August 2013 Archive • Page 3 of 5 •

[Digital Grandad] Demystifying your huge data Syndrome

Dear Grandpa – does size matter?

I was hoping you could help me demystify the topic around ‘Data and Big Data’. We are a high street retail brand and run a loyalty program and have over 520,000 records in our database that run monthly campaigns with little conversion – but my CEO attended a few conference recently and feels we are not doing enough, don’t have enormous amounts of data and we should be thinking big data. In truth I am not sure what it all means and quite frankly feeling quite insecure. I need to report back next week and advise on what is Big Data. Help.

Regards
Mr Insecure

Dear Insecure

“Big data is huge, its enormous, it’s gigantic, in-fact it so bloody big, its scaring the living daylights out of marketers, sending shivers down CTO’s & CMO’s backs, making some break out in a cold sweat and leaving them feeling very inadequate umm”

But, please don’t be insecure – your not alone! You must have heard the saying “size matters”, but let me tell you son, size doesn’t matter! It’s what you do with it that counts! So lets equip you with the intelligence to verify what you have is good and that you are taking the right steps in what you are doing with your data – let alone if it is big or small data and in doing so, demystifying your huge data Syndrome.

Letter from NY: Agency giants vs Davids — shareholders vs principles?

by Matthew Bull (@StixBull) “Stumbling around like drunks”. These were the words Lord Dan Weiden used last week at the AdAge small agency conference whilst describing today’s advertising holding companies. Little did we know that less than 48 hours later, two of the biggest drunks – to continue the metaphor – would stumble smack bang into each other and end up in bed.

ABC Analysis Q2 2013: MarkLives’ Big Newspaper List

The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period April 2013 to June 2013. Here are a couple of numbers that stood out in terms of newspaper circulations.

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter.

ABC member circulation totals:
Daily Newspapers: down to 1,494,023 from 1,599,299 for the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down to 619,400 from 668,954
Weekend papers: down to 2,205,462 from 2,396,355
Local papers: down to 437,815 from 465,158
‘Hydrid’ papers: down to 165,641 from 166,951

MagLove: Did you even know kykNet has a magazine?

by MediaSlut (@mediaslut) The best international and local magazine covers in MagLove this week: The New York Times Magazine, L’Equipe, Open Skies, Tentações Portugal, kykNET and JSE.

Shelf Life: Appletiser taps into superfood trend

Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.

A limited edition superdrink from Appletiser; Rebranding of the Nerds on a street corner near you; a new skintone range to dream of; and Provantage launches a specialist activation division.

Latest newspaper circulation figures. Yowzer!

There’s blood on the floor in the most recent set of print sales figures – for the second quarter (Q2) of this year that were released this week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations of SA (ABC) – but there are also titles fighting for their lives, street by street, and even winning back a tiny bit of territory.

There are a few newspapers out there that are actually managing to arrest circulation decline – and not just in the vernacular market.

This tells us that it is possible in newspapers today to be interesting and have meaning to people but you have to think very deeply about how to be relevant and you have to work very hard and be very patient about getting there, street by street, block by block.

This is not a traditional battle on open terrain but difficult, complicated urban warfare.

ABC Analysis Q2 2013: The biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA

The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period April 2013 to June 2013. Here are a couple of consumer magazine ABC numbers that popped out for us. We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA!

Total ABC member circulation fell to 6,135,842 from 7,047,759 in the previous corresponding period (and from 6,207,891 in the previous quarter).

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter!

ABC Round-up Q2 2013: Newspapers cont circ decline, consumer mags fall by 13%

Extracts from the latest 2nd Quarter ABC presentation given by Gordon Patterson. Total Newspapers decreased by 33,000 copies compared to the previous quarter. Daily circulation has declined annually by 6.76% since 2009, equivalent to 466, 000 copies. Weekend paper circulation has declined annually by 4.3% (429,000 copies) over the last four years.

The Sell: 50 Shades of Same

by Mimi Nicklin (@miminicklin) It seems to me that in general people like to talk ‘shopper’, and agencies like to claim ‘shopper’, but that often underlying this trendy new money maker is a disinterest from the industry that is so powerful that the discipline is not only an afterthought, but avoided all together.

The perception is that the ‘in-store bit’ is the less interesting, less exciting sister of the rest of the communications mix.Whilst we know this is the final and critical point of actually selling the product, it gets dismissed, forgotten or left to the last minute. The shopper conceptgets left with no time to research, to create or to innovate, with a belief that an on-pack sticker or a busy wobbler will be enough to convert the habitual shopper mom as she flies down the aisle.

In a previous life I may also have fallen into this group of people so I am not totally naïve. I know that producing a TV ad is more glamorous than designing a gondola end, and I know that the photography behind a print adcan, literally, stop one in their tracks. However, I have spent thelast few days wondering why it is that ‘shopper’ in the USA, Europe and even Asia is a discipline full of change and innovation and excitement, yet in SAwe are so often stuck with‘matching luggage’ linked to the consumer campaign that fades into the clutter of retail messaging. Why can’t we see what the rest of the world is seeing so clearly?

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Satirical ads sell the Times

Newspapers have come under increasing pressure recently. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), circulation figures are falling year-on-year for most dailies and weeklies. The exception is, of course, the so-called ‘vernacular press’, with titles like Isolezwe holding firm despite economic pressure.

English and Afrikaans papers have to increasingly compete with digital, and at this stage many of them are in a fight for their lives. Lowe CT, agency for Independent Newspaper’s Cape Times, has produced a spunky radio ad campaign that does a great job (using humour) to market its brand.

Imagine getting people like Helen Zille, Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema to read news articles about themselves. Well, of course, that’s not going to happen, but with the help of impersonators, you can create the desired effect.

The choice of news article is key, and part of the humour is in hearing these voices referring to themselves in the third person. That, and the fact that these impersonators are really top-notch.