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SA TV Ratings: SABC 2 — primetime top 20 for Dec, Nov & Oct 2019

South African TV Ratings Top 20 shows 2018

by MarkLives (@marklives) The hottest primetime shows on SABC 2 in South Africa revealed: TV ratings for December, November and October 2019.

SABC 2, December 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
December 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8163

Source: BRCSA December 2019

Day	Date	From	To	Station	Programme title	Genre	AR	Viewers	Share
Tue	17/12/2019	2100	2128	S2	Muvhango	Dram	12.96	4 666 633	38.5
Mon	16/12/2019	2057	2059	S2	Behind the Scenes:SABC 2 Summer Campaign	Docu	10.63	3 827 439	13.5
Thur	19/12/2019	1759	1830	S2	7De Laan	Soap	5.06	1 821 548	20.2
Fri	20/12/2019	2131	2202	S2	Mopheme	Dram	4.99	1 797 492	19.6
Mon	02/12/2019	2129	2200	S2	Bone of My Bones	Dram	3.95	1 422 708	15
Tue	24/12/2019	2057	2100	S2	Music	Musi	3.66	1 319 188	10.8
Fri	27/12/2019	1830	1859	S2	Nuus	News	3.27	1 177 937	11.8
Thur	12/12/2019	2130	2200	S2	Speak Out	Actu	3.18	1 146 256	14.8
Fri	27/12/2019	2159	2230	S2	Mmampodi	Dram	3.09	1 110 845	14.7
Sat	28/12/2019	2000	2029	S2	Ses/Tsw/Sep News	News	3	1 079 345	10.4
Sat	14/12/2019	2028	2056	S2	Skwizas	Sitc	2.66	958 475	9.3
Sat	28/12/2019	2057	2100	S2	Live Lotto Draw	Vari	2.51	903 513	8.3
Wed	04/12/2019	1730	1759	S2	Venda/Tsonga News	News	2.29	823 081	9.1
Thur	19/12/2019	1859	1959	S2	Musiek Roulette	Musi	2.14	771 626	6.7
Sat	07/12/2019	1900	1958	S2	American Ninja Warriors	Vari	2.13	766 169	8.6
Mon	30/12/2019	2136	2203	S2	Abomzala	Sitc	2.1	755 551	8.1
Thur	26/12/2019	2129	2225	S2	Gospel Classics-R	Musi	1.99	717 797	9
Sat	28/12/2019	2100	2231	S2	Meet Dave	Movi	1.79	644 045	8
Tue	31/12/2019	2130	2229	S2	Johnny Clegg in Concert	Musi	1.76	633 484	7.7
Mon	23/12/2019	2159	2404	S2	SABC Crown Gospel Music Awards	Actu	1.73	623 191	12

SABC 2, November 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
November 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8530

Source: BRCSA November 2019

Day	Date	From	To	Station	Programme title	Genre	AR	Viewers	Share
Mon	25/11/2019	2100	2132	S2	Muvhango	Dram	13.86	4 990 935	39.9
Mon	25/11/2019	2132	2200	S2	Giyani	Dram	5.89	2 122 640	22.9
Thur	14/11/2019	1800	1829	S2	7De Laan	Soap	5.64	2 032 145	20.9
Sun	24/11/2019	2000	2231	S2	Crown Gospel Music Awards	Musi	4.9	1 763 137	18
Fri	22/11/2019	2129	2200	S2	Mopheme	Dram	4.46	1 606 306	16.8
Wed	27/11/2019	2130	2200	S2	Bone of My Bones	Dram	4.41	1 587 596	15.5
Thur	28/11/2019	2132	2201	S2	Speak Out	Actu	4.03	1 452 761	15.3
Mon	18/11/2019	1830	1900	S2	Nuus	News	3.95	1 420 476	11.9
Fri	15/11/2019	2130	2200	S2	Dimilione Tsa Keriri	Dram	3.87	1 394 356	13.7
Sat	02/11/2019	2000	2028	S2	Ses/Tsw/Sep News	News	3.13	1 127 561	10.2
Sat	02/11/2019	1955	1959	S2	Music	Musi	2.92	1 050 896	9.8
Thur	14/11/2019	1859	1958	S2	Noot Vir Noot	Musi	2.62	943 783	7.1
Sat	02/11/2019	2057	2100	S2	Live Lotto Draw	Vari	2.61	939 406	8
Sat	02/11/2019	2028	2056	S2	Skwizas	Sitc	2.57	926 868	8.7
Sat	16/11/2019	1900	1958	S2	American Ninja Warriors	Vari	2.56	920 823	8.6
Mon	18/11/2019	1730	1759	S2	Venda/Tsonga News	News	2.29	825 351	10.1
Thur	21/11/2019	1859	1958	S2	Musiek Roulette	Musi	2.12	763 505	6
Tue	12/11/2019	1900	1959	S2	Erfsondes	Dram	1.82	654 037	5.1
Wed	06/11/2019	1900	1931	S2	Spyskaart	Maga	1.69	609 550	5.2
Thur	14/11/2019	2030	2059	S2	Relate	Real	1.68	606 236	4.2

SABC 2, October 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
October 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:35830 S:8557

