PRISM Awards 2017 winners

by MarkLives (@marklives) The 20th PRISM Awards, which celebrated, recognised and rewarded excellence in the South African public relations industry, took place Saturday evening, 6 May 2017. Seventy three awards were presented: 18 Gold, 30 Silver and 25 Bronze. Over 220 entries has been received.

The Rocomamas #ElectionBurger Campaign by Tribeca Public Relations and Retroviral, scooped top honours, taking the South African Campaign of the Year Overall Gold Award. Global agency Burson-Marsteller won the Gold Award for African Network of the Year.

The 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Sejamothopo Motau, MP. ‘Sej’ is the DA shadow minister in the presidency, planning monitoring and evaluation. Motau is ambassador-at-large and former president of PRISA, the Institute for Public Relations and Communication Management in Southern Africa and former chairman of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management.

The full list of Gold winners

Category Consultancy Campaign Client Category Sponsor
Campaign of the Year Retroviral and Tribeca Public Relations RocoMamas #Election Burger RocoMamas The Park – House of Events on 7
African Network of the Year Burson-Marsteller (Pty) Ltd MTN
Best up and coming public relations PR    ofessional Lameez Mohd Ogilvy Public Relations Madea Couture
Best use of Social Media as a support tool in a communication programme Clockwork Media LGV20 launch GroundUp Media
Business-to-business Atmosphere Communications and the King James Group 1001 Days Santam Business Report
Community Relations Development Communications Solutions The Abashitshi Social mobilisations Sappi Forestry Division BVSA
Corporate Responsibility PR Worx Mimi Women Shock Box Mimi Women Lounge Around
Environment Engage Joe Public #Cloverdroughtrelief Clover South Africa Madea Couture
Financial services Atmosphere Communications and the King James Group #Conspicuoussaving Sanlam CIMA
Healthcare By Design Communications Launch of #VaginaVarsity Libresse Innovative Glass
Launch of a new product, service or category Epic MSLGROUP Dunkin’ Donuts give South Africans the power to get their taste of Dunkin’ sooner Dunkin’ Donuts Keystone Productions
Media relations One-eyed Jack Rocking the Daisies Rocking the Daisies Afroflame
Student Campaign University of Johannesburg IOM #TraffickingIsReal IOM Start Me Up
Public Relations on a shoestring Positive Dialogue Communications weFix Shark Spotters Campaign WEFIX GroundUp Media
Social Media as the primary method of Communication (best use of social to lead a programme with no social media spend) Tribeca Public Relations RocoMamas #ElectionBurger RocoMamas Integrated Marketing Solutions
Social Media as the primary method of Communication (best use of social to lead a programme) Atmosphere Communications and the King James Group #Conspicuoussaving  Sanlam Keystone Productions
Sponsorship Tribeca Public Relations Hollard Daredevil Run 2016 Hollard Lounge Around
Technology Clockwork Media Mimecast Black Friday Newsjacking Integrated Marketing Solutions

Last updated at 9.11am on 8 May 2017.

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Global Headline Makers: Katie Keith, UK

by Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) Overseeing a roster of creative talents requires toughness, empathy and a deep reservoir of patience. So I don’t envy Katie Keith, because as “first lady” of UK production company, Rattling Stick, she works with some very talented people indeed.

The tone is set by the company’s three founders: Daniel Kleinman, Ringan Ledwidge and Johnnie Frankel. It seems almost criminal to cherry-pick from their body of exceptional work, but Kleinman is behind the stunning Bond movie titles, Ledwidge recently directed the bonkers Audi “Duel”, and Frankel has been a producer for many of the most renowned names in the industry.

https://youtu.be/Dir0cOFmrOM

Perhaps that’s why Keith has been described as a “talent wrangler”. Her role is multi-faceted, however, she says. “Johnnie, El Presidente — we take titles very seriously here, as you can tell — and the two other founders are, of course, often busy and away on jobs, so they need somebody to help run the place.”

Job by job

When I catch up with her, for example, she’s fresh from working on a treatment (a detailed description of how a project will be shot) against a tight deadline. More broadly, she has a hand in managing the career progress of the company’s 16 directors, finding and supporting new talent, and overseeing PR and marketing. Plus she works in a field where there is very little margin for error. Projects are judged on a job-by-job basis.

