#BigQ2018: Ad agencies must keep customers coming back

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations for the marketing and advertising industry in 2018? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and any consumer and communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Last up is Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP.

Julia Ahlfeldt

Julia AhlfeldtJulia Ahlfeldt (@JuliaAhlfeldt) is a certified customer experience professional (CCXP). She consults to blue chips and multinationals, and advises them how to retain relevance and increase profits by transitioning from inwardly focused silos to being dynamic and customer-centric. She has worked with Virgin Active, Momentum, Absa, American Express (US), Ross Stores (US) and JP Morgan Chase (US), among others.

Gartner’s 2017/2018 CMO Spend Survey paints a sobering picture of traditional marketing efficacy and underlines the non-negotiable need for CMOs and their teams to deliver a higher ROI than in the past. This is in stark contrast to the ‘50% works, but no one’s sure which 50%’ sentiment which has dominated the ad industry for decades. Thanks to accessible analytics, clients now know what resonates with their customers and drives them to repeat buy.

Industry step-change

The implications are significant. Creative must work harder to bring in the bacon and justify value. Easier said than done. Industry excellence is founded upon the celebration of creativity, not the impact on the bottom line or what the customer wants. But times are changing. Publicis’s announcement last year that it planned to redirect award entry fees into digital development investment was a bold move and one that was widely supported.

Given the weight a Gold Lion brings to an agency’s creds, it will be telling to see how entrants remodel their work to deliver far more than the big idea and if the awards industry restructures to honour it.

Selling lemons

Being realistic is, in my opinion, a necessary step in the right direction. Highly engaging, expertly crafted ads create desire and aspiration among customers, and are easy on the eye, but do they set brands up to fail to deliver?

This isn’t the agency’s fault. Clients must take responsibility and give briefs that can be fulfilled at the till-point. There’s little more frustrating for a customer than being sold a Ferrari and getting a Honda.

In the banking industry, this is a major pain point. Not delivering on promises was the second-highest in volume complaint recorded in the annual 2017 Brandseye Banking Sentiment Index, averaging 24% of all conversation. Beautifully shot 30-second spots don’t hide long queues, faulty apps and poor service. These are a higher determinant of a customer’s satisfaction and likelihood of recommending the experience to friends and family than any impressions from ads.

View creativity through a financial lens

It’s certain that advertising budgets will be reviewed far more prudently going forward, with end-goals of briefs being first and foremost to deliver a viable return. And it’s likely that strategists and creatives who tackle new briefs through the customer’s eyes will have the advantage.

Working closely with data, aligning to sales and getting to grips with a business’s operations and customer experience (CX) strategy are essential for an ad agency to understand, especially now that retention receives double the marketing budget than acquisition (Gartner). But this requires upskilling in-house, educating staff on how to build long-term, profitable relationships with customers, and pursuing work that generates profits, not only positioning.

This will no doubt require a far more ruthless approach by both clients and their agencies as to where budget is allocated, and an account for each and every rand and cent spent. But the outcome will be in everyone’s interest: clients get more sales, agencies retain their income and, most importantly, the customer is happy and keeps coming back. Good for brand; good for business.

#BigQ2018 series

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key advertising and marketing industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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

#AgencyLeaders2017: The one to watch in Cape Town in 2018!

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today we reveal which Cape Town 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 Cape Town. Next week will be the Joburg results, followed by the national results in two weeks’ time.

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 one to watch in Cape Town!

FoxP2 directorsFoxP2

FoxP2, one of South Africa’s leading creative agencies, made waves on several fronts in 2017. Not only did it win Hyundai South Africa, currently the fourth-largest car brand in South Africa (which left The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) after a relationship spanning 16 years), other wins included Kauai (under the new ownership that is seeing the brand is being revitalised in an exciting way), Namibia Breweries (launching Camelthorn, its first foray into the craft beer market); Hungry Lion; Edward Snell; Tiger Brands (Jungle Oats, King Korn and Morevite); and Duram Paints.

FoxP2 logoFoxP2 Design is also coming into its own. Led by partner Andrew Whitehouse, the business is working on clients ranging from FNB, Tiger Brands and Diageo to Namibia Breweries.

The agency was recognised with another Gold Loerie Effectiveness Award last year, this time for its Integrated Grand Prix “Open Eyes” campaign for longstanding client, Ster-Kinekor.

