Like the youth, we question everything to ensure that we move the needle. This year, we launched a new brand mission that focuses on the empowerment of our youth with the sole goal of entertaining, empowering and engaging.
For our users, having access to quality content and a brand that represents oneself is reinforcing a sense of identity and self-esteem, which are the foundation of self-awareness and self-realisation. This is empowerment.
Under the new brand mission, we challenged ourselves to build an ecosystem that empowers youth in everything that we do. Through core values of authenticity, innovation, diversity and of course empowerment, we have been able to provide a voice for youth not only in South Africa but around the globe through employment opportunities, content, music and film.
We created the Amapiano Superstar Competition at a time when the sub-genre was in its infancy and facing ridicule and backlash from traditionalists. We did the same with the Trace Gospel Competition, where we sought to redefine the sound and look of gospel music by injecting the genre with a young face and voice.
In film, we partnered with the Gauteng Film Commission to create the Trace x GFC Filmmaker competition, an opportunity for young creative filmmakers to win funding towards their documentary of choice that would educate and inspire. We also launched Your Voice, a new social TV show, that gives youth a mic to express themselves and see themselves on Trace TV channels.
We are also currently working with several governments, academic institutions, businesses and celebrities to create the Trace Academia platform. Through the platform we aim to help educate and entertain at the same time, Africa’s missing middle, those who cannot afford to go further than grade 10 due to socio-economic challenges.
Trace will continue providing the best Afro-urban music and entertainment but we will do it differently. We will embed our empowerment purpose in our existing media and activities and we will launch empowerment platforms and programmes, using the power of afro urban entertainment, to provide engaging vocational training, entrepreneurship, soft skills and wellbeing tools so that all our people can get real jobs and have a better life.
