Green Sky Thinking: What millennials want

by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) In order to attract this generation’s future leaders, thinkers and consumers, business needs to emphasise innovation and positive societal impacts.

This is according to Deloitte’s Global Millennial Survey 2013, its second study of how this next generation (qualified as those born after January 1982) views business and innovation, and the impact of both.

Colwyn ElderThe purpose of business is to improve society

Millennials around the world (71% of respondents surveyed) think business innovations can directly improve society.

In some countries, including the Netherlands, US, India and Germany, this becomes an expectation, with 36% of millennials thinking that the purpose of business is to improve society.

In terms of focus points, regional differences are apparent, with Brazilians believing resource scarcity to be the biggest issue in the next 20 years, while millennials in the US and India are most concerned about inflation. Respondents in South Africa and many Western European countries are worried about unemployment.

People and planet given equal weight

Interestingly, people and planet were given equal weight, with 24% of millennials saying that business should be paying the most attention to environmental issues, while 23% think that it should focus on inequality.

While no one can doubt the importance of innovation in business today and its role as a powerful force for change and growth, Deloitte’s Millennial Survey reveals that this future generation increasingly views business through the lens of social impact.

More than half the respondents surveyed believe business, more than any other area of society, will achieve the greatest impact in solving society’s biggest challenges. No pressure!

Advertising is perfectly placed

And, as a creative industry, advertising is perfectly placed to apply ideas-led thinking and bring innovative solutions to world’s problems.

R/GA London’s executive creative director, George Prest, wrote a great piece recently on The Guardian about how there has never been a better time to work in advertising, and I couldn’t agree more.

He rightly says that “the remit of our industry is broader than it has ever been and brilliantly we can make a difference… make things for human beings that improve their lives… tell the truth and if there is no meaning in the brands that we work for, we can work with the most interesting people at the top of those companies to find meaning and innovate.”

Digital a precursor to sustainability

The digital revolution has served as the precursor to the sustainability revolution by opening up a space that is hyper-connected and transparent, making honesty, integrity and authenticity table-stakes for any brand-led conversation.

People now want stories that matter — brands that co-exist with our lives, contribute real meaning and, simply, make the world a better place.

Strategic consultant Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) brings a global perspective to the issue of sustainability, having lived and worked in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Cape Town. She contributes the monthly “Green Sky Thinking” column on sustainability issues to MarkLives.

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Ad of the Week: Celebrate the Rainbow Nation with a…

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) It’s not the first time I’ve found a Coca-Cola campaign by FCB Johannesburg that’s stood out as my ‘best of the week’ — after all, it’s a brand that is made or broken by its image and brand identity.

In November last year, I wrote about the excellent “Share a Coke with…” campaign that’s still running, and the ever-so-clever hero-dog, Bobby, who scoured the Jozi streets for a can or bottle with his name on it. Even though it’s an international campaign, it was made local and relevant by the creative team led by Brett Morris at FCB Joburg.

FCB was also responsible for last week’s ‘Rainbow Nation’ experience in Jozi as part of the buildup to the Freedom Day celebrations on 27 April 2014, marking 20 years of democracy in South Africa. It’s the sort of experiential exercise that gets people talking, twitterers tweeting and Instagrammers flashing.

FCB Johannesburg’s “Coca-Cola Rainbow Nation — 20 years of democracy in South Africa” for Coca-Cola South Africa

The idea, to commemorate Bishop Desmond Tutu’s famous coining of the phrase “the rainbow nation”, was to get a rainbow to appear above the giant Coca-Cola ‘billboard’ in downtown Johannesburg. The billboard also changed from the standard red to a multicoloured version.

Love affair

Why do humans have a love affair with rainbows?

Perhaps it’s the symbology, which dates to the biblical story of Noah, or perhaps it’s the tales we were told as children — for Westerners, inevitably the Irish story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, guarded by a leprechaun. Other cultures see rainbows as snakes or bridges, generally also with mystical properties.

In recent times, the rainbow has been co-opted for various social causes, including the Cooperative movement in the German Peasants’ War in the 16th century and, since the 1970s, the Gay Pride and LGBT movements.

Magic of storytelling

Human beings love stories, and an event like this draws upon the magic of storytelling, with the multilayered archetype of the ‘magical’ rainbow.

