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Cover Stories: Thoughtfulness in design (16 Feb 2018)

MarkLives Cover Stories 16 February 2018

by Shane de Lange (@shanenilfunct) Let’s delve into great media design from South Africa and around the world:

Local/print: House and Leisure joins the fray in yet another fledging revival of modernist tendancies
Online: Marie Claire — Women and Guns provides meaningful insights into the relationship between females and firearms in America
Local/print: Tate Etc. celebrates the work of iconic South African photographer, Santu Mofokeng, written by Sean O’Toole
International/print: The California Sunday Magazine places emphasis on America’s food security using the photographic prowess of Trent Davis Bailey
International/print: Wired portrays a bruised and beaten pioneer still at the front guard of the social media battleground
Iconic: Print and Mark bow out with dignity — the end of the beginning from two iconic publications

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

House and Leisure (South Africa), Collector’s Issue, February 2018

A few months ago, on 1 December 2017, I posted a cover for Icon magazine, clearly depicting the influence of Russian constructivism and Bauhaus tendencies; the latest issue of House and Leisure seems to follow this trend. Albeit showing an obvious Eurocentric influence and with a strong reference to early modernist tendencies, it’s encouraging to see local publications show an appreciation for formalism and the fundamentals of design — even if it’s delivered to the reader in an overtly appropriated way. An awareness of design history and its key movements and exponents, locally and globally, is of paramount for the production of culture. A tip of the hat to inter-world-war avant-garde tendencies, it will be interesting to see what comes from the discovery of the African modernists by the mainstream media, especially South African artists like Ernest Mancoba, and the clear influence of Africa on European modernism. An immense contribution to be revived here — more of Africa’s design heritage needs to filter into the mainstream media.

Wired (US), March, 2018

One can imagine that the spaces between various social media platforms must be battlegrounds. It’s also common to have blurred borders between the real and the fake in today’s digitally charged world. The day-to-day manipulation of information tends to distort our perception of society and the world at large, particularly when it comes to the way we communicate and relate to each other on social media.

The cover for the March 2018 issue of Wired magazine may be interpreted as a picture from the social media battlefront, sporting a composite portrait of a battered and beaten Facebook cofounder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Essentially a carefully illustrated photomontage, this cover was created by New York–based artist, Jake Rowland, who’s known for his digitally appropriated and rearranged artworks. Cut and pasted together from a variety of photographic sources, this image of Zuckerberg was made to match the subject matter of the article inside. Battling in the trenches, Zuckerberg is under a barrage, blasted from every angle. But, as this cover portrait implies, Zuckerberg is still alive, worse for wear but dusting himself off.

Our world is a milieu of fact and fiction; the stunned expression on Zuckerberg’s face speaks volumes. A testament to the manner in which the virtual and digital are penetrating the real and the physical.

Tate Etc. (UK), issue #42, Spring 2018

Tate Etc. is one of the best sources of international news about modern and contemporary art, with a variety of perspectives from artists and writers from around the world. The cover features a young, little known at that time, Pablo Picasso standing proudly in front of one of his early sculptures, still maintaining a somewhat innocent and youthful energy that only naivety and curiosity can create.

Presented in the form of interviews, profiles, features, issue #42 of Tate Etc. includes an essay on iconic South African photographer, Santu Mofokeng, written by prolific and influential South African writer, Sean O’Toole. Always a proud moment when SA’s creative currency is celebrated internationally.

The California Sunday Magazine (US), February, 2018

The cover to the latest issue of National Magazine Awards nominee, The California Sunday Magazine, places emphasis food security, based on an article by Mark Arax titled “A Kingdom of Dust”. Artfully photographed by Trent Davis Bailey, the cover image depicts the scale to which Stewart Resnick, one of the most-powerful farmers in the US, has transformed, or rather terraformed, California’s landscape. The composition is calculated and formal, with a subdued monochromatic grey colour palette, reminiscent of Stephen Shore’s work, accentuated by a diagonal line separating the dry desert land from lush, green agricultural growth. The image implies a sense of divide and conquer. And rightfully so, as Resnick’s kingdom comprises entire towns, something he tries to keep under the radar in an attempt to control what foods American’s consume. His dependence on water seems to be his Achilles heel: the only factor that he can’t control.

Online

Marie Claire — Women and Guns (US), February, 2018

Marie Claire was a 2017 Webby Awards Nominee for Best Individual Editorial Experience for the website “Women and Guns”. The site is provocative to say the least, diving under the surface of a pertinent issue in America traditionally dominated by men. America is literally crazy about guns, and the issue of gun ownership in the US persists as aggressively today as it ever has in the past, proven by the heartless and violent high-school killing in Florida earlier this week.

As its name suggests, Women and Guns announces that this issue is not pertinent to men only, investigating the relationship between females and firearms in 10 layered articles that portray how various women in America live with, and die by, guns. Each article is interactive, helping to amplify the meaning of each story, taking full advantage of the possibilities provided by multimedia design, accompanied by world class art direction. Online publishing and storytelling at its best.

Iconic

Mark (Netherlands), December 2017/January 2018
Print (US), Winter/Spring 2017/2018

Mark magazine, an iconic publication about contemporary practices and perceptions of architecture, regrettably released its 71^st and final issue last month, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of its parent publication, Frame magazine. Launched in 2005 as a side project to Frame, Mark was radical and prompt, publishing insider knowledge and relevant news about architecture on a truly international scale. Frame’s refocus towards digital platforms and events ultimately led to the demise of Mark. Always pushing the envelope and exploring the boundaries of architecture, Mark chiseled a pivotal space for itself within the annals of publishing history.

Another iconic publication to refocus towards digital media has been the highly influential Print magazine. Yes, with issue #71.4, the printed incarnation of Print comes to an end, transforming it into a “thriving online community” to quote Print itself.

