Shelf Life: Net#work BBDO gets Mercedes fans growling

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

  • SA gets growling to celebrate 50 years of Mercedes
  • FCB gives Absa new perspective
  • Prima Toys joins unboxing video trend

Get growling

To mark its half-century, Mercedes-AMG has launched a national campaign focused on its distinctly recognisable voice: the signature growl of the AMG engine exhaust.

Mercedes-Benz AMG 50 yearsThe brand is calling on South Africans to imitate this iconic sound on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media channel and tag Mercedes-Benz South Africa using the hashtag #AMGgrowl.

Created by Net#work BBDO, the campaign kicks off with videos featuring ‘Friends of the Brand’, including fashion designer David Tlale; musician J’Something of Mi Casa; TV personality Jeannie D and environmentalist Kevin Richardson, among others, all doing their best interpretation of the distinctive growl. The videos will be released online by Mercedes-AMG during August 2017 as inspiration for AMG fans to add their own growls to the collection.

Says Selvin Govender, marketing director, Mercedes-Benz Cars, “South Africans have shown us just how much they love our AMG cars, especially the visceral exhaust note, and this is why we plan to also profile our fans doing the growl, while highlighting the inherent beauty of our AMG range. It’s a celebration of Driving Performance as well as a ‘thank you’ to all who hold our brand close to their hearts.”

Comments Gau Narayanan, MD of Net#work BBDO, “Our insight kept coming back to the distinctive noise or growl that turns heads and gets the pulses racing — this is the soundtrack of 50 years of outstanding motoring performance — so we decided to celebrate this performance by taking the growl to the public in a fun and light hearted manner. The Mercedes-Benz brand team has always been brave and has been pushing the limits to drive salience and brand meaning. This socially driven, mobile-first campaign is further evidence of that.”

The campaign relies on a coalition of agency partners including production company Ginkgo, Publicis Machine, New Media and ByDesign Communications, as well as Net#work BBDO. It will culminate at the Festival of Motoring, being held at the Kyalami Race Track 1-3 September, where the brand will profile some of the fan videos alongside the latest AMG vehicles, including the new Mercedes-AMG GT R and AMG GT C.

mbworld.co.za • Facebook • Twitter
networkbbdo.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • Ramify

 

A better perspective

The concept of changing your perspective and viewing things differently is central to a newly installed 3D artwork at Barclays Towers West, Absa’s head office in Johannesburg, which was created as part of Absa’s “Get a better perspective” advertising campaign.

Collage Absa Premium BankingThe installation comprises almost 1000 dissected and multilayered premium banking cards, suspended in the air using several kilometres of fishing line. The campaign centres on a relooked Platinum Banking offering to become Absa Premium Banking, providing customers with a new name, new look and a better perspective on growing their money.

Conceptualised by FCB Joburg, the artwork was erected by Riaan Jacobs, a creative implementer from set design and construction company, Dream Sets.

Says Ingrid Veysie, head of marketing, Absa Retail and Business Banking, “It is a physical manifestation of taking an ordinary item, such as a bank card and, when applying a fresh perspective, converting it into something quite extraordinary. The eye is led from a seeming jumble of bank cards to a clear message when viewed from the right perspective. We see this installation living beyond the confines of our business. We’d like it to come to represent a call to action to all South Africans to look at things from a fresh perspective and realise better outcomes for all.”

absa.co.za • Facebook • Twitter
fcb.co.za • Facebook • Twitter • Ramify

 

Prima Toys harnesses unboxing video trend

Leading toy importer and distributor, Prima Toys, has released a series of unboxing videos called “The Very Serious Toy Show” to add an extra touchpoint to the brand’s marketing strategy.

Prima Toys is reportedly the first toy company in South Africa to create its own unboxing videos, keeping consumers in the know about toy trends. Unboxing videos have become a huge phenomenon internationally; a number of unboxing presenters have reached celebrity status, with hundreds of thousands and even millions of fans the world over.

Says Chiquita Patrizi, marketing executive of Prima Toys, “Unboxing videos provide us with the opportunity to quite literally unpack products and show the viewer what is inside. This way, both parents and their children know exactly what is in the box and what they will be getting. This allows them to make an informed decision before purchasing a product — it also provides great entertainment for the children watching.”

Sasha-Lee Findlay, who stars in the unboxing videos, is the social and digital engagement manager at Prima Toys and she works alongside UX/UI professional, Dutch_UxUi, to create the videos.

primatoys.co.za • Facebook • Twitter
marvelapp.com/profile/Dutch_UxUi • Twitter

 

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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Ad of the Week: Ocean Basket connects friends and family

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) In a world where social media has brought us closer together yet, paradoxically, keeps us further apart, Ocean Basket, So Interactive and director Markstry of Spitfire Films bring a timely reminder of the value of connecting face-to-face.

Friendship day has just come and gone. That’s right! Thursday, 30 July 2017, was International Friendship Day, 24 hours dedicated to that special love and closeness that makes life worth living. Social media has enabled us to find, and reach out to, friends (and family) like never before. But, when it comes to creating real connections, nothing beats meeting face-to-face. This is the essence of what the new Ocean Basket campaign, “The Beautiful Truth About Sharing”, is all about.

