I’m a small shareholder in 1Time airline, and have watched 1Time’s share price climb leading up to the World Cup soccer, and fall ever since. The company now has a market cap of around R80 Million. (at time of writing).

To me, that’s a really low valuation for a such a large company, so I started thinking about how they can make additional revenue if they really started thinking of innovative “out of the box” ideas.

So here’s an idea for 1Time - why don’t you start generating revenue from media activities?

Now before I start, I have to admit that I’ve got no idea whether there are legalities that airlines have to adhere to, and perhaps this just isn’t possible.

There are a couple ideas that immediately come to mind:

1. Internet monetization - AFTER people book flights, take them to a portal with quality content (suggestions for flying, how now to fear flying etc etc) with advertising on the pages
2. Advertising on the outside of the planes
3. Brochures in the pocket on every seat
4. TV screens showing advertising
5. Advertising on the back of the seats
6. Advertising on the pull out trays
7. Advertising on the food trolley’s
8. Advertising on the food from the food trolley’s

I’m sure there will be lots of people who get irritated by having more advertising thrown in their faces, but lets look at this in a different way. [Read more →]

About 2 months ago, I started curating a weekly newsletter called “The Startup Digest” which lets Capetonians (and visitors to Cape Town) know what events are happening for those interested in the Tech space. And week after week I’m disappointed by how few events there are to bring everyone together for information sharing, knowledge, fun and networking.

On a good week, there are 5 events - most weeks there are FAR less!

So it was good to meet a number of organisations that are looking to turn that around. [Read more →]

I’ve just watched the Checkers advert on TV where a bunch of kids speak about how Checkers used to have only one type of cheese - Cheddar - but how Checkers is now a Cheese heaven with over 400 types of cheese.

I really enjoyed the ad, and it was humorous and fun, especially the last 15 seconds where the kids starting getting passionate about specific types of cheese such as mascarpone.

It was on the final few seconds of the ad that everything came crashing down for me - up to then, I was ready to jump into my car and visit the nearest Checkers to sample their wide range of cheeses - and then the Logo appeared on the screen. [Read more →]

A large argument took place at a friends dinner table in JHB on Tuesday night. The discussion wasn’t whether people were spending too much time on Facebook or whether Facebook was a waste of time.

Rather, one of the people at the table, who had previously used Facebook, announced that he was no longer using Facebook, as he didn’t believe it was reality.

Reality too him was sitting at the patio table in the garden with a couple other people, having a beer and enjoying a smoke - and TALKING to the rest of the people! Face to face interaction!

But as one of the guys quickly pointed out to him, if 700 Million people have joined Facebook and are using it on a regular basis, then has the “reality balance” swung, so that if you are not living in the world of Facebook & other social media, you’re not seeing the perception … [Read more →]

Have you seen what Starbucks is doing with their customers? They’re asking their customers to suggest ways to improve their products, and also to suggest ways of improving the experience when the customers purchase the products.

evly has created an app for owners of Facebook fan pages, that not only lets the Facebook fans suggest ways a company can improve, but allows them to vote, & comment, & share the ideas (which means the company gets tons of new Facebook fans for free).

The end result is a company… [Read more →]