by Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) If you can’t find a safety card in the seat pocket in front of you, it may be because a collector has already snapped it up. Inspired by the Paris Metro’s mock airline safety card campaign, we examine an aviation subculture.
A recent campaign for RATP — the Paris Metro operator, in other words — mimicked the design tropes of aircraft safety cards. The campaign was amusing in its own right but it got us thinking about safety cards in general.
You may not be surprised to learn that there’s a whole subculture devoted to this subject. Many people collect cards and there are several sites devoted to them, such as airlinesafetycards.be and allsafetycards.com. Pinterest, predictably, is also a rich source of safety card fun.
For enthusiasts, there is a classic book called “Design For Impact: Fifty Years of Airline Safety Cards”, by Eric Ericson and Carl Reese. They point out that safety cards “display a wide variety of aesthetic approaches, ranging from late-1950s optimism to contemporary graphic minimalism”. Indeed, as with most forms of communication, the cards “reflect the culture in which they were produced”.
A 2015 edition of Apex Experience (the magazine of the Airline Passenger Experience Association, through which leading airlines work together to make flights more enjoyable) provided a useful potted history of safety cards. Apparently, the earliest appeared in the 1930s and contained only text. Illustrations emerged in the 1940s.
So why didn’t photographs eventually take the place of diagrams? Although there are rare examples (see left), a 1967 study found that diagrams were preferable as they “require less study to distinguish important from insignificant details”. Colour is a sticking point: although it’s become standard, another study — this time from 1997 — found that readers couldn’t decide whether it was purely decorative or being used to enhance certain instructions.
https://youtu.be/gzsH67F4Dt4
While airline safety films have recently been co-opted to express carriers’ brand values, safety cards remain relatively simple. But that does not prevent them from being interesting — and sometimes downright quirky.
Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) is the editorial director of the Epica Awards (@EpicaAwards), the only global creative prize judged by the specialist press. In this series of articles called Design Plus, Epica highlights creativity in the design field.
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by Tom Fels (@thomasfels) So much time and money is spent by brands trying to generate campaigns that stick, with teams of strategists and creatives exploring direction after direction to nail one big idea. Yet how often during the presentation of that idea is a video reference shared, showing someone else doing almost the same thing they’re proposing to do?
The founder of Cool Hunting, Josh Rubin, is quoted as saying “there are no new ideas, just great execution.” His notion explores the relationship between business and creativity as he seeks to discover how people do things under increasing pressure to execute.
Melania Trump rode that line pretty close during the 2017 US Presidential inauguration in a Ralph Lauren dress ‘inspired’ by the reign of Jackie Kennedy Onassis as a global style icon. Some called it a stroke of genius; others called her out.
Making it your own
In fashion there is no doubt that designers seek inspiration from the past to guide the future, but each adds a touch of their own: a modern twist or a trademark signature that sets their work apart.
Musically, from acoustic covers to Carpool Karaoke, there is also novelty in hearing a song you know, interpreted or presented in a way you’d never imagined. Canadian band Walk Off the Earth generates millions of YouTube views covering songs you already love —I’m sure Adele herself is one of the 5m people who’ve viewed this cover of her hit Hello, performed in a garage.
Where there is originality in inspiration, talent in execution and brilliance in craft, no one cares if someone has done it before — they are delighted to see it ‘again’.
What this means for agencies
Consumer products don’t exist in a vacuum — the people buying chocolate bars are the people interested in sports, fashion, music, movies and culture. For good reason, brands need to explore these worlds to gain relevance.
An old client known for saying ‘borrow with pride’ would happily see a reference of a designer outfit, a catchy song or video and a marketing platform that unites these elements, with the brand at the centre.
While true creatives will hate the notion that the starting point for their next idea doesn’t necessarily have to be a blank canvas, every once in a while it may be interesting to take your cue from other success stories, before adding your stamp of originality in execution.
This column has been updated at 8.50am on 1 March 2017.
With over a decade of local and international experience in leading brand consulting, design, shopper marketing and integrated advertising roles, Tom Fels (@thomasfels) has gained a deeply relevant understanding of the dynamics of agencies. His skills are put to work daily as group managing director of Publicis Machine. He contributes the monthly “Ad Exec” column to MarkLives.
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by Veli Ngubane (@TheNduna) Nkanyezi Masango has come a long way since he started out as a “shameless stalker” who identified the best creative directors and cold-called them for job interviews. We find out more about this young and gifted creative director, including the astonishing discovery along the way that the most important tool of his trade is.… pen and paper.
