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Making the circle bigger — together #diversity

Together with Mandisa Ngubane, Pride Maunatlala, Paula Hulley, Dawn Rowlands

by Mimi Thurgood (@mimithurgood) SheSays Cape Town recently hosted its tenth event, “Together: Diversity and Allyship”, with a virtual discussion on the state of diversity in the advertising and creative industries, and meaningful ways to build allyship between women. Featuring a panel comprising Dawn Rowlands, Dentsu Aegis Network Sub-Saharan Africa CEO; Mandisa Ngubane, Think Creative Africa group account director; and Paula Hulley, IAB SA CEO; and moderated by Pride Maunatlala, TFG marketing executive and SoundingBoard founder, the conversation was passionate, raw and nuanced.

The theme of the conversation — diversity and allyship — is entrenched in our global and South African history of oppression and racism. Maunatlala emphasised the importance of this discussion by drawing on the words of renowned American activist, Angela Davis: “There are only two sides. There’s racist. And there’s anti-racist. The anti-racist is the active human in you that looks for your personal bias and tackles it. If you’re not actively removing bias, then you’re not helping.”

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On brands and their silence

As the world confronts and exposes violent racism and as widespread social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, continue to grow, the discussion started regarding brands taking a stand.

Should a brand act quickly and share a statement of solidarity or activism, even if it’s seen as a hollow gesture? Or should they stay silent publicly while doing the quiet, internal work necessary in every organisation, even if that means the public perception might be that they don’t care? Do the brands that remain quiet do so out of guilt and fear that, if they raise their voices to support the movement, their own flaws would be interrogated and put on public display?

Rowlands summed up this marketing quandary well when she said, “If you don’t have a ‘why’ at the heart of your business that’s inclusive and values diversity, then you’re going to struggle, because you actually don’t have a soul. If you want to be part of the future, you have to go back and look at why you exist.”

Perhaps, then, the question of speaking up isn’t even the most-pressing one. It’s whether a brand that can’t communicate with authenticity and without fear has a place in 2020 and beyond. The consensus is that we’re looking for the conversation. Openness is important and for brands to tell us who they are and what they stand for. Then we can decide if we want to buy a product or service.

On white women and allyship

To build allyship, there needs to be more honesty between women, specifically white women. Do white women speak up or pass the mic? Do they ask questions of their black friends, or have these friends done enough emotional labour already? As Hulley pointed out, it’s about relationships and starting conversations with people you trust.

When white women are silent, is it because they’re afraid of their racist families; because these realities are so removed their lives; or because they don’t feel qualified to speak? Ngubane reinforced that, once again, it hinges on authenticity: “The only way to become an ally is to say, ‘I don’t know where I’m starting from, I don’t know what’s required from me, but I’m happy to learn.’”

She also questioned “cancel culture”. She framed it as toxic because, as soon as someone gets something wrong, they’re completely shut down, which doesn’t allow people to learn and grow. That culture instils fear, causes silence and stops the conversations which need to happen from happening.

Ngubane continued with a message for white women: “Ask us. There’s no such thing as a stupid question… We understand that you want to learn. In the same way that men don’t understand patriarchy as a privilege, a lot of white people don’t understand privilege. We can educate. We can explain. We’re here to help.”

On diversity and allyship in leaders

When it comes to leadership, there were two parts to the discussion. First, on a systemic level, hiring needs to be addressed. While there are diversity policies in place, it can’t be the only requirement. There needs to be an understanding that everyone in the room was hired for their skills, talent, knowledge, point of view and how they can take the company forward, so that nobody can ever say “she was a diversity hire”.

Secondly, on a more-personal level, leaders can’t just hire well and stop there. They also need to represent well. Leaders need to speak to each individual member of their team, find out their goals and help them get there; bring them into meetings, rooms and experiences that will help them grow; and ensure new hires are introduced along with their experience and why they’re a powerful addition to the team to make it publicly known that this person isn’t a token.

Hulley also pointed out the value of sharing success stories, to show others how progress works and to keep up the energy.

Overall takeouts

“Allyship is not self-defined — its work and efforts must be recognised by those we’re seeking to ally with,” said Hulley. Those learning to be allies need to ask questions more often: Did this work? How was that experience for you? Being an ally is not about you, but about those you’re attempting to help. They’re the ones who get to decide your success.

Much of the conversation was around taking action, which Rowlands encapsulated in this statement: “The days for diplomacy are over… If you speak out, offer a solution and empower people around you to take on these challenges, you will get results.”

