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Mini says stick with one partner on World AIDS Day
•This great ad was created for Mini by Black River FC for World AIDS Day. The message - stick with one partner!
Creative Director: Ahmed Tilly
Art Director: Sifiso Tshabalala
Copywriter: Sindiwe Mbiko
Client Service: Maxine Merckel
TV Producer: Alison Pope
Luv Jozi - made in Joburg, China! (No really)
One CommentDesigner Bradley Kirshenbaum of Love Jozi T-shirt fame has come up with a unique viral campaign over the course of the last two years that has been running under the nose of marketers and consumers alike without anybody realising it. In short - he faked his own brand.
Bradley created a fake, much cheaper brand called ‘Luv Jozi’ on nasty t-shirts to make people think someone was copying his exclusive and sought after Love Jozi range with cheap Chinese imports. There was a fake, misspelled, logo and a fake website (with photography that seemed to be shot in China but really shot in Cyrildene) and Facebook page. The t-shirts were selling at robots, flea markets and city vendors as well as Chinese owned clothing shops downtown. A couple of blogs picked up on the story not realising the real brand was behind the fake one all along.
“We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when we spotted these “Fongkongs” or rip-offs of local design label Love Jozi being sold blatantly in the streets of Johannesburg at a third of the price of the original,” wrote Represent, a local lifestyle blog.
“One of our very well known local suppliers Love Jozi has found itself in the grip of these criminal elements of late and have had their very slick urban wear ripped by a group called Luv Jozi who go around selling garments that are obviously stolen from our beloved Love Jozi,” wrote local fashion blog eSquared. “The fact
that these guys even have a website with Made in China all over it really pisses me off, did they think they could get away with this so easily?”
“We did it to draw attention to the original brand, Love Jozi, and to emphasise the quality of production and design of the real brand,” says Bradley. “Also to comment on the Department of Trade & Industry’s regulations at the time on retailers bringing in imported goods vs. goods made in SA.”
It was also part of a larger, long term, marketing campaign for a new range of cheaper and more accessible Love Jozi products. The graphics on these will remain Love Jozi classics such as the Jozi skyline, barbed wire writing and barcode, and is made with the same quality fabric as the original T-shirts, but the cut is a lot more basic and not as fashion forward as the mother brand.
It’s hard not to panic…
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Finally SA’s big financial institutions are waking up to the fact that South Africans are also being impacted upon by the global financial crisis. This ad from Sanlam reads: “It’s hard not to panic.
Every inch of your body is in hyperdrive. Your heart pounds. Your chest hurts. You look for danger in every direction. You run. When excitement hits the markets, it’s exactly the same. But we keep our cool.”
The ad was created by The Jputer Drawing Room.
Livio Tronchin - Creative Director
Kim McDonald - Art Director
Nick Gordon - Copy Writer
Lunch Bag Art
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These lunch bag designs are fast becoming something of a web sensation. Each day this dad creates a new lunch bag design for his kids. He also posts his designs on his blog which was recently featured in USA Today as well as on a number of design blogs. Sometimes its the simple things that speak to people…
End of the road for GMs Pontiac, Saab, Hummer & Saturn?
One CommentThe Detroit Free Press is reporting that GM is considering shedding up to four brands as it prepares a plan for the US Congress on how it will apply money from a potential government bail-out to stave off bankruptcy.
“In his last visit to Capitol Hill, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner’s explanation of how the company would use the government loan took one page of an 11-page presentation, with seven bullet points offering no specific numbers,” reports the Free Press. “GM’s new presentation on how it will use up to $12 billion of the $25-billion pool could run close to 100 pages for lawmakers, with a shorter summary for public viewing.”
GM is reportedly considering shedding its Pontiac, Saab, Hummer & Saturn brands. The shuttering in 2001 of the Oldsmobile brand reportedly cost GM $2 billion.
Constructing a magazine cover
One Comment
Disturbance Studio has designed a new cover concept for Enjin magazine. “The idea is that each cover will be shot in situ, shouts and all,” according to Richard Hart. “The first one we did was the launch of the masthead which we’d just redesigned so we shot a bunch of designers playing around with masthead options to see which would work best.”
