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Shelf Life: Purple Pongrácz • New Chappies facts • Seltzer Essence

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

Bubbly in demand
Fact-finding wins
Seltzer’s new range

Bravo Design creates purple Pongrácz

South African Méthode Cap Classique (MCC), Pongrácz, recently launched its first-ever demi-sec, in an elegant purple-hued bottle designed to stand out on shelf, to meet the growing local demand for bubbly as a drink of choice not reserved for special occasions only.

Noble Nectar is a demi-sec blend of pinot noir and chardonnay that introduces a sparkling wine or MCC with a subtle sweetness but is not as overpowering as a semi-sweet (doux) MCC. It is up against the demi-secs of Graham Beck, Krone and Simonsig Kaapsevonkel.

According to Jackie Olivier, Pongrácz marketing manager, there’s a growing demand for bubbly in general: “Medium-sweet MCCs are incredibly popular. These bubblies that are slightly sweet lend themselves to a wider audience and also more varied occasions. We wanted to add to the variety of MCCs available to consumers and extend the enjoyment occasions. French champagnes were originally much sweeter than is the case with the dry bruts of today. At the height of the 19th century, the French elite wanted a less-sweeter version that was available at the time and so the medium-sweet demi-sec was born.”

The beautifully shaped purple-hued bottle was created by Bravo Design as a prelude to the sweetness inside: “The colour purple is synonymous with luxury, confidence and elegance, and creates beautiful standout properties on shelf. It also offers something unique to the MCC category with its bold colour, and the design with the vertical lines is inspired by the top-tier Desiderius Pongrácz bottle design that has the vertical lines embedded into the glass.”

The bottle also illuminates when placed under UV light to create some dazzle in night clubs.

Olivier says drinking MCC has long ceased to be a drink enjoyed only at special occasions and over the summer festive season: “It’s become a drink of choice and enjoyed whenever, no matter the season, time of day or location. Winter is also perfect launch timing for liquor outlets to stock and replenish shelves well before the traditional festive-season bubbly boom to satisfy the spike in demand for MCCs over this period.”

Pongrácz Noble Nectar Demi-Sec retails for R149 and is available nationally.

pongracz.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram
bravodesign.co.za • Pinterest

Hunting for Did You Knows?

Did You Knows? on the inside of every Chappies bubble gum wrapper are part of Chappies history and have taught South Africans countless weird and wonderful facts for more than 60 years but, this year, fans are invited on the first Chappies hunt for new facts.

Chappies is sending fans on a nationwide hunt to find 132 brand-new Did You Know? facts, offering 132 R1000 cash prizes along the way. From this week (4 June 2018), local and campus radio stations plus Chappies social media will offer clues that will help fans find the new facts along their everyday routes within select communities — at bus stops, the local store or on familiar landmarks. Activation agency, Tradeway, has conceptualised the hunt idea and will be bringing it to life on the ground in the form of interactive promotions.

Says Keri Govender, Mondelēz South Africa category brand manager for gum, “Chappies has provided South Africans with knowledgeable facts inside their wrappers throughout their childhood, and these 132 new facts will add to the collection.”

Chappies: Facebook • Twitter
tradeway.co.za • Facebook • Twitter

The new Seltzer Essence range

Flavoured-water brand, Seltzer, has added a new offering of Seltzer Essence to its range in an effort to extend its reach into the health category.

The Seltzer Essence range proclaims its uniqueness in the flavoured water market with the statement that it is “surprisingly honest real sparkling water”. It contains zero sugar, zero sweeteners and zero preservatives, and derives its fresh taste profile from natural flavours; it is also endorsed by the South African Glycemic Index Foundation.

Says Kieran Treacy, founder of Seltzer, “This new range adds a taste profile that we believe our loyal customers will love, and that will win many more followers in search of an honest and natural water option. “Families can now confidently enjoy the range’s goodness, knowing that they don’t have to worry about children’s bone or teeth development, and health and fitness fanatics can add Seltzer Essence to their daily routine with no fears of it disrupting a carefully planned and controlled diet or training regime.”

