by Sizakele Marutlulle. Images aren’t neutral. They are potent, imbued with energy and intention to affect identity and alter behaviour. To think that in 2007 I wrote my MA thesis on this very topic, the politics of representation, and here we are, a decade and a bit later, and brands in the hands of unconscious custodians continue to delight and offend in equal measure.
Offending brands are only changing tack because they’ve been caught, not because, like the biblical Saul, they’ve found their conversion on the marketing ‘road to Damascus’ equivalent. What we’re being fed by Clicks, Unilever, Quaker Oats and others is done to stamp out the flames in the street, to protect brick and mortar, not to quell the fires raging in the hearts of the offended. The only way to ensure this change lasts is for all parties in the creative process to be held accountable, clients and creative partners alike. However, there’s no doubt that the big big buck does stop with the brand owner — who, at times (I know this from practice), may be deaf to the input of conscious creative partners.
Heart-warming and frustrating
It’s been heart-warming to see Unilever discontinue skin lightening cream in India (June 2020), Quaker Oats change Aunt Jemima branding (June 2020) and the band, Lady Antebellum, also undergo a name change (June 2020) — and frustrating when it then went on to display entitlement and disrespect (August 2020) against a black artist who’s been using by the same stage name for 20 years already. In April 2017, Pepsi peddled a reality star-turned-model as a #BlackLivesMatter movement ambassador, discounting her privilege and total misfit, and then said sorry. Gucci didn’t miss the party with its blackface ad and hasty faux apology (February 2019). D&G mocking Chinese culture demonstrated its short-sightedness as the Chinese consumer is a key contributor to its bottom line (December 2018). Chanel was also not immune to such bigotry (July 2017), and a sore point in South Africa to this day still is H&M’s monkey in the hood assault (November 2018).
We’ve also witnessed a plethora of big brands that ‘steal’ the creative IP of black creatives and, when caught, feign surprise or claim creative coincidence (October 2017).
I believe that the reckless appropriation of black culture deserves more than outrage from those consumers who’re black. Perhaps it’s time we stopped keeping count and started raging without our spending power.
All of this — and more — brings to mind the mighty James Baldwin who (speaking of America), said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one’s work.” Ditto for South Africa. Exhausting as it can be to fight the fight on every corner, the intersectionality of the black person’s oppression leaves us no alternative but to lug fire trucks on our backs.
Interventions worth exploring
So, as somone who dislikes the practice of admiring or describing problems ad infinitum, I offer the following as interventions worth exploring:
When a brand falters, the CEO must march to the front — the CEO, not PR, must lead the mea culpa journey
We have two ears for a reason:Don’t grand-stand or defend — listen more and speak less
Don’t throw your team under the bus:As CEO/exec, don’t fire the junior — fix the organisational culture
Discrimination has deep roots:The tendency for rogue brands to offend and then hire a diversity officer is a plaster on a gangrenous wound. These offences (not mistakes, as others call them) aren’t about (once-off) ‘diversity training ‘; they require (life-long) excavation and conscientisation. For example, Clicks has removed the offensive haircare product from its shelves yet still sells the carcinogenic Johnson & Johnson talc powder, which disproportionately affects more black females as they tend to be more-frequent adult users.
Don’t just paint a house with a weak foundation:Don’t apply PR-able amendments — bring about lasting changes, even if this means stopping the train, to truly look into your organisation and bias-test every node of your business (eg recruitment and reward practices, procurement, supply chain, board appointments etc)
Quick fixes are twice the trouble: Don’t do the easy fixes (R10 000 donation of sanitary towels, a cheque to an impoverished school etc) — unlock the core of discrimination and bias that’s built into your business
We lead how we are: This is a time for ethical leadership — your personal values shine through your business
Serve humans: After all, we’re consumers some of the times and are humans all of the time — stop selling (to consumers) and start serving (humans)
What’s your purpose? Articulate and/or review your brand’s purpose — if your guiding light and North Star is devoid of substance and social impact, then go back to the drawing board
Don’t be cheap; be sincere: Diversity isn’t a tag on to HR’s role — find and invest in specialists to craft an informed and enlightened pathway to your business sustainability and success
Corporate citizenship is more than just 67 Blankets for Mandela Day and signing checks to support social causes — it’s about ensuring that your enterprise pivots on consciousness every moment, especially when no one’s watching
The big bang: For the listed companies in SA, stock exchanges could create an Ethics Exchange and dock points from delinquent and harmful businesses/brands — don’t fine them but lower their BEE levels and limit chances of procuring from government (often the big spender in most territories) — only then will we see proper and true change
However outraged and offended we are, we limit our impact when we adopt violence as the official language to relay dismay and offence. Yes, it seeps from years of bottled frustration, but how does it get us to the mountaintop?
Ignorance is curable
SA has a glowing constitution, referenced by many across the world as something to learn from. A cornerstone of this is the premise that SA belongs to all who live in it. It gives credence to Nelson Mandela who said, among many other wisdoms, “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.” Brand leaders and owners aren’t exempt from this duty of not causing offence or harm; they must be the standard-bearers and, when they default to opportunistic capitalism, let the spirit of the constitution nudge them back to life.
Thankfully, ignorance is curable. Let’s all educate ourselves and each other.
by Herman Manson. What does it take for the media industry to innovate?
For years, high-profile media brands kept falling out of circulation as business models became unsustainable (cost of paper, the collapse of the post office, limited distributor options, Google, Facebook, juniorisation of the newsroom, the rise of clickbait… the list goes on). It was sad to watch — the redundancies, the hollowing out — but you could look around and still see magazines and newspapers published, journalism practised and truths exposed. Most journos also instinctively knew that, at some point, the big guns in South Africa’s media world were going to shrug and hit the nuclear option; top management would keep loading costs onto their titles, pushing margins as opposed to reinvesting, and cutting, always cutting, mostly people. Then, with the arrival of the covid-19 lockdown, we saw the departure of dozens of titles, some with long and storied histories. Bang went Caxton, Associated Media Publishing and a chunk of Media24’s print portfolio.
In 2020, all South African media brands should be treated as startups. If you’re not, you’re 1) already dead; 2) soon to be dead; and/or 3) working from a garage with no medical or pension and expected to feel grateful because your title wasn’t summarily closed down while your erstwhile employer ‘outsourced’ production to retrenched employees.