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The ad sets itself up as a sort of ‘social experiment’. The titling, “We asked people to have a conversation over message” is flashed on the screen during a quick montage of people sitting down on a couch. The text test here is to see how well people connect through the medium of instant messaging.

The camera is locked off, and the couch never moves, so the jump-cuts between various people work well to demonstrate how we can disconnect through text messages. As the people start to message each other, the text appears in balloons, with the person’s voice reading it at the same time in voiceover. Already the disconnect is clear. When ‘Daughter’ asks ‘Mom’ how her day has been, the reply is, ‘I’m okay’. But the tone of her voice when she reads the text message tells us much more. The mother is obviously sad.

Texting is a great, quick connector but are easy to misinterpret as it lacks most of the nuance and unspoken communication that we get from face-to-face interactions. The experiment, which reveals the difference between text and face-to-face connections, is repeated in the following interactions: friend-to-friend, father-to-daughter and so on.

But, in the real-life conversations — a montage that follows — there is so much more spontaneity. The camera style changes to accommodate this. The cinematic-style change to closer angles matches the more-intimate nature of the conversations.

The final section of the ad is prefaced with the text, “The difference?” Here the participants talk to an off-screen interviewer about how they feel about the transactions. “It’s kind of scary to see how disconnected we are,” a man in the ad says. “When we eat together, that’s when we’re actually a family,” says a woman.

The payoff line, “We share more when we’re together,” is followed by a simple invitation: “Come share a meal and more around our table.” The Ocean Basket logo with the hashtag #SeaFoodShareFood ends the mini-movie, and is followed by a bonus punchline. This is a sweet little out-take of a particular elderly lady asking for wifi. Watch out for this when you view the ad; it’s guaranteed to bring a smile.

The essence of the campaign is connection, or what I mean when I talk about spending real, quality time with friends and family. Life is short, which is why taking the time to deepen the friendships we have with our family and the people we love is so important. And there’s no better way to do this than over a sizzling pan of freshly fried calamari. (What can I say, I’m Greek ;) We believe friends, family, and food are the magic recipe for peace, love and understanding.)

It is interesting to learn that the first Ocean Basket restaurant opened its doors in 1995, the same year that South Africa held its first democratic elections. One of the founders, Fats Lazarides, saw an opportunity because, before that time, fresh-fish restaurants were largely elitist — something for folks with lots of dosh. He swam against the current by creating a fresh-fish deli where everyday folk could bring their friends and family — without taking a second bond out on their homes. This is, in part, why I love this campaign: making memorable moments with friends and family should be affordable and fun.

AA Milne wrote a wonderful series of stories inhabited by a famous character you’ll know. Milne’s tales of Winnie the Pooh have some incredible truisms about friends and family. In one of these stories he wrote: “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” That’s what this campaign is all about. It is a beautiful reminder that we need to get out from behind our computers or places of work to connect with friends and family. A glass of wine, a pan of fresh seafood and delicious conversation — life doesn’t get better than that. Thanks, Ocean Basket and So Interactive, for reminding us of this invaluable life lesson, and hats off to Lazarides who, in 12 short years, has created a brand that now boasts 201 restaurants in 16 countries around the globe, from Dubai to Durban and Nelspruit to Nigeria.

Credits

Agency: So Interactive
Chief creative officer: Darren Mansour
Creative director: Letitia Lerm
Copywriter: Gerda le Roux
Strategist: John Gamble
Account manager: Michelle Marder
Digital project manager: Kirsty Hook
Production company: Spitfire Films
Executive producer: Liesl Karpinski
TV producer: Cherice Whewell
Director: Markstry
DOP: Waldo Pretorius, Direct
Production manager: Baleseng Makola
Production coordinator: Rebone Sesing
Post-production company: Aces Up Post Production
Editor: Gareth James
Graphic FX: Ed van Blerk
Online: Ed van Blerk
Grade: Craig Simonetti
Sound/mix: Hope Kekana, Direct; Nathi Luthango
Music: Library Music

Full disclosure: The brother-in-law of Oresti Patricios was one of the original founders of Ocean Basket. However, he retired from there 3/4 years ago.

Credits updated at 9.26am on 8 August 2017.

 

 

Oresti PatriciosAd of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research. If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging, please let Oresti know about it at clientservice@ornicogroup.co.za.

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Big Q CMOs: The CMO’s role in today’s technically advanced world

by MarkLives (@marklives) Is there a new C-suite executive on the horizon? Is it time to redefine the role of the CMO, possibly by agreeing that the roles of CMO and CTO are aligning and need some level of collaboration? And can this result in more-effective growth strategies for organisations? We asked a panel of key industry executives for their take. First up is Prakash Patel of Fogg.

Once tasked with managing communications and brand, the modern CMO’s role has been expanding to include technology, data and impact (ie sales and the bottom line). Where this is not the case, anecdotal evidence suggests shorter tenures, and a loss of prominence and clout at board level.

Prakash Patel

Prakash PatelPrakash Patel (@PrakashPatel_1), a seasoned strategist and data-driven digital marketer, is managing director of Fogg Cape Town. Previously, he was CEO of Prezence and chief digital officer of FCB/Mesh. Prior to moving to SA, Prakash spent over 18 years at some of the world’s largest and independent data and digital agencies in the UK. Now he is trying to keep up with tomorrow today and helping brands add value in the #TraDigital era.