“We’re not an advertising agency — we don’t have long-term contracts with clients,” she points out.

Keith actually comes from an agency background, having worked for 10 years at J. Walter Thompson, initially in account management. “I worked my way up to account director but, the higher up you go, the further away you are from the creative process, and I came into advertising to make films.” So she moved into the agency’s production department, where she handled jobs for Smirnoff, Nestle, MTV, Vodafone, Unilever and Kellogg’s. She joined Rattling Stick in 2010.

The production company recently celebrated its 10th birthday with a party that was really a “thank you”. She says the team went through years of call sheets (industry jargon for the day’s shooting schedule) to identify all the people Rattling Stick has regularly worked with — then invited them for a drink.

Rarely use the term

I imagine shoots have gotten longer over the past decade, as the industry shifts from commercials to branded content. Keith observes that directors themselves rarely use the term. “I don’t think it really means much to them. It’s more about whether they like an idea. Having said that, it’s opened up longer time lengths and more time means more storytelling, which no director is going to say no to. We rarely get a brief to only tell a story in 30 seconds these days.”

One unexpected result of this is the renaissance of music videos. “In the past, it was seen as a different skill but that’s no longer the case,” she says. She even occasionally advises directors to take on a music video if they’re looking for a new way of stretching themselves.

One thing I couldn’t help noticing was that, of the 16 directors on Rattling Stick’s list, only two of them are women: Loren Denis and Sara Dunlop. “Two female directors on a roster of our size is good,” she says. “But it’s not good enough and certainly an issue in the industry.”

She mentions the Free The Bid initiative, launched in September 2016 by director Alma Har’el, which calls for agencies to include at least one female director when they go to clients with production bids. The Free The Bid website also features the reels of about 130 female directors.

“Stepping stone”

“On the one hand, it’s fantastic news,” says Keith, “and on the other, no creative likes to be told who to work with. So it’s not ideal but, as a stepping stone to more female directors being considered on all briefs, I can’t think of anything better.”

The real problem seems to be at the grassroots level. Keith points out that, while she receives reels from young directors all the time, very few of them are from women. “Perhaps what’s needed is some kind of industry-wide initiative that encourages young women to come into the industry as directors.”

In the meantime, she cites Sara Dunlop’s work for children’s charity Barnardo’s as among her favourite pieces to emerge from Rattling Stick recently. “It packs such a heavy emotional punch. Despite knowing the job well, when I first saw the rough cut, it stopped me in my tracks and I had to phone Sara immediately, with tears in my eyes, to tell her how amazing I thought it was. That doesn’t happen very often.”

When I push her for an all-time top pick, she opts for “Three Little Pigs”, directed by Ringan Ledwidge for BBH and The Guardian newspaper. “It’s a seminal piece of work, that hasn’t lost any of its power or relevance.”

Changed our perceptions

The commercial changed our perceptions of what advertising had to be — a feat Rattling Stick manages with impressive regularity.

 

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 six books about branding and advertising, including Luxury World and Adland: A Global History of Advertising. He has a weekly column in the French magazine, Stratégies, and has written for leading newspapers and magazines in the UK and the US.

This “Global Headline Makers” column, which profiles creative stars making headlines in their home markets, is syndicated monthly from Epica.

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

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

BRCSA TV Ratings March 2017 primetime SABC 2

Source: BRCSA March 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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Clicks ’n Tricks: Burger King’s ad not ok with Google

by Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA) The latest Burger King advert, where the brand flighted a TVC prompting viewers to interact with their in-home Google devices, is one of the more-innovative campaigns of the year-to-date.

Unlike the other ad that lit up social media in April 2017 (Pepsi’s ill-considered use of Kendall Jenner), the Burger King spot had real merits. But it highlights the challenges brands face when engaging with new technology while also exposing a more-insidious concern over the control a few large tech companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple or GAFA for short) exert over our lives.

Voice assist

American households are adopting voice-controlled devices at an astonishing rate. Last year, Amazon sold over 6m Echo devices and it’s predicted to ship 60m devices by 2020. While no sales figures are available for Google Home, some 200m android devices have access to its voice assistant.

Given this, it’s no surprise that brands are looking to find ways of tapping into the platforms that enable users to utter a pre-programmed phrase to ask their device to perform an action, such as play music, order a pizza or search for something online.