BREAKING: Media24 planning to close multiple magazines, newspapers

by MarkLives (@marklives) Subject to finalisation, Media24 is planning on shuttering five magazines and two newspapers; outsourcing and reducing the frequency of its remaining monthly magazines; taking two newspapers digital only; and reducing staff in related support services. All of this would be as a result of the covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.

The planned interventions are expected to affect around 510 staff members — with a proposed reduction of close on 660 positions — out of a total staff complement of 2 971, largely across the print media and distribution divisions. The company will start consultations with staff today.

Magazines

According to a press statement released this morning, Tuesday, 7 July 2020, the magazines on the closing list would include Move!, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Bicycling and Runner’s World. DRUM would disappear from print and would now only be available in digital format.

Parenting titles, Baba & Kleuter and Your Pregnancy, would be produced independently by editor Helen Schöer. The remaining monthly titles — Fairlady, SARIE, SA Hunter/Jagter, True Love, tuis | home, Weg! | go! and Weg! Ry & Sleep | go! Drive & Camp, as well as the fortnightly Kuier, would see editorial production outsourced.

All the monthly titles would switch frequency to six issues per year, and eight issues for tuis | home, SA Hunter/Jagter and Man Magnum. Weeklies Huisgenoot, YOU and Landbouweekblad would continue to be produced and published in-house.

Newspapers

On the newspaper front, Son op Sondag and Sunday Sun would both close down. The Eastern Cape edition of Son would also close. Volksblad and Die Burger Oos-Kaap would exit print and be available as digital editions only on Netwerk24.

Four community newspapers in KwaZulu-Natal would also close down, including Amanzimtoti Fever, East Griqualand Fever, Hillcrest Fever and Maritzburg Fever. Noordkaap and Kalahari Bulletin would be consolidated into a single newspaper, Noordkaap Bulletin. Kroonnuus and Vrystaat Nuus would be consolidated into Vrystaat Kroonnuus. Theewaterskloof Gazette would be incorporated into the Hermanus Times.

The group also announced an acceleration of the digital transition of The Witness; it’s unclear what this means for the print edition of that paper over the short term.

The company intends on reducing staff in its media distribution business, as well as in divisional and corporate services departments related to the proposed reduced print media operations.

“Unrecoverable”

“Even with a return to pre-covid-19 economic levels, the impact of the pandemic on our print media operations will be unrecoverable,” says Ishmet Davidson, Media24 CEO. “Sadly, we have no choice but to restructure our business now to curtail the losses in our print portfolio and allow us to focus on keeping the retained titles sustainable and in print for as long as possible.”

Power Report: Don’t let “Can I speak to a manager?” get lost in translation

by Megan Power (@Power_Report) Suggesting that only Karens call for the manager focuses attention on the complainant, instead of the unjust policy or service failing.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Soon after South Africa’s covid-19 lockdown started to bite, a financial provider I’d relied on for many years dropped a bombshell. There’d been an “oversight” in some paperwork finalised by the company a few years back. It would require a huge chunk of cash, notably mine, to fix.

It turned out that the person in charge had unfortunately “missed something”. It took me the better part of 30 minutes to get that person to admit it. Even then, there was scant remorse, or empathy —certainly, no apology. The flippancy and refusal to take responsibility was galling; the exchange that followed was fraught.

Labelled me a “Karen”

On overhearing the tense conversation, my teenage daughter, with tongue firmly in cheek, labelled me a “Karen”. It lightened the moment somewhat but brought home an element of the globally popular meme that’s always bothered me. Karen is a slang term used on social media to describe an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman who picks fights with anyone she finds offensive. According to dictionary.com, the nagging Karen is generally stereotyped as a divorced suburban mother from Generation X. Central to the stereotype is Karen’s insistence on speaking to a manager, usually in shops and restaurants, to lay a complaint. Karen is embodied in a viral meme portraying a woman with an asymmetric blonde bob, known as the “Can I speak to a manager” haircut.

Karen is essentially that clichéd “difficult customer” who tears strips off the coffee shop barista for “disrespecting her choices” by using full-fat milk instead of the requested skim in her latte. The one who calls the health department, and threatens a lawsuit, when she finds a stray hair (likely her own) in a takeaway pizza box.

Some say the Karen persona has neither race nor gender and describes more a type of inappropriate behaviour or attitude. However, Karen is widely considered to be white, female — and racist. Recently, she’s even become a covid-19 meme, used to mock women in the US who’re opposed to social distancing for various reasons. In some circles, the meme has been slammed as classist, ageist and misogynistic. But, regardless of how it’s perceived or used, it’s a trope that’s gained traction over the years and seems here to stay.

