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Creation: Death by uninspired political posters

by Artwell Nwaila (@artwelln) Imagine a world where political parties attempt to get creative when it comes to voting season. A place where thought is put into a tagline beyond the dull call to action: “Vote for me”. A world where campaign posters capture your attention like a well-crafted full circle campaign.

One has to admit that South African political parties are mastering the below-the-line space and this is because our history has made it vital for leaders to get down on the ground and talk to the people.

Shining star

One of today’s BTL shining stars is defiantly the EFF. Building a house for a (supposedly) poor lady right next to Nkandla is a brilliant tactic! It bursts with talkability, great PR value and should also impact the community immensely (not so much for the lady as she may be in danger, according to various newspaper reports, but impact, nonetheless).

Be that as it may, the organisations need to put equal energy into their through-the-line and above the line tactics. It must be noted that there is a gradual improvement brewing from within the DA and ANC as they get creative with how they use of Twitter, Mxit and Facebook to talk to the masses (when I say “creative”, I mean creative for them and that’s not very creative).

Today’s article will focus on the trends of boring political posters from various past campaigns.

Posters

Political parties claim to offer unique views from their counterparts and it’s really hard to see this in their posters.

DA campaign poster English — Image source: Voice of America.

Vote ANC Zuma campaign poster — Image source: Spindrifting South African seamonkey.

Let’s be honest: placing a picture of a political leader accompanied by “VOTE ***” is blatant laziness and says nothing about their intentions. You’d think now would be a good time to be specific as the tech-savvy ‘born frees’ step into to the voting booth for the first time.

This type of poster is actually a good symbol of how detached political parties are from the people. Imagine if Coke did a print ad with the tag line “BUY COKE”. It’s arrogant and in no way inspiring.

The difference with Coke and political parties is that one offers you a reason to support it in an emotional and personal way; the other doesn’t.

We get the ‘I’m trying to be controversial because I’ve got nothing to say’ poster. This type is worse than the above-mentioned example as it makes the organisation more critical than visionary.

VF Plus campaign poster — Image source: Philip van Staden.

We also have the not-so-clever ‘play on words’ poster (which also falls in the ‘trying to be controversial because I’ve got nothing to say’ poster space).

DP Stop intolerance campaign poster. Image source: Northwestern University Library — Image source: The Northwestern University Library: African Poster Collection.

Then there is the design of the posters. Honestly speaking, this is not the most important thing in this space and it’s driven by who they are talking to. The IFP would need to focus on good copy in the language of its target market, the DA on both good copy and design.

IFP campaign poster 2011 — Image source: Charles Apple, visual journalist.

The above poster from 2011 is not designed in the latest design style, which is okay for this target market. If the copy is translated into all relevant languages, it would be more impactful than “VOTE X”.

History

History has seen political posters being beautifully crafted, with stunning copy to match. As the years have gone by, we have been subjected to substandard work due to the complacency of political parties globally.

ANC undated campaign poster — Image source: Political Archives.

The above undated poster is an interesting piece (even though it is not a voting poster), as no copy is needed; the image says it all. This is the perfect example of the eventual evolution into complacency.

Abraham Lincoln US presidential campaign poster 1860 — Image source: www.theatlantic.com.

The above Abraham Lincoln poster from 1860 is a good example of the stunning design standard of past years.

Nixon US presidential campaign poster — Image source: www.theatlantic.com.

Although a little risky, the 1968 Richard M Nixon camp tried different ways to connect with different communities.

Robert Kennedy presidential campaign poster from 1968 — Image source: www.theatlantic.com.

Robert “Bobby” Kennedy’s campaign poster, also from 1968 helped him become popular with young voters. This is a good example of knowing your audience.

Inspiring messages

The goal for political parties when creating posters is to produce content which connects with their targeted audience. Campaigns that provide inspiring messages through the use of smart copy and good design generally cut cleanly through the clutter —provided that it is woven strategically into the rest of the campaign.

A good example of this is the 2008 Barack Obama campaign:

Obama presidential campaign poster: "Hope" — Image source: www.theatlantic.com.