Seltzer Essence is available in three natural flavours — Pink Grapefruit & Strawberry, Green Apple & Mint, and Watermelon & Mixed Berry — in 500ml bottles.

seltzer.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • 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.

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Fragments: Decoding culture — how context shapes meaning

American flag and Castle Milk Stout screengrab

by Marguerite Coetzee. Culture is broadly defined as ‘learned behaviour’. It is the language we speak, the values we uphold, the way we dress, the experiences we have, and so much more. Culture is also a context, a world in which messages are communicated. We can decode these meanings if we first understand the context.

“Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning” —Clifford Geertz & Max Weber

Level one: The symbols

When we try to make sense of something that we see, we first do so by drawing on our existing knowledge. We compare it to what we know; we try to understand it in the framework of our own experiences, memories, thoughts. What comes to mind when you think of the colours red, white and blue? An American flag perhaps? What does this flag represent or mean to you? Do you think of the promise of freedom, devastation of war, 4^th of July celebrations, the country on a map?

Level two: The context

Context shapes meaning. It impacts how we communicate and how we decode meanings from symbols. Someone in America looking at an image of the American flag would interpret it differently from someone in other parts of the world. For someone in America, it might be a symbol of pride, a feeling of home, a sense of familiarity. For someone elsewhere in the world, it might represent ‘the west’, entertainment, the American dream, politics. What would be associated with the flag for an American in the 1950s vs an American youth of today? Our context — our experiences, views, cultural make-up — shapes meaning.

Castle Milk Stout, a South African beer associated with discernment and savouring tradition, recently released a powerful communication, driven by a movement: #GetItBack. What do you suppose red, white and blue represent in the context of Africa?

https://youtu.be/LyFosa50Wcc

Level three: The meaning

The Marvel film, Black Panther, is regarded a significant milestone — not just in the entertainment world but in our lives. Addressing issues of identity, representation, development and politics, the film paints a different kind of picture of an African country. What comes to mind when you think of Africa? The answer would vary vastly if you live in Africa, have first-hand experience of Africa, or if you’ve only experienced it vicariously through images, news, music, stories, and other media.

Black Panther imagines an African country neither colonised nor influenced by the rest of the world. It communicates this not only in the plot, the dialogue, the characters — it incorporates specific symbols, for specific reasons. Did you notice the BaSotho blankets? The Zulu shields and iklwa? The ritual scarification of Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda? Did you notice that the women warriors wore clothing similar to that of the Kenyan Maasai? Did you know that for the Maasai red represents bravery, ferocity and unity?

Our context (our environment) along with our minds (our knowledge) shape meaning. It is when these two connect and inform one another that we can truly make sense of the symbols that we see.

Marguerite Coetzee is an anthropologist at strategic marketing consultancy, Kantar Consulting. Fragments, the latest series in her regular column on MarkLives, explores the application of symbolism and production of meaning in a consumer’s world, inspired by semiotics and semiology (the scientific study of signs, symbols, and communication systems within sociocultural contexts).

Ogilvy announces new brand identity, structure

by MarkLives (@marklives) Ogilvy has introduced a new organisational structure and new brand identity. The newly integrated brand will bring together the three distinct units of OgilvyOne, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and Ogilvy Public Relations, along with various company sub-brands and specialty brands, under a single, unified group with a common identity, positioning, client service model and P&L.

Organisational design

Ogilvy (now minus the Mather) sees a new organisational design that transforms it from a “matrix-managed holding company of sub-brands” to “one brand represented by twelve crafts” (creative, strategy, delivery, client service, data, finance, technology, talent, business development, marketing and communications, administrative, and production) and “six core capabilities” (brand strategy, advertising, customer engagement and commerce, PR and influence, digital transformation, and partnerships) along with a new operating system.

Ogilvy has also rolled out a new enterprise consulting offering called Ogilvy Consulting (built on the the success of OgilvyRED), focused on the areas of digital transformation, growth, business design and innovation, which will work horizontally across all of Ogilvy.