If it goes some way to expose rude and entitled bigots, brilliant. If it calls out racism and abuse of power, even better. But if there’s a chance that it could unwittingly prevent people from standing up to harmful consumer practices or shoddy treatment — because that seems like a Karen thing to do — that would be a real pity. Especially in South Africa.

Skin in the game

I probably have more skin in the game than most. I spent six long years as a consumer columnist, using our fairly young but far-reaching Consumer Protection Act to empower ordinary people to understand their rights and call out business when they were undermined. I encouraged them to be proactive, identify transgressions, ask for a manager, and request (demand, if need be) remedy. When and if this failed, I mediated on a customer’s behalf, working with consumer lawyers grappling with ambiguity in the largely untested legislation, to find resolution. These days, I work with customer-facing businesses (from insurers to cellphone providers, healthcare to education) to identify gaps and overcome obstacles in their processes and services. A basic but essential part of customer journey testing involves assessing why and when someone asks for a manager — and what follows when they do.

I worry that some people, especially youngsters, may conflate what they should be doing as active consumers (which includes escalating issues when things go awry) with being a toxic Karen. The “Can I speak to the manager” tag risks sending a message that challenging organisations which fail to provide good, safe products and services is somehow not appropriate. The outcome could be that consumers who’re short-changed, treated with contempt or exploited will walk away. While everyone’s better off not witnessing shopper meltdowns every time a queue’s longer than five people, I’d certainly rather the unscrupulous cellphone-shop salesperson who misled the pensioner widow into signing a R3000 a month contract didn’t get away with it. Or the unethical store manager who refused to refund a student’s dangerously defective gas heater. Or the smirking waiter who body-shamed a man battling to fit comfortably into a restaurant booth.

Suggesting that only Karens call for the manager focuses attention on the complainant, instead of the unjust policy or service failing. If calling a manager to voice a grievance is perceived as hysterical and something only horrible people do, where does this leave sincere, and often disadvantaged, consumers who need to escalate a complaint but are now uncomfortable doing so? It unfairly restricts consumer redress; forcing them into conflict with employees, often with little hope of resolution. It conveniently shields middle management and executives from criticism and accountability, too. It’s tempting as well for lazy or disingenuous organisations to use the meme as a tool to justify the dismissal of well-placed consumer indignation.

Context, nuance and subtlety

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that everyone in the audience recognises the difference between the haughtiness that informs Karen’s demand to see a manager and the exasperation that pushes an embattled consumer to call for the ear of someone senior. Understanding the distinction requires context, nuance and subtlety, usually not the strongest features of social media echo chambers.

I see the Karens out there. I also see the millions — silent and nameless — whose rights continue to be systemically trampled on by corporates and businesses which have no shame. It’s precisely why consumer activism and advocacy work remains so important: the vast majority of consumers in SA, including the most vulnerable, tend not to call a manager.

They, and the generation of consumers who follow, should be continually encouraged to do so. Outspoken consumers force change, both big and small. That we can now buy covid-19 face masks and sanitisers at normal prices is thanks to brave and determined consumers who, very likely, complained to a manager before taking allegations of price-gouging to the authorities. These are consumers who refuse to be victims of corporate greed at a time when communities are at their most vulnerable.

Anyone whose thoughtful and considered actions could lead to a fairer deal for consumers should take the opportunity whenever they see it. Not only for themselves but for those not yet able, or willing, to do so. It doesn’t make you a Karen. It makes you the antithesis of one.

#AdForumSummit: The now and the next with MDC Partners

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) The fifth virtual session of the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 on Friday 3 July kicked off with an introduction by Ryan Linder, MDC Partners global CMO, who advised that advertising and marketing holding company, MDC Partners, is in a time of of deep strategy, planning its future and knowing that the human spirit is alive and well.

The past 17 weeks

He showed us what happened within the group over the past 17 months and over the past 17 weeks during covid-19. Its question to itself has been: how does it fight this fight quietly? What it did was to run its daily Harris Poll research on a pro bono basis throughout the 17 weeks in order to gauge consumer sentiment, societal unrest and fear of illness. The results were shared — freely — with industry, clients etc and the value of this research has been US$1.7m. The results have been regularly reported throughout its own network in order for its agencies to respond and assist their clients. Research details are at hub.mdc-partners.com.