Is it a perfect marriage or a marriage of convenience? Either way, a marriage is in the horizon.

Today’s digitally savvy customers are far more-sophisticated, -demanding, -hyper-connected, anywhere and everywhere with their experiences underpinned by technology. This has changed their relationship with brands, where they are now in charge, and we, as marketers and brands, need to be and play where they are — regardless of what technology, platform or device they are using. This huge responsibility has most fallen mostly under the remit of both the CMO and CIO in today’s age of the customer.

Age of the customer

So, it’s with no surprise that the results in a survey conducted by Forrester quoted “what’s increasingly apparent is that to succeed in the age of the customer, CEOs depend upon their CMO and CIO to connect customer insights to business outcomes through business technology — the technology, systems, and processes to win, serve, and retain customers.”

But I believe that the question is not only about how organisations and C-suite executives need to re-evaluate their roles but, more importantly, how they need to collaborate like never before to ride the waves of uncertainty for times of possibilities in aligning their goals using integrated technology, ICT, digital and data.

The Forrester report also looked at the partnerships and relationship between CIOs and CMO.

“Empowered customers have an unprecedented ability to make rapid decisions, weigh and review products with peers, and provide feedback in social channels anywhere in the world. Brand value is now tied to product experiences and the outcomes they deliver.”

In response to the survey, it’s not all gloom and doom, as technology harnesses the power of change and is the opportunity for marketers to rethink their internal business strategies from the top down. Like it or not, CMOs and marketing have found themselves in a unique position, in that technology and digital have become a prerequisite of marketing, whether it’s through websites, mobisites, apps, social media, emarketing, hardware, data, insights, databases or customer platforms — technology underpins and drives it all. Through this, the CIO and CMO’s strategic partnership is becoming imperative in developing and executing integrated marketing strategies, regardless of technology, processes, platforms or communications.

The role hasn’t necessarily changed but is evolving

It is worth noting that the role of the CMO hasn’t necessary changed in managing communications and brand, but more that it is evolving to now include newer areas of engagement that appear throughout the total customer experience that needs to be able to be navigated through.

Collaboration between the CMO and CIO is simply critical. However, the real challenge? The tasks and cooperation required to make the collaboration happen between these roles and departments. At the end of the day, no role or department owns the customer. It needs to be owned by the whole business internally outwards.

Customer centricity and success is also about taking an inside-out view.

Otherwise, how may a business be customer-centric if its own department’s or roles are fragmented and working in silos? The same customer-centric thinking and approach need to be applied internally within all businesses. It’s no longer good enough (or affordable), to think about who owns what; rather, how may they be more-effective together as partners to truly achieve a customer-centric approach from the inside out? If we wait to see who wins this battle internally, then the real battle will be lost externally.

Collaborative partnership charter

Today, CMOs and CIOs must not only seek, rely, appreciate and understand technology and data from a customer’s perspective but understand the total customer experience in where and how they play across a multitude of platforms, devices, technologies and touchpoints — generating billions of records, datasets, impressions and CTAs.

Another necessary reason that they need to collaborate is the rise of IT and big data. Marketing can’t be done without understanding technology, and IT can’t build systems or databases that aren’t fit for marketing. And, in between this, is the vast amount of data being generated, where both the CMO and CIO are looking at how to turn all this data into growth and revenue together.

Their combined expertise is too vast in my opinion (depending on your organisational size) to be owned by one or the other, and a collaborative approach could be your competitive advantage in connecting all of the dots at these times of uncertainty.

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” —Albert Einstein

This newly formed allegiance or partnership can only be a win-win situation, with the biggest winner the customer with greater enhanced quality customer experience.

Is three a crowd? The digital transformation charter

It’s said that “two’s company; three’s a crowd.” But, in my opinion, the new marketers are also digital- and technology-savvy evangelists, who not only understands digital parse (eg web, mobile, search, platforms etc.) but acknowledge and understand the principles of digital transformation and see it as a strategic business imperative to survive in today’s hyper-connected world.

To this end, I believe there is room for another person in this marriage, who may supplement the traditional CMOs role and help build a bridge between CMOs and CIOs: let’s welcome, in the age of the customer and digital and the new C-suite executive, the chief digital officer. This is a relatively new executive role that is helping brands meet the demands of today’s digitally savvy customers, new emerging technologies and digital transformation. It’s now one of the most-demanding and scarce roles at executive level required by any company and not only restricted to brands — you just have to see a recent job advert by the City of London for recruiting for its first-ever chief digital officer to work alongside the Mayor of London.

To be successful today, in my opinion, businesses require an array of experts and executives working towards a shared customer-centric vision and experience, who bring along their own in-depth specific knowledge and expertise from traditional marketers through to technologists, digitalists, data, CRM, planners and strategists — who are collectively able to navigate through the complexities of today’s connected and technically advanced world we live in.

In summary

The CMO’s role has involved with greater responsibility and expertise around understanding and appreciating technology, digital, data and analytics and, at the same time, the CIO’s role has also evolved, requiring greater customer focus and marketing integration. The collaboration between CMOs and CIO is inevitable to the success of any customer-focused brand to achieve a powerful partnership and marriage, formed on a foundation of a shared, integrated vision.