Google flips Burger King’s patty

In Burger King’s ad, which was almost certainly a marketing stunt designed to maximise media interest rather than a conventional commercial, an actor explained that the 15-second slot wasn’t enough time to talk about all of the fresh ingredients in a Whopper. He rounded off by saying “Ok, Google, what is the Whopper burger?”

Prompted by the words “Ok, Google”, Google Home devices in viewers’ homes activated and searched the phrase, returning a Wikipedia page that stated all of the ingredients. That was smart and newsworthy in its own right, but what triggered mass-media attention was the (predictable?) action of a bunch of mischievous trolls who began to edit the Whopper Wikipedia page. Within minutes of the ad first airing, Wikipedia was reporting that the Whopper was made with 100% rat and toenail clippings.

Google, taking umbrance that its shiny new toy had been abused for someone else’s benefit, quickly applied a patch to prevent the ad from working.

The burger and the beast

While the most of the ensuing media coverage mocked Burger King’s fail, it also shone a spotlight on the potential of internet-connected gadgets (IoT) to invade our privacy and compromise security.

It’s not the first time that Google Home has caused controversy. In mid-March, the device was reported to have played an unprompted commercial for Disney’s latest movie. When users asked for an update on their schedule for the day, Home told them what their diary commitments were, then added “By the way, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast opens today”.

Don’t be evil

As the world’s largest seller of online ad inventory, Google walks a fine line between improving our lives and invading our personal space. A few years back it updated its corporate code of conduct, replacing its founding motto “Don’t be evil” with a new purpose statement “Do the right thing”. Inevitably, this simple change provoked a deluge of conspiracy theories — including the deranged fantasy that Google was morphing into an anti-Bond-like SMERSH agency.

While it’s evident the tech giant remains true to its initial calling, it’s also clear that the internet of things (IoT) further blurs the demarcation lines between what’s helpful and what’s downright dangerous. Frankenstein’s intent was to create a sapient being. And, for a short while, his creature was clever, insightful and helpful. But then it turned.

If Burger King was able, even for only a few hours before Google’s intervention, to instruct Home to relay information, it’s not a stretch to imagine a well-resourced megalomaniac using Home to do all sorts of evil. Fake news takes on a whole new dimension. And if you fear that as a worst-case stretch, imagine the more-probable outcome: that we pay hard cash for a device that’s supposed to improve our quality of life, only to find we’re being streamed an endless playlist of annoying commercials that further erode our trust in brands and their advertising.

So, let’s use tech to engage our audiences but let’s also try to ‘do the right thing’.

 

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

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By Invitation Only: Start thinking of the user as mobile

by Luke Mckend (@lmckend) Technology has provided new ways to reach consumers, new ways to provide services and new channels to communicate with customers, live, in real time. For brands, this means a myriad new ways to reach current and potential customers. It also means a whole new set of challenges to embrace.

The pace of change is fast, faster than development times can match. For brands, this means that taking years to develop an app, for example, results in the app being out of date before it’s even launched.

The move to mobile

Partly driving this rapid change has been the move to mobile. Africa isn’t a mobile-first continent — in many ways, it’s a mobile-only continent. Yet we still find ourselves thinking ‘desktop’ when we think of how people access the internet and use technology.

Brands are also now faced with a deluge of metrics — but are we measuring for the sake of measuring, and gathering data for the sake of data? Are we measuring what we can measure, or what we should measure?

All three examples imply a skill deficit. Knowledge gets redundant quickly. Skillsets need to change quickly. In the mobile world, we are not moving fast enough. What we develop needs to be mobile from the start.

Constant learning

We need to build a constant-learning culture. Brands end up outsourcing to third parties because they don’t have the skills inhouse. This also effectively means they’re outsourcing their IP and start losing skillsets that are critical in the changing business environment. Brands rather need to learn in partnership with the agencies they work with.

We also need to investigate and implement agile, fast development, rather than hopping from platform to platform. It’s time to lose the desktop as way to access the internet. We need to stop thinking of mobile as a device or delivery mechanism, and start thinking of the user as mobile. This requires a different set of skills. People move from device to device when reading/watching/listening, and we need to consider that in what and how we develop.