Source: BRCSA October 2019

Day	Date	From	To	Station	Programme title	Genre	AR	Viewers	Share
Tue	08/10/2019	2100	2130	S2	Muvhango	Dram	15.7	5 623 759	45.9
Thur	10/10/2019	1800	1829	S2	7De Laan	Soap	5.83	2 089 310	19.5
Mon	14/10/2019	2130	2157	S2	Giyani	Dram	5.51	1 974 316	21.5
Mon	14/10/2019	1830	1859	S2	Nuus	News	4.18	1 499 159	12.5
Wed	09/10/2019	2057	2100	S2	Live Lotto Draw	Vari	3.96	1 419 425	12.2
Thur	24/10/2019	2130	2159	S2	Speak Out	Actu	3.84	1 373 992	15.6
Fri	04/10/2019	2129	2159	S2	Dimilione Tsa Keriri	Dram	3.69	1 321 736	14.6
Sat	12/10/2019	2030	2056	S2	Ga Re Dumele	Sitc	3.21	1 150 367	10.7
Tue	08/10/2019	2056	2100	S2	Music	Musi	3.16	1 132 639	9.9
Sat	19/10/2019	1959	2030	S2	Ses/Tsw/Sep News	News	2.81	1 007 513	9.6
Thur	24/10/2019	1900	1958	S2	Noot Vir Noot	Musi	2.74	981 595	7.5
Mon	07/10/2019	1900	1951	S2	Voetspore	Maga	2.67	955 233	7.2
Sat	05/10/2019	1859	1951	S2	American Ninja Warriors	Vari	2.6	932 975	9.4
Sat	26/10/2019	2027	2056	S2	Skwizas	Sitc	2.45	878 645	8.8
Thur	10/10/2019	2031	2100	S2	Relate	Real	2.34	838 539	7
Fri	25/10/2019	1730	1800	S2	Venda/Tsonga News	News	2.26	808 757	10.1
Wed	23/10/2019	1900	1930	S2	Koskaskenades	Vari	2.03	728 460	5.7
Mon	14/10/2019	1956	1959	S2	Filler:Noot Vir Noot	Docu	2.03	727 363	6.2
Sun	06/10/2019	1800	1827	S2	Fokus	Actu	1.7	609 041	7
Mon	21/10/2019	2159	2228	S2	Mother of All Professions	Educ	1.66	593 946	10.6

Forget ranking first — we want position zero

by Tiffany Markman (@tiffanymarkman) Google’s getting increasingly clever. But the internet’s getting increasingly crowded, with a million websites, brands and urgent calls to action competing with our own. Can we better leverage conversational copywriting, rooted in search intent, to score Google’s coveted position zero spot: the featured snippet? I believe so.

Unveiling the holy grail

Here it is: the holy grail. Its fancy name is search engine results pages (SERP) Position Zero (P0). But you may call it the featured snippet. This is the result that sits in the high-brow spot at the top of Google’s search engine results page, above the plebeian search results descending from #1. Containing the URL (hyperlink) and page title, the featured snippet also offers a mini-preview of the target page’s content in an attempt to answer the searcher’s query.

This is part of what CoreDNA (2019) calls “Google’s ability to sniff out intent for a given search term, and deliver ultra-relevant pages and content accordingly”. It exists because, for years, Google’s been evolving from a search engine into an answers engine in response to how users phrase their search terms.

Users either type in specific questions, eg “how to create a social media plan”, or implied questions, eg “graphic design skills” (abbreviated from “what skills do graphic designers need?”) to get results. Google finds the most-relevant, -useful and -specific answer and plops it atop the page, in prime position.

For the searcher, this means less searching. Nice. But for us copywriters, jeepers. We need Google to select our content, and our clients’ content, for the noble P0. Let’s get back to the ol’ basics.

The faithful 5 Ws & H

When crafting content for P0, consider how the searcher would phrase the question if it were coming out of their mouths. Use the old faithfuls: the 5 Ws and the H. This may feel a bit like high school — but there’s a reason some things don’t change. In this case, answering who, what, when, where, why and how most closely echoes a real-life conversation with your searcher.

Remember: Searchers do it in one of two ways: in full (“What’s the name of the new Jennifer Aniston series on Apple TV+?”) or implicitly (“new Aniston series”)*.

The inverted pyramid

Once you’ve done that, structure the rest of the webpage and all of the website content using another journalistic classic: the inverted pyramid. Here you start with the critical info (that answers the main question), move into more detail, and end with the stuff you could feasibly omit if you were short on space.

There’s a risk, though, and it’s built-in: when you present the 5 Ws & H upfront, and your searcher can get the answer they need from the snippet, why click through? To give instant gratification and boost time-on-site, you must draw searchers in by combining content that answers their questions with relentless user engagement.

Here’s how:

First, prominently repeat the key (or implied) question in the copy
Then provide a short and direct answer to that question
Give more information, data, and images to support the answer
Create a clear, descriptive headline for each individual webpage

But what does the searcher actually want? What’s the best starting point? Read on.

Mapping search intent

Stephan Spencer of Search Engine Land, as far back as 2017, motivated for the use of search intent as a driver for creating content: “…be much smarter about what readers are looking for. This means using more long-tail keywords to target specific how do I… questions, with the content being more focused on solutions.” This is news to no-one but it’s something we need to convince our own clients to do, even when they’re reluctant, ie opt for meaningful copy over sexy copy.

There are markets where search intent works particularly well as a driver:

Those where there’s a need for clear answers to frequently asked questions (ooking, retail banking, gardening etc)
Those with terms that need explanation (such healthcare, self-medication, SEO/SEM, content marketing etc), and/or
Those that generate and then present data (research, technology etc)

And the actual words?

Are there specific words and phrases — I’m reluctant to even type this — or generic ones that we should be using in our website copy? Yup. Since the objective of the featured snippet is to answer questions, it makes sense to use question words in your copy. But don’t forget implied questions! Use words like “does”, “cause”, “costs”, “prices”, “best”, “reviews”, “new” etc, as well as present participles like “becoming”, “doing”, “getting”, “creating”, “making”, “forming”, and “building”.

And if you, or your clients, get to the highly sought-after P0? Please let me know.

*It’s The Morning Show. You’re welcome.

