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

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.