Coca-ColaRainbows only appear under specific circumstances, although anyone who has played with a garden sprinkler knows that they can be artificially created. But making one that spans an entire building required months of planning and research — and a specialist ‘Rainbow Maker’ in the form of one Fred Stern, an American-based man who does just that: make rainbows virtually on demand.

To be accurate, there has to be sun, and it must be early (before 10am) or late (after 4:30pm) in the day. This is because a rainbow is essentially reflected and refracted light: each raindrop is a curved ‘mirror’ that causes sunlight to be ‘split’ into its component parts, in the same way that a prism splits white light into the seven colours we have come to know as violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

In order to make this rainbow-to-order, water had to be pumped up to special sprinkler-type jets on the roof of the building by Mary Fitzgerald Square, which then created an artificial rain that — at the right time in the afternoon — created the wonderful effect that was seen by people standing to the west of the building.

Replicated at other sites

The experience was replicated at various other sites where Coca-Cola had its branding and, in addition, smaller rainbows were made at more ‘ground-level’ venues where the afternoon sun was able to create the effect.

The hashtag #rainbownation was used in social media for people to post pics of themselves enjoying the event and, despite winter starting to take hold in these parts, it seems that a lot of people got into the spirit of the event.

It’s a truism that human beings are naturally creative, and this event provided an opportunity for people to co-create by taking photos, playing in the water, or simply by being there and enjoying an unusual experience — which undoubtedly helped forge an emotional bond with the brand and allowed Coca-Cola to present itself as a fun-loving, high-energy product celebrating togetherness and positivity.

Look at the smiles

Experiential campaigns such as these thrive on social media buzz, and there has been a ton of this, from tweets to blogs to articles. But never mind the stats — one only has to look at the smiles of those who were there to see that it was memorable, and thus a success for the brand.

 

Oresti PatriciosAd of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research.

If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging,
please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.

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Bester Burke Slingers calls it a day

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Cape Town-based Bester Burke Slingers is closing its doors at the end of July 2014. Bryan Slingers, chairman of The Bester Burke Slingers Group, has confirmed that the partners in the business will close the company, rather than try and sell it.

besterburke logoAccording to Slingers, the partners — who includes Slingers, Dave Bester (CEO) and Stephen Burke (executive creative director) — have decided that they have had enough of the ad industry.*

“The industry no longer represents what we had signed up for when we joined it,” says Slingers. “We feel we can spend our talents in other, better ways.”

Set for an orderly close

The Bester Burke Slingers Group is set for an orderly close, come the end of July, when its contractual obligations to clients end. The company was formed in January 2007, when Bester Burke Group (established in 1997) and The Bryan Slingers Partnership (tbsp — established 1991) merged.

About 35 employees are affected by the closure. Slingers says the business partners are trying to find positions for affected staff elsewhere in the industry, and those they are unable to assist will be retrenched.

Slingers describes the decision to close Bester Burke Slingers as conscious and deliberate. He says the partners ruled out a sale, as it would be a long and dreary process for which they did not have an appetite.

Clients, including Distell, have been surprised but understanding, he adds.

Long time coming

Slingers says the decision has been a long time coming. Advertising has become commodified and ad agencies are no longer engaging at the top table. “Clients used to come to us for considered advice,” he says, suggesting that this is no longer the case.

According to Slingers, none of the partners has firm plans on where to go after the agency finally closes.

* Update 2014/05/01: Stephen Burke will remain active in the ad industry. According to Burke the views expressed in this article by Slingers are his own and does not necessarily reflect those of Burke.

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As agency goes bust, Shoprite asks Ninety9Cents to curate account

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Shoprite’s ad agency has gone into liquidation, the retailer has confirmed. Shoprite Checkers marketing director, Neil Schreuder, says that the liquidation of Shoprite’s advertising agency, Salient, has had no impact upon the business operations of the company.

“As a large advertiser with significant advertising volumes, various contingency plans are always in place and at present the Shoprite brand shopriteadvertising account has been handled by Ninety9Cents, our agency for the Checkers brand,” says Schreuder. “All our options for the longer-term handling of the account are being assessed.”

Ninety9Cents took over the Shoprite account about six weeks ago, after Salient went into voluntary liquidation, confirms Ninety9Cents MD, Andrew Brand. He says there is no contract and his agency are working on a month-to-month basis, while Shoprite decides on its next step.