Tiffany Markman is a freelance copywriter, writing trainer and keynote speaker who’s worked with over 400 top brands in the last 15 years. She’s most proud of knowing the true meaning of the verb “revert”, though. She loves art and black coffee. If you’ve seen Tiffany on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, you may know that she hates the phrase “I hope you are well”.

“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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Q5: The new kids on the kasi block, with Sabz Ngcongwane [interview]

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Creative director Sabelo “Sabz” Ngcongwane introduces us to his new agency, Brand Spaza: how it began, the niche it fills in the local market, and where it’s heading.

Q5: Could you talk us through the story of Brand Spaza, and what sets the agency apart?
Sabelo Ngcongwane: Brand Spaza was incepted through its sister company, a printing and branding agency called Keswa Branding Solutions, which my partner [Kamohelo Keswa] and I have been running for five years now.

What sets Brand Spaza apart is that we’ve positioned ourselves as a through-the-line creative agency that helps brands connect with the local emerging/kasi/[main] markets through true, authentic township/kasi strategies, insights and communication services in impactful and meaningful ways.

Brand Spaza has noticed that the advertising industry has a lot of blanket-approach advertising when it comes to advertising and communication directed to the majority, which at times distorts the message and messaging, and consumer responses become negative. [We] always look to deliver true, authentic advertising and communication to the majority, so as to foster positive consumer responses which brands really need.

Q5: What does your client stable look like?
SN: We have managed to work with all sorts of clients, from creative and media agencies to corporate institutes and state departments.

Q5: Tell us more about your offering?
SN: We would like Brand Spaza to be… recognised as a sought-after kasi/emerging markets strategy, insight and communications agency. [We want our offering to be] relevant, creative and innovative.

Q5: Brand Spaza will soon celebrate its one-year anniversary. What have the major highlights and challenges been since you launched?
SN: Brand Spaza [is] really the new kid on the block, but we [the partners] aren’t at all new in this business of advertising and communications. That being said, our highlights have really been starting and launching the Brand Spaza brand and managing to work with great clients and individuals. Also, a big highlight was managing to grow our team from only three colleagues to 13 [of which 10 are full-time employees], which includes strategists, graphic designers, copywriters and in-the-field data and insight reps; this has allowed us to move into bigger office spaces [in Joburg], which has brought in some new work.

Our biggest challenge still is fully breaking into the industry as a black voice in media, advertising and communications.

Q5: Where to from here — what are the agency’s goals for the next 12 months?
SN: The agency’s goals are to continue delivering… impactful and meaningful communications and attracting… clients that will understand the concept of advertising for the bottom line, and not for awards.

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.

Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with over decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her regular column “Q5” hones in on strategic insights, analysis and data through punchy interviews with inspiring professionals in diversive fields.

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Thinking B2B: Fear & loathing in the agency space

egg-hammer-threaten-violence-fear by Steve Buissinne courtesy of Pixabay

by Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) There’s a real culture of fear among specialist agencies that, if they raise an unpopular point with a client that contradicts the lead agency, they’ll be written out of the strategy, with obvious consequences for their business — especially on a large account.

North of 30%

Recently, I was sitting in a classic “annual marketing plans” presentation with a client as one of a group of specialist agencies (digital, B2B, media, digital media and PR) which were there as part of a presentation by the lead agency (creative) on the client’s new annual campaign. The client is the B2B part of a major South African monolithic brand that focuses its marketing communications on B2C. What fascinated me was that the lead agency, which has tremendous experience and expertise in classic ATL advertising, had assigned north of 30% of the client’s annual budget to the production and flighting of a TVC.

It had all the research in the world to back up why the client should be focusing on brand awareness and why TV is the right medium to help it do that.

At the end of the presentation, the chief executive (not the head of marketing, who interestingly enough supported the lead agency’s recommendations) commented that she wondered whether the target market (CEOs, MDs, CFOs, FDs etc) would be 1) watching enough TV to justify a TVC and 2) influenced enough by TVC, given that the purchasing decision was a long and complex one. She admitted it didn’t research to back up the question — it was more intuitive than anything — but asked the opinions of all the agencies in the room. Would it make sense to commit over a third of marketing spend to TV?

Power dynamics

The response was telling of the power dynamics at play, with the lead strategy having been drawn up by the lead creative agency. Not one of the specialist agencies (me included) were able to respond with what was the obvious answer in the room, for fear of jeopardising our role in the project under the lead; there’s an inherent conflict between doing what’s right for the client and doing what’s right for our business.

The silence left the lead agency to present its defence — which was flimsy, at best — and the head of marketing to support its reasoning, since the strategy had already been signed off. It was a face-saving exercise that points to a bigger problem in the South African marketing industry — being politically correct, playing along and doing what’s expected aren’t necessarily in the client’s best interest. The only entity which benefitted from the lack of debate around the topic was the lead agency, which will be able to do what it’s good at and earn a handsome fee — while the client is left with a strategy that could ultimately see a third of its B2B marketing budget for the year being ineffective, with more impactful alternatives left out of the strategy because of fear.

I asked myself whether the R25m committed to the TVC could be better spent — and the answer is “yes”.

Specifically targeted

If the brand allocated a budget of R10 000 per client to acquire new clients, it could, at an absolute minimum, land 2 500 new clients. Sure, it’ll most likely win some new business on the back of its TVC — but will that number get anywhere close to 2 500 specifically targeted clients, who could’ve been reached, engaged and most likely converted if the spend were better allocated? I bet not even close to 100 will be closed.

The experience has been an interesting one for me: an example of the best and worst of how agencies and brands work together. Instead of working in a space of fear, an agency’s role should be to provide the right counsel to clients.

The lead agency got its way but it’s a short-term win. If the campaign fails, it’ll be found out and the specialist agencies will either find themselves tarred with the same brush, or if they’re bold enough, be given the chance to make inroads into the client on the back of the failure of another agency. That’s unhealthy and unsustainable in a small industry.

