Monthly archives: January 2013

EXCLUSIVE: Rob McLennan and Graeme Jenner leaving Net#work BBDO

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Net#work BBDO is losing both its Executive Creative Director Rob McLennan and Deputy Executive Creative Director Graeme Jenner.

Mike Schalit, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Net#work BBDO South Africa, confirmed that their resignations have been received by the agency. According to Schalit the creative partners are leaving to set up a new hot shop. They will remain with the agency for several months to ensure a smooth transition.

Schalit says Net#work BBDO has always spawned creative break-aways, some of which have become highly successful agencies in their own right, like Ireland-Davenport and Joe Public. According the Schalit the agency has always attracted creative entrepreneurs and eventually they do leave but not before contributing to the legacy of Net#work BBDO

EXCLUSIVE: RamsayMedia and Highbury Safika Media in talks on possible merger

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Publishing houses RamsayMedia and Highbury Safika Media (HMS) are in due diligence with the prospect of a possible merger between the two companies.

Ramsay Media Chairperson Alan T Ramsay has confirmed the authenticity of an email penned by him to RamsayMedia staff earlier today and seen by MarkLives that addresses internal speculation on the possible merger. In it he advises RamsayMedia staff of the state of negotiations between his board and HSM’s chief executive, Kevin Ferguson, their managing director, Tony Walker, and their financial director, Lindsey Allen.

Ramsay confirmed to MarkLives that no deal had yet been signed off on. Because of the due diligence process he was unable to reveal any information on the state of negotiations between RamsayMedia and HSM.

Mercedes-Benz and the knee-jerk, out-of-date, pointless strategy of pandering to young people

by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), San Francisco Bay Earlier this week I wrote about teaser ads and why I hate them. As an example, I used a new Mercedes-Benz teaser campaign.

But there’s a lot more wrong with Mercedes’ strategy than just tossing money away on teasers. According to an article appearing this week in Marketing Daily, their new campaign…

“…is clearly intended for a younger, if daring driver — one who wants entrance to the premium segment…

‘The CLA lets us open Mercedes-Benz to a totally new audience,’ says (their VP Marketing) ‘It’s our new gateway car; it’s a very seductive design, very sporty and aggressive, and it’s for a younger audience…’

He adds that the automaker is reaching out to 30- to-40-year-olds…”

We’ve all read a version of this same blather every year forever. Every car manufacturer, every year, introduces some new products and makes a big hoo-ha about how their new models are more youthful and more aimed at attracting a younger buyer.

The question is this: Why?

Ad of the week with Oresti Patricios – Diffusing political drama with satire

The last couple of weeks have been saturated with the drama of the ANC/FNB debate, resulting in heavy and heated discourse on the issue. That’s why it was such a delight when the latest CAR Magazine advert landed in my inbox.

If there’s one thing that effectively diffuses political drama it is satire, and CAR Magazine’s parody of the FNB’s controversial campaign does this with clever copy that will give lovers of radio a reason to smile when they hear the spot. The ad opens with the dulcet tones of an accent that’s very at home in South Africa. “There will be a day…” the ad sounds with serious music playing the background that sets up the scene for an announcement of some gravitas. “… a day when every car magazine throughout this magnificent land will come with a free, full-colour poster of the McLaren MP4-12C Spider.”

“There will be a day…” the ad continues in solemn timbre, its tongue firmly in its cheek, “when CAR Magazine will give its readers an exclusive preview of BMW’s new four series, with special emphasis on the M4. That day is today, and tomorrow, and the day after, and every day until March, because you can get all of this, and much, much more in the February issue of CAR Magazine. On sale today.” The ad ends with the voice over becoming more hopeful and wistful, and the music ending on an up-beat tenor.

Data mapping puts paid to marketing in the dark

by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) I went to a very interesting presentation of research last week by World Wide Worx’s Arthur Goldstuck and the MapIT MD, Etienne Louw, into data mapping and how many SA companies are doing it and for what reasons (mostly vehicle tracking).

So it was slightly out of my field of coverage but Arthur’s research is always interesting so off I went.

It struck me during the presentation that there is the germ of something very interesting going on in marketing today – and more companies should be using it.

Just as millions of online publishers throughout the world – like me – can study Google analytics (in real time, nog al) and see exactly how many people are hitting one’s site, which pages they are reading, what devices they are using and where they are coming from (e.g. Twitter or Facebook or Google searches), so can marketers, media planners and advertisers use digital mapping to analyse exactly how many people – and of which LSM profiles – are seeing their ads in print campaigns.

Louw told us (munching breakfast with a crew of amiable geeks in a function room at the Nellie in Cape Town) that MapIT – which is owned by Times Media Group and TomTom – did an analysis recently for a company of an ad campaign in a knock-and-drop newspaper. What MapIT did was overlay the newspaper’s delivery area with census and LSM stats (as I understood it).

Media Future: Watchwords for consumer tech in 2013 will be “thinner” and “bigger”

y Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) The watchwords for consumer technology in 2013 will be “thinner” and “bigger”. If that sounds like a contradiction, it’s only because the hi-tech industry itself is wrestling with contradictory demands in two key areas of gadgetry: TV sets and cellphones. In particular, the consumer is demanding ever-thinner and lighter devices, while expecting ever-bigger screens.

That is a given when it comes to TV sets, but there has long been an assumption by market commentators that phones would always get smaller.

Apple, for example, clung tenaciously to its 3.5” screen size through the iPhone 3, 4 and 4S, it only relented a little in expanding the iPhone 5 to a 4” screen. It was trounced in the market, however, by Samsung’s Galaxy S3 with its 4.8” screen. At the same time, the first so-called “phablet” (phone/tablet), the Samsung Note, was a surprise success with its oversized 5.3” screen.

One of the big questions that the recent International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas was expected to answer was whether this push for higher screen sizes was a firm trend, or whether small remained cool.

Agency Leaders: 2012’s most-admired ad agency in Joburg

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Yesterday, we kicked off our poll results in Cape Town and today it is the turn of Johannesburg ad execs to tell us whom they most admired on the Jozi ad scene in 2012. Results for our overall national poll runs on Jan 23. We sent nomination forms to 54 agency CEOs or MDs from ad agencies in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. We received 34 responses.

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