However, the evolution and change won’t just stop there; the future C-suite will no longer simply include the ‘usual suspects’ and will give rise to the digital executive — and maybe customer experience — officers to create an even more formidable C-suite partnership.

A marriage made in marketing heaven and another step towards marketing for today’s customers.

See also

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the ad industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of potential 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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Halo — an agency built with heart, for work & people

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Like a lot of business owners, Dean Oelschig (@DeanOelsch), managing director at Halo, was set on his entrepreneurial path by a dislike of the status quo. He had worked at an agency that treated creatives badly — the sales force that brought in the business, after all, or so it argued — that set him upon a path that would lead to the launch of his own agency.

“Eye-opening”

Halo brand identity business cardsOelschig had always been interested in the world of advertising. In grade 10, he spent a week working at FCB to see if the industry was for him. Surprisingly, it wasn’t, at first. “My time at FCB, which was only a week in 1997, was eye-opening but it never really grabbed [me] and said I must be in this industry,” he says. “It was, and still is, a massive shop and I was exposed to multiple facets of the agency, from traffic to creative to planners to art directors and, I still remember, some epic Playstation ads they had created which client bombed for having too much sexual innuendo but, as a 16-year-old, they worked for me.

“The thing that stands out, looking back, is how I never even looked at the creative department as an option because the school system, in which I did quite well at maths and science but couldn’t draw, had led me to believe I wasn’t creative and needed to go into a career like Accounting (which I ended up studying at Stellenbosch until finding my way home). I wish I had gone to an ad school, though, which I feel would have given me experience inside the big shops — one regret I do have. The school system is not built to support creativity and that, for me, is the real lesson in this and a travesty that we need to support and fix; something that I believe Gordon Cook is trying to get going.”

In 2010, Commercial Bank of Africa invited the Interbrand Sampson Group (which had already been doing work for the independent Kenyan-based bank,) to pitch for its advertising against its incumbent Kenyan agency. Interbrand Sampson South Africa won the account and it launched Halo, with Oelschig and Chris Koller (then managing of IBSA) in charge.

“A sister agency inside IBSA”

“I was at another agency that held client service in the highest regard as they were the salesmen,” says Oelschig. “Creatives were a back-office operation and I hated that.” He’d floated the idea of starting his own small shop past Koller in the past but his partners at IBSA had had little appetite for a traditional/advertising agency inside it until, one day, CBA requested it. “Chris immediately called me and asked [if] I wanted to leave my current agency and start a sister agency inside IBSA. I didn’t hesitate,” he says. “We began with no capital and no clients. Just myself and a desk inside their building.”

Two-and-a-half years later, Koller left Interbrand to go to New York, and that’s when Koller and Oelschig bought out the other shareholders and moved to the current premises in Sandhurst, Johannesburg. It was slow going for the first two-and-a-half years, especially as the agency initially struggled to define itself, now that it had stepped out of Interbrand’s shadow — but Oelschig didn’t mind that the business was being built over time.

Halo’s biggest client remains CBA. Halo recently helped launch Loop, CBA’s new new mobile banking brand, in Kenya (see below). Its current client list also includes Jacaranda FM (see below) and project work for Virgin Atlantic. The agency works closely with Demographica, so was involved with the rebranding of Zurich Insurance to Bryte.

Best clients –> best agencies

Oelschig believes the best clients allow agencies to become the best agencies. Halo focuses on building relationships with the people managing brands, and to create work that have a connection to them and, ultimately, to their own clients. He and his team try to produce work that both agency and client love, and that the people working on client brands want to be part of. It’s how expectations and delivery are finally aligned. Anyway, Oelschig and his team tend to report to the client CEOs or GMs, which allows for this approach to be successful.

Halo has always tried to look and act bigger than it is but, of late, Oelschig has come to realise the value in being small and nimble. He describes Halo as a small, independent, creative agency and says it wants to build itself into one of Africa’s most creative. Halo focuses on strategy (no creative work is done without one), creativity, design and production.

The agency produces a broad range of communication across platforms, including TV, radio, print, outdoor and digital.

South African office

Although a significant percentage of its revenue is generated out of Kenya, most of that work is done remotely through the South African office. Oelschig’s parents lived in Kenya in the ’90s and spent a lot of time there during holidays, so he says he’s come to understand the market and people over many years. Today, he still spends a significant amount of time in the country.

He intends growing the agency both in SA and in Kenya, and will continue to build his agency’s unique culture. He recently scrapped the HR function, hiring an employee experience manager instead to improve the agency work environment for both staff and clients.

Halo should be the best agency to work at, says Oelschig, and should keep on pushing and challenging itself. Ultimately, the agency doesn’t care for gimmicks. “We produce work we love with the people we love.”

Case studies

As selected by Dean Oelschig and in his own words

Halo’s own brand redesign

https://youtu.be/T43ZEuc1RFc

“Our own brand redesign, launched in April 2017. If we preach creativity and design craft, we must practice it, and this design we worked on for 12 months to create something I am incredibly proud to represent. Images of the new brand [may be found at] brandhalo.co.za/portfolio/halo-brand-design. One of the favourite parts of it for me was showcasing our team on our website in a series of cinemagraphs: brandhalo.co.za/who.”