The campaign team created an iconic design that has gained cult status and will live on for years to come. The proposition is one word, one word that is more impactful than 10.

Obama presidential campaign poster: "Progress" — Image source: www.theatlantic.com.

The Obama campaign team continued this trend across all its material by using a winning formula: one powerful word accompanied with stunning design.

So, this is a shout out to political parties to find their formula and be professional about it — it’s just not right to be subjected to the current visual pollution. Down with bad posters, down!

Artwell Nwaila (@artwelln) is a creative director at Offlimit Communications and publisher of the award-winning creative publication SA Creatives (@thesacreatives). His monthly column on MarkLives, “Creation”, will take a look at creative work from around the world and what we can learn from it in South Africa.

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Smart Africa TV: This company plans to build 1300 cinemas in South Africa’s townships

by Russell Southwood (@BalancingActAfr) In this interview, Nyasha Mboti of ReaGile talks about its plans to roll-out 1300 community cinemas across South Africa and describes how its pilot project in Kathelong, which is owned by a local co-operative, works.

Find out more about how ReaGile is in discussion with commercial partners to roll-out nationally, based on an advertising business model.

Russell Southwood is the founder of Balancing Act and the web TV channel Smart Monkey TV, and has been an analyst in telecoms, internet and broadcast in Africa for the last 14 years. Smart Monkey TV aims to capture the energy at the crossroads between African culture and technology. MarkLives is syndicating content from Smart Monkey TV on a weekly basis for the column “Smart Africa TV”.

— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!

MagLove: Wood, metal — the literal cover trend continues

by MediaSlut (@MediaSlut) My choice of the best international and local magazine covers in MagLove this week:

AwardsLine
Esquire
FT Weekend Magazine
ShortList
The New York Times Magazine
Woolworths TASTE

INTERNATIONAL

AwardsLine, 19 February 2014

AwardsLine magazine has created a simple yet very effective cover, asking whether the Academy will finally recognise animated movies with a Best Picture win…

Esquire, March 2014

So awesome to see actor Peter Dinklage on the cover of a prominent men’s magazine such as Esquire, and on its Style Issue to boot!

Also great layout and typography at play on this cover.

FT Weekend Magazine, 22 February 2014

FT Weekend Magazine has caught on to the trend of literally creating/making your cover out of a material, shooting it, and voila… you have your brilliant cover!

FT Weekend Magazine has opted for a material that I can’t recall seeing on a cover before: metal.

ShortList, 20 February 2014

Once again, a cover made out of something, and this time it’s wood, as ShortList looks at “why men are ditching platpack hell and turning back to physical labour”.

The New York Times Magazine, 23 February 2014

Beautiful photography and image have been chosen for the cover of the latest New York Times Magazine, with the shadows and silhouettes creating the final touches.

LOCAL

Woolworths TASTE, March 2014

Known for its amazing ‘food’ covers, Woolworths TASTE has opted for something slightly different this time around with its March 2014 issue: a deliciously beautiful cover featuring an Affagato-masterpiece that anyone would want to savour for as long as possible.

The typography used on this cover is also noteworthy.

Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @MediaSlut. Want to view all the covers at a glance? See our MagLove Pinboard!

MagLove by @MediaSlut is a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week, recognising well thought-out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three-in-one) covers and celebrating the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlut knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa, magazines in particular. His mission is to show when SA magazines fail but, most importantly, also when they succeed. If you’re looking for a library about SA magazines and news, this is your one-stop pitstop. — MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!

The haunting of Lauren Beukes in a city of sadness #designindaba

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Violence is the failure of empathy, the failure of imagination, says Lauren Beukes, the South African whose novels have garnered international acclaim. Speaking at Design Indaba 2014, Beukes told us how we create stories to protect us from monsters — such as violence — as self-defence mechanisms.

Found voice

She would know. The author’s fascination with killers and victims, which found voice in her novel The Shining Girls, comes from the murder of a friend, Thomokazi Zazayokwe, dead at 23 after being stabbed, having boiling water thrown over her body, and left for five days before medical assistance arrive (the narrative isn’t entirely clear: in her talk to delegates, she describes how neighbours ignored the plight of Zazayokwe for five days before calling the police, finally, callously, having grown tired of her moans, but in a blog post which described the attack and eventual death of Zazayokwe, she writes that Zazayokwe was held hostage for five days until the neighbours were finally alerted to her plight by the terrible smell and her moans).

