by MarkLives (@marklives) The hottest primetime television shows on SABC 1 in South Africa revealed: TV ratings for the month of September 2016.
This year, the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) has changed its policy about giving away TAMS and now only monthly reports, highlighting the top 20 primetime shows on several popular channels, are available.
The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (the BRC) is a non-profit, industry body that was incorporated in 2015 to cater to the audience research needs of the radio and television industry in South Africa.
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by Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA)I’ve been reading about influencer marketing with a growing sense of trepidation of late. Word-of-mouth recommendation is a marketer’s catnip. It makes us cartwheel, whoop and holler for joy … because nothing drives sales like peer endorsement. But I fear that, just as overzealous SEOs killed off the guest blog as a meaningful link-building tactic, so greedy brands have slayed the golden goose of influencer marketing.
Well, if it’s not dead, it’s certainly plucked, and the coup de grace can’t be far off.
Trusted source
According to McKinsey, for all the money brands spend above the line, it’s a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source that most often convinces a consumer to buy. Indeed, it suggests that word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20– 50% of all purchasing decisions.
I’d like to focus on the word trusted. To many of us, a useful recommendation is one that’s proffered by someone we know or someone we respect. It’s generally heartfelt and it’s almost always made with our best interests in mind.
One of the first recognised cases of influencer marketing took place during Super Bowl XX1 back in 1987. Minutes before the end of the game, New York Giants quarterback, Phil Simms, was instructed to repeat the line “I’m going to Disney World” in his post-match interview. While the line may have seemed a little forced, Simms — who had just been named most-valuable player — certainly had the trust factor in bucket loads. And it didn’t seem that unusual a construct for a sports star with a young family to want to unwind in a leisure park after a strenuous season.
Staggeringly insincere
Nearly 30 years later, corporates have piled into influencer marketing, yet sadly the trust factor is all too often missing from their campaigns.
One of the clearest examples of a staggeringly insincere post by an influencer was from “Keeping up with the Kardashians” star, Scott Disick. In May this year, he inadvertently managed to cut and paste his agent’s instructions as to when he should load his Boo Tea product endorsement to Instagram.
Ironically, it seems many of the brands asking celebrities to promote their wares are missing the mark. A study by Variety magazine found that the top five most-influential figures among American youths were all YouTube stars, not actors, athletes or musicians. Kim Kardashian didn’t even crack the top 20.
The increasing commercialisation of celebrity endorsement has provoked a degree of soul-searching over in the US, where it’s most rife.
Indeed, so far has the needle moved on trust that the Federal Trade Commission was prompted to update its guidelines on acceptable native advertising, requesting that influencers explicitly state when a post is sponsored by placing the words “#ad” or “#sponsored” at the start of each update. While there’s no hard-and-fast legislation, the FTC bared its teeth in July, taking action against Warner Bros over a marketing campaign it ran with YouTube videogame influencers. As part of the settlement, Warner has agreed to make clear disclosures in all future influencer campaigns.
Amazon’s ban on incentivised reviews
Perhaps the most-poignant move to clamp down on paid endorsement has come from Amazon, which last month announced a ban on incentivised reviews. The retail giant has always been big on reviews, acknowledging the role they play in instilling trust and confidence in purchasing decisions. For some time, it’s accommodated incentivised reviews but has required the poster to include a disclaimer acknowledging that they either received a free copy of the product or were paid for their endorsement. But, of late, it’s been hit by a plague of reviews-for-rent which have grown from 2% of all site reviews a couple of years ago to the majority today. Not surprisingly, incentivised reviews are often more favourable than earned reviews.
A recent study by ReviewMeta found Amazon’s incentivised reviews have an average rating of 4.74, significantly higher than the 4.36 score for non-incentivised ones. That might seem small change, but each decimal point may be difference between a mediocre product and a top-rated one. More significantly, incentivised reviewers are 12 times less likely to give a one-star rating than non-incentivised reviews.
So, where to from here for organisations looking to capitalise on influencer endorsement?
As Louis Gossett Jr. reminded us in the Windhoek Lager ads, perhaps it’s time to ‘keep it real’. There’s simply no substitute for authenticity and, the minute we lose sight of that, we run the risk of tarnishing the very brand we’re looking to promote — which, as Mashable reports, is effectively what Disick did to Boo Tea.
Charlie Stewart (@CStewart_ZA) is CEO of Rogerwilco, a multi-award-winning independent digital agency best known for its expertise with Drupal, SEO and content marketing. A Scot by birth, he moved to South Africa in the early 2000s in his quest to support a winning rugby team — a search he’s reluctantly forsaken. Together with Mark Eardley, he co-authored Business to Business Marketing: A Step by Step Guide, (Penguin Random House, 2016) and may be found on LinkedIn. Charlie contributes the monthly “Clicks ‘n Tricks” column, which looks at how brands are using digital channels to engage their customers, to MarkLives.
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an #OpenAfricaMag feature. Global organisations migrate much the same as people do, but the reasons behind this are as complex as the implications. GIBS’s Helena Barnard maps the intricacies of enterprises that cross borders.
Helena Barnard
Not a new phenomenon
The migration of multinationals is not a new phenomenon yet the reasons for this have become more complex as new structures challenge notions of nationality, ownership and control.
In the past, a company such as BMW or Siemens would expand operations to countries such as Australia and South Africa, but the head office would remain in Germany. As a result, the marketing directives, the parts and most of the management would be imported from the ‘home country’. But some multinationals have evolved from being anchored in their country of origin to a new breed of firm, one that Barnard refers to as ‘migrating multinationals’. A professor at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and the director of research, responsible for the GIBS doctoral programme, Barnard studies multinationals that leave their country of origin, and what this implies for both for businesses and states.
