Food For Mzansi Group is celebrating after scoring three wins at the prestigious 2024 Africa Digital Media Awards. Announced this morning by WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, these awards solidify the agriculture news publication’s position as a champion of journalism innovation on the continent.
In a release issued by Vincent Peyrègne, the Frankfurt-based chief executive of WAN-IFRA says, “The winning projects … showcased outstanding innovation. These initiatives placed their audiences at the centre of their work, resulting in increased engagement and positive feedback from readers. These projects provide a winning strategy for any initiative.”
In the Best Podcast category, Food For Mzansi’s popular Farmer’s Inside Track podcast beat Media General in Ghana and Health For Mzansi, its sister publication, for the top prize in Africa. The global panel of judges remarked that Farmers Inside Track “could serve as a case study to serve up niche content that will appeal to all. Agriculture is, to many, a dry but vital subject matter; served here, it could be anyone’s cup of tea.”
Empowering South African farmers
In their remarks about the award winners, WAN-IFRA described Farmer’s Inside Track as a user-centred podcast with a range of topics delivered through three distinct weekly episodes focused on mentoring, farming issues and how-to’s, and native content.
The judges say it is “an important resource that engages and empowers the South African farming community.”
Farmer’s Inside Track also beat Daily Maverick in South Africa in the Best Digital Subscription category. This innovative membership programme empowers new-era farmers with exclusive content, personalised experiences, and a strong sense of community.
Food For Mzansi Group co-founder Kobus Louwrens says they’re delighted to see Farmer’s Inside Track win big in two categories this year. He hailed Farmer’s Inside Track as a potent tool for fulfilling its core mandate. “It allows us to engage directly with our core audience, allowing us to listen more closely to them and shape our work to best fulfil their needs.”
Developed from the Farmer’s Inside Track podcast, newsletters, and farming advice articles, the publication’s membership now provides new-era farmers with free access to exclusive content, discounts, and priority access to events. Louwrens adds, “Members who couldn’t attend the recent 2024 Mzansi Young Farmers Indaba in Pretoria will soon be able to exclusively watch videos of all the informative and inspiring main-stage sessions.”
Award-winning collaboration with Meadow Feeds
Food For Mzansi’s collaboration with Meadow Feeds earned it a coveted honourable mention in the Best Native Advertising Campaign category. This recognition is particularly noteworthy as Food For Mzansi was the only African media house to be mentioned in this category.
The Meadow Feeds campaign resonated with the judges, who highlighted it as “a powerful example of a strong partnership aimed at serving the needs of audiences to better engage and empower communities.”
The collaboration delivered impressive results, maximising reach and engagement with the agricultural community. This success stemmed from a multi-pronged approach that included high-quality information integrated into newsletters, podcasts, technical articles, and social media strategy with the leading animal nutrition solutions expert.
Debbie Nortjé, Marketing Executive at Meadow Feeds, says, “For over 80 years, Meadow Feeds has been delivering our customers ‘more than just feed’, and our ‘Powered by Meadow Feeds’ campaign on Food For Mzansi offered us the perfect platform to share our technical expertise with young, emerging farmers in an easy-to-access and understandable format. Congratulations to the Food For Mzansi team on a productive collaboration that exceeded our expectations.”
Showcasing innovative journalism
According to Ivor Price, Food For Mzansi’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, the three wins at the 2024 Africa Digital Media Awards solidify the publication’s position as a champion of journalism innovation, not just in Africa, but with a growing reputation on the global stage. This brings their total to a remarkable 18 global awards – a testament to the dedication and creativity of a small, but powerful and resilient team.
“Our innovative approach goes beyond bells and whistles. It’s about understanding the unique needs of their audience – South Africa’s new generation of farmers and agripreneurs. These awards are a powerful validation that innovation doesn’t require a massive team or resources.”
The WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards serves as a significant recognition platform within the news media industry, highlighting exceptional digital media projects. Drawing from a global network of 3 000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs, and backed by 60 member publisher associations representing 18 000 publications across 120 countries, WAN-IFRA identifies and commends innovative initiatives.
The winners of each category will now advance to the prestigious 2024 Digital Media World Awards, where they will contend with top projects from around the world.
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