Designed by the editor of the magazine, Debbie Millman (also the host of Design Matters and cofounder of The Masters in Branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York), this final cover celebrates the magazine’s 77-year-long print run, listing many historic figures who contributed to the magazine and helped to develop it over the decades from a technical trade journal about printing into a glossy magazine encompassing the entire rubric of visual communication. Stephen Heller, Millman’s Masters in Branding cofounder and regular collaborator, describes this event as a kind of metamorphosis, with a new digital iteration, as “more than a mere magazine, but a community—in a sense, a family—of shared interest that has promoted, critiqued, enlightened and introduced a broad swath of art and craft from which its readers have carved out not only careers but creative lives.” The ultimate irony, the end of Print in print.

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.

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BREAKING: Y&R brand falls away in SA as VML takes over

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Y&R brand will exit the South African market as the last office of the agency, in Johannesburg, is being integrated into VML South Africa. This was announced as VML SA charts a new course towards a full-service offering, including a management shakeup at the agency.

New management

Jason Xenopoulos, former NATIVE VML CEO and chief creative officer, steps into a new global role at VML, becoming its chief vision officer plus chief creative officer for EMEA
Jarred Cinman, former NATIVE VML managing director and a co-founder, becomes CEO
Diane Wilson, former operations and finance director and a co-founder, steps in as deputy CEO
Danelle Stiles, former NATIVE VML operations director, takes over as MD

NATIVE Media and Y&R Labstore will also both be folded into the new agency.

According to Cinman, VML globally is collapsing country brands into a single international brand and the time was right for the South African office to align and position itself with its global parent. While NATIVE VML has built a reputation as a full-service digital agency locally, the market has shifted towards through-the-line agencies and, by collapsing Y&R SA into the group and leaning on the international umbrella brand, VML in SA is positioned to take advantage of this trend. “VML gives us a chance to reboot the business as an integrated agency,” he says.

Single network

VML and Y&R SA, he says, has shared a single management team for the past 18 months and it made sense to stick to a single network, rather than be torn between global network brands. A global role for Xenopoulos gives the local agency some sway in the larger organisation, and VML has seen rapid global growth.

Y&R SA has had a tough couple of years, he continues, culminating in the closure of its Cape Town and Durban offices in 2017. Its major remaining clients are Edgars and Amstel Lager. He argues that the agency lacked a digital component and that building a digital capacity, when one already existed in VML, made little sense.

Cinman confirms that, as a result of the restructuring, Y&R will no longer operate in the South African market. There will be some redundancies as duplicate positions are consolidated, mostly on the administrative side of the business. Staff will soon be moved into the VML building.

Pod structure

The newly combined agency, operating as VML South Africa, will employ close to 300 people, generate more than R200m in revenue and offer a fully integrated service to clients using a pod structure — basically, mini-agencies that run as independent units under the VML brand and allows the agency to handle competing business. These pods will become full service as former Y&R and Labstore staffers are integrated into the business, and as and when required by clients.

NATIVE in its various incarnations had been building a digital reputation for the past 20 years, says Cinman, but the integration of Y&R fast-tracks its full-service offering. The agency is inheriting skill sets it lacked in the past. He says the integration of Y&R into VML SA adds between 15–20% to group revenue, making it a manageable merger, and that the agency has purposefully avoided attaching rather than integrating the two groups. It simplifies organisational structure and does away with one of the cost points for clients.

While there is considerable sentimentality around the Y&R brand in South Africa, WPP is also consolidating its holdings globally (as seen through the creation of Superunion, which has brought together five branding agencies into a single entity). Cinman expects more announcements along these lines in future.

New entity

That a single management team has been running both agencies will simplify the merger, he says, who also notes that the agencies have been working together on shared clients. Proof of success, according to him, will lie in showing the combined agency does better united than in its composite parts. This means winning work as an integrated agency. He is at pains to point out that VML SA will not simply be NATIVE VML with a new brand; instead, it signifies the bringing together of different agencies and skill sets to become a new entity.

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

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#ZumaResigns: Newspaper front pages

by MarkLives (@marklives) #ZumaResigns. #Zexit. Former (savour that for a moment) president of South Africa, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, finally resigned late on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2018. This is how South African and international newspapers are reacting on their front pages (more will be added as we source them).

South Africa

United Kingdom

Sources: Twitter, PressReader, Facebook.

Updated at 11:20 on 15 February 2018.

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#AgencyLeaders2017: Most admired ad agency in Jozi

2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders Most Admired Johannesburg ad agency

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which ad agencies in Joburg were most admired by their peers in 2017! This is part of this week’s announcement of the 2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders’ Most Admired Poll results for Johannesburg. Next week will be the national results; last week we revealed the Cape Town results.

Monday: Most-admired ad agency bosses in Jozi
Tuesday: Most-admired creative leaders in Jozi
Wednesday: One to watch in Jozi
Thursday: Most-admired agencies in Jozi
Friday: Most digitally integrated in Jozi
Monday 5 March: Contribution to agency diversity and transformation (Jozi)

Every year since 2012, MarkLives has been polling South Africa’s top agency leaders to find out what they think of their competitors, whom they see as effective managers and great creative leaders, and where they believe their future competition is likely to come from. We ask them who’s got digital integration right and — for the first time — who’s done best on transformation.

The most-admired ad agencies in Jozi (tied)

Joe Public United

The Odd Number

Joe Public United will be happy to reclaim the top spot — albeit shared — having won it for four of the previous five years.

In early 2017, Joe Public United was awarded South African Breweries’ Castle Milk Stout account, in addition to Redd’s and Brutal Fruit. It also won business from Adcock Ingram, British American Tobacco and Cell-C.

The group topped last year’s Apex Awards table, and came 16th in the overall Loeries rankings and 9th in the Loeries ranking by agency group. Staff numbers grew by 40% (December 2017 compared to December 2016) and revenue grew by 37% for the period Jan–Dec 2017 (compared to Jan–Dec 2016).