MDC Partners positions itself as a modern agency-holding network, with most of its agencies being “born digital”. It has 70+ of the world’s most-awarded, specialty global agency partners, such as Forsman Bodenfors, Anomaly etc. There are 9 000 people in the network, with 70 agencies across 32 countries.

Intentions

Mark Penn, MDC Partners CEO, informed us about its intentions of creating a co-operative and collaborative environment, with the combination of data and creativity being at the core of the group. Penn, who’s also Stagwell Group CEO, has been merging the two groups together over the past 17 months, integrating their services and growing the business.

He posed the question: What are consumers struggling with at present? Fear and desire are the answer, and, at present, fear is trumping desire.

US consumers have two ways of getting through the crisis and about 50% is coping and 50% isn’t, according to the poll. Generations facing this crisis have the same fears and Penn remarked that the older generation is tending to face this more stoically than the younger millennials, although the fears are the same.

Trust

Whom do consumers trust?

The companies and corporations which have continued to deliver throughout the crisis
They don’t trust government at all

Eighty-two percent of US consumers fear leaving home. Imagine the impact on companies such as airlines, hotels etc. While some companies have dealt with the crisis very well, others are failing, depending on their category and their attitudes.

The now and the next:

How do we keep our current customers?
How do we get our old customers back?
How do we convince our customers that our product is safe?

Q&A

We then went into Q&A and an interesting comment was made about data. It’s become more important than ever before and, because consumers are mainly at home working, they’re adding more and more to the “data lake”. What’s important however, is that the data is analysed by human beings to arrive at the insights needed to bring about change.

It ended its very impressive session, which was refreshingly free of jargon, with its latest reel of work.

Our next session will be with three independent agencies, as well as a feedback session with all 105 pitch consultants, today, Monday 6 July.

Clicks ’n Tricks: Shop ’til Facebook drops you #coronavirusSA

IG shop checkout with troy-horse-trojan-war-greece by Darelle courtesy of Pixabay

by Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA) Facebook’s recent announcement that it’s launched Shops to help businesses sell products on its platform has been heralded as great news for small business owners reeling from the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic. But merchants may wish to take note of Facebook’s chequered history before rushing to embrace this new service.

What is it?

More on that in a moment. But, first, what is Shops?

Facebook Shops allows traders to set up a store which may be accessed via both Facebook and Instagram. Customers may either purchase products directly within the app or click out to a conventional ecommerce store.

It’s not the first time the company has tried ecommerce; it had a series of fails before launching Marketplace in 2016 and bringing in app purchases to Instagram (IG Shopping) last year.

While neither took off in the way Facebook would’ve hoped, this latest move has much greater potential for the Menlo Park giant in that it ties together a number of separate features that, in time, is likely to create a very compelling value proposition for its shareholders.

Freemium — with a steroids booster

What’s so smart, and potentially dangerous, about Shops is that it reinforces Facebook’s core business model which is founded on highly targeted advertising. It’s a freemium model but this play is freemium on steroids.

While there’s no cost to set up a Shop, entrepreneurs will have to spend serious money on advertising to drive traffic to their virtual stores. For those in bricks and mortar retail, it’d be a bit like having JCDecaux as your high-street landlord.

The move also provides Facebook with a foothold in the burgeoning ecommerce market as it’ll take a cut from the transaction fee when customers check out. This should be cause for concern for banks, payment gateways and anyone in the broader payment processing space — particularly given the likelihood that Facebook will take the opportunity to punt Libra, its much-derided crypto play, as an alternative payment method.

Shops will encourage further usage of WhatsApp and Messenger, too, as consumers enjoy the benefit of integrated live-chat services for customer support.

Another Zucker?

Although Shops must have been in the offing for a long time, covid-19 has accelerated a global adoption of online shopping, so the timing of this announcement must have had Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, rubbing his (hopefully frequently washed) hands with glee. It gives him an opportunity to reimagine his business and generate a good bit of PR. And that’s been hard to come by in recent times.

But, for a company that’s hardly renowned for its altruism, it remains to be seen how long the halo effect will last.

A number of years back, Facebook courted publishers in the same way it’s now appealing to merchants. They supported the platform and, over time, saw it gobble up their audiences and their advertising revenue. Will it do this to retailers? One merely needs to look 1 000km up the coast from Facebook HQ to Seattle, where Amazon has come under fire for playing fast and loose with its merchants’ data to bolster its own label product revenue. While Facebook has no known plans to sell its own products in competition with its Shops proprietors, it hardly has an unblemished record when it comes to the nefarious use of customer information.

