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Masterclass Notes: Collaboration & changing role of lead agencies

silhouettes by geralt courtesy of Pixabay.com

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) A seven-member panel of leading marketers met with more than 30 agencies last month at an IAS Masterclass to discuss the thorny, and often misjudged, issue of collaboration among agencies for the purpose of achieving business objectives for marketers.

Sharing their views across a variety of aspects of collaboration were Thabisa Mkhwanazi, KFC Africa public affairs director; Pieter Pretorius, Eskom head of marketing; Candice de Bruin, Werksmans Attorneys head of marketing; Hein Kaiser, Fastjet Africa head of marketing; Anoshi Saretzki, Jacobs Douwe Egberts marketing executive; Rita Fernandes, Jacobs Douwe Egberts head of marketing; and Carla de Quintal, previously head of marketing at Simba/Pepsi and currently an independent marketing consultant.

Interesting

Some interesting points of view emerged:

The brand has to be at the centre of any collaboration among agencies. It can’t be about agencies vying for the top spot; it has to be about the success of the brand.
The big idea may come from anywhere within the collaboration group or agency ecosystem; it’s not restricted to the creative agency
Collaboration is not easy, and isn’t designed to be harmonious; there needs to be some tension, even competitiveness, among the agencies — as long as this isn’t exploited by the marketer
Strategic thinking is the most-important discipline that the marketer requires from its agencies, and the presence of this among the collaborating agencies is of vital significance

What services do marketers require from their agencies, whether integrated or a series of collaborating specialists? The Agency Scope 2017 South Africa study reveals that marketers need, creative, digital, activations, PR and media planning and buying services primarily.

[Full disclosure: Scopen Global and Mazole Holdings (the company that owns IAS 100%) have formed a company in South Africa called Scopen Africa. Scopen Global holds the majority of the shares; Mazole is a minority shareholder. Johanna McDowell is a director of Scopen Africa, as is Cesar Vacchiano, global CEO of Scopen.]

Weakest area

In a collaboration among agencies, the marketers on the panel were unanimous that the weakest area is often the link between the media and creative agencies. This is especially evident among the media-only agencies which are quite separate from their creative agency partners and vice versa. This is when collaboration fails dismally.

I’ve been seeing a growing international and local trend of media services coming back into creative agencies and reintegrating for the benefit of marketers. Media agencies are often the repository of excellent data and strategic thinking.

Is there a role for a lead agency in a collaboration? Historically, the lead agency might have been seen as the creative agency which came up with the big idea and then drove that idea through the rest of the collaborating agencies. That role is a thing of the past, according to our marketers, who expect the lead agency to be the coordinator, rather than trying to dominate the other agencies. For a collaboration of agencies to succeed, everyone agreed that the marketer must create a collaboration-friendly environment in which the best ideas can thrive.

“Professional bullying”

One or two of the marketers commented that they have seen “professional bullying” among the agencies when they collaborate — and the marketers have quickly moved to stamp that out as it’s unhealthy for the group relationships and doesn’t allow good ideas to surface.

Collaboration among the agencies works best when the leadership of each agency is involved, commented the marketers. There has to be a real drive and commitment to make this happen successfully.

Budget and egos are often the source of failure of collaboration among agencies; marketers are aware of this and understand the dynamics at play. They will help and support where they can, as the goal is always better and more-relevant work.

Having large numbers of agency people in collaboration meetings is not advisable, said the marketers. This becomes costly and unproductive, as well as using up resources unsustainably.

Inhouse

And what about agencies collaborating with marketers’ inhouse marketing departments or inhouse agencies? This is to be encouraged, said the marketers, especially as there’s growth in the digital resources within many client marketing departments. Currently, Agency Scope indicates that there’s an average of three digital specialists per marketing department of about 12–15 people. It is anticipated that this area will grow quite dramatically, according to global trends, and agencies will need to collaborate more and more in this area.

Building or supplying an inhouse agency for marketers is becoming more and more popular, where an agency will provide its own people for two to three days per week or even full-time within a client’s premises. Prevalent among the much-larger advertisers, it certainly makes life a lot easier for those marketers. I believe that, with the increasing facilitation of technology, virtual agencies within a client environment might also be an option for agencies to consider as a way to drive closer collaboration.

Finally, integrated vs specialist agencies: clients agree that it would be wonderful to have everything they need all under one roof, but the reality is that this often means that an integrated agency is a “jack of all trades, master of none”. Specialist smaller agencies are often more agile and nimble, said the marketers and can deliver at speed.

Business imperative

It might take up more time to brief all of these different agencies and to coordinate their outputs into one presentation — “on one laptop” — but marketers want the deeper levels of specialisation; hence the need for collaboration among these different specialist agencies is no longer a nice-to-have but a business imperative for marketers.

Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) is managing director of the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS), which is partnered with the AAR Group in the UK. Johanna is one of the few experts driving this mediation and advisory service in SA and globally. Currently she is running the IAS Marketers Masterclass, a programme consisting of masterclasses held in Cape Town and in Johannesburg. Twice a year she attends AdForum Worldwide Summits.

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#AgencyFocus: Dalmatian bounds onto radar

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Over the past six months, Cape Town-based agency Dalmatian Advertising has quietly slipped onto the industry radar — and now, says partner and managing director Gabrielle Weinstein, it’s ready to boost awareness of its brand.