Barnard writes in Migrating EMNCs and the theory of the multinational:
“Migrating multinationals were fairly often seen in the early part of the twentieth century. Jones (2006) highlights the case of British American Tobacco: Although the firm was first registered in the UK in 1902, the headquarters, managers, and dominant shareholding were initially from the United States. By the 1920s the British managers and shareholders were dominant, and the company became (and remains) a British multinational with its headquarters and primary stock exchange in London.”
National boundaries being eroded
During most of the 20th century, a multinational was recognisably from a given country. We knew General Motors as an American firm, BP as British and Merck as German. The fluid nationalities of the original multinationals turned into clear national identities. But, over the past few decades, enabled by advances in telecommunications, we’ve once again seen those national boundaries being eroded.
“What we’re seeing across the world is the fragmentation of the global value chain,” says Barnard, who adds: “What that means is now is that it is becoming difficult to determine some products’ country of origin.
“Think of even a fairly simple product, let’s say a piece of clothing,” she explains. “The cotton came from one place; it was woven and dyed in another territory; it was cut and sewn into a T-shirt in another region. Maybe the design for that piece of clothing came from somewhere else. It becomes impossible to assert that piece of clothing is a German item, or a Chinese garment.”
Barnard says that the reasons for the fragmentation of the value chain are mainly economical, but also practical. It allows firms to draw on the different strengths of different countries. “Design, for instance, can be outsourced to countries that are established as centres of excellence for aesthetics, while raw materials are sourced from the lowest bidder,” she says.
Relocation of headquarters
Even though an increasing number of functions is being outsourced, the headquarters typically remain in the country of origin. However, a number of firms, mainly from developing countries, are increasingly deciding to also relocate their headquarters. In the case of SA, companies such as SABMiller, Old Mutual and Anglo American, as well as smaller firms, have relocated to new capitals such as London and New York.
“A company starts up in SA and has access to a certain set of capabilities and a certain set of markets because its operation is located here.” But, as the SA company begins to expand into Africa, and enjoys success, this enterprise could start thinking about changing its configuration. Barnard explains: “Very often, expansion requires higher levels of financial support so if, for example, you’re trying to raise capital, it could be more practical to have access to global markets.” Currently it is easier to find venture capital in London than it is in Johannesburg, she says.
Image and perception are other reasons for relocation. Barnard explains that country of origin may have a beneficial or deleterious impact when applying for permits or trade concessions. “Depending on the nature of the business, an entity registered in one territory might come across as more legitimate than if its country of origin was registered in another country. There’s a big difference in perception, for example, in financial businesses headquartered in London and those based in Angola or SA.”
Of course, perception is not always reality. Bayerische Motoren Werke, better known by its abbreviation, BMW, was always thought of a German luxury vehicle. But these days the automaker produces cars all over the world. Autoweek reports on a recent J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study that reveals the BMW factory with the fewest defects per 100 vehicles is not based in Germany or Europe. It is, in fact, located in Rosslyn, South Africa and produces the BMW 3-series compact luxury sedan.
Perceptually on a different level
But, bluntly put, by headquartering in London or New York, a SA firm may perceptually put itself on a different level and also take advantage of the stock exchanges, investors, clients and management pool, as well as other services and perceptual benefits that these capitals provide.
Multinational migration may be for more pragmatic reasons. “Executives may need to travel a lot to develop businesses in other territories — for example to Latin America. Let’s face it; it’s a lot easier to fly between London and Latin America than from SA to Latin America. What happens incrementally— and in some cases quite dramatically—in cases like this is that head offices emigrate.”
Migration is a double-edged sword, she says. “Of course, that creates a virtuous cycle for London, because everybody wants to be in London, so everybody goes to London — which means that London is more and more the place where everybody wants to be [prior to the Brexit referendum — ed-at-large].”
But the inverse is also true: a SA firm based in London, by showing preference for a London law firm over a SA law firm, for instance, undermines and calls into question the credibility of SA services — at least, in the international arena.
Vicious cycle
This means that a vicious cycle may also play out if the strongest firms in a middle-income country go to high-income countries for the more complex of managerial activities. SA firms are to some extent protected from that vicious cycle because of its perceived role as a gateway to Africa, and because of the extent of investment from SA firms into wider Africa. Why? Because many African countries suffer from what Barnard calls “institutional or infrastructural voids”, SA firms have a competitive advantage in those countries. “As South Africans, we don’t just expect the electricity to be on; we have processes in place for what to do when the electricity goes off. If you have a German or an American multinational coming into Rwanda or Kenya, they take serious strain, because they’re not used to that level of institutional underdevelopment,” she says.
This capability in managing across very different levels of development is not easily found in the major economic capitals of the world. “SA managers will tell you that they have to learn to almost translate between an Asian or European parent and small sales offices across the continent.” And SA multinationals relocating to London or New York often find they still need really skilled managers on the ground to manage the complexities of the wider African market.
Barnard consults with government and trade organisations regarding policy. “On the policy side, there’s one very, very simple message: companies will go to an area because of whatever it is that makes that area attractive.” In other words, a company can select a location because of the quality of the local workforce, or low wages, or tax incentives, to name but a few.
But here’s the rub: “If a company comes to you for something, they’re going to work very hard to maintain and grow that something. If they’ve come to you because of your excellent design skills or your R&D capabilities, they will fund chairs at universities and post-doctoral students to make sure you do not lose that capability.
Maintain the status quo
On the other hand, if you were chosen because you’re a low-cost manufacturing hub, they’re going to want to keep you a low-cost hub, which means that, as soon as people start organising, as soon as you start seeing a push to more value-added stuff, you’re actually going to get pushback from multinationals.” It’s in the interest of the company to maintain the status quo that provides the advantage, be it low wages, R&D capability, incentives or whatever.
In terms of SA multinationals that consider moving to a major European or North American capital, “is it patriotic or not to leave the country? Should we be standing in their way or not?” Barnard asks, and answers: “In an era of globalisation, we cannot stop them. You can try and create some sort of incentive to stay but, ultimately, they will go to where they need to be.”