If I were a merchant, I’d certainly look at Shops. But I’d do so in the same way I’d check out a Trojan gift horse. It definitely looks enticing. Perhaps it’s the real deal. But, maybe, as Helen discovered to her peril when Odysseus laid waste to her city, it ain’t.

Dear Radio: Covid-19 accelerates change in radio #coronavirusSA

by Paulo Dias (@therealptp) From the dawn of 2020, it was evident that change was coming to the way we thought of radio and audio marketing.

Evolution

Advertisers had moved beyond the 30-second spot and, to keep the ad rands on radio, we had to improve measurement, add more visual and innovate with products such as sonic branding and 3D production. The listener had evolved: Gen Z, those born from mid-’90s onwards, moved towards radio and compounded the challenge of now juggling three diverse audiences — boomers, millennials and Gen Z — with differing tastes in music, presenters and world view on one platform.

Little did we know that the change would be completely out of our hands as first covid-19 and then uprisings in major cities around the world brought forward changes in thinking, attitudes, behaviour and technology that otherwise would have taken 3–5 years to achieve.

People keep asking me what radio could look like in the future; if I had the answer to that, I would have the keys to the proverbial billion-rand question but I’ve noticed some initiatives and campaigns across the world of radio and audio that could point us in some sort of direction.

Early in lockdown, I spoke to a comedian about their industry. I wondered how a sector so popular in South Africa, and one of the most-listened to podcast categories, intended to survive? Naturally, many of them went virtual and even had the benefit of ballsy sponsors supporting them, but every comedian will tell you that, to perform, you need an audience. What do you do when you can’t hear the laughter?

Canned audiences

One answer may be to ‘can’ it!

The Infinite Monkey Cage is a comedy show on the BBC that records in front of a live audience, which already makes it unique as far as radio goes. The audience is so key to the show and, faced with the prospect of no audience for a while, that it, too, turned to Zoom sessions with over 100 people in the virtual audience. The audience was then prompted to laugh, applaud and cheer at various points, which they would have been asked to do during the studio recordings anyway, which was then mixed down into the final show with the hosts.

When listening to episodes recorded live pre-lockdown and the new virtual ones, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference and, if you did not know the background, you wouldn’t even pick it up. Sure, it now takes four times longer to produce the same show but, right now, when we’re all pulling out tricks we’ve wanted to try for a long time, it’s a valuable exercise and one that is appreciated by the audience.

No one can judge any audio show that’s recording at home, over Zoom and Hangouts, and most people are appreciative of the content but it’s refreshing to find one that’s refused to compromise on the one thing that makes the show stand out. It’s audience.

#BlackLivesMatter

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, radio stations worldwide are looking at what they can do to right any wrongs. Lineups, playlists, content, events and even branding are being reviewed. Calling stations “urban” has been a long-used throwaway to describe a station but many are starting to remove that moniker from their call sign as we all review the language we so casually use.

Any station looking for inspiration won’t go wrong by clicking on theresnosignal.com. The online station started out casually as a mouthpiece to promote events around London but, as lockdown progressed and ended all those events, energy turned to the broadcast and the station brought in a more-diverse mix of DJs, contributors, producers, emcees and curators to create a movement that sees the station reach hundreds of thousands of people in 99 countries around the world.

Nigeria, Ghana and Jamaica make up large portions of the audience outside of London and listeners will experience an eclectic mix of music from Ghanaian hip-hop to 70s Afro-jazz and reggae.

It became the unofficial voice of the London Black Lives Matter marches and you should keep an eye on this station because it promises to be the biggest disruptive radio outlet in decades, and something we can all take inspiration from.

Podcasts

While podcast listening has remained flat during lockdown, production of podcasts boomed. During the worldwide lockdown, the one-millionth podcast series was added to Apple Music.

“God help us,” I hear you say. Just what the world needs: more rambling opinion from mealy-mouthed podcasters who spend the first 10 minutes saying hello to their guests, and other significant periods selling me mattresses and wix.com websites. Fear not, because Batman and Superman are coming to the rescue.

Spotify is continuing its quest to become the podcast leader and hoovering up podcast properties left, right and centre. It’s signed an exclusive deal with DC to produce podcast serials for its properties. The podcasts will follow a narrative format and will hark back to the radio serials of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, featuring Superman and his cast of super-friends. I’m a nerdishly big fan of those and look forward to the new versions. Marvel entered the podcast space about 18 months ago with the excellent Wolverine series and, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Joe Rogan, who hosts the most-listened-to podcast in the world, will move his show to Spotify soon, continuing many predictions that Spotify’s going to reroute the podcast conversation internationally and locally entirely.