The real innovation is seemingly driven by newer players and entrepreneurs. Yet how did the industry arrive at this point? What are the key structural issues media companies face that impact on their ability to innovate and adapt? Let’s sum it up in three words for ya:
Lack of leadership
“The lack of success on the innovation front is due to a deficiency in the quality of leadership we have,” says Styli Charalambous, Daily Maverick publisher and CEO. “Successful innovation requires very specific ingredients and that starts with having the leaders who can recognise what they are, and make the tough calls to acquire or cultivate them. And, for an industry in decline, it’s hard to attract those kinds of leaders or have the awareness and opportunity to develop them.”
According to Charalambous, leaders will need to “develop their understanding that organisational design is critical for innovation and can only be driven by them”.
“I’ve also seen great media minds being smothered by groupthink, a herd mentality that severely impacts the ability to innovate, adapt and change,” comments Ivor Price, Food For Mzansi and Farmer’s Inside Track co-founder and editor-in-chief. “Many of these companies have been around for at least a century, and built up quite a bit of cash, brand value and muscle. Unfortunately, structurally speaking, it also comes with a lot of power that alienates many legacy media brands from their audiences. They aren’t set up to think beyond the boundaries they’ve built for themselves; they just aren’t as hungry as the new generation of media entrepreneurs currently flourishing.”
Siyabonga Africa, South Africa Media Innovation Program (SAMIP) program officer, also identifies a lack of organisational capacity in the form of shrinking newsrooms and the loss of institutional knowledge as part of the problem, as well as declining readership/audiences that lead to declining advertising revenue — “tied to this are revenue models that [are] predominantly tied to advertising and are thus more vulnerable to any disruptions,” he says.
Similarly, Patrick Palmi, JustPalm.com CEO, says he believes the problem isn’t really structural; mostly, it’s about mindsets. “Creativity is everywhere and everyone can innovate in any domain. However, it takes a different mindset to try new things that can potentially fail to find the one that finally works. As Thomas Edison once said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10 000 ways that won’t work.’ I believe we need a leadership mindset that encourages a culture of innovation and puts up the necessary funding to try new things.”
Investing in innovation
Anton Crone, the recently appointed editor of Getaway magazine which has just refreshed its look and is embracing a multiplatform strategy, also identifies legacy (companies and staff are set in their ways, struggling to break free of practices that have seen them through thus far but are now outdated), lack of diversity (failure to broaden the range of staff and skills to embrace the full gambit of modern media practices), and disempowered employees (innovation needs to filter down from the top to encourage employees to try new ideas, take risks and look ahead) as core areas stifling innovation.
“You often hear people talk about ‘failing fast’ but there’s much more to it in order to successfully innovate,” says Charalambous. “We need a clearly defined vision to know in which direction to experiment, and a methodology or framework to help learn and iterate through the process. Using product design thinking in approaching launching new products and revenue opportunities has helped us significantly improve the way we work with new projects. Some of the biggest strides we’ve made as an organisation is getting better at choosing areas to experiment in and how to approach them in ways that don’t break the bank. We are clear on what our key results are for each initiative before we go into them and that helps us measure our progress for each one.”
Africa believes media organisations need to examine their value proposition especially as it relates to the problem(s) they’re trying to solve for their audiences. “Creating and distributing content is no longer the most effective approach, given the diversity of media providers and the effect that social media platforms have had on the distribution of content and consumption habits of audiences.
“Media organisations with strong value propositions (such as unique content or information or a unique method with which they provide it) can differentiate themselves from their competition and potentially establish niches within their fields.”
“We think of ourselves as social entrepreneurs first,” says Price. “From the way we manage our newsroom to our revenue model, everything works differently from bigger setups. We’re also a ‘media-first’ news brand, and our journos are competent in the unique dynamics of, among others, live video, podcasting and much, much more.”
Innovating relationships
Price says Food For Mzansi, which was named Africa’s Best Digital News Startup at WAN-IFRA’s African Digital 2019 Media Awards and won three awards (including Best for Audience Engagement) at the 2020 edition, will increasingly explore options to connect its audience to its customers.
Daily Maverick has launched Daily Maverick 168, which takes the digital platform into print through a distribution model that sees a weekend newspaper distributed via Pick n Pay stores. The title is free to customers swiping their Pick n Pay Smart Shopper cards, with a cover price of R20 for everyone else. Other recent innovations include a documentary production arm, two podcasts and a host of new newsletters. Its live journalism team has put on 50 webinars since lockdown and started a book publishing arm, too.
According to Charalambous, innovation focus is centred on growing its audience reach and driving revenue, without compromising values or standards. He believes Daily Maverick 168 will be breaking even on a monthly basis within six months on a print run of 25 000 “but we’ll then make a push for bigger circulation which would change things up again. I expect the next 18 months will be investing in the growth of the title and seeing how quickly ad support comes back.”
He says media innovation requires the allocation of enough resources and support to innovation efforts: “The news industry had some very profitable years but got caught up by past successes and didn’t design organisations that nurture and incentivise innovation with adequate resources. Daily Maverick is still the challenger in this space but pretty soon we’ll be faced with the same paradox, so it’s important we make innovation part of the culture, with a framework to support it.”
Service mindset
“If service to your audience is one of your main values, and you have a well-defined, nuanced view of a viable audience, that is going to lead you to create real value for them, which they will reward with their time and attention,” says Kobus Louwrens, YehBaby Digital strategy director and Food For Mzansi co-founder. “The traditional news way of thinking comes at this from the opposite side: serving the news and the information and feeling the responsibility to push it out at people.
“A service mindset to your audience tends to make your thinking platform-agnostic, which is a great driver of innovation. You figure out ways of giving your audience what they trust you to provide and gain the capabilities to do that as you go. You go looking to meeting them where they are, instead of primarily trying to build or protect your favourite channels and platforms.”
~•~•~
Today, innovation gives media brands a shot at survival. This is where we are as an industry. How many will embrace a culture of innovation and collaboration, of empowering people to come up with solutions, of management buying into these, of valuing experience and service, and investing money into it?
Everything I know about the media industry suggests this is a tall order. And if lack of leadership — which many of those interviewed for this feature points to as the major barrier to innovation — persists, our media environment will continue giving way to new players embracing, and investing, in change.
by Carey Finn. Known as “Mr Goodvertising”, author and ex-adman Thomas Kolster speaks to us about his new book for brands, The Hero Trap. The Denmark-based creative behind the Goodvertising movement offers suggestions for how to avoid falling into the “hero trap” when working for the good of people and society.
Q5: First off, what is a “hero trap”?