Zazayokwe would die four months later, having never recovered from the ordeal, in pain, in a hospital waiting room while waiting for followup treatment. The police never bothered to investigate her ordeal; her assault and death never resulted in a conviction; she never had her day in court. The prosecutors threw out the case because there was none — the cops just never bothered building one.

Sheer tenacity

Beukes got the case reopened, through sheer tenacity and, in her own words, because she is a white middle-class woman. Being an internationally acclaimed writer would help. Zazayokwe’s family finally pleaded with her to let the case go — they did not want to relive their pain again — so she did.

As delegates sat in the (fairly) comfortable seats of Cape Town’s International Convention Centre listening to Beukes, the city itself was cleaning up, sighing, breathing out, it felt like, after being brutalised by an ‘illegal’ (they almost inevitably are) protest that turned violent and saw stun grenades and water cannon fired in the city centre, at people brutalised by apartheid policies, or the results thereof. Smoke billowed over the veld that once was District Six, in the heart of the city, a place where thousands had lived and were forcefully removed, and where, in its emptiness, reparation is proven as a concept, rather than a reality.

On stage, Beukes seemed alone, telling a terrible tale which still causes her visible anguish, exorting people to face into the abyss, the darkness, into us. She aks us to confront what we are capable of, and find empathy in spite of it.

Find hope

Find hope, hope in a story. As we left, I felt numb but grateful that our story is still being written. There is hope in that.

— MarkLives is an official Media Supporter of Design Indaba 2014. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Marcello Serpa on how to build a successful ad agency #designindaba

by Herman Manson (@marklives) For most people, Marcello Serpa (@Marcello_Serpa) is the guy who made Havaianas famous. It was his first account at his own agency and he has helped grow a local brand in Brazil into a global powerhouse.

For ad people, he is that, of course, but more importantly to them, I suspect, is that he and a business partner launched his own agency (AlmapBBDO), made it, and made it fly.

Creatives’ creative

Serpa is a creatives’ creative. You get a sense that this guy walks the talk. Yes, he presented his work — but it was work that amplified his key messages — to Design Indaba 2014 delegates. He believes that chaos is part of the world and of the creative process (in this he shares a view with Ije Nwokorie of Wolff Olins London — they both celebrate that the world is messy/chaotic — and so gets to celebrate us).

Serpa offers valuable insight launching an agency. More importantly, he offers insight into how to both survive and enjoy that journey.

Over the span of his 30-year career, he has learned two valuable lessons: 1) Be simple (he calls this the art of reduction) and 2) Be unpredictable.

These lessons are particularly apparent in the following campaigns, from the simple Diet ads, clear of copy or headlines, which earned the Cannes Lions 1993 Press Grand Prix, to his work on VW, Pepsi Twist and Whiskas.

Diet Soft Drink:

VW Trucks:

Pepsi Twist:

Whiskas:

Lessons in managing expectations of agency life

Serpa offers more valuable lessons in managing expectations of agency life for creative directors starting their own shops:

There are no 25-year-old generals. Instead of awarding kids doing great work with titles they are not yet fully equipped to carry, award them with cash. They deserve the bonus, not the stresses of living up to a job title they are several years away from earning or coping with.
Always work with somebody better than you (as opposed to 25-year-old generals). Somebody you admire and can learn from.
Find a good planning partner — one who loves advertising.
Set up with the best team your money can buy. Ensure it’s a mixed bunch. Introverts, extroverts, different skill sets, you name it.
Slow down the crazy guys, rather than pushing the nice ones.
Forget about hierarchy.
Have respect for the credits. If it weren’t your idea, don’t claim credit, and don’t put your name on it just because you are the ECD (later, while wandering the expo, several younger delegates were actively discussing this point. Resentment ran deep; it is obviously an important and contentious issue in the local ad industry as well).
Steak and bones for all — spread the better jobs around — and the less fun ones as well.
There are no easy or hard clients. They are all clients.
Be hard on the work, not on the people.
Don’t ask from your people what your clients are asking of you (such as turning a job around in less time than is required to do it effectively).