The Ogilvy Group is also establishing a formalised global partnership structure. According to the press statement announcing the rebrand, “[t]his will ensure that the diversity of our leadership — across markets, capabilities, and generations — better represents our brand for the greater good of the company today and tomorrow.” It will also roll out a new global digital platform to encourage knowledge-sharing, professional development and community-networking.

See also: Publicis Groupe’s AI-powered platform, Marcel

New logo

The new Ogilvy logo represents the agility, collaboration and connectedness that the brand is capable of delivering for its clients, according to the agency. “The iconic Ogilvy red has been reintroduced in a brighter Pantone and a secondary palette of gray, pink, blue and yellow has been added to emphasise the company’s desire to modernise, while maintaining, its strong heritage,” the group statement reads. “The Ogilvy fonts have also been recut and customised as Ogilvy Serif and Ogilvy Sans.”

Ogilvy collaborated with Collins, an American branding and design agency, on the rebrand and launch.

“Today, there are more opportunities than ever before to shape every aspect of a brand’s needs,” says John Seifert, The Ogilvy Group chief executive. “The scale and diversity of our global network is the source of our strength. At Ogilvy, we design the components of a brand, create experiences around a brand, and communicate about a brand. Our new organisational design will empower our people to put clients at the center and create sustained brand value on behalf of our clients for years to come.”

Updated at 9.51am on 6 June 2018.

Masterclass Notes: 2018 AdForum Summit observations & trends

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) Here are 10 things that stood out at the recent AdForum Worldwide Summit in New York City, 23–27 April 2018, attended by just over 30 global pitch consultants:

Agencies talked constantly about the “holding-group model being broken” — we (the consultants at AdForum) tended to think that they were parroting comment in the media around the WPP scenario. However, what is true is that the larger holding groups (eg Publicis, Omnicom) have already put some changes in place quite successfully. The smaller holding groups such as IPG, HAVAS and MDC are already quite nimble in their approaches.
More and more client reviews tend to be project-based as opposed to agency of record (AOR) based. Our recommendation here is that agencies take up the project opportunities, form relationships with their clients and then suggest more work. Clients are reluctant/ nervous to change everything in one go — even if they would like to.
Agencies’ greatest competitors are the clients’ in-house marketing departments themselves. Clients are building more and more capabilities in-house.
Blockchain technology offers the opportunity for media agencies in particular to supply secure data and proof of appearance, and we saw of examples of this. We believe that blockchain will be used more and more in the industry as time goes on. Immutable tech, immutable ledger. Advertising and blockchain are an inevitability as it works by consensus and self-regulation — good for brand safety. It’s why Bitcoin has worked.
Technology is becoming closer and closer to us; the next stage is for it to be in our bodies, eg counting the calories while we eat? The possibilities are endless for our health and continuous monitoring of our organs.
While there’s a lot of discussion about the threat of the business consultancies, which might take over agency work, the truth is that these consultancies (McKinsey, EY, KPMG etc) make their money from audits. To dabble in the world of marketing doesn’t make a lot of business sense. And, while companies such as Accenture are buying up creative agencies, we’re not sure that this is going to produce the result originally envisaged. The jury is out on this.
Conflicting brands in the same agency is less and less of an issue. Clients are prepared to sacrifice exclusivity for the benefits of specialisation. This is happening across the board, not only in digital and media agencies.
The rise and rise of tech.
1. By 2020, 50% of all internet searches will use voice technology.
2. We touch our phones on average 2617 times per day
3. Google and Facebook accounted for 99% of all advertising growth in 2017
The expanding role of the CMO includes duties in the CIO and CTO areas — great opportunities from this. However, there is a need for agencies to simplify life for the CMO as a result of this increased pressure.
Companies and brands that predate the digital revolution are now struggling. Growth has stopped in the majority of Fortune 500 companies. Technology has disrupted everything and opened the door to a new crop of competitors: asymmetrical competitors eg Amazon (online ecommerce) competes with Walmart (physical stores). Legacy brands vs disruptive innovators — there are opportunities for agencies to assist in business transformation.

