by MarkLives (@MarkLives) Cape Town-based youth engagement specialist agency, Andpeople — which was founded in 2012 by Michael Leslie — will close its doors from 30 June 2020. The move will affect 23 staff members.
Over the past eight years, the agency worked on Adidas, Levi’s, Red Bull Mobile, Spotify, Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue, Netflix, Jose Cuervo, Glenfiddich, Sunglass Hut, and Bacardi, among others. Andpeople Australia will continue to operate and service the needs of its client base in the APAC region.
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Comments Leslie, “Just two months ago, Andpeople closed our best financial year in history. With eight, strong years of growth under our belt, we felt confident and poised for the next chapter of our story. Unfortunately, however, the impacts of covid-19 have been as unexpected as they have been severe. From initial project pauses and budget reductions to full-blown budget and relationship terminations, our clients’ businesses without exception have been exposed to extreme pressure, and this pressure has subsequently, without exception, been transferred to us.
“With great uncertainty and volatility expected for the short-medium term future, we’ve been challenged to make a tough decision — scale down significantly and ‘survive’ the next 18-24 months, or close Andpeople in the way we’ve always prided ourselves on operating as a business, with compassion, honesty, accountability and integrity.”
“This is not a failure”
Adds Duncan MacLennan, Andpeople MD and partner, “We have chosen the latter as a proactive response to an unprecedented crisis, and recognition that the business that existed eight weeks ago is no longer a viable one today. For us at Andpeople, survival would require a complete restructuring of the business, drastic reduction in headcount, significant changes in the ways of working and, undoubtedly, other changes that this stage would be impossible to anticipate.
“What we do know, though, is that the Andpeople that we all know and love would not be the same. In many ways, it would be unrecognisable. Critically, this is not a failure. This is an acknowledgement that, when the world changes, we need to change with it, and an opportunity to re-imagine what brands and businesses will need to thrive in a post-covid era.”
Note to companies hiring:MacLennan may be contacted via LinkedIn to connect you with Andpeople staff members looking for new placements.
by Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) I came across some quaint January 2020 marketing trend articles the other day and had a good laugh. Predicting the future has always been a guessing game but has there ever been a moment when everything by everyone has been so quickly proved wrong?
“Don’t make predictions, especially about the future.”
There’s much debate about who said this but definitely not about its truth. So, I’m going to give predictions a miss but am going to unpack what I think are the two clear realities in paid media right now.
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The fast-forward
Behaviour change was always seen as something that happened in increments. The lockdown shock has changed that and, overnight, consumers’ relationship with media has changed massively, most probably for good.
What it’s showed up is that any media that were fighting a bigger trend against them were very quickly going to have face reality. It’s sad what’s happened to media owners such as Associated Media Publishing and Caxton Magazines, but definitely not a surprise. More will definitely follow. Print will survive for niches and in bookstores. I’ve been buying the Sunday Times every week during lockdown but just for nostalgia’s sake.
I’m also not sure the cinema experience will survive. Now that I’ve explored all the possible platforms to watch movies, the ease and comfort is just too great to ignore. And that is the big upside for media reliant on data. Whether streaming entertainment on a smart TV, searching for the latest news or connecting with friends on social media, understanding of the virtual world has increased exponentially. There’ll be no going back.
Running parallel to this has been the huge success of the #datamustfall campaign over the last month. In such an unequal country, access to cheaper data is a game changer for media. We’re definitely not going back.
The double opportunity
Staring marketing teams in the face is the double opportunity of a lifetime. This hit me when reading a 2020 update from Twitter the other week. Global audiences have soared to 168m from 134m the year before. However, since mid-March there has been a 27% drop in advertising revenue.
This is reflected in any medium that has been on the right side of “the fast-forward”. Audiences are up yet economic reality means revenue will be down — and most likely will be for a while. As with any business faced with falling revenues, pricing will become very negotiable. This means the double opportunity of buying a lot more eyeballs and ears for a whole lot less.
Outside of the audience increase on digital platforms, early data is showing increases in TV prime time and daytime audiences — and marked increases in news channel audiences. Although data is not out yet, the same seems likely in the case of daytime radio. So, potentially, this is a golden time for brands wishing to make a big impact. Like oil, the currency of audience attention is cheap.
It’ll be interesting to see who the brave brands are. Just like certain media, this moment is a rare opportunity to leap ahead of competitors.
Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) has been managing director of Connect, the M&C Saatchi media agency with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, since 2012. He has spent 22 years in the industry, having previously worked at Ogilvy and been MD of Nota Bene (now Wavemaker) in Cape Town. Martin contributes the regular “Media Redefined” column, in which he challenges norms in the media space, to MarkLives.com.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by David Alves (@TheDavidAlves) Level 4, stage 3B, sanitise this, video-conference that, Abraham hit me with a wiffle ball bat. Welcome to our ‘new reality’. It’s a brave ‘new world’ for consumers and an even more treacherous one for the marketers (there’s a song in there somewhere).
No harm admitting
There’s no harm in admitting that you haven’t been paying attention to what brands are saying during this time. While adapting to new ways of working, establishing a secure WFH (work from home) environment and attempting work-life balance, it’s no wonder we haven’t had the chance to listen to what brands have been saying. Maybe. Or maybe it’s because they haven’t been saying very much at all.