It is often said that Johannesburg is a “gateway to Africa” and as a regional centre of excellence. Incoming multinationals which want to expand into Africa often see Joburg as a launchpad, and set up regional headquarters there. At the same time, companies from elsewhere on the continent are coming to Joburg for the same reasons that SA companies move to London. Relative to their home countries, capital is easier raised in SA; there is a better-developed professional-services infrastructure; and a larger workforce with global experience.
Barnard says, “For a multinational with global aspirations, like SABMiller or Anglo American, Johannesburg is too small a town. But if you are BancABC [of Botswana] which operates across six African countries, or Econet Wireless [which started in Zimbabwe], you see that operating in SA gives you a lot of benefits that you won’t get in Harare — and it’s a lot cheaper than going to London.”
Helena Barnard is a full professor at GIBS and the director of research, responsible for the GIBS doctoral programme. She was on the organising committee for the Academy of Management Africa conference at GIBS in 2013 and serves on the editorial board of the Global Strategy Journal.
by Herman Manson (@marklives)The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released consumer-magazine circulation statistics for the period July–September 2016 (ABC Q3 2016); see our newspaper ABC analysis here. Apart from highlighting several figures that stand out for us, we’ve also updated our list of the biggest-circulating consumer titles in SA.
Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time the year before, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth, red decline, purple maintained, new entrant or renamed, orange discontinued or resigned and pink no submission or suspended.
Key insights
Overall, circulation fell to 4 488 653 from 5 239 127 in the previous corresponding reporting period (and from 4 677 475 in the previous quarter). Single-copy sales stood at 2 737 940 (down from 3 401 242 in Q3 2015 and 3 711 874 in Q3 2014) and total paid (which includes subscription figures) stood at 3 369 473 (down from 4 058 014 in Q3 2015). Paid-for digital copy sales were at 130 912 (up from 72 078 in Q3 2015 — mostly thanks to 73 084 claimed by quarterly title Student Brands).
Custom magazines saw an overall circulation decline to 7 835 536 from 8 067 800 in the corresponding previous reporting period. Single copy sales in this category stood at 85 471, and total paid for circulation at 1 715 912.
According to calculations provided by the ABC, total magazine circulation declined by 2.1%, compared to the last quarter; consumer magazines declined by 4%, B2B magazines declined by 1.5%, custom magazines declined by 1.3% and free magazines increased by 2.7%.
The business press
Financial Mail has declined to 13 319 from 15 346 in the corresponding previous reporting period. Finweek is up to 11 843 from 11 170 (total free copies = 2 841).
Entrepreneur has fallen to 16 778 from 18 710. Forbes Africa has grown to 19 750 from 17 783 (total free = 10 725). Noseweek has declined to 13 275 from 16 172. Your Business Magazine has declined to 9 359 from 10 318. BusinessBrief (listed by the ABC as a B2B publication but available on the newsstand) has jumped to 29 632 from 22 356 (total free = 687, pdf = 22 809). Leadership(also B2B) has declined to 8 013 from 8 222 (total free: 7 081, single copy sales: 382).
Farmer’s Weekly is down to 12 227 from 14 447 and Landbouweekblad has fallen to 27 347 from 32 080. Plaastoe! (formerly Marktoe! Magazine) has grown to 21 203 from 19 662 (total free = 17 966). Veeplaas has fallen to 8 627 from 10 491.
Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of paid-for (sales, bulk and subscriptions) circulation:
BusinessBrief: 28 945
Entrepreneur: 16 766
Financial Mail: 13 319 +1
Noseweek: 13 275 -1
Personal Finance: 10 948 +1
Forbes Africa: 9 025 -1
Finweek: 9 002 +1
Your Business: 8 507 -1
Biggest-circulating business magazines in terms of total circulation:
People has continued its circulation decline by falling to 42 333 from 54 085. TV Plus (Afrikaans) is down to 31 268 from 35 054. No circulation data was available for theEnglish edition.
Bona is down to 71 214 from 76 120 in the previous corresponding reporting period. Drum has collapsed to 50 506 from 82 137 (Q3 2012 = 115 375), Huisgenoot has dropped to 212 241 from 243 738, and YOU has fallen to 109 591 from 132 818.
The Big Issue falls to 10 731 from 12 320. Taalgenoot is up to 69 023 from 66 259 (total free = only 231).
Home & gardening, leisure
Condé Nast House & Garden has declined to 34 376 from 36 462 (total free: 7 573). Easy DYI is down to 12 598 from 14 091. Food & Home Entertaininghas fallen to 24 874 from 28 016 (total free: 4 707). House & Leisure has declined significantly to 25 962 from 36 970 (total free increases to 6 555). Sarie Kos has fallen to 31 943 from 39 786.
Elle Decoration has fallen to 22 705 from 24 037 (total free: 5 902) and SA Home Owner is down to 40 023 from 42 452 (total free: 7 595). SA Garden and Home is down to 51 480 from 59 021 (total free: 5 186). Tuis Home has fallen to 77 269 from 85 650 (total free: 0), while VISI has grown to 15 111 from 14 838 (total free: 518). Woolworths TASTE is listed as a custom magazine; circulation has grown to 25 932 from 24 156. Fresh Living/Kook en Kuier has also grown to 467 666 from 59 685 (free copies = 447 664) after becoming available free to active PnP Smart Shoppers.
Men’s market
Very Interesting (formerly Braintainment) has grown to 18 499, compared to 16 820 (total free: 3 077) in the previous corresponding reporting period. Destiny Manis down to 14 252 from 15 060 (total free: 4 248).
GQ is down to 20 333 from 22 789 (total free: 6 570). Hype has grown to 19 137 from 14 180 (total free also up to 7 434).
Men’s Health has fallen to 34 491 from 42 087 and Popular Mechanics to 27 874 from 33 820. Stuffis down to 15 893 from 16 309 (total free: 3 876). Tjop & Dop failed to submit it circulation data.