True pronunciation

Finally, a ’80s-related story to warm your heart (ok, probably only mine): The worldwide appeal of radio knows no borders as a radio contest in Singapore can reach into the heartlands of rural Buckinghamshire — whip up a (Spandau) ballet of emotions and I can assure you that every word of that story is… true (only ’80s music fans will get that).

Anyone who’ve ever produced a radio contest has made a boo-boo, typically with an incorrect quiz answer. Luckily for me and the many I made in my younger days, these were easily resolved behind the scenes and didn’t need to involve a super-star from four decades ago.

A Singapore radio station, Gold 905, was running a mystery voice campaign (get all the voices right, win cash). Dedicated listener Muhammad Shalehan tracked the game every day and finally got on-air to play, confident he’d all the correct voices, only to be told he got one of them incorrect. Disappointed, he continued listening until the prize was won — by a person who gave exactly the same answers as he did.

On querying the station, it told him that he hadn’t been given the prize as he’d mispronounced the name of Tony Hadley, the lead singer of Spandau Ballet. Evidently not one to go down without a fight, Shalehan reached out to Hadley with his predicament and guess what? Tony replied and who better to tell you that you’ve pronounced his name correctly than the man himself. The radio station corrected its error, awarded Shalehan with his cash prize and he will now be a VIP guest of Hadley when he tours Singapore, whenever he can resume touring.

#Transformers: Transforming startup culture [video]

by Charlie Mathews (@CharlesLeeZA) The success culture that surrounds startups is killer when you’re crushing it, but the pendulum may swing to utter despair when you’re struggling. This is why a pragmatic, centred approach to building a business is transformational. Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski is a true master of scale who helped Uber grow. Here’s his sure-fire process for creating products and services with a solid product- market fit.

Entrepreneurial adventure

Starting a new business venture or brand is one of the hardest things that a human being can do. Yet it’s also one of the most-thrilling, and -rewarding. On an entrepreneurial adventure, you’re likely to journey through the long night of the soul, question everything you know and reinvent yourself. More than once.

“Transformers Transform 2020” is a special series produced by MarkLives and HumanInsight and sponsored by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), running Jun–Sep 2020. Our objective is to explore and map new paths for brands and marketers to transform, adapt and build resilience while the world adapts to covid-19 and its resultant social, political and economic toll. This is an independently managed, journalism-driven research project.

Being an entrepreneur exposes people to risk, largely because the failure rate for startups is so very high. Research by Failory reveals that, in the time you took to read the intro to this story, at least 40 new startups were created [pre-covid-19 — ed-at-large]. The Ultimate Startup Failure Rate Report for 2020 showed about 137 000 businesses were being created daily. That’s some 50m in one year. But here’s the crunch — only 10% succeeded. Ninety percent didn’t make it, which meant 123 300 new businesses fail every single day.

Failure has a bad rep

In a world obsessed with material success, failure casts a bruising shadow. The important question to ask is what happens to the founders of the hundreds of thousands of failed firms in their more-desperate moments? This is why demystifying success and failure is critical, if not life-saving.

Success culture can be toxic and punishing, particularly given business journalism so seldom unpacks the crushing disappointments. But Failory is a collective where mistakes become teaching stories that enable entrepreneurs to learn from others to avoid more pain.

Community is important because it reminds entrepreneurs that they aren’t alone — that asking for help is okay, particularly when life or business doesn’t work out. There’s a blog related to this that every founder should read. Written by Sean Percival, it tells the entrepreneur-cum-author’s struggle after he helped a founder who then took his life. When it’s not all good, ask for help scratches hard at the underbelly of achievement and details the depression and despair that founders can face.

“To the other founders out there, please know this if nothing else:” the author and former Myspace VP of online marketing. “Having a startup today is not about crushing it. It’s about not getting crushed. We are always on the brink of making it big or losing everything. Your company sits atop a pendulum, and you won’t be able to control how it swings. Every other founder and startup is going through the same challenges you are. You are not alone.”

Success culture can prove toxic

Another blog about being a CEO, The Show, writes about this continual one-upmanship and ceaseless striving to appear successful. “We all know why we put on the show of course. We’ve all heard the importance of putting on a brave face and acting ‘as if’. But it seems to me the show has reached proportions that would be comical if they weren’t so tragic,” writes Francisco Dao, Impossible Trips founder, adding, “Every day I see entrepreneurs posting about ‘hustling 24/7’ and ‘can’t stop, won’t stop’. I’m sure they mean well, but for everyone out there who’s struggling, watching others put on a better show just adds to their feeling of inadequacy. For many, watching the show just hurts.”

