a trendMARK feature by Andy Gilder (@Andy_Gilder) Writing about digital trends is just about the biggest rookie error anyone in the industry can make. Digital does not evolve — it mutates — and so to try and predict where it is headed before it has happened has left many a ‘digital guru’ looking a little silly when the clocks strike midnight 12 months later.
Mary Meeker appears to be the only soothsayer who proves some sort of exception to this rule, so if you’re in search of the exhaustive list of new platforms that are likely to woo the bandwidth of the Digital West this year, be sure to check out her claims, when her presentation hits YouTube. As a mere mortal however, I’d rather suggest your pursuit for 2014 should not be for what’s new, but rather for what’s better.
Slideshare presentations about this year’s big trends — the ones that’ll be retweeted ad nauseam and summarised into a list of “Ten Things” by the likes of Mashable — are annoying. They’re annoying because we’re apparently preoccupied with what’s next in the digital space, instead of spending our time crafting and honing our skills on channels we’ve already discovered, but not yet perfected.
We want to be the first to take to something revolutionary, claiming we’re looking for somewhere our target consumers are headed, but the more likely scenario is that a ‘first to market’ play for an agency or a development team means back slaps at the next awards ceremony and a front page feature on those advertising blogs we love to love.
I’d like to suggest that we focus on the platforms we already know – let’s improve upon the mediocrity of our established channels,before we try to hype up a new solution and hope the consumers come running. I’d also like to suggest that 2014 will not see a seismic consumer shift toward the next Facebook, but rather a move to be closer to the brands that have entrenched themselves on existing platforms: brands that toil at making the established a better experience for the consumers who are already there will win this year.
We’ve long talked about the ‘digital adoption curve’ – the rate at which web users become more comfortable doing increasingly complex activities online – progressing from ‘search’ to ‘socialising’ to ‘banking’ to‘e-commerce’.
In South Africa we’ve got millions of people running this gambit in parallel, but at totally different evolutionary points on the curves. It is this dichotomy of users – no prizes for seeing how this mirrors the socio-economic nature of the country as a whole – that will dictate the trends for the coming year.
Brands that will win online will be those that understand where their target market sits on the adoption curve and how best to make that experience, however far down the curve, that much better for the consumer.
Given that it was my brief, I suppose that I should make at least one claim in the South African digital context for 2014, but if you come running to me in 12 months’ time about being wrong, I’ll flat out deny this article was my handiwork.
Social Media – Facebook/Twitter/Mxit/Snapchat — all of those things that we do to suck up time when we’re lonely IRL are going to be less important to the premium market as 2014 wears on, but more important to our rising middle class. Early adopters have been bored with Facebook for some time now and while it won’t die, brands are going to have to be remarkable if they plan to market to upper LSM users to get meaningful results.
The opposite will prove true for the mass market brands — social’s high has yet to evolve to the “come down” stage, so fill your middle market boots while you can and ride that curve till the downward trend comes. Because it will. Or maybe it won’t – I refuse to be drawn into a definitive answer.
by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) You know a campaign has reached the ‘golden mile’ when the words spoken in a brand’s advert becomes a part of our everyday parlance. In ‘old speak’, I’d say it’s kind of like ‘braaivleis and sunny skies’ — only better — but, in ‘new speak’, it’s about becoming an endearing and enduring internet meme.
Celebrating achievements
On Twitter, these days the words “Give that man a Bell’s” (or “Give that woman a Bell’s”) have become a widely used alternative for giving someone a virtual ‘high five’. It’s also the phrase of choice for celebrating a smart or impressive achievement, so much so that “Give that man [or woman] a Bell’s” has even come to be used, in a slightly ironic way, to express admiration without coming across as sycophantic or ingratiating.
The first ad with this payoff line for Bell’s, the blended Scotch whisky brand originally produced by Arthur Bell & Sons Ltd, was launched in 2010. The commercial featured a fly fisherman using his casting skills to recover the pub keys just in time for kick-off.
