#CoronavirusSA: Adland responds to #covid19 • 27 Mar–3 Apr

by MarkLives (@marklives) MarkLives is tracking South African and African brand and ad agency reactions and news related to the covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page (opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive). Most-recent announcements will be added on top. This is for 30 March–3 April 2020.

#CoronavirusSA: Adland responds to #covid19 (14—17 April 2020)
#CoronavirusSA: Adland responds to #covid19 (23–27 March 2020)
#CoronavirusSA: Ad agencies, marketers’ responses to #covid19 (16–20 March 2020)
#CoronavirusSA: Event changes, postponements, cancellations (16–20 March 2020)
#CoronavirusSA – Special Section

While we have your attention: Please would you consider taking out a MarkLives membership to help finance our operations? The covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on society and industry. With your support, either as a once-off or monthly contribution, we can continue our coverage of its impact on our industry.

Friday, 3 April 2020

Cannes Lions 2020 cancelled

Cannes Lions has announced that the annual festival won’t take place in October 2020 as previously planned. More details here.

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Inaugural Effie Awards South Africa postponed

#Ramify: 2020 Effie Awards South Africa postponed#paid • @EffieAwards • @ACA_SA https://t.co/tgPfaXit7X

— Ramify (@Ramifybiz) March 30, 2020

The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) has announced that the 2020 Effie Awards South Africa summit and gala event have been postponed and will now take place on 7 and 8 October 2020, respectively. The shift in dates will result in an extended entry period, and new judging dates.

The revised dates are as follows:

Early bird deadline: Tuesday 5 May
On-time deadline: Thursday 18 June
Last-minute deadline: Thursday 9 July
Round 1 judging: Thursday 6 Aug
Round 2/final judging: Thursday 27 Aug
Effie Summit: Wednesday 7 October
Effie Gala: Thursday 8 October

For more, go to www.effieawards.co.za.

Call to reopen trademarks, designs, patents, copyright offices

Bernadette Versfeld, Webber Wentzel partner, has warned that the closing of the trademarks, designs, patents and copyright offices in South Africa over the national lockdown period might have unintended consequences and require reconsideration.

Versfeld notes various examples of technological innovation that have emerged to combat and assist with covid-19, including camera-surveillance technology; drones and robots being repurposed to disinfect hospitals and other high risk spaces; indoor air-purification technology adopted to remove viral material from the air; and the development of home Covid-19 test kits.

“Given the opportunities that are available to business in South Africa, it is a concern that the Patents and Designs, Copyright and Trade Mark divisions issued a notice on 23 March 2020 advising that all internal systems would not be available from Tuesday 24 March from 4pm and will only be made available again on 30 April 2020,” writes Versfeld. “This means that, in the absence of this decision being reversed, it will unfortunately not be possible to file for trademark, design or patent protection during this time. The negative consequences are potentially enormous for those seeking to protect and commercialise their intellectual property.”

Monday, 30 March 2020

Survey to track impact of covid-19 on SA comms industry

If you work in advertising, marketing or related services please take a moment to complete this survey: https://t.co/RwFesGvyyq #covid19 #CoronaVirusSA #adland

— MarkLives.com (@MarkLives) March 30, 2020

MarkLives and HaveYouHeard’s insights department are launching the first South African advertising communications services industry survey to track the impact of covid-19 upon you, your agency/company and the brands you manage. These are unprecedented times with unknown and uncertain consequences and we ask you to share your experience with us as we build a national view of the evolving environment.

The findings will be released as a general overview; results will be anonymous and not linked to any individual or agency. Participants will receive a copy of the findings.

Please take a moment to participate.

WARC Global Ad Trends: FMCG & covid19

A quick look at data from the US released by WARC today:

The global economy is set to fall into recession, with the advertising market likely to follow in the first half of this year — though FMCG brands are better-placed to weather the storm — finds WARC, the international marketing intelligence service.

The February and March 2020 Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) monthly surveys of trading conditions among purchasing managers in private sector companies show the worst results for the services sector in recent history across the US (39.1, whereby a value below 50 indicates decline), UK (35.7), Japan (32.7), the Euro area (28.4) and China (26.5).

The covid-19 crunch is filtering through to advertising; RTL, Europe’s largest broadcaster, has stated that covid-19 is hitting ad bookings, while in the US NBCUniversal also expects a material impact, not least because its Olympic Games coverage has now been postponed. UK broadcaster, ITV, reports the same, notably within the travel sector (5% of its 2019 ad revenue, or £91m) and expects ad growth to be down 10%. JCDecaux is anticipating a 10% dip, too.

Baidu in China advises Q1 revenue will be down by as much as 18%, while other online pure players, such as Alphabet, Twitter and Facebook are also exposed — digital channels are often the easiest to switch off in a time of crisis.

Last financial crisis

The last financial crisis removed $60.5bn from the advertising market, with all media apart from online search recording declines in investment. The market took eight years to recover from this shock after accounting for inflation and currency fluctuations.

A WARC analysis of Edge by Ascential data shows sharp rises in the sale of FMCG products on Amazon in the US and UK over the last few weeks, with growth far exceeding both Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. In the US, sales of hand sanitiser were up by over 650% compared to a year earlier, and 450% compared to Prime Day. Sales of pantry staples, vitamin C and disinfecting wipes more than doubled. Nielsen also recorded sharp rises in grocery sales across all US outlets, notably for powdered milk (+85%), dried beans (+37%), canned meat (+32%), and rice (+25%).

The picture was similar in the UK; sales of antiseptics and disinfectants were up by almost 300% on Amazon, while sales of soaps and handwash trebled. In China, sales of face masks, oral mouthwash, snacks and confectionery and alcohol have more than doubled, according to data from Yimian.

The upshot of increased ecommerce activity is that online players may become more significant as the gatekeepers to FMCG shoppers. For the big manufacturers, this may increase the importance of DTC or subscription offers. Consumers are now ‘living a new normal’, and crisis-buying habits may become permanent behaviours.

MultiChoice’s R80m for current production cast, crew salaries

MultiChoice has set aside R80m to ensure that current productions are able to pay full salaries of cast, crew, and creatives for the months of March and April. “The need to secure salaries of our creatives goes a long way in creating income stability for them and their families” says the company in a statement. “We believe this to be critical for the industry and in our view simply the right thing to do.”

Through the MultiChoice Talent Factory, it will also be launching an online learning portal that will support over 40 000 members of the industry to gain access to courses and online master classes, so they can continue to hone their craft while adhering to the public health measures of social distancing and isolation.

The company has also committed to guarantee the incomes of freelancers at SuperSport Productions, who are currently unable to work due to the suspension of sport and the national lockdown. This extends to guaranteeing the income of freelancers in its broadcast technology environment.

“Our main concern is to ensure as much as possible that we secure the incomes of creatives, cast and crew over this period,” says Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO. “We want to ensure that they and their families are not negatively impacted as work has come to a standstill.”

SA retailers unite in Sunday ad

In these extraordinary times, we all need to work together to serve our fellow South Africans when they need us the most. United, we shall proudly serve. #FlattenTheCurve #UnitedWeStand #21DayLockdownSA pic.twitter.com/F3Dm7tVOo0

— Pick n Pay (@PicknPay) March 29, 2020