Dear Radio: Will Spotify kill the radio star?

by Paulo Dias (@therealptp) The local launch of the likes of Spotify and Deezer — and the continuing popularity of Apple Music — have presented the radio naysayers with a chance to kill off our beloved medium once again. (You’ll have to excuse me for using the lazy headline but are you really any sort of radio commentator if you don’t revert to it every now and again?)

Local radio is still quoted as being the primary music-discovery destination for key demographics but will this be the case forever? The majority of commercial stations in South Africa have fallen into the habit of trying to be all things to all people to hold on to as many listeners as possible, and we all know that music is an extremely polarising and turn-off factor on any radio station.

Take notice

So, when Spotify launches with a lineup of heavyweight advertising partners such as Ballantine’s, FNB, Hunter’s, MINI and Pepsi-Cola — and Deezer takes over stations like Hot 919 — people take notice. Spotify also offers advertisers a chance to create premium, multimedia brand experiences and the questions about the long term future of radio advertising get asked.

Radio has so far been able to avoid the digital disruption posed to other media; can we avoid the disruption for much longer?

Yes, we can.

Advertisers have long since stopped advertising on radio because of a resonance with music. Most advertisers I encounter couldn’t care less about the music a station plays and, increasingly, neither do most listeners.

Important to advertisers

If radio looked at itself as a music-only business, there wouldn’t be many stations left. No station anywhere can compete with streaming services and it’s not new — it couldn’t compete with CDs; it couldn’t compete with iPods. It’s strange to say, since 70% at least of the airtime on music radio stations is dedicated to music, but music is not as important to radio or advertisers that it once was…if it were ever that important to advertisers.

Radio stations have realised they are content machines and are fuelled by the conversations around them. Music sparks conversation but so does life in general and, as long as presenters are tapping into that, radio will be safe. Advertisers are looking at radio for the connection, the local relevance, the adaptability, the short lead times and the relatively budget friendly advertising platform.

Gone are the days when the people on radio were disc-jockeys counting down the local hit parade. Remember those days? When a presenter played a song and then went into a monologue displaying his encyclopedic knowledge of every song on the chart — regaling how the song was produced, who played backup guitar, the studio it was recorded in and how many days that song spent at No. 1?

Presenters, not DJs

Great in its time, when radio was the only source of that information, but the majority of presenters today wouldn’t know about most songs past their cue sheets, and that’s ok. They are no longer DJs; they are “presenters”: they present what is happening around them with personality, heart, relevance and with a personal connection to everyone listening.

Radio does need to be aware of digital threats but Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Beats1, Pandora aren’t those. In fact, I’ve already heard and seen on social media loads of leading presenters promoting their own playlists. Radio has an amazing knack of not fearing the digital threats but adopting them into its programming. It’s only a matter of time before a station runs a Spotify Top 10, like there’s been Shazam charts or curated Deezer playlists by presenters…

Does that sound like a medium afraid of the innovation?

Paulo Dias (@therealptp) is the head of creative integration at Ultimate Media. He works closely with the programming teams at leading radio stations to help implement commercial messaging into their existing formats. He contributes the regular column, “Dear Radio”, looking at the changing radio landscape in South Africa, to MarkLives.com

#AgencyFocus: 100% women-owned agency uses trust as currency

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) With new blue-chip accounts, birthdays, a designathon and a merger on the cards, 2018 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Colourworks. Founder and CEO, Lesley Waterkeyn, hopes that it’s further onward and upward from here.

Despite a sluggish economy, the agency (which turns 20 this year) has managed to sustain strong growth above the 20% mark. “We’ve had a couple of very good years,” says Waterkeyn. “We’ve had incredible top-line growth for the last five years, and I’m anticipating that it will continue — though maybe not at quite the same rate.”

Lesley Waterkeyn ringing bell — Lesley Waterkeyn, founder and CEO of Colourworks

Growth

She attributes the growth to both the company’s veteran status and agility in the industry. “We believe that we have some sort of mastery and, because we’re still a relatively small agency, we’re also very agile,” she explains. “We can go with the demands of the market, and we’re fast — we pride ourselves on quick turnaround times and on getting results, and we really position ourselves like that.”

