Architecture ZA is Africa’s premier urban cultural festival focused on architecture and is structured to target the largest possible audience of architectural professionals, students, the wider built environment and design fraternities, and interested members of the public. Since its launch in 2010, the event has become a significant national multi-disciplinary design symposium. Our comprehensive campaign for the 2018 event included all aspects of digital marketing, stakeholder liaison and media engagement.
Marguerite Pienaar, Lecturer: University of Pretoria, M.Arch (dist)(UP), B.Arch (dist)(UFS), B.A.S. (UFS):
“I came to know Karen Eicker from Apex Communications during the months leading up to the Architecture ZA (AZA18) – Africa’s premier architecture conference that has grown and developed since its registration in 2010. While the primary host for the event is the South African Institute for Architecture (SAIA), the University of Pretoria (UP) was the co-host in 2018. As such, I acted on behalf of the UP to determine the theme and curate the content of the event. I therefore got to work very closely with Karen over the course of the build-up to the event and during the event itself.“The quality of the campaign she ran was absolutely outstanding. She understood the content immediately and, with great insight, carefully constructed the type of information sent out to cater to a diverse audience. Through media liaison, e-marketing and social media channels, she created a visually engaging, well-written and attention-grabbing campaign. Within a very short period of time, she met and even exceeded our expectations in terms of deliverables. I appreciate consistency in the quality of marketing of the event, her reliability and, overall, I found in Karen a person who takes responsibility and is pro-active. I believe these are rare qualities. Without a doubt, her contribution resulted in the overall success in attendance of the conference.”
Sector: Architectural and urban planning event
Scope: Content strategy and development; website content development and oversight; media strategy and liaison; social media management
Duration: January – May 2018