Standard Bank to expand BBBEE agency roster

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Standard Bank advertising account is not out to pitch, says Standard Bank spokesperson, Erik Larsen. Instead, it is looking at broadening its portfolio of agencies to include a wider range of BBBEE agencies, “with a specific focus on black-owned and black-woman-owned agencies”.

According to Larsen, black-owned agencies are welcome to log their details with Standard Bank’s procurement department to be considered for future campaign or project work.

 

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

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EXCLUSIVE: AVATAR buys into M&C Saatchi’s SA network

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Avatar Investment Holdings, owned by Zibusiso Mkhwanazi and Veli Ngubane, is set to acquire a significant minority stake in M&C Saatchi’s South African agency network, which includes M&C Saatchi Abel (see recent story on management moves here), M&C Saatchi Connect, M&C Saatchi Africa, Dalmatian and Creative Spark. At the same time, M&C Saatchi PLC will acquire a 20% stake in the agency AVATAR from Avatar Investment Holdings.

M&C Saatchi AVATAR logoM&C Saatchi’s SA/African operation has revenue in excess of R150m and employs more than 240 people across its range of agencies.

Mkhwanazi and Ngubane launched AVATAR in January 2012 as a a full-service marketing agency with a digital core. The agency has grown at over 100% year-on-year for the past four financial years, according to Mkhwanazi. It employes 60 odd people and clients include SAA, Brand South Africa, Chevron Caltex, Fox Africa channel, National Geographic Africa, Unilever and AB InBev-SABMiller.

Similar interest

Mkhwanazi says he and Ngubane have always admired M&C Saatchi Abel and its founding partner Mike Abel, knowing they could learn a lot from the fast-growing agency, and were pleasantly surprised when they discovered Abel had a similar interest in their business. The two approached Abel mid-2016 to discuss the possibility of investing in the M&C Saatchi network’s local operations.

“We’ve been working towards our goal of building SA’s largest integrated communications group and this deal fast-tracks that process,” says Mkhwanazi.

Abel, who believes his group can contribute skills and experience to AVATAR’s high-growth strategy, reiterates the importance of investing in transformation in the local advertising industry.

Exchange of resources

M&C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg buildingThe deal will allow for collaboration and an exchange of resources between AVATAR and M&C Saatchi PLC’s SA agencies, while allowing the former to retain its independence, its majority-black shareholding and its level-one BBBEE rating. Appointments will be made to both boards, while Mkhwanazi insists AVATAR’s board will continue to reflect its majority black shareholding and that the agency remains committed to industry transformation.

AVATAR will house some conflict work from M&C Saatchi Abel and vice versa. It will also be taking space in the M&C Saatchi Abel campus in Houghton, Johannesburg.

 

Herman MansonHerman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the founding editor of media.toolbox (1998–2006) and Mobile.Works, and the co-founder of Brand magazine. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal for Convergence, as well as of Fast Company South Africa. Winner of the 2011 Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year award, he was also a finalist twice in the Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa (2003 and 2004). Over his 20-year-plus career, Herman has contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including the Mail & Guardian, .net, Intelligence, AdVantage, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications. He has consulted on web architecture to several financial institutions.

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Are advertising agencies still relevant?

by Bogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) The world, business and its problems have become too complex for ad agencies.

Are advertising agencies still relevant? I’m not sure if there’s a straightforward answer but, based on how complex the business world has become, I doubt that relying fully on an advertising agency is such a strategic move, long-term. Ad agencies have their place in solving business problems — yet so do other industries. Depending on your frame of reference, experience and perception of the industry, your answer will be unique or aligned to what you know or believe.

My view?

Advertising as we know it (the industry in its current form – including digital) has reached a plateau and in time will decline, all things remaining the same in the face of current challenges. I believe that, over time, marketers will not see outside-of-the-ordinary value to invest in an ad agency alone (by ad agencies I include all other communication entities: PR, design, activations, etc).

Business problems have become complex; and people have become even more complex. If this is the case, could it be short-sighted to think that an advertising agency has all the solutions? With ad agencies naturally reluctant to collaborate, is the route of ad agencies a viable long-term solution? I think that to totally depend on an advertising agency for business solutions is unsustainable.

When a brand or marketer approaches a communications (ATL, BTL, TTL, digital etc.) company, the inevitable solution will be communications-based. Agencies hire art directors, copywriters, client-service people and other related specialities. When you go to a lawyer with a problem, you are definitely going to receive legal advice; therefore, is the same not true when businesses approach ad agencies?