AAA School of Advertisings’ annual student showcase
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The AAA School of Advertising is currently holding its annual student showcase. This is an opportunity for anyone interested in the ad industry to come and get catch glimpse of what it’s all about. It is also an opportunity for the industry players to familiarise themselves with the talent pool with a view to snapping them up at the end of their formal education.
Mark liked the The Love Life campaign by Stephanie Mazingi and Andisile Bam. The copy reads Tight fit? 9 Months will do that to you.
Visit: www.aaaschool.co.za for more information
God is pro-sex
•How to fill a church to capacity and become a media sensation overnight;
Ed Young, a pastor from Texas, last week dropped in on South Africa to promote his “Seven Days of Sex” sermon. Basically he challenged members of his congragation to have sex with their partners every day for seven day and promising them they would be members of the happiest church in the world by the end of that week. His pitch - God is pro-sex. It sells!
Major music label announces digital revenue exceeds CD sales
•The label of music stars like Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin have announced that revenue from digital music downloads has surpassed that of CD sales. It currently stands at 51% of turnover, according to the New York Times. Atlantic parent label Warner Music Group says about 27% of its American groups revenue was generated through digital channels in Q4 of this year. The NY Times notes that music sales are in decline, down to $10.1 billion this year from $14.6 billion in 1999, and is expected to fall to $9.2 billion in 2013. Studios are changing their business models to counter this decline and have expanded into ticket sales for concerts and band merchandise. Atlantic Records’ digital revenue was generated through ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio, iTunes sales and subscription services.
New network links up top creative and business change blogs
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Mark is very excited to be part of the newly launched Create Again Blog Network (CAB for short). The aim of the network is to link together quality content blogs covering design, advertising, social media and business change Africa-wide. You will be able to take the CAB from one great site to another! At the moment all the founding members are South Africa based but this is bound to change in the future as the network grows to include more sites.
The founding members are;
AntiLogic
This is a superb design blog worth visiting daily for its Design of the Day feature. It’s managed by graphic designer Andre van Schalkwyk.
Artificial Intelligence
Mandy de Waal is a well known social media commentator, blogger and journalist. Her blog highlights media, Web 2.0 and marketing personalities.
Between10and5.com
A design inspired blog that is currently making a huge splash in the creative community. 10and5.com posts portfolios of great work by SA’s top agencies and graphic designers.
BizCommunity Blog
The BizCommunity.com blog breaks media and digital industry news and is the blog for Africa’s largest media and marketing industry news site.
CherryFlava
CherryFlava is the only South African blog on the AdAge Power 150. Enough said.
HeavyChef Project
The Heavy Chef Project is a great blog about digital marketing, design and programming.
MarkLives.com
The blog you are busy reading. We must do something right!
MatthewBuckland.com
Matthew is one of South Africa’s most sought after internet experts. He also runs blog aggregator Amatomu.com and is currently GM for 24.com’s social media efforts.
Corne and Twakkie works for youth radio campaign
•Click here for audio
BBDO Cape Town has teamed up with Corne and Twakkie for their new CityVarsity radio campaign currently running on 5FM. Using the altogether unique humour of Corne and Twakkie, BBDO Cape Town connects with the young student market to help drive CityVarsity’s 2009 recruitment campaign. The campaign was devised by BBDO Cape Town creatives Mike Pearson and Ryan Barkhuizen. Since the campaign broke in October, CityVarsity’s website hits have risen dramatically - year on year the October figures have risen from 2500 hits to over 6000 visitors to the site for the month.
Lead with care
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Can an elaborate employment branding strategy be successful if managers suck? Probably not, which is why leadership is closely linked to successful employment branding and employee relationships. The implications for any business are potentially far-reaching.
Talent, says HR Future Publisher Alan Hosking, resides in the top 20% of a company’s employees who, by their skills, knowledge, experience and attitude, generate 80% of the company’s revenue.
“They want to work in companies that enjoy good standing in the community, in the marketplace and in the eyes of its employees, so that they can talk about their employer with pride,” says Hosking. “Consequently, they are not attracted to companies which do not have a strong employer brand.”
While South African business are slowly waking up and implementing employment branding strategies, these are still centred on how managers view the business (and their own management skills) rather than how current and future employees view it. The first step towards effective employee branding seems to be assessing the people management skills of management.
