This year the annual Loerie Creative Week, taking place in Cape Town from 15 – 23 September, will incorporate the Loeries Judging Week and Seminars, the Pendoring Awards and the two Loerie awards evenings.

The 34th Annual Loerie Awards ceremonies will be held on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd September at the Cape Town International Convention Centre while the Pendorings will host their awards on the evening of Friday 21st September.

The Loeries seminar will include international marketers and creative leaders and takes place on Friday 21st September.

Entries for the Loerie awards open March 15th.

Important Loerie dates:

Call for Entries
15 March 2012

Judging Week
17 – 20 September 2012
Loeries Seminar
21 September 2012

The 34th Annual Loerie Awards
22 & 23 September 2012

by Johann Schwella The new poster released by the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO)has, to put it mildly, caused a stir. Many commentators have quoted race, sex, and countless other reasons as to why this is a good or a bad advert. I’m going to try and stay away from the obvious ‘traditional’ South African tensions and dissect this from a brand and advertising point of view.

Firstly, let us look at Brand DA. The DA has gone to great lengths to sell itself as an all-inclusive, equal brand that avoids controversy, ignores racial lines and targets supporters of all creed and colour. It’s very much evident in their most recent election campaign slogans “Service Delivery for ALL.” The focus being on ALL. This viewpoint is constantly reinforced by Helen Zille, arguably the party’s most vocal mouthpiece. To avoid drawing negative attention to the party, Zille, and by extension, the DA, has been reluctant to get involved in petty racial debates for the sake of debating.

Furthermore, the DA, as analyzed by local strategic design agency, Coley Porter Bell, in their “Visuals Futures” project from 2009, has been using international design trends of Hope and Optimism to spur their extended stance of equality and inclusivity.

With this in mind, let’s look at the piece of communication that was produced:

The poster features a semi-naked inter-racial couple in a suggestive embrace with the tagline – In OUR future, you wouldn’t look twice.

Obviously a piece of communication that was distinctly made with the mission to shock. Or to “get young people talking” as the DASO admits. This intention to shock implies that the DASO believes that the majority of viewers are not comfortable with the inter-racial image and de facto implying that we are all mostly racists (and they are not), thus proving their point of a split and racist nation and hence why the DA is required – in my view a self fulfilling prophecy as well as one about 15 years too late.

So why is this wrong in an advertising context, and why is it wrong in a Brand DA context?

Media and Advertising agencies have unprecedented power over the masses, and its ability to influence both our values and our viewpoints is an extremely potent and profitable one. Their main product to their clients is to influence the public to make certain choices and have certain opinions, and they get paid to do this every day. As such one of the top creative directors I worked with in my career said “It’s our job to inspire the world through creativity to get people to consider our clients products.”

This advert does not inspire. In fact, it does the opposite – it further polarises. You just have a look at the close to a thousand comments on the image, defeating the purpose of good advertising.

This advert has belied the crux of the brand that the DA has been building for years. Pushing a campaign that is sensationalist and attention-seeking in its thinking and in its execution, reeks of ANCYL tactics. We are a country with problems, we all know that, but instead of focussing on the problems (AIDS, crime, etc), how about we focus on the good and extend that to give a message of hope? – One that Brand DA has been pushing all along.

A simple way to have avoided all the minefields would have been to show an inter-racial couple holding hands, or a inter-racial group of friends drinking beers together, with a tag line reading “A nation working together is better for ALL.” Still not a great ad, but at least not shaking the tree to see what falls.

When attempting to affect change, it’s easier shock than to inspire, but where would we be if everyone took the easy road.

Be Better.

– Johann Schwella is the co-founder of 10and5.com where he has been showcasing and curating South African creativity for over 4 years. Johann has also spent the past six years working in and is currently employed by 140 BBDO. Image Source: 10and5.com

So you want to start a magazine. How far do you think R1500 will take you? Quite far, it seems, as Sean O’Toole brings you a true story about the impossible.

Jungle Jim is a cheaply printed magazine from Cape Town. Wrapped in a hand-printed cover, it features mainly words. Original genre fiction from Africa. Cop stories. Sci-fi. Mall stories. Underground stuff. African fiction. Here’s a sentence from issue one: “The impossibly good-looking Detective Sergeant Chikata, [Detective Inspector Darko] Dawson’s junior in rank in the Criminal Investigations Department, looked up as Dawson approached.”

And another from issue two: “Tall, broad shouldered men with red, bulging eyes and faces that might have belonged to criminals came wearing bullet proof jackets with Special Anti-Robbery Squad written on them.” And here are two sentences from issue three: “I sped out of Spruitview and through Katlehong like a lunatic. How many yelping stray dogs and shocked old ladies I missed by inches is a tale best left untold.”