It’s this combination that has won Colourworks a number of high-profile projects, including FNB’s 2017 Tap into Summer activation, which the agency designed in just six weeks and successfully rolled out at Engen stations along the N1, N2 and N3 in time for the holiday rush.

“Nothing’s too big or too small; we make a plan,” says Waterkeyn — and the agency prides itself in not seeing anything as too early or late, either. This attitude helped it to secure Sanlam’s 1000 days to 100 years campaign, which is counting down to the financial provider’s centenary on 8 June 2018.

“Three years ago, we were proactive in identifying that it was going to be 1000 days to Sanlam’s 100th birthday, and we pitched to them,” she explains. “We then waited and waited to hear if they liked it and, two months before the 1000-days mark, they said yes, yes, yes, let’s go!”

Vote of confidence

Sanlam then led Santam to Colourworks, adding another strategic account to the agency portfolio. In another vote of confidence, it beat 18 bidding agencies to scoop the General Electric account in Africa in March this year.

Waterkeyn puts its Fortune 500 win down to being an action agency — and to being 100% women-owned in a future that is undeniably female.

Colourworks currently has 27% black female ownership but that, she says, is going to change. “Our goal is to be 51% black-women-owned by the end of the year.” As part of achieving that, Colourworks is busy finalising a merger. While nothing may be announced officially yet, the move is expected to strengthen its footprint in Johannesburg and countrywide.

This, together with further growth in revenue, is a major objective for the coming 12 months. The agency counts making a success of its 67 Logos Designathon as another. A charitable initiative in honour of what would have been Madiba’s 100th birthday, the project will see Colourworks partnering with top designers to create 67 logos for 67 startups in need of a boost.

Waterkeyn says that this project is an important part of its commitment to doing work that matters. Meaningful interactions, passion and trust are the cornerstones of the agency’s multiple successes — as well as that of its leader.

Milestones

In November last year, Waterkeyn was one of five South African entrepreneurs to take home an award from the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge Foundation, which she collected in the US on her way back from the finish line of the New York Marathon. In the same month, the agency was awarded Bronze at the New Generation Awards for its work on Sanlam’s graduate recruitment programmes.

2017 might have brought with it milestones both personal and professional, but 2018 has even bigger things in store.

colourworks.co.za • Ramify listing

Office locations: Cape Town and Johannesburg
Revenue band: Approximately R50m
Staff count: 25
Key clients: Sanlam, Allan Gray, PSG, General Electric and FNB
Services: Events, marketing, design, activations, print & production

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.

Clicks ’n Tricks: OK, Marcel, make me some money

by Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA) Putting artificial intelligence (AI) at the heart of an organisation is a very interesting play. In Publicis Groupe’ case, the intent is to harness the capabilities of Marcel to break down the boundaries that exist between its network of agencies.

About 10 days ago, Publicis unveiled the alpha version of Marcel, the much-heralded artificial intelligence-driven, voice-search-optimised tech platform that it hopes will power it into the next decade. News of its ambitions first emerged this time last year, when Publicis announced a ban on its agencies entering awards, saying at the time that it needed the funds for investment in Marcel.

Repurpose creative

It’s very smart to have a shared resource that allows, eg, different creative teams to access a database of their peers’ thinking. The majority of creative concepts fail to see the light of day because they’re deemed to not be right for a client, yet many of them are repurposable.

In a siloed network, all the effort that goes into the creative process is lost if ideas aren’t used. With the right tech backbone, there’s every chance that a rejected campaign for a Japanese beer brand could be tweaked to make it suitable for a South African brewer.

Publicis is not alone in spotting this gap. The team behind the Cannes Lions has just launched a platform, The Work, that will host over 200 000 pieces of creative in the hope of inspiring the industry to crack briefs faster.

Tech failure

While I buy into the sentiment of using technology as an enabler, I’m acutely aware that tech is all too often viewed as a silver bullet. This leads to too much focus being placed on the wonderous workings of the amazing machine… and too little emphasis being given to the frailties of the humans who command it. There’s an often-cited Gartner report that 60% of tech projects fail (others say the failure rate is as high as 85%). This is not because the technology is useless; it’s more because the people who need to implement or use it are.

