Project Rhino were once again co-located with Rexx Screen & Digital Supplies’ stand at the FESPA Africa and Sign Africa Expo, which ran from 13-15 September at Gallagher Convention Centre. Project Rhino sold over R11,000 worth of merchandise, and had a professional photographer offer his services to take photos of their projects to improve their marketing.
A digital branding company, which Project Rhino met at the show, also gave the NGO the opportunity to advertise their cause on digital marketing billboards throughout the country for free.
Project Rhino was launched on World Rhino Day, 22 September 2011. It is a rhino-focused association that brings together a provincial government conservation body, private and community-owned reserves, rhino owners, leading conservation NGOs and anti-poaching security specialists in the common aim of fighting wildlife crime.
Project Rhino’s Carlien Roodt said, ‘We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Rexx Screen & Digital Supplies team. Our relationship started a couple of years ago and since then, they have taken Project Rhino under their wing completely. They have welcomed us as part of their team and shared their incredible energy, out-of-the-box thinking, and support beyond the norm. We feel so lucky to be their NGO of choice to support.’
‘The Rexx team have opened a whole new world for us – a completely new stream of revenue that we would never have had and would never have been able to afford. We started off by joining them at the Sign Africa Expo in Johannesburg initially, once a year. They demonstrate their printing machines at these shows and instead of printing random images, they got their team to create the most incredible rhino designs, so when they did their demonstrations, they printed rhinos onto T-shirts and gave Project Rhino the opportunity to sell these shirts to support us to raise funds for our projects.’
‘The T-shirts are happy, colourful, beautiful, funky and everyone that sees them compliments them. We hosted a ‘Run for Ranger’ fundraiser recently and we very seldom give T-shirts away, but each runner got a beautiful and bright Project Rhino T-shirt in their goodie bag and it was the biggest hit.’
At the beginning of 2022, the Rexx team empowered Project Rhino with its very own pop-up business by donating a brand new heat press, giving them the opportunity to host a stand at markets, schools or other events, and print T-shirts for the public on-demand, giving the NGO an opportunity to raise the much needed funds to keep their conservation projects running.
At the recent FESPA Africa and Sign Africa Johannesburg Expo in September, Rexx supported Project Rhino to increase its selection of merchandise to reach a much broader audience, including everything from water bottles, cooler boxes, camping coffee cups, rulers, lunch boxes and diaries.
The Rexx team not only enabled Project Rhino to be present at the Sign Africa Expo in September, but incorporated them as part of their stand at all other Sign Africa regional events in 2023, including Mbombela, Durban and Cape Town. They negotiated with FESPA Africa and Sign Africa Expo organisers, Dyelan Copeland and Charnia Yapp, on Project Rhino’s behalf to have them at the expo, free of charge.
‘Our journey is an emphasis of how much we can achieve with collaboration and support. With this, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Copeland and Yapp as well, who welcomed us to the shows with open arms,’ said Roodt. In addition to this support, Expo Guys, an exhibition and stand builder, sponsored Project Rhino’s shell scheme stand at the Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town events.
‘These shows are an unlikely place for a conservation NGO to be, but you will not believe the opportunity and contacts we have made since attending the shows – for that we will be forever grateful. It is so important that we create awareness and get the spotlight on the work we do, especially in places where we would never be able to do it by ourselves. Your willingness to allow us to participate at the Sign Africa Expos have had such a positive ripple effect, we are so grateful,’ added Roodt.
| LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR REXX SCREEN AND DIGITAL SUPPLIES Tel: +27 21 510 5665 / +27 10 597 3441 Email: mustapha@rexxscreendigital.co.za (Cape Town) / laetitia@rexxscreendigital.co.za (Johannesburg) Website: http://www.rexxscreendigital.co.za  |
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