For more than a decade, Media24 has used live events to connect with its audience. During this week’s Webinar, Francois Malan, head of events for the South African media company, shared how its approach brings its editorial brands to life in the real world — and how it has helped the company retain advertising revenue.

Its newest entry into the space of real-world connection is Saturday Night Fitness, a women’s wellness event that brought together the company’s women-centric titles — Drum, Huisgenoot, Sarie, Truelove, You, and Fairlady — as well as its News24 Lifestyle digital portal.  

“We created Saturday Night Fitness as a mass participation fitness and wellness party,” Malan explained. “It brings together people of all shapes and sizes of fitness levels to sweat, network, and de-stress across multiple fitness disciplines.”

The 2025 live event, themed “The Strong Edition,” drew just under 2,000 women together to participate in person. Saturday Night Fitness offered six back-to-back fitness sessions led by professional celebrity instructors. A professional DJ curated the music, and the session options included something for every fitness preference, with sunset yoga, high-intensity interval training, Zumba, and Pilates.

“The idea is for guests to experience a range of different disciplines and classes,” Malan said, “and the arc of the evening is designed to flow from mindfulness to full body workouts ending with a relaxing cool-down session.”

An advertising alternative

This approach provided Media24 with a way to retain advertising revenue for clients who don’t necessarily want to be in print but still want to reach a specific audience.

“Traditional media revenue, as we all know, is under pressure. Audiences are fragmented, and attention span is short,” he said. But the live event offers something of extreme value: trust, audience insights, and a community united around a shared identity.

“Live events create first-party audience relationships, high emotional engagement, premium sponsor environments, and multi-platform storytelling,” Malan explained. “With Saturday Night Fitness, we built a large-scale wellness event that strengthened our editorial brands, fostered meaningful community connections, delivered measurable value to sponsors, and became commercially scalable year after year.”

The event operates on a dual revenue model with two core streams. Audience ticket sales comprise 30% of total revenue, whilst sponsor revenue accounts for 70%.

Advertisers are offered sponsorship opportunities across different categories, which include category exclusivity for headline and second-tier sponsors. This has proven popular with clients in such categories as activewear, wellness, beauty and skincare, consumer goods, nutrition and hydration, lifestyle products, and automotive.

“Partnership value is created by integrating clients into every phase of marketing across multiple channels, including print, digital, social media, and, of course, experiential,” he said.

“Depending on the tier, each client owns a percentage of marketing real estate and physical presence at the event.”

Most of the partners amplify their reach by bringing their own social media teams to the event and inviting brand influencers to create on-site content for their own brand channels:

“Through the Saturday Night Fitness Partnership, we provide a cost-effective in-situ opportunity for brands to produce their own content. UGC or user-generated content also plays a significant role in brand value, making social media-driven competitions particularly popular among partners. We actively reshare UGC and tag clients in posts to amplify their reach.”

Malan said that Media24 shifts “from sponsorships to partnerships” by integrating clients into the event. That, he said, builds “trust by association” as participants associate a sponsor or partner with a positive emotional moment.

“This could be as simple as a recovery station after an intense session, a hydration touchpoint at just the right moment, or a self-affirmation wall where guests are encouraged to write positive phrases and motivational quotes,” Malan explained.

In such instances, the brand instantly becomes associated with something uplifting and meaningful, and its earned media value is amplified.

“We see clients returning year after year, increasing their spend as they recognise the value of engaging with this highly involved audience.”

Reducing friction

From a sales perspective, Media24 has found live events to be pivotal: “It takes just one event to prove to clients that the promised value is delivered. We are already seeing clients not only returning, but returning at higher partnership tiers.”

The revenue and growth numbers speak loudly: In 2025, live events generated total revenue of 1.6 million South African rand (approximately US$88,000) — a 7% year-on-year growth. Profit increased to 370,000 rand (US$20,350), or a 23% profit margin.

“For most of our projects, we usually aim for a 25 and 30% profit margin,” Malan noted.

The 2025 event increased to 1,980 attendees, 39% higher than the year before, and attracted 14 sponsors, representing 75% year-on-year growth. The company has introduced a new theme for 2026 and will assign brands to specific zones and provide guidance on activation activities to ensure maximum engagement.

“We’ll also double down on strategic content creation, not only to grow Saturday Night Fitness, the brand, but also to enhance the overall ROI for all partners involved,” he said.

What publishers need to know

Malan offered several key points for publishers to consider, and emphasised that today’s sponsors want “access, not just logos.” Knowing your audience and sharing those insights with clients will help make their experience more successful, which is key to an ongoing relationship.

“Sponsors are no longer cash points or ATMs. The future lies in partnerships, shared value, and co-created moments,” he said. “Content is part of your production budget. Design, storytelling, and content aren’t extras; they are the event.”

He cited numbers from Allied Market Research indicating that the global events industry will reach US$2.5 trillion by 2035.

“To put that into perspective, the entire global advertising industry — every billboard, Google ad, news, TV spot, and influencer deal on the planet is forecast to be worth around US$1 trillion by then. Budgets are shifting, moving away from print and digital advertising into events.”

As AI becomes louder and more prevalent, the real value lies in the real world, where in-person experiences and connections cannot be faked.

“Brands are willing to pay a premium for these physical presences,” he said. “The real-life era is here, and it’s here to stay.”

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