As 2016 comes to an end, Flow Communications can look back on a year in which we won cool new tenders, successfully took on some interesting new clients, and had fun.
Flow’s champagne moment came in October, when we walked away with seven New Generation Social & Digital Media awards; and our personal pride moment came in winter, when a team of 14 Flowstars covered the 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, delivered by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture was covered for two clients: the Nelson Mandela Foundation, one of Flow’s oldest and most esteemed clients; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the company’s newest clients.
“It was a highlight for me,” says Flow Communications CEO Tara Turkington, choosing words that reverberate through the company – many pinpointed this 17 July event as the pinnacle of a year’s hard work.
Flow is very proud of its New Generation awards. We won in the following categories:
- Gold for best online newsletter, for the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
- Gold for the best app developed by an agency, for City Sightseeing
- Silver for most innovative use of social media, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s #BestOfAfrica campaign
- Silver for best social media reach from an event, for the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s 2016 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture
- Silver for best corporate website, for The Collection by Liz McGrath
- Bronze for best low-budget campaign, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s #BestOfAfrica campaign
- Bronze for most innovative business app developed by a corporate, for City Sightseeing’s “bus-iness” app
The City Sightseeing South Africa web application that Flow developed allows the tour bus operators to efficiently and effectively sell tickets online. Flow also created a new website for City Sightseeing South Africa, which offers tours in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The app is part of that new website.
This work came top of Flow digital head Richard Frank’s list of 2016 wins, and Tara declared it “some of the best work Flow has ever done”.
The year also saw the launch of a revamped website for Constitution Hill, a complex of apartheid-era jails – now museums – and home to South Africa’s Constitutional Court. A great smartphone app was also created for the complex.
“It was a fantastic project using new, cutting-edge technology,” says Tara. Flow imported special Bluetooth-enabled beacons that tell a smartphone exactly where you are at the complex, so that an app can act on the specific location. The Constitutional Hill application puts site-specific information at a visitor’s fingertips.
Among the big new clients to take flight with Flow this year is budget airline Mango. Flow’s social media team works on the account from 7am to 9pm, daily.
“For me, the best is the diversity of our clients,” says social media chief Melanie Feris. “They range from the smallest, smallest clients that we only do paid content for, to Mango. But by far the nicest thing we did this year was the Pepfar DREAMS programme.”
Flow trained about 45 young women who had been appointed ambassadors for the United States President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) on how to deal with the media. The campaign is aimed at tackling the high rate of HIV infection among South African adolescents and women between the ages of 15 and 24.
“We were teaching those girls how to present themselves on social media as Pepfar ambassadors, and we were all crying,” says Mel. “We learned so much; those girls come from the hardest, harshest backgrounds.”
Flow ended the year with a clean audit and level 1 B-BBEE status. As Flow financial director Bev Strimer succinctly says, “It’s all good in the ‘hood.”
“We hired fantastic new staff,” says Tara of the growing workforce – Flow’s staff complement increased from 66 in November 2015 to 77 in early December 2016. “We have strengthened and grown our Cape Town team, and we’ve won awards,” the CEO continues. “Mostly, we’re just so lucky with the clients we have and the work we get. It’s just such a privilege.”