The Switch: Off to see the Little Five

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) For bush lovers like myself, nothing beats escaping the city madness and spending a weekend surrounded by nature’s very best. I love that the air is fresher and the sky clearer. The eclectic mix of sounds, smell and colour constantly remind you that God was smiling when He created the earth.

A lesson never to forget

I’ll never forget a lesson I learnt from one Elvis, a game ranger in the Waterberg region of Limpopo.

The setting was one of those red-eye game drives that are a pain if you love sleep like I do, but are a real gem when it comes to sightings. On the Landcruiser was myself, my wife, a South African couple from Durban and two American families.

Off we went in Elvis’s Jeep. Armed with my trusted Nikon D5000 and a newly acquired 400mm telescopic lens, I could not wait to spot the first of the Big Five. My assumption was that we were all there to see the Big Five. Boy, was I wrong.

The Switch: Pitching is like begging at an intersection

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) Clients don’t enjoy advertising pitches any more than motorists enjoy stopping at a traffic light. We are all trying to leave a stranger with a lasting impression and we are all under huge time pressure.
There was a time not so long ago when all you saw at traffic lights were stories of poverty and strife and all you heard were heart-felt pleas for money and food. You still get a lot of that but in the main, begging has evolved, possibly in direct response to the impact of the global recession. The recession has increased the number of people begging and it has also left many would-be donors with little or no money to donate, resulting in a scramble for a smaller benevolent pie.

In their desperation to make ends meet, people begging have turned to … the power of branding. You can no longer paint them with the same brush. Their tools now range from a neutral plea for help to a bartering system where the donor receives a blessing, a clean windscreen, a garbage free car, gardening services, a joke, a trick, even a dance routine, in return for a small donation.

The Switch: The great talent migration

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) As MD of one of South Africa’s larger agencies I’m struck by the similarities between the migration of animal species and the movement of creative talent within our industry. The migration of talent used to be limited to advertising agencies. Now we are witnessing lots of movement of talent from traditional advertising agencies to small below the line shops, digital shops as well as to the client side, and vice versa.

Some animal species migrate from North to South and back. Others migrate vertically from high altitude forests to low altitude forests. These species migrate mostly in search of food and warmer temperatures as well as for breeding purposes.

The wildebeest migration in the Serengeti and the migration of European swallows come to mind. European swallows spend their breeding period in Europeso they can access food supplies and longer days. In winter, they migrate to the warmer southern hemisphere.

Before embarking on their journey to Southern Africa and the Indian sub-continent, they go on a feeding frenzy, which provides sustenance for their long sojourn. They travel in a large group on this long journey that takes them through North Africa, down the West Coast of Africa, all the way down to the South. Come spring, the swallows migrate back to Europe for their breeding season.

As MD of one of South Africa’s larger agencies I’m struck by the similarities between the migration of animal species and the movement of creative talent within our industry. The migration of talent used to be limited to advertising agencies. Now we are witnessing lots of movement of talent from traditional advertising agencies to small below the line shops, digital shops as well as to the client side, and vice versa.

Many employers in our industry are starting to use employee propositions to differentiate themselves. Employment contracts and remuneration packages are becoming a lot more creative. We are starting to see a combination of flexi time, relative job security, career paths as well as participation in share schemes.

Ironically all of this makes staff retention a nightmare for many agency MD’s. What compounds this retention problem is the fact that, unlike our parents’ generation, this generation of employees does not value tenure and loyalty. Not only is the world their oyster, it’s also a travelator, constantly on the go.

What I’m learning pretty quickly though, is that this musical chairs phenomenon is pretty normal in our industry. As European swallows are attracted to Europe’s abundant food supplies and long days in their breeding period, creative talent is attracted to agencies that are seen to be on the up and up.

Agencies that win pitches attract masses of creative talent. Agencies that boast a “sexy” client list and have an impressive collection of silverware are also quite alluring to talent.

Another observation I’ve made is that talented people tend to have a following, which means, when they move agencies, others migrate with them. It matters not how hard you try, using water tight contracts, to preclude them from poaching key staff or to stop key staff from following their heroes. At the end of the day birds with bright feathers cannot be caged. Is this perhaps what Bob Marley had in mind when he sang “exodus, it’s the movement of the people.” There’s got to be a better way, methinks.

The Switch: What contract law taught me about agency briefs

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) It is my submission that applying contract law rules to advertising briefs would be of great benefit to the creative development process. If anything, they serve as a good barometer for what makes a good advertising brief.

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