Thomas Kolster: This is something I have observed from my first book, Goodvertising, through to my second book, The Hero Trap: Again, again and again, brands pitch themselves as these world-saving superheroes. There’s a lot more competition with all these brands screaming “we care” and, sorry for this analogy, but it does seem like the guy who kicks open the door to a bar and shouts “I’m the world’s best lover”; at some point, someone is going to find out that is not true. The same thing applies to brands that try to take the do-good throne, and stand on a pedestal and say they’re going to save the world. Obviously, it is different from market to market, but it’s an evolution from [making a] societal difference to where I argue we are heading in the book, which is towards a transformational difference. [This is about] what you can do in people’s lives, rather than just talking about all the good stuff you’re doing.
Q5: Why do so many brands fall into the trap? How can they avoid it?
TK: To be frank, I used to believe in the current approach to purpose myself, and probably ran myself into the hero trap. But I think a lot of it has to do with how the markets have evolved. Basically, today, you cannot go into the supermarket without it seeming a bit like heaven: every brand is pitching themselves as these Mother Teresas or Gandhis, or Nelson Mandelas. [As a result] the authenticity wears thin, and it becomes difficult to know who to trust. How do you really prove that you care?
A lot of brands have fallen into the trap of trying to be brand activists, to be more radical in their statements, which I think might be even more dangerous or difficult to live up to because, if you go out and say, “We are really strong believers in diversity,” it is so easy to criticise that because diversity and the demands from society to be diverse are moving goalposts.
So how can brands avoid the trap? What I found out [working on] the book was interesting, because I had to go up against my own earlier beliefs. Rather than a company pitching itself as the big agent of change, it should look to people as the agents of change. They can do this by asking one simple question: Who can you help people become? One of the companies that I think has done that really well is Discovery, and their purpose is to incentivise people to live healthier lives. This is a really clear North Star, which is much easier to deliver on.
Q5: Tell us how your book came to be — walk us through the process from the moment you committed to the project to the moment you saw it in published form.
TK: The interesting thing about this book was that, in some aspects, it found me. The book actually started with my own transformation, in a way. Each year I go on a retreat by myself for a couple of days, and [a few years ago] I was at a hotel in Spain, looking back at the past year, and the goals I wanted to achieve going forward. I realised how incredibly difficult it was to create the change that I wanted to see in my own life. And that’s when I started to think, hey wait, we are actually our own biggest barriers to change. How are we ever going to change society, if we cannot change our own behaviours?
This was the starting point, the moment that I started to question my previous thesis in goodvertising. I started working on models, looking to psychotherapy and coaching, because both disciplines are very goal-oriented, to find a formula that could help people on that change journey. Evidently, if a company is good at getting people to change, the company does become more meaningful — because it plays a meaningful role in people’s lives. I started working with brands and organisations, talking to a lot of leaders to understand and prove the thesis; I did some commissioned research which you can see in the book as well — it compares purposeful and transformational campaigns.
Q5: How can readers translate the ideas in your book into actual, concrete change?
TK: I see The Hero Trap as a tool. It has quite a few models that leaders in organisations can apply to create change. Using [the book’s path of] The Arrow, which asks four central questions — what, how, who and when — is a way to avoid the trap, and shape transformational promise. This is not a purpose, which is self-centric, but a promise about the change you can enable in people’s lives.
There’s another model in the book, too, called The Wheel of Transformability, which is about how power is changing, away from this mass production, mass marketing mindset that we’ve lived in for so many years. This is focused on how organisations can transform people into active participants [rather than recipients] across the marketing mix, with lots of benefits.
For me, it’s a tool, it’s a thesis, it’s an idea, and I do think that, if we can change ourselves, this is where we can change the world. What I’ve seen, and which the book demonstrates again and again from the leading cases to the commissioned studies, is that the organisations that ask this pivotal “Who can we help people become?” question are much better at building a business case. When you’re growing people, you’re essentially also growing the business.
Q5: If a brand could only onboard one suggestion from the book, what should it be?
TK: Everyone these days starts with “why”; this exercise makes you run into the hero trap. Rather, you should ask one simple question: Who can you help people become? By doing this, you turn people into the heroes of their own lives.
Carey Finn is a contributing writer to MarkLives. Q5 hones in on strategic insights, analysis and data through inspiring interviews with professionals in diverse fields.
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by Charlie Stewart. The latest social media takedown documentary launched on Netflix in early September 2020 and should be a must-watch for everyone in the marketing sector.
A pithy indictment of the tech industry’s failings, Jeff Orlowski’s The Social Dilemma opens with a quote from Greek tragedian, Sophocles: “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” The words set the scene for a compelling 90 minutes of interviews and cautionary commentary from the people who helped build social media.
Days of our lives
While the takeout is obvious — that, like Mary Shelley’s story of Frankenstein’s monster, social platforms have evolved far beyond their intended purpose — the manner in which the documentary intersperses its interviews with scenes of a fictional family dealing with the daily impact of social makes for fascinating viewing.
Break out the popcorn and open a bottle, peeps. This really is the days of our lives.
Justin Rosenstein, a former Facebook engineer who created the perfidious “like” button, expresses his horror at the way his invention — which was designed to be a tool for spreading “positivity and love” — has become a behavioural tracking device. He notes that fake news spreads six times faster than real news.
A former design ethicist at Google, Tristan Harris, speaks to the dilemma at the heart of it: social media simultaneously offers us utopia and dystopia. While it can connect families, match organ donors with those needing transplants and raise money for the local church restoration project, it also brings out the worst in society.
Baader-Meinhof
The film highlights how social media’s echo chamber has used the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (where something you’d never previously noticed is suddenly all around you). It’s a breeding ground for the propagation of myths and radicalisation.
Speaking to the spread of political disinformation, Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, makes the rather frightening observation that, far from hacking Facebook, Russia simply used the platform and the tools it offered to destabilise the last US election.
One of the documentary’s hallmarks is the manner in which it simplifies digital jargon to present an accessible picture of how social algorithms work.
While we’re all aware of the tradeoff we make each time we log into Facebook or Google, the film unpacks the extent of it, and it goes way beyond being the recipient of targeted ads for products we’ve just looked at, too.
“Attention extraction”
Design features and algorithms are configured to manipulate our behaviour. Infinite scrolling and push notifications create a dependency and addiction, helping deliver what one interviewee called “attention extraction” — namely the way in which the platforms keep us browsing and clicking for as long as possible so the quantity of data harvest is maximised. Data that, of course, is then sold to the highest bidder.
To land the point, director Jeff Orlowski creates a scene in the fictional family’s life where Ben, the teenage son, is manipulated by a bunch of humanised AIs. Alert to his changing mood, these AIs tweak the content that’s pushed into his timeline, feeding him news, friends’ updates and ‘sponsored’ stories that keep drawing him back to his phone and make him click. And each click, of course, means revenue.