The slogan certainly has ‘legs’, as it has given birth to several more excellent campaigns, including a billboard last year that celebrated ‘unsung heroes’.
Today, the whisky brand is owned by British multinational Diageo plc, which is headquartered in London, and is the world’s largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine. In South Africa, Bell’s is managed by BrandHouse, the JV company founded by Diageo, Heineken International and Namibia Breweries Limited.
King James’ TVC for Bell’s Whisky: “The Reader”
But let’s get back to that new advert, shall we? This time around, the Bell’s ad is a lump-in-the-throat saga that tells the tale of an elderly man who learns to read. Despite the colour grade, which succumbs to the modern trend of desaturation, the cinematography has a gentle, soft feel.
Watch it above — warning: it’s not safe for work, because you don’t want your co-workers to see you crying.
Much of the new Bell’s ad was shot at night, which adds to the moodiness, and the soundtrack has a theme that slowly builds as we follow the old man in his journey: he attends adult literacy classes in the evening, reads from a menu, sings the ‘ABC’ song, plays Scrabble, and his reading progresses to the point where he eventually picks out books in a library.
The final scene sees him tracking down an author in a pub. He sidles up to the tall, handsome writer, and the great reveal is that the author is in fact the reader’s son. With a look of admiration, the son says (you guessed it), “Give that man a Bell’s”.
Astutely crafted
Yes, it’s a sentimental advert, but it is so astutely crafted that it comes across as completely authentic and heart-warming. And, considering the problem of adult illiteracy in the country, the Bell’s commercial proffers an inspiring message.
According to READ Educational Trust (quoting UNESCO stats), only 85% of South Africans are “functionally literate” – which is about the level of a nine-year-old. Consider that literacy directly impacts on the per capita income: in countries with a literacy rate above 96%, the per capita income is US$12 600, while in countries with a rate of between 85% and 95% —which is where we fall—the per capita income is US$3700. That’s a huge gap, and definitely food for thought.
The two-minute mini-movie was produced by King James, which originated the campaign. The commercial was helmed by Greg Gray of Velocity Films, and King James’s Devin Kennedy was the executive CD, Mike Wilson the CD, and Cameron Watson the art director.
And what do we say to the makers of this commercial?
Give those people a Bell’s!
Behind the scenes
Here’s the behind-the-scenes video, with the ad shown directly afterwards:
Ad of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research.
If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging,
please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!
by Uno de Waal (@Unodewaal) For this week’s Design Annotator wrap-up, we’ve collected:
Photographs from our first-ever ‘Take Me Home’ illustration exhibition, and the works revealed online
Daily illustrations by Catherine Green for her 12×30 Project
The Do It Yourself Design initiative for Antalis’ 2014 Munken Journal
‘Shoes’ and ‘Sandton’ TV commercials for Liberty
A short web documentary directed by Chris Saunders for Connect ZA’s Future Music Rising competition
A closer look at the Instagramers South Africa community
A Google Hangout with graphic designer Bruno Morphet
ART
Take Me Home | The work revealed
On Thursday, 6 September, 2013, we held our first-ever Take Me Home print sale. The event was just one of a series of exhibitions, food jams, show&tell design talks and art sales that we’ll also be hosting this year in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
On exhibition and up for sale were 21 South African-made, limited edition illustrations by 20 local artists.
Catherine Green is a freelance writer, researcher and illustrator living in Cape Town. At the beginning of the year, she embarked on a year-long project which has her creating a new illustration every day, with a different theme each month.
Her theme for January was clothing and, for the month of February, she is creating illustrations of “odd or obscure patron saints”.
Each year Antalis chooses a different agency or studio to come up with a unique design for the cover of its Munken Journal.
Cape Town advertising agency King James was briefed to conceptualise and produce an iconic piece for the 2014 edition but, instead, it’s decided to take a slightly different approach by giving members of the design community the freedom to create their own cover for the 2014 Munken Journal.