Formed when Domino Digital was bought by M&C Saatchi PLC in 2016 and operating independently as part of the global group, Dalmatian has mostly kept a low profile — but that’s about to change. “We wanted to build something worth talking about, and I think we’re at the point where it is, now,” says Weinstein.

The agency has had a successful 2018 so far, scooping the account for Renault in April, just a couple of months after snagging Protea Hotels by Marriott. The Renault win has allowed Dalmatian to expand its presence in Joburg, she says, putting it on track to achieve its goals of growth. Another noteworthy achievement is its win of the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, a new art museum aiming to rival the Zeitz MOCAA.

“Heading towards medium”

“We’re out of the small and heading towards medium,” says Weinstein, explaining that Dalmatian is ultimately aiming for a staff count of close to 50. She anticipates this will happen with gradual, organic growth through new business wins over the next two to three years — nothing aggressive. “You need to build a business incrementally,” she says. “The agency has an incredible culture, and right now we’ve hit a place where we’re quite stable.”

Though she did not provide figures, she reports that the agency, currently in a revenue band of R15-20m, is growing month by month. She adds that the team, a young one, is also going from strength to strength. Under the guidance of executive creative director, Jake Bester, who joined Dalmatian near the beginning of the year, the quality of its work has improved, she says. “It was always beautiful but it wasn’t as smart as it could have been. I think we’ve really grown in the ‘smart’ area, and I hope we continue to do so.” While changing creative leadership is always a learning experience, she says, Bester has settled in and already added value to the agency’s products.

This may have been one of the factors that helped Dalmatian navigate the loss of its position as the brand agency for Tyme Digital in November last year — something that Weinstein describes as “quite a bump”. But 2018 has been generous so far; in addition to the three major account wins above, the agency has been “doing some exciting work” with Petley’s, plus clients in other parts of the world, including the relaunch of a tequila brand for a company in the US, and branding and digital content for the Matetsi River Lodge in Zimbabwe.

International projects

The international projects reflect Dalmatian’s emphasis on digitally enabled global work. “The word we use is borderless,” she says. “The agencies of the future need to be borderless. I think where you are is going to become far less relevant.” While there may still be some resistance to this idea in South Africa, she believes that the rest of the world is ready for a more-remote approach. “Clients don’t mind where you sit, as long as they get the work.”

The market, says Weinstein, is in a very transient phase, and agencies need to change. “Clients and their way of working [have] changed, but I don’t think agencies are changing fast enough — which is ironic, considering we’re supposed to be at the forefront.” She suggests that one way of gearing up might be increased openness to collaboration with, and respect for, other players in the industry, something Dalmatian (which frequently partners with other agencies) prides itself in. “I think it’s a great way to share learnings, ways of working and approaches, and meet other cool, creative people,” she says. “The industry’s quite small — it’s worth making friends, and clients are loyal but open to working with a number of different experts in different areas.”

Another way to become future-ready is by “playing open cards and being more real with clients,” she says. Working smarter and faster is also important, as is being a bit more agile in agency thinking, she adds. Agility is something that she believes sets Dalmatian apart; the agency, she says, is used to delivering on urgent deadlines. This is a key aspect of its positioning as a boutique creative with full agency capability — in the words of one anonymous client, “small enough to care, big enough to handle any problem,” she says.

“Demands attention”

A further aspect of the agency’s approach is reflected in its name, which people ask about. “In its simplest form,” explains Weinstein, “you see a dalmatian in a park — and it’s the one thing that gets noticed. Our purpose is to create work that demands attention.” As for the park, that could be anywhere.

dalmatianadvertising.com

Office locations: Cape Town and Joburg
Revenue band: R15-20m
Staff count: 25
Key clients: Renault, Protea Hotels by Marriott, Twisp, Kove Collection, Norval Foundation, Boschendal
Services: Design, advertising, strategy, digital

Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with a decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her new column “#AgencyFocus” is an ongoing weekly series updating the market on agency performance, including business performance, innovation, initiatives, the work, awards and people.

Pitching stories to journos successfully — a PR guide

communication-skills-media-training courtesy of Pixabay

by Marisa Louw (@marisalouw) As public relations professionals, pitching stories to the media is a key part of what we do daily. Why is it, then, that I read so many stories about media receiving bad pitches?

What is the definition of “pitch”? It’s an argument used by a person trying to sell things or persuade people to do something. Or, at least, that’s what the Oxford Dictionary tells me. It also says that lobbying is to try to influence or persuade someone to support a cause. In both these definitions, “persuade” seems to be key. So, what exactly does it mean to persuade someone? To make somebody do something by giving them good reasons for doing it.

My Twitter newsfeed often alerts me to journalists writing about PR pros who don’t know what beat they work on. Sometimes they complain about the poor use of the English language. They also write about PR pros not understanding what they need to keep their audience interested.

PR requires strong sales skills

When I was a student back in 1992, I worked at a retail clothing store as a floor salesperson. I learnt that you can’t sell someone something they don’t want or need. If the customer wanted shoes, it was useless trying to sell them a pair of sunglasses.

Before we pitch to a journalist, we first need to identify their need. If they write about current affairs, no amount of persuasion is going to get them to write about entertainment.

Once you have established that the customer wants a pair of shoes, you need to analyse the customer. What’s their style? It’s unlikely that the sporty female will buy a pair of stilettos.