Nkanyezi Masango
Veli Ngubane: How did you a) get interested in advertising and b) break into the industry and land your first job? Nkanyezi Masango: I wanted to be a filmmaker. Then I discovered how long it can take to make a movie. So I decided to try advertising, where it’s much quicker to get your ideas produced and seen by the public. After graduating, with a very thin portfolio, I would to go to Exclusive Books and look through the latest Loeries annual (there were no ad blogs back then). I memorised all the creative directors credited on the best work and just cold-caledl them for an interview. Eventually Taelo [Mokgalagadi] at Hunt Lascaris agreed to see me. And the rest is history.
VN: What are your specialisations/creative processes/most- important tools of the trade? NM: Media and technology are evolving every day. But the most important tools are still a pen and paper.
VN: What characteristics do you need to have to succeed in the advertising industry? NM: Passion for advertising and a positive attitude.
VN: Any interesting hobbies/second jobs/bits of information that make you pop as an individual? NM: I love trail running and getting lost in the wild.
VN: What advice would you give to youngsters wanting to break into the industry? NM: Study the best work. Go online and become an ad geek. Look at BMW “Mouse”, Carling Black Label “Be The Coach” and every great South African ad ever made. Then find out who made those ads and call them for an interview. Basically, be a shameless stalker.
VN: What is the South African advertising industry doing right? And what needs to change? NM: We’ve become the ‘radio country’ at Cannes. Now we need to get out of that comfort zone and create powerful integrated ideas. We need to pose a serious threat in the tough categories such as Film, Cyber, Mobile and PR.
VN: What is your take on transformation in creative studios and adland as a whole? NM: Everyone is well-aware that the industry lacks diversity. I think the question we need to ask ourselves is: “What are we doing about it?”
VN: What do you like most about advertising? What is most challenging? NM: Advertising is the only industry that encompasses every facet of creativity. Music, film, photography, illustration, product design and so on. The challenging part is being consistently great. It’s tough but you just have to keep trying.
VN: What is your favourite ad campaign, past and present, and why? NM:ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It’s almost impossible to engineer that kind of impact. I wish I’d done it.
VN: Where and when do you have your best ideas? NM: Anywhere outside the office. The best time is when I’m jogging.
VN: You have created award-winning work; what’s your secret? NM: I owe a large part of my success to my mentor, Graham Lang. He gave me the platform and the resources to produce great work. You can have all the talent in the world but, without the right mentorship and brave clients, it all means nothing.
VN: You were the only SA creative director selected to judge on the Advertising Jury at the 2016 Art Directors Club (ADC) 95th Annual Awards; tell me more about that experience. NM: It was the best judging experience I’d ever had. The work was absolutely astonishing. But the best part was judging alongside a panel that is 50/50 male and female. Every award show should do that.
VN: What has been the most-exciting project that you’ve worked on? NM:#Operation45, an integrated campaign for Operation Smile. I had the privilege of seeing children’s lives transform right before my eyes.
VN: What do you consider the most effective current form of advertising in SA? And why? NM: Film is still the best medium. It can be viewed on TV, at the cinema and shared online.
VN: Do you think you would ever decide to put your pen and paper down?
NM: No, creativity is not a job; it’s a way of life.
VN: What would you like to be remembered for if you decide to retire? NM: Hopefully, for contributing to the country’s portfolio of iconic work. But I’m not there yet.
VN: Do you have any new exciting projects you’re working on at the moment that you may share with us? NM: There’s some work in the pipeline; it will be revealed soon.
VN: Please would you supply two or three pieces of work you have been involved in?
First Kiss — Big up to Jason Fialkov, Graham, Lubby and our legendary client, Hector.
Hope Soap — Thanks to the buggers Graham, Gumby, Rowan, Justin and Gareth
Veli Ngubane (@TheNduna) entered the world of advertising with a passion after completing his BSocSci (law, politics and economics) at the University of Cape Town and a post-graduate marketing diploma at Red & Yellow, where he also currently serves as advisory board chairman. He is the chief creative officer and founding partner of one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country, AVATAR. A full-service marketing agency with digital at the core, its clients include Brand South Africa, FOX Africa, National Geographic, SAA and Chevron. Veli hails from Kosi Bay in the rural KwaMhlaba Uyalingana area of KZN. In his monthly column “Young, Gifted & Killing It”, he profiles award-winning, kick-ass black creative talent in South Africa.
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by Emma King (@EmmainSA) If I’d had to describe myself a year ago, I probably would’ve come up with a description along the lines of “feminist lite”. A belief in a Spice Girls-esque version of Girl Power, I suppose, where feisty women hung around in girl gangs, talking about equality while comparing the best brand of sparkly nail polish and badass heels. But something’s happened over the past year to change this.