Too open to confine

However, the world is too open to confine solutions to advertising. Tsepo Makate, a freelance creative, describes the state we are in as the “YouTube Academy”; he says that this is the age where anybody may do absolutely anything. The takeout here is not about YouTube or social media per se but about underlying principle, which is that incumbents no longer hold the authority or the solutions.

When looking at the recent Cannes Lions awards, the biggest winner was “Field Trip to Mars”. Two interesting things about this win are:

  1. It was not a brand that won but rather an idea or movement. Field Trip to Mars is an idea to inspire young people who could actually one day experience a trip to the Red Planet. There was no selling of a product. Instead, it stretched the imagination and possibilities of virtual reality by creating a group VR experience that needed no glasses, resulting in a shared experience for the young students.
  2. The collaboration that happened in the co-creation of the solution. A traditional agency worked together with aerospace company Lockheed.

This is the trend of the kind of work that needs to come out of ad agencies and the industry as a whole. Solutions produced need to speak beyond clever copy and beautiful art direction and add value and meaning to businesses.

Creating the upslope – four basic principles

In order for ad agencies to create an upslope and hit the incline, thereby generating a positive movement away from the plateau, the industry needs to think differently — we need to think differently about the problems we tackled and our approach to solving them.

  1. Changing approach

We are a solutions-driven industry fuelled by the need to meet deadlines; this, I believe, hinders our ability to come up with real solutions, based on identifying real problems. Instead of brainstorming solutions, ad agencies need to invest time in understanding the problem as, sometimes, the issue is not in communication but in different parts of the business, which may not be so obvious.

  1. Hiring differently (from other industries)

Hiring differently means that personnel in agencies will need to transform; agencies will need to hire unconventionally. Imagine an agency that has, in its human resource repertoire, a psychologist, an architect, a civil and chemical engineer and an actuarial scientist. It makes sense, right? Perhaps, to the still-traditional mind, it doesn’t but history has taught us that the best and most-relevant solutions have come from viewing problems differently. The more diverse a group in a boardroom is, the more exciting and relevant the solutions may be.

  1. Collaboration

Albert Einstein is credited with the saying, “A problem cannot be solved with the same mind-set that created it.” The principle here is that, if you want something totally different and unexpected, you need to throw in a foreign perspective; in this case, that means having unconventional minds in the boardroom.

  1. Owning business problems

Have you ever been in a boardroom meeting (or even in corridor conversations) and an advertising person says, “Well, that’s not our job”? This is one of the biggest disservices to the industry. We need to own our clients’ problems fully. As a “creative” industry, it is our responsibility to be more than just pretty words and pretty pictures.

I do acknowledge that there are ad agencies that are making strides in becoming more than just communicators and evolving into real creative outlets for business problems.

Still relevant — for now

Advertising agencies should offer solutions that speak to product design, service augmentation, and research solutions that enable marketers to know more about their target markets and industries, and thereby lead. The industry may achieve this by answering according to the four outlined principles above.

Ad agencies are still relevant — for now — but, for the long haul, they need to adapt to changes. ‘…Industry disruptions don’t come from existing players in any given market, but from some player on the periphery,’ to paraphrase Simon Sinek.

Who disrupted the taxi industry? Or the accommodation industry? Both were disrupted by unforeseen ‘competitors’. Who will disrupt the advertising industry? Either we disrupt ourselves or someone else will. If we disrupt ourselves and become more than just words and pictures, this will filter down to our clients, and we will help them disrupt their own industries, before they are disrupted.

• Article dedicated to Ben Wren, founder of Area 213 Communications and Area 213 International

 

Bogosi MotshegwaBogosi Motshegwa (@Thinkerneur) truly believes that advertising can really change the world. Every single day he tries to prove this. He shares his thoughts on the industry and sometimes has unconventional views. Bogosi is 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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Big Q 2017: Brand marketing in a VUCA world — Neo Makhele

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations of South Africa’s marketing and advertising leaders for the industry in 2017? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and consumer and any communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up is Neo Makhele of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa.

Neo Makhele

Neo MakheleNeo Makhele (@Neobll) has been group strategy director of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa since January 2014. She is also currently enrolled to complete her executive MBA through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership and graduate in 2018. Neo’s personal goal for 2017 is to generate ground-breaking work through inspiring her strategy team in Johannesburg, the theme of her thesis for her MBA.