“The Creative Circle rankings table shows we finished third overall in the group table, behind giants Ogilvy and TBWA,” says Justin Gomes, FoxP2 ECD. “To say we are thrilled would be an understatement. It’s our highest overall creative ranking in FoxP2’s history, and a massive shout out not just to the Foxes but also to our clients and partners who made this possible. Significantly, the work that was most creatively awarded was also the most effective, winning Gold Loerie Effectiveness and Silver Apex Effectiveness awards. That’s always been FoxP2’s mission — to leverage insight-driven creativity for brilliant business results! Congrats to all the agencies that ranked; keep fighting the good fight.”

It is also in the processing of selling a majority stake to Dentsu Aegis Network, considered a smart and nimble player in the South African agency world but which has lacked a creative shop in its local portfolio. [The deal has since been concluded — ed-at-large.]

Launched in 2005, the agency employs 83 people across its Cape Town and Johannesburg. Key clients includes FNB, Budget Insurance, Stanlib, Diageo and Namibia Breweries.

Previously

The VML and Y&R Africa Group was the one to watch for 2017 (at the time, the SA operations of the Y&R network, including Y&R South Africa, NATIVE VML and Labstore South Africa, were integrated under a single management team). NATIVE VML (now VML South Africa) was also our one to watch for 2016. For 2015, it was Publicis Machine — for the second year in a row — as its previous incarnation, Machine, took the title for 2014.

 

The runner-up

OFYT with Chris GotzOFYT

Old Friends Young Talent (OFYT) spent the last several years integrating with Bletchley Park, the agency it merged with in what was described as a partnership of equals. Chris Gotz, former co-chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa, joined OFYT as its national creative director in late 2016, following a short stint in the US.

Old Friends Young Talent (OFYT) logoThings seem to be settling in for the agency, with several business wins in 2017. It was appointed as PR, activation and digital partner for the KWV Wines group, responsible for the KWV Classic Wines Collection, Laborie and Roodeberg brands. It also won the above-the-line creative and strategy account for Prudential, one of the largest investment management companies in South Africa, after a four-way agency pitch process. The agency launched Soweto Gold for Heineken in October 2017.

Clients includes Kia, PWC, Wesgro, RMB Private Investment Bank, Bidvest and airbnb.

 

Previously

There were no runner-ups for 2017 and 2016. For 2015, it was Saatchi & Saatchi BrandsRock and, for 2014, it was MetropolitanRepublic Cape Town.

 

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 Cape Town results

Updated at 10.45am on 6 February 2019, at 11:57am on 16 February 2018 and 4.14pm on 13 February 2018.

 

Herman Manson 2017Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

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Only Connect: The future of marketing is authentic

by Bradley Elliott (@BradElliottSA) Welcome to this, the first of a series of regular columns for MarkLives.com. My intent with this series is to show how — through the power of technology and data — marketers may better understand humans to create connections that are valuable to both people and brands.

Data empowers better understanding, and with better understanding, brands may forge closer social connections that turn audiences into brand advocates, influencers and loyal customers. When connections are human and authentic, good things happen not only for people but for brands, too. And the big issue that’s affecting influencer marketing right now, is exactly the same challenge that advertising faces — authenticity.

Advertising is in trouble

Advertising is in trouble. We’ve known this for a while now. The first big asteroid to strike the ‘Mad Men’ of adland was digital. This great disrupter has forever fragmented how humans engage with brands, partly because it’s democratised and disintermediated media.

For marketers, this disruption has meant grappling with rapidly shifting media landscapes but, for consumers, the experience is more about avoiding advertising. People increasingly perceive ads as noise rather than information or entertainment.

The media landscape has become so noisy that global research group, Forrester, says the emotional labour of distraction caused by non-stop ads on devices converts to fatigue for today’s consumers. Forrester predicts that consumers will join the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution by spending some US$24 billion in 2018 to “cocoon themselves from the noise”.

The next big asteroid

As if people switching off from ads isn’t bad enough, the next big asteroid to hit adland is all about trust. People across the world no longer believe that institutions such as  government, business and the media work for them. They have become increasingly distrustful of social media, too.

The latest 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that South Africans are now ‘distrusters’. They simply don’t trust business, government, media and NGOs “to do what is right”. Compared to the results of 2017’s research, the local drop in trust has been steep. South Africa is one of six countries that had the biggest declines in public trust during the past year.