Inequality decades ago
And, to be fair, for the majority of my years, the blurry days of women’s inequality of decades ago seemed far off. My mom — a massively well-known and respected scientist — told me stories of her younger years in which day-to-day sexism was rife. Times when she was groped by her creepy professor in full view of his wife and her husband (my dad), and how it was considered normal; if she’d spoken out, she would have been dropped by the research team. How she used to drop her first name and just use her title of “Doctor” when dealing with colleagues and other scientists because, when they knew she was a female, they used to belittle her findings and call her a “silly woman” but mysteriously didn’t do so when they assumed she was a man.
I used to gasp with horror and feel thankful that my career was unfolding in a time of enlightenment, where we could be free to develop strong and impactful careers, where we could, literally, aim for whatever we wanted.
But something has happened recently that has started me thinking differently. A small feeling of disquiet that has started to grow into an angry roar. One that has made me feel like an angry feminist type that will start wearing pink pussyhats and, Madonna-like, speak of blowing things up.
No coincidence
It’s no coincidence that these feeling started to emerge last year, as the US election primaries started gaining momentum. I felt an uneasiness as who was then the outsider to be president joked about grabbing women, and wondered how a junior employee in a low-paid job would ever be able to stand up for themselves in a similar situation, when one of the most powerful people in the world said it was OK. This uneasiness grew as I watched the extremely personal and degrading insults that were thrown at his woman counterpart.
It seemed to me that there was a vast amount of people who would prefer the leadership of an emotionally unstable and less-qualified man than a women — at any cost. It made me scared because I realised how many people, women included, did not trust or want women in leadership positions.
And, while all this was happening, I started to notice little things (at first) that showed that these events being played on a world stage trickle down to all facets of life, including our own industry in this country.
Lacking in our industry
We have spoken in length about how there are a lack of women role models and women in leadership positions in our industry. Why is this? Is it because we get paid less? Because we have to juggle caring for kids and families? Or is it because we are simply unwelcome? I cannot count the number of times that a man, often junior to me, has spoken over or ‘mansplained’ things to me in front of others in meetings. I know of many examples where women have been treated in ways that would be simply unacceptable if the situation were reversed. A case in point was a friend in an ad agency who was being pursued by a client, in an obvious and embarrassing way. When she turned him down, politely, he ‘joked’, more than once, that he would get her fired from the account.
The problem with all of this was that we are scared to fight back. When I told someone I was writing this piece, he rolled his eyes, and said I should stop “my ranty feminist shit as it wasn’t attractive”. As the new president of the US has shown time and again, if we stand up for ourselves, we get called, fat, old, unattractive, whiney, deranged and hysterical. We get Twitter trolls telling us we should be raped.
But, perhaps, it’s not all doom and gloom. The Women’s Marches in the US and the rest of the world have shown that women will not go back to where we were. We are incredibly strong, even more so when we stand together.
#resist
I hope that we can take that learning back to our industry, too. We don’t need to be ranty and blow things up. I find hope, personally, in a quiet and strong call to #resist rather than angry anarchy. We can quietly, and decisively, make small changes to make this different. Don’t put up with shit where the women in the office get talked down to and treated like pieces of meat. Support the growth of women into leadership positions; understand that these women do not come in two modes — bitchy boss or giggling bimbo. Despite being labelled hysterical, many women bring a level-headedness, lack of ego and high EQ that can be incredibly valuable to a business. And that whole thing about multitasking? It’s true, I tell you! Make sure you have female teams leading strategy and creative for female brands — why the hell not?
And, for heaven’s sake, women, support women. We don’t need that petty, competitive crap where we love to make other women look bad just to make ourselves feel better.
Remember, there are some incredible women out there who may be inspirational and incredible role models — for men, too. Here are some to start with (whether you share their beliefs or not, you can’t argue that they are not badass):
Madonna’s speech at the Billboard Women in Music Awards
Hillary Clinton’s Concession speech
Michelle Obama’s speech during the US elections
Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize speech
Emma King (@EmmainSA) is the owner and MD of The Friday Street Club (@TheFridayStClub). She is allergic to bad grammar and ampersands, but likes working her way through piles of novels and travelling the globe. She contributes the monthly “Dissident Spin Doctor” column on PR and communication issues to MarkLives.com.
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by Bogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) When analysing what brands are engaged in on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, one starts to realise that social media is either being used incorrectly or not to full potential.
In the 1990s, when websites became increasingly popular, without getting into the technical side of this era, they were simply an opportunity for brands or companies to have their information easily accessible and relatively free of charge to people. Content on websites was one-way traffic, with the design of that content solely coming from the perspective of the company; they shared what they thought people should or needed to know about them. It was about being present as a company on the internet. Simply put, websites were marketing and e-commerce tools.
Not the same
Fast-forward to the era of social media, and things are not the same. As opposed to websites, the narrative is different, and people are there for their own personal reasons, and not to be appeased by brands. Brands therefore need to find ways to be relevant.