This is why one of the most-useful experiences I’ve ever had as a serial entrepreneur was an ‘intensive’ hosted by Heavy Chef on growth, presented by a true master of scale, Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski, who consulted with Uber in its earlier days. The VC and serial entrepreneur has developed a pragmatic process for developing a minimum viable product. This process forces entrepreneurs to think long and hard about product-market fit, and how to mature services or goods that hit a market sweet spot.

A pragmatic guide to product-market fit

Economies are underpinned by supply and demand, which means building a brand is about creating what that customers want. Luna-Ostaseski’s thesis is that people buy stories, not products, and it’s an eight-step plan for building a compelling narrative and seeing whether your idea will fly.

Create an ideal customer profile by truly understanding your market
Identify your customer’s top three pain points, the very problems your brand will destroy
Show me the $$$$ (money, time, resources) of the problem/cost of apathy
Define the status quo — what’s the context you’ll operate in
Contrast the old and the new — define the usefulness you’re bringing to market
Define your proposition in 25 words or less
Deliver empirical evidence of your ability to crush said customer pain points
Build real customer stories of why you’re wonderful

Interview

In this interview, Luna-Ostaseski looks at why product market fit is so important, without which one doesn’t have a workable business model. The interview was conducted by Fred Roed, Heavy Chef founder, whom we thank for sharing.

#AdForumSummit: Laws of culture with Omnicom’s Sparks & Honey

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) Instead of the Omnicom Group hosting the fourth virtual session of the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 on Thursday 2 July with all of its agencies, it opted to focus on one of its specialist agencies, Sparks & Honey.

“Culture-centric”

This agency, which was started eight years ago, is a “culture-centric organisation with the ability to transcribe the cultural zeitgeist into hard numbers and trackable metrics”. What does this mean?

It has Q, a system that collects data — big data and human data — from more than a million global data sources in over 140 countries in over 50 languages 24/7. It then can relate this data to a topic or to a brand, and it looks at what’s influencing culture. This is all done through algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI), and then the agency will apply predictive analytics to see what might happen in the future.

The AdForum pitch consultants were suitably impressed — dazed, even — and when Sparks & Honey conducted a demo in order to show us the practicalities, we chose health and wellbeing as a topic. The agency ran the Q system, then related it to Johnson and Johnson as a company to see what came up.

This kind of tool is useful to and is used by many of the agencies in the Omnicom Group, plus Sparks & Honey has its own direct clients and works on a licensed subscription basis. The agency always recommends that both agency and client subscribe to the system together so that they may constantly share data, insights and future predictions. We queried if there were privacy issues in the collection of this data and we were informed that it only collects data that’s in the public domain.

Laws of culture

We were shown a case study on a global spirits leader and then we learned about the laws of culture.

Culture:

Is horizontal
Moves at multiple speeds
Operates in three distinct layers
Is chaotic but can be structured
Has patterns that become visible to the trained eye
Exists as tensions
Requires perfect partnership between humans and big data

Lastly, culture-centric organisations require augmented humans to work in a world of accelerating change.

It was intense to cover all of this in 60 minutes, plus some questions from the consultants. The questions did help, however, to demystify what was a complex topic.

Our next session will be with MDC Partners today, Friday 3 July.

#AdForumSummit: Humanity, ecology & technology — Havas Creative

AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 Havas Creative session collage

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) The third virtual session of the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 on Wednesday 1 July was with Havas Creative, and the team included: Chris Hirst, Havas Creative Group global CEO; Tracey Barber, Havas Creative Group global CMO; Vicki Maguire, Havas London CCO; Laura Maness, Havas New York CEO; and Bre Rossetti, Arnold and Havas Media Boston chief strategy officer.

Hirst told us pitch consultants that Havas Creative has identified some major trends and that humanity, ecology, and technology will be the deciding factors for customers to select brands and, indeed, even for marketers to select their creative agencies.

Havas facts

Havas is owned by Vivendi; it has multiple business disciplines within the Havas Group; and Havas CX and Havas Global production will be launched later this year. Plus June 2020 is a very different world to December 2019.