This is the story about how the magazine that published these sentences came about.

“We were talking about it yesterday,” says filmmaker Jenna Bass. She is seated next to illustrator and designer Hannes Bernard. We’re on the first floor of a retrofitted warehouse space on Hope Street, near the infamous Stags Head Hotel in central Cape Town. It’s a Wednesday. Jenna: “I remember coming to the office one day…” Hannes: “That was the start of it, getting this office last year.” Jenna: “I came in – I think I had a really frustrating day – and I was just like, ‘Hannes, let’s start a magazine!’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ That’s how I remember it, but Hannes doesn’t remember this at all. I think it was just one of those days when I was thinking about something that I wanted to buy but wasn’t out there.”

Onerous enterprise

Typically, publishing is an onerous enterprise. It involves convoluted business plans, advertising staff, distribution agents, subscription drives, contributor contracts and other boring necessaries. Literary publishing, however, is to a degree freed of these imperatives. Not many people are interested in fiction, the literary sort less so than the fast-paced pulp variety.

So, print runs of these little magazines (essentially the hothouses for future talent) are small. Cold calling at two or three favourite bookstores usually sorts out distribution. And word of mouth, which nowadays includes whisper networks like Facebook, helps spread the good news. “Ja look,” says Hannes, who used to work with designer Peet Pienaar before going solo, “we made a decision early on that there isn’t really a good reason why this should exist. If you look at it from a business or publishing perspective, Jungle Jim doesn’t really make sense as a venture. But we decided we would completely disregard that, and it wouldn’t be a choice ever whether it makes sense to do this or not.” “Ja,” agrees Jenna, an AFDA graduate who created a splash with her 2010 short film The Tunnel. “So we just find a way of doing it.”

“We also knew that the second large amounts of money became involved, we would just get discouraged – we’re not good with money. We thought the only way this would work is if we actually have a small amount to get it going.”

“How much did you put into it?” My question makes Hannes and Jenna laugh. Hannes: “We came up with an amount we could both pay per month. Basically, it was how much money we could lose per month.” Jenna: “Which was obviously not very much, because neither of us has money to throw around. It was a little, not much.” Hannes: “Very little.” Jenna: “A small amount.” Hannes: “Very little.” Jenna: “A really small amount.” Hannes: “Much less than you can imagine.” “Like two or three zeroes?” I push. Hannes: “Our original budget was about R1500 for ten months.”

For their launch issue, the Jungle Jim duo produced 200 handmade copies of their A5 magazine. The unbound launch issue of the biweekly featured the work of cartoonist and lyricist Nikhil Singh, filmmaker Richard Stanley, Somali writer Abdul Adan and Ghanaian novelist Kwei Quartey, whose detective fiction is set in Agbogbloshie electronic dump in Accra.

This “notorious slum”, as Quartey describes it, is also the subject of photographer Pieter Hugo’s most recent photobook, Permanent Error. To announce the new birth, Hannes and Jenna organised a reading at Book Lounge, Mervyn Sloman’s energetic independent retail store on Roeland Street. Singh read his pirate story (“Eyes like foglights, calling in all the lost ships of the soul”) and an actress read a piece by Kola Boof, a former model-actress said to be the mistress of Osama Bin Laden.

The launch issue was quickly snapped up. “I think a lot of people didn’t pay for them,” sighs Jenna, admitting to a problem that perplexed the publishers of Tessa and Kid Colt a generation before.

Republican Press

Founded in the mid-1960s by Hint and Boet Hyman, two Kimberly farmers turned publishers, Republican Press is a name synonymous with South African pulp fiction. At its height this Durban-based independent publisher was releasing 20 photo comics monthly, including the popular titles Tessa, Condor and Kid Colt.

Averaging sales of about 30 000 units per issue, the brisk trade in pulp fiction made Republican the “biggest printing organisation in the southern hemisphere,” according to Ron Roderick, a retired executive who started his career at the company as a print apprentice in 1968. “The photo stories were the foundation,” says Roderik, 65, now retired. “They gave Republican the opportunity to go into the magazine market. he Hymans got sufficient wealth to buy into established magazines like Garden & Home.”

Perhaps better known as the publisher of Scope magazine, Republican started out as a Kimberly-based publisher. When the workload got “too big” for the Diamond Fields Advertiser, a Kimberley based newspaper and press established in 1878, the Hymans decided to import a used gravure press from Germany. “It was used by the Germans to print propaganda and counterfeit during the war,” says Roderik, who spent ten years obscuring the nipples and pubic fuzz of the naked women showcased in Scope during the years of apartheid censorship.