Social media is different from websites and yet brands, marketers, social media managers, community managers, etc tend to be consumed by admin and the day-to-day. They have subsequently become backend content updaters — but this shouldn’t be the case. The day-to-day is important but not as important as being relevant, and being relevant is more than just about having a planned-out content calendar. It’s about being able to make emotional sense to people and be creative so that you may resonate with them and achieve your desired outcome
Social media posts tend to be as bland as the content hosted on websites, only shorter. Social media posts, especially the sponsored or promoted ones, have subsequently become like the intrusive TV adverts that pop in between content — the interesting conversation that people want to actually consume or engage in.
Ticking the boxes
If social media engagements or efforts are about just ticking the boxes (to have three-to-four posts a week to show clients that we’ve done something), then we’re missing the point. If our objective with social media is just to have posts or tweets, regardless of how vanilla and uninteresting they are, great opportunities are being missed. Just because we promote or sponsor a tweet or a post, that doesn’t make the message or content relevant; it just means that we paid money to show people content that they don’t care about. That doesn’t sound like a good investment at all.
Successful digital campaigns are just that: campaigns. Many look at those that ran in specific periods or timeframes as benchmarks or hold them up as holy grails of social media but the pre- and post-campaign periods are filled with average and uninspiring content. That’s ticking the boxes, too.
While content calendars are a great way to plan, these are also usually just ticks. They are predetermined, preapproved and, essentially, ‘pre-boring’. Are they enabling great brand presence or stifling it? Are they being used correctly and to their full potential? Do we really need to post every other day or every single day? If so, why? What are we trying to achieve? Is there a real plan behind posting so many posts that no one reads or engages with? What is the purpose?
Added to that, organic posts are as loud as people who are mute. If it’s not sponsored, it doesn’t exist. So, if you are going to put money behind your posts, make sure it’s worth the money.
Going back to fundamentals
We need to remember what social is about. First, it’s not about brands but if the brand does get noticed, then great —you’re doing something worth noticing, so continue or improve on it. Secondly, no one really cares that your brand is available on social media or if you post at all. The one time that they do is when they want to vent or, in the very rare but possible occasion, they love your brand so much that they want and expect to hear from you. An example of these are usually sporting or highly informative pages that provide value.
Social media wasn’t invented for brands; it was for people (who have feelings and think) to connect, be connected, to find things, to be shown things and to share those things. The key word here is “connect”, and connecting is about emotions. On social media, people search not necessarily for information but for emotions; they’re looking for feelings and opportunities to feel or make others feel something. So how and what are you as a brand doing to make people feel?
Bogosi 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 a committee member of AMASA, an Advisory Council member at Vega, and also does speaker management at TEDxJohannesburg. He is currently a strategic planner at McCann WorldGroup Johannesburg.
“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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by Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) Find out how Gyro CEO and CCO, Christoph Becker, and his network are transforming perceptions of B2B advertising.
When I tell Becker I see Gyro as “the B2B agency that doesn’t behave like a B2B agency”, he disagrees. “We’re the B2B agency that declared B2B dead,” he says.
Becker is good at statements like this. He is tall and imposing, with the longish hair and dark clothing of a rock star who majored in philosophy. He did studied Bauhaus and has a usefully exotic mixture of influences: born in Germany, he was brought up in Madrid and entered the agency world there. Later, he ran Latin America for Bozell — which was subsequently bought by FCB — while based in Mexico City, a place he clearly loved. He ended up as chairman of FCB’s New York office, but the experience left him disenchanted with large, conventional networks.
“Out of step with today’s reality”
“They are out of step with today’s reality. It was very difficult for me to sit in front of a client and say that 360-degree marketing exists, because it’s an invention. In fact, it just means you have 360 friends who need money.” Later he observes: “In business now, it’s not what you’re doing that’s important — it’s why.”
Becker followed this rule when he helped to build Gyro 10 years ago. “The idea was to create a culture first, then the positioning of the agency.”
The culture is one of collaboration. “No creative apartheid here” is one of Gyro’s mantras — all the disciplines sit at the same table from the start, along with the client. The process of building a campaign is not the 360-degree approach of ticking boxes but more like curating the best ideas, no matter where they emerge. Similarly, all of Gyro’s 16 offices around the world are working towards the same bottom line — they’re not in competition with one another. Gyro calls this approach UNO.
The agency is big on missions. Another reflects the theory that, in a world where the border between work and home has become porous, there’s no point in trafficking purely commercial messages. What you have to do is appeal to individuals, or “ignite emotions in business minds”.
Human relevance in business
So, after the culture, what about the positioning?