The solution

The solution is creating a space where it’s OK to disagree — to sit in front of the client as cluster of agencies and not pretend to have a united front. Each agency should be free to state its case on the back of its own experience and balanced research, and encourage the client to make the final decision. It’s the client’s money and brand, after all.

Will the huge spend increase brand awareness? Possibly. Will external people be able to tell the chief executive that they saw the TV ads? Sure. Will anyone feel like it’s working? Probably, because of the visibility delivered by the media spend. Does it translate to the bottom line, though? Will that client see a return in excess of the spend, on its bottom line? Will the client see any acceptable return? I’d argue that it won’t, which is effectively robbing from its own coffers.

Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) is the CEO and founder of Demographica, a multi-award winning full service agency that specialises in the B2B category. He has been chair of both the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) and the Assegai Integrated Marketing Awards (Assegais), as well as the only African to judge the B2 Awards, which recognise the top performing B2B marketers in the world. Warren contributes the monthly “Thinking B2B” column, which looks at the latest trends in B2B communications and explains why it is fundamentally different from B2C comms.

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Brands & Branding: How technology’s changing our expectations

Brands & Branding 2019 and Refilwe Maluleke

by Refilwe Maluleke (@rmaluleke2011) The creative destruction of the access economy is disrupting traditional industries and creating new opportunities. The rent or buy conundrum is one usually faced by prospective home-owners but it is increasingly applicable to entrepreneurs as well.

The traditional model for starting a business involves investing in tangible assets that can be put to work to earn an income for shareholders. However, technology has forever changed this traditional paradigm.

The advent of companies such as Uber, Rent the Runway and Airbnb have shown that it’s no longer necessary to own the assets required to run a business. In fact, in many ways it’s better not to own them. Instead, the real value is in owning the platform that enables you to connect potential consumers with the owners of underused assets.

Collaborative capitalism

This concept has come to be known as the access economy [or shared/sharing/rental economy — ed-at-large], a model of collaborative consumption that allows people to rent goods, rather than own them outright. In many ways, this access economy may be described as collective capitalism that allows personal assets to be pooled via an internet-based intermediary platform at competitive prices that match dispersed networks of willing sellers with willing buyers. By connecting idle resources with latent market demand, the owners of those resources are able to monetise assets that were not being fully used.

Airbnb allows everyday people to rent out a room or a portion of their homes to visitors seeking accommodation, thus enabling them to earn an income they would’ve otherwise missed out on. Similarly, services such as Uber and Lyft enable anyone with a car to provide a ride service to people seeking transport. By facilitating convenient transacting between private owners of resources and those who want to use them, the access economy is able to massively boost efficiencies, often resulting in better pricing for consumers than traditional industries.

Access vs ownership

This is why services like Uber are able to undercut traditional metred taxis. Of course, this raises the question about whether it’s worth owning any assets at all.

Society, particularly millennials and city dwellers, increasingly view access as preferable to ownership, particularly for goods that are only used occasionally. As recently cited in the McKinsey Automotive report, in a world in which cars are not in use 95% of the time on average in urban areas, ownership can be a burden.

One of the most-significant societal drivers of this trend is the rising population densities of major cities. Currently, 54% of the world’s population live in urban areas and that number is expected to rise to 66% by 2050, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

This is also driving a shift in social conventions with people no longer viewing ownership of assets as a necessary sign of achievement. For example, even in cities where public transport is unavailable or unreliable, services like Uber are not only allowing people to forfeit owning a car but it’s even becoming fashionable. It’s the perfect example of the market solving a customer need.

Trading non-tangible goods

The access economy also allows people to trade non-tangible goods. The internet has spawned a host of platforms that connect workers with people or companies needing specific ad hoc tasks completed.

A truly innovative example is Eden McCallum, a company that is simultaneously bringing the access economy to the world of consulting while also redefining its business model. It specialises in matching client requests with highly qualified freelance consultants who have the requisite experience and expertise to complete the task. This provides a tailored solution to the client at a highly competitive rate, while the consultant enjoys the freedom and flexibility that comes with being an independent corporate advisor.

Rent the Runway is another access-economy success story. Founded in 2009 as an online service that allowed women to rent designer dresses and accessories for special occasions, instead of having to purchase them, the company has since grown into a fully fledged retail operation, with bricks-and-mortar stores in several major cities across the US and over 6m customers. It has also attracted significant venture capital and was recently valued at US$1bn, giving it coveted ‘unicorn’ status.

This reach of the access economy even extends to financial services. Peer-to-peer (P2P) or social lending allows people to get unsecured personal loans directly from industry peers or interested investors. This effectively cuts out middlemen like banks or financial institutions, resulting in more attractive interest rates for both borrowers and lenders. P2P platforms such as Zopa allow people to get loans for everything, from funding a business to paying for medical bills.

Although the access economy has massively disrupted traditional industries, it’s also attracted a lot of money. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that US$23bn in venture capital has been poured into the economy since 2010. Investors are not only drawn to the entrepreneurial agility that these disruptive platforms have engendered but also their hyperscalability.

In conclusion

The power of technology means popular sharing platforms are able to deliver agility at incredible scale as increased demand is added to the system. This plays a significant role in creating concentrated markets, due to the network effects upon which they thrive. A local example of this is Takealot’s expansion into multiple categories including books (Kalahari), food (Mr D Food) and clothing (Superbalist).

With the access economy expected to grow to around US$335bn by 2025 according to The Current and Future State of the Sharing Economy, we may expect a lot more investment to pour into fledgling platforms. That creates both opportunities and challenges for players looking to either ride, or avoid, this coming wave of creative destruction.