Each journalist has a style of writing or writes about a specific topic within a beat. Not all entertainment journalists write about opera. It’s our responsibility as PR pros to make sure we understand the needs and style of the journalist we pitch to.

After-sales follow-up techniques

Perhaps it’s time agencies send their PR teams [and clients — ed-at-large] on sales training. I’m not a fan of the follow-up phone call after emailing a pitch. If the pitch were persuasive enough, the journalist will use it.

If I check my media-monitoring report and I find that my pitch wasn’t published, it means that my sale was unsuccessful. It’s no use running after the customer if they’ve decided not to buy a pair of shoes. How would you feel if the salesperson ran after you with a pair of shoes you haven’t tried on and aren’t interested in trying on?

What’s important is to thank the customer when they buy the shoes. A happy customer who bought something they need and feel good about their reason for buying it will be a returning customer.

If we, as PR professionals, can learn how to sell and how to say “thank you”, we’ll achieve much better results for our clients.

Journalists are clients, too

I like to think of the journalist as my main client. If I can sell a story to a journalist that their audience would find interesting, my paying client benefits.

When a good story is widely read, the publisher is happy and that makes the editor happy, who wants the journalist to find more stories like that. If the story you pitched had a positive influence on the statistic that matters — readership — the journalist will return to you for more stories. How is that not a win-win situation?

Redesigning the roles of PR teams

If we want to build pitch-perfect public relations agencies, it’s time to redesign the roles of PR teams. Group account directors should focus on client service and team management. Account directors must spend 80% of their time pitching and the rest on mentoring team members. Account managers should focus on content creation and messaging, and some pitching. Account executives and PR assistants must be admin-driven while learning from their mentors.

Pitch-perfect PR is quality over quantity

For me, the perfect pitch comes down to relationships and experience.

When you start out in PR as a young graduate, don’t expect a glamorous job. While you build solid administrative foundations, make time to establish media relationships. Social media makes it so much easier today to get to know a journalist and build a solid relationship. As you advance to the next level, where you become responsible for writing the press release, you’ll know the journalists and understand what their readers want. Your messaging will be clear and focused; that is what your paying client wants, is it not? By the time you move to the point in your career where you become responsible for pitching, your targeting will be precise; quality over quantity.

I would rather pitch one exclusive to a journalist who I know will publish my story than use the spray-and-pray approach and get no coverage.

Marisa Louw (@marisalouw) is an independent PR practitioner. She started her career in marketing in 1996 with an administrative role at Naspers. Over the years, she has worked in marketing departments at multinationals such as Ford Motor Company and Aventis Pharmaceuticals, NGOs such as the Independent Electoral Commission, and agencies such as McCann Worldgroup. In 2011, she went independent.

“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.

Cover Stories: Adjective, Openhouse, Dumbo Feather, Oz, Time, New Yorker

Shane de Lange (@shanenilfunct)’s weekly analysis of media design — both past and present, print and online — from South Africa and around the world:

Local/print: Adjective offers alternative journalism to the mainstream fine art establishment in South Africa
International/print: Dumbo Feather makes a pivotal connection between the economy and the environment, looking towards the cultural future of humanity
Online: Openhouse allows readers to enter the homes of influential creative people from around the world
Iconic: OZ London was a proto-punk anomaly that introduced design to bohemia, and psychedelia to boot
International/print: TIME and The New Yorker dissect a decision made by Trump that has lead to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents

Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @shanenilfunct.
Want to view all the covers at a glance? See our Pinterest board!

Print

Adjective (South Africa), April 2018

Aside from various, sporadic conversations that question contemporary art on the grounds of its perceived pretentiousness and elitism, there are few critical voices that question the relevance of contemporary art today, particularly in South Africa. This is owing in part to the superficial nature of many artistic inquiries, which don’t seem to relate to any kind of meaningful narrative or formal engagement; much of it is just pure image coupled with support from the market and its networks. Artists, gallerists, curators, writers, publishers, collectors, et al — few seem to notice how disconnected contemporary art has become within the broader socioeconomic and politico-cultural context. There’s ample amounts of discourse out there to support this question: one just has to Google something like “is art dead?” and one will find some interesting perspectives from The Guardian, Huffpost, The New York Times, Artsy, Artnet, and the list goes on.

Naturally, this is not a new question; in the past, there was the likes of Jean Dubuffet, who devised art brut to promote what is now referred to as ‘outsider art’ or ‘low art’ (the use of these words is a testament to the narcissism of the art world to this day). So too, dada, neo-dada, and later punk, tried to break away from the confines of the art market and all the élites that it comprises. And there are many more like-minded interventions peppered throughout art history. If there’s one thing that this history has proven, it’s that smaller, independent, less commercial publications are able to help remedy this culture-sapping situation by disseminating relevant discourse to the broader public, outside the small sphere of the art world, on the fringe at best. Such publications can appeal to the broader public while maintaining a sense of significance within the fairly-closed system of the art world.

It’s a difficult balancing act to uphold but one such publication in SA is Adjective magazine, which has recently published its third issue. Edited by Thuli Gamedze and published by Matthew Partridge, Adjective features a diverse group of contributors, from low-brow to high-brow. Although not detached from the mainstream art world, for the most part, Adjective emphasises more-relevant, -meaningful and -relatable topics surrounding art in SA. Interestingly, all the cartoons in the magazine are by Georgina Gratrix.