One interviewee, Prof Shoshana Zuboff, draws a parallel between the futures market for oil and pork bellies and the way our data is gathered, packaged and sold in what she terms as “human futures”. It’s daunting to think that we’re no different to an agricultural product.
It’s highly unlikely that The Social Dilemma will change consumer behaviour; we’ve been down this path all too often and yet we continue to sign away our privacy and data with nary a thought. I hope, though, that the message might land with more publishers.
A response
The journey that MarkLives is on — to move from web to email — is in large part a response to the impact of social media. Yes, social has impacted publishers’ revenue, forcing them to seek other ways of monetising their content, but it goes further than this. As Ben’s family interactions demonstrate, social echo chambers are eroding the very fabric of life.
If other publishers are brave enough to emulate what’s happening here on MarkLives, we might starve the social monsters of data and see them revert to their original purpose. Let’s not forget, after all, that until 2018 Google used to have the phrase “do no evil” in its corporate code of conduct.
Charlie Stewart is co-founder and CEO of Rogerwilco, an independent digital agency. Clicks ‘n Tricks looks at how brands are using digital channels to engage their customers.
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by Erna George. Social distancing requirements make connecting with others more challenging and marketing, too, requires more consideration in terms of context and approach. No longer do you have the warmth or the interconnectivity of face-to-face, such as popping over to a colleague’s desk to get input and/or to influence.
Marketers will now, more than ever, need to employ the full array of language (words, visuals, tone, frameworks and others) to make an impact and to work effectively. Much of this has always been important but now, as we live in more bubbles, it means the difference between shifting the dial positively or negatively.
Be succinct
The first lesson is one that I hope we’ll remember when we are back in corridors of offices or boardrooms: be succinct.
Being relegated to screens for what often feels like too many hours makes everyone less tolerant of or able to take in long stories. When that one slightly word-loving colleague starts on their explanation or presentation and spends just too long on a thought or a slide, suddenly your chair feels harder, your mind wanders and your ability to stay connected is that much tougher.
If your stories aren’t to the point and engaging in an environment where the screen stands before you and between you and others, you’ll be less effective. Even discussions in research have had to become more focused with only a few big questions — take lessons. Declutter the thinking and find the best way to tell the brand story.
While the screen as the medium has become more important than ever, distance grows, so the stories you tell need to be more expressive — with or without you. Screens are cold for us social beings and not everyone will make your meeting; the document must be simple so as to relay the meaning to the audience and the reader. You’ll need to get a picture of how to tell the story and put this framework together to lead people through it.
Frameworks
Think about using a framework or template that is easy on the eye; when thoughts are encapsulated in similar layouts, it’s easier to ‘read’. Like a busy picture frame interferes with how we see the photograph, a well-structured framework allows your messages to be clearly seen eg logo always top left, titles the same size etc. Include relevant pictures, graphs and tables and, of course, this means a few slides.
This doesn’t mean each slide is crammed with 23 sentences plus a table and a graph. Either start with the big “so what” or end with it and, if you can’t tell it simply, you’ve not cracked the problem or solution. Your language of words and visuals must be focused on fewer and bolder ideas. Make choices.
[Templates must never become a crutch. You must use the background and the sizing but tailored to fit and tell your story, which you must always consider. You still need to decide what meaning you will convey and, if the template doesn’t work, find another one, design an alternate or include supporting slides.]
Terminology
Marketing language matters internally and externally — the tone, relevance, medium and actual terminology:
Internally, different organisations use different marketing terminology or place different emphasis on these terms. Does everyone understand what actions deliver increased penetration v. enhanced relevance? Know the terminology and know how to explain it to others. Salience could mean nothing to non-marketers so be able to clarify it to rally agencies, sales teams, executives and more.
Brilliance at basics (such as brief writing and reverts) will be critical as the luxury of multiple face-to-face sessions with agencies isn’t yet always feasible. Work with your agencies to determine how best to share and work together. It’s tougher to convey tone and meaning across online tools, especially when bandwidth makes leaving the computer camera on an impossibility. Know what you’re chasing and be clear that the full team are chasing the same thing; clarity and universally understood terminology will go a long way. Of course, check that all are on the same page.
Being where consumers are at and speaking to them in language that matters most to them now is what will deliver the goods and win hearts back (if they’re lost). The screen is most at play here, too. While the panic of covid-19 has reduced, we’ve lost touchpoints such as events and even in-store time has been impacted. Understand what’s relevant to consumers and where they’re most comfortable and receptive to getting these.
Shifting needs
Occasions and needs have shifted and will continue to change; ensuring your messaging and placement keep up with this is critical. I’ve seen many agency presentations on driving engagement over screens, so ensure your agency is on top of the latest (music, visuals, best media/platforms and language that drives two-way conversations). Research, listen and stay up to date with the language of the day to tailor how to connect best with consumers in the right moments.
If screens are the way for now, we’ll need to tailor our language tools to this.
Be flexible and nimble but, above all, be focused with succinct and impactful messages internally and externally
Learn and ensure cohesiveness in the language tools of your company, agencies and consumers worlds to ensure effectiveness
Remember, for internal teams (marketers and beyond), to connect outside of screen time — a quick personal phone call or check in goes a long way to sustain relationships and drive collaboration.
Erna George is managing executive: at Pioneer Foods. Fair Exchange covers business relationships and partnerships in marketing and brandland.
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by Herman Manson. The Vodacom Group has confirmed that its integrated through-the-line marketing services business is out to pitch. The incumbent agency, Ogilvy South Africa, was appointed in 2015. The process is expected to be concluded by January 2021.
ACA-approved
“Vodacom Group has invited Advertising and Communications Association (ACA)-approved agencies, including its incumbent, to participate in a closed tender for its integrated through-the-line marketing services,” the company says in a statement released to MarkLives.
“Our agencies have done an outstanding job over the past five years and we are incredibly proud of how they have kept our brand relevant and built on our purpose-led organisation ambition,” says Abey Mokgwatsane, Vodacom managing executive for brand communications and sponsorships. “Our agency review process is an opportunity for us to reaffirm that we have fit-for-purpose, best-of-breed service providers that will challenge us and help us accelerate our brand into the digital future.”
Mokgwatsane joined Vodacom from Ogilvy South Africa, where he’d served as CEO, in 2017.