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Locally, brands have been relatively quiet; chirps of “gees” and togetherness light up the laptop screen and fill the airwaves from time to time but never has there been a time when brands have been so indistinguishable from one another than right now. Take, for example, something Microsoft Sam put together to show the depth (or lack thereof) that brands in the US are willing to search, in order to connect with consumers at this [I am Jack’s gooey euphemism for extreme uncertainty] time:
Agency manifesto
If you don’t feel like watching the brand-omelette of covid-19 responses, here’s the agency manifesto in a nutshell:
*cue reassuring harmonics*
We’re apart right now.
We’ve been there for you.
We’re people, too.
Family.
Especially now.
Today, more than ever.
In these times of uncertainty.
Oh, and social distancing.
Home. Safety.
Here to help.
We are here.
Here for you.
Trust us.
Together.
*cue motivational melodic buildup*
Anyone else feel as if you’ve just stepped out of a place where normal things don’t happen very often? You’d be right to feel like everything, even the brand messaging you might have come to enjoy once upon a time, has started to feel a little groundhogish. Should the agencies be trying harder? Maybe clients should be the ones doing better?
The best thing about our new reality is that you have a choice to engage or be interrupted. One would say that now, more than ever, the power lies with the consumer. But enough about “work”. Let’s turn our attention to what actual life might be like after lockdown level 3 point 2, sub section 5 is behind us and we step (figuratively, of course) back out into the real world, because — let’s face it — it’s not going to be the same.
The ‘new world’
So, in the spirit of said ‘new world’, here are a few anecdotes and pieces of technology that you might not have heard of yet that might become the ‘new normal’.
It describes itself as “…helping restaurants of all sizes thrive to enable diners to find and book the perfect table for every occasion, our story is one of human connection.”
OpenTable’s new tool allows consumers to choose a vacant time slot or join a waiting list at partnered supermarkets and other essential businesses, much like setting up a reservation at a restaurant. Currently, six partners across the US, plus one each in the UK, India, Australia and Mexico are using this piece of technology:
Locally, Dineplan has a similar core offering. If there were ever a time to develop a new feature, now’s the time, considering we might see phased social-distancing measures for the foreseeable.
FruPro claims to “provide an end-to-end community for the fresh produce industry worldwide, while offering greater transparency for fresh produce consumers… by helping its partners and consumers see beyond what’s on their plates but understand every step it took to get it there.”
Its pivot during the pandemic has been to lessen food waste from restaurants during lockdowns in various cities. With South Africa’s under-supply of food parcels and aid to those in need, perhaps it’s time someone pulled the rug from under SA’s fresh food industry, not only in the hospitality industry but the retail environment.
A post-covid-19 world wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention Zoom but this is a departure from its function as a strict business and personal video-conferencing tool to a product that allows isolated seniors to connect with children in the US. Cue the collective awws.
Why not just regular Zoom, you ask? Well, does the regular interface provide an integrated visual tool to allow you to read fairy tales from your favourite books within the video environment? Exactly. Heart-warming applications of technology like this have the potential to move a nation.
If you haven’t had a virtual lunch/dinner date with your bestie or couple-friends during isolation, are you even a real human? Taking video-conferencing a step further into the realm of entertainment, Vemos is a free Google Chrome extension that allows you to connect to your favourite streaming service. Share what you’re watching with friends and watch in sync while you banter about the real reasons Carole Baskin fed her husband to a tiger (I’m just saying … it’s plausible).
The tool is incredibly easy to use and boasts a live-chat feature that comes in handy when you just have to interrupt a friend while they’re deciphering the ridiculous Spanish-to-English dubbing on Money Heist. Is this where we’re headed? For now, possibly. Maybe we’re already there and we just don’t know it.
The only constant
As Heraclitus said: the only constant is change. As the world changes, so people change with it. We’re a resilient bunch, and while, at the moment, brands fade into obscurity as they continue to sing from the same hymn sheets, consumers will no doubt move into a deeper state of hyper-personal awareness and become harder to influence with regular marketing initiatives.
In the rush to digitally transform, brands may be losing themselves. Sometimes, while trying to remain relevant in a time of such — dare I say it — uncertainty, it’s best to listen and, if you can’t, try to provide value and utility. If there were ever a time to begin reevaluating your service offering, as a brand or as an agency, it’s now.
David Alves (@TheDavidAlves) is a business director and consultant at Acceleration South Africa, a Wunderman Thompson company, and a digital marketing specialist with over 12 years of entrepreneurial, digital agency and corporate experience, ranging from multinationals to SMEs. His specialities cover consumer and customer experience, the relationship management environment and technical experience across multiple technology suites. He contributes the regular column, Hard Relate — about martech, customer behaviour and experience — to MarkLives.com.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by Herman Manson (@MarkLives) Elouise Kelly, Ogilvy Johannesburg managing director, is leaving the adverting agency at the end of May 2020 to take up a new position outside the ad industry. Kelly, who joined Ogilvy Joburg in April 2018, previously served as SABC head of marketing.