Brief testing

Serpa tests every brief against two points: 1) what do we want to say and 2) is this relevant to the customer?

Try and create work where the product is the hero of the ad (see below); sell the product, not some perceived emotion, says Serpa. He also reminds us that new is different from good — and that the two are too easily interchanged today.

Serpa is dismissive of the extent to which marketing intelligence has come to rule advertising communication; to him, it encourages mediocrity and protects cowards.

Finally, beware of hypocrisy — remember where you come from — and celebrate the chaos. Or, as his famous Havaianas ads read: “Live life unlaced.”

— MarkLives is an official Media Supporter of Design Indaba 2014. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Ije Nwokorie and the messy truth #designindaba

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Design Indaba 2014 speaker Ije Nwokorie believes in making a mess — especially when it comes to brands and branding. His unconventional but highly successful approach to marketing is traced, by Nwokorie himself, to his upbringing in rural Nigeria, and the creativity he had to display in dodging bullies and buses.

Today, he is the MD of brand consultancy Wolff Olins London, and another example of a new generation of Nigerians going into the world and not only busting stereotypes but busting open though processes and challenging dysfunctional design systems.

Call to marketers

Nwokorie (@onyeije) calls on marketers to forget the highly sanitised view of brands and branding, its space, systems and even how brands relate to people.

For him, life — and therefore truth — is messy, and truth is today a fundamental part of the social zeitgeist. So why more brands don’t extend their strategies and positioning to embrace our messy reality is beyond me.

Forget the office space presented in books or the pages of magazines. Work space is messy — it needs to be — and, similarly, brands need to reflect the places and spaces where they exist.

Nwokorie points to a case study for an ad campaign his team created for Skype. The communication reflected the imperfect reality of using Skype, managing expectations, making us laugh at ourselves, while still underscoring the changes wrought by VOIP services.

Disrupt the assumed

Brand guidelines doesn’t generally allow for a mess. They aim to control, when really they should be giving advice and sharing experience. Disrupt the assumed and the accepted, advocates Nwokorie, for a messier, but ultimately more worthwhile, experience.

Take prototypes and place them in people’s hands, Nwokorie urges, and see how it changes your perception of how you think about a brand. Be close to people when you build products; it narrows the gap between what you claim to offer and what you actually offer.

He uses an excellent case study from Orange, where his team sent an orange box with an on/off switch and asked people what it represented. The answers redefined how the company would look at its offering.

Adaptable and (re)imaginable

Nwokorie prefers visual communication that is adaptable — and can therefore be (re)imagined by masses of people. The Virgin Media CI is a good example of this: it can be adapted and redrawn by anybody while retaining recognition as a Virgin Media CI. Put brand into people’s hands — literally — and see what comes back.

Creativity, especially on this continent, is closely linked to survival, says Nwokorie. We don’t expect the system to work in our favour, so immediately we view systems from a whole different perspective. Increasingly, we are turning to technology to highlight and communicate system failures and to collaboratively, if sometimes messily, insist upon its repair.

— MarkLives is an official Media Supporter of Design Indaba 2014. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Juliana Rotich maps the future with Ushahidi #designindaba

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Juliana Rotich, a speaker at Design Indaba 2014, has a remarkable eye. Show her a map of undersea broadband cables connecting to Africa, and she points out that they still follow the sea routes that helped make Africa a continent of colonies not so many decades ago.

Undersea cables for African broadband — Image source: manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables.

Rotich is the co-founder of Ushahidi, the open-source software developed in Kenya which came to the fore and caught global attention for collecting, visualising and mapping information in the aftermath of the disputed 2008 elections.

Challenges the legacies

Rotich challenges the legacies that have stymied the development of Africa’s material and cultural resources — be that broadband cables connecting coastal territories and ignoring the continent’s interior — or the political classes continuing to exploit its citizens.