The good news is that Edelman reports that trust in journalism has rebounded but trust in social networks, and search, is taking strain. A third of all the people surveyed said they didn’t think that social media was a force for societal good. For marketers, this translates into two big challenges. The first is understanding who people trust and what this means for advertising. The second challenge is infinitely harder; it is all about rebuilding the trust that’s been lost.

Who do people trust?

Who do people trust? Nielsen’s Global Trust In Advertising report shows that 83% of those polled trust the opinions of friends and family most. Word-of-mouth is still very strong — our networks are the go-to source for credible advice and information. The same may be said of millennials, but younger folk foster digital networks more readily, which is why younger generations trust human networks, online reviews or blogs, or go to their online connections for the ‘say-so’. This, in part, is why influencer marketing has been a rising star in the digital marketing mix. Before buying anything of consequence, people don’t look at adverts. People seek out the opinion of influencers, experts or people in their networks whom they trust for good recommendations.

As Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says: “People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.”

Influencer marketing is gaining traction, because it works. Research reveals that 94% of marketers who’ve tried influencer marketing say it is effective. In a recent survey, marketers say they’re set to invest more time and money on influencer marketing.

Authenticity

But brands can’t win easy returns from influencer marketing by throwing money — or reach — at the challenge. Millenials don’t trust celebrities as much as they used to. The big issue that’s affecting influencer marketing right now, is exactly the same challenge that advertising faces — authenticity.

How do you fix the trust problem? Interestingly, the Reader’s Digest Trust Poll offers good clues. People trust do-gooders. They have faith in the humans and organisations who are helpful, useful, and serve the greater good. To restore the trust we’ve lost, marketers need to do better. The opportunity with influencer marketing is to use technology to forge social connections between humans and brands that are meaningful, useful and that do good things for humans.

 

Bradley ElliottThe founder of Continuon and Platinum Seed, Bradley Elliott (@BradElliottSA) is a serial entrepreneur who’s created a number of businesses in the digital and technology sectors. He believes that marketing needs to be reinvented so that it becomes more useful to humans and brands. He’s also a collector of fine whiskey. Bradley contributes the new monthly column, “Only Connect” — which focuses on influencer marketing — to MarkLives.com.

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#BigQ2018: Brands just need to be smart to reap rewards

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations for the marketing and advertising industry in 2018? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and any consumer and communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up is Nimay Parekh of King James Digital.

Nimay Parekh

Nimay ParekhNimay Parekh (@NimayParekh) is the chief executive officer and partner at King James Digital, the future-facing division of the King James Group. A software engineer graduate from the Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, Nimay began his career in New York City, spending more than decade in the tech, start up and advertising industries. Since moving back to South Africa, he has continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible and has remained at the leading edge of the digital age.

“Alexa, I want a new phone. Which one should I get?” Customers are seeking personalised value-adding brand interactions that save money and time. Amazon’s sophisticated voice-operated Alexa is the virtual assistant everyone wishes they had; she knows what you want because she knows you. This is the perfect example of the level of interaction customers have come to expect — and it’s up to brands to leverage new technologies and platforms in order to deliver a direct digital end-to-end experience.

With a slowing economy and rising costs due to a potentially imminent downgrade and further devaluation of the rand, now more than ever customers are looking for value. People are working more hours for less pay, and, with free-time a scarcity, individuals are more cautious with what they spend time and money on.

In 2018, successful brands will need to agilely adopt tech that catalyses greater convenience and transparency for the customer. A new level of customer requires a new level of brand and, for agencies, this means greater emphasis on the role of direct digital communication as opposed to traditional digital marketing. The focus for the year ahead needs to be an end-to-end digital experience for clients that includes data, communications, product, platform and media. The tech is already there; brands just need to know how to use it.

Speak to me like you know me

Direct digital communication will be achieved though hyper-personalisation. This speaks to the idea of engaging with the more-personalised and -individualistic “me”, as opposed to the broad target audience/market approach of “us.”

Speak to me like you know me. Prove to me that your product is superior. Tell me what I want before I want it. Upsell to me at the right time and make the onboarding or purchase process seamless and easy.

Where is this going to take place? On messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, iMessage, WeChat and WhatsApp.