“Not an easy choice”
“I’ve learnt a lot during my time at Ogilvy,” says Kelly in a statement released by the agency. “Leaving has not been not an easy choice. Ogilvy has an amazing network of talent which continues to deliver great work. I’m fortunate to have been a part of the magic. I’m excited to be returning to the media and entertainment industry and looking forward to the challenges ahead.”
Tracey Edwards, Ogilvy SA chief delivery officer, will serve as acting MD, pending a permanent appointment.
While we have your attention, please would you consider taking out a MarkLives membership to help finance our operations? The covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on society and industry. With your support, either as a once-off or monthly contribution, we can continue our coverage of its impact on our industry.
In an interview with MarkLives, Kelly said that she’d hoped to stay at Ogilvy for at least five years to add maximum value but “life is what happens while you make other plans”. A phone call led to a broader discussion and eventually her decision to join a new organisation.
New role
The new position (and company) is yet to be revealed but she describes it as an industry she’s familiar with and that’s undergone a process of digital transformation, which she finds interesting. Her new role will also take her into the the rest of Africa, something she’s missed doing.
Her highlights at Ogilvy Joburg include assisting with the agency’s digital transformation, and product and innovation initiatives, as well as finding and putting in place the right people in key positions. She says her key takeaway from her agency-side time is that passion drives everything — and how visible it can be when it’s lacking, both in the work and in client/agency relationships. She describes her career as one driven by passion, and that she’s enjoyed being surrounded by such creative spirit.
Kelly joins a long list of recent departures from Ogilvy, including: Tseliso Rangaka, Ogilvy Cape Town chief creative officer, who left in February 2020 to become FCB Joburg and Hellocomputer Johannesburg group CCO; Alistair Mokoena, Ogilvy SA CEO, who left in January 2020 to become Google South Africa country director; Luca Gallarelli, Ogilvy SA group MD, who left in 2019 to join TBWA\South Africa as GCEO; Joanna Oosthuizen, Ogilvy SA COO, who left SA end of last year to take up a global position as director public relations & influence for Ogilvy’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region; Pete Case, Ogilvy SA CCO, who also left at the end of 2019; and Mariana O’Kelly, Ogilvy Johannesburg ECD, who in June 2019 also joined Ogilvy’s global operations in Chicago.
Business is cyclical
According to Kelly, business is cyclical, with people exiting and entering business all the time. She was with the agency during a time when a very strong team made a significant contribution to the business and industry, and these achievements in turn set them up for new opportunities.
by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Beyond concerns about contextual brand safety, ad fraud and viewability, it’s overarching issues of digital integrity that are keeping marketers up at night, says John Montgomery, global executive vice president of brand safety at advertising media giant, GroupM. “I think marketers are worried about that, and making sure that they’re advertising on responsible media channels. Our conversations [around brand safety] have changed to: how can we make the web a better place? And how do we ensure that the web is safe for our children?”
Citing the use of Facebook to incite violence in Myanmar and disinformation problems in Ukraine as examples of how badly digital media channels can be misused, Montgomery emphasises the importance of collaboration among media organisations globally — including those in adland. “It’s much more important than brand safety; it’s about public safety and social responsibility,” he says.
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Fighting fake news
Fighting fake news during a global pandemic highlights the difficulty of the task. “Everyone is worried about disinformation, not just brands,” he says. “We use technology where possible to detect disinformation but rely on the media we use, especially the social platforms, to be as vigilant about this as possible. Because of covid-19, platforms have a depleted force of moderators but are trying to use technology to elevate and prioritise information from reliable sources like the WHO [World Health Organisation].”
The brand-safety conversation has evolved considerably over the last decade, remarks Montgomery: “Ten years ago, what we were doing was making sure that our clients’ ads were kept away from adult content. Brand safety, an umbrella term for mitigating any risk that a brand might face in the digital supply chain, really came to the fore in 2014, when we were trying to establish a new currency for digital. Viewability was the issue of the day for a year or two. Between an ad being served and an ad being rendered, many things can happen: there could be technical issues, the ad could appear in a window behind another window, and so on. We found that [a fraction] of ads were actually viewable.”
After boosting viewability, the next major risk to be focused on was ad fraud, says Montgomery. This was addressed through the application of technologies such as those provided by DoubleVerify and White Ops. “In the background, there were all sorts of other issues, like IP infringement, contractual compliance, ad blocking and other threats,” he says. However, these could be considered minor compared to viewability, ad fraud and contextual brand safety.
“Emotionally most important”
GroupM was reminded of the significance of the latter in early 2017, when The Times in the UK ran a five-page story on how big brands were, purportedly, inadvertently funding extremist organisations through the placement of their digital advertising. “I would say that’s still the one that’s emotionally most important to clients,” he says. “For more than three years, we’ve been trying to address those [risks], and doing so quite successfully.”
Today, with the proliferation of user-generated content (UGC), particularly on social media, brands are faced with both exciting new opportunities — and risks, says Montgomery. “While we’re using technology to make sure that our ads don’t appear in inappropriate places, and social media [screening] tools are much better than they were before, there’s still the risk of disruptive content on the web — and I’m talking about hate speech, bullying, disinformation and fake news. All of those things are a worry. It’s not so much that brands might appear adjacent to them but because it undermines the integrity of digital as a whole.”