Previous agencies
In 2015, Vodacom moved its above-the-line account from Ireland/Davenport to join its digital and retail portfolios at Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. Ireland/Davenport won the Vodacom account from Draftfcb South Africa which had held the business for 16 years, in 2013; Ireland/Davenport rebranded to Collective ID in 2017 and was closed down by WWP in April this year, and Draftfcb SA became FCB South Africa in 2014 and then Nahana Communications Group in late 2019.
MTN is also (still) out to pitch, following a global request for proposals (RFP) at the end of 2019, in which major global agency networks were invited to participate. Negotiations between the company and four global networks are still ongoing.
by Herman Manson. Most South African creative agencies plan to put in place more flexible work-from-home (WFH) policies as the covid-related lockdown continues to ease and employees have the option of returning to their physical work spaces. WFH and remote working will no longer be the preserve of agency founders or senior executives. In fact, most agencies plan extensive changes to the work environment that will definitively impact how many of South Africa’s agency staff work.
“We are excited about how effective it’s been in general and we will definitely be putting in place a long-term, work-from-home structure from here on,” says Jarred Cinman, VMLY&R South Africa CEO. “The good news for those of us who fall on the side of a more flexible and remote workspace is that covid-19 has forced the issue and, overall, I think the model has proved that (with some tweaks) it’s workable — certainly for the ad industry.”
“What the pandemic has taught us is that people no longer need to be bound to an office to be productive,” agrees Lynn Madeley, Havas Southern Africa CEO, noting that her agency will no longer demand that people work from the office. Taking into account psychological factors (hello, people-loving extroverts) and practical factors such as limited connectivity or workspace in family homes, she foresees the adoption of a hybrid of WFH and working from the office, with the latter being 50% of what it looked like pre-lockdown for Havas itself.
“Would we have realised any of this without a global pandemic that made our office space pretty much obsolete?” asks Andy Sutcliffe, 34° CEO. “Absolutely not. Moving forward, we’ll ensure it’s a lesson we never forget.” The retail and shopper marketing agency is experimenting with new ways of working which don’t need a vast office. As such, it’s repurposed some of its space into a classic-car showroom. “We want to open up other areas of the office to like-minded businesses who are looking for commercially effective collaboration spaces,” he says.
The showroom came about because of a classic-car restoration garage situated next door to the 34° office. “[G]etting them to show off their craftmanship was a simple tradeoff and required few adjustments to the building to make it happen — and it sure makes our reception an interesting place. It also reminds us of the kind of work we should be creating: visible and memorable work that takes time to get right and stands the test of time,” Sutcliffe says.
Performance & productivity
With a couple of exceptions (think of an ECD ranting at the creative department at one large network agency), most agency execs report maintained or even enhanced performance and productivity from the current WFH-enforced experiment.
Buffer and AngelList State of Remote Report: What’s is the biggest benefit you see to working remotely?
“I would say that people seem to be working as hard — or harder — than ever, and that the line between ‘work’ and ‘private’ time has become very blurred,” says Cinman. “Those who are self-motivated and can work alone are living their best lives. For those who feed off the energy of groups or need to work very collaboratively, it’s slowed them down and been rather frustrating.” Still, in an internal poll conducted at VMLY&R asking employees if the agency should continue with remote working and flexi-time, 96.9% of staff voted in favour of retaining it.
Khuthala Gala Holten, Joe Public MD, points to the ‘gift of time’ in removing extensive travel time to and from the office or meetings, resulting in an overall increase in people’s wellbeing and ability to apply themselves better to work. “Our people have embraced WFH with immense discipline and, in most areas, increased enjoyment and productivity,” she says.
Buffer and AngelList State of Remote Report: What’s is your biggest struggle with working remotely?
The involuntary, large-scale nature of the lockdown forced most industries to allow employees to work from home. They had a limited time to prepare processes or people, meaning the hurdles, when they appeared, were stark.
One, notes Thabang Skwambane, FCB and Hellocomputer Johannesburg group MD, is disparities of privilege, especially visible in one of the most unequal societies in the world. “[This] has meant that a number of staff have struggled with connectivity and data costs, which we have had to find solutions [for] to enable them to be as productive as everyone else. Our greatest challenge has actually been the mental and emotional strain that the isolation and anxiety of the situation has caused,” he continues.
As the forced nature of the current WFH situation lessens, agencies have had time to digest lessons on the practical issues their people face, and to address these.
Remote Working in South Africa 2020, a study survey conducted by World Wide Worx on behalf of Cisco Systems, reports that while, working from home, “connectivity is as an important factor for enforcing synergy with colleagues, which also alleviates stress and anxiety for employees when they do feel part of an active team.”
The report notes that, for companies which were fully digitally transformed ahead of lockdown and remote working, productivity leaped to 70%, compared to the 29% increased productivity of companies which weren’t far along their digital transformation journey: “This starts to paint a picture of higher productivity when working remotely — when a digital transformation strategy has been fully rolled out. The productivity benefits of remote working are directly tied to digital transformation strategy, and not simply moving from a physical to digital working environment.”
At least one agency has already completely jettisoned its offices. The 15-year old, 60-people ad agency, Flow Communications, no longer expects its employees to be physically present at an office. “Teams who choose when and where they work create more innovative work and offer even better and more responsive client service,” says Tiffany Turkington-Palmer Flow Communications MD.
Culture and the office
Culture and creativity, and their apparent reliance on physical interaction, have always been held up as the primary reason agencies couldn’t adapt flexible work hours, never mind WFH opportunities.
For some agencies, culture is an office. For others, it’s the shared values and vision of their people. Of course, sometimes office environments (rather than offices) help shape and also frame those values and visions, and — as noted early on in this story — that kinda thing really can go either way.
“We have more accountability and productivity, less micromanagement and more opportunities for people to shine,” says Tara Turkington, Flow Communications CEO. “There is less hierarchy and democratisation of the workspace and people [are] more accessible. Remuneration [is] based on productivity, rather than presenteeism. We have had the opportunity to learn new skills and embrace learning opportunities.
“Yes, it’s our experience that this new way of working is not at all remote but rather closer, more accessible, more flexible and more agile — retaining our unique Flow culture while offering more. All in all, we wonder why we didn’t do this sooner.”
But human interaction remains important, as Faheem Chaudhry, M&C Saatchi Abel JHB partner: MD, points out, “The office isn’t a space for work; it’s a space to create community; and, when only engaging through screens, there is a sense of soul and heart missing that can only be present when in each other’s presence. We went in with a strong culture of people, strong bonds, that have meant people have looked after each other, but we all miss being together.”
