Paul Jacobson

I am really excited to share the news that FNB has just launched Shine 2010:

Shine 2010, an online social networking platform which offers a place for South Africans to congregate, learn and communicate in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM.

Shine 2010 will serve as the first port of call for 2010 good news, offering insights into the critical infrastructure projects and serving as an outlet for the positive stories that aren’t currently being told.

Apart from providing news and feature articles, Shine 2010 leverages the power of online media to offer interactive and engaging content. This approach ensures that the community can consume the good news according to their own preferences. These include a blog, regular podcast interviews, a Facebook group, a YouTube channel and the FNB Roving Reporters interviews. The FNB Roving Reporters – a first for a South African corporate – will serve as citizen reporters, hitting the streets to source video interviews with key influencers, whilst also polling public perception ahead of 2010.

Shine 2010 is yet another one of FNB’s digital initiatives and follows the launch of FNBTV in early June 2008. Furthermore, the bank continues to engage in social media with MXit and FNB Facebook employee groups.

I had the fantastic opportunity to work with FNB’s PR people, specifically Casey Monteiro at Fleishman-Hillard, on the legal side of this project over the last 2 weeks or so. The terms and conditions will feature Creative Commons licenses for content published on the site that FNB’s people produce (an aspect which I am pretty excited about) as well as some pretty interesting tie-ins with a variety of social media platforms including Flickr (the images are licensed under a Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike license), YouTube and del.icio.us. There is already a lot of content available which you can share. I understand there is also going to be a Facebook application so look out for that! Oh, don’t forget to get the code for the countdown clock on the site too (top right):

Visitors to the site will find positive news about South Africa and the upcoming World Cup in news articles, blog posts and even a podcast. It is really good to see a major corporate in SA like FNB launching an initiative like this. Sites like Shine 2010 and SA Rocks go quite some way to balancing out the often overwhelmingly negative news that sells newspapers. I am privileged to have had an opportunity to work with Casey and FNB on this project and contribute in my small way.

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creative commons, del.icio.us, flickr, youtube, shine 2010, fnb, fleishman-Hillard, fifa world cup, world cup, soccer

I was skeptical when the Wii Fit came out but now I am convinced …

… I really need to stick with my gym membership.

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parody, wii fit, wii

Ok, so I am the last of the great rugby fans.  I watched the World Cup Final because, well, South Africa was in it and it was one of those Done Things.  I even recorded the match on my PVR in case friends of ours missed it for some reason.  I was really glad SA managed to win the game and even had a hint of a tear at the end when everyone was hoisting the cup.  I felt bad for Jake White because it seemed to me that he was a guy who worked his butt off to help get the team where they were and he was unceremoniously ditched just a couple weeks later.  I even remember the photo in the paper of a lonely figure leaving a press conference.

It turns out that Jake White is no slouch when it comes to making hay while the sun shines.  Henre Rossouw has a very interesting perspective on White’s business activities including his recently published book, "In Black and White":

Amidst the furor of his current book and the mud slinging between SA Rugby bosses, the president’s council and South African rugby supporters, what exemplified him even more was his immaculate strategy and timing of the launch of “In Black and White”.

For what can only be described as a marketer’s wet dream is the perfect timing with which the word on his scathing attack on SA Rugby and the much maligned spat between himself and the Watson family transpired in his book.

The Springboks were barely crowned the new champions of the world when excerpts have been “leaked” by the media.The Springboks were not even on the plane to Wales for the final test match of a hugely successful season when he was a guest on television’s Carte Blanche where he made no small effort in spilling the beans on some of the hottest and controversial topics in SA Rugby history.

Timing in marketing and publicity is everything. A successfully timed campaign reaps benefits way beyond the imagination of the most perverse publicists.