In 2016, The Odd Number was voted joint runner-up one to watch in South Africa in 2017 and joint one to watch in Jozi in 2017. It delivered.

Last year it won work from FNB Business, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and Miller Genuine Draft.

In 2017 the agency walked away with Pendoring’s sought-after Umpetha Award for the best advertisement in an indigenous language (excluding Afrikaans). It also ranked 18th in the overall Loeries rankings. AdFocus name it its Small Advertising Agency of the Year.

The Odd Number was launched by Xola Nouse and Sibusiso “Sbu” Sitole in April 2015.

Previously

In 2016, it was FCB Africa. Between 2012 and 2015, Joe Public United won this accolade every year.

The runner-up

FCB Africa

FCB Africa had a tremendous 2016 and its star continued to shine in 2017 when FCB Joburg was named the Agency of the Year title, as well as the Large Advertising Agency of the Year, at the 2017 Financial Mail AdFocus Awards.

The agency might have lost Engen in Cape Town after a six-year run but, in a joint pitch, FCB Cape Town and FCB Joburg won the Sasol account for the group. Hellocomputer Joburg added Ascendis Health, and Hellocomputer Cape Town Uber Kenya. FCB was also appointed as one of two agencies across Tiger Brands’ major portfolios.

FCB Africa is a Level 1 BBBEE contributor that is 55% black-owned and 32% black female-owned. As as a result of a highly-successful financial year, its broad-based shareholder (a trust linked to the Maharishi Institute, a free university for underprivileged black youth), was able to fully pay off its shareholding a number of year ahead of projections. All dividends will start flowing into the trust, enabling it to fund between 200-300 young women’s education on an annual basis.

Previously

In 2016 Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg was our runner-up. In 2015 and 2014, FCB Africa was voted our runner-up. In 2013, it was Ireland/Davenport. In 2012, our inaugural poll, the runners-up were Black River FC and M&C Saatchi Abel.

How the poll works

Towards the end of 2017, we invited agency executives to nominate their most-admired agency, creative leader and most-admired agency both in their region (Johannesburg or Cape Town) and nationally. We also asked them which agency did the best at digital integration and at transformation (a new question), and which agency they saw as the one to watch in the future. Execs couldn’t nominate their own agencies or staff members. All the nominations were then tallied up for the final result. The editors of MarkLives had two votes in the final poll.

Note: Runner-up(s) will only be named if they achieved a good nomination tally relative to the winner’s position. Contenders are named if they stand out significantly above other nominees but weren’t able to close in on the winner’s tally. The most-admired agency of the year is disqualified from the One to Watch category; votes cast in its favour in this category are discarded.

Previous Jozi results

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

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Gestalt: Elevating customer success

business-tree-growth-success-team courtesy of Pixabay

by Leeya Hendricks (@LeeyaHendricks) In keeping with the customer-experience (CX) focus of this column series, the topic I want to kick off with is that of putting the customer first for sustainable business success.

The million-dollar question is this: what do customers need? The savviest executives ask themselves this question with mounting regularity, and rightly so. They understand that they’re in the customer-experience business, and that why and how they deliver for customers is just as important as what they deliver.

To date, the customer experience mandate of the chief marketing officer (CMO) has been to create an experience that will surprise and delight consumers — up to the point of purchase. For far too many, the aftermarket remains an afterthought. This poses a serious challenge to the sales organisation: In the disconnect that follows between what customers want and what sales provides, how can the post-sales customer experience be rectified when no-one has bothered to study it?

Delivering a connected customer and buying experience

To deliver connected customer experiences throughout the sales cycle, companies need to be connected, too. This means breaking down the silos separating data sets, departments and channels to create a holistic customer experience. In addition, all units need to be united around customer satisfaction and success, which is what’s meant by connected customer organisations.

Where it usually breaks down is post-sales — often considered to be beyond the purview of great customer experience. According to Forrester, 72% of businesses say improved customer experience is their top priority. Yet sales organisations have lagged, defining success based on what the company, not the buyer, wants. As a result, not only do customers not get a great buying experience, they don’t get the help they need to solve their business problems.

How to transform the buying experience

The practice of customer-experience management (CXM) is focused on understanding how customers (including prospects/buyers) experience their interaction with companies, and making the necessary enhancements to improve those perceptions in order to increase customer loyalty.

Increased loyalty drives revenue growth because of the loyalty effect. ^[1] In a study across 13 different industries, Forrester found that CX improvements^[2] leading to a one-point increase in loyalty (retention, enrichment and advocacy) can drive additional revenue of US$5m–US$873m, depending on the industry.

What customers really want — success

Why is there such a big gap between customer experience aspirations and results? The difference lies in ensuring customer success. Customer success refers to the activities and resources provided to customers throughout their journey to increase their chances of achieving their desired business outcomes. All moving parts aimed at achieving this should work together like a well-oiled machine throughout the journey — which may include researching alternatives, engaging with sales professionals, purchasing and using the product or service, and getting help when problems occur.

In each of these, the focus of customer success differs: The early stages focus on engaging interactions, while purchasing is about ease and speed, and post-sales service concerns itself with resolving problems and preserving long-term loyalty.

Solving customer problems

But, ultimately, customers want you to solve their problems. A 2012 Forrester study^[3] found that 63% of executives consider a salesperson who understands their business problems and offers a clear path to solving them to be valuable.” Unfortunately, these are the least commonly observed traits.

According to CustomerThink’s 2017 survey, 56% of companies think their sales representatives exhibit these characteristics. That is encouraging, but it may not match buyer perceptions. Forrester has found huge gaps between seller and customer perceptions on four customer success issues — understanding customers’ business goals; quantifying value delivered; collaborating on sales goals; and helping with adoption challenges.