Too large to transport upcountry, the Hymans summarily relocated their business to Durban. Roderik is a fount of knowledge on the production of the photo comics. Tessa, the original bikini-clad blond – there were two, the second less successful – was a woman named Erna van der Westhuisen. “She came from Dirkie Uys Primary School on The Bluff,” says Roderik, referring to the skollie neighbourhood south of Durban harbour where many of the actors came from. Aside from Tessa, Mark Condor, played by Martin Paulse, was one of Republican’s more popular titles.

According to Roderik, the male actors were “big, hard chaps who had a certain appeal”. Like the young female actresses, they hoped to use the photo comics as vehicle for a film career. Catering to lower- and middle-income white families, the photo comics functioned as portable, if static soap operas. The stories were uncomplicated. “All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun,” said filmmaker Jean Luc Godard. Republican applied the same philosophy to its photo comics. The sets were improvised and included a Catholic church in Athlone Park and factories in Prospecton, the cast sometimes venturing as far south as Warner Beach.

The quick uptake and national popularity of the photo comics prompted Republican to professionalise their production, an Italian photographer, Franco Gardini, contracted to handle the shoots. “He joined the company in 1972 and arrived from Italy with his Hasselblads and what-not,” says Roderik. “There was big fanfare. He lasted about 10 or 12 years.”

Television, which was introduced to South Africa in the mid-1970s and refined during the 1980s, was death knell of photo comics locally. They are now a byword for white nostalgia for a past that doesn’t exist anymore. It is partly the anachronistic quality of photo comics that prompted Hannes to start Jungle Jim.

Instead of the fatal fallback of nostalgia, he wanted something new, something now. Not that he puts it quite as bluntly. It is only hinted at when I quiz the pair about their reason for starting Jungle Jim. “That’s a good question,” laughs Jenna. “I actually dunno,” pitches in Hannes. “I think we were fascinated by the idea of doing pulp fiction in an African context. I think even though we have a vintage appreciation for photobooks and that kind of thing, it is not something that I can directly relate to, culturally. There is like a huge gap between that and me.

Other forms

I was also really interested in other forms of African DIY publishing. In Nigeria, especially, they have a form of market literature called Onitsha.” Onitsha is a port and market town on the Niger River in southern Nigeria. A gateway to the north, in the 1950s and 1960s it was the site of a flourishing trade in pulp fiction. Produced by local presses, this ‘market literature’ – it mostly consisted of pamphlets and novellas – was consumed by taxi drivers, mechanics, white-collar clerks, primary school teachers, small-scale entrepreneurs and traders. Simplistic, moralistic and sentimental, this ‘semi-literate’ pulp fiction is nonetheless credited with establishing a literary appetite that is reflected in contemporary Nigeria’s vibrant media culture.

“Their media industry is much more active than ours,” Pieter Hugo remarked in 2005, shortly after returning from photographing his career-defining work of Hausa men with their hyenas. “There is an active press. They are very big on reading. People debate contemporary issues. It is not an apathetic society.” “There was a link between Onitsha’s bracing moralising stories – about men who treat their women badly, or how to spend your money wisely – and something genuinely African and pulp fiction,” says Hannes. “That was the original interest. We wanted to see what happens when you take extremely westernised ideas of aliens and sci-fi archetypes, and see how that gets applied in an African context.”

“What I loved about pulp was that they churned the stuff out,” adds Jenna. “It wasn’t always the best quality, but even if they were recycling things, they were always trying to come up with new ideas and stances. There were always these narrative drives.”

I put it to Jenna, whose duties on Jungle Jim are chiefly literary and editorial, that Nollywood, Nigeria’s brazen DIY film industry, is essentially the pulp fiction of now. “Do you really think the written word can compete against it?” “It was definitely a concern,” she says. “It is one of the reason’s Jungle Jim is so cheap.”

A R20 note will get you a copy of the magazine plus a silver R5 coin in change. “We don’t want this thing that costs R60 and then your money for the month to entertain yourself is gone. But that isn’t answering your question. I like to think not. I still think there is something special about reading something as opposed to having someone tell it to you or watching it on television.”

_Sean O’Toole has no hair and vertically long head. His nose is pointed downward and his mouth resembles that of a fish. To further quote Abdul Adan, “The guy was unlike anyone I have ever seen before.” Reprinted with permission from Enjin magazine.

2011: The best of MarkLives // Marketing & brand stories we covered

January, 2011
We didn’t like the talking Cell C ads
Associated Magazines has just placed an audio ad featuring Trevor Noah on behalf of Cell C in the latest editions of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine and new collector’s edition House and Leisure Food. “Welcome to the World of Cell-C,” the sound insert squeaks out as you flip through the special four-page ad, “The power is in your hands.” And, indeed, it is as users of social network Twitter launched an initiative to document sightings of torn-out Cell C adverts.