Loop TVC

“This TVC for Loop (a digital financial services disruptor brand in Kenya) shows the team’s willingness to create insightful work, even in other countries. Millennials are often labeled as lazy and entitled but the insight we found in Kenyan millennials is that, even though they may have 9-5 jobs, it’s their 5-9 side-hustles that gets them passionate and working hard. Tristan Holmes is also a future star director so it was a privilege to work with him and the Star Films crew. The ad also has 2.5m views across YouTube and Facebook so it’s obviously connected to the audience.”

Jacaranda FM’s radio simulcast live lip-sync billboard

“I love the simplicity and power of this idea and when it went live, even after months and months of planning, I was still amazed how perfectly synchronised it was and how well it worked. This campaign also had insane results for the client.”

 

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

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Hidden Figures: Celebrating the unsung heroines of marketing

by Musaba Kangulu (@ThatTypeOfMoose) Recently here on MarkLives, I spoke of wanting to build a network that supports women. Do I get better at playing the game, despite the disadvantages, or do I attempt to change a system that’s been readily accepted for what it is? I choose the latter.

Why is this?

Boys club

It’s Monday morning; let’s look at the day ahead, shall we? Eight two-hour meetings to get through, of which I hope for most to be somewhat productive. Next, let’s look at who’s been invited. Ah yes, I’m familiar with gentleman no. 1; I met gentleman no. 2 at a marketing conference; I see gentleman no. 3, head of paid media; gentlemen no. 4, the data-scientist guru; gentlemen no. 5, head of operations — and so the male attendee list goes on. Oh, wait, I see at least three women will be present as well, so perhaps it won’t be a boys-club meeting after all.

When I sit in a boardroom with fellow women, I’d like to think we know we’re up against the world, where in business the default is male. We’re aware we carry a heavier burden than men when it comes to the managing of our career while caring for our offspring. We know there’s a lack of flexibility from our employers regarding a consistent work-and-life balance. We have to put on the ‘strong woman’ façade to adamantly block anything that resembles “being girly”. Any small action that might make us look needy and dependent is immediately suppressed, as we’ve been taught to control our emotions and ill feelings, should they arise.

But what am I saying that you don’t already know of or, better yet, have had the misfortune of experiencing?

Role of women in marketing and advertising

Following decades of being marginalised, the role of women in the marketing and advertising industry today has never been so high on the agenda when it comes to portrayals within several corporates and agencies. I happened across a quote from Veronica Roth, who said: “It must require bravery to be honest all the time.”

So, here I am, posing the following question: Has the South African marketing and advertising industry done enough of a good job in improving conditions for women? Have both manufacturers raised enough awareness resulting in actionable items eg programme initiatives that advance and upskill the careers of female professionals?

Gender bias, while often unspoken or acknowledged, continues to affect how women are treated at work, whom they interact with and what positions they hold today. These conversations take place among ourselves as a safe space to vent to fellow women going through the same motions; however, what good does that do in the bigger scheme of things? Are we not effectively sending a message to women coming into the industry that this kind of treatment is acceptable? Yes, we’re doing just that.

I need your help

Here’s the thing: I’m on a mission to switch things up but I need your help. Instead of using this platform to celebrate awards and credentials, I’d like to start celebrating the unsung heroines — the women who work behind the scenes, the women who are so incredibly good at making quick decisions and thinking on their feet, the women who’ve not been given the opportunity to share their pearls of wisdom, the women who excel at soft skills that effectively contribute to a diverse and healthy workforce, and the women who don’t fit the mould but actively form part of the marketing and advertising world in some way or another.

We may continue to share our woes in corridors or display a certain level of determination that supports and empower women today for the ability to embrace change is crucial.

Do you have someone in mind who you would like to celebrate, and have others learn a thing or two from? If so, drop me a line at @ThatTypeOfMoose on Twitter, so I may poke and prod away. Maybe this will work and maybe it won’t. The bottom line? We will have tried.

 

Musaba KanguluMusaba Kangulu (@ThatTypeOfMoose) is a firm believer in women using their diversity to push different thinking and bring new insights to the table. Playing in the digital space has taught her to be unashamedly confident in using her expertise and experience to encourage women in their digital career pursuits. Perseverance and self-worth are important messages we need give to younger women. She will contribute the new “Hidden Figures” column, which will celebrate the unsung heroines of the South African marketing and advertising world.

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By Invitation Only: Agency / consultancy arms race in full flow

by Ben Wagner (@BenWagner) While most digital and traditional agencies have been occupied with what now seems like a side skirmish, the real war has been brewing in the customer experience and business transformation environment, where the big-name consultancies have been rapidly gearing up to make a significant entrance into the marketing and communications cluster.

Initial battle-line formation

Several years back, it seemed as if the major digital agencies of the time were mutually obsessed with competing for through-the-line assignments in an active quest to demonstrate their capabilities in creating TTL work with digital at its centre. In stark contrast, traditional agencies were desperately trying to show their clients that they could create and manage digitally-orientated work, either by attempting to start their own “digital divisions” or simply opting for the quicker, but more expensive, route of acquiring specialist digital agencies.