How to solve customer problems

The following two issues get to the heart of the necessary marketing and sales transformation to provide a great customer experience — or lack thereof:

35% of buyers in the abovementioned survey say “marketing content doesn’t engage today’s empowered buyer”
30% of sales organisations say their “sales representatives struggle to connect our solution to buyer issues”

Technology-related issues also feature, though to a lesser degree. Roughly one in four executives believe their sales efforts were undermined by a lack of access to the right IT solutions, undue complexity and limited training.

Interestingly, organisational culture and making the case for such interventions to top management ranked at the bottom of the list of issues.⁴ This suggests an execution problem, more than anything else.

The bottom line? Top management wants to focus on customers and believes the strategy will pay off, but experience challenges in translating that aspiration into day-to-day operations that bring this strategy to life for the organisation and its customers.

References

¹ hbr.org/product/the-loyalty-effect-the-hidden-force-behind-growth-profits-and-lasting-value/6870-PBK-ENG
² forbes.com/sites/forrester/2017/01/20/driving-revenue-with-great-customer-experience/#777f8b9e53cc
³ forrester.com/report/Executive+Buyer+Insight+Study+Defining+The+Gap+Between+Buyers+And+Sellers/-/E-RES59116#
⁴ customerthink.com/webinar030217

ABC Analysis Q4 2017: The biggest-circulating consumer mags in SA

ABC results magazines February 2018 slider

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released consumer-magazine circulation statistics for the period October—December 2017 (ABC Q4 2017); see our newspaper ABC analysis here. Apart from highlighting several figures that stand out for us, we’ve included table of web traffic for consumer titles for Q4 and also updated our list of the biggest-circulating consumer titles in SA.

Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time the year before, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth; red declined; purple maintained, new entrant or renamed; orange discontinued or resigned; pink no submission or suspended; brown minimal newsstand sales; and grey moved to a new category.

Key insights

Total magazine circulation declined by 8.1% over Q3, and by 16.6% over the prior year, according to information released by the ABC.

Consumer magazines declined by 5.8% over Q3 but increased by 1.4% over the prior year (several significant custom tiles moved to the consumer category and are now counted as consumer titles). The Home category decreased by 8.4% over Q3 but increased by 6.7% over the prior year (Real Estate increased by 23.5% over Q3 and 20.6% over the prior year; Elle Decoration increased by 7.6% over Q3 but declined by 14.2% over the prior year; and MyKitchen increased by 5.4% over Q3).

The Women’s General category increased by 1.2% over Q3 but declined by 14.7% over the prior year (True Love increased by 15.3% over Q3 but declined by 24.7% over the prior year; Fair Lady increased by 13.5% over Q3 and by 8.3% over the prior year; and Rooi Rose increased by 10.5% over Q3 but declined by 3.9% over the prior year).

The Motoring category declined by 4.4% over Q3 but increased by 5.7% over the prior year (Bike SA increased by 4.4% over Q3 and by 44% over the prior year; Motor increased by 4.1% over Q3; and SA 4X4 increased by 2.7% over Q3 and by 10.1% over the prior year). The Sport & Hobby category decreased by 4.4% over Q3 but increased by 38.4% over the prior year (The Bass Angler increased by 27.1% over Q3 and by 31% over the prior year; Runners World increased by 25.8% over Q3 and by 42% over the prior year; and Kick Off increased by 25.1% over Q3 but declined by 5.1% over the prior year.)

The Travel category increased by 12.6% over Q3 but declined by 3.3% over the prior year (Weg Namibië/Go Namibia increased by 13.9% over the prior year; Wegsleep Oordgids increased by 9.4% over the prior year; and Weg/Go increased by 9% over Q3 and by 6.7% over the prior year.)

B2B magazines declined by 0.5% over Q3 but increased by 2.7% over the prior year. Custom magazines declined by 11.7% over Q3 and by 30.7% over the prior year. Free magazines declined by 7% over Q3 and by 21.5% over the prior year.

The business press

Finweek has jumped from 11 977 to 18 209 (total free copies = 2 791 plus sales at below 50% of the cover price = 7 273; single copy sales: 4 403). Financial Mail is up from 12 162 to 13 016 in the corresponding previous reporting period.

Your Business Magazine has declined from 10 565 to 8 520; Forbes Africa has fallen from 19 008 to 17 733 (total free = 9 875); Entrepreneur has declined from 17 856 to 15 898; and Noseweek has inched down from 12 924 to 12 374.

Landbouweekblad has grown from 26 098 to 27 292 but Farmer’s Weekly has declined from 11 836 to 11 334 and Veeplaas has fallen from 7 787 to 7 657.

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of paid-for (sales, bulk and subscriptions) circulation

Entrepreneur: 15 898 z+1
Finweek: 15 418 -1
Financial Mail: 13 016
Noseweek: 12 374
Forbes Africa: 7 858
Your Business: 7 109

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of total circulation

Finweek: 18 209 +1
Forbes Africa: 17 733 -1
Entrepreneur: 15 898
Financial Mail: 13 016
Noseweek: 12 374
Your Business: 8 520

Position movement relative to Q3 2017.

Entertainment & celeb news

People has seen its circulation decrease from 42 708 to 35 149. TV Plus (Afrikaans) is down from 29 520 to 28 057 and the English edition has fallen from 24 545 to 15 490.

Bona is up from 57 828 to 62 676 in the previous corresponding reporting period. Drum has continued its collapse from 53 207 to 37 200; Huisgenoot has fallen from 207 661 185 002; and YOU has fallen from 110 554 to 95 359.

Taalgenoot has inched up from 68 427 to 69 111. The Big Issue has fallen from 12 523 to 11 165.

Home & gardening, leisure

Condé Nast House & Garden has declined from 33 265 to 30 633 (total free = 3 967). Food & Home Entertaining has fallen from 23 782 to 23 004 (total free: 5 026). House & Leisure has declined from 23 127 to 18 397 (total free: 1 839).