When it comes to metrics, we need to develop insights from the data points we have. Data itself is not an insight. We occupy a world of data-paralysis, where we are data-rich and insights-poor. We need to develop an insights culture to provide a basis for a more-mature data culture. We need to consider how we glean insights to better serve customers through the data we have, rather than collecting data for data’s sake.

If you can do that, you stand a chance of succeeding.

 

Luke MckendLuke Mckend (@lmckend) is country director of Google South Africa.

“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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Masterclass Notes: Between the chemistry meeting & the pitch

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) Rather than wait for things to go wrong, it’s better to start thinking about your people, processes and ways of working before the pitch process is complete.

It is easy to assume that agencies know how to handle taking on a new client — after all, they do it all the time. But every client is different, with different needs, structures, expectations and ways of working, and, at the start, the agency will only know what you have told it or what it’s assumed.

Transition

Put someone on your team in charge of the transition. They will then be able to manage the migration to the new agency, plan and manage the induction process, agree on phasing and help the agency build effective relationships. This is not a task for a junior member of the marketing team. It needs to be someone who knows the company well and its people along with the systems.

Also, it is important to remember that transition may take much longer than expected — it might be four weeks but it could be four months or more.

Scope of work

Talk to your marketing team about the scope of work and expectations. A new agency is a real opportunity for a new start but only if you are internally aligned about who, what and how.

Ask your day-to-day team about what has worked and what hasn’t, and then look to implement those changes to your systems now in order for your newly appointed agency to be able to work better with you.

Way of working

Define how you are going to work with your new agency. Establish not just how you want to sign off approvals but how you want to approach briefings and presentations. Put in place processes to manage behaviour you expect from the agency and from your own people. Decide how you will handle any niggles or irritations that may arise — and even check the process of the transition in point 1.

Induction plan

Make sure your induction plan is specific enough. It should cover who the agency needs to meet and in what order to speed up its learning. It should also set out the agreed scope of work and the phasing needed to prevent it being swamped in the early stages of the relationship.

And have a briefing pack ready for when the agency is appointed, covering the background and context of your business — and your other agencies — in as much detail as you can.

KPIs and SLAs draft framework

These need to reflect the scope of your expectations of the agency and therefore what working practices need to be in place to be tested during the first three months. Have these agreed to internally so that everyone has the same expectations.

Communication

Keep everyone informed internally of the progress of the pitch process — it still might take a while to complete — so your marketing team, other agencies and other stakeholders in the business need to be kept in the loop in the meantime.

Announcing the agency appointment

Consider your plan to announce the new appointment — internally, externally, via phone or email or press release. Timing and content are very important. Do you want to talk about a competitive pitch? Do you want to acknowledge the work of the previous agency? Who should be contacted and in what order?

Impact of the new agency

Prepare your team for the impact of the new agency — you may decide to change some of your working practices to accommodate the new agency, for example. Plus your other agencies on the roster might well be affected — the new agency might show up some deficiencies in the existing agencies. All of this needs to be managed.

Management of the other agencies

The other agencies on your roster need to be closely managed at this time so that they continue to deliver and start to collaborate fully with the new agency. This also includes the outgoing agency, so that a handover is successfully managed and that all communication is clear.