If we look at the WeChat model and apply it locally to WhatsApp (South Africa’s most-downloaded app), and consider the imminent arrival of WhatsApp Business, we see that the global tech giants are already providing us with direct engagement opportunities.

Understanding the customer: partnerships and psychographic profiles

Big brands need their own IT infrastructure, brand and product teams to come together and partner with agencies that offer strong customer-facing platform development capabilities, backed by strategists, data and behavioural scientists.

Global brands will require a system that presents a single view of their customer to achieve this — a digital profile that is the sum of all their available data points, taken from direct communication, interactions with previous digital campaigns and customer history. This means that upselling will occur when it’s of greatest use to the customer, which makes it more likely to be effective. This will happen through natural conversations over messenger apps.

To do this at scale, we will have to use intelligent APIs that pull data from every level of a company’s interaction with its customers — be it payment, customer care, logistics and even inventory management. Agencies’ roles will be to ensure that the service is easy to use, adds value to the customer and delivers a great experience every single time. By applying this approach to every customer touchpoint, brands will gain a deeper understanding of their clients.

Alexa is an example of this. Using artificial intelligence (AI), ‘she’ cuts out the middleman and disrupts the brick-and-mortar requirement of most retailers by presenting personalised options based on psychographic behavioural data. This generates huge cost-savings that are often passed directly on to the customer. Once a customer picks a product, Amazon can ship it on the same day — it’s an easier, cheaper, faster experience.

It’s a smart new world

This is not sci-fi, future, oh-it’ll-happen-here-in-like-10-years’-time technology. It exists. It is available for any brand in South Africa to adopt right now. The brands that miss this disruptive opportunity will find that their savvy customers will be gone first, and they’ll influence the less-savvy ones to follow suit. The brands that are quickest to implement this will have the benefit of a deeper understanding of their customers and be able to create smoother interactions at every touchpoint. They will save their customers time and money, and provide them with unparalleled convenience. In return, their satisfied customers will give them the one thing every business is after: more profit.

It’s a brave new world. However, brands don’t need to be brave to reap the rewards. They just have to be smart.

#BigQ2018 series

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key advertising and marketing industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

— 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 Cape Town

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

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 creative leader in Cape Town

Alistair King

Alistair King
Source: Facebook.

Founding creative partner
King James Group

Alistair King retains the top spot in our poll of Cape Town’s most-admired agency leaders. He’s won the accolade five times over the past six years (once in a tie with Justin Gomes, ECD of FoxP2). He’s extremely happy with the agency’s work right now. “We’re doing exactly the kind of work I want us to be doing as an agency and we have a terrific buzz in our studio right now,” he says. “We’re trying a lot of new things, and I’d highlight our Sanlam UK’shona Kwelanga WhatsApp Drama as an example of how we’re evolving as an agency.”

Written in collaboration with veteran scriptwriter Bongi Ndaba and including some of the country’s favourite soapie actors, Sanlam’s WhatsApp drama, Uk’shona Kwelanga, was a South African first.

Previously: In 2016 and 2015, King also took this title. In 2014, King and Gomes tied for the top spot. In 2013, it was Chris Gotz, then chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. In 2012, our inaugural poll, it was King yet again.

 

The runner-up

Tsekiso Rangaka
Supplied.

Tseliso Rangaka
Executive creative director
Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town

Tseliso Rangaka is our runner-up for the second year running. Following Ogilvy Cape Town’s recent organisational restructuring, he now oversees a combined creative studio, supported by Nic Wittenberg in the newly created role of associate executive creative director.

According to Rangaka, the new model creates a balance between the need for efficiency and the required chaos needed in an agency to produce creative work.

“In terms of creative product news, of a second-place ranking by the creative circle trailing just Ogilvy Johannesburg, certainly brought a smile to Tseliso and my face,” says Luca Gallarelli, Ogilvy Cape Town managing director. “We are chomping at the bit to get some of the work that is currently sitting on our desks out into the public domain as we believe this is evidence of the thinking and ways of working we have built into our world.

“Some of the work we’re most proud of is the Audi work for Q2, 011Beats for VW, and the recent #NoExcuses campaign for Carling Black Label, which has made a massive impact in market. Our amazing relationship with the NSRI maintains and we’re so proud to have produced the work for them that we [did last] year.”