TIME and The New Yorker (US), 2 July 2018

TIME and The New Yorker are two covers that stand out over past week and more in relation to events that were seeded as far back as 6 April this year, when Trump instituted his zero-tolerance policy towards people crossing the border between the US and Mexico. The tragic result of this declaration has been that thousands of children have been separated from their parents. Segregated children have been detained alone, their only ‘care’ coming from American officials. Centres have been created for detained toddlers and infants, where it’s common to hear crying from children calling for their mothers and fathers. Thankfully, the situation seems to be changing, and American authorities may be halting their inhumane approach to illegal border crossings involving families.

What this situation shows is that there’s a lack of important values in the minds of those in charge on a global scale, including poor insight and zero foresight, not to mention zero empathy. The TIME cover speaks for itself, but the stronger, more-conceptual, narrative here stems from Barry Blitt’s The New Yorker cover. The legendary illustrator captures the sentiment by depicting a group of migrant children trying to hide behind the Statue of Liberty, a historic symbol for many refugees in the past, and an icon for freedom and liberty the world over. The irony is agonising. An insightful interview with Blitt about the cover from The New Yorker’s art editor, the legendary Françoise Mouly, may be viewed here. The interview includes some of Blitt’s nifty preliminary drawings, which are very informative regarding his creative process.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Dumbo Feather (Australia), Issue 55, Q2 2018

William Morris, one of the founders of the arts and crafts movement, famously stated: “Nothing should be made by man’s labor which is not worth making, or which must be made by labor degrading to the makers.” It goes without saying that having joy in one’s labor assists in the creation of culture; it’s at the core of a healthy society, ensuring beautifully crafted, high quality work. With craft being the operative word, the question then arises: If people were surrounded by beautiful things within their environment, made by people who took pride in their work, wouldn’t their lives, at least in some small way, be better? It’s all connected — art, design, discourse, craft — in relation to economics, science, etc. Dumbo Feather is a magazine that propagates this understanding, following the belief that craft can make the world a better place, with an emphasis on passion, purpose, and community.

The magazine provides a storytelling platform in the form of uncensored interviews with global makers (“extraordinary people”) stemming from varying fields, from architects to bankers. Using long, unedited, interviews to reveal these stories, Dumbo Feather showcases these makers as normal people who simply take pride in their labor, in turn making anything from the justice system to neuroscience more accessible and easy to understand. Issue #55, titled “creating the next economy”, to an extent implies Morris’s philosophies, with the cover starting a critical conversation about the relationship between the environment, economics, and the future of humanity.

Online

Openhouse (Spain/Italy/Germany), June 2018

Openhouse is a sophisticated lifestyle magazine that speaks to culture fanatics and lovers of great stories that come attached to awesome spaces. Although the printed version of the magazine is impressive, its online footprint is noteworthy as a travel guide of sorts, alongside being an extremely pleasant user experience with textbook design and execution (the inconspicuous dot in the top left corner of the navigation is a nice touch). The difference here is that Openhouse, as its name implies, features creative people who open their homes to the public, sharing their life, work and experience. Issue 9, titled ‘A Woman’s Touch’, places emphasis on the life and spaces of influential women from around the world, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Alex Carro and Rosa Orrantia, to name a few.

Iconic

OZ London (UK), 1967–1973

OZ was first introduced in Sydney, Australia, during the early ’60s but, debatably, the more-popular iteration of this magazine was its London-based version published during the latter part of the decade. OZ’s all-round editor, in Australia and Britain, was Richard Neville, who released the first issue of OZ London in 1967. From its onset, OZ London adopted a strong psychedelic slant while maintaining the original satirical tinges of its Australian counterpart. A more-refined cultural and political perspective was applied with OZ London, despite its alternative and somewhat hedonistic inclinations. As such, the magazine became associated with the underground press, unapproved and anti-establishment, and great pride was taken in its obscenity trials, the first in Australia in 1964 and the second in Britain in 1971. Each trial resulted in acquittal for the magazine’s management, who narrowly avoided heavy jail terms for what was then considered highly controversial material to publish.

Despite OZ’s anti-aesthetic, the magazine displayed a keen awareness of design, with interesting printing processes used in the magazine’s production, including metallic foils, fluorescent inks, psychedelic wrap-arounds, proto-punk experimental and organic layouts, and the like. Among its other, more-provocative, qualities, OZ was a visual experience, which helped the publication grow to notoriety, and makes it particularly popular to collectors today. Some eye-catching covers include:

#1, which cemented the use of mouths and other body parts on every cover
#3, which was a psychedelic mashup of scruffy bohemianism and the Renaissance (Terry Gilliam would be proud),
#11, which included detachable adhesive labels,
#13, covered in gold, and
#16, the “Magic Theatre” edition, which was hailed the “greatest achievement of the entire British underground press”

Due to its often-controversial content, which included strong anti-Vietnam war sentiments, coverage on extremely alternative lifestyles and other subject matter that would torrent against the flow of the mainstream, the magazine had regular encounters with British authorities. This, alongside serious financial woes, would lead to the declining popularity of the magazine. The final issue, OZ #48, was printed in 1973.

References

Shane de Lange (@shanenilfunct) is a designer, writer, and educator currently based in Cape Town, South Africa, working in the fields of communication design and digital media. He works from Gilgamesh, a small design studio, and is a senior lecturer in graphic design at Vega School in Cape Town. Connect on Pinterest and Instagram.