We are living in an age where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity have become the new normal. Our consumers, brands and businesses are living in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

As I write this, on 2 November 2016, there is a joint #SaveSouthAfrica march of civil society, business, labour and religious leaders in defense of the constitution. Political leaders, businesses and the national assembly of ordinary South Africans have defined the state of South Africa’s enterprises, institutions and the constitution to be under crisis. SA has had its prospects of economic stability undermined with the unceasing attacks on the finance ministry — from #NeneGate in December 2015 through to #PravinGate debacles.

The increasing state of distrust of leadership generally and its inability to manage a crisis and engage any actionable steps have led to an upswing of uncertainty among South Africans. The UCT Unilever Institute’s latest study on Aspiration (2016) notes that SA is going through a crisis of aspiration and increasing frustration; consumer confidence is low across the top, middle and mass markets, as is business confidence. #Fallism is pervasive as trends #zumamustfall, #feesmustfall, #datamustfall etc permeate society. In the meantime, the country faces a real threat that the currency will be devalued and SA could find itself in junk status.

Then there is the drought plaguing southern Africa, with most of SA at level 3 and a strict rationing of water supply. The Department of Water and Sanitation has warned that most municipalities are below optimal levels. In the next winter season, SA will likely face water-shedding — the declining lack of natural resources in energy, water and the impact on food and transport do not bode well for us. It is certain that our societies, people, brands and businesses are living in a VUCA world.

Expectations

How will brands react to this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment? Will they distance themselves or be a part of the solutions that our society needs? Will brand leaders retain their independence from societal malaise?

This may not be the case as indicated on Wednesday, 2 November 2016, at the #SaveSouthAfrica march where the CEO of Discovery, Standard Bank and Investec all took part to drive for social transformation.

With this in mind I feel that, in the next few months and years, we will be seeing brands actively displaying citizenry. Globally, multinational brands are moving from a linear economy to more-circular economic practices. It is expected the economy will be in decline and, with it, our business and consumer confidence. This could result in brands facing the great temptation to cut budgets and get overly promotional with their marketing strategy. What we have learned is that brands which resist this temptation are rewarded with brand-equity gains and positive consumer-purchasing behaviour.

In the light of the prevailing national crisis sentiment, I hope that #fallism will decline in favour of #responsibilitymustrise.

Key expectations

  1. Active brand citizenry

I think we may see brands taking an active role in resolving the looming challenges SA faces. At the forefront will be brands that not only state their purpose but actively take part in providing solutions.

There are social challenges that will arise with an increased level of volatility with social movements such as #datamustfall and #feesmustfall and the uncertainty that a severe drought brings. Brands such as Absa with its ReadytoWork programme which absorb graduates into its work stream, KFC Add Hope with its consistent goal in alleviating hunger that might be exacerbated by the drought [full disclosure: KFC is a client of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa], and refreshment brands that offer water-alleviating solutions through their business value chain.

Brands will need to show that they care in order to win #responsibilitymustrise.

  1. Brands will embrace circular-economy practices in their supply chains

As pressure builds on our depleting natural resources, brands which seek solutions that alleviate consumer suffering will become the brands that consumers turn to.

We all have been nurturing and supporting a linear economy for as long as most of us can remember, and brands have played a crucial role in making it work — they promoted the linear way of making-stuff, selling-stuff and then throwing-stuff-away. And consumers fully bought in to this model of consumption.

The circular economy means designing products so that resources are used in a cyclical way. Materials can be regenerated to constantly flow round a ‘closed loop’ system, rather than being used once and then discarded.

Brands need to move from merely being sustainable to creating cyclic practices that benefit the society and environment that they operate in — #responsibilitymustrise.

  1. How should brands react during a volatile economic climate?

Research by Trajectory suggests that consumers in a depressed market are more aware of price and less loyal (no surprises there), but still prefer brands that couple value with values. So brands should resist the temptation to drive promotion at the cost of the brand, as this is often unsustainable; instead, brands must seek consistent and long-term solutions, eg Woolworths with its value-packaged quality-foods promotion (eg R150 meals for 2).

A brand that couples value and its own values well is essential in a volatile economic environment. #responsibilitymustrise.