Refilwe Maluleke (@rmaluleke2011) is managing director of Yellowwood, the strategy consultancy which is part of TBWA\ South Africa. She is a classically trained marketer with varied experience across sub-saharan Africa, a proven track-record of delivery across multiple brands, and strong relationships with some of the best marketers and agencies in South Africa. Refilwe has a business science degree with an honours in marketing from the University of Cape Town, and recently completed her MBA at Cass Business School in London.

The article first appeared in the 2019 edition of Brands & Branding in South Africa, an annual review from Affinity Publishing of all aspects of brand marketing. Find case-studies, profiles and brand news at Co.RetailingAfrica.com. Order your copy of the 25th annual edition now!

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Zeitgeist of Now: Countering capitalism without conscience

MarkLives Zeigeist of Now - countering capitalism without conscience - pic by HaveYouHeard

by Jason Stewart (@HaveYouHeard_SA) Capitalism has always gone hand-in-hand with democracy — free markets for the free world. However, it’s been corrupted to advantage some and disadvantage others, rigged so that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. This is what we call “capitalism without conscience”.

A capitalistic system is meant to create an environment that allows those who work hard and/or smart to prosper, with the outputs (usually wealth creation) being directly linked to the inputs (investment, being time or money or other resources). It therefore allows for private ownership, profit retention and capital accumulation, and requires open, competitive markets.

Capitalism without conscience is responsible for today’s greed, corruption, institutionalised bias, the negative impact of compound interest (for those who suffer with debt) and inequality in wealth, income and opportunity. Even worse, it’s eroded the optimism that the world felt moving into the new millennium and, after the global financial crash of 2008, most — if not all — faith in capitalism has disappeared like sushi on a buffet.

And, when it comes to culture and human behaviour, capitalism without conscience has sparked the growing populism, nationalistic and segregated racial rhetoric that has spread across Europe and the US, and is raising its head here in our young democracy in South Africa.

Positive change

There is positive change happening, however. It can’t be called a backlash or a groundswell, but there’s some intent to stop capitalism without conscience in its tracks. In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, a powerful group of 181 top CEOs of American-based companies, redefined the purpose of a corporation: the old definition, of making profit for its stakeholders, was changed to improving society as a whole by valuing customers, protecting the environment, and hiring diverse groups and compensating them fairly.

But until this shift becomes the predominant and institutionalised way of being, we — globally and in SA — will have an economy where people are more pressured and under financial strain. The rich have less to spend, the middle class have less to save, and the poor have closer to nothing more than ever.

People will put up with most things but, once their living standards start to feel pressured or drop, they become angry. Hence the nationalistic revolts around the world.

They’ll also start placing increased importance on security, protection and opportunity. Many will look for escapism that fills them with hope; already Hollywood, Bollywood and the like are feeding us movies jam packed with heroes who fight the corrupt evil forces of power and win. The desperate may look for escapism that includes the traditional vices of alcohol, drugs, sex (porn). Others will seek out more tangible escape: emigration.

How will the market, businesses and brands be affected?

The grey market of stolen or fake goods will explode. Hope will become a commodity of value. Religion and other forms of communal belonging will continue to grow, especially as the more desperate and scared people become. The sharing and rental economy will grow, especially as the packaging of its services is so sexy and aspirational. Frugality will become cool and consumers will become econo-wise. A plethora of products, services and ‘spend thrift’ gurus will show consumers how to make smarter financial choices.

Consumers are going to interrogate price and, with increased use of technology, will demand more transparency in how products are costed. They will also start turning over every cent twice, asking if they can get more status, or more convenience, or more nutrition or more flavour per rand spent. Brands need to do more to stand out and show distinction of value, providing higher return on investment for the brand delivery.

Niche, smaller brands will fall away as these brand owners struggle to compete and make the profit needed to survive. Mass brands will offer the most-economical prices and provide the trust and guarantee needed for purchase safety (knowing the product will do what it says).

The range and nature of what people buy and use as status symbols will continue to change and narrow. Going cheap on certain types of products will become accepted. More importance will be focused on the status essentials that are closer linked to the likes of beauty, power, success.

Opportunity

Opportunity is always prevalent. Airbnb would never have become the world’s ‘largest hotel chain’, had it not been for 2008 creating an environment in which people would look to earn additional income and others would be willing to stay in cheaper rooms. Business, brands and entrepreneurs will need to continually rethink the consumer’s needs and wants.

Jason Stewart is co-founder of HaveYouHeard (@HaveYouHeard_SA), a full-service agency. Zeitgeist of Now, his new column on MarkLives, is inspired by the agency’s proprietary tool developed to understand the invisible but powerful forces that influence people, products, culture and societies. If we appreciate these, he argues, we become more-effective marketers.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify.biz headlines, emailed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

The marketing long con — knowing isn’t half the battle

smoothie-juice-drink-food by marijana1 courtesy of Pixabay

by Taazima Kala-Essack (@taazimakala) Don’t you just love a good con? I don’t mean a money heist, or a situation in which larceny or personal harm occur. I mean small little white acts of deceit in everyday life that are a little more laughable than they are morally devoid — the younger cousin to a white lie, if you will.

As I sit here staring at one of those green health juices from a health shop that won’t be named, I’ve likely been conned by the appeal of kale which, it would seem, has a Harvard degree and a country house with ponies. This is, of course, what I imagine was the case, given said green juice’s price tag. I should have known better, but, alas, I’ve let myself be duped, and handed over my bank card filled with hope.

The point of this story, beyond that many will have a similar tale to tell, is that it got me thinking about the many instances where consumerism, ably assisted by us marketers, pull little cons such as this — even worse, where we knowingly enable or allow it — maybe even embrace it.