Health, fitness, sport
Amakhosi has fallen to 17 993 from 27 492 and Kick Off is down to 27 999 from 36 249. Golf Digest has fallen to 7 917, up from 9 992, but Compleat Golfer is up to 10 820, from 8 760 (total free = 5 669). Zigzag made no ABC submission for Q2 or Q3 2016.
Magnum has fallen to 12 152 from 14 577 while Game & Hunt/Wild & Jag is down to 11 621 from 13 370. SA Hunter has fallen to 43 930 from 46 359.
Hitting the road
CAR is down to 59 120 from 60 286 and Leisure Wheels to 13 436 from 15 287. TopGear has fallen to 12 220 from 17 919. Drive Out/WegRy has declined to 24 531 from 29 114 and Topcar to 12 519 from 15 460.
Auto Trader is down to 2 681 from 6 556.Bike SA is down to 15 000 from 17 377. SA 4×4 has fallen to 16 813 from 18 300. Speed and Sound is down to 27 260 from 35 004.
Getawayhas climbed to 41 836 from 39 259 (total free jumps to 10 573) but Weg/Go falls to 57 098 from 62 091. SA Country Life falls to 35 801 from 40 155 (total free: 3 409).
Woman’s general
Cosmopolitan has declined to 42 554 from 55 647 (total free: 6 753) and Glamourto 47 311 from 49 035 (total free: 13 388).Elle has climbed to 25 417 from 21 728 (total free: 11 345 — up from 3 873 in Q2 2016). Fair Lady is down to 36 053 from 42 549. Finesse changed frequency; no new circulation data is available. Destiny Magazine is down to 26 576 from 27 194 (total free:7 522).
Good Housekeeping/Goeie Huishouding has declined to 48 136 from 59 198 (total free: 8 096), Ideas/Ideeshas declined to 47 087 from 52 356 and Leef to 27 066 from 31 540. Move! has fallen to 84 835 from 97 866. True Loveis down to 32 690 from 48 209 and Vroue Keur has dropped to 54 516 from 60 717. Woman and Home is down to 78 000 from 89 639 (total free = 10 484).
Essentials is down to 28 407 from 32 952. Grazia falls to 12 682 from 19 416. Kuier has fallen to 94 602 from 104 101. Marie Claire has dropped to 20 703 from 30 666 (total free = 4 523). Rooi Rose is down to 68 036 from 70 703 (total free: 9 020). Sarie has fallen to 66 886 from 90 935. Your Family is down to 35 337 from 40 653. Women’s Health has declined to 35 580 from 45 410, and Longevity to 18 449 from 20 103.
The MarkLives’ Big Magazine list*
Huisgenoot: 212 241
YOU: 109 591
Kuier: 94 602
Move!: 84 835
Woman and Home: 78 000
Tuis/Home: 77 269
Bona: 71 214 +3
Taalgenoot: 69 023
Rooi Rose: 68 036
Sarie: 66 886 -3
CAR: 59 120
Weg/Go: 57 098
*By total circulation. Must have a cover price. Annuals excluded. Movement on the Big Magazine list compared to 2016 Q2 data.
Herman 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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by Herman Manson (@marklives)The Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa has released newspaper-circulation statistics for the period July–September 2016 (ABC Q3 2016); see our magazine ABC analysis here.
Note: we compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year, and not with the previous quarter. Green equals growth, red decline,purple maintained, new entrant or renamed, orange discontinued and pink no submission or suspended.
Key insights
Daily newspaper circulation fell to 1 242 961 from 1 410 097 during the previous corresponding reporting period (Q3 2015); pdf replica editions totalled 5 801, down from 6 010 copies in Q2 2016, while single copy sales came in at 907 855. Circulation at the weeklies fell, too — total circulation declined to 521 679 from 576 121; weekend newspapers went to 1 526 613 from 1 735 759; and local papers also saw a decline, falling to 369 201 from 385 375. Free sheets fell to 6 340 958, from 8 062 134 (after Vuk’uzenzele Government Newspaper resigned from the ABC).
According to statistics provided by the ABC, total newspaper circulation declined by 0.7%, compared to the previous quarter (Q2 2016). Daily newspapers declined by 3.1%, weekly newspapers by 3%, weekend newspapers by 3.2%, and local newspapers increased by 0.6%. Free newspapers remained static.
ABC member circulation totals:
Daily newspapers: down to 1 242 961, compared to 1 410 097 for the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down to 521 679 from 576 121
Weekend papers: down to 1 526 613 from 1 735 759
Local papers: down to 369 201 from 385 375
Free papers: down to 6 340 958 from 8 062 134
Daily papers
In Gauteng, Beeld has fallen to 43 377 from 48 647 in the previous corresponding reporting period [1 281 copies go to Print Media in Education (PMIE)], but Pretoria Newshas inched up to 15 206 from 14 401 (sales below 50% of retail cost = 3 301). The Star is up slightly to 85 975 from 85 567 (sales below 50% = 12 294). Sowetan is down to 88 299 from 92 453.
In the Cape, Die Burger (Eastern and Western Cape editions) has declined to 49 418 from 52 973. The Cape Argus has decreased slightly to 30 062 from 30 322 (3 090 to PMIE), while theCape Times has also declined to 31 104 — down from 31 197 (3 293 copies go to PMIE, up from 2 419 in Q2 2016). Son has fallen to 73 170 from 79 114.
In the Eastern Cape, Daily Dispatch has fallen to 20 763 from 23 585, and The Herald to 20 387 from 21 285.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the Daily News is up slightly to 25 301 from 25 091 (1 050 = sales below 50%) and The Mercuryhas inched up to 25 758 from 25 656. The Witness has declined to 13 570 from 14 879.