  1. The hope that #fallism will be mitigated by a collaborative, networked approach between civil society, public enterprises and business working together in developing creative solutions to societal problems.

In closing, as former public protector, advocate Thuli Madonsela, said, “If fees must fall, something must rise.” The #SaveSouthAfrica march that had the national assembly of ordinary citizens, prominent individuals, business leaders, religious leaders gathering together to present their declaration to insist on more-accountable leadership bodes well for collaboration and a more-positive narrative. It time for inventive influential leaders to work together to create a culture of #responsibilitymustrise.

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the ad industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of potential panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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Old Mutual out to pitch

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Old Mutual business, currently held by FCB Africa, is out to pitch. The agency was appointed in 2009 and its current contract comes to an end in March 2017. Old Mutual offers personal, business and corporate investment solutions, unit trusts, retirement funds, risk cover and financial services. It is also a 54% shareholder in Nedbank Group.

According to spokesperson, Ursula van der Westhuizen, the Barclays Africa account won by FCB Africa from The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) in late 2016 means that its services are no longer available to Old Mutual.

Closed RFP process

Van der Westhuizen has confirmed that the group is in a closed request for proposal (RFP) process and will not share any further information at this stage.

Industry insiders have suggested that Ogilvy & Mather South Africa (which held the account prior to FCB), Publicis Groupe, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris and J. Walter Thompson (JWT) are all in the running for the business.

According to the latest data available from Nielsen, Old Mutual spends roughly R349m on advertising a year and is South Africa’s 24th biggest advertising advertiser.

 

Herman MansonHerman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the founding editor of media.toolbox (1998–2006) and Mobile.Works, and the co-founder of Brand magazine. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal for Convergence, as well as of Fast Company South Africa. Winner of the 2011 Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year award, he was also a finalist twice in the Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa (2003 and 2004). Over his 20-year-plus career, Herman has contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including the Mail & Guardian, .net, Intelligence, AdVantage, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications. He has consulted on web architecture to several financial institutions.

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Big Q 2017: “It’s show time, folks!” — Mike Abel

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations of South Africa’s marketing and advertising leaders for the industry in 2017? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and consumer and any communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up is Mike Abel of M&C Saatchi Abel.

Mike Abel

Mike AbelMike Abel (@abelmike) heads the group he and his partners started in 2010: it now comprises M&C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg and Cape Town, M&C Saatchi Africa, CONNECT, Creative Spark and Dalmatian. He has 27 years of industry experience and has built and led major groups in South Africa and Australia. He has been named both Financial Mail and Finweek’s Agency Leader of the Year — and his agency has was also Financial Mail’s Agency of the Year in 2015

One of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking, applied his brainpower to the subject of God — the chief creating force for most of the world. His video, focusing on helping our understanding of the giver and taker of all life, has been watched by only 1.67m people on YouTube in four years. Now consider the following, over a very similar period of time and using only YouTube views as the same source:

  • Snoring Dormer Mouse: 7.38m views
  • Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball: 860m views
  • Discovery Channel I Global Warming: 1.2m views
  • Girl crying about loving cats: 36m views
  • Is WiFI safe for me?: 293 000 views
  • Gangnam Style: 2.68bn views

And now you want to ask what consumers really find useful or interesting?

For about 10 years now, we’ve been talking about creating content and infotainment. For about 15 years, we’ve been talking about moving from interruption to engagement. But maybe the most important lens to look through now is neither that of being in the marketing business nor in the communications business, but being in the entertainment industry.

Entirely customer-focused

We know the companies winning today are entirely customer-focused and, as such, develop disruptive technologies that enhance the way consumers live their lives, be it taking a cab, buying music, watching movies or renting holiday accommodation. Multibillion-dollar-entrenched industries on turned on their heads, overnight, by something new, more convenient, quicker, easier — and not necessarily cheaper. Being customer-centric they focus on what people want as their true north — not what they feel they need to tell them in order for them to buy their product or brand.

As advertisers, we are looking for their interest, their ears, eyeballs and time. In order to achieve this in an overly messaged environment to a cynical and time-starved customer, we need to offer something truly fresh and interesting.

We have to look through an entirely different prism in order to “sell a message”, because it’s not about selling anymore; it’s about all about creating the environment for “buying”.