Previously: Gomes was our runner-up in 2015. There were no runners-up in 2014. In 2013, Gomes was a joint runner-up, together with Graham Lang, CCO at Y&R South Africa. In 2012, our inaugural poll, Gomes was also runner-up.

 

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 Cape Town results

 

Herman Manson 2017Herman 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!

#BigQ2018: Time to make South African advertising great again

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations for the marketing and advertising industry in 2018? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and any consumer and communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up is Wayne Naidoo of DUKE.

Wayne Naidoo

Wayne NaidooWayne Naidoo (@WNaidoo), founder and CEO of DUKE and a veteran adman, believes that a fierce imagination, good data and a bold heart can liberate businesses and create new, profitable opportunities for clients. He has over 25 years’ experience in the marketing and advertising industry, having begun his career in marketing as the marketing manager of the Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid Committee. He has also been Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) chair, AAA School of Advertising board member and Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) chair.

The way we do business today is no longer the same as we did a decade ago. Why then, do advertising agencies still provide the same service offering that we did 10 years ago? The closure of some of South Africa’s ad industry giants last year is a pretty clear indication that, if ad agencies plan to survive the current economic downturn, we’re going to have to relook traditional agency models and the value we offer our clients.

Two main areas of focus

The two main areas of focus for ad agencies that wish to remain relevant and economically viable in 2018 are, first and foremost, their financial models and thereafter, the outdated and inefficient offerings that they bring to market. From a cost-factor point of view, agencies need to take stock of each and every position within the business and decide whether that position is a necessity and if it adds value. Do we really need eight people to service an account or can we simply work a lot smarter? Do we need such lengthy reporting lines? Can we cut out a tier or two? How do we remain passionate and excited about what we do when we spend our lives managing staff issues and admin chores?

The current agency model has proven to be outdated and inefficient. Cumbersome, staff-laden agencies with massive overheads have to charge massive retainers to cover their costs. And with companies currently feeling the pinch, there are no longer enough of those big retainers to go around. We need to get lean and work smarter.

Cost of awards

Also adding to a battered agency bottom line is the cost of entering creative awards, particularly international awards. Do these awards really bring in new business? Just how much value is to be gained from a shelf-load of creative awards? Yes, every agency loves to line up their Loeries and Lions but it just doesn’t make business sense to be chasing after awards when your budget is blown.

Beyond the obvious financial and commercial factor, agencies also really need to relook the way we work — are we really adding value to our client’s business? How many of us can say that we have truly taken our client’s business forward and achieved things for them in the past 12 months? Businesses are currently under huge financial pressure, budgets are shrinking and there is a growing demand for returns. Clients need a partner who listens, who understands their business and that will ultimately make life easier for them.

Brands are also questioning the way that agencies are spending their money and they are relooking at the way they sell and market their products. P&G chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, recently stated in Financial Times, “Agencies need to do more to help their clients — the industry needs to figure out how we drive growth.”

Remain competitive

If we want to remain competitive, we need to come up with innovative, unique solutions that may not actually involve any traditional communication elements at all. There is a reason that consulting firms are stepping into our arena — they are offering clients more than just advertising. Are we prepared to look for solutions that go beyond our regular set of integrated campaign elements? Maybe your client needs networking opportunities or better staff incentives — are you prepared to explore non-traditional solutions that might not essentially make you as much money but will benefit your client’s business far more?

In order to fully understand our clients’ business and to come up with targeted solutions, we need to fully submerse ourselves in that business and the industry in which it operates. For far too long, agencies have looked inward; — we tell ourselves that the client doesn’t understand. But how much do we really understand about their product and brand? Spend a week on the ground with your client; see how they make money, what the day-to-day operation involves. Chat to their suppliers and even competitors in the industry. Ask about the numbers, deliverables and targets and, most importantly, what keeps your client awake at night. Don’t just rely on the research that your strat department hands you; get out and do your own.

Not all doom and gloom

But 2018 certainly isn’t all doom and gloom. By definition, ad agencies are supposed to be innovative and creative at finding solutions — the current business landscape simply poses us with a new challenge to which to apply our creative thought. We also desperately need to promote our industry — the tougher things get, the more likely we are to lose our best talent to other industries, where people are seen to be making more money in more dynamic and exciting fields. The ad industry comprises so many brilliant and talented minds; I have no doubt that, if we just sit down together and put our minds to the many challenges, we can figure out how to make South African advertising great again.