Rossetti focused on the overall philosophy for Havas, which is about “Meaningful Brands” and the ongoing research that it conducts:

77% of brands could disappear and no-one would care
Brands overpromise and underdeliver
84% of consumers thinks that brands and companies should communicate more honestly

A case study for client, PUMA, and its relationship to basketball was featured to illustrate these points.

Meaningful creative

Maguire commented more about meaningful creative, and the agency had set up a microsite for AdForum where we could access her choices of meaningful work produced by Havas. She is a recent addition to Havas London and she explained that she joined because of the Havas value system and the opportunity to do more purposeful work.

Laura Maness focused on some client highlights, notably for its global flagship client, Reckitt Benckiser:

19-year partnership
14 power global brands
Presence in 100 countries
150 brands
Committed to cause-worthy advertising and marketing

New business

Tracey Barber focused on the new-business track record for the agency in the past year and a half:

18 months ago, Havas was on 20% of new-business pitch lists
Now it’s on 65% of new-business pitches split as follows:
- 30% integrated
- 25% PR and brand
- 20% CRM

In 2020, it has already won 210 pitches, many of which have been supported by the agency’s new capabilities:

Social and content
Public affairs
Multicultural
Brand and management consultancy

Q&A

During the Q&A session, Hirst advised that the agency’s lasting effect on client business as a result of covid-19 will follow the thread of humanity, ecology and technology.

Consultants noted a big shift in the Havas offering and success rating.

Prior to the session, Havas ensured that all of us had received a highly relevant gift of masks and a message from the local producers. IAS consultants each received a package of three delightfully designed masks made by the women of POWA, along with a suitable message. Very special.

Our next session will be with Omnicom Group today, Thursday 2 July.

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Public United launches new Cape Town agency

by Herman Manson (@MarkLives) Joe Public United is returning to the Mother City with a new agency, Joe Public Cape Town, which will be led by Brendan Hoffmann (@brendanhoffmann) as executive creative director and Matt Quarta as integrated strategic planner

Hoffmann rejoins Joe Public after 11 years. Until October 2019, he served as group creative director for Machine_ (formerly Publicis Machine). Quarta, who brings extensive expertise in the digital landscape, particularly in data and analytics and brand and communication strategy, has been with Joe Public since early 2017.

Cape Town will operate as an independent agency within the group, with its own character but sharing group values, vision and purpose; it will pitch independently for new business. According to Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public Johannesburg CCO, the expansion into the Cape Town market fits the group’s growth purpose. Plans were already in place pre-pandemic, and the group decided to continue with the launch despite the unpredictability of the long-term impact of covid-19 on the economy. He confirms that an anchor client is already in place but is unable to reveal who at this stage.

Diversity

Dyeshana is also committed to building diversity within the new office, saying this is at the heart of Joe Public’s product offering — his opinion is that the more diverse the office, the more unique that product becomes. Cape Town remains a dynamic market, he says, and Joe Public believes it can bring a unique creative and strategic view to clients based in the city. [Joe Public United recently announced that 60% of the group had been acquired by black shareholders, including senior agency executives Dyeshana, Khuthala Gala Holten and Mpume Ngobese, as well as equity investment company, Senatla Capital.]

According to Hoffmann, he’d always wanted to return to Joe Public United, which he sees as his creative home. The group puts creativity and growth at the centre of its offering, he says, rather than simply being a business that happens to be creative.

The new agency hasn’t established a physical office as yet and there’s no real rush to do so, as 90% of the Joe Public United team is currently working from home. Hoffmann will look at shared office space down the line.

The agency will properly establish itself with its founding client and grow from there. Like Dyeshana, Hoffmann believes there’s a gap in the Cape Town market for the Joe Public offering made accessible to local clients there, and that the agency will build itself into a medium-sized business with a handful of medium-sized clients over the next three years.

On brands and their silence

On white women and allyship

On diversity and allyship in leaders

Overall takeouts

See also

Magazines

Newspapers

“Unrecoverable”

See also

Labelled me a “Karen”

Skin in the game

Context, nuance and subtlety

See also

The past 17 weeks

Intentions

Trust

Q&A

See also

What is it?

Freemium — with a steroids booster

Another Zucker?

See also

Evolution

Canned audiences

#BlackLivesMatter

Podcasts

True pronunciation

See also

Entrepreneurial adventure

Failure has a bad rep

Success culture can prove toxic

A pragmatic guide to product-market fit

Interview

See also

“Culture-centric”

Laws of culture

Culture:

See also

Havas facts

Meaningful creative

New business

Q&A

See also

Diversity

See also