“Now, admittedly, WFH has seriously impacted watercooler gossip sessions but, if you plan properly, you can still have a virtual coffee break with colleagues and catch up on gossip,” says Jacques Erasmus, Idea Foundry Marketing MD, an office-free agency operating across several continents. On a practical level, he says, WFH is about 1) managing time, 2) planning effectively not just what you need to get done but what other people in your team need to get done on a daily basis to ensure things don’t fall apart, and then 3) communicating/over-communicating.
“Our biggest realisation as an agency over lockdown? It’s people who make us who we are,” says Sutcliffe. “That’s why we made a decision to surround ourselves with people, and not just agency people — how boring. We have used our office as a meeting place for anyone who can contribute not just to our advertising product but, more importantly, to our mental health. We’ve made our office a space that welcomes anyone who can add to our culture. We’ve realised that our culture is about people and our job as an ad agency should be to create a space that attracts the most varied range of opinions and backgrounds in an effort to create truly representative, fresh work.”
Creativity
How will WFH impact an agency’s ability to deliver creative work? Chaudhry believes the importance of engaging one-on-one with friends, family, clients and work colleagues is crucial to a creative company’s culture.
“The pandemic has changed thinking by showing what can be done remotely and what can’t be, ultimately forcing us to learn the good, the bad and the ugly,” he says. “So, while we do believe it’s possible to do hot work and be productive remotely, we also believe an office space creates a culture and a way of working that can’t be achieved sitting in separate locations.”
“Selling our creative product online has more challenges vs being in a room where the energy is felt as we all become excited about the work,” says Gala Holten. “All these things have strengthened our relationships with our clients and partners as we interact daily. As creative people, naturally, physical interaction is always better than a remote one.”
“[H]ow we ideate and inspire each other will need new tools and thinking,” says Cinman. We have had some success with online collaboration tools but, again, some people’s style suits the real world. If circumstances force us to spend less time together over a long period, though, everyone will have to overcome their discomfort.”
Pitching
Pitching remotely was always a concern for agencies but also for some clients. Yet the process has generally been smooth-going and very efficient time-wise, says Johanna McDowell, Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) MD. Credentials are viewed electronically, chemistry sessions have been conducted virtually and pitches have happened over screens.
“Timekeeping has been much better and we can see that agencies have rehearsed more because of the nervousness of tech failures,” she says. “Clients have also adapted easily; many of them are so used to working this way if they are in their own global structures themselves and often have conducted meetings and presentations this way pre-covid.”
Some local clients have postponed decisions until they’ve been able to meet physically to test chemistry. This hasn’t been an issue for multinationals, though.
Asked about whether not pitching in person has affected the theatre sometimes associated with some of the process, McDowell says, “I don’t think virtual pitching has limited theatre at all; in some ways it has enhanced it. However, one of the biggest challenges has been in getting clients, in particular, to keep their cameras on during an agency presentation… Agencies and clients have to be able to ‘read the room’ or, in the case of virtual pitches, ‘read the screen’, and reactions are very important to keep the energy of a pitch at an optimum momentum. It is very difficult to present a concept while wearing a mask, which is why virtual pitching will stay with us for a while still, especially because social distancing is so important.”
Gillian Rightford, AdTherapy MD, says during a virtual pitch on which she was consulted, the client felt that it was still able to get a very good sense of the agency culture and each presentation was completely different — which showcased abilities and approaches excellently. “The format does limit theatre of the final presentation to a certain extent, and is a bit more straightforward, but that wasn’t actually a problem,” she notes.
“There’s no doubt that the facade of the agency, it’s office environment, gives a sense of who they are and their creative culture. But in the end, pitches are about partnering with the right people, and they can be anywhere,” says Erasmus. “[W]e are busy pitching for a digital insurance brand in Singapore and the client knows we are not in SG, but what fascinated them is that our core team work simultaneously with brands in Africa, Middle East and South East Asia…”
The future appears hybrid
While most SA agencies seem to be open to implementing broader WFH policies over the long term, Cinman expects some to return to the status quo as soon as they can. “It will just be too hard to convince leaders who are cut up with worry about people freeloading or losing cultural integrity to keep this going… Remote working used to be a big ‘perk’ offered by certain companies to attract a particular kind of person. It may stay largely in that bucket but with a few more notable companies in there.”
That said, “the truth is if I could give up 50-60% of our office space right now, I would,” he adds.
“TBWA\ leadership believes that working from home shouldn’t translate into ‘living at work’. It’s for this reason that TBWA\ is intending to gradually phase in the return of staff back to the office when it’s safe to do so,” affirms Neo Selwe, TBWA\ South Africa group HR director. “We will continue to allow flexibility where possible, guided by operational requirements.”
Dentsu Aegis Network South Africa plans to introduce agile working on a formal basis once staff return to work, says Koo Govender, DAN SA CEO. “A combination of working in the office and working from home, staggered office hours, core office hours and informal remote working for a set period of time are currently being explored among our teams and will be implemented once we have reached a decision on our way forward.
Joe Public United will be experimenting with a hybrid model that will embrace the advantages of both WFH or remote working for staff. “We will also be [using] the building space more efficiently [and] that will support our growth aspirations efficiently without abandoning our amazing space,” says Gala Holten. “We plan to change sections of the building into hot desks and mobile pods to accommodate a fluid percentage of the workforce at a time and opening space for business growth.”
Over at M&C Saatchi Abel, teams will now report to the office on Mondays and Fridays “as these are markers for the week and we feel we should start and end the week together; people are welcome to manage their [other work days] more flexibly,” says Chaudhry. “Ultimately, performance is based on output and not just hours, so being in the office doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘working time’. We’re also aware that, for some roles, working from home isn’t a possibility as they need to be in office, and that’s something we’ve also accounted for.”
Publicis Groupe Africa is also considering a more flexible WFH and office approach. The network’s currently investigating how the former will impact on the amount of office space it requires; how the role of physical office space will change in both function and form; how its policies and basis for contracting with staff needs to change, given that staff will be expected to create workable, productive environments within their homes; and what opportunities, previously dependent on been geography, are opening up, according to John Dixon, Publicis Groupe Africa CEO.
by Carey Finn. Anne Dearnaley, PHD Media South Africa CEO, shares insights into powering the South African ad industry through the covid-related crisis.
Q5: What is the biggest challenge facing South African brands and adland right now?