#BigQ2018 series

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key advertising and marketing industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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

#BigQ2018: Let’s get back to creating magic again

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations for the marketing and advertising industry in 2018? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and any consumer and communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up is Masego Motsogi of Grid Worldwide.

Masego Motsogi

Masego MotsogiMasego Motsogi (@masegom) is the newly appointed managing director of Grid Worldwide; previously, she was MD of Ninety9cents (99c) Johannesburg. Her career in advertising and marketing spans over 15 years, having worked at Ogilvy & Mather, The Jupiter Drawing Room, South African Breweries and FCB Africa before joining 99c. She has a degree in community and health psychology and a higher diploma in integrated marketing communications.

It would seem that, like the rest of the world, industries across the board are in a state of flux. We are living in the age of fake news, discredited leadership, continued subjugation of minorities, compromised security, social injustices and many other ills that have many of us craving for some form of sanity and calm.

The advertising and marketing industries are not isolated from the rest of the world and its shenanigans. As we expect and witness, we ourselves are facing some difficulties which, in my view, have led to the less-than-stellar work that we put out — a reflection of the state of imbalance that we find ourselves in. Yet nothing stops us from reflecting and at least making an attempt at righting the wrongs and bettering our outputs — unless our egos get in the way or we adopt an insular and myopic view of the world.

We, therefore, would do well to get back to the middle; pay attention; and recalibrate and discard the nonsense that’s become part and parcel of what we do and how we do it.

All is not broken

I’d like to believe that all is not broken and that what we really need to do is understand that there’s been a shift. It is, however. up to us to make sense of the shift and apply the right course of action.

Very interesting to me, and in a way related to our own story, are the various issues that have dominated political discussions around succession — from the US President’s followers supposedly seeking a restoration of the “original” state of their nation to the UK’s divided opinion on whether to stay or to exit (in which outcome we are well-versed). Closer to home, we have observed the changes that have taken place in neighboring Zimbabwe and Liberia remains top of mind with an initially failed presidential, former footballer recently winning the presidential elections and, too, there’s our internal politics that have resulted in #CR17 succeeding as the president for the ruling party.

What’s clear is that there’s no formula to this whole succession debate. Clearer still is that each constituency has had to review what it stands for (regardless of how witless the stance may be) and base its decisions on that.

So, what do we as an industry stand for? Certainly, one of the table-stake reasons is that we’re here to make a difference to our clients’ business by impacting on the bottom line through the work we do. But what is the reason we exist as an industry? Why is it we do what we do?

Start doing the following

That leads me to the core of this topic: my expectations for the industry for the year and hopefully beyond. Expectation may be a stretch in some instances because it’d mean that I’ve a strong sense that what I point out is likely to happen. I do, however, hope that we start doing the following:

  1. We’re here for a reason: the creative economy has a role to play — and not just by being tactical and topical but by creatively yet sensibly narrating the country’s story through the brands we touch.
  2. The future: being part of a group of people who can, to an extent, shape popular culture, I expect that we’ll realize that we’re behaving much like the politicians we so often speak ill of and start having serious conversations about succession in the industry — neither sugar-coated nor addressed in a passive-aggressive manner. We ought to be resolute about the need to transform and acknowledge that diversity (race, gender and age) just might help us tell better and more-balanced stories.
  3. Much as we inspire culture, we are simultaneously a reflection of our society. This needs to show in the makeup of our companies, the strategies that inform our creative output and the eventual creative output itself.
  4. Understanding our audiences: we need stop with the few days out of the office labelled “immersion” and be part of what’s happening. To quote Incognito, “Don’t shake me by the hand, pretend to understand. To get into my mind, you gotta get into my groove. Step into my shoes, come and feel my blues. To comprehend my life, you gotta get into my groove.”
  5. The world is young. The young are the future. Let’s teach them what we should and can and also learn from them. They’ll be running the industry that we often lament as having lost its glory. The baton is with us and, if the young ones fail, we would have been dismal head-starters.

In short, let’s be real with ourselves by addressing the issues, respecting for our own industry and our craft, and getting back to creating magic.

#BigQ2018 series

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key advertising and marketing industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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Shelf Life: Local chocolate maker goes global

Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!

