What’s On Your Plate highlights young entrepreneurs, innovators and influencers who are shaping the future.
On our second season of Bunnies in the Burbs, What’s On Your Plate; a JT Comms offering hosted by Taynita Harilal, we profile a series of youth entrepreneurs, examining initiatives that have worked in youth employment and entrepreneurship; and hope to share lessons that can be adapted and adopted by entrepreneurs and the world at large.
"We have created this platform so as to commend SA's future leaders. Creating a platform for the youth to expand on their ideas that shape and transform South Africa's problems into solutions' explains JT Comms Marketing Manager Isabel Tapfumaneyi.
One of our feature guests profiled was Nadav Ossendryver, who has built one of the biggest YouTube followings in the country with his real-time wildlife-spotting service, Latest Sightings.
The 21-year-old's channel is a verifiable hit within the global wildlife and conservation community, with users not only able to watch videos, but because of its crowd-sourcing model, can post their own encounters with nature and wildlife.
His channel today boasts more than 500 million views and over 500 000 subscribers.
The Latest Sightings App was named one of the Top 5 Most Innovative Apps for Culture and Tourism in the world at the World Summit Award (WSA) Innovation Congress, and Ossendryver was named one of Africa's Most Promising Entrepreneurs on the Forbes list for Under 30s for 2016.
Ossendryver's obsession with wildlife began when he was just eight-years-old, however it was only in 2011, when was 15, that he launched his first wildlife-spotting YouTube channel, Kruger Sightings, after a family holiday to the Kruger National Park. The channel was an instant success.
"It was one of those small YouTube channels and my first video ever, actually went viral," Ossendryver says.
This was despite some misgivings from the wildlife community about the possible interference of social media.
"At the time, that was the only way to get the community going. I couldn't think of any other way and I wanted people to know about this so they could share their sights, and because it's online, it's instant. In the past a lion could be a kilometer from you and you would have no way of knowing it."
Ossendryver, who is currently studying for a B-Com degree part-time, has taken his influence beyond YouTube.
He has capitalised on the channel's success, launching a website and app, and together with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, updates wildlife enthusiasts on where interesting animals and birds can be spotted. The service also provides Kruger National Park accommodation recommendations and specials.
"Only when I finished Matric, had I realised that this community is so big and I decided let's try and monetise it so I could do something I love forever and I could make a living off it. So the monetisation kind of started in the past two years and YouTube and the media around it is a big part of it."
Ossendryver has also partnered with Tendopro, an online education platform to provide wildlife courses to students, particularly those in rural and poverty-stricken areas.
For media queries, media accreditation, interview requests and to access high resolution pictures contact JT Comms on info@jtcomms.co.zaor 011 788 7632
About JT Communication Solutions
JT Communication Solutions “JT Comms” is a dynamic 21st century PR, Media, Communication and Marketing agency rooted in Africa, with a global reach. The agency is strategically positioned as a technology aggregator using digital to scale clients’ businesses linking them to a global audience through creation of engaging content distributed beyond the continent onto a global stage. Through its investment in technological operations, the agency has successfully launched a 360-degree turnkey digital solution hub for existing and potential clients. The agency is also home to Bunnies in the Burbs, #ECAfrica-Amplifying African excellence and architects of the #ECAfrica hashtag.
Bunnies in the Burbs is a JT Comms initiative that launched in August 2016 and is a digital media cooking show about culture, cuisine and conversations and advancing positive African narratives. The show has a favourable footprint with viewership spanning beyond South Africa and the continent at large, being viewed and engaging audiences in countries such as United States of America, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Niger, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago ,Mexico, Thailand, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Congo to mention a few. #WhatsOnYourPlate is the title of the second season of Bunnies in the Burbs where Youth Entrepreneurs are invited to cook a meal while sharing their entrepreneurial journeys.
Taynita Harilal (host) is no stranger to the hustle and opportunities of entrepreneurship. The 19 year old from Johannesburg first received media attention when she raised in excess of R150k for a tombstone for the late South African singing legend, Dolly Rathebe, garnering her place among the Lead SA Young Heroes in 2015, Yo TV's Achiever of the year amongst other accolades. She was born and bred in an entrepreneurial household and is making constructive use of the firsthand experience that this ongoing opportunity has provided by launching her own online television cooking show #BunniesintheBurbs #OurFamilyKitchen a JT Comms production.