Cover Stories, formerly MagLove, is a regular slot deconstructing media cover design, both past and present.

SA TV Ratings: SABC 1 — primetime top 20 for May 2018

SA TV Ratings 2018 pics sourced from Pixabay

by MarkLives (@marklives) The hottest primetime shows on SABC 1 in South Africa revealed: TV ratings for May 2018.

SABC 1 May 2018

BRCSA TV Ratings May 2018 primetime SABC 1 — Click to enlarge to view clearly

Source: BRCSA May 2018

In 2016, the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) changed its policy about giving away TAMS and now only monthly reports, highlighting the top 20 or 30 primetime shows on several popular channels, are available.

The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (the BRC) is a non-profit, industry body that was incorporated in 2015 to cater to the audience research needs of the radio and television industry in South Africa.

Media Redefined: The genius of frequency

by Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) How many times do you have to hear a message to understand and remember it? It depends.

World Cup

It wasn’t more than two days into this year’s FIFA World Cup and I started to hear people muttering about getting annoyed by Adam Levine, Maroon 5, Hyundai and “Don’t worry about a thing”. Except that the muttering people remembered the ad, the message, the brand, the song and the singer.

https://youtu.be/DvHpzoqC0Lg

What is going on here? It is the very underrated genius of frequency.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had clients contact me after an ad has flighted for its first or second burst and asked if I think it’s reached wear-out already. Millward Brown studies usually help to allay these fears, but I think even it often falls short of actually how much frequency is required to really land a message.

Perception

There’s a perception that frequency is a blunt and unsophisticated tool that is essentially a brand trying to make up for a lack of creative product to ram a message down the consumers throat. This is probably because the brands that use it are often unsophisticated themselves. Think beer brands — and Donald Trump.

I believe it annoys the liberal world a lot that it can state verbatim exactly what Trump stands for. Make America Great Again, Drain the Swamp & Build a Wall are messages that, whether you like it or not, have landed and stuck. Since the election, multiple times, Trump has used frequency to get people to remember a core message. It’s a brilliant strategy which speaks to a far more strategic mind than anyone is willing to admit exists.

The right time

Radio is often touted as a frequency medium and it does allow for clever tactics that very quickly build high frequency. More than often, it’s not so much about buying multiple spots across the day but finding the time when the targeted consumer is most likely to be in the car on their way to or from work.

I’ve often flighted an ad just once a day at a key time on radio. The ad is heard four or five times a week by the same consumer and almost definitely remembered. This may be a smaller audience but rather that than an ad washing over a broader market once.

The other key to effective frequency is simplicity of message. Hyundai has a single-minded objective that it wants to land during the world cup: Hyundais are innovative and safe cars. It’s not something I would’ve associated with the brand before, but I definitely know it now.

Catchy

And, of course, pick music or a sound that is catchy and positive. There are outer limits to listener and viewers patience.

Every brand should be using frequency in some way to consistently land their core message. It’s a very simple strategy but therein lies its genius.

Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) is managing director of Connect, an M&C Saatchi Company, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Martin has spent 18 years in the industry, and has previously worked at Ogilvy and was MD of MEC Nota Bene in Cape Town. He contributes the monthly “Media Redefined” column, in which he challenges norms in the media space, to MarkLives.com.

Technology — the challenge for marketers

by Andrew MacKenzie (@BoomtownSA) I recall watching a movie, called Groundhog Day, in which a man wakes up to the same sequence of events, day after day. With the rapid changes the world is facing because of technology, nothing could be further from the truth today. We will almost certainly wake up tomorrow with a new platform, feature, or app; this raises a few critical questions for advertisers and marketers: How will we keep up? Should we rush in to adopt? And how do we adapt to these new trends?

Technology

Technology has undoubtedly assisted in the sales process; never before have we had access to as much detailed information about consumers. We just have to look at the controversy surrounding platforms like Facebook to understand the enormity of this. User experiences are also becoming far more immersive (VR and AR are perfect examples). Not only do we have the vital insights into the behaviour of our customers but we also have access to far more touchpoints than ever before.

With this also comes a word of caution: you have to keep the focus on consistent brand positioning and messaging across all platforms and tools. Every interaction influences your customer’s perception of your brand. The explosion in technology has forced marketers to carefully consider how customers are interacting with brands across channels and devices. If we, as marketers, can deliver interactions that are valuable to customers, it helps to reinforce their connection to a brand.

The right fit

With all of these new technologies and channels, it is essential to consider which ones are the right fit for your brand and, even more importantly, the right fit for your customers. Consider this:

75% of South Africans accesses the web via mobile devices, with up to 12 hours of daily media consumption taking place on digital platforms.
Of our 15m social media users in South Africa, 13m are purely on mobile.

Although this is insightful, these statistics are unique to SA, and each country will have a different channel and digital landscape to be considered. What is true globally, however, is that there’s a significant increase in mobile vs desktop usage.

Time

Another significant challenge for marketers is time. Digital media, and social in particular, are tremendously time-sensitive platforms. What is trending now may be gone and forgotten in an hour and it has essentially forced marketers into a time-crunch — we have less time to apply campaigns to more channels, all the while trying to deliver creative that stands out and delivers to that all-important bottom line. It has also bred an age of instant gratification and impatience. A customer won’t sit around and wait for you to deliver your sales pitch; you need to convince them, and convince them now.