Anne Dearnaley: Consumer uncertainty and shifting perceptions are probably the biggest [ones]. With consumer uncertainty comes a change in consumer behaviour — a difficult discipline for brands to navigate during a global health pandemic. Brands are seeing habitual routines disrupted and, for marketers to navigate their way through the turmoil, they need to demonstrate agility and nimbleness in the everchanging landscape. For example, pivoting to ecommerce as consumers move from street to sofa.
However, in this new world of fast-changing consumer behaviour and with no previous history or data to compare, change is not necessarily a “one and done”. This is an ever-evolving, constant ebb and flow of changing consumer behaviour, driven largely by emotion, that does not necessarily follow a straight line of prediction. Brand marketers need to dial up on agility and constantly evaluate the landscape, and then make informed decisions on whether to react. More importantly, marketers should not make impulsive decisions that are detrimental to long-term value, such as shifting too much investment to bottom-of-the-funnel activities that can erode long-term brand benefit.
Q5: How can agencies best protect the brands they work on during times of crisis — and during this pandemic, specifically?
AD: It has never been truer that fortune favours the bold. Taking the right action at the right time, based on the right insight from the right data, will help brands weather the crisis — but brands must act with conviction. Those brands that take up the baton early and follow through will likely see long-term uplift that far exceeds expectations. Brands need to double down on creativity and innovation and make the leap to secure their place in this “new normal” world.
At times like this, it is important that decision-making is science-led — and that should include evidence-based marketing, too. Brands should consider adjusting bottom-of-the-funnel investment when sales or category levels are down and focus on creative-led and brand activities, even in a crisis. The greatest return comes from the long-term impact of advertising investment, and stronger brands make it harder for new emerging brands to enter the market.
Keeping the lights on for as long as possible is imperative, supported by studies which show that those brands [which] continue advertising in a downturn reap the rewards in the long run — not only financially but consumers will not forget those brands who maintained a share of voice during these difficult times. Brands should also consider pivoting to ecommerce where possible, as consumer trends shift more towards online.
Q5: You’ve said that innovation and creativity may flourish in challenging periods. Do you think that holds true here? Are we seeing evidence of it in South Africa?
AD: This definitely holds true in SA. With consumers more attentive than ever, there is a remarkable opportunity for brands to do something different. Arguably, it’s the perfect time for a creative renaissance. Brands can fall into the trap of producing work that is deemed relevant but perceived as the “sea of sameness”, referencing support to [lockdown] “stay at home” messaging. Brands need to focus on making themselves relevant and, given the humanitarian crisis, to be highly sensitive and communicate with conviction.
From marketing messaging and creative execution, to business operations and product innovation, the successful brands have redistributed their resources to promote unity at a time when we’re socially distanced.
Q5: You emphasise the importance of collaboration to carry the advertising and marketing industry through the pandemic. Why is that so crucial?
AD: As the public remains divided on the way in which the government [has handled] the pandemic and with anxiety around covid-19 still [being] high, collaboration is more important than ever. For the marketing and advertising industry, this means tighter partnerships moving towards iteration, co-creation and collaboration in the media-planning and -buying process.
At PHD, collaboration is one of our core values. We are obsessed with people, understanding what matters to them and connecting with them. From inception, we believe collaboration is knowing the strength of teams working together. This also translates to our proprietary platforms, Omni and Omni Studio, which enable collective intelligence of the PHD network.
Over 80% of our business’s success today can be attributed to our staff and the great clients we work with. Prior to covid-19, we prioritised a collaborative and inclusive culture for everyone to connect and now, more than ever, this has become vital to us. A productive, happy workforce not only enables employees to share knowledge and work more efficiently and effectively but leads to better team performance and overall productivity, even in a crisis. Needless to say, collaboration with our clients is of key importance to producing work that has game-changing effects on their businesses.
Q5: What does that kind of collaboration look like?
AD: Being a service industry can sometimes mean an odd power dynamic between media partners, agencies and brands, and partnerships are not always easy. However, given the unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, coupled with an ever-changing consumer landscape, opportunities to thrive in this crisis will be minimal unless all parties work together. Whether you’re a media owner, agency or brand, you need to accept and acknowledge each other’s strengths and expertise, allowing each party to flourish in their individual specialisms.
The Solidarity Fund, a public benefit organisation, enlisted PHD to handle its media strategy to help play its part in fighting the pandemic. The Solidarity Fund was set up with a mandate to support the national health response and mobilise South Africans in the fight against covid-19. With collaboration at the core, we worked alongside 20+ media owners and 10+ creative agencies/consultants to successfully implement an integrated campaign. Working in collaboration with all other partners allowed the Solidarity Fund to reach 81% of all adults in South Africa — a good example of the strength in collaboration.
One big positive to come from collaboration during this crisis is that it’s a chance to redefine business models and build something stronger, more conducive and resilient for the future.
Carey Finn is a contributing writer to MarkLives. Q5 hones in on strategic insights, analysis and data through inspiring interviews with professionals in diverse fields.
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by Richard Lord. During August 2020, the South African economy continued to open up as we dropped to level 2 lockdown mid-month. With many more South Africans were back at work, back at school and on the roads, media consumption figures responding accordingly.
What the president had to say was still very important to South Africans, with his most-recent address to the nation on Saturday 15 August attracting a total TV audience of 6 838 396 viewers. We saw 5.6m LSM 4–7 viewers and 1.2m LSM 8–10 viewers tuning in. This was enough to put the president’s latest speech in the top five most-watched shows among both audience segments.
Top 10: Main market
For the main market, however, we saw no change in the top three programmes (unsurprisingly), with Uzalo, Generations: The Legacy, and Skeem Saam holding firm.
LSM 4–7 top 10 shows for August 2020
Channel
Audience
Uzalo
SABC 1
9 029 528
Generations: The Legacy
SABC 1
7 471 463
Skeem Saam
SABC 1
6 407 128
President’s Address
SABC 2
5 563 005
S’gud S’naysi
SABC 1
4 378 566
Scandal
e.tv
4 253 822
Zulu News
SABC 1
4 238 254
Xhosa News
SABC 1
3 852 747
Muvhango
SABC 2
3 757 710
Lobola
SABC 1
3 729 307
Scandal remained the only show on e.tv in the top 10 in August with Rhythm City dropping from no. 7 in July down to no. 11. The other e.tv favourite, Imbewu, was in spot no. 12 for August. This means that the SABC was completely dominant in providing the main market’s favourite TV shows, with SABC 1 claiming seven of the top 10 shows and SABC 2 a further two. In fact, if we look at the top 20 shows, the SABC accounted for 17 of those shows.
As per the trend we’ve been following since May, when the hard lockdown slowly started easing month by month, August saw a continued decline in total audience among the top three shows as more and more people returned to work.