Woolworths TASTE is listed as a custom magazine; circulation has inched up from 27 376 to 28 453 (single copy sales: 23 809).

ELLE Decoration has fallen from 19 906 to 17 086 (total free: 4 410) and SA Home Owner is down from 37 292 to 36 895 (total free: 8 357). SA Garden and Home is down from 52 098 to 43 128 (total free: 3 658). Tuis Home has climbed from 78 432 to 81 505 (total free has jumped to 3 610) and VISI has climbed from 14 820 15 082. MyKitchen (TFG) has come in at 103 338 (new category: moved from custom).

Men’s market

Destiny Man has fallen from 14 775 to 9 230 (total free 1 491). Very Interesting has grown from 15 199 to 18 140 (total free = 5 669) in the previous corresponding reporting period.

GQ is down from 21 084 to 16 839 (total free: 3 127); but Men’s Health has inched up from 32 088 to 32 260 (total free: 5 056). Popular Mechanics has fallen from 30 670 to 24 823 (total free: 2 222). Stuff is up from 13 465 to 14 756 (total free jumps to 3 984). Tech is at 65 302 (new category: moved from custom).

Health, fitness, sport

Kick Off is down from 23 795 to 22 584. Sports Club (TFG) has come in at 153 586 (changed category from custom). Golf Digest has jumped from 7 826 to 9 940.

SA Hunter has climbed from 42 592 to 46 519 while Game & Hunt/Wild & Jag is down from 9 089 to 6 375.

Hitting the road

SA 4×4 has climbed from 13 882 to 15 285 but Driven has declined from 18 399 to 16 389. Leisure Wheels has fallen from 14 753 to 14 409 while CAR has fallen from 65 228 to 61 662. TFG Motor has been moved from the custom to consumer category; its circulation has come in at 42 789. Speed and Sound is down from 27 041 to 23 940. Bike SA has jumped from 12 478 to 17 946 (total free jumps to 7 877). Super Bike has declined from 10 294 to 9 428 (total free: 4 467).

Getaway is up from 37 836 to 38 677 (total free falls to 4 729) and Weg!/Go! has grown from 55 072 to 58 774. SA Country Life has declined from 34 367 to 29 784. Platteland has fallen from 35 424 to 32 729.

Woman’s general

Fair Lady has grown from 34 571 to 37 431 (total free: 2 648). Destiny Magazine is down from 27 105 to 23 017 (total free: 5 035). Cosmopolitan has declined from 40 978 to 35 763 (total free = 3 566), and Glamour from 44 379 to 43 483 (total free: 3 444). ELLE is down from 27 273 to 21 510 (total free: 4 231).

Good Housekeeping/Goeie Huishouding has declined from 45 340 to 37 891 (total free: 3 482). Move! has fallen from 79 237 to 65 960. True Love is down from 42 373 to 31 925, and Vroue Keur has dropped from 55 298 to 48 829.

Longevity is up from 15 140 to 16 841 (total free: 2 173) but Kuier has declined from 99 684 to 94 851, Rooi Rose has declined from 73 446 to 70 546 (total free: 4 030) and Finesse is down from 43 429 to 39 933. Essentials is down from 24 649 to 21 636; Sarie has fallen from 68 305 to 61 726, Your Family is down from 35 277 to 27 512, and Women’s Health has decreased from 34 937 to 34 387. Marie Claire has fallen from 20 933 to 18 767 (total free: 1 830).

The MarkLives’ Big Magazine list*

Huisgenoot: 185 002
Sports Club (TFG): 153 586
Kids Super Club (TFG): 123 317
MyKitchen (TFG): 103 338
YOU: 95 359
Kuier: 94 851
Tuis/Home: 81 505
Woman and Home: 77 054
Rooi Rose: 70 546 +2 re-enters top 10
Taalgenoot: 69 111 +1 re-enters top 10

Foschini Living Space: 68 341
Move!: 65 960 -1
Tech (TFG): 65 302
Bona: 62 676 -2
Sarie: 61 726
CAR: 61 662

*By total circulation. Must have a cover price. Annuals excluded. Movement on the Big Magazine list compared to 2017 Q3 data.

Web traffic Q4 for consumer magazines

Impressions	Daily average unique browsers	Title	Category
848183	13634	Car	Motoring
816277	15733	SA Rugby	Sport and Hobby
535390	10234	Good Housekeeping/ Goeie Huishoudng	Woman’s General
457451	8626	Getaway	Travel
297142	5747	Destiny Magazine	Woman’s General
286491	4339	Cosmopolitan	Woman’s General
277739	4432	Vrouekeur	Woman’s General
266728	4294	Rooi Rose	Woman’s General
259457	4785	People	Celebrity
255539	3125	Essentials	Woman’s General
228428	2683	Woman and Home	Woman’s General
189795	3079	Farmer’s Weekly	Farming
189337	3547	Bona	Family Interest
174510	3147	Cape Etc.	Travel
173782	1698	Food & Home Entertaining	Home
154702	3171	Marie Claire	Woman’s General
150100	2448	Living and Loving	Parenting
148346	2914	Destiny Man	Male
145850	1828	SA Garden and Home	Home
122989	1736	Your Family	Woman’s General
100115	1776	Voelgoed	Woman’s General
85585	1299	House and Leisure	Home
71458	1469	SA Country Life	Travel
62464	685	SA Home Owner	Home
58977	1255	Elle	Woman’s General
47221	1021	Leisure Wheels	Motoring
38459	626	Popular Mechanics	Male
22604	391	Elle Decoration	Home
19922	255	Compleat Golfer	Sport and Hobby

Excludes titles which have resigned, changed frequency or been discontinued.

ABC 2017 stories

ABC Analysis Q4 2017: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA

ABC results newspapers February 2018 slider

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released newspaper-circulation statistics for the period October—December 2017 (ABC Q4 2017); see our magazine ABC analysis here.

