From hospitality to media

Michelline Nawatises





Jacqueline Lohmann was born and educated in England. Her father was posted by the British Overseas Development to various Commonwealth countries in Africa so she went to boarding school in England. After England, Lohmann went to Cape Town Hotel School.

“I was there for three years and received a Diploma in Hospitality & Hotel Management (DHRM). This also involved two practical stints of 6 months each at two five-star establishments (The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay and The Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel),” she says.

She then did a further year as a student with the Orient Express Management Programme. The year-long training programme allowed her to explore all departments in the hotel, with a focus on supervisory functional duties and responsibilities, as well as leadership and people management.

Lohmann fell into radio, by happening to be in Windhoek on holiday when the newsreader at Radiowave was on leave. “I stood in for two weeks and have consequently settled here, had a family and spent the past 20 years at Future Media,” she says. “I have had the fortune of being involved in various sectors of the company, so there has rarely been a dull moment.”

Having studied hotel management, she was always inclined to work with people. “I started in sales and as Radiowave started growing, I managed our sales team and was instrumental in getting our marketing platform off the ground,” she says. Radiowave has been synonymous with partnering with various major events over the years. Lohmann was also involved in assisting with handling the company’s payroll and company banking. This led to her doing a UCT online HR course.

She is an international sales manager at Radiowave. This requires her to deal with both local and international advertising agencies, as well as FMCGs and to build these relationships and source new business opportunities.

“By, building these relationships, I ideally hope to try and attract, educate and in turn persuade, International clients and FMCGs to buy from our portfolio of stations,” she adds.

She works with these agencies and tries to understand the target audiences of the brands they represent and the challenges the brands face. “From there, I try and assist them in getting their campaigns onto our airwaves. By identifying and pursuing these business opportunities, I hope to then achieve sales targets,” she says.

Biggest achievement

Lohmann was assigned the task of project management as their stations merged. New studios were sourced. The objective was to move three stations from one building and the fourth station from another building. There were many components involved including liaison between the architect, builder, contractors and landlord. At the same time, she was instrumental in organising the HR side of the new company.

For the love of the job

The multitalented Lohmann says assisting with solving agency client challenges and ensuring products and services are advertised on the right radio station for their target market and helping to increase return on investment in the long run, is hugely challenging.

Lohmann did a public relations online course through UCT a couple of years ago. “I hope as Future Media grows to incorporate a PR element into the stations,” she adds.

As much as PR and marketing share similar goals as far as creating unique brand identity and boosting awareness, they do have different executions and strategies. However, with her background, skills and interests in sales and marketing, she would like to be instrumental in combining these two practices.

She says she could then tie in her PR learnings and ensure the Future Media group have a powerful marketing advantage, which they can apply to campaigns, content, events, sponsorships and social responsibility initiatives going forward.

“I feel that this would assist us with achieving further organisational success and in turn would personally give me a deep sense of satisfaction,” she concludes.