Ninety9Cents has offered former Salient employees, who worked on the Shoprite account, the opportunity to stay on the business.

Darryl Fine, CEO of Salient, failed to return calls or messages left by MarkLives.

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Indy Ad Exec: The next generation is “un-advertising”

by Tom Fels (@thomasfels) Children are remarkable in the way they experience the world, seeing everything with a freshness that would have the rest of we jaded souls filled with wonder at even the smallest aspects of our daily grind. Yet they are equally quick to move on, having interpreted their experience and formed a suitable memory response.

Tom FelsSo, while you can amaze a child today with a simple toy or trick, tomorrow they are bored and cynical — awaiting the next wide-eyed learning in their ongoing education. The same traits emerge when we look at how consumers engage with advertising as it shifts over time.

What was considered groundbreaking yesterday is de rigueur today and advertising as we know it is transforming in front of our eyes. So much so, that the future of advertising may not be advertising at all.

“Un-advertising”

Given that media consumption is fast becoming a self-curated experience, both brand and agency bosses ought to think hard about new approaches to connect with their intended audience. In particular, the challenge for agencies to scrap channel-led thinking altogether is driving a new generation of hot shops, as well as a host of headaches for those slow to embrace the change.

In the spirit of ‘un-advertising’, your next piece of communication could be (or should be) a game, stunt, product placement, TV series or endorsement, rather than a print ad or standard TV execution. Old ways of thinking evoke old responses.

Whatever it is, if you’re going to succeed, it should have an element of surprise.

Storytelling and the power of surprise

Brands on the leading edge have embraced storytelling as a rich vehicle for showcasing the product lifestyle without the hard sell. From BMW’s branded-content series ‘The Hire’ to Coca-Cola’s Happiness pieces and the ‘classic’ viral T-Mobile hits of five years ago, bringing the essence of the brand to life in new and interesting ways has never been more important.

While social media makes great content infectious, without a well-structured integration plan that builds a more clearly intended marketing response from the consumer, your brand may benefit but your sales won’t.

To demonstrate this, in many ways Wren’s ‘First Kiss’, which amassed over 55 million views in less than a week, is a social media win but lacks the product punch.

Its website has had, until recently, no reference to the campaign, and its subtly branded video has garnered more attention for the director Tatia Pilieva than for the brand. It’s hard to imagine that people are rushing online to make a purchase as the marketing journey around the (beautiful) film is poorly constructed.

Getting it right

Whether portraying a never-seen-before spectacle or re-imagining the familiarity of something old and telling the story with video, digital, live activation or tangible craft, the key to getting it all right is to ensure both newness and a thoughtful link back to the product that, once showcased, becomes a much-coveted item.

The lines separating entertainment from advertising and art are becoming increasingly blurred. Knowing that people seek out great work, rather than ignore it, advertising agencies must embrace this notion and adapt as a necessary part of creating communication that is relevant to an increasingly disengaged consumer audience.

Drive the change by being unpredictable and adopting the role of instigator and collaborator, rather than being an all-encompassing service destination. The birth of “un-advertising” is upon us and the next move is yours.

With a decade of local and international experience in leading independent brand consulting, design, shopper marketing and integrated advertising roles, Tom Fels (@thomasfels) has gained a deeply relevant understanding of the dynamics of independent agencies. His skills are put to work daily as group managing director of MACHINE.

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The Real McCoy: The broken value chain of air travel

by Sean McCoy (@TheRealMcCoyTRM) Given the start I have had to 2014, I am staying with the theme of travel for a while as I further probe the concept of brand alignment and internal branding.

In spite of the major progress of humankind and the tremendous advantages of air travel, which we now clearly take for granted, the average person’s conversation is littered with abundant examples of war stories, amid the tremendous joy and long list of fantastic memories and adventures. Why then this inconsistency of experience and is it likely to get any better?

Sean McCoy

Air travel as an industry has staggering statistics. Consider just a few facts extracted from JCDecaux and IATA:

  • Airport infrastructure spend is increasing exponentially, with Dubai’s latest airport topping the charts at US$33 billion
  • Investor capital tied up in the airline industry is projected to be US$500 billion
  • Over the last 40 years, 1300 new airlines were established
  • The growth of the industry has outperformed the world economy by a factor of three to four times over this same period
  • Air traffic is expected to double over the next 20 years, an effective growth of just under 5% per annum

Assess the overall experience

A highly captive environment in which to engage the consumer through emotions, desires and actions — but I would argue that retail therapy and a host of interesting airport experiences alone don’t cut it. Airlines and airports need to look at the whole value chain and assess the overall experience of the typical traveller.