Out of the time crunch leaps the next challenge. Marketers have to have the ability to create engaging content that connects emotively with its audience. This agility straddles the balance between making content that feels authentic while still delivering a clear to-the-point message, and quickly. Many brands have adopted the storytelling approach to managing this dynamic, helping to make messages more tangible and allowing for integration across various marketing channels. Content is created in advance, with each touchpoint considered and applied to a specific timeline, ensuring that the brand remains fresh and relevant.

Knowledge and skill

Technology is an ever-increasing demand for marketing practitioners. Our ability to be experts in all these new advancements in technology keeps us ahead of the pack — blink, and we’re left behind. But it also requires the knowledge and skill to determine which new development is right for our clients, and then to filter the correct message and approach for each of these channels, in a faster time than we have ever done it before.

Good luck.

Andrew MacKenzie is managing director of Boomtown (@BoomtownSA), an agency helps companies develop innovative brand strategies that differentiate them in competitive markets. He has over 22 years’ experience in the advertising and marketing industry, from his graphic-designer beginnings through to his current role.

Shelf Life: Certified Lego • Haute Elan pops up in CT • New Mrs Balls TVC

Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new in retail — consumer products launches, retail news and FMCG campaigns!

The yellow brick road leads to Lego
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SA gets its first Lego Certified Store

South Africa’s first Lego Certified Store opens in Sandton City this week, following a multimillion-rand investment between The Lego Goup and The Great Yellow Brick Co. This signals the Danish company’s recognition that SA is ready for a premium toy experience in an exclusively branded retail outlet.

While Lego products are available at independent toy retailers elsewhere locally, this is the first Lego Certified Store on the African continent, too; similar stores are found in 20 other countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, Middle East and North America. Lego Certified Stores are designed by The Lego Group, and adhere to store fit-out and experience guidelines, stipulated by the group to maintain its focus on playfulness and creative experiences, rather than on conventional retail principles. Created as experiential playgrounds for Lego fans old and new, certified stores are meant to offer unique features not seen in independent retailers.

Says Jonathan Sinden, COO of Sandton City’s co-owners, Liberty Two Degrees, “Sandton City is the perfect location for this flagship store. With the recent launch of Sandton City’s Fun District, a level dedicated to family entertainment, the introduction of a Lego Store enhances the centre’s offering for children.”

The playful and personal retail environment aligns well with 2018 retail trends, which include product and experience personalisation, augmented reality, and the popularity of carefully curated product ranges — all of which are key elements of a Lego Certified Store. The Great Yellow Brick Co, founded by Robert Greenstein, Hayley Greenstein and Greg Bergh, will also be transferring the experience of a Lego Certified Store to the online world, offering online shoppers in SA access to the most-extensive Lego range available in the region.

Greenstein says: “We won the license to open Lego Certified Stores because of our extensive retail experience, our understanding of retail trends, and the value we placed on nurturing our relationship with the parent company. The Lego Group is still a family-run business, even though it was named the world’s most-powerful brand in 2017, and holds relationships and a sense of fun and play at its core. We aligned perfectly with this philosophy and look forward to helping South Africans build anything they want to with Lego products, over and over again.”

The Great Yellow Brick Co will open additional certified stores throughout South Africa in the future, expanding its investment and creating up to 20 new jobs per store.

greatyellowbrick.co.za • Facebook • Instagram
lego.com • Facebook • Twitter

Haute Elan brings modest fashion to CT

Modest fashion leaders, Haute Elan, has made its first foray into the South African market this month with an exclusive limited-time-only boutique in Artem Galleria in Sea Point, Cape Town, set to run until 18 December 2018.

Primarily a luxury online eshopping platform with physical locations across the UK, Haute Elan showcases more than 200 emerging, independent, and established modest-wear designers from all over the world. The platform offers a customer-oriented and tech-focused shopping experience, targeting the £2tn Muslim marketplace in particular.

The past few years have seen household names in fashion, such as Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, DKNY, and Mango, launching modest clothing lines. But many have critiqued the ranges, saying Western brands have misunderstand the tenets of modest wear, often only offering shapeless and dull clothing.

According to Roshan Isaacs, Haute Elan South Africa director, this is what makes Haute Elan different to the new entrants into this market: “Founded in 2013 by Romanna Bint-Abubaker, [who had] identified a niche for a truly global platform to present modest fashion, Romanna wanted to showcase that women could be beautifully elegant while maintaining their modesty, whether it be for religious reasons or personal preferences. Haute-Elan receives great support from the South African market. As such we decided to augment the offering to this customer base by bringing the luxury store closer to home.”

Isaacs says that details about the first flagship stores to be launched in Cape Town will be announced shortly.

haute-elan.com • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

Mrs Balls relaunches on small screen

Tiger Brands’ 147-year-old flagship brand, Mrs Balls Chutney, has taken to the small screen to reinforce its stature within the category.

While SA’s favourite chutney currently dominates consumers’ pantries with almost 70% of the market by volume and 74% by value (Nielsen, MAT April 2018), the brief put to FCB Joburg’s team was to relaunch Mrs Balls to gain penetration and grow brand love within the urban black market. The agency’s solution is a 30-second TVC currently flighting on SABC, e.tv and DStv channels. It shows how close the relationship is between Mrs Balls and South Africans from all walks of life, as ‘The Mrs’ turns the moments and meals you like into those you love.