Ushahidi means “witness” or “testimony”, and allows ordinary people to crowd source and map information, turning them into everything from election monitors reporting electoral misconduct to helpers assisting with the direction of emergency response resources during natural disasters.

The open source software is now available in 30 languages and across the globe.

Give ordinary citizens a voice

It aims to give ordinary citizens a voice, democratise information and assist in building a more transparent environment.

While it has proven its worth during natural disasters such as those in Haiti and Japan, or during disputed elections such as those in Kenya, it can be applied to almost any scenario. South Africans can track service delivery protests — or map burger joints — it all depends upon the crowd, literally upon citizens, and how active their participation is in the social discourse.

It requires active citizenship to be effective and break a culture of reliance upon central authority telling us what is happening in our own backyards. Now that Rotich and her team have offered the tool, the only question remains: will citizens grab the opportunity, and map a better future for their communities?

— MarkLives is an official Media Supporter of Design Indaba 2014. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Heroes & Zeros: Andy Rice’s best & worst ads of the week

The Ad Feature Heroes & Zeroes with Andy Rice on 702 Talk Radio

Andy Rice (@ricecommaandy) talks about his best and worst adverts of the week with Jenny Crwys-Williams (@jcwLIFE) during The Ad Feature on Talk Radio 702 (@Radio702). Find out which brands feature in this week’s Heroes & Zeros webisode.

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.

— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!

SAARF/MarkLives #Top40TVratings: SABC 1 holding steady

by SAARF & MarkLives (@marklives) For the week of 17 February — 23 February 2014, the top five SABC 1 shows from previous weeks still remained in place on the SAARF/MarkLives #Top40TVratings Chart, but with dramas Loxion Lyric and Amaza swapping places.

This weekly roundup of South Africa’s TV audience viewership, a collaboration between the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) and MarkLives, reveals the best-watched shows of the week before, where it ran and how many South Africans tuned in to watch.

We offer two tables, the first covering all households — free-to-air viewing (the various SABC channels and e.tv) as well as the DStv platform — and the second charting the best-watched shows on the DStv network of channels only.

SAARF/MarkLives #Top40TVratings Chart: 17 February — 23 February 2014

National (include all households — free-to-air viewing and DStv platform)

