DURBAN,
South Africa, February 11, 2021/ -- Durban-based tech company, immedia
has invested R10-million to help African media entrepreneurs to build
sustainable community radio by using Fabrik (www.Fabrik.cloud),
a set of cloud-enabled digital tools that empower media entities to
live-stream shows, grow and engage with audiences around the world, and
benefit financially by monetising their audiences.
The
25-year-old company, which has the backing of Microsoft and the
Industrial Development Corporation, has been developing their Fabrik
technology since 2017. Fabrik allows media entrepreneurs to upend the
traditional notion of “we broadcast and you receive”, by creating a
feedback loop that directly helps the stations and listeners that use it
to leapfrog old technology, to become citizen journalists, and find
their strategic space in a digitally transformed world. It is already
being used by 15 commercial clients, including radio stations Gagasi FM,
Smile 90.4FM and YFM.
As part of its Digital Leap programme (https://bit.ly/2Z8oQme),
immedia will be giving its platform to qualifying media entrepreneurs
across Africa for free for a year. This includes consultation, training
and support to help monetize the technology, cumulatively valued at R10
million.
Phil Molefe, a veteran of broadcast radio in
South Africa, Fabrik’s Head of Business Development & Strategy, says
the programme was key to the company’s vision to spearhead media
transformation. He says the uptake of Fabrik by energetic entrepreneurs
at community radio stations showed how empowering the suite of digital
tools is. “It enables them to deepen their relationship with their
audience and monetise it sustainably because the quality of their
engagement with listeners is meaningful.”
Building stable, sustainable community radio across Africa
Molefe
points out that while community media is often under-resourced and
struggles to retain skills, the company’s case studies have shown that
it is more than possible for them to thrive - and that the Digital Leap
programme is the kind of opportunity they need, and can succeed on.
Fabrik helps media entrepreneurs by solving key challenges for them,
including: - Providing
them with a mobile application that allows community and campus radio
stations to live-stream shows, as well host podcasts, allowing them to
reach audiences well beyond the geographic constraints of their
traditional radio broadcast signal.
- By
shifting to a cloud-based tool, radio stations get access to archival
and backup that is compliant with BCCSA and ICASA regulations. This
helps them to significantly cut down on time and resources required to
manually back up radio content to on-site servers or even tape.
- Messaging
functionality, including push notifications, so that stations can
better engage with their communities, publish written or multimedia
content, and even promote active conversation between listeners. Push
notifications help drive engagement by bringing attention to active
competitions, surveys and polls, recently published content, and more.
- By
encouraging listeners to register as a member and provide some of their
personal information, such as geographics and demographics, stations
are able to build audience profiles for their listeners, and gain a
better understanding of their needs and preferences.
- These
detailed analytics provided by Fabrik gives stations the data they need
to convince advertisers and marketers of the value of promoting their
products and services through the station’s app, helping bring in much
needed revenue.
Fabrik
has a range of users, and about 60% of their listeners have an opt-in
relationship with their broadcasters. By building and growing owned
communities, stations then stand to benefit financially by serving
highly relevant ads to their digital listeners. In addition, where sales
conversions on social media are around 2%, Fabrik users enjoy 8%.
According
to Tamie Mbombo, head of Marketing and PR at Izwi loMzansi, one of the
largest community radio stations in South Africa, says that the platform
has revolutionised the station’s engagement with its listeners, and has
led the digital charge with featured podcasts and integrated
advertising campaigns on the Izwi mobile app. “Community media’s aim is
to provide trusted information and expression, and Fabrik has helped do
that,” he says.
A change of mindset is required
The
Fabrik team made some interesting observations based on the experiences
of early adopters of the technology, including around community radio,
where many advertisers and business decision makers are often dismissive
of the audience. “For example, one of our clients is a station with an
audience in the LSM 4-6 range. That audience is typically regarded as
‘too poor’ or too marginalised to go digital and yet our clients are
proving that they are taking to it like ducks to water,” Molefe says.
He
says that the take up by media entrepreneurs, either regarded as ‘on
the fringes’ or as outliers, is the best showcase for Fabrik. “They are
doing what they do because nobody told them they couldn’t - and it is
proving to be a great leveller. We’ve seen how powerful this platform is
in the community media space, which is why we are looking at boosting
the rate of transformation.”
Applications for the Fabrik Digital Leap programme are now open. For more information visit the website (https://bit.ly/2MXxy4e) or contact Jonathan Lumley at jonathan@fabrik.cloud. |
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