GI Joe Fallacy

Enter GI Joe, the hypermasculine childhood action figure that was the love of many kids growing up. “Knowing is half the battle” was one of GI Joe’s most-often quoted phrases. But it’s a lie. The reality is that Joe didn’t give us the full picture, or even the whole truth. Knowing doesn’t always make much of a difference to anything, at least not in my humble view.

After one heck of a year and as the whiplash of 2019 settles, I’m not quite sure knowledge is enough without real and relevant action. Moreover, I’m willing to bet many would agree: knowing is not even close to half the battle. There is much, much more to it than that.

So real a fact is this: scientists and behavioural analysts have named the mistaken idea that knowing is half the battle as “the GI Joe Fallacy”, and it’s just as impactful a truth in the world of commerce, marketing and communications as it is in any study of human behaviour. Knowing can often be the burden or the curse. In fact, ignorance may well be bliss, as the saying goes. Why? I don’t mean to be a Negative Nelly, but let’s explore this idea for a second, and we can then decide from there.

Take, for example, how brands choose to communicate and manage preference and consumption of consumers. We’re manipulated into buying things we don’t want (like my exorbitantly priced green juice), need or even trust in many cases, even though we know better. I like using artificial sweetener, for instance, and my decision isn’t based on anything but that those around me always used it over natural sugar. Knowing it likely has less of a positive impact on my health than real sugar changes nothing for me.

Regardless of the info

An unfair example? Possibly. How about others? You walk into a store and see something priced for 199.99; you know it’s the same price as 200.00, but the first still feels like a much-better deal. You know a bag of sweets isn’t the best meal choice but you choose it anyway, knowing full well it’s no good for you. You know that exercising every day is beneficial but that doesn’t mean you’llactually do it. You know better but allow your cognitive biases to take over regardless. Knowing hasn’t changed anything — you’ve chosen to act, regardless of the information possessed at the time.

In many ways, this is the basis of consumerism and commerce: we’re conned into thinking we need something (a pair of shoes that also has wheels of death attached that comes in neon glitter pink? Yes!) or that it is good for us (cake for breakfast must be good for us because they used extracts from a plant in the Amazon!).

Commercial outlets know this; they know our biases; they know our inability (or refusal) to make choices we often know to be better or smarter in favour of allowing the miswantings (wanting of the wrong things even when we know better) to rule.

So, despite that it rightly should be, knowledge is rarely the central factor controlling our behaviour. As behavioural science would have it, knowing simply isn’t enough in most instances; it’s not enough to put certain things into practice because we’re wired not to make certain choices, despite our awareness.

Behavioural control

Does it have to be this way, though?

The real power of behavioural control, as science dictates, doesn’t come from knowledge but from things such as situation selection, habit formation and emotion regulation. Similarly, in the most meta of things, now knowing that we’re being manipulated by good ol’ consumerism isn’t enough to wholly change our choices and purchasing decisions.

In a culture of complacency, fast decisions and even faster regrets, we’re beyond the point of knowing being enough. We need a nudge, we need action, and we need to transform awareness and rhetoric into demonstrable action. For example, Dove is no longer selling the narrative of traditional beauty; it’s acting to show our inherent flaws in defining beauty. Gillette is no longer betting on the knowledge of a tried-and-tested product over generations; it’s acting to fight against stereotypes and pre-cast norms of inclusion.

As consumers, we want products filled with purpose and we want things to mean more; there’s much less room for cons and fallacies when we really put our minds and hearts to it. As the ever-inspiring Greta Thunberg shows us, we must know in order to act and only in the latter does the truly hard work reside.

So, knowing isn’t half the battle but it’s the start of the proverbial war. When we know, we need to act. One can’t exist without the other, and yet the latter remains infinitely more necessary. Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

Has anything even changed?

So, what are we doing to take charge in a consumeristic world that lives off our cognitive biases? We rebel because, just as easily as we can fall into miswantings, so too can we rewire our brains and our behaviour to consume and purchase with purpose, digging into the very thing commercial culture sought to build its castle upon.

Knowing isn’t half the battle. Now that you know this, has anything even changed?

Taazima Kala-Essack (@taazimakala) is a PR and public affairs specialist consultant based in Gaborone, Botswana, with an academic background in language and literature. She has led and collaborated on a number of strategic and communications projects in Botswana and Namibia, and is currently the only CIPR-accredited PR consultant in Botswana. She is the lead consultant at Hotwire PRC, Botswana’s oldest and largest PR consulting business which is aligned to FCB Wired.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify.biz headlines, emailed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

#DesignIndaba25: All that glitters isn’t gold

by MarkLives (@marklives) This year, Design Indaba celebrates its 25th edition. A panel of agency and media execs who’ve been regular attendees tackle: What impact has Design Indaba had on the thinking, attitude and leadership of agency and marketing creatives and executives? Has it evolved and inspired you to research new ways of doing and thinking? Has it changed how you perceive the industry? Have there been any personal highlights, and where should the event pivot next — what can it do to add meaning to the industry and to one personally? Next up in our #BigQ panel is Retailing Africa‘s Louise Burgers.

Louise Burgers

Louise Burgers (previously Marsland) is the publisher and editor of RetailingAfrica.com (@retailingafrica), launched in partnership with MarkLives. She has attended Design Indaba almost every year for the past 15 years as a journalist and editor for various leading industry publications.

The day that global design guru and former jailbird, Martha Stewart, took to the Design Indaba stage in 2010 at the imposing Cape Town International Convention Centre, to talk about glittered ham for that special occasion, was the day Design Indaba (DI) had to begin its evolution to where it’s now: a major sustainable design festival in a more-accessible design space at Artscape, with a younger audience served by an increasingly diverse, millennial on-stage talent mix.

Stuff of legends

The takedown on social media of Stewart is the stuff of legends. It was brutal and the first time Design Indaba was defined by the social media shitstorm that made the mainstream press, rather than the feast of global design and innovation from senior design talent we usually gorged ourselves on.