This is an extensive value chain without a doubt — from initial ticket pricing and purchase to airport arrival and parking, check-in procedure, security clearance, emigration and so forth, just to clear the land side of the equation. Then the airport immersion follows, with shrill announcements to board timeously and the displeasure of that frantic queuing process, only to be greeted by air turbulence, cramped seats and the traditional ‘chicken or beef’ menu option.

Arrival sees the whole process repeat itself in reverse, only if you’ve landed remotely on time and, even better, your baggage has followed you on the same flight and has not been tampered with.

All of this as an airline operator while still contemplating industry profitability, carbon footprint, fuel prices, government intervention and regulation; and a whole host of other issues.

Who owns and takes responsibility?

A little dramatic, I admit, and possibly picking on the airline industry unfairly, but it makes the point: who really owns and takes responsibility for the customer experience?

Business often outsources a multitude of things, from security services to contact centres or the sales process through external intermediaries. Do we, however, think of the whole value chain or complete experience encounter for the consumer and are we treating all of those service partners as an extension of our business?

In other words, are they fully aligned and part of the team enabling our external promise to market — the very thing that internal branding is anchored upon?

Back in 1999, Pine and Gilmore introduced the experience economy. The compounded digital acceleration since then has escalated exponentially and the pattern will continue unabated.

Has the experience economy shifted?

Some argue that the experience economy has now shifted to the social or emotional one, and the opportunity to connect hearts and minds has never been greater, nor has service consistency and experience ever been tougher; the customer has so much choice and we have to build our internal capabilities around winning them and retaining them.

The airline industry is a high-pressure environment and a complex business space, compounded by real security issues and mysteries such as the recent Malaysian Airlines incident. It is a dramatic story in a difficult sector but one that we may all learn from and apply to facets of our business.

How complete is our value chain, really, and to what extent are we looking at the service experience across the whole of it? Do we take accountability for the full user journey, or do we pass the buck when service delivery gets tough and problematic, blaming our inefficiencies on a whole host of factors, other than that we’ve never really addressed it internally or possibly just neglect it?

No-one said it would be easy

Brand alignment is hard work and no-one said it would be easy — but it is very rewarding to those who get it right. In conclusion, some food for thought, other than chicken or beef: do you deliver upon the promise that your brand makes? And do you do it consistently and holistically? Therein lie opportunities for competitive advantage.

Dr Sean McCoy, MD and founding member of HKLM, is a prominent figure in the branding arena, with his expertise centered on client service, brand strategy and business development. Sean has been chairperson for the Brand Council of South Africa since 2012. He contributes the regular “The Real McCoy” column focusing on internal branding to MarkLives.

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The Dissident Spin Doctor: Business mistakes that hold us back from being great

by Emma King (@EmmainSA) In Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great”, he conducted research into how a good company can become a great one. One of the key things he discovered is that “…great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing”.

So what are we, as PR and communications agencies, doing that perhaps we shouldn’t? Here are some of the things that immediately spring to mind:

Emma King1. Working with tyrants because we want their money

It’s an age-old problem — the people with the cash are often psychopaths (there’s obviously some universal law about wealth being inversely proportionate to personality).

In the corporate world, this often means that some of the biggest-paying clients are hard to work for, and doing so is often detrimental to your business’s ways of working and your employees’ morale.

Despite the mental abuse, we kowtow to these clients because they pay our bills (and, more importantly, our salaries). And, in doing this, we compromise our values, our culture, and our self-respect.

So what would happen if we decide to chase the right work and not the cash? Hopefully, we wouldn’t go out of business. I like to think, instead, that if we build an operation that is focused on values rather than cash, we would attract likeminded partners to work with (and, hopefully, the cash would then follow).

2. Trying to force old business models to suit new ways of working

One of the mistakes I see happening time and again is with established companies that are desperately trying to squeeze and squash their existing business model to service clients’ needs today.

Yet an ad agency whose entire way of operating is based around creating epic TV ads will always be too expensive and slow to service the quick and clever turnaround of social media. And a PR business whose only skill set is churning out self-congratulatory press releases will never be able to shine when results are not measured in AVE.