Then there are the coronavirus-related concerns. “Clients obviously want to be cautious about appearing adjacent to grim news,” he says. “There has been concern that, because the majority of news is actually about the pandemic [at the moment], that by using keyword avoidance, online news has been suffering. Some are pointing fingers at the technology provided by companies like Oracle, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify as the reason why the press has experienced demonetisation at the time of the virus. But the technology is not the enemy.
Semantic ad avoidance tech
“In fact, used properly, semantic ad avoidance technology can encourage advertising back into news by advertising adjacent to content that clients are comfortable with, while staying away from news they want to avoid. Advertisers may want to avoid covid-19-related news when it is about death tolls, or misinformation about miracle cures, but could be more comfortable about general daily news about the virus and how it is affecting people’s lifestyles.”
GroupM has communicated with teams about the negative effects of news demonetisation and how to use semantic avoidance strategically and in a minimally invasive manner, says Montgomery. “Research completed [in late April 2020] indicates that 92% of teams approached (80 brands responded) either do not block news at all, or use semantic avoidance only to block negative, grim news like ‘dying with COVID’ or similar. Fully 22 brand teams changed their strategy based on advice from the brand safety team.”
One engine for long-term, broad digital change is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an organisation in which Montgomery and his colleagues play a leading role. “GroupM and a couple of clients thought it would be a really good idea to get the entire industry around single positioning for brand safety,” he explains. “What was happening was GroupM and other agency groups and industry groups, like the IAB, WFA and every acronym you can think of, was approaching brand safety in their own well-meaning way. That meant that what Facebook and Google and the other guys were getting was a fragmented approach. They were trying to react to everybody’s needs and, of course, you can’t. So, for once, we as an industry collaborated. We got everyone around the same table, discussing the same issues.”
Areas of importance
GARM has identified various areas of importance, each with its own workstream and team, which includes representatives from major social media companies, to work on solutions, he says. One example of progress to date has been unifying the definition of objectionable content globally: “It may sound like a simple thing but if Google has a different definition to what Twitter has, to what everyone else has, how are you going to avoid placing your advertising against that? Now we have singular definitions that everybody agrees on. And there’s a brand safety floor, where everybody agrees that nothing underneath that floor is acceptable,” he says.
The work is underway but will never stop, says Montgomery. “It’s an ongoing thing, because as the internet evolves, new threats emerge and need to be addressed.”
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with over decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. She is a contributing writer to MarkLives.com.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by Struan Campbell (@struan18) We’ve now had some time to settle, observe, learn and adapt within a very different sport and entertainment world. The disruption has left us reeling and our outlook on what is to come and how to potentially react has been moulded with new information day by day. I’ve had a lot of questions from clients in our space which have been looking for advice under the circumstances. Here are my answers to some of the most-common questions in the hope of helping more of those across the industry thinking and asking the same things.
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Q: Should we not be keeping a low profile during this time and waiting things out?
A: No. Here’s the thing — in these times, people crave their passions more than ever before as they look for distractions in a limiting and more-anxious environment. This is when brands can prove the legitimacy (or not) of their connection with an audience and passion. The rewards will come for those that play meaningful roles in making the most of a difficult situation.
The key question for now is how can we use, reimagine or adapt our rights and relationships to give audiences the joy and respite of their passions?
As long as we are empathetic, show integrity and are not being opportunistic, it’s time to step up, not back. With sponsorship assets and access to content than can bring people joy, as well as being able to get across powerful and responsible messaging, you should be using your sponsorship rights in a time when they can influence behaviour like never before. Stay true to your brand values and carry on connecting people to their passions, albeit what may be outside of your comfort zone.
Here’s some good examples of activity that does so.
A: Things are not going to return as we knew it for some time. We can expect action to come back but I don’t see mass crowds being able to gather until things are safely under control. When that is, we just don’t know. What we’ll probably see is sporting events taking place behind closed doors and possibly intermittently for a longer period than we expected.
The below from German football club Borussia Mönchengladbach is a great example of creativity being applied in such a context:
The live-music business which provides artists with a large proportion of their income is even more of a worry because, while we’ve seen some live-stream performances, these can’t be executed sustainably for multiple dates in the same way a live-tour schedule can.
What does become more of an opportunity than ever are brand tailored partnerships with artists for bespoke live-streamed performances and interactions. Traditionally, for the most part, opposed by artists, they now become more open to partnerships of this nature. For example, think alcohol brands that are struggling to interact outside of a live event world.
Q: What should the plan be then until things resume to the way it was, whenever that is?
A: Find ways of innovating to adapt to a different way of sport and entertainment being delivered in the meantime, and planning for the return of normality at some point, is the most-sensible course for action.
Being relevant and adding value within the modified delivery will be really important. There will be more opportunity in the content and social media space, as experiential is substituted for virtual consumption. In short, using partnership assets in creative ways will be the difference for the time being.
Q: What should we do when things come back as they were?
A: Nothing will symbolise the return to ‘normality’ like the resumption of our passions without substantial limitations. These will be emotionally charged like never before. It will be all about how we tap into the emotional fervour in a sensitive and appropriate way, celebrating and rewarding fans for their perseverance and endeavour.