The impact of this frenetic race to the top has resulted in many traditional agencies enduring false and failed starts, with plenty of casualties now littering the agency-acquisition landscape. Fortunately, a handful have endured and grown into formidable full-service agencies actively competing against their traditional counterparts.

Sadly, beyond the obvious mayhem a merger causes (culture, operationalising, cannibalising of existing client-revenue streams etc), the biggest stumbling block has been the persistence of silos, where traditional agencies persist with following a production-based mindset with their newly acquired digital capabilities. The absence of a “whole idea” or digitally-led idea has been a frustrating impediment to creating truly integrated agency models. Countless industry colleagues have bemoaned their fate of being acquired by a big-name traditional agency, only to have the lack of integration as pronounced as the day they moved into their new overlord’s building. Some well-respected digital agencies have long since disappeared or have morphed into the realm of production shops, fading into irrelevance.

The current battle line

Through the benefit of a historically trusted presence in the C-suite and through the legacy of consulting and auditing services, these providers are rapidly building up a strong customer experience consulting competency, together with enterprise level development and rollout capabilities. This, combined with an ability to build remote teams on-site at clients, has given consultancies a strong case for winning a lead position at the client table.

But will they win the war?

I say NO, for a bunch of reasons.

  • The first is I believe that management consultants have a DNA crisis that is diametrically opposed to creative talent. Many a story has been told of creatives being headhunted into consultancies, only to flee due to the constrictive culture and lack of conceptual creativity. Management consultants also typically seek out large, complex and long-term (read expensive) business-architecture assignments, predicated around a specific enterprise technology framework.
  • Secondly, brands need stories, ideally the perfect alchemy of science and magic. Unfortunately, the consultancies are all science, which is borne out with their blinkered view on systems. However, in today’s crowded, disintermediated and ever-changing marketing landscape, systems take time and, most importantly, you need magic in telling your brand experience story.
  • Thirdly, they have the wrong fire power. Consulting companies typically talk systems and platforms, which is why many of them are now driving acquisitions of digitally led creative shops in an attempt at right-sizing the weighting of creative vs technical talent. This isn’t enough. The reason being, is that many full-service agencies are starting to integrate TTL media strategy, including buying and planning, with a deeply digital and performance-based mindset which, as obvious as it sounds, is driving an even sharper focus on ROI but equally opening up the customer-experience conversation on the basis of optimising the conversion funnel that media performance has led to. This is allowing extended value being brought to marketers, who are now seeing that customer experience is not just limited to digital interfaces but includes the entire spectrum of customer touchpoints and their respective impact on ROI.

The wrong weapon

On the subject of fire power, the recent announcement that Publicis Groupe is pulling back from all awards shows for a period of 12 months is to me building the wrong weapon entirely. Using AI, in the form of Marcel, to form collaborative cross-functional teams is potentially going to be hugely challenging. The best AI in the world could recommend you a blend of the best rockstars in advertising but, if they don’t have the chemistry and will to work together, your potential silver bullet could just turn into a toy gun. Annoying at best, disasterous at worst, and damn expensive.

This arms race is going to develop at breakneck speed, fueled by marketers, agencies and consulting companies doing their utmost to outwit, outmanoevre and outlast each other in a fight to the death. Exciting times ahead!

See also

 

Ben WagnerBen Wagner (@BenWagner) is co-founder of NATIVE VML and head of NATIVE VML Cape Town. He has been an active member of the digital industry for more than a decade and has served on multiple industry bodies during this period, including the IAB SA exco (formerly DMMA and OPA). His involvement has included contributing to the growth of the Bookmark Awards, creating and integrating a digital category into Creative Circle Ad of the Month, as well as broadening the relationship between the then-DMMA and the ACA to ensure that digital marketing and media are strongly represented at a wider South African advertising and communications level.

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

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SA TV Ratings: SABC 2 — primetime top 20 for Jun 2017

by MarkLives (@marklives) The hottest primetime television shows on SABC 2 in South Africa revealed: TV ratings for June 2017.

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

SABC 2 June 2017

BRCSA TV Ratings June 2017 primetime SABC 2

Source: BRCSA June 2017

Broadcast Research Council of South Africa

 

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

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Post Truth: Avoiding alternative facts in marketing

by Marguerite de Villiers. Stop pretending… In a commercially competitive and culturally chaotic world striving for better, faster, more, consumers the world over are selective in what they believe, particular about what they choose, and overwhelmed by information and options. As a kind of defence mechanism, consumers are more sceptical and even more difficult to convince. So, instead of trying to persuade them with false hope and empty promises, be direct, provide a platform for conversations, and align your marketing or advertising with the values the product represents.

Stand your ground…

We are seeing a rise in populism (where ordinary people are at the centre of focus in media, art, politics, and more) and a decline of trust in a privileged elite. This is happening in international markets, and locally with people such as Julius Malema and the EFF appealing to the working class (wearing similar uniforms and taking a stand for matters that concern the average South African).

But… there are exceptions. For example, where does US president Donald Trump fit into this? Trump is the very definition of a privileged elite — and yet he appeals to the masses, to the ordinary person. Just as BMW represents for many the drive and ambition to succeed, and Mercedes Benz the indication of having arrived, — public figures (such as Trump) are a brand themselves, and anyone who associates with this brand carries with them the labels that it entails.