Business Dayhas declined to 23 614 from 25 753, The Citizen to 45 947 from 54 689 (with sales below 50% at 2 547 and third-party bulk at 1 781), and Daily Sun to 183 345 from 224 732. Isolezwe has fallen to 94 839 from 104 510. The Times is down to 59 072 from 109 484 [Times Media had announced in August 2015 it would be cutting The Times’ circulation to around 100 000 but it continues to fall, including from Q1 2016, when circ stood at 80 666, and Q2 2016, when circ stood at 63 954].
Volksblad has declined to 15 703 from 17 406. Diamond Fields Advertiser is down to 8 264 from 8 700.
The MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*
Daily Sun: 183 345
Isolezwe: 94 839
Sowetan: 88 299
The Star: 85 975
Son: 73 170
The Times: 59 072
Die Burger: 49 418
The Citizen: 45 947
Beeld: 43 377
The Cape Times: 31 104
Weekly & weekend papers
Saturday Beeld has fallen to 40 311 from 42 729, but Pretoria News Saturday has grown to 9 034 from 7 408 (sales below 50% of cover price: 1 636). The Saturday Star is down to 51 145 from 53 434 (sales below 50% of cover price: 4 585). Saturday Burger has fallen to 62 833 from 67 469. The Weekend Argus Saturday edition has grown to 36 835 from 35 834, while the Weekend ArgusSunday edition is down to 17 335 from 17 747. Saturday Dispatch has fallen to 17 648 from 19 761. Independent on Saturday is down to 37 097 from 39 061.
City Presshas declined to 83 988 from 94 291 and Rapport to 127 777 from 143 665. The Sunday Times has declined strongly to 283 360 from 338 532. Sunday Tribunehas inched up to 61 146 from 61 035 (sales below 50% = 6 605).Sunday Sun is down to 101 825 from 137 094 and Sunday World has also dropped dramatically to 70 386 from 93 537.
Ilanga Langesonto has declined to 42 770 from 43 635 and Isolezwe ngeSontohas fallen to 75 100 from 84 144. Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo has fallen to 75 672 from 79 112.
In terms of the weeklies,Ilangahas fallen to 72 023 from 76 798, but The Post has climbed to 43 037 from 42 917. The Mail & Guardian falls to 28 782 from 30 286. Soccer Laduma is down to 295 556 from 328 336.
The MarkLives’ Biggest Circulation Per Issue Newspaper List*
Soccer Laduma: 295 556 +1
Sunday Times: 283 360 -1
Daily Sun: 183 345
Rapport: 127 777
Sunday Sun: 101 825
Isolezwe: 94 839
Sowetan: 88 299 +1
The Star: 85 975 +1
City Press: 83 988 -2
Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo: 75 672 new entrant
Isolezwe ngeSonto: 75 100 falls our of Top 10
Son: 73 170
Ilanga: 72 023
Sunday World: 70 386
The Times: 59 072
*South African titles only. Must have a cover price. Excludes free papers.
Herman 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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by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki)M&C Saatchi Abel and Rainbow Experiential Marketing help make the abstract real with a dramatic activation for financial brand, 10X Investments. The experience (and it’s one helluva experience) demonstrates how fees strip away large portions of people’s investments.
Picture Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. It’s a busy shopping day, and most of the passers-by don’t give a second glance to the display in the middle of the square: sitting there under the hot October sun is a household’s worth of furniture, appliances, and even a BMW.
We’re not talking bargain basement here. This is upmarket stuff: a leather lounge suite, a flat-panel TV, a luxury bedroom suite, a full kitchen with an oven. There’s no overt branding but, just from the look of it, one realises this is good stuff. The entire set up is laid out on a large square, decorated just like an architect’s plan for a home.
Suddenly a subversive group of men dressed in black, complete with protective gear, arrives. The sinister-looking crew are carrying all sorts of cutting devices: chainsaws, electric angle grinders and more. And, before anyone knows what’s going on, the marauders are attacking everything. A huge racket fills the square: all the furniture on display is being chopped in half!
The crowd is aghast. After a couple of gasps their mobile phones are out, recording the event. More people gather to see what’s going on, many with bewildered looks on their faces.
But this isn’t a wrecking party. It is an advertising activation for a financial brand that is a practical display of what generally happens to one’s retirement funds because of the power of compounding interest. Here I mean the compounding interest that your contributions should be earning, were it not for the fees that most funds take ‘off the top’ of your investments.
The practical demonstration of this unhappy reality comes courtesy of 10X Investment (pronounced ‘Ten-Ex’), a money-management firm that is taking on the ‘big boys’ of the retirement industry.
Now, I know a lot of advisors and brokers are going to be up in arms about the subversive message here but the figures bear it out. 10X states the facts simply on its website. If you pay 3% of your investment in retirement funds for advice, brokerage fees/commission, administration and investment management, that 3% comes off the investment capital before it has a chance to earn interest. 3% doesn’t sound like a lot but, over the lifetime of your investment, it could grow your fund by over 40%, through the ‘magic’ of compounding interest.
The example 10X gives on its website is of a typical case study: “If Tom saves R3,000 per month, for 40 years, earning a return of 6.5% above inflation and he pays 1% pa in fees, his final retirement pot will be R5 million. However, if he pays 3% pa in fees, his final retirement pot will be R3 million, which is 40% less.” (These amounts are adjusted for inflation.)
It’s the same maths that applies to the concept of paying a little extra into your house bond every month: over time this can shave months or even years off your home-loan repayment term.
Daylight robbery
An authorised financial services provider, a licensed retirement fund administrator and an investment manager, 10X offers a comprehensive service in terms of fees, investment advice and management, for a 1% fee. The company brazenly says that what other investment firms charge amounts to ‘daylight robbery’ as CEO, Steven Nathan explains in a short video on the site.
He claims that most advisors can’t pick winning fund managers, and that most active funds underperform the index. The conclusion he draws is that the fees charged are therefore unfair, because one could get better performance out of a low-cost index fund, rather than an active (managed) fund. In other words, he says, clients are paying for a service that is not matching its promise. This why Nathan expressly uses the term ‘daylight robbery’ when commenting on the investment industry.