Stewart’s arrogance at not researching her audience ahead of time and assuming we were middle-class housewives interested in eggshell-hued pastel paints in 50 shades of white and how to cook the perfect traditional Hallmark-channel Christmas movie dinner, complete with edible glitter for glittering effect, resulted in the first and only mass walkout of any Design Indaba speaker in its 25-year history that I can recall. Stewart could have received a standing ovation if she’d appeared in her prison orange jumpsuit and recounted how she redesigned her prison cell while “finding her true inner-authentic self” while incarcerated, instead of the mocking laughter she got.

It was a misstep that was quickly corrected by DI founder and guru, Ravi Naidoo, who segued neatly through the drama and continued to reinvent the festival, which — without a doubt in its 25-year history — has changed South Africa’s design industry and the thinking of many of our creative leaders today. Some years are better than others; some speakers make you emotional with their heartfelt delivery and incredible journeys and impactful design; others leave you gasping at their bravado and their talent.

Immutable

One immutable fact is that you don’t walk away there unchanged. You will go forth and innovate. Whether it’s in your work or your art or your hobby. Design Indaba’s mission today is to influence us to create meaningful change, to design with purpose, to change the world.

Apart from the turning point that Stewart heralded, the speakers that have stood out for me over the years for their sheer brilliance haven’t necessarily the big-name designers. As a writer, it’s the storytellers who touch my soul, whether by words or their work. At the top of the list of those that stick with me as awe-inspiring, are Ferran Adrià, the famed head chef of El Bulli in Spain, the Michelin three-star restaurant that was ranked the best in the world from 2006 to 2009, whose food creations are spectacular and push molecular boundaries. He could barely speak English and his slides were blurry, but his genius is unrivalled and it was wonderful to see him in person at DI 2009. His message was that nothing was impossible.

One of my best DI speakers, however, remains Dutch artist, innovator, interaction designer, Daan Roosegaarde, in 2013. His sustainable, futuristic and fun solutions include his wonderful Dune lighting system, which transforms dark community spaces into tactile, interactive destinations; his glow-in-the-dark paint for highways, which recharges during the day to light up the highways at night; and a touring colourful club dancefloor that produces energy when people dance on it. Utter genius.

Sticks in my mind

Another presentation that sticks in my mind is when we listened to water dripping into an earthen jar in a temple in Tokyo, on the other side of the world — in real time in 2008 — when Prof Shinichi Takemura, a renowned media producer from Japan, took to the stage to talk about his Tangible Earth project. He created the first 10m-to-one digital scale model of the earth, where any man-created or environmental event can be plotted on. His philosophy is that, if we were properly connected to global events, hearing the screams of victims real-time, for example, in war, or watching forests being denuded in front of our eyes, it would make us react differently and be more sensitised.

In the last couple of years, more talent from Africa or the diaspora has been introduced, such as the young Kenyan, Leroy Mawasaru, who transformed his village by coming up with a renewable energy solution to transform human waste into electricity, thereby also protecting their drinking water source from contamination; and, more recently, in 2019, we heard from Kenyan filmmaker, Wanuri Kahiu, who wants to change the narrative on Africa — for the rest of the world and for Africa. She wants Africa to also be known for its joy, its beauty and rich history, and is on a mission to tell our happy stories in film and books.

And that’s where Design Indaba should go for the next decade, in my opinion: to look more towards the African continent for its innovators and its storytellers and the new world we need to craft to ensure our children have a future on our beautiful continent. East, West, Africa is best. Let’s tell the rest of the world.

— MarkLives.com is a proud media supporter of Design Indaba 2020, taking place 26–28 February 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. Book your tickets online for the main conference or the live simulcast to multiple cities around South Africa.

Is South Africa ready for voice commerce?

by Craig Hannabus (@crayg) I recently had a look at The Verge’s top 100 gadgets of the previous decade. No. 2 on the list is the Amazon Echo, a very Star Trekkie ‘smart’, internet-enabled speaker that acts as a digital assistant and is perfect for anyone wanting a ‘smart home’, doing everything from controlling lights and enabling your alarm system to answering any of your pop-culture questions. One of its more interesting features is voice commerce.

Running low on your favourite drink? Just ask your Echo to order you some more — no mouse, no keyboard, no fuss.

Depending on who you talk to, voice commerce is either the next big thing or a lacklustre gimmick with no real value. Those hailing it as a godsend are talking about the simplicity of it, the naturalness of asking for something as opposed to typing. Voice commerce is also easier than ever to set up (for our international friends), with devices being fairly cheap.

Criticisms

But there are some criticisms of the tech. While it makes sense for general shopping, most users will revert to ecommerce or in-store for those big-ticket purchases. There seems to be some apprehension towards saying “get me the big TV” and hoping for the best. The adoption rate also hasn’t been as vigorous as expected. Some experts attribute this to the ‘newness’ of the tech and say that adoption will grow once people understand the new paradigm (which contradicts the whole ‘naturalness’ argument).

South Africa has some bigger issues to deal with when it comes to voice-commerce adoption.

First, we’re not that big on ecommerce. There are several issues compounding this. According to a recent research report, 71% of the respondents said that they’d abandoned their cart, either because of a payment gateway failure or because a question they’d wasn’t answered. That’s huge. It boils down to the fact that, if ecommerce sites tightened up their customer experience (CX), they could grow their business by three times. Experiences like these leave a bad taste in the consumer’s mouth. A distrust of the security provided by financial institutions in the online space also isn’t helping matters.

Better experiences

Clearly there’s some work to be done around building better experiences for the consumer, both within the shopping and banking experience.