Advice from the incumbent agency

And, finally, if the purpose of the pitch is to replace the existing agency, ask the incumbent to share its key learnings from the relationship with you looking back, and its advice for the new agency.

~~~

It sounds like a lot of preparation work, and some of it you may be doing in a less formal way, but great planning around these issues ensures that a new agency relationship will get off to a flying start, and will mean fewer problems and less troubleshooting later on.

 

Johanna McDowellJohanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) is managing director 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. Currently she is running the IAS Marketers Masterclass, a programme consisting of masterclasses held in Cape Town and in Johannesburg. Twice a year she attends AdForum Worldwide Summits.

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Headspace: Empathetic brands — walking in their shoes

by Tenielle Maris. Consumers, more than ever, are not only ‘spoilt for choice’ but they tend to have so many options at their feet that their decision-making journey has become as illusive as Mona Lisa’s smile.

Bombarded by content, messages and media, consumers are no longer listening to the relentless noise. We advertisers and marketers know that we have to be smarter and more strategic than ever before if we want to win the hearts of our target audiences, but what does that actually mean?

For starters, we need to take a step back and realise that the consumer-brand relationship should in no way be one-sided: it needs to be unequivocally mutually beneficial to both parties. To develop such a relationship, consumers need to feel as though they are truly understood by a brand because their feelings and daily challenges are being validated.

In order to that, we need to be the ones doing the listening. I’m not talking about relying on the findings from big data studies or carefully engineered marketing tools; I’m talking about the raw and subjective emotion that may only be discovered by getting up close and personal with our audiences.

Beyond understanding

What exactly is empathy in brand speak? It’s one of the biggest marketing buzzwords for 2017 as consumers expect brands to understand them, and then offer them value that actually means something in their lives.

To take this a step further, brands need to move beyond understanding to empathy: by reacting in a way that demonstrates that they get the thing that will make their consumers happier, more-fulfilled or their lives easier.

Shouldn’t all brands be being doing this anyway, you may ask? Absolutely. The notion of customer-centric marketing is certainly not new news but, with the advancements in technology and the increasing number of platforms available to have one’s say, consumers are demanding more from their experiences with brands.

According to Tony Zambito, founder of Buyer Persona, on making business practices human centric: “We are undergoing profound changes in the purposes of marketing. To succeed in the future, marketing will not only need to understand the human experience but also must be able to add value to the human experience”.

Getting it right

The Marriott Group has been named one of the top contenders amongst brands that make their customers feel respected (Harvard Business Review, 2016) and, if you have a look at its most-recent campaign, you’ll understand why.

https://youtu.be/CcBggv0tECU

Westin Hotels & Resorts, one of the Marriott’s subsidiary brands, recognised that travellers’ health routines are compromised when on the road by today’s always-on and over-scheduled culture. The Let’s Rise campaign is a shining example of listening to and then validating a consumer pain point through product innovation — wellness programs, workout gear and healthy menus, to name but a few — which directly links back to a traveller’s need to regain self-control when away from home.

The result? A downright impressive response to a human insight that has firmly established the brand as an empathetic one, and one with its consumers’ best interests at heart.

Going the distance

What’s important to remember is that empathy isn’t a once-off thing. In order to authentically empathise with an audience, your brand needs to be intricately synchronised and reactive to the thoughts and feelings of your target market along each step of their journey with your brand. And, in turn, recognise that your consumers are people — not numbers — who need to be truly understood on a personal level.

If we want to create advertising and content that has the power to shift mind-sets and change behaviour, then we need go the extra mile to discover the insights that are linked to our consumers’ daily challenges: the type that can only be found by taking a walk in other people’s shoes.

 

Tenielle MarisTenielle Maris is strategic director at TTL agency, 34°, in Johannesburg. Beginning her career in branding and communications, she has spent the last decade in the marketing industry where she has worked upon big brands spanning the African continent. Having found her passion in understanding what drives human beings to connect with particular brands, her time is spent getting up close and personal with the people whom brands are trying to connect with. Tenielle contributes the monthly “Headspace” column, which unpacks anything and everything that helps marketers and advertisers understand why people connect with brands, to MarkLives.com.

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Media Future: Colour is the new black

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Gone are the days when only a black or white phone was cool at the high end. Now colour is all the rage.