It is an audacious approach, and one can only assume that Nathan, a veteran of Deutsche Bank Securities and Ernst & Young, knows what he’s doing by challenging the entire industry with a cheeky, upstart approach. As a challenger brand, 10X is taking on some heavyweights with loads of marketing muscle, not to mention a network of brokers and advisors to support.
Smart advertising partner
But Nathan has elected a smart advertising partner in the form of M&C Saatchi Abel. The result is that 10X has taken a radically different approach in a staid, conservative industry. This aggressive message is common across all 10X’s branding. In press releases, 10X is vocal about the “moral responsibility” the investment industry has “to bring to light the unfair practices of fund managers”, which impact on the retirement scenario for clients.
On the day of the activation, a huge signboard was erected at the far end of the Nelson Mandela Square. This was covered until the power tool-wielding ‘attackers’ had removed some 40% of the luxury furniture set up, including the BMW. Then, at the right time, just when everyone was paying attention, the curtain was dropped to reveal the legend: “Will you end up with 40% less money at retirement?” The bottom half of the poster had the hashtag #StopDaylightRobbery, the website address, and the 10X slogan, “Why settle for less?”
M&C Saatchi Abel’s innovative marketing approach to 10X Investment’s audacious message and service offering clearly speaks directly to a particular customer pain. It has targeted an affluent demographic for good reason: even wealthy clients fall foul of this practice. And what a great way to bring a dry financial concept to life and into the light of harsh reality!
It is certainly something I won’t be forgetting for a while.
Credits
Ad agency: M&C Saatchi Abel
Creative director: Mark Winkler
Copywriter: Mark Winkler
Art director: Gavin Dale
Agency producer: Ronwin Bailey / Kathy Scharrer / Pontsho Tshabalala
Group account director: Illé Potgieter
Account manager: Sam L’Etang
Production manager: Francois Viljoen
Production house: Platypus
Director: Ian Chuter
Editor: Ric Shields
Activations agency: Rainbow Experiential Marketing
Ad of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research. If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging, please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.
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by Jerry Mpufane (@JerryMpufane) Like him or hate him, The Donald has the captured the imagination of many US voters and the bulk of the media, both supportive and antagonistic. If you closely follow how he conducts himself, you realise that, above all else, he understands the power of branding — probably because he was a successful brand before he entered politics. Indeed, you could argue that he entered politics precisely because he was such a well-known brand to begin with.
Now, I’m not a fan of Trump’s philosophies, but there are good and bad lessons to be learned from his message management. Let’s take a look at some of these:
The positives
Self-belief
Donald Trump believed that his prospects of succeeding as a politician were better than those of even party-affiliated candidates. This belief is centred on the broad appeal (that he believes is) commanded by the name “Trump”, and the strong confidence that this appeal may transform into electoral votes. While not always consistent in his content, Trump is steadfast in this determination.
Strong emotion
Strong brands are built upon strong emotions, and strong emotions are linked to strong sales (in this case, votes). Central to the success of Trump’s campaign is having assumed the role of official spokesperson for the “forgotten” Americans, the group of people who feel left behind by the modern, globalised and financially-driven world.
This segment of the population believes that the global agenda has superseded local cultural, social and economic interests. Trump speaks the language of his followers and, like a comedian, says the things that many feel but are afraid to express.
Storytelling
Brands are built on the back of storytelling; of mythology. The Trump ticket has immense appeal for a specific segment of the population — especially when he and his camp simply repeat, repeat, repeat the same stories, true or otherwise. And once you agree with Trump, you’ll follow him staunchly, no matter what ‘others’ might say.
In this, Trump embodies the words of legendary journalist, Henry Louis Mencken: “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
The negatives
Creating enemies
Brands command strong appeal when in communion with their followers. But, while they should certainly aim to target specific customer segments, they should not deliberately alienate those they don’t want. A big no-no for brands observing the Trump campaign is The Donald’s abrupt, devil-may-care style and his willingness to rub people — including African-Americans, immigrants and women — the wrong way.
Bridge-burning
A key element of branding is trying not to burn bridges, especially when those bridges may be your way home. Trump’s tactics, approach and attitudes — while they’ve alienated those who would never have voted for him anyway — have also irked many die-hard Republican leaders; those whose followers are supposed to deliver winning votes. In many cases, Trump has alienated even his own electorate.
Insincerity
Successful brands engage in conversation; they don’t talk down from a gold-plated throne. When Trump addressed the African-American voting block, he asked them, “What the hell do you have to lose?” On this occasion, he came across as talking down to a demographic who already feels marginalised in its own country.
What’s more, Trump has yet to take on board that insincere statements of apology don’t work; instead, they can further distance a brand from its customers. To illustrate, his ratings dipped significantly post-GrabGate, due to perceived insincerity.
The bottom line?
Brands need to be more than a sound bite, and elevator pitch or a bombastic personality. The best brands, says Marla Tabaka, Inc. columnist, “feature multiple, complementary messages that weave together to form an accessibly complex and in-depth communication.” Yes, a standout style is a plus, but it will only take you so far.
Learn this from Trump, if nothing else: Your brand must take a stand for what it believes in and, specifically, tell people how it plans to get there. Or it’s just talk.
Jerry Mpufane has executive experience in both ad agency and client organisations. He’s only got one goal in life, which is to be an inspiring leader. Jerry is currently group MD, Gauteng, of M&C Saatchi Abel. His monthly column on MarkLives, “On My Mind”, focuses upon what it takes to run a great AND sustainable ad agency.
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Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of all things new — product, packaging, design, insight, food, décor and more!
Chocolate on subscription with Stratitude
FoxP2 adds Design
Stikeez, the sequel
Chocolate mail
Integrated agency, Stratitude, has launched My Chocolate Box, which offers chocolate lovers a monthly subscription box filled with premium chocolates and treats delivered to their doorsteps.