February, 2011
Bafana Bafana belongs to the people
We take on the South African Football Association (SAFA), then investigating a name change for Bafana Bafana. “While a lot of talk and opinion is being bandied about regarding the colloquial context of the name, SAFA is on record as to why it is planning to throw out the name three Sowetan sports writers coined in the early 1990s and adopted by the nation. It’s about money, plain and simple.”

March 2011
Groupon reaches our shores
In January 2011, they were two guys working hard to keep their group media buying site Twangoo running with a handful of freelance sales staff. Less than three months later, they have 40 staffers, a new office in Loop Street, Cape Town, and possibly the hottest thing since Facebook as their backers. That’s because Groupon acquired Twangoo in January 2011 and tasked its co-founders, Wayne Gosling and Dan Guasco, with establishing the Groupon brand in South Africa.

April 2011
Vodacom goes red (and its agency sees red)
Discussions on rebranding Vodacom had been happening since the world’s biggest telecom brand, Vodafone, announced it would take a majority (65%) share in late 2008, in line with its global practice for majority shareholdings to trade under its corporate branding. Enzo Scarcella, Vodacom’s managing executive for marketing, says it simply hasn’t happened in southern Africa before now as ongoing negotiations with minority shareholders, concerned with cost and sceptical over rebranding campaign benefits, were only recently resolved.

May 2011
For youth market mobile access to information and communication is the answer
Mobility no longer simply refers to motion, it has also come to describe the untethered use of technology on devices like smart phones, both of which seems to have come together in a perfect storm to enable the revolutions currently sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Setting these revolutions in motion, is the youth, who organise and spread their message using social networks primarily accessed through mobile devices. These platforms are not only changing how young consumers engage with politics but also with commerce and one another.

August 2011
Design Capital 2011: Finding Cape Town’s Design Voice Most popular read
Can Cape Town become to Johannesburg what Austin is to Dallas, Barcelona is to Madrid or San Francisco is to LosbAngeles – not as big, not as industrial but certainly more creative, entrepreneurial and tech-centric? Gavin Levinsohn, CEO of Ogilvy Cape Town asks the question, but already it seems rhetorical.

October 2011
Tale of two outages #seacom #blackberry
On 10 October, South Africans wrestled with two major connectivity outages: the SEACOM undersea cable and the BlackBerry Internet Service both went down. But the outages were one thing; how users were treated was another, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK. They provide a case study in both successful and disastrous public relations.

November 2011
More than a million South Africans active on Twitter
Research findings on social media in South Africa highlighted the rise of Twitter. Arthur Goldstuck digs deeper into the data to explain what it all means.

November 2011
The silence on COP17 and its unintended lesson for South Africans
South Africans have an extraordinary social conscience, says Thomas Kolster, the Danish communications consultant and author of the soon-to-be released book The Bible of Goodvertising (from Thames & Hudson) who was visiting South Africa in the run-up to the COP17/CMP7 conference held in Durban, 28 November – 9 December 2011. Which is why the lack of public debate on and interest in COP17 here is so surprising to him.

December 2011
Framing the alcohol advertising regulation debate Must read
The advertising and media industries are bracing for stricter government regulation of alcohol advertising. It is an incredibly complex and global issue, so here is a framework to help contextualise what is actually going on.

South Africans have an extraordinary social conscience, says Thomas Kolster, the Danish communications consultant and author of the soon-to-be released book The Bible of Goodvertising (from Thames & Hudson) who is visiting South Africa in the run-up to the COP17/CMP7 conference being held in Durban, 28 November – 9 December 2011. Which is why the lack of public debate on and interest in COP17 here is so surprising to him.

After all, climate and social issues are closely interlinked, the poor and middle-income groups are feeling the pain inflicted by, for instance, steadily rising food prices and lack of access to clean water (be it drought in some areas and flooding in others – also see infographics on the condition of SA rivers and SA food production).

State of some South African rivers. Copyright Graphics24. Reuse without permission not allowed.

Meeting SA’s food needs. Copyright Graphics24. Reuse without permission not allowed.

Which is why Kolster noted what many SA communication professionals and journalists have ignored to date: that South Africa’s hosting of the COP17 hasn’t been celebrated as another coup for the country often portrayed as chaotic and criminal in international media reports, or as another indicator of its rising influence in emerging market and world affairs, or an opportunity to educate South Africans in the importance and benefits of economic and environmental sustainably.

Visible marketing efforts to tie in with the goals of COP17 (assessing progress made in dealing with climate change) have not yet rolled out (if they will at all), news media have started covering the run-up to the event but still offer little in terms of educational features, and government seems too busy with adding layers of security around Durban than engaging locals in the process.

