Flow was recently awarded a prestigious programming and development tender by South African Tourism (SAT).
SAT has been one of Flow’s top clients for almost two years now, during which time we have written and edited a host of content for their website, www.southafrica.net, which is the main destination marketing website for South Africa. Flow is now in charge of relaunching www.southafrica.net on the renowned Content Management System (CMS), ExpressionEngine.
Says Flow CEO Tara Turkington, “Flow was up against some tough competition, and has some big shoes to fill, so this is truly a great honour for us. This is one of the most exciting things we have ever done – and we’ve done a lot of exciting things, so that’s saying something.
“This is a very prestigious and very important job. If we do it right, we will be helping to attract tourism to South Africa and, in turn, helping to create jobs. Managing the country’s primary destination marketing website is such an exciting opportunity for Flow.”
Says project manager Kevin Collins, “To make SAT’s new strategy of ‘embracing heartfelt connections’ come to life is completely compelling. To get tourists and trade to understand that it’s not only about the destination or the experience, but about how South Africa makes you feel, is a big challenge. One hopes to create an emotional connection.”
Much of Flow’s previous work has contributed towards us being where we are today, including our work with amazing clients such as Maropeng, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, the Origins Centre, the Two Oceans Aquarium and South African Breweries, as well as a number of product offerings in the form of top hotels and lodges, not to mention top destination marketing websites Cape Town Tourism and the Gauteng Tourism Authority.
Flow is also proud to be part of a global ExpressionEngine community, and the work we will be doing for SAT is to feature alongside work already accomplished for a strong portfolio of clients, including the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.
Flow’s web development studio manager, Richard Frank, can’t wait to embark on this exciting new journey with SAT.
“After building both Cape Town Tourism and the Gauteng Tourism Authority’s destination marketing websites, we’re confident we can place South Africa’s marketing message to the world on a solid platform,” says Frank.
“ExpressionEngine has proved itself with high-traffic websites such as www.barackobama.com and our very own www.nelsonmandela.org, and we can’t wait to introduce it to www.southafrica.net.
“The age of expensive proprietary CMSs is coming to an end, being replaced by light-weight, scaleable and highly flexible frameworks supported by experienced communities of web developers. We’re also planning on building SAT’s website using cloud architecture [relying on a network of web-hosted remote servers, over a local server, to manage and store data] with Rackspace [a global service leader in hosting and cloud computing], which will mean instant scaling to accommodate high-traffic loads during peak traffic periods.”
Says Turkington, “Winning this work is closing a circle very beautifully for us here at Flow, in the work that we do and the skills that are being used and developed.
“We hope that all the great experience we have had so far will be of great benefit to SAT, and we are also looking forward to learning more about the tourism industry and online destination marketing while working with such a prestigious client. In turn, this should also help our other clients.
“This is an opportunity to make use of all of the rich skills sets that Flow has to offer, as well as to showcase the most beautiful country in the world – and we’re being paid to do it. How awesome is that?”