Gyro, explains Becker, is pioneering a space he calls “business to people”. He says the idea was inspired by technology companies, which often set out to revolutionise the way we live — and work. “There has to be a way of communicating that the business agenda is connected to a higher purpose. For that you need to be extremely creative, but also very business-savvy. And that combination is what we’re trying to crack.”
His shorthand for this is “human relevance in business”. One his favourite recent campaigns, from Gyro in San Francisco, was for HP’s education solutions. Although its target was schools, its central idea was the transformation of education, with a new focus on individual creativity, or “unstandardised learning”.
Similarly, from the Paris agency, a paper product was the inspiration for a heart-breaking film featuring a cute robot. This is not business advertising as we used to know it.
“Business is as sexy as music”
“If you think back, ‘business’ used to be an off-putting word, a bit dusty. These days, business is as sexy as music,” Becker says. The number of graduates who’d rather launch a startup than join a corporation seems to back this up. “Eighty percent of people I hire at Gyro, when I ask them their dream, they say, ‘To have my own business’. If you think about business as a creative process, then you have a completely different conversation.”
Young people naturally make that connection, he points out. “One of the first thing kids learn to today is to sell their image on the internet, so they’re salespeople from day one. Steve Jobs is their rock star. The most-influential business people on the planet are wearing sneakers. There’s a convergence now between business, power and creativity.”
Which is why, he adds, many people who come to work at Gyro have an entrepreneurial DNA. They are also, like him, frustrated with the mainstream advertising system. “Here they have an environment where they feel it’s safe to innovate.”
All the offices around the world follow the same template — a single open plan space, with light-enhancing white walls — and staff is encouraged to change places every six months. “We live in a world of constant change, so you need to be adaptable.”
Size not as important as resources
As a business, Gyro is evolving: in July 2016 it was acquired by Dentsu Aegis, although it retains its unique personality. “We’re accelerating their agenda, and they’re accelerating ours. Dentsu has become one of the most-innovation-driven networks — they buy leading technological and avant-garde companies. Gyro had the content very well-defined, but the context wasn’t so strong — we didn’t have the depth of technology and data which we have now, thanks to Dentsu.”
Size is not as important as resources, he adds. “It’s like being a kid walking into a room full of toys. Unlike the other big networks, Dentsu Aegis is an open collaborative system, so we have immediate access to any of their companies. And, as you know, collaboration is the essence of how we work.”
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki)The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) takes us back to a time when the Windhoek Beer brewery had to cease production because the quality ingredients it needed were unavailable. A tongue-in-cheek vignette, directed by Marc Sidelsky of Bouffant, pays homage to the era and the spirit of this brand.
This new TVC for Windhoek Beer hits the nail on the head once again as it takes beer drinkers back in time while reminding us that the beer is brewed strictly according to the Reinheitsgebot, and that there is never any deviation from this tradition.
Reinheitsgebot. The first time I heard that word was when I was introduced to a beer brand called Windhoek Lager. Now, for those of you who don’t know beer([does anybody not know beer?), the Reinheitsgebot is a group of German laws that dictate the purity of beer. Over 500 years old, these strict rules dictate what can — or cannot — go into beer for said beer to have a guarantee of quality. This set of laws is, according the German Brewer’s Association, the oldest consumer protection act in the world.
After being told the story of the Reinheitsgebot and learning more about Windhoek Lager and the brand’s love of pure beer, I’ve created a strong mental association between the beer brand and this unique concept of purity. So much so that I can’t think of Windhoek Lager without thinking about the Reinheitsgebot. Windhoek’s brand consistency has had a lot to do with this, as has the brands marketing which has consistently, and cleverly, promoted this message over a long period of time. Remember the “Pure Beer Society”, and “What are you doing Dave? Keep it real” ads?
The mini-movie is set in a suitably Namibian landscape: a desolate brewery in the dry and deserted Namibian outback. The title appears, in suitably olde worlde style: “Based on Real Events — 1930s”. The music: a Spanish flamenco piece that evokes a sense of stillness and siesta.
“Wait,” the narrator says. There follow a few scenes of factory workers doing just that — filling in time while waiting. One is playing tiddlywinks with bottle caps; another tricks a workmate into thinking he has squeaky shoes by making noises over the intercom; three men share a book called “In Search of Lost Time”. The narrator continues: “Wait… That’s what we did, when we couldn’t get our quality ingredients: we stopped brewing, and waited.”
The actors are all dressed as one would expect for people from the era, with peaky caps or trilbies, in shirtsleeves, suspenders and ties.
Two of them are playing chess on a makeshift board painted on the factory floor, with bottles decorated to denote the chess pieces. This scene cuts to a man sticking bottle caps on the wall and, when the scene cuts to the wide shot, we see he has been creating a mural behind the chess players of a man holding a beer glass aloft in a toast.