Secondly, there’s limited support for accent recognition. Forrester recently conducted a test across the four major voice assistants (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple). On average, of the 180 questions asked, the devices failed to answer a whopping 64%. In some cases, the tester was redirected to a browser but, in others, the device failed to understand the question. Imagine the frustration a user speaking with a regional English accent or even in their native language might experience? Right now, Alexa caters for a handful of regional accents but many owners are finding that they have to drop their accents to speak to their devices. This will definitely not fly in the South African market.

Lastly, our biggest ecommerce platform doesn’t support it. Takealot has no voice-commerce offering and that’s telling. With Takealot having the biggest market share as far as ecommerce is concerned, it seems that, if voice were viable, there’d be some mention of it somewhere on its site or in its blog. When I reached out to them, the response was a firm “maybe”.

Worth adopting

Is SA ready for voice commerce? No. Is voice commerce ready for SA? No. Does SA need to be ready for voice commerce? Yes, but not necessarily for the sake of commanding a smart speaker to order more peanuts using your favourite SA accent. It’s more because we have some inherent problems with our customer experience across our current ecommerce platforms that need resolving. Maybe, by the time we sort those out, voice commerce will be something worth adopting.

“Make it go viral” — WTF?!

virus-microscope-infection-illness by Arek Socha courtesy of Pixabay

by Leigh Tayler (@LeighAnneTayler) Advertising is a crazy industry to work in because as it combines two things which would appear to be diametrically opposed: the idealism and optimism of creative, and the pragmatism and bottom-line of corporate. But — regardless of how it works, why it works and if it, in fact, works — what these two forces without a doubt do achieve are moments where one or both sides of the boardroom table are left dumbstruck. Or, as I like to call them, “WTF?! moments”.

“Did I just hear that?”

Over the years, I’ve been at the pointy end of (or overheard) many requests or suggestions from both sides that are so breathtaking you can only respond by nodding slowly and impassively while internally screaming, “WTF is going on?! Did I just hear that?”

WTFs come in all shapes and sizes, and, not unsurprisingly, often involve budget realities and unrealistic expectations, from briefs for 360 campaigns on budgets that won’t stretch past a flyer drop at William Nicol and Sandton Drive or creatives, after being briefed on a 30″ TVC on a modest but doable production budget, reverting with a 60″ TVC set on the foothills of the Himalayas.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say one of my all-time favourite WTFs is when a client’s brief says something along the lines of “make my ad go viral”.

Now I must include a caveat: the notion of virality is not my problem as virality is just the 21^st century synonym for fame, and advertising/content should always aim for fame because that’s where salience and all those good things that good advertising achieves comes from.

Fickle lover

But fame (and virality) is a fickle lover.

Any good agency worth their weight in Skittles is striving for fame for its piece of work. Often, it’s very familiar with how to increase the probability of virality but, ultimately, it’s not in the hands of the brand owner or the ad agency — it’s in the hands of the viral vectors, otherwise known as the consumers.

It’s also important to acknowledge that often the things that go viral with regards to brands do so for all the wrong reasons. I’m fairly sure that H&M would rather not have gone viral for its “king of the jungle” sweatshirt. Gucci probably wishes 2019 had passed by with no-one mentioning its brand, let alone mentioning it in the same sentence as “black face”.

And the biggest WTF of “make it go viral” is that the things that go viral — really viral — are the things that you might not want your brand within 10 feet of:

The outrages or injustices — political, environmental, social
The personal and shady
The inane or irresponsible
The inflammatory
The faux pas or bloopers
The off-the-cuff and spontaneous
The kittens and miniature goats in PJs (maybe those are fine)

Brief accompaniments

However, if “make it go viral” persists as an expectation, then there are some things that need to accompany it on the brief — starting with bravery, removing tick boxes and ending with creative freedom/licence.

Ideas that go viral for the right reasons aren’t safe. Ideas that go viral have as much chance of catching fire as they do of dying without a spark — it all depends on the mood of the viral vectors in that 10 seconds your brand pops up on their screens. Ideas that go viral happen in real time; they leverage the conversation of the moment; they react to things that consumers are reacting to. Ideas that go viral don’t need to be complicated or deep’ they just need to be on point.

Perhaps the moral of my story is that let’s stop the WTF moment of “make it go viral” and just assume that your agency wants it to go viral, regardless of whether the brief explicitly asks it to — and, if that’s what you want too, then make sure you have your big girl/boy pants on ’cause going viral isn’t for the fainthearted.

Leigh Tayler (@LeighAnneTayler) is the strategy director at Joe Public United. During her career of more than 12 years, she’s worked in just about every imaginable category and has fostered a well-rounded and instinctual approach to strategic thinking that she applies at every level, from big brand concepts to last-mile moments of truth.

— Sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify.biz headlines, emailed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

SABC 2, December 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+ December 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8163

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SABC 2, November 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+ November 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8530

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SABC 2, October 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+ October 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm Adults 15+ years U:35830 S:8557

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See also

Unveiling the holy grail

The faithful 5 Ws & H

The inverted pyramid

Mapping search intent

And the actual words?

*It’s The Morning Show. You’re welcome.

North of 30%

Power dynamics

Specifically targeted

The solution

Collaborative capitalism

Access vs ownership

Trading non-tangible goods

In conclusion

Positive change

How will the market, businesses and brands be affected?

Opportunity

GI Joe Fallacy

Regardless of the info

Behavioural control

Has anything even changed?

Louise Burgers

Stuff of legends

Immutable

Sticks in my mind

— MarkLives.com is a proud media supporter of Design Indaba 2020, taking place 26–28 February 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. Book your tickets online for the main conference or the live simulcast to multiple cities around South Africa.

See also

Criticisms

Better experiences

Worth adopting

See also

“Did I just hear that?”

Fickle lover

Brief accompaniments

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
December 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8163

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
November 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:36011 S:8530

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
October 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:35830 S:8557