Some 20 years ago, I was involved in a small PR startup in London. Keen to find a point of differentiation (and a way of making it easy for the interns, on whom our flawed business model was largely based, to do their work), we spent a small fortune on a piece of software that linked our phone system with our file server.

The clever wonks who sold it to us claimed that, provided we’d associated a client’s number with its profile on the server, when the client in question called, a message would pop up on screen and its folder would open. The idea was that this would make information-gathering and decision-making easier.

Total bust

It was a total bust.

Clients would phone in from switchboards that had multiple outgoing numbers associated with them, meaning the software couldn’t identify them. And our turnover of interns was so high, we couldn’t keep up with the training requirement to empower them to use the system on the off chance someone called on a recognised number. I exited that business with a lighter wallet but a richer understanding of the pitfalls of being dazzled by the white light of tech.

I’m not suggesting that Publicis’ thinking will be as naive as mine was back then, but I do wonder how it’ll train 80 000 people — many of whose right brain dominance may be resistant to newfangled systems.

Agency hegemony

It is very clear that the hegemonous model of agency consolidation has its flaws and needs change, and Marcel represents a giant leap forward in this respect. Indeed, the Publicis press release wastes no time in telling us that Marcel will help create the first truly borderless, frictionless enterprise workforce.

But, with arch-rival WPP still reeling in the wake of Sir Martin Sorrell’s departure, I do wonder if Arthur Sadoun would rather focus all his current attention on standing on his competitor’s throat than have the distraction of implementing a massive tech system.

Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA) is CEO of Rogerwilco, a multi-award-winning independent digital agency best known for its expertise with Drupal, SEO and content marketing. A Scot by birth, he moved to South Africa in the early 2000s in his quest to support a winning rugby team — a search he’s reluctantly forsaken. Together with Mark Eardley, he co-authored Business to Business Marketing: A Step by Step Guide, (Penguin Random House, 2016) and may be found on LinkedIn. Charlie contributes the monthly “Clicks ‘n Tricks” column, which looks at how brands are using digital channels to engage their customers, to MarkLives.

Cover Stories: This Is The Place, GQ, Quotes, Yellow Book & Time Out LDN

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

International/print: GQ spoofs Vanity Fair, taking parody to the next level
Online: Quotes embraces diversity, variety and change, evidenced through a multitude of differing conversations with reformers within the creative realm
Iconic: The Yellow Book helped write Aubrey Beardsley into history, and defined a new genre of periodical publication during the late 19^th century
Local/print: This Is The Place provides a platform for emerging South African writers and artists, following the age-old theme, pilgrimages
International/print: Time Out London worked with Cape Town’s Studio Muti to showcase the top spots in London using an illustrated typographic cityscape

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

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This Is The Place (South Africa), June, 1st edition, 2018

Printed by One Mountain Press, This Is The Place is an independent publication pieced together as a compilation of poems and other literature, supported by illustrations and photographs. The first edition includes contributions by 20 relatively unfamiliar names, emerging South African writers and artists who write about small pilgrimages that they’ve respectively made throughout southern Africa. The opening page of this peculiar little zine encapsulates the essence of the publication, a contemplation about the various paths we choose to take: “This is the place, and everything is new. It might take a while, for your vessel to fill, and its way up the hill, but the paths are virgin in any direction you wander”. The cover art is a piece by relative unknown, Sebastian Basler.

GQ (US), June, 2018

After the scandalous release of Vanity Fair’s 2018 Hollywood issue in January this year — an epic photomontage fail where Reese Witherspoon had three legs on the cover and, in the spread, Oprah Winfrey had three hands — GQ magazine delivers an equally epic parody. The cover to GQ’s 2018 Comedy issue features iconic comedians, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae and Sarah Silverman with appendages galore, taking the notion of a photoshop battle beyond the realms of the absurd while somehow maintaining a sense of style and integrity.