National	Total Indv (incl guests)	Live + VOSDAL
Counter	Description (grouped)	Channel	Level 1	_{Level 2}\^Variable	(r) AMR %	AMR	SHR %
1	GENERATIONS	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	23.2	9 295 881	70.16%
2	NGEMPELAH	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	17.7	7 094 832	52.82%
3	LOXION LYRIC	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	15.7	6 313 467	47.87%
4	AMAZA	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	15.7	6 303 401	48.85%
5	INTERSECTIONS	SABC 1	Variety	Variety	13.8	5 549 309	45.17%
6	MUVHANGO	SABC 2	Drama	Drama	12.5	5 022 321	41.67%
7	TASK FORCE(DRAMA)	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	10.6	4 264 470	35.39%
8	SCANDAL	e.tv	Drama	Drama	10.0	4 027 929	33.24%
9	XHOSA NEWS	SABC 1	News	News	9.3	3 734 877	31.51%
10	ZULU NEWS	SABC 1	News	News	8.4	3 380 645	28.20%
11	LESILO RULA	SABC 2	Drama	Drama	8.2	3 287 522	30.23%
12	POWERBALL	SABC 2	Variety	Variety	8.2	3 281 654	32.18%
13	TAKERS	e.tv	Movies	Action/adventure	8.2	3 270 245	34.69%
14	RHYTHM CITY	e.tv	Drama	Drama	8.1	3 258 606	34.12%
15	FRIENDS LIKE THESE	SABC 1	Variety	Variety	8.0	3 197 628	31.82%
16	ABO MZALA	SABC 1	Sitcom	Sitcom	7.8	3 138 693	28.92%
17	NEWS	e.tv	News	News	6.5	2 621 389	25.06%
18	SELIMATHUNZI	SABC 1	Variety	Variety	6.4	2 576 011	22.80%
19	WWE WRESTLING RAW	e.tv	Sport	Wrestling	6.1	2 443 548	26.75%
20	GA RE DUMELE	SABC 2	Sitcom	Sitcom	6.1	2 438 434	25.80%
21	KHUMBUL’ EKHAYA	SABC 1	Magazine	Magazine	6.1	2 435 925	23.42%
22	SINGLE GALZ	SABC 1	Sitcom	Sitcom	6.0	2 388 431	22.43%
23	BAD BOYS	e.tv	Movies	Action/adventure	5.8	2 331 339	25.58%
24	EKASI OUR STORIES:MABEE	e.tv	Drama	Drama	5.7	2 283 378	21.27%
25	MUVHANGO -R	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	5.6	2 260 444	47.50%
26	LOTTO DRAW LIVE	e.tv	Competition	Competition	5.6	2 256 433	21.87%
27	7DE LAAN	SABC 2	Soap opera	Local	5.6	2 246 760	23.43%
28	GENERATIONS -R	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	5.5	2 189 813	48.06%
29	ZIYAWA	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	5.4	2 168 500	20.81%
30	90 PLEIN STREET	SABC 2	Drama	Drama	5.3	2 108 804	25.36%
31	CUTTING EDGE	SABC 1	Actuality	Actuality	5.1	2 027 657	22.70%
32	HANNAH MONTANA	SABC 2	Children’s programs	Children’s programs	5.0	1 992 213	25.42%
33	MR BOX OFFICE	SABC 1	Sitcom	Sitcom	4.9	1 948 311	18.46%
34	DI WELE MAKGOLELA	SABC 2	Variety	Variety	4.8	1 929 307	22.65%
35	GENERATIONS -O	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	4.8	1 924 048	29.09%
36	SPEAK OUT -R	SABC 2	Actuality	Actuality	4.8	1 909 614	25.80%
37	THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL	SABC 3	Soap opera	International	4.8	1 906 632	23.22%
38	CUSTODY	e.tv	Movies	Drama	4.6	1 856 644	24.84%
39	HANCOCK	e.tv	Movies	Action/adventure	4.6	1 837 640	29.68%
40	ISIDINGO -R	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	4.6	1 832 024	45.00%