The most exciting and successful businesses are those that are brave away to throw away the outdated and clunky structures they have relied on for decades, and that are flexible enough to build new ones around the very real ways in which we need to operate.

3. Prioritising process over getting shit done

This relates to the above point.

When processes get in the way of delivering work faster and better, they are not processes. They are hurdles. Get rid of them.

4. Operating in hierarchy silos

Old ways of working place an importance on hierarchy and autocracy. Yet this discounts the value that all employees can contribute.

Yes, there needs to be management structures and leadership. But debate and collaboration with all members of staff can deliver innovative, relevant and surprising results. And, in any case, it also makes staff empowered to play a meaningful role in the company, rather than being a bunch of foot soldiers blindly clocking in and out.

5. Focusing on channels and not communities

This one’s for PR agencies. Delivering coverage just through traditional (or even non-traditional) media channels shows a lack of understanding of how things work today.

Instead, we need to look at what communities we need to reach — maybe it’s a group of fans on Facebook, maybe a community of residents who live in a certain area, perhaps a group of likeminded people who are passionate about a cause.

Then we need to look at what they want to receive and how we can be part of that — and, many times, this won’t be through a press release and traditional media coverage. It may just as likely be video, an event, or face-to-face briefings. Or, even better, an innovation and new kind of service or product.

6. Relying on research and marketing models over instinct

A wise colleague once said to me: “There are two kinds of marketers: those who can encapsulate an entire brand strategy in one picture, and those who rely on templates to develop one.”

I know whom I’d rather entrust with my brand.

An agency or a marketer who believes in death by powerpoint, and that a brand is made better through a million “brand pyramids” that “ladder up” to something, is dangerous, whereas those who are brave enough to trust instinct over research are the ones that make exciting work that resonates.

The learnings in all of this? Be brave, innovate and embrace input from colleagues and outsiders, no matter their experience. Above all, be prepared to look at things when they are not working, to throw them away, and to create new ways to make magic happen.

Emma King (@EmmainSA) is the owner and MD of The Friday Street Club (@TheFridayStClub). Previously, she was head of PR at The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town). She contributes the monthly “The Dissindent Spin Doctor” column on PR and communication issues to MarkLives.com.

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Heroes & Zeros: Coca-Cola & Tall Horse — Andy Rice’s best & worst ads of the week

Sizakele Marutlulle is standing in for Andy Rice (@ricecommaandy) this week. She talks about her best (Coca-Cola #rainbownation) and worst (Tall Horse) adverts of the week with Jenny Crwys-Williams (@jcwLIFE) during The Ad Feature on Talk Radio 702 (@Radio702).

Find out why this brand campaign features in this week’s Heroes & Zeros webisode by watching below:

For a fresh look at the world of advertising, Jenny Crwys-Williams of 702 Talk Radio chats to advertising critic Andy Rice on The Ad Feature, every Wednesday 2.30pm — 3pm. The filmed Heroes & Zeroes will appear on MarkLives every Thursday morning as a webisode.

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The Ad Contrarian: Facebook’s awesome bait-and-switch

by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), San Francisco Bay I guess you have to admire the shamelessness of their duplicity.

And I guess you have to marvel at the stupidity and naivete of an industry that not only allows such BS to exist, but doesn’t even adcontraseem to care.

The subject is social media marketing, and the perpetrator is Facebook.

Let’s go back a few years. Social media marketing was going to disrupt the traditional paid advertising industry big time (by the way, if I ever hear you utter the word disrupt I’m coming with a shovel to disrupt your face.)

You see, you and I were going to “join the conversation.”

We’d be going on line and having conversations about brands. And these conversations would be read and shared by our network of friends and followers. And this would create a multiplier effect that would make folly of traditional paid advertising.

According to an article at Entrepreneur.com, Facebook’s Global Brand Experience Manager once believed that companies need to… replace random display ads. Those… ads will fall by the wayside, like so many other obsolete processes and technologies.

Well, by now it’s pretty clear that the whole thing was an infantile fantasy. Or as McKinsey & Company put it a few weeks ago…

“E-mail remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media — nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined.”

Now it seems that even Facebook, the former poster child for social media marketing, is joining the rats in abandoning the social media marketing ship.

Now that Facebook is a real company and has to make real money and is finding that real advertising is its real business, it is singing a new tune.