In true spoof fashion, emulating the way Vanity Fair attempted to rectify the matter on social media, GQ accepted responsibility for its faux fail with an aptly bogus statement: “GQ would like to apologize to Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, and Sarah Silverman for the egregious mistakes made in the process of creating the cover for our 2018 comedy issue, the latest in our pantheon of mostly annual love letters to the funniest humans we know. Our intention was to celebrate the three super-funny superstars, who are all that is smart and perceptive and riotous and necessary in comedy right now. We deeply regret that the results violated GQ’s rigorous standards of editorial excellence and the laws of nature.”

If there ever were an industry dependent on turning negatives into positives, this is textbook execution.

Time Out London (UK), May, 2018

A detailed illustration from Cape Town’s own mind-blowingly prolific Studio Muti, known for its wide range of work for a variety of magazines, including Little White Lies and High Life, currently adorns the cover to the latest issue of Time Out London. With its theme based on rooftop experiences, the cover encourages people to be out and about in London, and to be on the search for sky-high fun.

The illustration is layered on multiple fronts. Technically, the sheer number of layers used in Illustrator must have been immense. Regarding process, it must have taken hours of putting pencil to paper to come up with this direction. Formally, the complimentary warm and cool colour contrast, and subtle use gradients to suggest lighting are highly considered. Structurally, the use of isometric perspective and grids doesn’t fall into the same clichéd trap that other similar, over-done, borderline passé illustration studios tend to fall into. The open composition is also layered, most importantly integrating typography into the subject matter of the illustration, literally illustrating with type, allowing the copy to jump off the page and announce that this issue showcases the top spots in London.

Online

Quotes Mag (Bulgaria), June 2018

It is a cliché that the only constant is change (quoted from the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus). Another platitude is the notion that variety is the spice of life (the perspective of 18^th century English poet, William Cowper). Not to sound too ideological but it goes without saying that difference is the common denominator here, on a social scale at best. Difference should unite, not divide. On a biological scale, more connects than separates us.

Founded in 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria, Quotes magazine encapsulates these understandings of change, variety and difference, providing manifold opinions and perspectives about our multifaceted and pluralistic world. The message it sends out into the ether? Things are not binary and we are not all the same, and that’s a good thing. Drawing from an assortment of distinct yet diverse discussions with personalities from various fields, mostly those who do their work under the radar yet help make the world tick, Quotes presents its readership with a multitude of convincing arguments in the form of inspired and relatable stories.

Iconic

The Yellow Book (UK), 1894–1897

London-based, The Yellow Book, was one of the foremost British journals during the 1890s. The publication was known for its elaborate illustrations, many by Aubrey Beardsley, who was a noteworthy British graphic artist loosely associated with the arts and crafts movement, also influential within the rubric of the infamous French style known as art nouveau. Published between 1894 and 1897, The Yellow Book derived its name from underground, somewhat questionable, French fiction (normally wrapped in yellow paper) during a decade known for Parisian self-indulgence often referred to as the “Yellow Nineties”. As a quarterly literary periodical, it comprised many genres, from poetry and essays to illustrations and portraits. Beardsley was the periodical’s first art editor, and it was he who suggested a yellow cover for the publication, as he was inspired by sub-culture in France, following his friend and contemporary, Oscar Wilde.

Aside from the colour yellow used as a signifier for all that is unorthodox, other unique attributes of The Yellow Book was its clothbound cover and its exact categorisation of literary and art-related subject matter, rarely connecting but never discriminating between the two. The periodical was also devoid of any advertising. Beardsley’s initial presence helped to attract contributions from popular artists and writers such as John Singer Sargent, Henry James, HG Wells, and WB Yeats, to name a few.

After Wilde was arrested for ‘gross indecency with men’, Beardsley was sacked as the periodical’s art editor due to his association with the infamous Irish poet. Beardsley went on to publish his own periodical, called The Savoy, which was surprisingly long-lived, printed from 1895 until 1896. Publication of The Saroy stopped after Beardsley’s death at the age of 25 due to tuberculosis.

With Beardsley no longer present, The Yellow Book’s publisher, John Lane, took the editorial reins and began to include important contributions from female writers and illustrators, such as Ethel Colburn Mayne, Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright (who went by the pen name, George Egerton), Ella D’Arcy, Ada Leverson, and Ethel Reed to name a few. The Yellow Book maintained a high standard for art and literary publication until print ended in 1897.