A funny thing happened in iStores around South Africa recently. The new iPad went on sale, and no one noticed. What was noticed, though, was a new version of the iPhone, not with enhanced features but with a new colour.

The new iPad 9.7” tablet is the successor to the iPad Air 2, but carries many of the same specs as the high-end iPad Pro, without the enhanced price tag. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Red Special Edition smartphones introduce only a new colour.

Big deal

Suddenly, that is a big deal.

Yes, the vibrant red aluminium finish has been released in recognition of more than 10 years of partnership between Apple and the (RED) global campaign to fight AIDS, so it is not merely a matter of cosmetics. However, this nuance will probably be lost on most customers for the device.

In 2017, it seems, new colour options are a prerequisite for high-end smartphones. In fashion terms, colour is the new black. Any colour.

The trend was kicked off in earnest during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2017, when Huawei unveiled its new flagship phones, the P10 and P10 Plus. As noted at the time, it was not the advanced camera and other specs that were expected to turn heads; rather, it was the physical design of the phone, along with a fresh suite of colour options. Huawei had collaborated with the Pantone Color Institute, global thought leaders in colour standards, to introduce new colours not seen before on smartphones.

Most-popular shade

Pantone Greenery, named the official Pantone Colour of the Year for 2017, was applied to a handset with a sandblast finish, giving it a clean look that it said would reflects the eco-friendly symbolism of green. A new deep-blue shade, named Dazzling Blue, added to the diamond-cut finish, delivering a subtle glow effect that is likely to make it the most-popular shade.

It is rare that colour options are standout features for phones but Huawei pulled it off with its refreshed palate and the ultra-fresh Greenery. The new phones, due in SA in May, also come in Ceramic White, Dazzling Gold, Prestige Gold, Graphite Black, Rose Gold and Mystic Silver.

“With consumers increasingly comfortable using colour as a form of expression, we are seeing more experimentation and creative uses of colour,” said Laurie Pressman, VP of Pantone Color Institute, at the launch. “Colour is truly a medium through which individuals can express themselves to the world around them.”

“Rich colour palette”

In March, when Samsung launched its own new flagships, the S8 and S8 Plus — likely to be the standout phones of 2017 — it also unveiled a new colour range. When they arrive in SA on 5 May, a key element of the marketing will be, in Samsung’s words, “a rich colour palette”. It will include Midnight Black, Orchid Gray and Maple Gold, with more colours to be introduced later in the year. The official global launch range includes Coral Blue and Arctic Silver.

While Samsung made less of the philosophy behind its colours, it put as much effort as Huawei into colour as a differentiator and a key element of the phone’s design. In a commemorative book issued at the S8 launch, entitled simply Galaxy S8: Design Story, it offered an echo of the Pantone argument:

“The influence of nature informs the colour palette for the Galaxy S8. Samsung’s Liquid Shade spectrum explores the depth of lustre as seen through the surface tension of a water droplet on metal.”

Real clue

As abstract as this may sound outside the rarefied language of design, the real clue to the colour explosion in high-end smartphones probably lies in another principle expressed in Design Story — that of neutrality:

“With a strong and flexible but fluid design ethos that blends naturally into its environment, the Galaxy S8 is a device not defined by age, gender or geography.”

In other words, in contrast to a trend over the past few years to define phones according to their target market, the S8 attempts to be all things to all people. The only way to achieve this is to suit all colour tastes. The idea then, is that one of the five distinctive colour options for the S8 handsets will appeal to any of the various gender, age and location-based demographics of people who would be in the market for a high-end phone.

More difficult to distinguish by design

It is clear, then, that as it becomes more difficult to distinguish phones by design — although Samsung may argue that the S8 stands out from the rest — colour will become more important than ever before. Apple has proven the point with the new iPhone Red. There is little doubt that new-look phones, ranging from Samsung Coral Blue to Huawei Greenery, will make consumers more aware of colour than ever before in the short history of smartphones.

 

Arthur GoldstuckArthur Goldstuck heads up World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. He is a consulting editor to MarkLives and our media tech columnist. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. This article has been republished from Gadget.

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Ad of the Week: Assisting where needed

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Time to bust out the tissues with a heartwarming mini-movie from Vodacom and director Dillon Govender of Admit One Media about how special phones may empower people with specific needs.

I have always feared losing one of my principal faculties, such as eyesight or hearing. Perhaps many people have this fear. For me, it’s about the loss of independence, and how it would hamper my ability to do the work I love, which is in brands and various media. At the same time, I’m always blown away by how people do find ways to cope. It’s such a testament to the human spirit when someone overcomes this and lives a meaningful and fruitful life.