Backdrop in 2017

The backdrop to all of this for 2017 will be: more social and political uncertainty, domestically and internationally; this scares people and companies into spending less, experimenting less, investing less. Markets will continue to have the jitters — it’s business unusual, after all, as Britain continues to worry about the impact of surprising itself by leaving the EU. America will be ‘fascinated’ by the next decisions of its odd choice in president. South Africa’s opposition parties and civil society will continue to battle corruption and misdirected funds in order to try alleviate the real struggles for the majority of “ordinary citizens” and settle social unrest.

Brave companies will thrive as they’ll continue to seize the opportunity to grow while others batten down the hatches — and shrink. It always happens this way.

As Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

But how bad can it be, considering we’re now all in the entertainment business?

Extra! What the marketer says

Daniel Padiachy
Daniel Padiachy

Daniel Padiachy, chief marketing officer, McDonald’s South Africa, foresees the following trends for 2017:

  • More and more, there is an absolute need to really hear what our customers are asking for.
  • A call to be more insights-driven – the importance of the role of intelligent reporting and agile agencies that can support us in uncovering these insights
  • The shift in the industry over the past few years to a more-authentic storytelling that resonates with audiences… but, not only that, storytelling rooted in content that adds value to the audiences’ lives is what will set us apart.
  • Digital disruption has had a major impact on consumer behaviour and environment. Consumers now consume information at an increasingly rapid rate and are spending more time online, which means that as brands we need to ensure that we are engaging them in this space.
  • A theme that was mentioned at last year’s Loeries was “storydoing”. This is about allowing your target audience to experience your narrative through action. That is what our new campaign #LittleMomentsOfLovin is centred on.

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the ad industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of potential panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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Ad of the Week: Chicken, the final frontier

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Chicken Licken sees in the new year as our first Ad of the Week for 2017 with a funny, fantastical piece, based on an African space programme, that is as gloriously well-made as it is hilarious. The TVC, directed by Pete Pohorsky of Plank Film Productions for Chicken Licken’s new ad agency, Joe Public, humorously combines excellent 3D animation and visual effects with a funky music track. It tells the story of a mission to resupply the “Vaya-1” space station with a ‘classified’ cargo, to be undertaken by Afronaut Rodwell Tshabalala.

When Edward Makulu Nkoloso vowed to put Zambia on the space-race map in 1964, by launching the first spaceship carrying a human (and two cats) into space, he was viewed with scepticism by most people, including his own government. The proposed craft, the “D-Kalu-1”, never made its launch date, and the project eventually fizzled out due to lack of funds, but Nkoloso will go down in history for coining the term “Afronaut”. Fast-forward to 2013, and the space race has now gone commercial, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX taking on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Musk aims to establish a human-colonised base on Mars by 2030 (or thereabouts).

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The ad starts with a classic shot of an African space station, and the radio sound from ground control confirming the supply rendezvous. This is followed by mock news reports from around the world, which culminates in a press conference scenario.

Two scientists are accompanied by a young fellow in astronaut gear, who seems more interested in his cellphone than the grave pronouncements of his superiors. Look closely at the logo on the wall of the African Space Aeronautical Programme, ASAP — it’s a mock-copy of the NASA one, including the font, but with the Southern Cross as its background. It’s great to see such attention to detail, making something to notice on repeated viewings.

‘Classified’ cargo

In the next scene, the ‘classified’ cargo is being prepared in a gold-coloured case, following which the news commentary informs that “Afronaut Rodwell Tshabalala will pilot the mission”. The scene cuts to the interior of the spacecraft and, following the countdown, Tshabalala releases the handbrake, which looks and sounds just like an old Volksie one!

At this point, the music starts, to a scene of startled wildlife reacting to the rocket launching. It’s the perfect piece of music, a funky dance piece featuring horns and accordion. When the capsule gets into a bit of a spin, the music fits perfectly, and somehow Tshabalala manages to bring the craft under control and dock with the space station.

The final scene has Tshabalala entering the space station with his precious cargo. He opens the case and, to the delight of the other two Afronauts, delivers the contents: two Chicken Licken boxes. But, instead of finding spicy hot-wings inside, there is nothing but crumbs — it appears that someone has been unable to control ‘the craving’ (and, to be fair, it might not be the young courier). The faces of the Afronauts fall, and Tshabalala looks confused. “Joburg, we have a problem,” he announces.