This is the Conference of the Parties (COP17′s official name), rather than a conference of the people in more than just name, and this partly explains the lack of engagement by South Africans in what (the few who have an opinion on it) already view as a failed political process.

An infographic exploring the differences that Chinese and American citizens have towards sustainability. Information from “The Green Gap” report by Ogilvy Earth. Copyright Ivan Colic, Designgap.

Of course, the IP lawyers have also put a damper on any sense of COP17 whoop whoop, with a seven-page terms of use document for the COP17 logo: “The South African Government is entitled to sue anyone who copies the COP17/CMP7 logo. In addition, if anyone knowingly trades in goods featuring an unauthorised copy of the COP17/CMP7 logo, this will be a criminal offence. The COP17/CMP7 logo will enjoy legal protection.”

Kolster says in Denmark, host of COP15 in 2009, the event that sparked his interest in the climate change debate and lead him to COP17 in South Africa, business went to considerable effort to show that they bought into the need to run sustainable enterprises – and not only during the course of the event. It changed business practice at ground level in the host city.

If consumers care, business needs to care, says Kolster, who recently penned a call to action for Bizcommunity.com which stated: “The competition is no longer about being bigger, better or cheaper, but what difference you want to make for people and planet.”

Marketers should not confuse the lack of conversation around the event with South Africans not caring about sustainability. They care very much, if the communication is made relevant to them. If Pick n Pay is going to advertise food, why not discuss and advertise healthy food, asks Kolster.

Or take the cellular providers and banks that are urging consumers to switch to ‘greener’ electronic billing communication but doesn’t feed their economic benefits through to consumers. Why shouldn’t going green(er) be equated with economic benefit to consumers if you are genuinely serious about environmental sustainability?

Here, retailers still see ‘green’ and ‘organic’ foods as the basis for a higher price point, adds Kolster, while in Europe this practice is fading; the ‘wheel of good’ as Kolster phrases it, has turned, and greater adoption are eroding the higher pricing, to the benefit of consumers.

Healthy food should not be the domain of the well-off, Kolster points out, leaving me to ponder why SA marketers still communicate that it does. And how blatantly this exposes the siloed approach to marketing in this country.

For Kolster, the failing of politicians on issues such climate change – and he acknowledges that COP17 will likely result in more stalemate and

COP17 logistics. Copyright Graphics24. Reuse without permission not allowed.

partisanship, empty promises and little implementation on whatever is agreed – simply highlights the importance for people to take matters into their own hands.

Vote for change with action; that really is the challenge Kolster is throwing at the feet of citizens, both private and corporate. People want to make a difference. Look no further than the global Occupy Wall Street movement, which is very much about standing up for the vulnerable against perceived corporate excess, and whose influence is being discussed in terms of decades rather than months.

If the people are there, and your business and communication needs to be where they are but aren’t, ask yourself why they’re not! Then take action to address the gap.

Kolster views the corporate world as an arm of society, not as something arrayed against it, and says it operates with a licence from society, a licence that demands a return not only for shareholders but for the communities where they trade.

Communication can raise awareness and spur action – drivers for change. Kolster says he doesn’t mind if that change benefits your bottom line – it’s all part of the sustainability process – but communicate for the benefit of consumers(and their environment), rather than simply consumption.

People and business are not that different, says Kolster; at the end of the day both look at their wallets when making decisions. As consumers shift spend towards products that offer tangible benefits for consumers and their environment alike, business will have to follow. Of course, there are risks inherent in following the market, rather than helping set the pace (by ignoring COP17 for instance), which marketers need to take cognisance of.

Kolster also argues that, as host nation, Government needs to take some responsibility to involve citizens in a global debate that affects their

The Durban climate summit in numbers. Copyright Graphics24. Reuse without permission not allowed.

future. Rich or poor, we are all in this – it’s a challenge that goes beyond the politics of wealth or race, age or gender. It’s an opportunity for a cross-section of South Africans to speak with one another and together, yet it’s allowed to slip through our fingers.

Don’t blame the politicians, says Kolster; if nobody does anything, nothing will happen, so less complaining and more action are required from civil society. Change will never be driven by politicians. Again – the power rests in our hands.

Kolster cites Nedbank’s solar billboards as an example of advertising that makes you think twice about what communication can really contribute. Yes, it’s small in scale – but it’s a step in the right direction. Now if only somebody would take a leap!

In India, solar power is being offered by NGOs and small entrepreneurs as a way to bring electricity to 300 million Indians still off the national grid. It’s not free, but its competitive with current alternatives such as black-market kerosene, and the government there hopes the off-grid solar yield will quadruple to 200 megawatts within two years through tax credits and other incentives aimed at both consumers and solar panel manufacturers.