Of course, technology is becoming more and more useful in providing assistance to people with specific needs. It’s no wonder that the ubiquitous smartphone is becoming the device best-suited to delivering that technology conveniently. Vodacom demonstrates the company’s commitment to being all things to all people with a series of ads that tell stories of how real people are being helped by assistive cellphone technology. There are special phones for the sight-impaired, hearing-impaired and even for the elderly that are designed to make life easier and empower people to do the things many of us take for granted, such as special text-only plans and assistance with choosing phones that are compatible with hearing aids, as well as a range of iPhones have software that gives voice guidance and takes voice-based input.

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The campaign consists of one main commercial, “Joseph and Thandi” — a fictional story of a romance that has all the makings of a Romeo and Juliet story— being flighted on TV, cinema, internet and in-store, and another six which are actual real-life stories (no acting) and are online only.

In “Joseph and Thandi”, the two star-crossed lovers were sweethearts in their youth, but her father wasn’t having any of it, and forced them apart.

In this narrative, Joseph is a sculptor, and we soon learn that he is blind. His friend, the narrator, is also blind. The mini-movie begins in an airy studio where Joseph is working on a clay bust of a woman. The narrator recounts how Joseph would tell the story of his lost love over and over again. “He never forgot her face,” he says in voiceover. “I knew their story couldn’t end like this. No matter what it took, I had to find her,” he continues, and we next see him walking down a city street.

He pulls out his cellphone, and all he does is swipe across the screen. Superimposed on the image is the cellphone screen, showing “Voice Search”. The words “Thandi Molefe Artist” appear as he speaks, and the info comes onto the screen. There is a montage of the narrator as he makes his way across the city, guided by the voice coming from the phone.

“Sometimes even the greatest love stories need a helping hand. And this story deserved one more chapter,” the voiceover continues, over scenes of the narrator speaking to someone in a restaurant, walking through Joburg CBD, and resting on a park bench.

It’s getting late but still he persists. He is at a bus stop, and the screen shows the Vodacom Specific Needs Contact Centre, which has its own number. The voice may be heard saying, “The next bus arrives in one hour, sir.”

It is now night time, and he arrives at a door with a brass number, which his fingers identify as the right one.

As the door opens, the scene cuts to the door of the studio being opened, and Thandi places her hand on Joseph’s shoulder. It is a very touching moment as she looks into his face and he touches her face to ‘see’ her; then they embrace. Our narrator stands by and smiles, and it is clear that the bust Joseph has working on is of Thandi.

The Vodacom voice says, “Write the next chapter with South Africa’s best network. Vodacom”, while the text on the screen gives the URL for the network’s special needs website.

This ad is beautifully filmed, and the story is touching and inspiring while still providing information about the service.

Other stories in the series are more documentary in style, featuring people such as Andile Vellem, the deaf choreographer; Hein Wagner the blind adventurer/athlete, and Joseph Matheatau, the blind barista. Exceptional people all, who have not let their disability be an obstacle but have found a way to follow their passion and live life to the full.

Kudos to Vodacom, not only for this initiative but for telling these heartwarming stories, and to Admit One for filming it in such a sensitive way. Deserving winners of Ad of the Week.

Credits: Joseph and Thandi

Agency/production company: Admit One Media
Executive creative director: Henre Pretorius
Creative director: Dillon Govender
Art director: Lalage Avis
Production design: Keenan McAdam
Copywriter: Dillon Govender
Executive producer: Ruette Steyn
Director: Dillon Govender
DoP/camera: Justus de Jager
Editor: Jamie Taylor, Nova
Final mix: Sudhir Misra, 344 Studios
Head of production: Juanri Topham
Production coordinator: Nontsikelelo Mapoma
GFX: Michael Clark, MAAN Creative
Online grade: Marc Baleiza, Ladies & Gentlemen Films

Credits: Other six ads

Agency/production company: Admit One Media
Executive creative director: Henre Pretorius
Creative director: Henre Pretorius
Copywriter: Henre Pretorius

Executive producer: Ruette Steyn
Director: Henre Pretorius
DoP/camera: Johan Beukes
Editor: Johan Beukes
Final mix: Sudhir Misra, 344 Studios
Head of production: Juanri Topham
Production coordinator: Nontsikelelo Mapoma
GFX & online: Nic Grobler

 

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 info@ornicogroup.co.za.

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Shelf Life: Water for Africa with new Chivas venture

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

  • I-Drop Water in Chivas Venture
  • Gaia gets Inhouse overhaul
  • Woolworths — a decade of doing good

Water from whisky

South Africa has experienced severe water shortages, with almost 2m people having no access to a reliable water supply between 2011 and 2015. This crisis has partly inspired the launch of I-Drop Water, which is already transforming the way safe drinking water is bought and sold in southern Africa.