Earlier this year, Kellogg’s decided to retract all its advertising from the online news platform, Breitbart News Network. The brand’s reasoning for doing so was that its values didn’t not align with what it believed Trump’s to be, and Breitbart seemed to broadcast these less-favourable ideas and ideals to an audience supposedly supportive of that.

Breitbart’s response was to stand its ground and begin a social media boycott movement: #DumpKelloggs.

… Because transparency trumps deception…

Rather than publicly slamming or insulting a person or brand — and ultimately its supporters — it would be best to indicate what one does stand for.

Nando’s, the Portuguese-themed food chain originating in South Africa, has outlined very clearly where it stands on particular matters, and how it implements this through its brand and product. Its transparency gains trust and its values translate into customer loyalty.

…and honesty tastes so sweet

Collage: Ben and Jerrys on social issuesTaking a stand doesn’t have to mean being overly serious or repositioning your brand in order to communicate a thoughtful message. Ben & Jerry’s, popularly known for its ice cream, is vocal on social issues but in a way that’s true to its brand. The way that it communicates its opinions and information on issues or current events is powerfully to the point and easy to understand, and it is also accompanied by illustrations to make it seem less intimidating or daunting.

The key is to be direct, transparent, open and honest — but with substance. There needs to be purpose behind your communication. Be wary of who you associate with, what you draw on, and what you refer to in your advertising. Stay relevant by adapting to shifting global narratives.

 

Marguerite de VilliersMarguerite de Villiers is an anthropologist at strategic marketing consultancy, Added Value. “Post Truth”, her new regular column on MarkLives, addresses marketing in the post-truth era.

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Design Plus: Vincent Lammers, animation ambassador

by Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) “My job is basically about zooming in and zooming out.” Vincent Lammers, head of design and animation at Ambassadors in Amsterdam, shares some career highlights and talks us through the creative process, from brief to polished project.

“Creative superman”

One of my fellow journalists, Nils Adriaans of Dutch magazine Adformatie, referred to Vincent Lammers in an email as “a creative superman”. Lammers naturally refutes this description but I don’t think he’d mind me saying that he is a gifted and highly imaginative animator. And, luckily for his team at Ambassadors, he gets a kick of inspiring others too. He even sent me a followup message, shortly after our interview, quoting Quentin Tarantino: “The most important job of a director is making sure everyone wants to work on the film.”

Lammers discovered by trial and error that he wanted to work on films, or at least animated ones. “It clicked in art school. I’d always had an affinity with animation — Saturday morning cartoons or Disney features — because of their creativity and sense of possibility; they’re stories bigger than life. But it took me a while to realise that was what I wanted to do.”

He initially wanted to be a fine artist but, at art school in Rotterdam, he gravitated to interactive design due to an interest in technology. “Then I thought, ‘No, actually I want to tell stories’, so I ended up in the animation department, which was in the basement.”

Epiphany

Here, he had an epiphany. “People were ploughing away down there making amazing things. I thought, ‘Damn, this is awesome, I want to do this.’ So I switched to animation at the end of my second year. And now I found I could combine my love of music, technology, stories and pictures. That’s what I’ve always loved about animation — it combines the strengths of almost all the art forms.”

Not only did he never look back but he also took the school with him, in the form of some advice from his teacher, Barend Onneweer, who always said, “Just make cool shit.”

Says Lammers, “Those are words I try to live by every day.”

His fate was sealed, so to speak, by his mentor, Diederik Veelo, who oversaw his internship at Ambassadors. Lammers had made a short animated film about a sentient hill. “It was a sad hill when it was raining; then a flower grew out of its head and it became happy, and the sun came out.” He showed the film to Veelo, who showed it to his two-year-old daughter. “Diederik came back a couple of days later with a video of his little girl watching my film, laughing out loud and saying ‘Play it again, play it again!’ And that small moment for me was like, right, I have to keep on doing this.”

A family affair

That internship took place in 2009. Today, Lammers is still at Ambassadors (with only a short break in 2012 when he did a six-month stint at Buck Design in Los Angeles), which begs the question: what makes it so special?

“It just feels like home. The cool thing about this place is that it combines all the disciplines I was talking about: we have a music studio and composers, editors, graders, programmers, visual effects artists, CG artists — all these different talents come together and we try to inspire one another.” He clearly loves this process. “I’ll show a storyboard to the music guys and they’ll say, ‘If we can make it a little bit faster, or a little bit slower, then we can do this…’ The film becomes this accumulation of ideas from different crafts.”

This “little big family”, as Lammers calls it, is about 60-people strong. Lammers’s job partly involves bringing the right talents together and making sure they are creatively fulfilled. But, of course, he’s also a director. “In animation, the director’s credit is always a tricky thing because it’s such a collaborative art form,” he points out.

An ad may take three months and as many as 15 people. Most projects at Ambassadors begin with a brief from an agency. Once the initial treatment is green-lighted, the team get to work sketching, making storyboards and developing characters. From then on, says Lammers, “every artist builds on what the artist before them has done.”