We’ll have time to prepare for this. If, as a brand, you’ve had a meaningful contribution and haven’t put your head in the sand until then, you’ll be welcomed back. Those that navigate this whole period well and develop more connection and trust with audiences will be in a far-stronger situation then when we went into this thing. A big opportunity actually, isn’t it?
The overriding takeout here? Have a voice and make a contribution. Just make sure it’s genuine and of value to the audience you’ve got the privilege of dealing with. It’s not an option to freeze now if you want a future in what will almost certainly be an even more passionate live sport and entertainment world, when people cherish more than ever. Because those fans will remember the brands that remembered them.
Struan Campbell (@struan18) is co-founder and director at Levergy | M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment South Africa, working on brands including DStv, New Balance, Audi, SuperSport, BMW, Energade, Nedbank, Heineken, and Sasol. He is the most-awarded individual in the sponsorship industry, winning at Sport Industry, Loeries, Bookmarks, Assegais, PRISMs and Marketing Achievement Awards.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) Staying afloat and servicing existing clients is bound to be the priority for ad agencies at present, so there may be less focus on new business as a result. While quite understandable, I also think that the idea of “upskilling” during a lockdown might be a bridge too far for many of us. Here’s some advice from the April 2020 masterclass, which had 46 agency participants. I’ve also add some covid-19 relevance to the 10 tips that follow.
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#1. Make sure that there is an annual plan
Properly constructed
Measurable goals
Regular evaluation points
Up-to-date data base — preferably your own
Profile-building marketing campaign — cobbler’s children
Sales kit — credentials with a point of view
Also think about some short-term adaptations around covid-19. I was on a webinar recently with one of my UK colleagues and a CMO and an agency head of strategy, and the attributes around tonality were considered very important eg
Empathy
Entertainment
Comedy
This applies especially to building these into your credentials or culture reel. In fact, this is a great time to look at the agency culture reel and have everyone involved in that process.
#2. Think about your message and mail
Don’t send out so many mails that you can’t then follow up within a week. Reduce the quantity.
Avoid non-personalised mail
But, if you do send personalised mail, make sure that the recipient’s title is correct. Don’t guess it.
Don’t criticise the client’s current advertising — remember that they would have approved it
Don’t ambulance-chase
The idea of these tips is to help agencies avoid a competitive pitch process with the RFP process etc etc. If you’re ahead of the game (or ahead of the curve), then you’ll be coming up with ideas — especially now — that could help marketers.
In listening to marketers and their input over the past few weeks, while they have no intention of changing their agencies at this time (they rely more than ever on their agency partners), they’re open to receiving ideas for short-term projects that might help them cope during covid-19. Short-term projects may lead to longer-term commitment and are definitely a way in to the marketing department. Even via procurement!
#3. Make an intelligent guess at the marketer’s business problem
Identify a possible problem relevant to that particular industry
Relate back to something you may have read in the media about the company or its competitors
Talk about that particular problem and your possible solution in the email/letter
Follow up with a conversation
There’s probably more time now than ever before to read up and do some homework on your prospects and their respective industries. Use that time now to be able to make constructive comments about the industry or sector that your targeted client is in.
#4. Don’t send unsolicited pieces to prospects
WeTransfers/DVDs/flash drives by mail don’t work; prospects rarely look at them and often don’t have the security settings that allow them to
Avoid expensive-looking mailing pieces — might look careless to clients
Large boxes or mailers don’t work to clients — no storage space
Spending lots of money on expensive mailers isn’t appropriate; rather tell the prospect that you have donated funds to a suitable charity such as Gift of the Givers instead of creating a mailer for them, and explain why your agency felt that this was the right route during the pandemic.
#5. Avoid announcement mailings
Clients are interested in your new staff
But not in other new clients (“How will this affect my service levels?”)
Nor awards — unless they are based on effectiveness/case-studies
Nor any other internal changes unless there’s a direct impact on or relevance to their business
Of course, if you’ve done something really special during the covid-19 outbreak, then by all means share that but I would avoid the “how well our teams are working remotely”. It’s old news now.
Talk more about how you’re intending to come out of the lockdown and what your strategies are for your people. Empathy. There’s also never been a better opportunity to have a ‘quick catchup’ with a prospect. Remember that marketers will also be in back-to-back meetings but that a ‘coffee catchup’ over Microsoft Teams might create a welcome break for the marketer — if you manage that, don’t try and sell them anything! Just chat and let the prospect get to know you.
#6. Don’t diminish your work
Small versions of big campaigns look small
Don’t shrink your campaigns to fit a mailer
But do show your prospects the work you’re doing for other clients around covid-19. Marketers are looking for help; it might create an opportunity for a short-term project.
#7. Keep your messages crisp
We are in a time-poor world
Keep your messages short and to the point
Prospects have little time to absorb long content. Use Twitter to follow and be followed.
One of my colleagues has commented that “everyone is online” at the moment and I think there’s a danger of LinkedIn fatigue. It’s a great platform but keep it short and sweet, with a good introduction, so that the marketer might be intrigued enough to open the whole post.