Social entrepreneur, James Steere, has created I-Drop Water, a for-profit social enterprise that designs, builds and installs drinking-water purification and dispensing machines in grocery stores at no cost, sharing income generated from water sales with store owners. i-Drop Water has installed purification and dispensing units in over 55 locations in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, helping shop owners save almost 995 000l of water and over 1 300kg of plastic waste — an achievement that saw the company announced as the winner of the South African version of Chivas Regal’s The Venture III.

The Venture III is Chivas Regal’s global search to find, mentor and support burgeoning startups that are dedicated to making a difference in their communities. Steere was recently announced as the SA winner of the social entrepreneurship initiative and will travel to Los Angeles later in the year to compete for the global prize.

Says Steere: “Everywhere I have travelled in Africa, there is bottled water for sale in grocery stores at an exorbitant price. And yet, in many of these grocery stores, there is a water supply; what is missing is a way of purifying water on site. This is a widespread issue and 750m people across the globe still do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.”

I-Drop installs purification and dispensing units at the point of sale. Shoppers refill water containers, which means that plastic waste is reduced, and it is very affordable — up to 80% cheaper than bottled water. Meanwhile, the water supply comes at no cost to retailers, and the company splits the revenue with them, which drives economic activity in communities.

“I sincerely believe in the need for sustainable solutions, and the opportunity exists to create long-term, value-generative solutions through traditional, tested business models and wisdom,” says Steere. “We are extremely proud that our business is born in Africa and has potential to impact millions of people around the world as water shortage is a fast growing global crisis.”

idropwater.com • Facebook • Twitter
chivas.com • Facebook • Twitter

 

Inhouse inside Gaia

Infrastructure investment company, Gaia, recently commissioned interior design firm, Inhouse Brand Architects, to create its new Cape Town office space, resulting in a design that is meant to perfectly complement the challenging and unusual architectural space.

Gaia’s offices are located in a striking architectural building in Claremont in Cape Town’s southern suburbs. The building’s façade, made up of concrete and exposed brickwork, is described as exuding an industrial feeling juxtaposed with organic elements, such as curved walls and timber beams.

Inhouse director Phillip Wyatt and team leader Megan Cloete steered the project and were inspired by both the infrastructure industry and the building itself, which came with curved glass windows and intricate timber-clad ceilings. They opted for an industrial-organic aesthetic and incorporated Gaia’s corporate colours of black, blue and gold into the design.

Explains Cloete, “The building is absolutely beautiful. We were able to extend this beauty by using neutral tones throughout the space [and] modern furnishings, as well as raw materials like concrete and timber.”

In keeping with the neutral colour palette and industrial theme, light-grey painted brick walls and concrete elements were included throughout and, in true mezzanine style, a steel staircase unites the ground floor and the second floor office areas. The overall result for Gaia is an appealing workspace that enhances the building’s impressive architecture.

inhouse.ws • Facebook • Twitter
gaiaip.com

 

Winning with Woolworths

Woolworths’ flagship South African sustainability programme, the Good Business Journey (GBJ), turns 10 this year, celebrating its achievements in transformation, social development, health and wellness, ethical sourcing, sustainable farming, waste, water and energy.

https://youtu.be/LnhrGn2VmEw

Says Justin Smith, Woolworths head of sustainability, “This is an important celebration, which allows us to remind ourselves that business is no longer about profit alone, but about creating shared value and delivering on our commitments and responsibilities to empowering our people and protecting our planet. This is precisely what the GBJ is about.”

The GBJ was a first of its kind in local retail whereby sustainability became a strategic platform for the business with specific public targets.

Chief executive Ian Moir says, “With hindsight, when we started the programme, we were thinking mainly as a South African business developing a strategic programme for South Africa. We are truly humbled at the international recognition we received for the GBJ and it’s something we didn’t foresee at the time.”

Some of the GBJ successes include:

  • MySchoolMyVillageMyPlanet having raised R393m
  • Over 600 primary and secondary suppliers being part of the Farming For the Future programme
  • 4bn in value created over the life of its Black Employee Employment Share Ownership Scheme and R332m in dividends being distributed to beneficiaries over the life of the scheme
  • 42% relative reduction in energy usage and over 50% relative reduction in water usage in SA stores
  • More than 100 green stores and the completion of four solar projects so far
  • 7m donated to the EduPlant programme.
  • 44 enterprise development suppliers currently working with Woolworths.
  • 381 jobs created through the Clothing Bank programme
  • Over 10m PET bottles recycled into fibre for use in jeans, t-shirts, reusable fabric bags each year
  • Having raised R10.7m for charity through sale of reusable bags.

woolworths.co.za • Facebook • 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.

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

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