Hosking agrees, saying there’s no way incompetent management can create a reputable employer brand. “Essentially, while management creates the strategy to strengthen the employer brand, its success is in the eye of the employee. The employer brand has to be seen to be good by the employees, not the employers,” says Hosking. “Unfortunately, incompetent employers believe their own lies. The employees have a better chance of seeing the true state of things.”
Sadly, the human resources function in many companies today seems to have very little to do with building people up and a lot to do with controlling them. Etsko Schuitema, author of Leadership – The Care and Growth Model, suggests the mechanical metaphors we use to describe business (’If all parts of the system work, then the machine makes money’) make us overlook the fact that people are more than just parts of the system.
“We can nurse a mechanistic view of an organisation as much as we like,” writes Schuitema. “The simple fact of the matter is that if the people are not committed to the business, and therefore willing to go the extra mile, we do not have a sustainable enterprise.”
Some companies are getting it right. Hosking says Investec has such a good employer brand that they don’t have to advertise positions – they have quality candidates approaching them for work and they can afford to pick the best. Mark Gray, of marketing and human resources firm Graylink, also points to Outsurance and RMB as positive examples. “They’ve successfully integrated their corporate and employer branding efforts, linking their people directly to the success of their businesses and saying to the market ‘we respect those that work for us’,” says Gray.
What are people looking for in a company when they seek a new employer? Gray believes needs change from audience to audience. Often age (and generation) has a large part to play. “When you’re just out of college looking for your first job, things like travel and experience are top of your agenda,” says Gray. “For those with families and a large mortgage, security might be of greater importance. The trick for any employer is to map what attractive things (value propositions) they can authentically offer with those things the target audience actually values/ wants/ needs.”
Leadership, or the lack thereof, helps define every aspect of a business. Schuitema argues for the importance of leadership in empowering employees through genuine care (about them, not just the stock price) and the creation of growth opportunities and empowerment (less control, not more).
Companies that understand that employees are not simply a cost but a credit to the business are better positioned to release the full value their people bring. This ultimately is what makes or break an employment brand and a business.
– Herman Manson is the editor of Mark and marklives.com This story first ran in Mark magazine Volume 1 Issue 1.
EXTRA:
For more information on how other companies are finding a path to meaning, purpose and self-motivation, contact Johan of Facilitating Hope at http://www.facilitatinghope.co.za
It’s a great day
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AMiCollective remains one of the hottest creative shops around. Posting this image because it’s Friday. For the full portfolio mouse over to 10and5.com - it’s a great new creative website showcasing South African talent.
If the office printer/copier actually ever worked…
•This ad by Egg Films for Samsung suggests your staff will need to take out their frustrations on something else if you buy a Samsung printer!
Director: Jason Fialkov
Agency: Cheil South Africa
Advertising is like bad breath…
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Advertising journalist Tony Koenderman just released the world’s biggest collection of quotations about advertising, published in book form, comprising 1 618 quotations from critical or admiring opinion leaders, humourists and some of the industry giants. It is titled Smoke and Mirrors: advertising in a nutshell and published by Jonathan Ball Publishers. We asked Tony for his ten favourite quotes about advertising.
Advertising is like bad breath. It is not very pleasant, but it’s a lot better than not breathing at all. ANON.
In the ad game, the days are tough, the nights are long, and the work is emotionally demanding. But it’s worth it, because the rewards are shallow, transparent and meaningless. ANON.
Corporate advertising is like urinating down your leg in the middle of a dark forest at midnight. You might get a warm feeling out of it, but nobody else notices. ANON.
In the ad biz, sincerity is a commodity bought and paid for like anything else. NEWSWEEK (1967).
The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,
The homely hen lays one.
The codfish never cackles
To tell you what she’s done–
And so we scorn the codfish
While the humble hen we prize.
It only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise. ANON.
Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. JERRY DELLA FEMINA, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor (1971).
We want customers to say, “That’s a hell of a product” instead of “That’s a hell of an ad.” LEO BURNETT,
Advertising isn’t a science, it’s persuasion. And persuasion is an art. BILL BERNBACH,
“It may be December outside, ladies, but it is always August under your armpits.” (Sponsor’s slogan heard during a Toscanini radio concert in New York). EVENING STANDARD, quoted in News Review (13 Nov 1947).
Freedom! To spit in the eye and in the soul of the passerby and the passenger with advertising. ALEXANDER I. SOLZHENITSYN.
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