#8. Find out more before you make contact
Try and find out more about the business before you send a mailer — look for relevance
Start at the top: aim your contact at the top marketing person — they will send it down the line. The lower levels will not send up the chain.
Test your pieces among friends or existing clients before you send to prospects. If a friend or existing client doesn’t understand it, a stranger or prospective client won’t.
#9. Work out the best time to follow up
Time your phone calls when the prospect will be quiet in the office — early morning, late afternoon, Fridays
Make friends with the gatekeepers
Don’t leave voice messages
Make sure your teasers or mail pieces are low-cost and entertaining — avoid the throw-out factor
If you do decide to be active with new business at this time, be careful not to keep chasing up a prospect; be mindful that they’re under pressure, too, and that their marketing departments might’ve also been reduced.
#10. Never give up
Keep modifying
Evaluate what works and what doesn’t
Fine-tune
Test before you spend
Modify
Keep going
Some prospects take two years or more to convert — smaller projects might lead to a major pitch
You can do a lot of preparation at this time; thinking ahead is best of all now. And, if you have a bright idea for a prospect at this time of covid-19, don’t be disappointed if they don’t go for it straight away. Go back with another idea if you have one; marketers will be open to them. They have told us so.
Finally, no matter what, if you’re called by a prospect and asked to do some work urgently, do your homework first:
What’s the budget? You don’t want to waste time putting a big proposal together for a very small budget. Ask the question.
Is the project short-term or long-term?
What is the deadline? Ideally?
Is it competitive? Has the prospect asked any other agencies to pitch and, if so, how many? Don’t ask which agencies — that just does not work.
Is there an intermediary managing the process? Hopefully there is and then it’s more serious and not a ‘fishing exercise’.
Be prepared to decline the invitation to pitch or present a proposal if the above criteria aren’t met. Don’t be desperate.
Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) is MD of the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS), which is partnered with the AAR Group in the UK. Johanna is one of the few experts driving this mediation and advisory service in SA and globally. She also runs the IAS Marketers Masterclass, a programme consisting of 10 masterclasses (up from eight) held in Johannesburg (now at GIBS). Twice a year she attends AdForum Worldwide Summits; however, the April 2020 New York summit has been postponed (optimistically) to 21 June. She contributes the regular column, Masterclass Notes, which aims to help marketers and their agencies, to MarkLives.com.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by Thabiet Allie (@turnupmusicza)It’s lockdown 2020. Concerts have been cancelled, from California to Cape Town, from Afrikaburn to Coachella and even The Cape Town International Jazz Festival. This is a scary time for the music industry at large and most artists have lost 90% of their income due to show cancellations. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
Digital was already transforming the industry before covid-19 struck, and already we’re seeing performers adapt. This is unsurprising because musicians are, by their very nature, disruptors and agents of change.
Club duvet
DJ Zinhle recently took the concept of ‘club duvet’ to the next level by hosting a DJ set in her bedroom, dressed in what many people are spending their days in: pyjamas. This virtual PJ Party attracted over 200 000 viewers who were lucky enough to see the popular artist’s child, Kairo Forbes, dancing along with her mom. And, after the massive success of their #OnlineQuarantineParty, DJs Shimza and PH took it up a notch and partnered with Channel O to host their weekly #LockdownHouseParty. This ongoing effort broadcasts live on the music channel and Channel O app every Friday and Saturday night.
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Then, on Saturday, 18 April 2020, the world came together for the Lady Gaga-curated One World: Together At Home virtual concert, where Black Coffee performed alongside fellow South African entertainers Cassper Nyovest, Sho Madjozi and a host of international stars, including John Legend, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. Simultaneously aired by broadcasters and digital platforms across the world, it’s estimated that around 14.6m people tuned in for this ground-breaking event.
Digital directions
Picture the music industry as a social barometer, an indicator of change in human behaviour. It acts as an early indicator — it’s often the first to see the impact of the turning tides and often has to quickly accommodate to the change. This is, then, an indicator of what the shift will be in general digital behaviour for many other sectors. Video and gaming often follow with the same trends.
Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, global digital trends have been echoed locally. However, South Africa has a lower wifi connection to high-end smartphone device ratio than countries in the Northern Hemisphere. What this means is that being at home now changes the consumption behaviour but it’s not just based on how much free time you have; it’s also strongly influenced by access to data and trusted apps.
Where previously we saw increased usage at peak times, such as commuting to and from work listening offline, during lockdown we’re seeing fewer spikes and customers increasingly making use of a feature that allows them to save music onto their devices so that they can listen any time of day without the use of additional data or wifi.
Considering the increase I saw when free data was previously tested with a major mobile network operator and my company, I knew that this is what was needed now to help more people stay entertained while at home during lockdown. All new app users are offered zero-rated data from our network partner, which means that any of the mobile network operator’s 40m users will benefit from the zero-rating. This was implemented with immediate effect and will continue for the next few months, and this should drive users to experiment with new music and perhaps find new favourites to support. In the first week of lockdown, our app experienced a 12% increase in music-streaming on the platform and by the second week this was up 18%.
Making music… together
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been in contact with many artists and managers and the majority is looking to migrate their physical gigs to digital. They want to reach out to their fans and get them to pay for a ticket to a virtual concert on their webpage, but what separates a video that was posted on YouTube a year ago from a similar video now?