Henre goes on to talk about how White leveraged his reputation for his personal benefit and I wonder if that is such a bad thing.  Is success in sport only ok if it is achieved with no commercial motivation in mind?  Fans may feel a little uneasy at just how blatantly White exploited his fame, achievements and inside knowledge to make a go at it with his book and other activities.  Rugby, at least to the uninformed me, seems to have a strong commercial and political undercurrent and it is very much a case of eat or be eaten.  It would have been naive to expect White to just walk away and go teach high school rugby somewhere in the lowveld.  Of course he is going to exploit his achievements, why shouldn’t he?

Aside from the commercial stuff, I think a little expose of what goes on behind the scenes is a good thing for SA Rugby, however controversial.  A number of people lamented the politics that seemed to mire SA Rugby down even as the team marched on towards a tremendous victory.  Interestingly enough, many of those same people remain fanatically loyal, despite the politics, and that says a lot for the good stuff in SA Rugby, arguably the important stuff.

Henre made another excellent observation although I don’t share his seemingly pessimistic view of White:

White says in his book that he “always knew that South African rugby was riddled with people who had no interest in the game, only on what they could siphon from it.”

Bold words from a man who has checkmated millions of people with the exact same strategy.

I see this is a case of making the most of his strong points and those include his fame, positioning and achievements.  Perhaps the more palatable thing would have been to retire to some lowveld high school to teach a new generation of kids but why shouldn’t he choose a more profitable path instead.

Tags: jake white, white, jake, sa rugby, rugby, south africa, marketing, fame, leverage, success, motives, underhand, profit, expose

Oh wow! Bob Woolmer murdered and the suspects are linked to betting? This is like some action movie. Should the World Cup continue if there are people being murdered by thugs involved in illegal betting activities (if this is what they were doing)? Doesn’t this taint the World Cup altogether? The indications are that his murder was linked to certain illegal activities taking place. According to the Sunday Times:

The murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has highlighted the dark side of a sport once known as the gentleman’s game but which is now plagued by underworld match-fixing gangs.

Jamaica police, while confirming that Woolmer was strangled to death a day after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup following their loss to unfancied Ireland, have ruled out mugging as a likely motive.

The police have stressed they do not suspect anyone yet of the crime, but fingers are once again being pointed at the powerful betting and match-fixing mafia that has become synonymous with cricket.

I wonder who else was threatened by these thugs and if anyone else is going to wind up lifeless before the end of the series?

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South Africa opened a can of “whup ass” on the Aussie team yesterday.  IOL reported on this awesome cricket match between South Africa and Australia yesterday afternoon that became a record setting match:

“It bordered on the ridiculous, but how ridiculously sublime a day of cricket it was! There was no way two teams should have got more than 400 runs each in a one-day international, but aren’t we all glad they did?

Hell for a fast bowler would be being forced – until the end of time – to bowl on Sunday’s Wanderers wicket. For a batsman it would be simply heaven.

The strip of earth gushed runs from both ends. Some may say it was farcical that so many runs could be conceded in one match. But on a day like Sunday, when records tumbled quicker than wickets, it would be a brave and cynical few who would call it a farce.

Rival captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith called it simply the greatest game of one-day cricket ever played.”

To be fair to the Aussie team, they set a record breaking target of 434-4 which, in itself, was awesome.  Herschel Gibbs was incredible as he hit the ball for a series of 4s and 6s making 164 off 105 balls.  It really was a nail-biter!

“More records withered in the blazing heat of the highveld.

The two team’s scores combined to produce the highest match aggregate of 872 runs for 13 wickets.

Gibbs and Smith now hold the record for the highest partnership by a South African pair against Australia, scoring 187 runs. This was also the highest first innings score and the highest second innings score in one-day cricket history, and it was the highest run-chase in one-day cricket history.

Gibbs has recorded the second-highest score by a South African batsman, with 175 runs off 111 balls.

Amazingly, and yet not surprisingly, Sunday’s match also contained the most boundaries ever witnessed in one-day cricket. A total of 113, including 87 fours and 26 sixes, were scored. It was an astounding display of bludgeoning and Gibbs and Ponting were particularly brutal. The two were responsible for 43 of those boundaries.”

Technorati Tags: australia, cricket, gibbs, one day international, south africa