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 Apr 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 April 2018.

SABC 1 April 2018

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

Source: BRCSA April 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.

eMarketplaces & Brands: Huge enabler for smaller retailers

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 Ryan Bacher of NetFlorist.

Ryan Bacher (@ryanbacher) is managing director and co-founder of NetFlorist, which launched in 1999. It leverages global sourcing to enable customers to send bouquets, arrangements, gifts, perfumes and a wide range of quality jewellery and watches to loved ones, friends and associates, both locally and around the world.

How is ecommerce impacting on how consumers choose products?
Ryan Bacher: Ecommerce has created a platform that provides ease of access to consumers, allowing them to search for what they are looking for directly, anywhere and anytime. With so many e-tailers to choose from, the consumer has access to a virtual shopping mall online, conveniently from the comfort of their own home or office. Ecommerce is helping consumers to compare information on the desired product. Instead of the inconvenience of driving or walking from store to store, they now have unlimited information on the product, from price and product descriptions to reviews from another consumer. Consumers are therefore less likely to buy impulsively because of the direct search that they’re able to access. The good news for e-tailers, though, is that consumers are more likely to spend a bit more to have that convenience factor, and there is always the option of showing recommended products that match the product already up for purchase. Even if a retailer doesn’t have an escommerce platform, it’s important for brick and mortar stores to have a website to showcase their products so that consumers can see what is available to them, should they visit the store.

For a brand like NetFlorist, it makes sense to buy online because customers are not only paying for a product; they are paying for the convenience and the emotion behind the gift ie getting the gift delivered with the surprise factor, in a decorated van by a smiling delivery [person] without having to go in-store to achieve this. We are also able to deliver nationwide, so consumers can conveniently place an order from one city to be delivered to another city.

What should brand managers know about online retail through online marketplaces (such as Amazon.com and similar local operations)?
RB: Online marketplaces have been a huge enabler for smaller retailers to sell their products online. Amazon leads in this space, but Takealot (South Africa) havs such an offering and, as far as we know, it is working well for most of the retailers who are on it. [This] also allows the marketplace (Amazon, Takealot etc) to offer a wider range of product without initially holding stock. NetFlorist has decided to make and deliver all our own product, so we don’t play in the marketplace space, nor do we invite retailers to list their products on out site. We are of the view that, as gifting is such an emotional experience that requires on time and accurate delivery, we must be in control of the full process ourselves. There are some gifting sites overseas and locally that offer a marketplace but it’s not our strategy to do so.

How may a brand optimise its presence in these online retail spaces to make it easy for consumers to find and access their products?
RB: The most-basic requirement is to have an official desktop site that works alongside a mobile site or application. For NetFlorist, SEO (search engine optimisation) is a massive factor in optimising our online presence. By making use of Adwords and GDN (Google Display Network) banners, we have increased traffic to our site, as well as our online visibility.

Our blog, The Rambling Rose, has boosted our online presence significantly, and allowed us to not only share featured products but also engage with consumers, share content and have an overall successful digital footprint. Alongside this, we consistently maintain all of our social media pages and use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to interact with our consumers and create product awareness.

Retargeting and remarketing have also been a factor in our success. For an existing consumer who has been to our site, we will remarket goods that they have looked at by showing them these products on other sites that they visit. This keeps NetFlorist top of mind.

Mobile has made online buying quicker and more convenient. The more devices you have, the easier it is to access stores, which translates to more purchases. This will again allow customers the opportunity to compare prices and reviews. You can instantly research a product from the palm of your hand and find it at a store nearest to you at that moment, bringing in another factor of convenience.

Consumers are now also able to shop via social media. Facebook now offers a marketplace option and, according to a study done in January 2018 by Statista, 95.1% of Facebook users are predominantly browsing on mobile whereas 31.8% of users are using desktop. This means people have even more platforms to shop from. For offline buying, mobile will make it easy to compare prices. This could lead to a consumer researching in-store, finding the same product for cheaper elsewhere, and therefore leaving the store or getting the better deal.