TRACE, the number one music television channel in Africa awarded Mason the Public Relations & Social Media account for the number one talent search in Africa, the Airtel TRACE Music Star; the biggest Pan-African talent search competition committed to empowering and promoting gifted African youth. The lucky winner walked away with a US$ 500 000 prize including a mentorship opportunity with American singer, songwriter, Keri Hilson.

Call – Sing – Win

The communications campaign focused on three key territories; Nigeria, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a secondary market comprising Niger, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia and registered a 17% growth in entries, with 2.7 million calls received. The audited Advertising Value Equivalent on Editorial News was R1 053 000 and R133 114 770 on Social Media with 333 articles and 11.200 mentions on social media, which set the bar.

The glamourous Pan-African Grand Finale took place at the Ultima Studios in Lagos; a spectacular live show broadcasted on TRACE TV, from Africa to the World. The competition amongst the 10 finalists was fierce, with Tanzania’s Melissa John beating Madagascar’s representative Johanna Rakotomavo to take second place and ultimately Zambia’s Tiwamenji Phiri was crowned the winner of the 2016 ATMS.

A bespoke Red Carpet with all the trimmings featured A-list Nigerian celebrities from the local entertainment industry. The evening’s programme boasted outstanding performances by the 2015 Airtel TRACE Music Star winner from Tanzania, Mayunga Nalimi who also performed his latest release “Please Don’t Go Away” which featured world renowned rapper and the previous year celebrity mentor, Akon, as well as Nigerian reggae-dancehall singer Patoranking.

The Project’s successes included:
o Breaching Geographical gaps and allowing potential participants to enter from the comfort of their own homes
o An increase in the number of calls obtained; from 2.2 million in Season 1 (13 Territories) to 2.7million in Season 2 (10 Territories)
o Empowering and promoting of young African youth
o The mentor, who successfully engaged with followers and pushed the competition on her Social Media platforms.
o Successful end to end press conferences, PR and Social Media campaigns
o User generated content through contestants who pushed the competition on their respective Social Media platforms
o Re-enforcement of the Airtel TRACE Music Star as the biggest pan-African talent search competition
o Increased amount of buzz and excitement about the competition
o Increase in engagement and awareness of the Airtel TRACE brand
o The requirement for contestants to use the Airtel Sim card to calling and enter the competition created the opportunity for an expansion in the readily available Database with over 2.7 million New Users

The Mason Media team was awarded the SABRE Awards Africa 2017 Certificate of Excellence; a prestigious honour by the world’s largest PR awards programme, recognising superior achievement in branding and reputation in North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, South Asia and Africa – A well-deserved acknowledgement.