2 July 2019: Indy circ figures fall in ABC restatement

Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth; red declined; purple maintained, new entrant or renamed; orange discontinued or resigned; pink no submission or suspended; brown minimal newsstand sales; and grey moved to a new category.

Key insights

Daily newspapers saw a 8.2% decline over Q3, and a 17% decline over the prior year, largely driven by the closure of The Times, according to the latest data released by the ABC. Declines occurred in all categories of circulation. Die Burger Daily increased by 2.2% over quarter Q3 but declined by 5.7% over the prior year. Business Day increased by 1.4% over Q3, but declined by 8% over the prior year, and The Mercury increased by 1.2% over Q3 but declined by 2.8% over the prior year.

Weekly papers saw a 7.6% decline over Q3, and a 7% decline over the prior year. Single Copy Sales still represents 92% of weekly papers’ circulation. The Post increased by 9.1% over Q3 but declined by 7.9% over the prior year, while the Mail & Guardian increased marginally over Q3 but declined by 4.8% over the prior year.

Weekend papers saw 2.9% decline over Q3, and 12.3% decline over the prior year. Declines occurred in all categories of circulation. Weekend Post increased by 2.6% over Q3 but declined by 6.9% over the prior year, while Die Burger Saturday increased by 2.5% over Q3 but declined by 5.4% over the prior year. Independent on Saturday increased marginally over Q, but declined by 4% over the prior year.

Local newspapers saw 2.6% decline over Q3, and 6.4% over the prior year.

ABC member circulation totals:

Daily newspapers: down from 1 213 416 to 1 042 951, compared to the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down from 487 216 to 424 749
Weekend papers: down from 1 478 664 to 1 300 415
Local papers: down from 347 667 to 325 319
Free papers: down from 6 213 884 to 6 100 115

Daily papers

In Gauteng, Pretoria News has fallen from 14 515 to12 532 (sales below 50% of retail cost = 2 269). Beeld has fallen from 41 682 to 35 934 in the previous corresponding reporting period [672 copies go to Print Media in Education (PMIE)]. The Star is down from 84 168 to 74 520 (sales below 50% = 9 375). Sowetan is down from 82 624 to 71 797.

In the Cape, Die Burger (Eastern and Western Cape editions) has declined from 50 258 to 47 400. The Cape Argus has decreased from 29 796 to 27 662 (2 863 to PMIE), while the Cape Times has also declined from 30 781 to 29 673 (2 863 copies go to PMIE). Son has fallen from 74 103 to 66 043.

In the Eastern Cape, Daily Dispatch has fallen from 19 649 to 17 958, and The Herald from 18 010 to 17 067.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the Daily News is down from 24 610 to 23 508 (766 = sales below 50%) and The Mercury falls from 26 165 to 25 432. The Witness has declined from 13 597 to 11 641.

Business Day has declined from 22 069 to 20 313 and The Citizen from 44 390 to 43 693 (single copy sales: 29 305). The Daily Sun has collapsed from 181 322 to 143 981. Isolezwe has fallen from 90 724 to 79 476.

Volksblad has declined from 15 314 to 13 906. Diamond Fields Advertiser inches down from 7 866 to 7 599.

The MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*

Daily Sun: 143 981
Isolezwe: 79 476
The Star: 74 520
Sowetan: 71 797
Son: 66 043
Die Burger: 47 400 +1
The Citizen: 43 693 +1
Beeld: 35 934 +1
The Cape Times: 29 673 +1
Cape Argus: 27 662 new

With The Times falling out of our table, all papers from no, 6 onwards have moved up one spot.

Weekly & weekend papers

Pretoria News Saturday has declined from 8 899 to 7 357 (sales below 50% of cover price: 1 600). The Saturday Star is down from 51 994 to 44 978 (sales below 50% of cover price: 4 484); the Weekend Argus Saturday edition from 34 233 to 33 996 (sales below 50% of cover price: 4 000); and Independent on Saturday from 36 788 to 35 299.

Saturday Beeld has fallen from 39 761 to 36 105; Saturday Burger from 63 940 to 60 502 and Saturday Dispatch from 18 471 to 14 973.

City Press has declined from 81 488 to 56 056 and Rapport from 128 460 to 112 949 (single copy sales: 88 310). The Sunday Times has declined from 274 369 to 261 024 (single copy sales: 154 205). Sunday Tribune has declined from 57 640 to 49 903 (sales below 50% = 5 818). Sunday Sun has collapsed from 96 760 to 68 342 and Sunday World has also dropped from 63 450 to 51 407.

Ilanga Langesonto has declined from 40 188 to 34 997 and Isolezwe ngeSonto has fallen from 74 077 to 62 382. Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo has fallen from 69 387 to 63 225.

In terms of the weeklies, The Post has declined from 43 482 to 40 027 (sales below 50%: 2 127) and Ilanga has fallen from 68 327 to 57 887. The Mail & Guardian has declined from 29 364 to 27 969. Soccer Laduma is down from 266 811 to 250 006.

The MarkLives’ Biggest Circulation Per Issue Newspaper List*

Sunday Times: 261 024
Soccer Laduma: 250 006
Daily Sun: 143 981
Rapport: 112 949
Isolezwe: 79 476 +1
The Star: 74 520 +1
Sowetan: 71 797 +1
Sunday Sun: 68 342 -3
Son: 66 043 +2 re-entry
Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo: 63 225 +1 re-entry

Isolezwe ngeSonto: 62 382 -1
Die Burger: 60 502
Ilanga: 57 887
City Press: 56 056 -2 exits top 10

*South African titles only. Must have a cover price. Excludes free papers.

ABC 2017 stories

#AgencyLeaders2017: The one to watch in Jozi in 2018!