Talents such as those who work at Ambassadors generally produce work that’s faultless. “From a movement or an animation point of view, I cannot say, ‘This is not good.’ But, from a story point of view, I can say, ‘Well, here we need to focus on his emotions and not so much on his movements.’ I always make sure I have my arguments straight if I want to change something.”He has to keep an eye the details but also on the bigger picture. “My job is basically about zooming in and zooming out.”

He’s particularly proud of a recent spot, Creature of Habit, for ASN bank and the agency Selmore. “It just had some really nice elements to it. We got to build a miniature forest set and put CG characters in there, so we had a lot of fun with it.”


A little while back, a conversation with Adformatie led to another piece of work he is fond of: an animated interview with McCann Worldgroup’s global ECD, John Mescall (of Dumb Ways To Die fame). The music was by Lammers’s frequent collaborator, Joep Meijberg, who started at Ambassadors at the same time as he did. “I threw it open to the entire design and animation team…so it really showcases the strengths of the team. They all took the opportunity to just…well, make cool shit. Again!”

 

Mark TungateMark Tungate (@MarkTungate) is the editorial director of the Epica Awards (@EpicaAwards), the only global creative prize judged by the specialist press. A British journalist based in Paris, Tungate is also the author of seven books about branding and advertising, including Adland: A Global History of Advertising and, most recently, The Escape Industry, a journey through the business of travel. Over his 30-year career, he has has written for leading newspapers and magazines in the UK, France and the US.

In this series of articles called Design Plus, Epica highlights creativity in the design field.

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Adnalysis: Nobody should buy our brands (we don’t deserve the sale)

by Bogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) In marketing, advertising and brand-building, it’s surprising how we go about as if we deserve for people to buy from us. We set ambitious targets and goals; we fight over market share; and, in claiming that we know or understand the people who we are talking to, we want to ‘own’ their hearts and wallets. All we talk about is what we want to achieve, as if it’s our birthright to have people buy our products or services.

We selfishly want

What we want collectively gets even more fragmented when in a room full of specialists, as everyone has their own agenda. The marketing team is concerned with the health of the brand and marketing spend; the sales team puts pressure on the marketing team to spend less but expects it to help it gain exponential sales figures. The media people want more money to spread across channels; digital want a share for the online advertising. The creative teams sometimes want to really add value by producing great work but, sometimes, they just want to win awards.

Whatever the case may be, we somehow have it fixed in our minds that we will achieve the set goals, giving almost little-to-no thought about the people we expect to pay for those products or services.

It starts with this one conviction

Out of the hundreds of briefs I’ve worked on, every client believes that their brand is the best. I’m yet to meet a client or come across a brief that says, “Our product is average, please help us? We are desperate.” No. All clients have the best product or service on offer (sometimes this is true). Points of parity get elevated to strong USPs. It’s unbelievable. Embarrassing, almost.

This permeates, sometimes unconsciously, and makes us (both clients and agencies) believe that people deserve to buy whatever product or service we are offering. This is critical to understand as it’s this exact reason that we take customers and prospects for granted. Even though brands may not necessarily feel this way, they certainly do act as if people are lucky to visit their store, website and or events.

We’re lucky to even be considered

It’s this pseudo-entitlement that I think leads to the lack of appreciation of customers. This is reflected in the very mediocre customer service that exists across industries in South Africa. But’s that another story. The point is, if we really think about it, whatever we are selling, nobody has to buy it. If we use that as our lens, it should give us a different perspective on our customer service strategies.

So, we should consider ourselves lucky and privileged. With everything that we can think of being ubiquitous, people giving our brand and/or product our attention is nothing to be taken for granted.

Loyalty is royalty — this is how we as marketers, agencies and brands should think of customers, consumers and prospects: as royalty. If we literally treated people as royalty, our approach to how we deal with them would be enhanced.

Customers spend more than their money when they buy from us

It’s not just their money that people spend when they transact with us. The other costs include time and effort. These don’t have a price attached to them; they’re not tangible; therefore, we don’t account for them.

Even when we host free events, people not having to pay to attend doesn’t mean that they aren’t sacrificing something. By attending, they’ve chosen our event over friends, family, time to relax etc. This is significant.

Companies should respect people (customers, consumers and shoppers)

When we realise how much people sacrifice to get to our stores, our websites, to consume our marketing material, be at our events, and eventually buy from us, we will then realise that people give more than they take.

We may be thinking: “Why should brands be grateful for providing a service or product that serves people’s needs and satisfies their wants? They get something conveniently and we get paid for it.”

Yes, they could have chosen anybody — but they chose us. That alone should be enough for us to really put effort into creating exceptional customer service experiences and to really show appreciation.

I call that respect and humility. Nobody needs to buy from us, so be grateful. And this gratitude may be expressed through great customer service.

 

Bogosi MotshegwaBogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) truly believes that advertising can really change the world. Every single day he tries to prove this. He shares his thoughts on the industry and sometimes has unconventional views. Bogosi is the co-founder of Melanoid Éclat (for finding black entrepreneurs), a committee member of AMASA, an Advisory Council member and guest speaker at Vega, and also does speaker management at TEDxJohannesburg. He is currently a strategic planner at The Creative Counsel. He contributes the new monthly column, “Adnalysis”, which analyses adland from a strategist’s viewpoint, to MarkLives.com.

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