Sylvia Schutte, MD of Stratitude, and Adrian Zanetti, MD of Next
Sylvia Schutte, managing director at Stratitude, says: “The boxes are different each month and include well-known local and global brands such as Beyers Chocolates, Sweetie Pie, Coach House, and Amarula Chocolate and Fudge, as well as others. Some of these products are new to the market, so they won’t even be in stores yet.”
This is a fiercely contested space and Stratitude spent long hours on strategy and research before beginning the design: “We want to appeal to the loyal chocoholic and so our creative direction was to use incredibly decadent images and rich, chocolately colours that immediately make your mouth water.”
According to her, it’s not just about creating a beautiful campaign; it’s about driving sales. All the elements developed by the agency, from the product video and outbound sales campaign to the website and social media campaigns, are focused upon showing the value that subscribers will get for their monthly subscription and enticing them to join. “We highlighted the brands that will be in the boxes, showing value for money and the added benefits that members will get, such as entries into monthly competitions, tickets to chocolate events and exclusive discount offers. My Chocolate Box is every chocolate lover’s dream.”
Creative agency, FoxP2, has added an autonomous design agency — FoxP2 Design — to its portfolio of offerings, taking control of the increasingly significant role design plays in the communication chain.
Comments FoxP2 founding partner, Justin Gomes, “FoxP2 Design really completes our integrated offering. It keeps a sharp focus on the craft of our product.”
Led by FoxP2 founding partner and executive creative director, Andrew Whitehouse, the agency’s new logo was designed by Whitehouse, alongside Mark van Rooyen.
He says, “FoxP2 is short-hand for the genetic name ‘fork-head box, protein 2’. It is the primary gene that puts creativity into our DNA. To symbolise this, the logo is the combination of two Fs inverted and a DNA strand.”
Some early projects include South African brands such as Coronation, which appointed FoxP2 Design to refresh its brand.
The squishy, popping Stikeez that distracted SA from more serious matters last year are back, this time as mysterious undersea creatures.
While Pick n Pay won’t share specific stats, it was ‘delighted’ by the customer excitement Stikeez generated. According to a spokesman, customers loved them and were begging the retailer to bring them back.
And just in time for Christmas shopping mania, we have a free Stikeez figurine for every R150 spent with PnP. I hope this time it institutes a recycling programme for the tens of thousands of discarded figurines that add to the pollution already threatening marine life.
Shelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering all things new. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.
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by Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) I first heard the phrase “earned media” about 10 years ago. The ad industry started to realise that, after years of battering consumers with one-way messaging, if the content moved them enough, they would share it and talk about it. This wasn’t anything new, but there were suddenly a growing number of digital platforms that made it very easy — and measurable.
Instead of being a nice-to-have, campaigns started to evolve with earned media at the heart — highly demanded by clients who, understandably, loved the idea of free media. Ever since, the key debate when constructing any media strategy has been getting the balance between paid- and earned-media right. Facebook’s recent algorithm change has further exacerbated this as digital platforms try and monetise what has traditionally been seen as earned media.
Of all time
Which brings us to Donald Trump. And probably the greatest earned-media campaign of all time (OK, that does sound a bit Trumpesque but, in this case, it’s probably true).
Trump has stated openly that he doesn’t really believe in advertising and, in a reversal of all previous presidential campaigns, has held back most advertising right until the end — and overall his adspend has been massively down. He has stuck doggedly to his earned-media strategy from the Republican primaries, allowing Hillary Clinton to outspend him, at some stages up to 17:1 on TV ads.
Pundits have been scratching their heads but, as with everything else, it’s clear that Trump has rewritten the rule book on presidential-campaign media-buying strategies. At the core of earned media is the premise that, if you own the news cycle, you own the news. And no one is any doubt that he has achieved that.
EFF election campaign
South Africa has had a recent example with the EFF election campaign, where its earned-media potential was masterfully handled in a way that almost felt tighter than Trump’s often random and bizarre strategy.
Diving deeper into the spend figures in the US, Trump only started TV spend three months before the election and, with three weeks to go, had only spent 36% of what Mitt Romney had spent at the same stage in 2012 — and only 33% of what Clinton had spent.
So what is the lesson here for brands? It’s very simple: earned media, by definition, needs to be earned.
Grabbed attention
Whether you like him or not, the content that Trump has consistently put out over the last year has grabbed attention and been debated ad nauseum. That it has resonated enough to get him this far means he has certainly hit home with enough of a target audience.
On the contrary, a lot of brand content that one sees out there does anything but grab attention and has very weak resonance. Brands’ obsession with the potential of earned media often results in an over-hyped ‘conversation’ which stretches the credibility of a link between the brand and the content.
If a brand wants to behave in a Trump-like headline-grabbing way, the behaviour needs to be hyper-relevant and highly credible to what the brand stands for — otherwise it will just be shouting in the wilderness. More often than not, a well-planned and -optimised paid-media plan will work much harder, something which Brand Clinton has most definitely understood.
Time to be more realistic
It’s time for brand teams to be more realistic about their earned-media potential. And to realise that they are definitely not Donald Trump.
Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) is managing director of Connect, an M&C Saatchi Company, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Martin has spent 18 years in the industry, and has previously worked at Ogilvy and was MD of MEC Nota Bene in Cape Town. He contributes the monthly “Media Redefined” column, in which he challenges norms in the media space, to MarkLives.com.
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by Carl Cardinelli (@CarlCardinelli)It’s 2016. Two thousand and sixteen. Am I the only one who is still receiving briefs for “viral campaigns”? Didn’t we laugh off this request some time ago?
With branded content being a bigger commodity than ever, we find ourselves in a position where the vast majority of (previously technophobic) clients are playing catch-up with the big brands — and we are being forced to relive the torment of explaining why viral remains a unicorn. The difference now is that there is a proven method for guaranteeing clicks, likes and shares. Rejoice! We can finally assure our clients’ success in reaching millions of people.