Comic performances and timing

The comic performances and timing are spot-on; great casting on this commercial. The visual effects are beautifully rendered and the overall design is perfect. Reading the comments section on Chicken Licken’s Facebook page, it is clear the ad is a big hit with viewers; Joe Public has captured the space-loving zeitgeist. Several folk commented that they’ve even downloaded it from YouTube so they can watch it over again. Talk about love. What’s coming next. Tattoos?

Chicken Licken’s advertising account moved last year to Joe Public, so it’s great to see the agency blast off with out-of-this-world work. It’s also good to see the brand’s image isn’t being changed for change’s sake — there’s enough of a mainstay here to make the ad instantly recognisable and to build on what came before.

And, yes, the space metaphors aren’t going to stop now. The sky’s the limit for Joe Public and Chicken Licken. Watch this space! We can’t wait to see the rest of the integrated campaign, launching soon on other platforms and channels!

Credits

Agency: Joe Public
Chief creative officer: Pepe Marais
Executive creative directors: Adam Weber, Roanna Williams
Art director: Kursten Meyer
Copywriter: Verona Singh
TV production: Di Cole & Aileen Kennaugh
Group account director: Amber Mackeurtan
Digital: Connect Joe Public
Production: Plank Film Productions
Director: Peter Pohorsky
Producer: Ben Kauffman
Editor: Saki Bergh
Post-production: Left Post Productions

 

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

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Design Plus: Landor Paris’s ECD on collapsing creative silos

by Mark Tungate (@MarkTungate) Tristan Macherel, executive creative director of Landor Paris, talks about Landor’s extraordinary history, his own career journey, and the relationship between creativity and strategy.

The collapse of silos across the creative industries doesn’t alarm Macherel; he embraces it. Given his enthusiasm for the increasing blurring of borders between creative disciplines, perhaps it’s appropriate that he didn’t start out as a designer. He initially studied photography in his native Switzerland. “But I quickly began to realise that I wasn’t a real photographer,” he says. “I didn’t feel compelled to photograph the world. In fact, photography was a tool I could use to visualise my ideas.”

Other visualisation tools

So he began to add other tools: graphic design, typography and montage, to name but three. “I liked the idea that, whatever idea you were working on at the time, you had an entire tool kit at your disposal.”

At the age of just 22, he co-founded a studio in Switzerland with another designer. He worked there for seven years, yet over time he developed the feeling that they were picking up “crumbs” from the multinationals that were based in Switzerland for financial reasons, while the real work was going on elsewhere. He accepted an invitation to join Dragon Rouge in Paris for a year, on the understanding that he’d return to Switzerland to open a branch of the agency there. “The problem was that, after one year in Paris, I didn’t at all want to go back.” Like many before him, he’d fallen in love both with the city, and with a woman who lived there. “And of course there was the creative stimulus I found here. Even today, I’ve no desire to return.”

By now, he was developing his own ideas about how the design sector would evolve in the future, particularly in terms of taking a more-holistic approach to branding. This made him an ideal candidate for Landor.

The Landor touch

KlamathRather like Macherel, Walter Landor (1913–1995) was born in one place and fell in love with another. He was brought up in Munich — the Bauhaus and Werkbund design movements were an influence — but later settled in San Francisco. There, he ran Landor Associates with his wife, Josephine, from a former riverboat called the Klamath, combining research, design and consulting in a way that essentially created the modern branding industry.

Many years later, when Macherel met Luc Speisser, managing director of Landor France and Switzerland, it felt like the perfect fit: “He’d taken charge of the agency a short time before. It was previously a packaging-focused agency, but he had started a corporate department and planned to give it a more-strategic positioning, based on value rather than quantity.”

Holistic thinking

After four years, what does Macherel see as the agency’s positioning now? “I think we have an approach to branding that is not traditional in France,” he says. “The brand is at the heart of everything we do. We think holistically: we don’t concentrate on one point of contact, but on all the elements that form the identity of a brand.”
He adds that, while in traditional agencies a strategic planner might brief a creative, at Landor the two skills are inseparable. “A brand platform that’s not creatively inspiring is next to useless. The two sides have to work in symbiosis. In fact, I’d say that our work is driven by the strategic idea.”

If that sounds more like the positioning of a creative advertising agency, he confirms: “We’re a little of both — somewhere between design agency and advertising agency. Unlike many design agencies, we don’t come up with a graphic code and then try to post-rationalise the idea behind it. We have an idea and the work grows out of that.”