A distant truck-horn may be heard, and all the workers turn to look. The narrator says, “Until … we could.”
This signals a change in the workers’ mood and the pace of the editing, as the factory swings into full force. The trucks are offloaded, and the hops and barley are seen being fed into the stills. The music becomes a more-modern rocking tune, to go with the montage of steaming stills, beautiful golden brews being poured into gleaming green bottles, crates being loaded onto trucks and the workers all smiling and lining up for a group photo in front of the brewery.
The narration concludes with, “Here’s to a 100% pure beer. Here’s to never compromising. Not back then, not ever.”
The final packshot shows the three brews that Windhoek Breweries now produces: lager, draught and light. The text reads: “Don’t compromise. Choose 100% pure beer.”
If you go to the Windhoek Beer website, you’ll see that the brand has made a lot of changes over the years. For 90 years the beer, renowned for its purity, was brewed at the Felsenkellar (Cellar of Rock), on the corner of Sam Nujoma and Tal Street in Windhoek’s business district. But, in 1986, a new brewery, with a capacity of capacity of over 2.2m hectolitres per year, was completed just outside of Windhoek. Innovation was at the core of this move, as the plant sports a hybrid electricity system (solar and diesel), and harnesses water-saving initiatives. More recently, the brand has started growing its own barley to become sustainable and less dependent on imports.
But, as the brand modernises, it makes sense that Windhoek Lager remains as obsessive about the purity of its brew as it always has been. This is what sets it apart from other players in the market — it is at once the brand’s promise and differentiator. As Sven Thieme, the chairman of Namibia Breweries, writes: “It is always hard to make the changes, but the single most-important element remains constant — we will always brew our beer according to the Reinheitsgebot and it will always be crafted with the greatest care and dedication.”
Cheers to Windhoek Lager and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) for an uncompromisingly good ad that supports an uncompromisingly great brand.
Credits
Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town)
Production company: Bouffant
Director: Marc Sidelsky
Executive producer: Peter Carr
Producer: Chanelle Critchfield
Creative head: Andrew Lang
Creative director: Kate Royce
Art director: Robert Prinsloo
Copywriter: Kate Royce
Producer: Lauren Trevelyan
Business unit director: Nicola Davenport
Senior account manager: Michaela Sheinbar
Ad 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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by Christopher Schilperoort (@BoyatSkills) You soon realise, when you start in client service in the creative industry, that you aren’t the head of the arrow striking the target, piercing through canvas and embedding itself in the board; that role belongs to the art directors, designers and copywriters. Neither are you the bow, aiming the arrow in the right direction and experiencing the satisfying punch of impact; those are the strategists. Which leaves you wondering where you fit into the ‘machine’.
Having the passionate desire to make great work is a marvellous high-five to yourself, but knowing where you fit is even better. I recently read The Art of Client Service by Robert Solomon. The author, a client-service man himself, serves up 51 chapters of tips that he believes all marketing professionals should know. I will expand on the four I found most useful.
Achieving the next level
Client service is a career that comes with its fair share of minefields, from people to technological and timing issues. We must cultivate the ability to navigate these while maintaining a mindset that allows us to work and grow as best as possible.
I have discovered that having an absent ego and a willingness to admit what you don’t know are key. I have also learned to be open to the advice of others and to separate criticism from feedback. I have been fortunate enough to work directly with industry “godfathers” and up-and-coming creative disruptors, who dispensed insight and sound advice. As Baz Luhrmann says, “Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth”.
Respect what it takes to do great creative
Improve, not approve. This is a critical learning curve for a new client service person. As much as they are representatives of the client at the agency, they are by no means on the other team. Adding to the value of the process, while maintaining a relationship with the creative team and client, is the name of the game.
Understand what it takes to come up with creative ideas and share them publicly… it means exposing a significant part of yourself. Understand that nerves are sensitive and hairs are raised. I have discovered that client service needs to be able to agree, disagree and then still believe in the idea and sell it, even if it’s not their first choice or personally recommended selection. This allows the creative team to thrive and the work to take shape in a positive environment.
Your creative team is like an orchid — nurture it, support it, give it the right amount of praise and it will bloom. Without this nourishment, the results will not be as spectacular as they could have been. Respect the blossom.
Never forget it’s business
The marketing world is full of opportunities to have a drink… or two… or 10. The nature of the marketing industry means that there are many occasions to entertain clients at dinners or lunches and attend extravagant agency award and yearend parties. Knowing your personal limits is a major learning curve.
Most people in this industry can tell a story or two of themselves or a colleague who overshot the mark once or twice. There’s the one about the client/agency relationship that was very, very ‘close’… rivalling the hijinks shown on e.tv around midnight on a Saturday. Or the agency party that ended with everyone getting down to just their jocks. Never get down to just your underwear.
