Seorill / South Africa
Event marketing agency in South Africa for Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban events
South Africa has the most mature exhibition industry on the continent, with the deepest venue infrastructure and the most sophisticated buyers. It is also the most competitive. Organisers here need a partner who understands the local platform economics and can also market a show to the rest of Africa.
Venues
Venues we work around in South Africa
Every plan starts with the venue, because the venue decides the commuter routes for billboards, the geo-fence for retargeting and the crowd the onsite team will meet.
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
Conferences, summits and B2B exhibitions
Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand
Large trade exhibitions
Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec
Mining, industrial and consumer shows
Cape Town International Convention Centre
International conferences and exhibitions
Durban International Convention Centre
Association congresses and tourism events
Services
Event marketing services in South Africa
All twelve services are available in South Africa, run from inside the market and reported on registrations, leads and ticket sales. Each links to its full page.
Paid search
Google and Microsoft search campaigns built around what your buyers are already typing: show names, sector terms, venue names and 'exhibition in Lagos' style queries. Bid strategy is tuned to cost per registration and cost per exhibitor lead, not clicks.
Paid search in South AfricaPaid social
Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and YouTube campaigns with separate funnels for visitors, exhibitors, sponsors and delegates. Creative is cut per audience and refreshed weekly during the final push.
Paid social in South AfricaProgrammatic and display
Awareness and retargeting on premium local and pan-African publishers. Used where search volume is thin, which is most B2B categories on the continent.
Programmatic and display in South AfricaSocial media management
Year-round channel management for the show brand: content calendar, community replies, exhibitor spotlights, speaker announcements and countdown content.
Social media management in South AfricaOnsite social and live content
A floor team on show days producing reels, stand tours, speaker clips and live updates, published the same hour. Day one content is amplified with paid budget to lift day two and day three attendance.
Onsite social and live content in South AfricaCreator and influencer campaigns
Sector-relevant creators and trade voices booked through our sister brand Diglancers, briefed to drive registrations and exhibitor enquiries rather than vanity reach.
Creator and influencer campaigns in South AfricaOut-of-home and billboards
Static and digital billboards, airport, mall and roadside placements booked around the venue and along commuter routes, with QR codes and geo-retargeting so the spend can be tracked.
Out-of-home and billboards in South AfricaSearch optimisation and content
Show website SEO, structured data, sector content and AI search visibility so the event ranks for its own category all year, not just the month before doors open.
Search optimisation and content in South AfricaTracking and attribution
GA4, Meta Conversions API, server-side tagging, HubSpot and Salesforce integration, and registration platform tracking. Every registration is attributed to the channel that produced it.
Tracking and attribution in South AfricaEmail, CRM and WhatsApp
Nurture sequences for past visitors, exhibitor prospecting flows, and WhatsApp broadcast lists, which outperform email for reminders in most African markets.
Email, CRM and WhatsApp in South AfricaPost-show and rebooking
Highlight films, rebooking campaigns to exhibitors while intent is high, early bird pushes for the next edition, and a benchmarked performance report.
Post-show and rebooking in South AfricaDigital sponsorship products
We help you package your audience into sponsored content, retargeting inventory and email placements that exhibitors pay for. This turns marketing from a cost line into a revenue line.
Digital sponsorship products in South Africa
Channels
Channels that work for South African events
Where the audience for a show in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban actually is, and how we reach them.
Search
The highest search volume on the continent for exhibitions and conferences. Search takes a large share of registrations and is heavily competed.
Social
LinkedIn is the primary B2B channel. Meta for consumer shows, and YouTube for awareness and post-show video.
Programmatic
Premium local publishers and business media through programmatic buys give reach that social alone cannot.
Out-of-home
Sandton, the N1 and M1 corridors, OR Tambo and the Cape Town airport approach. Digital boards in Sandton and Rosebank reach the corporate audience.
Pan-African campaigns
Johannesburg shows draw from across the continent. We run country-split campaigns into Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and beyond from our teams in those markets.
Email and CRM
Mature databases and CRM adoption mean nurture and retargeting programmes do more of the work than in other markets.
Events
Events we market in South Africa
Sectors
Mining, manufacturing, energy, automotive, retail, financial services, tourism, healthcare, ICT and food and beverage.
Event types
Mining and industrial exhibitions, manufacturing and packaging shows, energy and utilities conferences, financial services summits, tourism and travel shows, food and retail expos, festivals and sports events.
Onsite in Johannesburg
A show-day content and live social team with local creators, publishing from the floor and amplified with paid budget to lift attendance on the following days.
Billing
Invoiced in rand or US dollars. Media is billed at cost with full platform access for the organiser.
Questions
Questions about event marketing in South Africa
Short answers. Ask us anything else on a call.
Why use an African agency rather than a UK or European one for a South African show?
Because the campaign into Nigeria, Kenya or Ghana will be run by people who live there, and because the local platform costs and audience behaviour in South Africa are different from Europe. You get one plan for the show and for its international visitor drive.
Do you work with the major international organisers in South Africa?
Our group already produces content and video for several of them in Africa. Seorill brings the paid media and search side.
Can you run campaigns in rand?
Yes. We can invoice in rand or US dollars.
Start here
Send us the show in South Africa.
Event, dates, targets and a budget if you have one. You get a one-page plan with scope, deliverables and a price within five working days.
Prefer email? hello@seorill.com