionising the freelance industry in South Africa and has some great insights to share.

Have a read here.

(She also quotes some great people in the article )