Ask: “What do my colleagues need to create great marketing? Then deliver it”
Providing a detailed briefing document and creating the ideal timing plan, with all the needed lead times to facilitate great creative work, all score A+ when it comes to the successful completion of a job. However, there is more to this than just documents.
As mentioned earlier, if I hadn’t posed the question when I started my journey, I would not have received the answer…. which is “be a nice person”.
Providing the perfect environment for creative work to blossom is half the battle won but, if you aren’t willing to understand or support the process, it’s unlikely your result will be great. If your team is staying over the weekend to finish off a presentation for Monday, then be present to assist. Step up and help with the printing proofing and providing food, if needed. If there’s an urgent deadline that needs to be met and you may assist by personally taking the package/boards… grab your keys.
Solomon says that neither the clarity of a brief nor the timing plan is as appreciated by your creative generators as the late night, lukewarm Szechuan noodles. The support needed by your team is not just in your documented output; it’s also in the mental encouragement that a cup of coffee or noodles may provide. Be the nice guy or gal.
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Learning and understanding the creative process takes time, and the four points I have chosen from Solomon’s book have helped me to understand that process.
Christopher Schilperoort (@BoyatSkills) is a BA graduate from Stellenbosch University, with a post-graduate diploma in marketing and advertising from the Red & Yellow School. He started his career honing his skills at the King James Group’s Johannesburg offering, King James II, before moving over to Xfacta – a bespoke strategic design, brand and concept agency — where he is now client service director. He served on the board of the Brand Council of South Africa in 2016.
“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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Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!
Consol and Grey preserve memories
Real-life DebtBusters with Duke and Carbon Films
Shazam launches Azzaro Wanted in South Africa
Creating connections
Consol Glass’s recent campaigns have aimed constantly to change the perception of the company as a “vessel brand” and position it as a recognisable part of the consumer’s everyday lifestyle where the “best things come in glass”. Its latest campaign successfully delivers on that positioning.
https://youtu.be/4hDMLMcpn40
Consol wanted to find a way to create an emotional connection with consumers and convince them that glass is special. To achieve this, it decided not to limit glass to its ordinary uses but instead to take viewers on a journey of magic, intrigue and imagination and capture the essence of glass in a way that would grab attention and draw in viewers.
The new Consol ad, conceptualised by Grey Advertising, tells the charming story of a six-year old girl and her grandmother, with Consol’s iconic preserve jar as the hero. While the young girl is playing in the park, she purposefully empties her Consol preserve jar of its treats, taking her now-empty jar with her through the park, holding it to capture the sounds of the park — from the flicker of a playing card on bicycle spokes to the infectious laughing of children on swings and merry-go-rounds. By doing so, she fills her jar with memories and is able to share the highlights of her outing with her blind grandmother, who awaits her granddaughter’s return.
Directed by Dean Blumberg from Bouffant films, the ad introduces the idea of the memories, precious moments and good feelings that Consol preserves. The brand’s message is: “The best things come in glass”, because only glass can store precious things while protecting and preserving them — whatever is stored in glass will not be contaminated because glass contains no chemicals and is completely inert.
While the mother-grundies out there will surely complain about how unsafe it is to have a child running aound the park with a glass jar, Consol did consider the safety aspect of the advert and tested it extensively with parents. The overwhelming majority loved the story and understood that Consol’s intention is not that the ad be taken literally but to allow consumers to suspend reality for a few seconds.
Debt-counselling business DebtBusters’ new TVC portrays the burden of debt and the anxiety it invokes in people by looking at real stories of real people and how they have been affected by debt.
https://youtu.be/ClbSdtsWxiM
Launched this month, the hard-hitting campaign is a call for South Africans to get debt under control, demonstrating how easy it is to fall into debt — but also that it is possible to take control of the situation and get back on track.
Ian Wason, CEO of DebtBusters, says South Africans are currently more cash-strapped than ever, with statistics from the National Credit Regulator showing that up to 10m South Africans are severely in arrears on their debt and would greatly benefit from debt counseling. “According to a World Bank report in 2015, we live in the most-indebted country on the planet. And it doesn’t look like things are going to turn around any time soon. Millions of people are at the end of their rope. Enough is enough. As a nation, we are drowning in debt.”
Against this backdrop, Cape-based ad agency Duke conceptualised the ad, which was produced by Carbon Film and portrays the burden of debt and the anxiety it invokes in people. It shows that everyone, to some extent, suffers from debt, and that many people have debt that they hide from others; however, those that are smart about it can manage it.
