VALUE CREATION
OUR STRATEGY, PERFORMANCE AND IMPACT
Integrated Marketing Communications
The IMC process ensures consistent messaging and strategic alignment across all campaigns, integrates branding, outreach, and engagement to effectively achieve organisational goals effectively.
Strategies were applied to youth, SMP/SME, and business leader campaigns using central themes like ‘Difference Makers’ to maintain a cohesive narrative across initiatives.
A ticketing system streamlined workflows, while quarterly themes guided marketing plans, ensuring timely and effective execution of initiatives.
The IMC process strengthened SAICA’s brand equity, delivered engaging content, and ensured a consistent voice and visual identity across all communications.
Corporate Communications
The corporate communications strategy focuses on building trust, driving engagement, and amplifying the organisation’s voice among stakeholders. By shifting its emphasis from quantity to quality exposure, SAICA achieved significant media coverage, launched innovative public relations (PR) initiatives, and set industry benchmarks in bulk mailer effectiveness.
PR and Media
SAICA recorded 1 336 positive media exposures, exceeding the annual target of 800 to 1 000 positive exposures. Negative media coverage decreased significantly, dropping from 4,4% of total exposures in 2023 to 1,3% in 2024 – well below SAICA’s benchmark of less than 5%.
Media outreach was enhanced through innovative strategies, including dedicated radio segments on SAfm and live reads on Radio 702 strategically designed to promote the Finance Leaders Conference, scheduled two weeks before the event. A similar tailored approach was adopted for SAICA Awards Week, where specific media houses received personalised invitations and engagement opportunities. This proved successful, as demonstrated by the extensive media coverage of the award winners.
This new strategic direction has led to several impactful features and interviews with prominent figures, underscoring the effectiveness of a targeted and thoughtful PR approach.
Bulk Mails
SAICA bulk mailers were refined to reduce content fatigue and bounce rates. Members updated subscription preferences for streamlined, relevant communication, resulted in the following key outcomes:
- Read rates – An average newsletter read rate of 53% was achieved, above the average 49% in 2023. This is also significantly above the global benchmark read rate of 17%
- Engagement rates – Newsletters recorded a 6,0% engagement rate, compared to 2,1% in 2023, and the global average engagement rate of 2,5%, reflecting strong audience interest
Digital
From a digital perspective, the emphasis was on advancing SAICA’s digital strategy through focusing on innovation, improved accessibility, usability and creating a seamless user experience, as well as increasing engagement via enhanced social media platforms.
Website Revamp and UX/UI Enhancements
SAICA’s website underwent significant UX/UI upgrades, enhancing navigation and visual design.
These improvements earned a Bronze Award for ‘Best Corporate Website’ at the New Generation Awards, competing with major global brands.
The enhancements also increased the PHI satisfaction rating from 61,08% in 2023 to 63,02% in 2024.
Digital Campaign Performance
Social media campaigns, particularly on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, drove significant engagement:
A combined cumulative growth of 12.68% (FY23: 14.78%) was achieved across all five SAICA social media channels. The slight decrease, compared to the previous year is not indicative of a true decline, as the higher growth in FY23 was skewed by the launch of SAICA’s Instagram account, which significantly boosted engagement during its introduction. This sustained growth is largely driven by robust monthly content plans, underpinned by a clear strategy, as well as enhancements in content and look and feel.
Platform
DEC 2023
DEC 2024
% Growth
SAICA Twitter
40 644
41 536
(2,16%)
SAICA LinkedIn
105 829
116 838
(9,77%)
SAICA Facebook
58 933
59 480
(0,92%)
SAICA Instagram
16 013
18 777
(15,61%)
SAICA YouTube
8 813
10 369
(15,94%)
Youth Hub Microsite
Underpinned by an intentional, integrated youth strategy, SAICA launched the ‘SAICA Youth Hub,’ which is a centralised digital platform and destination point for younger audiences. The microsite became the best-performing page on SAICA’s ASA website, attracting over 360 000 visits. It was strategically promoted across YouTube, Meta, TikTok, and X, driving significant traffic and engagement.
Digital Advertising and Campaigns
To increase digital reach, an integral part of the digital strategy boosted ads across relevant digital sites to promote various campaigns.
Launched in September 2024, SAICA EDGE offers members curated insights and resources for professional growth. By consolidating monthly webcasts, it provides streamlined access to expert content on compliance, ethics, technology, and tax. Designed to simplify information overload, EDGE delivers actionable insights, supports CPD requirements, strengthens member engagement, and reinforces SAICA’s leadership in professional development.
Publishing
SAICA’s publishing efforts, led by Accountancy SA magazine, continue to spotlight the achievements, insights, and leadership of its members. The magazine published member profiles across 11 issues in 2024 showcasing diverse talent and achievements within the SAICA community. With a certified readership of 66 287 per issue, the magazine remains a trusted resource for accountancy professionals.
The magazine featured in-depth content on topics like youth empowerment, professional ethics, and leadership while amplifying key initiatives such as SAICA EDGE and student leadership events to align with organisational goals.
With the evolving accountancy profession and SAICA’s corporate strategy, now is the ideal time to refresh Accountancy SA magazine to align with these dynamic changes. The profession’s increasing multifaceted nature calls for a publication that reflects and supports this evolution.
In 2024, we began re-evaluating the magazine’s strategy to amplify engagement and impact. The refreshed publication, launching in Q2 2025, will offer a more dynamic and relevant platform for readers.
To address member feedback on mailing volumes, the distribution process has been streamlined, ensuring accessibility and relevance while maintaining strong engagement rates.
SAICA Integrated Report
SAICA successfully published its 2023 integrated and annual financial statement reports ahead of the Annual General Meeting held on 29 May 2024.
The theme for the 2023 report was ‘Leading Globally and Shaping a Sustainable Tomorrow as Trustworthy Difference Makers’.
The digitised version of the SAICA integrated report garnered 21 449 unique visits (user counted only once). In addition, the report recorded close on 1.4 million hits, highlighting substantial growth in user interaction with its content. The most frequently visited sections reflected users’ interests in critical topics such as socio-economic challenges, climate action, corporate governance, disciplinary matters, strategy performance and business model value creation aligned to the six capitals.
