Mediashop
Switchboard in Sandton

The MediaShop was formed in 1988 and as such is the "oldest" media independent is South Africa.
We were established in 1988 and work hard for all our clients building longstanding, strong partnerships with them and the media owners.
We are a diverse group of innovative and highly skilled professionals who consistently add value to, and share knowledge with our clients.
We have offices in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The increasing jump in productivity makes the argument for automisation in the near future that much stronger or imperative, says Dana Borowka from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC, in LA. Currently, marketers are shying away from this, because of cost and a lack of expertise or knowledge. In the end though, it all boils down to hiring the right staff to manage and take care of the automisation process. Fast food workers and cashiers are possibly the first to go in the everyday world. Their tasks involve repetitive work, a prime example for automisation to kick in. The LA Times has automated reporting on earthquakes, by pulling generated information from the US Geological Survey site for weather patterns, fire hazards and traffic. In a South African context, this could result in reducing staff at the SA Weather Bureau for instance, but more importantly these kind of organisations could possibly focus more on their core business such as developing more accurate reports on various fronts, including sending fire warnings to rescue teams. There is no need to have a BA or Honours in languages an automated process can actually write or suggest copy on the events of a sports game, is there? How much would a PR company rely on automated responses to negative press or customer complaints? Programmable or automated responses might just be the answer in a hectic PR consultant’s day! The same goes for customer services and marketing representatives. Call centres and customer services from remote areas such as India can all become obsolete if computers could do the job. Think for a minute where media agencies could and should be automated. Surely it’s already happening with buying functions smooth-lining the financial functions in a media agency. Automisation is no more complicated than creating an algorithm if sales are down to increase marketing messaging in certain platforms like digital, radio and print advertising! My prediction is that the number of creative executions could also be curtailed which will have a major impact on creative agency income, but could come as a cost saving for clients. Programmatic media buying is not a mere option any more, but is here to stay and create efficiencies of economy and time. Are customers and marketers going to be frustrated? Some say yes, because of the socialability nature of the human to speak to anther human. Others say no, because efficiency can only increase to make our lives better. One thing is for certain: we need to ensure that we hire the right people to handle not only the media work, but that can handle or programme computers as well. But a time will come where there would be no more need to persuade clients and media owners of the most appropriate route to take: Automation will speak louder than human reasoning!