Draft template
To illustrate this, I’ve taken the liberty of drafting a template response to your client when this request pops up. No need to thank me. It truly was my pleasure.
Dearest [insert client here]
Many thanks for your email, even more so the request for a viral campaign on your modest budget. As I’m sure you can imagine, we adore the challenge of precisely pre-empting the constantly changing and unpredictable nature of the internet and its users. Best push out our current jobs — we have a live one here! “Give me a viral campaign”. Genius. It’s this kind of “out-of-the-box” thinking that we need from clients such as yourselves. There is a general view in the ad industry of “the fewer views, the better”.
Back in the 2000s, we used to have an absolute blast poking fun at requests such as these. We went off on lengthy tangents attempting to explain the unruly nature of this beast, using industry buzzphrases such as “digital strategy” and “what you put in is what you get out”. I found this excerpt from an old email I sent to a client who had a similar request a few years back — and I just had to share it with you:
Unfortunately, we cannot commit to the line item “Viral Video”. It is damn near impossible to predict what goes viral nowadays, especially when it comes to promoting brands over causes and ‘caught-in-the-moments’.
Consumers are wise to branded content — and are reluctant to promote or share something (in a personal capacity) that could be construed as unrelatable, forced, or worse, disingenuous. In short, there are just too many variables. Current affairs, meme culture, available technology, even time of day have a huge impact on the success of a digital campaign.
Naturally, we will do our best to create something that is relevant and likely to be shared among your intended target audience — but cannot provide any assurance on the deliverable.
You know when you look back on yourself, and it’s like, OMG, what was I thinking? How embarrassing. How wrong I was. I never imagined that, nearly a decade later, you’d be asking such as similar request to what we all so fondly ridiculed back then. Me, I love a good surprise. We are even more pleased that you have opted to use ROI-based metrics to determine the level of payment from your already shrivelled budget. If you don’t break a leg, you don’t go to the doctor. If we don’t achieve your reasonable target of 2m views, we don’t get paid. It just makes sense.
By the way, we completely understand your confusion around the line item titled “Digital Media Spend”. It was rather cheeky of us to expect you to pay for our time, as well as the hard costs, associated with digital media space. To let you in on a little secret: it’s not even real space. The same goes for “PR Push”. What is that even? In all honesty, we should be creating something so spectacular that every viewer shares it with their contacts immediately — regardless of their age, gender or other insignificant general characteristics. We’re in advertising. We call ourselves creative. This is our responsibility alone, and things such as ‘budget’ or ‘resource’ shouldn’t make a difference to us. I try to get this across to my team every day. Sometimes I even shout out “Dance Monkey” and we all laugh! The weak ones cry — what fun!
And your statement is 100% correct. “It only takes a photo! Kim Kardashian did it. How much can a photo possibly cost?” You see, it’s revelations such as these that bring us so much closer to #BTI. I hope you don’t mind; we’ve opted to vinyl this powerful thinking on our wall. Naturally, we’ll pay you for this. Revelations don’t come cheap — like little taglines and silly positioning statements. I still can’t believe that some agencies look to charge more for a line that’s shorter. “Succinct” and “all encompassing”, they say. More like “Three words = three minutes”. Haha. Thieving plebs.
As an aside, please thank whoever dug up one of our previous pro-bono campaigns which went viral with little-to-no hard spend. What a good detective. Referencing this campaign along with the comment “You’ve done it before on no money” says infinites about your respect for our industry and, indeed, our agency. Naturally, we never charged out agency hours for this good cause, but I can totally understand why you feel that you deserve the same. Sure, it would have cost them the related amount, should they have paid — but the point is that they didn’t — and that’s just not fair on you. Oh, and your reference videos on “what success looks like” are amazing; thank you. A blend between “Volvo Trucks” and “Baby Panda Sneeze” is exactly the sweet spot you should be aiming for. Good call.
That all being said, we are thrilled to share with you some new information on your request. With recent developments in digital marketing, specifically in the social media space, we are finally at the point where we can confidently say that your [Insert Product Here] campaign is GUARANTEED to go viral and, get this, it doesn’t even need to be that good.
It’s rather complex, so I won’t use any of that ad-jargon agencies use to steal more money from you. In a nutshell, all you need do it put truck-loads of cash behind sponsored social media posts, influencer strategies, retargeted banners, pre-rolls and programmatic.
I’m not kidding; it’s literally that easy.
It’s as simple as paying Justin Bieber to tweet the campaign a couple dozen times and, Bob’s your mother’s brother, you’re viral! Make sure it appears on everyone’s feed, and they’re immediately exposed. Genius, I say! And you’ll be glad to know that this method of virability is truly tried and tested. Ask any of the big-spending brands how they got their 30bn organic impressions and they’ll tell you how easy it was. The best part? It’s 100% scalable! Add a couple million here and there, and the reach rises like a cake in the dessert! Talk about leaving an impression (haha — remember when we tried to sell you those?).
Alternatively, should you not have an appetite to pay for something you want, please use the following formula and apply it to your brand.
This way, you won’t have to pay us at all — and, when you really think about it, that’s a win for everyone (considering the invaluable exposure we will undoubtedly receive for working on your illustrious brand). #whatatimetobealive
Yours Always,
[insert name here]
Carl Cardinelli (@CarlCardinelli)began his career in branding and communications in 2003, spending the better part of six years establishing himself in London. Upon his return to South Africa in 2012, he was selected to lead Utopia, the “screw-the-line” agency based in Cape Town. When not heading up a team of unruly young admen, he can be found brewing his own beer, picking out a new pair of sneakers or travelling the globe in search of live music. Carl contributes the monthly “The Adtagonist” column, in which he challenges perceptions of the advertising industry and its practices for the next generation of marketers, to MarkLives.com
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