Last week, Time magazine reported that Facebook’s Pages platform reaches only 6% of a brand’s followers, and is headed down to 1 to 2%.

When questioned about this by Time, here’s what a Facebook spokesperson had to say…

“… if businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising.”

Boy, am I confused.

The Ad Contrarian is Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), the author of The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.
This column has been republished from his blog The Ad Contrarian.

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Media Future: The birth announcement of the commercial internet in SA

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Twenty years ago this month, South African newspaper readers were given their first in-depth exposure to the Internet. We look back at the birth announcements of the commercial Internet.

The headline looks quaint today: “Visit another world at the end of your phone”. But 20 years ago last week, it was like a light-bulb being bbsswitched on. That was when a South African newspaper, for the first time, provided readers with a guide to the newly-commercialised creation called the Internet, along with its poor relation, the electronic bulletin board service (BBS).

PC Review, a supplement to the Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian), had been the first South African publication to begin covering the Internet in 1993. In April 1994, it ran an eight-page special on the connected world, sparking a frenzy of interest and coinciding the newspaper becoming the first in Africa to go online.

The features and articles were both groundbreaking and — in retrospect — archaic. Guides to Telkom’s Beltel (“the largest interactive bulletin board service in Southern Africa”) and smileys (“How to see sideways”) shared space with reviews of 14kbps dial-up modems.

A fascinating aspect of the special edition was the range of writers represented, as well as individuals featured for their early adventures in the cyber world.

Johnny Clegg spoke about how he had promoted his 1993 American tour via the BBS community. Today he is still touring the world — and is also a partner in a business that disposes e-waste.

Andile Ngcaba, then  head of information technology at the ANC, spoke about the new information highway. Just weeks later, he would become director general of the Department of Communications, and today heads up Convergence Partners.

PC Review was started by Irwin Manoim, co-editor of the Weekly Mail for its first decade or more. He was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in journalism by Wits University for his pioneering work in creating the foundation for what remains the leading investigative newspaper in the country. He also revolutionised computer-based publishing in this country.

I had been news editor of the Weekly Mail and joined Irwin as his assistant on PC Review, eventually becoming its editor.

The biggest challenge was not finding topics to cover: personal computing was in an explosive state back then, even before the Internet and mobile phones arrived. The Windows 3.1 operating system, the CD-ROM drive, the first truly portable notebook computers, and a bewildering array of startling new uses for computers were just some what made it feel like the birth of rock ‘n roll.

The real challenge was marshaling a team of talented writers who were more fascinated by the emerging technology than by deadlines.

Most memorable were the Cape Town team of Internet café pioneer Stephen Garratt and  “communications addict” Leon Perlman. The latter went on to become founder and chairman of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association (WASPA) and, now with PhD in hand, is one of the world’s leading experts on mobile commerce law.

Sean Badal, writing for PC Review from the cutting edge of technology as culture, is today an established novelist, best known as author of Dead Sanctities, Seeds of Disorder and The Fall of the Black-eyed Night.  Back then, he was warning consumers not to rush into buying this  “fashionable” new device called a cellphone.

Reg Rumney, the Weekly Mail business editor who not only wrote about new devices in PC Review but also helped get the gadgets to work at the Weekly Mail offices, is now the head of the Centre for Economics Journalism at Rhodes University.

Toby Shapshak made his debut in tech journalism with a review of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider game in PC review. Today, he is editor of Stuff magazine and the country’s leading high-tech journalist. He still remembers the opening line of his first ever review: “Don’t call Lara Croft babe.”

Mish Middelman, founder of Praxis Computing, was the first high-tech agony aunty with his Dr Byte column. Bruce Cohen, the force behind the online edition of the newspaper, produced South Africa’s first regular column about the World Wide Web. William Ramwell introduced readers to Digitec Online, the country’s largest BBS, which was about to evolve into PiX, the first service provider in South Africa to provide an Internet starter kit.

That pioneering edition holds many a cautionary tale. Back then, Compuserv was the world’s best known commercial Internet service provider, search engines didn’t exist, and a list of phone numbers of electronic bulletin boards was regarded as a revolutionary public service. Twenty years from now, expect a look back at today’s Internet to seem equally archaic.

Arthur Goldstuck heads up World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. He is a consulting editor to MarkLives and our media tech columnist. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee.

This article has been republished from Gadget.

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