DStv platform only

DStv	Total Indv (incl guests)	Live + VOSDAL
Counter	Description (grouped)	Channel	Level 1	_{Level 2}\^Variable	(r) AMR %	AMR	SHR %
1	GENERATIONS	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	16.3	1 901 346	47.65%
2	MUVHANGO	SABC 2	Drama	Drama	8.8	1 027 825	27.70%
3	INTERSECTIONS	SABC 1	Variety	Variety	6.9	804 803	21.48%
4	SCANDAL	e.tv	Drama	Drama	6.0	704 688	18.51%
5	LOXION LYRIC	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	5.7	661 075	16.60%
6	RHYTHM CITY	e.tv	Drama	Drama	5.6	649 217	19.30%
7	NGEMPELAH	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	5.1	596 898	15.03%
8	XHOSA NEWS	SABC 1	News	News	4.9	573 914	15.40%
9	NEWS	e.tv	News	News	4.9	569 646	16.23%
10	AMAZA	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	4.7	551 925	13.92%
11	ZULU NEWS	SABC 1	News	News	4.6	541 054	14.26%
12	LESILO RULA	SABC 2	Drama	Drama	4.6	536 688	15.35%
13	TASK FORCE(DRAMA)	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	4.4	509 984	13.53%
14	POWERBALL	SABC 2	Variety	Variety	4.3	497 839	15.25%
15	7DE LAAN	SABC 2	Soap opera	Local	4.0	464 779	13.79%
16	KHUMBUL’ EKHAYA	SABC 1	Magazine	Magazine	3.9	457 476	13.49%
17	ISIBAYA	Mzansi Magic	Variety	Variety	3.9	454 768	16.81%
18	GA RE DUMELE	SABC 2	Sitcom	Sitcom	3.6	418 490	13.21%
19	GENERATIONS -R	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	3.6	418 042	26.05%
20	TAKERS	e.tv	Movies	Action/adventure	3.2	369 318	11.59%
21	MUVHANGO -R	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	3.1	363 302	21.86%
22	BAD BOYS	e.tv	Movies	Action/adventure	3.1	362 736	12.10%
23	VODACOM SUPER RUGBY 2014 LIONS VS STOMERS	SuperSport 1	Sport	Rugby (all)	3.1	357 308	10.54%
24	SPEAK OUT -R	SABC 2	Actuality	Actuality	3.0	348 574	14.10%
25	FRIENDS LIKE THESE	SABC 1	Variety	Variety	3.0	346 758	10.23%
26	THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL	SABC 3	Soap opera	International	2.7	314 735	10.37%
27	NUUS	SABC 2	News	News	2.6	307 911	8.92%
28	GENERATIONS -O	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	2.5	294 405	13.08%
29	UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MANCHESTER CITY FC VS FC BARCELONA	SuperSport 3	Sport	Football (soccer)	2.5	294 187	15.95%
30	ISIDINGO -R	SABC 1	Soap opera	Local	2.5	292 725	20.10%
31	ZIYAWA	SABC 1	Drama	Drama	2.5	286 654	7.77%
32	LOTTO DRAW LIVE	e.tv	Competition	Competition	2.4	273 783	8.31%
33	SOCCER ZONE	SABC 1	Sport	Football (soccer)	2.3	271 749	8.43%
34	LIVE AMP	SABC 1	Music	Music	2.3	270 210	8.35%
35	SWARTWATER	SABC 2	Variety	Variety	2.3	269 242	6.69%
36	EKASI OUR STORIES:MABEE	e.tv	Drama	Drama	2.3	262 922	8.03%
37	BINNELAND	kykNET	Soap opera	Local	2.2	258 484	7.60%
38	SES/TSW/SEP NEWS	SABC 2	News	News	2.2	257 073	6.71%
39	ISIDINGO:THE NEED	SABC 3	Soap opera	Local	2.2	255 395	6.70%
40	DI WELE MAKGOLELA	SABC 2	Variety	Variety	2.2	252 152	8.87%

How to read the tables:

AMR% refers to the number of people in a target market who were watching an event ie programme, expressed as a percentage of the population for that demographic: “On average, 16.3% of adults aged 15+ who watched TV from 28 Jan-3 Feb 2014 watched Society on SABC 1”.

AMR is the number of people in a target market watching a specific event ie programme per minute, expressed in absolute figures: “On average, 1, 541, 066 adults aged 15+ who watched TV from from28 Jan-3 Feb 2014 watched Society on SABC 1”.

Share % (SHR %) is the share or proportion of the available audience (people watching TV at that time) that a specific channel/programme has achieved at that time: “Society achieved a share % of 52.59% from 28 Jan- 3 Feb 2014 on SABC 1″.

SAARF is the name by which the South African Audience Research Foundation is familiarly known. SAARF’s main objective is to direct and publish media audience and product/brand research for the benefit of its stake-holders, thereby providing data for target marketing and a common currency for the buying and selling of media space and time. SAARF has thus the responsibility to measure the audiences of all traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cinema and out of home media.

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Shelf Life: From designer coffee cups to porn stars

Shift Joe Public — Antalis "Start the Day with Paper" 1

Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging and design launches:

A designer paper activation from Shift Joe Public;
A stunning pop-up promotion from Machine;
Lego gets down on a porn star that plays with its brand name; and
Media brand GQ launches another brand engagement site.

A coffee Shift

It’s appropriate during Design Indaba week that we showcase an activation Shift Joe Public recently did for client, Antalis, for the design community.

Instead of sending a boring brochure or the usual mailer with paper samples, it came up with a novel way to connect with designers in order to showcase Antalis’ range of paper product.

“Designers are usually inundated with direct mailers — high-effort communication with low impact as designers tend to treat paper as an afterthought in the design process. We needed to break through the clutter, creating high-impact results with low effort,” says Maciek Michalski, executive creative director of Shift Joe Public.

Adds Simone Rossum, creative director at Shift Joe Public: “Antalis tasked us to do something all designers both dream of and fear — to create a piece of communication for other graphic designers. They wanted to get designers to stop treating paper as afterthought, to start their day with paper.”