What consumers are looking to do now is connect and be entertained. The transition will be driven by finding new ways of connecting people to each other. The aim is to harness this feeling — that a concert or live event is the key to enjoying your music — not just replicate the viewing. Audiences want an authentic connection.
There is equal opportunity for reward during these times. There are many people wanting to entertain themselves with music while being stuck at home and the goal has been to find new ways to engage loyal customers in authentic connections with their music. The collective reach of all the artists is being galvanised and a campaign, #ArtistsUnite, was recently launched for established artists to help up-and-coming ones connect with their fan bases in an effort to support each other. Artists helping artists to develop online skills. The programme includes Mi Casa, Khuli Chana, De Mthuda and DJ Ready D.
As 2020 progresses, we’ll continue to see stories of local artists changing the game and redesigning the music industry. South Africa’s music fans are key to this success, too, and corporate partners help create increased access to artists with data costs and with campaigns showcasing SA music. Music has always been a journey of collaboration and transformation and I’m optimistic that, together, we will continue to reinvent and rewrite the rules.
Thabiet Allie is the CEO of TurnUp Music (@turnupmusicza), a ‘musictech’ company exclusively focused on creating opportunities to grow and amplify the careers of South African talent. Before Thabiet took to spinning the decks for SA musicians 24/7, he was the commercial officer for Tencent Africa, driving its expansion into the continent. Over the past 15 years, he’s also driven marketing, corporate sales and ecommerce for the country’s top brands, including MTN, Vodacom and Samsung.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) “It’s not one-size-fits-all,” says Paul van den Berg, executive director and chief evangelist of Oliver Africa, part of the broader Oliver Group. “All of our on-site agencies are built based on an understanding of what the client actually needs.” Oliver, which has seen significant success with its U-Studio offering for Unilever, including a 2020 Bookmark Award nomination locally, is looking to expand its in-house agency model in South Africa.
“Bespoke”
“Bespoke” is a keyword when pitching the model to clients, says Van den Berg, as is “efficient”. The aim is to provide a full agency service, while only billing for the resources that are actually needed — so there’s nothing superfluous siphoning profits. In addition to Unilever, Oliver counts Investec and Liberty among its major clients in SA. Van den Berg says that his team is looking to diversify into other sectors this year, demonstrating to the country that the model works beyond FMCG, financial and professional services.
While we have your attention, please would you consider taking out a MarkLives membership to help finance our operations? The covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on society and industry. With your support, either as a once-off or monthly contribution, we can continue our coverage of its impact on our industry.
Oliver has global credentials when it comes to building in-house agencies, because the way it does so strikes a balance between fully out- and in-sourced models, says Van den Berg. “We believe that our hybrid model gives you the best of the outsourced models, plus all of the benefits of having a team on site,” he says.
It’s not trying to take on the big lead brand agency roles, he emphasises, but rather rolling up its sleeves in the digital space and helping to solve problems of volume, scale, and efficiency. “I don’t think brands always understand the fact that, when they’ve got agencies on retainer, or even on project work, they are effectively employing staff vicariously,” he adds. “So, the first thing we do is run an analysis with the client on what they’re spending, and how many hours they’re effectively paying for; then we build a team. We have a principle that anyone dedicated to a brand should be at minimum 80% utilised. We are finding, locally and globally, that we are cheaper, so there’s immediately a cost benefit to our model.”
Build continuity
During normal conditions, many staff members work on site where possible (the covid-19 pandemic has necessitated a work-from-home approach), committed to the clients — which typically sign on for a minimum of three years — for at least 12 months This is important to build continuity from a business partnering point of view, says Van den Berg, especially when it comes to key roles. If extra hands are needed for overflow work, he and his team arrange them on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Alison Stansfield-Franks
Making sure that the on-site teams receive adequate creative support and leadership is part of the job of Alison Stansfield-Franks, Oliver Africa group creative director. Assembling the right teams is one thing, she says, but building a culture conducive to creativity, within an existing business, is by far one of the biggest challenges. “In certain instances, the on-sites come with staff who’ve already been working for these companies, and the question is how do we get the best out of them? And how do we push for better in general, from a culture point of view?”
Van den Berg expands, “I think one of the fundamental differences with our model, compared to the typical outsourced agency model, is that there are no buffers between the brands and the creatives. Typically, your creatives are sitting in an ad agency somewhere, doing whatever they like; in our model, they are sitting on site, so the challenge is creating that agency culture on site, within a corporate space.”
Trust
Success in this, however, builds strong trust between the Oliver teams and their counterparts, which has led to work which Van den Berg and Stansfield-Franks wouldn’t have previously thought possible. They mention the #AromatComedyClub as an example (Aromat falls under the Unilever brand family).
Oliver’s U-Studio agencies support Unilever’s digital marketing in 18 countries, with the South African team, which is 20-strong, based in Durban (overall, about 100 people work for Oliver in SA). Globally, about 400 people work on U-Studio, says Van den Berg, linked to and supported by hubs from Cape Town to Joburg, Chennai and beyond.
“I think the thing that works really well is how connected the U-Studios around the globe are to each other,” says Stansfield-Franks.