According to Greg Cameron, FCB creative director, the idea uses a classic track and gives it a twist, much like Mrs Balls is a classic in a contemporary world: “The scenes show that, once a person loves Mrs Balls, the bond cannot be broken. There was great chemistry and humour between our cast that came though naturally on the day, resulting in a strong performance.”

Directed by Mzi Khumalo of Darling, with editing and post-production by The Upstairs Ludus and Fuel Content, the TVC features the 1972 R&B hit by Billy Paul, “Me and Mrs Jones”.

mrsballs.com • Facebook
fcb.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • Ramify • Instagram

Shelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things retail. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.

Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.

eMarketplaces & Brands: The ecommerce price point

by MarkLives (@marklives) What roles do brands play in today’s world of ecommerce? How does this impact on how consumers choose products? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on South Africa’s ecommerce market. Next up is Karl Hammerschmidt of RunwaySale.

Karl Hammerschmidt (@Karl_Hamm) has a BComm in finance but his background is firmly rooted in the online world. While working for Clicks2Customers, he was offered the opportunity to relocate to Australia to start up its new office. He also consulted on the digital strategy for the biggest private shopping club in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. He returned to South Africa in 2012 and, together with partner Elmien Smit (now his wife), started RunwaySale, an exclusive, free, members only, online shopping community that provides access to designer fashion brands at discounted prices.

How is ecommerce impacting on how consumers choose products?
Karl Hammerschmidt: From a nascent industry a few years ago, South African online spend is forecast to grow to over R53bn in 2018 and mobile online shopping is set to take the lion’s share. Aspirational brands available online are giving even greater credibility and growth to ecommerce and shoppers have a sense of security knowing that premium brands are available online. In addition, shopping online for clothing is easier if you are buying brands you are familiar with and trust as you know the size you wear.

South African consumers are increasingly status conscious and brands are integral to this. During our six years in business, we have seen how brand loyal consumers are and, in the case of RunwaySale, if they find a brand they covet, at a good price, they will buy it. We currently work with over 500 aspirant brands and with just over 1m members signed up — and 3.5m visitors to our site last year — there is proof that brands are sought-after online, especially if the price point is right.

Ecommerce also provides an additional sales channel for brands — often to a new audience — so it is mutually beneficial for both the consumer and the brand. The days of consumers dabbling online and trying to determine whether an online order is worth the risk are over; technology is helping build confidence in online shopping because consumers can keep track of their purchases from the moment they buy something right through to delivery.

What should brand managers know about online retail through online marketplaces (such as Amazon.com and similar local operations)?
KS: A number of brands has opened standalone stores; while this might be great for branding opportunities, it does complicate the shopping experience for a consumer. You have to visit several stores to find your desired brands. And, if you want to shop around, there are fewer brick-and-mortar retail outlets offering a range of designer brands under one roof. However, some consumers still use a mix of online-offline when shopping — especially in the 18–34 age bracket. Referred to as ‘showrooming’, it means they visit a store to view a product but then make an online purchase.

For luxury brands, brand equity is critical. Online offers brands the opportunity to sell items through an attractive additional channel outside of the traditional retail environment. Our business model offers brands a retail space to help move excess stock without compromising on brand equity. The reality is that every season there are items that don’t move; we are able to help brands sell these items at prices that are attractive to consumers, presented in an eye-catching and elegant online environment in ‘limited time’ events, which moves stock, builds brand awareness and ensures brand protection.

How may a brand optimise its presence in these online retail spaces to make it easy for consumers to find and access their products?
KS: Our business model has been success for brands because we offer ‘flash sales’ or limited-time sales which allows consumers to purchase high end fashion and accessory brands at affordable prices… for a limited period. According to international research, ecommerce transactions often include products not available instore so; to capitalise on this, ecommerce retailers need to focus on featured deals and increase impulse-purchase options.

For a number of our brand partners, online represents one of the few growing channels of sales. The tough climate has obviously meant that brands have had to rethink their approach but, equally, we’re able to bring them a new, young, tech-savvy customer who probably wouldn’t have walked into one of their stores. We also provide an efficient and safer way of clearing slower-moving stock in these tough times. It’s on a different platform and, largely, to a different audience.

We went about identifying the designer brands we wanted to showcase on our site and work closely with them to source products. Our dedicated-buying team coordinates and collaborates with brands in terms of availability, pricing and merchandising. Even though we’re online, merchandising of the product is as important as a mannequin in the window or the item being seen on a rail.

And, in a South Africa, price is key. Online shopping allows consumers to compare and then buy a product at a price that suits their pocket and have it delivered to their door.

Finally, what are your predictions for online retail’s current and future share or retail spend in South Africa, how will mobile change online buying habits, and how will it impact consumers’ offline buying behaviour?
KS: For retailers, ecommerce is moving to mcommerce. We predict that mobile will dominate in the next five years, when around 75% of offline shoppers will migrate to being mobile shoppers. We have seen our mobile sales increase and have had to accommodate the growth in this market, which is now around 53% of our business.

This exponential growth is because: smartphones and tablets are far more affordable; consumers are more tech-savvy; they have become comfortable with online shopping; mobile applications are increasingly user-friendly and customer-centric; and financial transactions are secure. This makes it easier for people to shop, even on the go. Mobile users are proactive and always connected. They use their mobiles in exactly the same way they used to use PCs — from communicating and entertainment to news and looking for deals, shopping and always, always posting about their activities.