Images of movement

One example might be an award-winning campaign for Fedora, a European federation supporting ballet and opera. The brand identity had to reflect the magic of performance. So the F of Fedora became the steps leading to the stage, while posters and promotional materials were created by the strokes of a ballet dancer’s feet, which had been dipped in paint. The result was a new visual language.

Macherel says Landor is constantly trying to push the borders of what “design” actually means. “How we can reinvent a logo so that it becomes a media in its own right? How can we create a bridge between the analogue world of packaging and the digital world? We’re constantly striving to evolve.”

Design and technology

For one client, the agency is working on an identity inspired by algorithms; it is also open to the idea of using artificial intelligence. It seems as though “advertising” and “design” agencies might soon cease to exist — there will just be agencies.

“Well, for both sides the brand is central. We may not buy media space or shoot TV ads, but the experiences that surround a brand have become so diverse that there’s bound to be some overlap.”

A brand strategy might easily originate at a design agency and be used to brief an advertising agency: he points out that Landor is part of the Young & Rubicam group, and that the pair often work hand-in-hand on projects. “For a client, the coherence that can be achieved at every touch point is extremely valuable.”

Since Landor is a pioneer in branding, what are the brands that Macherel admires? He mentions Uber, for having identified a customer need and satisfying it seamlessly, as well as Airbnb. He adds: “For me, a brand is a promise. But, more than that, a great brand is a promise kept.”

 

Mark TungateMark 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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Shelf Life: What’s on trend this year

by Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com) Considering the immense amount of information Shelf Life receives every week, extrapolating for 2017 has been surprisingly simple: the themes are readily apparent. Add to that expected consumer inflation in South Africa and the five 2017 trends below are almost a certainly.

1. Technology

The retail experience continues to be transformed by technology, from mobile devices to virtual reality.

While VR is still in its early stages in SA, we’re starting to see brands understand how they can use this technology to enhance the consumer’s experience, removing the limitations of space and time, and resulting in virtual showrooms and virtual fitting rooms.

Technology is increasingly conjoined with shopping experiences on an additional level as brands adopt a plethora of mobile payment solutions.

And online shopping is booming. It’s convenient and accessible, with consumers demanding this as an alternative to bricks-and-mortar shopping.

2. Personalisation

Increased technology means people expect to be recognised.

Personalisation is already important to consumers, who are now expecting to be instantly acknowledged with a host of personalised preferences automatically integrated into their shopping experience. This expectation will grow in 2017.

3. Quality, transparency and sustainability

It’s not a new concept but consumers, more and more, require the products and brands they purchase to offer quality, transparency and sustainability.

Shoppers want to know everything about their purchases and where their spend is going.

Clean labeling, alignment to a lifestyle and sustainable sourcing, manufacturing and packaging are no longer nice-to-haves but imperatives.

Consumers now want to know about all aspects of the food they purchase, from where ingredients are sourced to the sustainability of the packaging. This demand for natural and clean label products will increase in 2017.

4. Convenience and speed

All this extra commitment from brands — and then shoppers require convenience and speed, too. Free delivery is often expected and swift delivery assumed.

While shoppers may not head to the store as often, they still expect instant gratification after making a purchase online.

5. Smaller and niche

Finally, consumers are supporting smaller, niche outlets, probably because they offer more personalisation, unique products and more-transparent, enticing brand stories, including ‘green’ or sustainable roots.

Smaller outlets are also an international trend, where space is a priority, and smaller stores cost less to operate.

 

Cheryl HunterShelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things new. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.

Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.

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Big Q 2017: Carolyn White & Sarah Britten’s retail market expectations

by MarkLives (@marklives) What are the expectations of South Africa’s marketing and advertising leaders for the industry in 2017? We emailed a panel of key industry executives for their take on the macro environment, budgets, changes in messaging, movement in the industry and consumer and any communication trends they’ll be looking out for. Next up are Carolyn White and Sarah Britten of Labstore South Africa.

Carolyn White & Sarah Britten

Carolyn WhiteSarah BrittenLeft: Carolyn White (@Caros_world) is managing director of Labstore South Africa and Africa. With 12 years’ through-the-line agency experience, and seven years in shopper marketing, she (a self-confessed shopaholic) is doing exactly what she is truly passionate about — getting closer to shoppers. Right: Sarah Britten (@Anatinus) is strategy director of Labstore South Africa. She has over 14 years’ worth of experience as a communications strategist in various marketing disciplines. As a blogger, speaker and thought leader, she is regularly sought after for her opinions on marketing and social media topics, for both radio and television.