Growth
In SA, Oliver has seen growth over the past year and a half, with local revenue almost doubling to push the agency into the R50m revenue bracket, says Van den Berg. “Given the socio-political situation in South Africa, there is a lot of consideration by big brands on how to optimise, how to work smarter, how to be more efficient, how to be more effective,” he says. “I think our model lends itself to that.”
And how does the model work during the time of covid-19? “Our ‘Inside’ model is not just about proximity but rather our partnership approach with our clients, and so we have managed to integrate with them and their work-from-home policies to ensure we are still an extension to their brand teams,” he says. “Our leadership has daily check-ins with all our client teams, and we have a company-wide Zoom call at the end of every day, largely for morale, and also for everyone to see some friendly faces and keep the agency culture going, albeit virtually.
“As we have been working with a decentralised, often remote and largely agile model for a number of years now, we are well-placed to manage this new work-from-home world and have only had to adapt small parts of our operational processes. In fact, we have seen an increase in some of our client teams’ work, given the amount of brand comms around the virus.”
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with over decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. She is a contributing writer to MarkLives.com.
by Vista Kalipa (@vistak) Quietly and without fanfare, we’re seeing subtle changes in the way in which people interact in the business arena — in the way we communicate in emails, business calls, virtual meetings and online.
Genuine and sincere
It seems almost unnecessary to say it but the covid-19 pandemic is changing many aspects of our lives, not least the way in which we communicate. Since the first cases of what seemed to be a new acute respiratory disease were reported to the World Health Organisation on 31 December 2019, a number of communications trends have emerged, giving us a sense of nostalgia for a time when our interactions with others were more genuine and sincere.
While we have your attention, please would you consider taking out a MarkLives membership to help finance our operations? The covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on society and industry. With your support, either as a once-off or monthly contribution, we can continue our coverage of its impact on our industry.
In emails, workplace etiquette has always dictated that we be polite in our opening and closing salutations. With varying degrees of familiarity, opening salutations would read anything from “Dear Sir/Madam” to “Hi Thando”, depending on one’s relationship with the addressee. Similarly, mails would end with greetings such as “Your sincerely”, “Yours faithfully”, “Best regards”, “Kind regards” or, simply, “Take care”.
Since the advent of the novel coronavirus and the social distancing and lockdowns that soon followed, there’s been a growing concern about the wellbeing of friends, family and colleagues. Even business salutations have changed to greetings such as “I hope you’re keeping safe”, “Please stay safe” or “Stay safe during the lockdown”. The sentiment expressed in these greetings is genuine and sincere, even when the working relationship between the parties isn’t a particularly close one.
Health and well-being
In phone conversations, small talk about the weather and the frustrations of the day has given way to discussions about social distancing, the lockdown and the effects of isolation. Exchanges among friends, family, colleagues and even business associates have become more personal, with people checking in on one another and enquiring about their health and well-being.
On a broader basis, businesses are finding ways of keeping channels of communication open during the lockdown, understanding that social distancing measures will need to be practiced for some time to come. Companies of all sizes are finding creative ways for employees to keep in touch by, eg, using meeting platforms such as Zoom, Bluejeans, Google Meet, Teams and Webex which allow participants to see one another and engage easily, even if they’re not all in the same room.
Similarly, they’re looking for innovative ways to stay engaged with their customers, target markets and the public in general. Publishers are conducting virtual launches of their books, auction houses are holding online auctions, financial institutions are hosting online discussions sessions about how to manage one’s finances during and after the lockdown, and commercial art galleries are offering virtual tours of exhibitions that are currently closed to the public. Institutions with established online learning platforms are offering free MOOCs (mass open online courses and webinars), and even content creators and influencers are hosting regular chat sessions with their followers.
New spirit of camaraderie
Almost counterintuitively, the Covid-19 crisis is taking us back to a more-personal, -engaged way of communicating, facilitated by advanced communications technologies, some of which weren’t available even a decade ago. There is a new spirit of camaraderie and a sense of community becoming evident, and a profound realisation that, beyond surface differences, we are, in fact, all one.
As great a crisis as it is, the Covid-19 pandemic is humbling us, bringing us back to an understanding of what’s really important and, in an age of rapid technological development, reminding us of what it means to be human again.
Vista Kalipa (@vistak) is the co-founder and director public relations at OnPoint PR (@onpointpr_sa) and, since 2010, has led his team of strategists and PR practitioners on behalf of clients such as Nedbank, American Express (Africa), Global Citizen (Africa), Unilever brands, and Pioneer Foods. A known stickler for spelling and grammar, Vista’s passionate about the PR profession, is a contributor to industry publications and has appeared as a guest lecturer/speaker in media institutions around Gauteng.
This MarkLives #CoronavirusSA special section contains coverage of how the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its resultant disease, covid-19, is affecting the advertising, marketing and related industries in South Africa and other parts of Africa, and how we are responding. Updates may be sent to us via our contact form or the email address published on our Contact Us page. Opinion pieces/guest columns must be exclusive.
While we have your attention, please would you consider taking out a MarkLives membership to help finance our operations? The covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on society and industry. With your support, either as a once-off or monthly contribution, we can continue our coverage of its impact on our industry.
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