As brands make up an ever-larger part in the valuation of corporations, they have become an Achilles heel for executives – protecting shareholder value now very much equates with protecting the brand – and the rise of social media means companies are treading carefully through the minefield of consumer activism. It’s forcing change in itself – social media is bringing people power to the fore like never before (for Kolster, social media power represents true democracy).

People-power has arrived, enabled with technology, and companies – as an extension of the society in which they operate – need to adapt their operations and communication to this reality. Like politicians, they can be voted out by citizens (who votes with their wallets), something the politicians and other talking heads at COP17 might do well to remember themselves.

Infograpics reproduced from Designgap and Graphics24 with permission.

Originally published on Bizcommunity.com Marketing & Media | South Africa – click to see more comments.

By Mike Abel. Grant Fairley may have been right when he bluntly stated, “If you want loyalty, buy a dog”.

I include close family, trusted colleagues and clients and other true friends into this little equation (no offense to any of them) but pure transactional customers…mmm, not so sure.

Loyalty is defined as “a feeling of devoted attachment and affection”. Now if we are to believe this of customers that come into our stores and swipe with our cards, then we are largely delusional and will be lulled into a dangerous space of overstating our role in their lives and complacency.

If you are responsible for the retention strategy for a large customer base, then you would immediately need to confront the reality that there is very little loyalty when it comes to customers. And looking at most “Loyalty” schemes, why should there be?

Don’t confuse loyalty with:
a) The well-ingrained and intended hassle factors associated with switching accounts (telco’s, insurance companies and banks raise your hands here).
b) The repurchasing of the same product, as you can’t get a decent trade-in or will lose your warranty on your product by going elsewhere (car industry, your turn to raise those hands).
c) A points programme that you’re locked into with your airline and you cannot transfer those hard-earned miles to another carrier (airline industry – over to you here…).
d) Your customers getting points every time they swipe their card when buying groceries at your store – your customers didn’t ask for this, you gave it to them in the hope of locking them in for more purchases and to one day to understand their personal data better so as to sell more to them (supermarkets, your turn…).

Now there is nothing really wrong with any of the above as low-end, short to medium term customer “retention” strategies (although it would be quite handy not to have to discount my air miles by 50% every time I want to use them…) but the relationships defined above are often more akin to Stockholm Syndrome than to any possible form of Loyalty – in fact most of them breed anger and disloyalty.

Loyalty is not a transactional relationship, it is as described above, a “feeling of devotion” that very few brands are able to create via their current “Loyalty programme”.

In fact, good old fashioned brand advertising can often yield a much higher level of emotional connection as deftly done, you are using powerful emotional cues to associate the brand with e.g. their childhood, their mother’s baking, doing the best for their kids etc. etc.

And then certainly the lived experience in-store and in follow-up service is all-important: where one has the greatest opportunity to build an engaged, real and human connection that can lead to a sense of being loyal. I remember Michael Francis, the CMO of Target (America) telling me that he doesn’t allow his sales team to even refer to people coming into their store as customers. They are looked at and referred to as “guests”. Think about it, you’d sure treat a guest a whole lot better than you would a potential customer – as you’d be the host. It wouldn’t be purely transactional. You’d care, you’d listen, you’d offer advice, and you’d be helpful…and then they’d buy (versus you selling)…

You want people to buy their next car from you because they received outstanding service and the product delivered functionally and emotionally, not because of a trade-in price. This can be applied to telco’s, banks, supermarkets, airlines etc. The minute we believe we have devoted customers because of a card and point-related system, we’ll be on the slippery slope towards losing them.

Sure, use these cards as part of a retention strategy and then actively look at other ways of enhancing the relationship. Just delivering brilliantly on the functional basics will get you 95% there alone.

Some tips towards transactional “loyalty”:
a) Don’t underestimate the enormous power of getting it right first time.
b) Make the transactional behaviour as quick, simple and easy as is possible.
c) Say sorry if you’ve made a mistake and fix it quickly.
d) Fess-up if you have a product issue ahead of the customer raising it.
e) Don’t argue as the first step – if the customer has a problem, unless they are delusional, they genuinely have a problem – real or perceived.
f) If a customer wants to move their account, use human dynamics and “deal-sweeteners” (added value) to retain them – not enumerable hassle-related tactics. If you are  helpful, kind, considerate and understanding, chances are the customer will think twice about switching (versus being aggressive or defensive).