“It is very easy to get into debt on your own, but almost impossible to get out of debt on your own. We are reaching out to South Africans to help them do something before it gets out of control. We want people to know that there is a way out; that we are here to help.”
Shazam, one of the world’s most-popular apps with more than 1bn downloads, joined forces with fragrance brand, Azzaro, to launch “Wanted”, a new fragrance for men, in South Africa this weekend.
The first-ever Shazamable scent experience launched using Shazam’s beacon technology in Edgars Sandton City and Mall of Africa, where shoppers with Bluetooth and the Shazam app simply tapped the button when the new fragrance was sprayed in the air and the phone automatically identified the fragrance and offered them the opportunity to win prizes.
Hannes Prinsloo, country representative for Shazam, says, “Watching the Shazam application identify a track as seamlessly as it does still feels like magic. Wanting to Shazam something other than music, for instance a taste or a smell, is something that most people around the world have thought at some time or another but obviously that technology hasn’t been developed yet — although this campaign gives us a glimpse.”
Says Bronwen Olivier, group media manager for the Azzaro Brand, says, “This is an exciting collaboration between two powerful brands. The story of Azzaro ‘Wanted’ is the story of a ‘Wanted’ man. He takes chances, is rebellious and lives life as he pleases. It is with this spirit that we have challenged Shazam to take their sensory experiment to an exciting new encounter.”
Shelf 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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by Marguerite de Villiers. As marketers, we sometimes underestimate the power of sound. It is so much more than background noise; it is rhythm and rhyme with reason, melodic moments that trigger memories, soundtracks to shared experiences, and a sonic space we live in.
Soundscapes
We live in a world of sound. We are alerted by alarm clocks, car alarms, police sirens. Our mood is influenced by soothing sounds of rainfall, eerie background music in scary movies, aggravating sounds of people chewing or clicking pens incessantly. Our memories are invoked by Christmas carols, love songs, nursery rhymes. We live in a realm of sound that we experience differently from one another. We construct sounds; imagine them; experience them; and process them. We create our own soundscapes.
Culturally, oral tradition depends on memory: it enables people to recall and remember stories, events and information. Sound here is a device used to store and recover verbal data. Social scientists are able to trace thought patterns, reasoning frameworks, information transfer systems, and knowledge-preservation techniques by looking more closely at a community’s oral traditions — its music, storytelling, and verbal teachings.
The challenge for us as marketers is to construct soundscapes that are relevant to the consumer’s sociocultural contexts. Here are some examples.
1. Fuelling associations in a flash
Several are harnessing the excitement and unexpectedness of flash mobs. There’s been several, and they’re well-documented on YouTube.
Locally, an Engen garage in Cape Town surprised motorists with a flashmob performance of a popular local song, Burn Out by Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse. It used, to its advantage, the already-favourable associations people have with this song to create a shared experience of sight, sound and performance.
2. Effective echoes
Have you ever heard that syncopated rhythm of pop, pop, pause and been able to identify it as the unmuffled rumblings of a Harley Davidson? It is a trademark sound that we immediately associate with a brand before we even see it. It triggers a specific association and evokes particular responses when we hear it.
Marketers sometimes refer to this effect as the ‘sonic boom’ — the ability to connect with a consumer through the use of sound. The Sound of Porsche made use of this sonic boom in its innovative sound-driven campaign that allowed consumers to interact with the brand in a new way.
3. Evoking emotions and invoking ideas
Music is often used as a tool to evoke emotional responses, or to invoke physical reactions. On a quiet night, a restaurant might play slow music to relax consumers and encourage them to extend their consumption. During a busy shopping time, some stores play up-tempo music to create a chain reaction of sped-up purchases, shortened queues, and increased volumes of shoppers.
https://youtu.be/MHHjP7XrBq0
For many South Africans, Johnny Clegg’s music is the soundtrack to our lives. We are instilled with a sense of pride when Impi echoes in the rugby stadium; we tear up when we hear Great Heart and are reminded of the movie Jock of the Bushveld; we crave a beer when we hear Osiyeza (The Crossing), and we mourn our troubled past when we hear Asimbonanga — a song written for Nelson Mandela while he was in prison. Woolworths drew on this shared musical experience in what was meant to be part of its Operation Smile Christmas Campaign, but changed into a tribute to Madiba after his passing. This provoked deep-rooted memories and emotions, and further entrenched a connection between consumers and the Woolworths brand.
Marguerite de Villiers is an anthropologist at strategic marketing consultancy, Added Value.
“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.
— Sign up now for the MarkLives email newsletter every Monday and Thursday, now including headlines from the Ramify.biz company newsroom service!
Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) is the editorial director of the Epica Awards (@EpicaAwards), the only global creative prize judged by the specialist press. In this series of articles called Design Plus, Epica highlights creativity in the design field.