The solution? A simple paper coffee cup, not just one but a series of cups made from 25 “bespoke” Arjowiggins papers, “each with their own personality to match the paper’s unique characteristics,” details Rossum.

Feedback from Antalis is that clients loved the execution, from the “beautiful techniques” to what an “amazing” way it was to showcase paper. Designers said they were “inspired” to design on beautiful paper, according to Mandi Monnery, Antalis sales consultant.

Machine pops up with ideas

I absolutely love this creative execution by Machine to launch the new website for Prima Toys — in an authentic, fun, experiential way, proving that a brilliant idea and brilliant execution are still winners.

In order to launch the new site to both retail and the public, an old-fashioned pop-up book was used.

Explains Machine’s executive creative director, Jake Bester: “It’s a new take on the old-fashioned catalogue and, through the story, it informs the audience about a completely new way to find the perfect toy.”

The book, ‘Aunty Planty and the Search for the Perfect Toy’ is aimed at highlighting the ‘one-click’ toy search on Prima’s redesigned site.

Aunty Planty is written in a style reminiscent of storytellers such as Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl, bringing to life a slightly batty old aunt and her pet fruit bat, Little Ghost, who search oceans, jungles, African savannahs and even space for the perfect gift for her nephew Ted, only to end up using her computer and the trusty Prima Toys toy search.

The book was sent to existing and new retail customers, as well as a wide variety of mommy bloggers, who are widely regarded as one of the best sales tools money can buy.

Lego lawyers blow off porn star

And here’s proof that you can’t take the name of a famous brand in vain — under any circumstances. Lego lawyers climbed into an American porn star who offered a blow job as a prize for the Lego fan boy who built her the best Lego creation for her home.

Christy Mack made the offer in a tweet in January 2014: “Whoever builds me the best Lego creation to put in my house gets a blow job.” Needless to say, it went viral. As she explains: “I’m just a whore that likes Legos”. Quite.

According to Herman Blignaut, a partner at Spoor & Fisher, the competition came to a speedy end when lawyers acting on behalf of the Lego Group objected to her usage of the Lego name and she complied, tweeting on 28 January 2014: “The BJ competition is off due to lawyers not liking my Twitter content. I think it’s because they didn’t win the competition.”

Blignaut explains: “This incident illustrates one of the unusual challenges which brand owners these days may face in protecting their trademarks. This was by no means a traditional type of trademark infringement. Lego was set on protecting the integrity of its mark and guarding it against conduct which could be detrimental to the reputation of their famous name.

“Lego has become a well-known trademark for construction toys consisting of interlocking plastic building blocks for the best part aimed at children. Perhaps with the innocence that goes with youth, it was difficult for Lego to reconcile the use and possible association of its mark with a type of competition that goes against the grain and values of the brand. Be that as it may, the situation was resolved without the need to revert to formal litigation.”

Unusual as this situation was, Blignaut says it illustrates one of the many interesting scenarios which a brand owner could face and the extent to which trademark rights can be enforced in order to “ensure its exclusivity and the type of control a rights holder may have over the use thereof”.

GQ Bar launched in Dubai

GQ Bar, an extension of GQ, was launched in the UAE by Fludium, a Dubai-based branding consultancy, which has worked with Condé Nast International Restaurants over the last year as it develops the GQ Bar brand in the UAE.

The project required Fludium to assist on the development of the brand strategy, comprehensive brand guidelines and related collateral for GQ Bar Dubai, which will become a reference point for future GQ Bar openings globally.

GQ Bar enables GQ to connect with its audience and Fludium was responsible for the logo and visual style for the brand, including the advertising, floor plan, staff uniforms and signage

Fludium previously helped Condé Nast International launch the Vogue Café at The Dubai Mall in 2013. The GQ Bar will be the third international outlet for the brand.

Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.

Louise has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 19 of her more-than-25-year career as a former editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing, as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper and is the publishing editor of industry trendwatching portal, TRENDAFRiCA, for consumer insight, research and trends in Africa.

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