2017 is going to be a challenging year for agencies — and that’s not a bad thing. A difficult macro environment and client budgets under increasing pressure are going to force agencies to work smarter and more efficiently across all touchpoints. In a nutshell, we’re going to have to continue to do more with less.

Consumers and shoppers

Consumers aren’t going to have lots of cash to spare. Weak economic growth, increasing food prices and a likely increase in income tax are all going to squeeze wallets. While we’ve seen a trend towards dealer-owned brands in FMCG for several years now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that shoppers are always going to trade down — but consumers will demand more value and differentiation from the brands they do buy.

Despite all the negative sentiment around the macro environment, we’re seeing an appetite for clients to bring in global brands to grow market share within a variety of categories. This is attractive for retailers, as you can charge higher price premiums and grow the category. But, to justify the price premium, you need to offer consumers something that existing brands are not delivering.

Brand messaging

An integrated brand story is key. Messaging will be a lot more focused around what messages are relevant in which channel. We’re finding that clients are far more open to tailored messaging in each channel to ensure relevancy, as opposed to broad generic awareness messaging. This also means that each channel has to work a lot harder in delivering the results that clients are looking for.

Shopper marketing and innovation

The rising cost of trade spend means that clients are looking for more innovative out-of-store touchpoints. This will force agencies to be more tactical as they look for innovative solutions to the age-old problem of ensuring that your brand is the one that ends up in the basket.

Digital shopper campaigns are an increasingly important part of the mix. The mobile phone is becoming both an ATL channel and a call to action touchpoint, and there’s a growing need to integrate mobile into these two areas.

Overall, clients are demanding a lot more innovation from agencies. Same-old, same-old will not be good enough in 2017.

Budgets and brand planning

With budgets coming under so much pressure, agencies are having to look at innovative ways to recoup costs on accounts. Agencies are being forced to realign scope of work against ever-changing market dynamics, and to be flexible to engage crossover disciplines where needed.

This means focusing on long-term brand planning initiatives so we understand exactly what’s needed when. More often than not, our clients’ business is seasonal. They plan according to a retail calendar. Increasingly, agencies will need to reflect this, and plan resources around clients’ busiest business periods. Instead of having a permanent team available throughout the year, this might mean hiring teams based on specific projects.

Agency models

Clients are definitely looking for one-stop shops, rather than the boutique model. The ideal agency should have all the specialists a client needs, in order to ensure greater efficiency and faster delivery across multiple touchpoints. Team horizontality and best-in-class working models from global brands will be key for clients assessing potential agency partners during new business pitches.

ROI

Clients are demanding better ROI and tracking across all their channels. They’re also investing in touchpoint gap analysis roles within their own departments, looking at whether they really did plan the right mix, and what they can learn in order to inform future campaigns. In a similar vein, we’re seeing that clients are becoming much more interested in test-and-learns, both locally and within our global network. When it comes to projects where they don’t have a lot of budget, they’ll test a new concept with one brand, one retailer or one channel before rolling it out across the board.

~~~

2017 won’t be easy for clients or agencies. But we’re going to emerge leaner.

 

Extra! What the marketer says

Nomsa Chabeli-Mazibuko
Nomsa Chabeli-Mazibuko

Nomsa Chabeli-Mazibuko, general manager marketing, MultiChoice South Africa, foresees the following trends for 2017:

Our view is that, in the short-to-medium term, many businesses will continue to  battle with shrinking margins and the largely negative impact of the declining rand-to-dollar exchange rate. Our hope is that advertising agencies embrace this as an opportunity to extend their offering to beyond mere communication and offer more product-development solutions. The most-exciting consumer trend for us is consumption of TV on the go — traditionally, people have always associated TV viewing with being in front of a big screen TV; the current growing trend is that of people consuming TV on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

 

MarkLives logoLaunched in 2016, “The Big Q” is a regular column on MarkLives in which we ask key industry execs for their thoughts on relevant issues facing the ad industry. If you’d like to be part of our pool of potential panellists, please contact editor Herman Manson via email (2mark at marklives dot com) or Twitter (@marklives). Suggestions for questions are also welcomed.

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