2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders Most Admired Johannesburg the one to watch in 2018

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which Joburg agency fellow ad execs feel is the “one to watch” in 2018 — the agency from which they expect great things in the year ahead! This is part of this week’s announcement of the 2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders’ Most Admired Poll results for Johannesburg. Next week will be the national results; last week we revealed the Cape Town results.

Monday: Most-admired ad agency bosses in Jozi
Tuesday: Most-admired creative leaders in Jozi
Wednesday: One to watch in Jozi
Thursday: Most-admired agencies in Jozi
Friday: Most digitally integrated in Jozi
Monday 5 March: Contribution to agency diversity and transformation (Jozi)

The one to watch in Johannesburg!

R\VERBED

In 2017, R\VERBED celebrated its 10th year in business; it’s also been voted as our Joburg agency to watch in 2018 — the second time it’s clinched the title. It remains one of the few black-woman-owned and -lead ad agencies of scale in the country. Key accounts include KFC, Old Mutual, iWYZE, Fundi (previously Eduloan), Microsoft, Diageo, PPC and UNISA.

In 2017, it won new through-the-line business from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA), Bankmed and Diageo Empowerment Trust. It also won PR business from Bayer and Standard Chartered. CEO Monalisa Zwambila won the Business Achiever for Gauteng award in 2017.

“Our vision as we enter our second decade is to become the greatest, independent creative agency in Africa out of South Africa,” says Zwambila. “Riverbed will continue to conceive campaigns that go beyond the brand, to tell stories that help people realise their potential, earning not just share of market, but share of heart.”

The runner-up

The Make Beautiful Agency

Zwelakhe “Zee” Tshabangu launched The Make Beautiful agency in June 2016. After 17 years in the ad game and having worked on some of the most-loved and-awarded brands across the continent, he says, he kept on noticing something about the work he was seeing. It was ugly. So he did the only logical thing; he started an agency to produce only beautiful work — which he aptly named The Make Beautiful Agency.

For the moment, Tshabangu is the only permanent staffer at Make Beautiful but he taps into a broad network of talent, including photographers, writers, stage and TV actors, to produce the work.

“We were very fortunate to even go beyond one year,” he says. “Most startups don’t plus; unlike my friend Kev, I’m not a trust-fund baby so everything you see is all us — literally. No loan. No funder. No BEE. Just a crazy creative black kid who woke up and said, “Ef it. I’m gonna go it alone.” And, boy, was I wrong. It turns out there were other cleverer black talented kids who said, ‘Wait, you doing what? We in!’

“A couple of months later, we had a total of seven award nominations/finalists across prestigious award shows like The Loerie Awards, [Pendoring] and Promax BDA Africa. These would result in a Silver in the highly contested Television category at [Pendoring] and the coveted Gold at the Promax Awards, all in one glorious year for one of our most prized clients, Channel O.”

The agency does work for DStv (Mzansi Magic, Channel O and SuperSport), Hollard and the Gauteng Department of Health.

“As with any other business, we’ve had our ups and downs but we stay resolute, we stay hungry, we stay black and we’ll keep doing what we do best right into 2018 and beyond — creating beautiful work that works beautifully,” says Tshabangu.

Previously

R\VERBED and The Odd Number tied in 2016; Avatar was named runner-up that same year. Promise was named as the one to watch in 2015 and King James II was our runner-up. No agency was named in 2014. Quirk took the honours in 2013.

How the poll works

Previous Jozi results

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives email newsletter every Monday and Thursday, now including headlines from the Ramify.biz company newsroom service!

#AgencyLeaders2017: Most admired creative leader in Jozi

2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders Most Admired Johannesburg creative leaders

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which agency creative leaders were most admired by their peers in Jozi during 2017! This is part of this week’s announcement of the 2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders’ Most Admired Poll results for Johannesburg. Next week will be the national results; last week we revealed the Cape Town results.

Monday: Most-admired ad agency bosses in Jozi
Tuesday: Most-admired creative leaders in Jozi
Wednesday: One to watch in Jozi
Thursday: Most-admired agencies in Jozi
Friday: Most digitally integrated in Jozi
Monday 5 March: Contribution to agency diversity and transformation (Jozi)

The most-admired creative leader in Jozi

Sibusiso ‘Sbu’ Sitole
Creative director & co-founder
The Odd Number

Sibusiso Sitole is the co-founder of The Odd Number, one of a new wave of black-owned and -managed agencies transforming South Africa’s advertising agency landscape. He attended the Red & Yellow School of Advertising in Cape Town and worked at various agencies, including Draftfcb (now FCB Africa), Grey South Africa and TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, before becoming creative group head at Joe Public and then creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg. Sithole and lifelong friend, Xola Nouse, launched The Odd Number in April 2015.

For the second year running, The Odd Number won the Pendoring Umpetha Award in 2017 and emerged at the top of 2017’s Pendoring ranking, beating established players like Joe Public and Ogilvy Mather Johannesburg. In 2017, it ranked 18th in the overall ranking by agency at The Loerie Awards, taking 12th place in South Africa. In the small agency ranking it came third, following after Grid Worldwide and FoxP2 Cape Town. Its work for Brand South Africa and BBC Lifestyle has been especially well-received, with #InspiredbymyConstitution for Brand SA being Ad of the Year 2017 here on MarkLives.

Previously

Joe Public United’s Pepe Marais took top honours for four years in a row, from 2013 until 2016. In 2012, our inaugural poll, it was Pete Case (founder of Gloo, today chief creative officer at Ogilvy & Mather South Africa).

The runners-up (tied)


Ahmed Tilly Joint chief creative officer FCB Africa	Grant Sithole Joint executive creative director Avatar South Africa

Previously

In 2015, Fran Luckin, chief creative officer at Grey Africa, was our runner-up. In 2014, joint runners-up were Mariana O’Kelly, co-ECD at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg, and Morris, then GCEO & ECD, FCB South Africa (now FCB Africa). There wasn’t a runner up in 2016 or in 2013. In 2012 — our inaugural poll — it was Pepe Marais.