  • De Villiers Chocolate gets shelf space in UK, US, Australia
  • Monopoly cheaters exposed with Cheatbot
  • Tiso Blackstar Group launches Times Select

Taste of Africa

De Villiers Chocolate, one of Africa’s first bean-to-bar chocolate brands, is now exporting to three major global food retailers: Marks & Spencer in the UK, Cost Plus World Market in the US and David Jones in Australia.

De Villiers Chocolate African Collection now available internationallyIt is De Villiers Chocolate’s first venture into international markets, and a definite highlight for the brand, says owner and chocolate maker, Pieter de Villiers. “Africa produces 70% of the global cocoa bean crops but produces less than 3% of the world’s chocolate — largely due to artisanal chocolate makers being unable to compete with mass producers who export the continent’s beans in bulk. I think this is an important step in showing consumers in other countries that there is more to the world’s chocolate than Belgian or Swiss chocolate. As a proud African, I am very happy to offer a taste of Africa to the world.”

De Villiers Chocolate’s global expansion is complemented by an increased national footprint in South Africa. The chocolate is sold under its own-label in Woolworths stores nationally, and it also plans to roll out 12 interactive in-store ‘chocolate pods’ or standalone booths in a number of Woolworths stores countrywide, following a hugely successful launch in one of the retailer’s flagship stores last year. This is in addition to its standalone stores in the Cape Winelands at Spice Route in Paarl and Franschhoek.

Australians may now also access the chocolate as it is stocked by David Jones, an affiliate company of Woolworths Holdings, the exclusive national retailer of De Villiers Chocolate. The chocolate range is also listed in Cost Plus World Market’s catalogue — a fine food retailer in the US, with close to 300 markets across North America.

dvchocolate.com • Facebook

 

Chastising cheaters

Hasbro has introduced the first-ever Monopoly “CheatBot”, Inviting its more than 1bn players in 114 countries across the globe to report rulebreakers via Facebook Messenger.

Monopoly CheatBotAccording to Hasbro, in a recent study of approximately 2 000 people, nearly 50% of respondents reported some form of cheating during Monopoly gameplay, including stealing money from the bank, moving a token across multiple spaces, making up fake rules, and more.

The Monopoly CheatBot will help settle game disputes and crack down on rule-breaking with the help of Mr Monopoly himself, who will dole out personalised consequences in real-time, such as going directly to Monopoly jail or paying a US$200 fine in Monopoly Money.

Fans may visit Facebook.com/Monopoly to report their friends and family to Mr Monopoly or join the conversation using #MonopolyCheater.

hasbro.com• Facebook

 

New times

This month see the launch of Times Select, which has replaced the former print edition of The Times.

Times SelectTimes Select features national, business, lifestyle, sport and world news, curated by an editorial team to provide readers with a 20-minute daily must-read.

Comments Andrew Trench, group digital editor at Tiso Blackstar Group Times Select, “We will continue to bring the feisty spirit and unique voice of The Times to the new Times Select platform, where our readers will benefit from the award-winning journalism synonymous with Tiso Blackstar’s titles.”

Content from columnists and writers from the former print edition will be available exclusively: Justice Malala, Ranjeni Munusamy, Tom Eaton, Jonathan Jansen, Darrel Bristow-Bovey, Tony Leon, Wendy Knowler, Andile Ndlovu and others.

Until April this year, readers will be able to access Times Select at no cost on desktop and mobile devices simply by registering at select.timeslive.co.za. Thereafter, it will become a subscription-only product, with daily and monthly rates to be announced soon.

tisoblackstar.com

 

Cheryl HunterShelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things new. 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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EXCLUSIVE: Management shakeup at Publicis Groupe Africa, agencies

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Publicis Groupe Africa and a number of its agencies have undergone significant management changes. The group currently employs approximately 1800 people nationally across its various brands and a further 2000 people across the rest of the continent (it employed only 200 in 2010).

Departure of Kevin Tromp

With Kevin Tromp, chief executive officer, having left the group at the end of Q3 2017, John Dixon, former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa, has been appointed as CEO: Publicis Groupe Africa — a newly constituted role.

Tromp had lead the rebuilding of Publicis Groupe Africa through an aggressive acquisition spree which saw it acquire OwenKessel (now Leo Burnett), Brandsrock (now Saatchi & Saatchi), Machine (now Publicis Machine) and Liquorice (now a DigitasLBi company), among others. Tromp’s biggest acquisition, The Creative Counsel, stumbled in 2016, which at the time lead to rumours that he would be leaving the group; Tromp denied that was the case at that point. The agency is believed to have regained its growth footing in the interim.