Where we will be in the next 10 years is anyone’s guess; online shopping in SA is still small compared to other countries. It’s growing but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend it’s bigger than it is. If you take a lot of categories out of the equation, such as airline tickets and perhaps electronics, you are definitely not looking at a percent of total retail sales coming from online. So, actually, only around 1% of total retail sales are online — we’re smaller than other online markets, which means we need to adapt and work around that.

In the UK, 28% of the fashion market is online which means one in every four dresses is bought online. It will take some time for us to get to 10%, let alone 28% but it does mean we have 10 times the growth ahead of us. There is huge opportunity ahead.

We believe buying online will become more mainstream. It used to be the realm of people who were comfortable with computers but now more consumers are purchasing online. We have found that the shopper demographic has changed, with older people now shopping online — and grandparents are talking about their purchases — so the transition to mainstream is happening.

Ecommerce is a very dynamic environment where innovation, efficiency and instant gratification is the name of the game. The use of digital technologies, in conjunction with changing shopper behaviours, is making ecommerce an indispensable channel — brands wanting to convert online consumers need to focus their attention on convenience, as well as the shopping journey. The ease of entry is growing and brands are taking notice. It is also pretty obvious that mobile is going to fundamentally change the nature of online shopping.

Adnalysis: How rigid should a brand positioning be?

by Bogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) The positioning of a brand is of paramount importance. Positioning, in theory, seeks to differentiate and make a brand distinct from its competitors or competing players. As a strategist, I believe that positioning is the holy grail and foundation of competitiveness in brand building (and I hope that other strategists, clients and creatives in general do so, too). A brand that is uniquely positioned stands a greater chance of ultimately being uniquely communicated. It is, or should be, the launch pad for any brand marketing effort.

But what happens when a brand is positioned in such a way that it limits or stifles its availability or distribution and accessibility to people? What happens when a positioning doesn’t match or meet customer expectations? Should it be altered? Should it still be kept but compromised where and when necessary?

For example, you’ve heard of the famous line that Bentley doesn’t advertise, right? It does engage in brand marketing but rarely does the average consumer come across it as much as other brands in different categories eg whisky.

How strong is a positioning strategy? Re-positioning in order to survive

Below is an example of a brand forced to tweak and compromise its positioning

DStv: Re-positioning in order to be truthful in communication

For a long time, DStv’s value proposition was based on its product. It was the better alternative outside of free-to-air television; it had more content; it had variety; and it gave people access to the rest of the world. It was TV entertainment on steroids. To capture the brand promise, its payoff line aptly read: “So much more”.

To cut a long story short, consumers felt that the promise of “so much more” wasn’t being delivered upon because of all the repeats. For consumers, there was a disconnect between what DStv was saying or promising and what people were actually experiencing. “So much more” literally became a false advertising promise. There’s a saying that a brand is not what it says it is but rather what people say it is. In this instance, according to people, as a brand, DStv was a liar that couldn’t deliver on its promise.

Naturally, DStv had to do something, and it did. It altered the payoff line completely, which meant that its value proposition changed, too, and in turn its positioning was nuanced differently. The new line is now: “Feel every moment”. A strategic masterpiece.

So, DStv shifted its focus from the product (content — emphasising the quantity of the content) to the benefits (the quality of the content — how the product makes you feel and the role it plays in your life). It moved from functional to emotional positioning. Technically, there’s less to argue against here, because the content does make people feel something, whether its love, laughter, pity, joy, sadness, etc — at the end of the day, the consumer feels something. All of sudden, there’s truth in “Feel every moment” vs “So much more”.

The positioning questions

If the positioning of a brand is meant to inform all that the brand does, what happens when markets and competitive landscape change? What happens when consumer demands change? Do we insist on the existing positioning or do we heed the call for a repositioning? Can it be limited in its possibilities? Can or should it be malleable? Should it be flexible? Should it alter, based on what’s relevant and best for the business? Or should we continue to remind ourselves that a brand is positioned in a certain way and thus its DNA shouldn’t be altered?

Can a brand have multiple brand-positioning statements? Is that even a consideration? In today’s world of multiple options for consumers and the proliferations of competitors, is it still relevant and viable to have a single-minded position for a brand? If so, why?

I’m starting to be of the opinion that a brand may have multiple iterations of a positioning statement. A brand may slightly tweak its positioning in the minds of consumers to suit the context. If brands may be likened to humans, and humans are complex, how can brand positioning exercising be simple?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Do you have examples of your own where a brand’s positioning limited its brand-building effort, where it couldn’t do or engage in certain activities and environments because of how it was positioned? Feel free to share!

Bogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) truly believes that advertising can really change the world. He believes that brands, marketers and ad agencies can do even better branding building and advertising. He shares his thoughts on the industry and sometimes has unconventional views. A former committee member of AMASA, an Advisory Council member, a guest speaker and lecturer at Vega, Rosebank College and Red & Yellow, he also does speaker management at TEDxJohannesburg. He is currently a freelance strategist and has founded Thinkerneur, a brand consultancy firm, and is also the co-founder of Melanoid Éclat (for finding black entrepreneurs). He contributes the monthly column, “Adnalysis”, which analyses adland from a strategist’s point of view, to MarkLives.com.