Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s pick of new product, packaging and design launches this week: Jack Daniels fashion gear now available in SA; Stimorol steps up activation for students; Energizer promotion gives back; and Danone teaches kids about nutrition and design.
Category archives: Marketing
Fair Exchange: Reap rewards through inter-agency collaboration
by Erna George. Every now and then I cast my mind back to the days when I was a brand manager, and we worked with probably two partner agencies – one handling above-the-line work and the other our below-the-line activities. It was only every now and then that we made use of a specialist, such as a promotions or public relations agency.
Essentially, we would invest a massive amount of time and money to make that impactful television campaign, and all other elements flowed from this.
Fast forward to 2013 and the world has changed. Between social media, PVRs and many other distractions and channels, making that impact has become tougher. And the buzz in the marketing corridors is the need to move (quickly) towards greater collaboration and exchange across agencies.
Today, clients are looking for agency partners that can synergise with other partners. The new exchange is cross-collaboration, and the days of one agency as the only — or the core — partner is over. As an analogy, think back to when Daewoo was selling cars, washing machines and air-conditioners; consumers found it tough to believe one brand could be great at it all. Similarly, it is difficult for clients to believe that one agency can be specialists in every area.
Shelf Life: Escape to Mainstay
Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s pick of new product, packaging and design launches this week: Escape to Mainstay; your chocolates now in ‘3D’ from Lunch Bar; Moving Tactics gets the Revlon account in store; and Continental Ignites the market.
The Sell: What retailers could learn about fan creation from Lady Gaga
by Mimi Nicklin (@MimiNicklin) Globally, the rules are changing all the time and what one might have once thought were experiences to be owned by the music loom and entertainment brands are now creeping into retail. So, while it is harder for PnP that it ever would be for Lady Gaga, there are many lessons it can learn from her fan creation, brand interaction and her provision for entertainment when purchasing her ‘product’.
The Dissident Spin Doctor: Collaboration and the letting go of ego
by Emma King (@EmmainSA) Ours is not an industry for the softly spoken or the faint-hearted. It’s one in which, often, those who make the most noise are the most respected (or at least, the most well-known). And it’s one in which, I often think, success does not necessarily come to those who are the most experienced or competent, but rather those who have an opinion (credible or otherwise) and the confidence to fight for it and execute it well.
Shelf Life: Jack Daniels hits the road with Frank Sinatra
Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s pick of new product, packaging and design launches this week:
Get the skinny on Appletiser; Jack Daniels hits the road with Frank Sinatra; a sunny future for Formula1 Hotels; and, P.S., Cadbury’s has a message for all students.
Africa Style: Inspiration from an unlikely contender
by Masingita Mazibuko. So, I’m stuck in slow-moving traffic when a minibus taxi tears past, missing my car by the smallest of margins, then screeches to a halt … before calmly and remarkably sedately reversing around me to pick up a customer hailing it down. It is not appropriate to pen down the thoughts that engulfed my mind at that specific moment. Relating this near-collision experience to a friend later, the discussion about the taxi industry took an unlikely turn.
One could argue that the minibus taxi is an evil necessity in South Africa, given our scarcity of public transportation. However, when one considers the yellow cabs in New York, the black cabbies in London or the mutatas in Kenya, it is obvious that the taxi as a form of transportation has endured for years, regardless of undulating economic conditions.
In fact, taxis feature in our songs and movies – there was Zola Budd in the 1980s by Brenda Fassie, and the iconic movie Taxi with Robert De Niro in the 1970s was remade in the 1990s, starring Queen Lafitah.
Shelf Life: For art — blood, sweat and tears
Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches:
An extraordinary campaign and product created with real bodily fluids; Magnum ice cream feeds your personality; Yum Yum Peanut Butter goes on a 3D ride; and Primedia has even taken over the changing rooms in store.
BrandAlert: Consumers will pay more for products from ‘good businesses’
by Shauneen Procter. There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
In the world of branding and reputation, this idiom has never been more relevant, particularly when you figure out that the silk purse can be a metaphor for a company or product. No matter what you do, a wallet made of pig’s skin isn’t going to become silk. In branding terms, this aphorism is translated into the understanding that the quickest way to hasten a bad product’s downfall is to advertise or promote it.
The intelligent question, of course, is whether the converse is true: Do good companies perform better than others, and what happens when you promote them properly?
Shelf Life: KFC surrenders the Colonel
Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches:
KFC puts aside its iconic branding to promote hunger relief; Clorets breathes new life into Alex; Google and KitKat collaborate; Brand Union explains the new Vodafone ‘Power of Red’; and Kiehl’s finally opens up in Cape Town.