Miles Murphy, CEO of Liquorice DigitasLBi Africa, has taken on an additional group role and now serves as chief operating officer, Pubicis Groupe Africa. He manages the Africa network and is advancing the digitisation of group agencies. He also takes responsibility for Nurun, following the departure of Tom Fels for client side, where he now serves as CEO: hospitality of ‎Singita Luxury African Safari Lodges & Reserves.

End of earn-out periods

Fels is one of several group agency executives who departed after the end of their earn-out periods. Adrian Hewlett, Publicis Machine founder and CEO, is another, although he continues to consult for the group and is currently driving several group projects, including a move from six different agency locations to a single building in Cape Town. Neal Farrell has taken over the position of managing director for Publicis Machine.

Publicis Media saw its CEO, Kim Weissensee, leave at the end of 2017 to be replaced by Peter Monaise, who joined in January 2018.

Saatchi & Saatchi is being lead by Helen Ludwig as MD and Jonathan Beggs as executive creative director. Ludwig joined Saatchi & Saatchi as head of strategy and was appointed to the role of MD over a year ago. Both have been with the company for over three years.

Importance of agency brands

According to Dixon, the agency brands, which include Leo Burnett, Arc Worldwide, Epic MSL Group, Popimedia, Nurun, Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Machine, remain important to the group but it’s also building out its group offering which sees agencies partner on big pitches. This assisted the group in winning both Old Mutual and Engen.

While it is important for the South African agencies to have access to an Africa-wide network, especially when it comes to winning SA multinational business, the Africa network is growing rapidly in its own right as investors eye East and West African markets, notes Dixon.

 

Herman Manson 2017Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.

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#AgencyLeaders2017: Most admired ad agency boss in Cape Town

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

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 agency boss in Cape Town

James Barty

James Barty
Supplied.

Co-founder & chief executive
King James Group

James Barty has pulled a hat-trick — he’s been named the most-admired agency boss in Cape Town for the third year running. He leads one of the largest independent agencies in the country, with a blue-chip client base that includes Pick n Pay, Sanlam, Santam and a host of Tiger Brands and AB Inbev brands.

After winning the retail business for the launch of Tyme Digital by Commonwealth Bank SA in South Africa, King James was awarded the full account after six months on the account; it will now be responsible for all elements of launching the brand into the local market in 2018. In another significant win, Allan Gray announced the appointment of King James the Second (II) as its new agency in mid-2016.

It also achieved 19% year-on-year revenue growth in a touch economic climate.

Previously

Barty took the top spot in both 2016 and 2015. In 2014, it was Adrian Hewlett, then CEO of Publicis Machine; in 2013, it was Gavin Levinsohn, ex-MD of Ogilvy Cape Town and, in 2012, our inaugural poll, Claire Cobbledick (then MD of The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town) tying with Barty for the top spot.

 

The runners-up (tied)

Andrew Brand
Supplied.

Andrew Brand
Managing director
Ninety9Cents

Andrew Brand runs Ninety9Cents (99c), the Cape Town agency best-known for its work on Shoprite/Checkers but which also works on Ackermans, Bryte and Capitec. In 2017, it was appointed lead creative and digital agency for Spur Steak Ranches after a four-way pitch. 99c also works on John Dory’s, Panarottis Pizza Pasta and Captain DoRegos, which all fall under the Spur Corporation umbrella.

 

 

 

 

Jason Xenopoulos
Supplied.

Jason Xenopoulos
CEO & chief creative officer
NATIVE VML (now VML South Africa)

Xenopoulos commutes between Cape Town and Johannesburg as the CEO and CCO of NATIVE VML, which was named Entertainment Agency of the Year 2017 in the Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report. The agency also ranked third among the top South African agencies at the 2017 Loerie Awards, and was ranked fourth among agencies from across Africa and the Middle East.

Previously

In 2016, our runner was Mike Abel, founding partner of M&C Saatchi Abel. There were no runners-up in 2014 or 2015. In 2013, Barty was runner-up; in 2012, it was Levinsohn.

 

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 Cape Town results

 

Herman Manson 2017Herman 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!

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