The card swipe is valuable in the information it gives you to enhance the relationship, to offer better and more relevant deals, to cross shop the customer, to be helpful or useful with better tips, advice etc. but it can’t replace the value of exceptional service and the lived and human dynamic. So, reconsider your supposed “Loyalty” programme as your Customer Retention Strategy and your pencil around keeping these customers will begin to start sharpening itself.

Reprinted from the blog of Mike Abel. Mike Abel is the Chief Executive Partner at M&C Saatchi Abel.

Last week’s announcement of research findings on social media in South Africa highlighted the rise of Twitter. Arthur Goldstuck digs deeper into the data to explain what it all means.

When we were young, oh, about four years ago, tweeting was something you left for the birds. Twittering was high-pitched gossip among ageing busybodies.

Then it was given capital letters and a 140-character limit, and before you knew it Ashton Kutcher was know for something more than marriage guidance.

Yet, while he and other celebrities attract millions of followers who want to know what they have for breakfast, tens of millions of Twitter users get on with using it as a quick information and communications medium. The ability to follow anyone on Twitter – and the prospect of being followed – is exhilarating for most. That is, aside from nervous public relations practitioners who – ironically, of all professions – appear the most likely to block public access to their “tweet stream”.

The Twitter tally is now 200-million people, making it one of the three or four most powerful social networks on the planet. Of those, 1.1-million reside in South Africa.

According to the recently released South African Social Media Landscape 2011 report, Twitter is about to move from a critical mass of early adopters to a mass-market medium. The data, compiled by information analysts Fuseware with World Wide Worx, shows that a total of 115 000 tweets were made per day by South Africans in the six month period to August 2011. This amounted to 3.47-million tweets per month and a total of 20,820,080 tweets for the 6 months.

A total of 405 000 South Africans were actively tweeting in the last three months of the period being measured – with 20 000or so more newcomers having tweeted in the previous three months but probably waiting for a sign that their friends think they’re cool.

This doesn’t mean they’re not on Twitter. The truth is, the active user base does not represent the full user base.  Twitter’s own data has indicated that only about 40% of users also tweet regularly. This ratio would translate into the total number of registered Twitter users in South Africa being approximately 1.1-million. This tallies closely with World Wide Worx’s primary research that had earlier revealed a user base of 1-million.

One of the problems with measuring Twitter is that users are not obliged to say where they’re from. Some have a thing for stalkers, and allow Twitter to show their exact geographical presence, thanks to the GPS chips in their phones. Others allow stalkware like FourSquare to broadcast their location to Twitter whenever they “check in” at a local coffee shop, mall or traffic intersection. Yes, it’s not pretty, so sensible people tend to turn off such intrusions.

That does make it more difficult to figure how who goes where on Twitter, but a high enough proportion of users give their home base on registration to be representative of the population.

Surprisingly, Twitter presence in each city it is not entirely a factor of how many people live in that city, as tends to be the case with Internet use. The most active South African city on Twitter is Johannesburg, with 19 684 users admitting it. The third most populous city in South Africa, Cape Town, comes in second on Twitter, with 14 273 people wanting the world to know. Next is not, as expected, Durban, but Pretoria – at 6 537. Durban follows in a distant fourth place with a mere 2 572 users. The rest of the Durbanites, it appears, were too busy thinking of the beach when they registered.

When SA Twitter users were asked for their occupation during registration, top of the pops was not “journalist”, as you’d expect from all the self-styled reporters of their own lives on Twitter. It was “student”, followed by “artist” and then – oh, the shock and amazement – “writer”.

That’s the thing about Twitter: it gives everyone a forum for self-expression, if ever so brief. Everyone does become a writer, if ever so bad. Luckily for them, the next most common occupation given is “entrepreneur/founder”. Which means, if this 140-character writing thing doesn’t work out for you, chances are you can ask one of your followers for a job.

* For more information on the South African Social Media Landscape 2011 report and to download the executive summary, visit www.worldwideworx.com
* Arthur Goldstuck heads up World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. Reprinted from Gadget.

Reputation management practitioners are increasingly keeping an eye on the internet and especially social media as consumer conversations, especially ones on what to – and not buy – shifts online.

Locally BrandsEye has emerged as an important tool in tracking an organisation’s online reputation. Many clients are agencies tracking conversations on client brands and marketing. BrandsEye serves as an early warning system that alerts agencies and brands when a conversation turns negative. It also serves as a tool managing shareholder reputations as per King III and ticks many of King III’s boxes at low cost.

MD Tim Shier says his software tracks brand mentions over across 35 billion open content websites including social media sites and blogs. The company has clients in 89 countries and Shier believes BrandsEye represents a great tale of SA developed technology reaching the world. Telco’s, banks and financial services, FMCG brands and auto manufacturers especially have embraced the product.

