Just for reference, I feel that it is necessary to re-iterate the mandate of the IMC which has provided the framework for the first three years of our existence.

The primary objective of the Trust is to develop and implement a pro-active and coordinated international marketing and communications strategy for South Africa. In order to achieve the primary objective the IMC must:

• Develop a South Africa brand identity that will advance South Africa’s objectives for investment, trade, tourism and international relations.
• Seek to build national support for the brand in South Africa.
• Seek the involvement and cooperation of various government departments, public entities, private sector and non governmental sector in achieving this objective.
• Seek to build awareness and image for the brand in other countries.

The brand identity has been completed, with the slogan, South Africa, Alive with Possibility, by conferring with over 25100 people from every sector of our society and key thought leaders externally. This project was completed in conjunction with Unilever.

The Tourism brand identity has been defined – with a slogan – "Its possible" outlining the many opportunities and possibilities that South Africa as a tourist destination can provide.

The DTI or Business brand identity is in final stages and the IMC is working with DTI to define a brand architecture so that we can minimise the fragmentation of budgets from provincial and national level, and can create a coherent and consistent brand when marketing SA as an investment destination.

In terms of seeking national support for the brand, the country has made substantial strides – aided by a successful election, the winning of the Soccer 2010 bid, the move of the African parliament to Midrand, good Olympic and Paralympic performance, a strong Rand and a general feeling of well being and celebration that has been promoted during this tenth year of democracy. We would like to believe that the IMC has been a catalyst for some of this positive emotion – we are increasingly being asked to speak at conferences on the positive aspects of the country. To date the CEO has spoken at nearly a hundred different venues to over 15 000 individuals.

The IMC has recently completed three important pieces of research: the Stakeholder Perception Survey, the National Mindsets Survey and the International Perceptions Survey.

Key findings in brief are as follows:

The recently conducted Stakeholder Perception research gave clear indication of what the IMC has done well over the past three years, and where there are still gaps and considerations as it moves into the future.

• Created useful collateral in the form of the SA Story
• Well functioning Communications Resource Centre
• Great domestic mobilisation
• Encouraged more positive stories in the media
• Conveyed SA success stories
• Raised level of awareness of Brand SA
• Created good TV ads

• Harness the influence of the private sector
• Promote the IMC and its work
• Integration of messages
• Coordination of messages amongst stakeholders
• Equip business with correct communications tools and collateral
• Move into strategic international markets
• Create a more dynamic relationship with the media

The National Perception Study will become the standard for how research is conducted in SA – here we have segmented the SA public into mindsets as we feel that from a communication perspective this is more important than demographics. There has been a distinct shift in the last 12 months – the "Brand Rejecters" have become the "New Believers", the "Influentials", 13%, fall across all race groups and want to be equipped with information that allows them to become involved in marketing the country. The "Economic Participants" are not particularly good social citizens but are involved in the economy. The "Solid Citizens" are positive but inactive, and the Enthusiasts, 36%, are positive and active. There is an overwhelmingly positive response to feeling proud to be South African. Then there are the "Foot Soldiers", who despite often dismal circumstances, still feel a sense of pride and hope (It is our supposition that the imbizos have made a dramatic impact on this sector) (A full copy of this research can be obtained form the IMC)

In the International Perception study we find a general feeling of goodwill towards the country despite sometimes patchy knowledge, but real guidance in terms of the information that is essential to encourage investment – a need for political stability, consistency in macro economic policy and information on how the challenges are being dealt with.

The International Roll out strategy has been approved and the first forays into this market have begun. We have launched a limited but high impact campaign on taxis in London, and a limited print camping in Fortune and The Economist. We will be testing these two campaigns in the coming months for relevance and awareness. The only thing constraining us from rolling this out on a larger scale is limited resources.

The SA Story has been a wonderful success and will be an ongoing part of the collateral that we provide to arm business people and interested parties with facts and figures aimed at changing perceptions about our country. We are working on the second version and are also fulfilling a request to translate into six other languages for use in the foreign embassies.

IN June of this year the Chair of the IMC led a top level delegation of 40 South African business people to the US where we ran investment conferences in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. June 14^th was declared South Africa Day at the new your Stock Exchange – a rare privilege only previously granted to two other countries. It was a source of enormous pride that we saw the South African flag flying outside that impressive building, and the screens filled with our "Alive With Possibility" logo. We met with the lead editors of Forbes magazine, with Oprah Winfrey, the mayor of Atlanta and many thought leaders. We generated excellent global coverage on CNN and CNBC, and fulfilled our objectives of showcasing the depth of business talent that abounds in this country.

The Board met last week to start defining the way forward for the next three years. To build on the foundations that have been established and to focus on mass acceptance and usage of Brand South Africa in all communications emanating from this country we will be focusing on integration in the key target markets, business, Parastatals, Government, the media and civil society. In short our task is to build stakeholder relations and ensure consistency in message. We envisage moving forward with Channel managers to focus on key target areas, spreading the franchise of the brand positioning.

The appointment of a CFO has helped us achieve an unqualified audit in our first year of independent operation. Our policies and procedures have been drafted, approved and implemented.

The annual report will reflect that the funds received from GCIS in year 03/04, amounted to R62,7 million. Additional funding from rolled over funds of R2,2 million increased our budget to R64,9 million, split as follows:

This year 04/05, we will have invested 25% of our advertising budget in the international market; this percentage is set to grow over the next five years so that we really do become the International Marketing Council of South Africa.

However, we still believe that a fundamental part of our success is to motivate South Africans to play a role in this effort, to acknowledge the successes of the country and to ardently promote them. We believe that it is very much part of our mandate to encourage vociferous national pride and so the domestic mobilisation will always be an important part of what we do. This sector of our business is slowly built through our brand ambassador programme which engages South Africans one on one and encourages them to become Brand Champions. The programme questions the "What’s In It for me?" in terms of national pride, why should I promote my country? What role can I play?

We started this programme in the tourism industry and have now interfaced with about 2500 people, including the entire City Group of hotels. We have also taken the Government Communicators who are on the Unilever Communicators Course at Wits Business School through this programme.

In addition the marketing and business community are providing recognition for our work – the IMC won the "Pay off line" award from the Financial Mail for "South Africa, Alive With Possibility", we won a silver Loerie for our "Today I woke Up" ad, and we increasingly hear business people talking about, and demonstrating a country that is Alive With Possibility.

Another challenge for us is to create public private partnerships – difficult in some ways as companies are loathe just to donate money to Brand South Africa. However, we have created an innovation whereby the IMC tells the stories that are creating a better nation, the Corporate Social Responsibility and PR stories, paid for by the Corporate company. In this way we can all achieve our marketing objectives, and create lasting partnerships.

Currently we are undergoing a tender process for 7 categories of suppliers and we will be looking for committed partners who can deliver in a focused and cost efficient fashion on the mighty goals that we have set ourselves.

The annual report will be on your desks in two weeks time – we believe it will be an excellent marketing tool of the International Marketing Council – and will reflect the many programmes that we have embarked on in the last year.

Our staff now number 24, 63% of which are women, 83% are PDI.

I work with a very small, hard working team at the IMC, but we are honoured and privileged to perform this task.