SA Youth attracts over half a billion people to his YouTube channel, driving tourism and giving our national parks an Edge. With You Tube already a partner on his channel and Facebook profiling him as a case study, the world is Nadav Ossendryver's oyster. The 22 year old is fast making tracks globally with Forbes listing him as one of the most influential people to look out for under 30.
Thanks to What’s On Your Plate, a new series that highlights young entrepreneurs, innovators and influencers who are shaping the future; more South Africans will get to hear about him.
On our second season of Bunnies in the Burbs: What’s On Your Plate; a JT Comms offering hosted by Wits student and youth entrepreneur Taynita Harilal, about sharing positive solutions of how a new generation of innovators are using technology and providing solutions to so many of the continents problems like job creation, nation building. 'We’re using our digitally enabled platforms to connect and amplify important, inspiring narratives that ordinary South Africans are creating to offer extraordinary solutions. Profiling Nadav in our Bunnies in the Burbs kitchen is an eye opener of how simple it can be sometimes to innovate without using any funds, working with what you have and building on one's passion. It's these kinds of stories that we believe can impact and influence how we use technology to create new futures." says Taynita Harilal.
Nadav Ossendryver has built one of the biggest YouTube followings in the country with his real-time wildlife-spotting service, Latest Sightings.
Latest sightings is a verifiable hit within the global wildlife and conservation community, with users not only being able to watch videos, but because of its crowd-sourcing model, can post their own encounters with nature and wildlife. Thousands of people around the world watch the live sightings and it's this kind of traction that Ossendryver's app is driving in profiling SA. His channel to date boasts more than half a billion views and has 537,969 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 30’s 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.
With Tourism Month in full swing, the South African National Park (SANParks) is once again opening its doors for free for South African National Parks Week from Monday, 18 September until Friday, 22 September.
The initiative is part of the annual South African National Parks Week. The campaign is held under the running theme ‘Know Your National Parks’ and allows locals, with valid identity documents, a chance to spend a day at a national park of their choice free of charge.
"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.za or 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.
South African National Parks
The inaugural South African National Parks Week took place in 2006 and was aimed at linking the South African national parks system to the global national movement and to also showcase the best of South Africa’s national parks. During the SANParks Week, members of the public are able to access most of the country's national parks for free. It is part of San Parks campaign to showcase the natural beauty of South Africa and its heritage. SANParks manages portfolio of 19 parks - a park for every region and one for every season. Table Mountain and Kruger National Park are international icons, but there other parks to experience and SanParks has tourism product development plans for adventure activities and other activities to attract visitors to Golden Gate National Park, which is accessible to the Gauteng market in particular.