Shier joined Quirk as an intern in 2007. He soon worked his way up to become marketing manager at Quirk eMarketing and became MD at BrandsEye in January 2010.

BrandsEye was developed by Quirk eMarketing seven years ago, but has recently been spun off to Quirk Labs, within which it operates as a 100% independent company. Shier says the new structure moves the company away from Quirk agency and allows it to service clients from a broad range of ad agencies.

It completes the companies’ evolution from a business unit to a business proper and will see it physically relocate away from the current Quirk HQ.

The focus for the year ahead rests on expanding the BrandsEye footprint to various African and Middle Eastern markets outside SA, followed by entry into other emerging economies. Shier will be visiting agencies in a number of African markets to educate them in the tools and opportunities BrandsEye brings to market.

Shier says that while he used to think digital is a uniform layer wrapping the globe he has come to realise that digital conversations differ substantially from region to region.

Social media platforms like Twitter especially means the amount of data organisations need to track is exploding, but on the upside, says Shier, it also represents the real world, and real world conversations, in a digital space, making it trackable. Ultimately Shier hopes tools like
BrandsEye will be used to improve governance by highlighting where shortfalls are being experienced by people on ground level.

Find it: www.brandseye.com

Reprinted from the September issue of AdVantage magazine.

Idea Bounty crowdsources creative ideas. Organisations put out a pitch, thousands of creative minds from around the globe conceptualise possible campaigns, Idea Bounty shifts through the deluge and places the best ideas before their client. Client picks, creative get anything from $1 000 – $10 000 for their concept, which client now owns.

Brands that have pitched for creative ideas via Idea Bounty include Unilever, Vodafone, Levi’s, Red Bull, Capitec and the Financial Times.

The concept originated from a discussion between Stokes and his London CEO Nic Ray into how crowd sourcing can be leveraged by the creative industry. They sat on it for two years unable to figure out how to execute the idea. On one side Idea Bounty needs to be able to guarantee that clients won’t be able to utilise the IP from non-winning entries, while ensuring that the client properly owns the IP of the winning pitch and which they pay for.

On average a single pitch generates 25 000 ideas for the Idea Bounty team to work through. Although most Bounties are once’ offs the group is starting to see clients return on a regular basis. Unilever has done three Bounties already. In the UK market, which generates most of the Idea Bounty business, pitches are driven by agencies keen to access thousands of creative minds across the globe (less than half the creative database comes from SA).

Talking about the creative engaged with Idea Bounty – Stokes say around 500 creatives consistently submit ideas on every brief, and of those a clear handful consistently tops the list when it comes to great ideas. Expect an Idea Bounty leader board listing its top creative contributors in the near future.

Stokes is currently negotiating an outside stake holding in Idea Bounty which will see operations move to London. He also has a ‘heavy-hitter’ CEO in waiting that will jump start the business once a deal is signed.

The talks, says Stokes, is at an advanced stage, and is taking place with a large FMCG multi-nationals’ venture capital arm. The valuation, hints Stokes happily, is quite substantial.

Find it: www.ideabounty.com

Reprinted from the September issue of AdVantage magazine.

Research in Motion have finally acknowledged the reason for the near-global BlackBerry outage. But the fault goes deeper than the network alone, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK.

Research in Motion (RIM) have blamed the near-global BlackBerry outage, now into its fourth day, on a core switch failure.

“The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure.” it said in a statement released last night at 21:30 British Standard Time.

“Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible.  We apologize for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed.”

It appears that for a system of this scale, with so many millions of customers, multiple core switches and multiple failover is needed but, due to RIM’s lack of transparency and availability, it is hard to tell whether their backup system is robust enough to handle a core failure. Speculation is rife, and it has also been reported that the databases handling the routing of traffic have become corrupted and need to be restored, hence the long delays.

The most startling aspect of the crisis, however, is how RIM have treated it. They have not allowed local representatives to comment to media or customers, and all communication is managed from the United Kingdom. This communication, however, has so far comprised only brief statements in the first three days of the outage.

The three fundamental rules of crisis management are ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’, along with round-the-clock availability of executive leadership. This has been completely absent in RIM’s case, suggesting not a core switch failure, but a core leadership failure.

Several South African companies have demonstrated powerfully the positive impact of communication and availability of top management, most notably Vodacom and Pick ‘n Pay, not to mention SEACOM (click here to read Tale of Two Outages).

Shareholders in RIM have already been baying for the blood of the joint-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, and their relationship with the media has become all but dysfunctional in the past year. Their lack of visibility during this crisis may well be the final straw for investors.

* Arthur Goldstuck heads up the World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) market research organisation and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. Reprinted from Gadget. Updated Wednesday 4:34pm.