How the poll works

Previous Jozi results

Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives email newsletter every Monday and Thursday, now including headlines from the Ramify.biz company newsroom service!

Thinking B2B: The importance of visual platforms in B2B marketing

by Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) Investing in campaigns to increase visibility for B2B companies may be hugely beneficial for increasing brand equity. In particular, I believe that B2B brands in South Africa are missing a trick by not producing campaigns to do this.

Invisible to end-consumers

It’s a fact that B2B brands are largely invisible to the end-consumers who use them. For example, one of the biggest B2B businesses in the world is General Electric (GE), which sells technology and machinery for other companies to use in their own businesses, such as the engines in an airplane. But the people boarding that plane to London Heathrow will never know that a GE engine is flying them there – the brand is invisible to them.

It’s the same scenario with a company like Intel. It may power a Dell computer with its central processing unit (CPU), yet as a consumer you would buy that machine because it’s a Dell, rather than it uses an Intel processor. This presents really interesting opportunities to create visibility for B2B services. Intel did this in a big way with its “Intel Inside” campaign, using TV, print, radio and outdoor to create visibility for the brand on the products that used its technology.

One really strong way to do this is to use social media platforms that are extremely visual, such as Instagram, Youtube or Facebook. GE is currently doing this in a very impactful way: a quick look at its Instagram feed shows you beautiful photography, strong storytelling, and evidence that it’s created visibility for its brand with a clear, impactful message.

Expertise lies in its people

What message? GE produces things that go into other things. But it’s identified that its expertise really lies in the people who produce these things. So, when making its brand more visible, it’s made superheroes out of the people who work at GE, for example, posting a picture of its chief engineer and detailing her incredible story underneath it.

In a South African context, we have really strong B2B businesses in this country but they simply don’t spend a lot of time creating awareness and visibility. But the buyer and the influencer who end up buying these B2B products have their own lives too — after all, they’re also consumers — so why not invest in getting visibility in this space?

When coming up with campaign ideas to create this visibility, companies need to narrow down what it is it about their B2B brand that’s extremely special. Is it the product? The people? The solutions? Or the impact the products have on the environment?

Many ways to create visibility

I’m not simply talking about the digital space here: there are many ways to create this visibility. One idea is to do something experiential, like Robertsons did in Melrose Arch recently, where it organised a popup restaurant. There were fancy chefs using Robertson spices and cooking up delicious dishes and it was a very visual marketing display.

It got me thinking: what’s the B2B equivalent of that? Here’s an example of what I mean:

When you want to hire a logistics business, such as Value Logistics for example, you may not know that all its trucks are Toyota commercial vehicles. Why couldn’t Toyota launch a campaign in industrial areas where fleet businesses are? After all, the ultimate decision-makers probably can choose between Mercedes or Toyota when choosing their commercial vehicles so, if you made the brand more visible, this could reap big benefits.

Seize the bull by the horns

The days of B2B products and services flying under the radar are over: it’s time to seize the bull by the horns, use what’s available to you and craft clever campaigns that reach your audience — particularly those people who may not know that they’re using your product to begin with.

Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) is the CEO and founder of Demographica, a multi-award winning full service agency that specialises in the B2B category. He is the chair of both the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) and the Assegai Integrated Marketing Awards (Assegais), as well as the only African to judge the B2 Awards, which recognise the top performing B2B marketers in the world. Warren contributes the monthly “Thinking B2B” column, which looks at the latest trends in B2B communications and explains why it is fundamentally different from B2C comms.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives email newsletter every Monday and Thursday, now including headlines from the Ramify.biz company newsroom service!

Print

House and Leisure (South Africa), Collector’s Issue, February 2018

Wired (US), March, 2018

Tate Etc. (UK), issue #42, Spring 2018

The California Sunday Magazine (US), February, 2018

Online

Marie Claire — Women and Guns (US), February, 2018

Iconic

Mark (Netherlands), December 2017/January 2018 Print (US), Winter/Spring 2017/2018

New management

Single network

Pod structure

New entity

South Africa

United Kingdom

The most-admired ad agencies in Jozi (tied)

Previously

The runner-up

Previously

How the poll works

Previous Jozi results

Delivering a connected customer and buying experience

How to transform the buying experience

What customers really want — success

Solving customer problems

How to solve customer problems

References

Further reading

Key insights

The business press

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of paid-for (sales, bulk and subscriptions) circulation

Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of total circulation

Entertainment & celeb news

Home & gardening, leisure

Men’s market

Health, fitness, sport

Hitting the road

Woman’s general

The MarkLives’ Big Magazine list*

Web traffic Q4 for consumer magazines

Impressions

Daily average unique browsers

Title

Category

ABC 2017 stories

More ABC stories

Key insights

ABC member circulation totals:

Daily papers

The MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*

Weekly & weekend papers

The MarkLives’ Biggest Circulation Per Issue Newspaper List*

ABC 2017 stories

More ABC stories

The one to watch in Johannesburg!

The runner-up

Previously

How the poll works

Previous Jozi results

The most-admired creative leader in Jozi

Sibusiso ‘Sbu’ Sitole Creative director & co-founder The Odd Number

Previously

The runners-up (tied)

Ahmed Tilly Joint chief creative officer FCB Africa

Grant Sithole Joint executive creative director Avatar South Africa

Previously

How the poll works

Previous Jozi results

Invisible to end-consumers

Expertise lies in its people

Many ways to create visibility

Seize the bull by the horns

Mark (Netherlands), December 2017/January 2018
Print (US), Winter/Spring 2017/2018

Sibusiso ‘Sbu’ Sitole
Creative director & co-founder
The Odd Number

Ahmed Tilly
Joint chief creative officer
FCB Africa

Grant Sithole
Joint executive creative director
Avatar South Africa