Mar 2020
Apr 2020
May 2020
Jun 2020
Jul 2020
Aug 2020
Uzalo
9 486 146
11 382 535
11 302 538
9 590 008
9 101 218
9 029 528
Generations
7 829 601
9 671 777
9 148 977
8 473 225
7 655 935
7 471 463
Skeem Saam
5 784 067
8 788 444
8 914 540
8 128 294
7 126 805
6 407 128
Top 10: High-income earners
The SABC wasn’t quite so dominant within the high-income segment as it’d been in previous months, however, with only five out of the top 10 shows, compared to seven in July.
LSM 8–10 top 10 shows for August 2020
Channel
Audience
Uzalo
SABC 1
1 284 055
President’s Address
SABC 2
1240 966
Skeem Saam
SABC 1
950 197
Generations: The Legacy
SABC 1
928 165
The Queen
Mzansi Magic
737 910
Scandal
e.tv
613 403
Gomora
Mzansi Magic
610 629
Imbewu
e.tv
603 765
Zulu News
SABC 1
590 673
Rhythm City
e.tv
498 264
Rhythm City on e.tv returned to the top 10, as did Imbewu, which we haven’t seen in the top 10 for some time (we have to go all the way back to March for the last time Imbewu made the list).
Interestingly, though, high-income audiences aren’t declining in the same way that we’re seeing in the main market. The average show for the top 10 attracted 805 803 viewers in August vs 767 169 in July. That’s an increase of 5% month on month. When we compare this with the main market, there’s a 1.2% decrease. Why this might be, I’m not sure. Perhaps more people in the main market are by necessity returning to work, spending more time commuting, and therefore have less time to watch TV? One can only hypothesise.
Fish where the fish actually are
For those new to this monthly analysis, you might be wondering where M-Net shows rank on the list. Its best-performing show in August among LSM 8–10 was the Sunday night movie, Angel Has Fallen. This ranked in 51st place and generated an LSM 8–10 audience of 264 519 viewers. The second-best show on M-Net was Carte Blanche, in position no. 75, with an average audience of 203 557 viewers.
This once again highlights the importance of using data in order to make media-buying decisions. It’s important to fish where the fish actually are, and not where we think the fish are! Despite the lower audiences of individual shows, M-Net and DStv can offer great value, nevertheless, when bought as part of a package deal. DStv packages are massively discounted, offer loads of spots, and can assist in increasing the frequency of your TV campaigns and, of course, can offer much tighter targeting, reduced wastage, and provide relevant environments for your ads to appear in. So, while you might not see a lot of DStv programmes in the top 10, they certainly can be very worthwhile including in your plans.
Richard Lord is media and operations director at Meta Media, part of IPG and Nahana Communications Group. Watched analyses monthly TV audience viewership figures in South Africa.
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by Marguerite Coetzee. Who’d have thought, at the start of this new year and decade, that there’d be a resurgence of past political movements, socially fuelled structural violence, a health pandemic of crippling proportions and economic collapse?
History rhymes
I had a little bird
its name was Enza.
I opened up the window
And in-flew-Enza
—Children’s rhyme during 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic
Who could have known, when we shouted “Happy New Year!” as 2019 transitioned into 2020, what would be in store for us?
Experts claimed we’d had a prosperous decade, far more fair and fruitful than 30 years ago (listen to Steven Pinker here), and populations the world over anticipated a return to 1920s fashion, music, and art. The Roaring Twenties were considered a ‘Golden Age’ because of the economic boom that followed the end of World War I and the Spanish flu. These factors, among others, contributed to a global socio-political paradigm shift. Were we crazy to anticipate a positive trajectory for the 2020s? Were we foolish to think we could get the gains without the pain?
In 1921, German-born American artist, JC Leyendecker, created an illustration for the Saturday Evening Post’s New Year’s Eve edition (for 1922). It was one of a series that spanned 40 years but what makes this one particularly interesting today is its relevance 100 years later. It depicts Baby New Year throwing salt on the dove of peace.
In various contexts, the dove symbolises innocence, renewal of life, the end of war, deliverance, forgiveness, and peace. But why the salt? To prevent the dove of peace from flying away, of course!
Salting a bird’s tail
He went to catch a dicky bird,
And thought he could not fail,
Because he had a little salt,
To put upon its tail.
—Simple Simon (17th century nursery rhyme)
There’s a nursery rhyme that dates back to at least the 17th century. This, in turn, is believed to be derived from a folktale that states you can catch a bird by putting salt on its tail. The reason for this is: a) the salt startles the bird, b) the salt interferes with the bird’s ability to fly away, c) there are magical properties in salt that cast a spell over the bird, or d) if you’re close enough to pour salt on a bird’s tail, you’re probably close enough to catch it anyway. On a metaphorical level, salting a bird’s tale is an analogy or idiom for immobilising people.
South African audiences would be familiar with the iconic local salt brand, Cerebos, and its illustration of a child chasing a chicken, trying to pour salt on it. While the slogan “see how it runs” would seem to refer to the chicken running away, it in fact refers to the chemist who mixed calcium phosphate with salt, giving it free-flowing properties. It’s the salt that runs.
What?
Epidemiologists and medical anthropologists would be familiar with the term “syndemic”. By definition, it’s the result of multiple epidemics or disease clusters. It’s the interaction of these diseases and the contributing factors (particularly social, environmental, and economic) and conditions (namely poverty, stress, and structural violence) that worsen the burden of disease. A typical biomedical approach would isolate a disease or pandemic, and then study and treat it as a distinct entity — not connected to anything and independent of context. A systemic approach explores a phenomenon in context and in relation to surrounding phenomena.
So what?
A business is a living, evolving ecosystem. The challenges it faces aren’t isolated nor static. At present, no business exists apart from the current health crisis (covid-19), economic crises (2008 and 2020), or social crises (gender-based violence [GBV] and racial discrimination [#BlackLivesMatter]). Every business should be aware of the context in which it operates, and the influence it has to shape what unfolds.
Now what?
Think and plan beyond today. Ritual and routine will get us through uncertainty but it’s not sustainable. The old world is dead, and a new order is emerging. What story do you want told of your business or brand during these times? What contribution will you make to the new world?
Marguerite Coetzee is an anthropologist, artist and futurist who provides research and insight services through Omniology. Curiosity explores the hidden and obscure histories, stories, and experiences of things in South Africa.
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Sizakele Marutlulle is an intersectional strategist and creative problem-solver. Find out more at sizakelemarutlulle.com.