In return, creatives will receive a free journal featuring their personalised cover design.
In September last year, FoxP2 Johannesburg launched a new brand direction for insurance and investment company Liberty with the reverse time-lapse ad ‘Sandton’.
It’s followed up this year with ‘Shoes’, the story of a single pair of shoes — one of thousands — travelling from the obscurity of the production line and onto the feet of a little girl.
In December last year, Chris Saunders was commissioned by the British Council to produce a short web documentary about the finalists in the Connect ZA Future Music Rising competition.
Saunders worked together with Adriaan Louw and Deon van Zyl from We-Are-Awesome film to complete the documentary, which features Bateleur, The Watermark High, Andy Mkosi, Reason and the two winning acts: Wildebeats and The Brother Moves On.
Since it was founded in October 2010, Instagram has grown to over 150 million active users, who collectively post an average of 55 million photographs daily.
Some of the interesting offshoots of Instagram are the ever-growing Instagram communities, which have sprung up in likely and unlikely places all over the world. Heading up our own collective of these — igersJozi, igersCapeTown and igersDurban, to name a few — is Instagramers South Africa.
For the first installment of our weekly Hangout series, I chatted to graphic designer Bruno Morphet to learn more about his design work for the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival (which took place last weekend).
byArthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) The water delivery crisis in South Africa has shocked many who rely on official statistics. The illusion of universal access was one of the lessons of broadband in South Africa.
South Africa’s 2011 Census painted a bright picture of water access in South Africa: 91.3% of South African households had access to piped water. That marked significant progress from the 2001 Census, which showed 84.5% with access.
But lurking behind those 2011 numbers was a harsher reality: 73.4% of households had “Piped water inside dwelling/yard; and 17.9% had “piped water outside yard”. Which means 26.7%, or more than a quarter of South Africans, did not really have “household” access.
This is so reminiscent of the absurd broadband policy framework issued from the offices of bygone Ministers of Communication, the parallels cannot go unmentioned. General Siphiwe Nyanda set the wheels in motionless motion in 2010 when he issued a Broadband Policy Framework that set a target of universal broadband access in South Africa by 2020.
The definitions contained within the framework remained in place under Dina Pule: universal access meant 15% of households must be within 2km of a broadband access point, with broadband defined as speeds of 256Kbps or more.
In other words, the lowest form of broadband on South Africa’s mobile networks, EDGE, which can theoretically go up to 384Kbps, would qualify for universal broadband. Considering that Vodacom alone covers more than 81% of the population with its 3G network, that means we already had universal access years ago.
It’s obvious what was happening there: by setting the targets so low that they had already been met, and hoping that no one would notice the devil lurking in the definitions, the intention was that the framework would be a resounding success without any additional effort.
And so it is with water: by defining water access as piped water within walking distance of a dwelling, you could magically show that nine out of ten dwellings had access to pipe water!
No wonder Government says there is no crisis in water provision. No wonder corrupt councillors can give fraudulent tenders to their friends and family to deliver water in tankers to “access points” in villages, and describe that as service delivery.
We are fortunate that broadband policy no longer suffers under the same guarantee of failure.
The new Minister of Communications, Yunus Carrim, has set “real” targets.
By 2016, 50% of South Africa’s population must have access to the Internet at a minimum speed of 5 Mbps.
By 2020, 90% of South Africans must have access at a minimum speed of 5 Mbps, with 50% of the population having 100 Mbps access.
By 2030, 100% of South Africans must have access at a minimum speed of 10 Mbps, with 80% of the population having 100 Mbps speeds.
There is more, with government and health facilities having even faster access. But the message is clear: this is no low-hanging fruit. This is no attempt at service sleight-of-hand.
The same kinds of targets, applied to water access, would end the national disgrace that sees 30,2% of South African households still relying on pit toilets and bucket toilets. There is a vast gap between that statistic and the one that shows a “mere” 8.8% of South Africans don’t have access to piper water.
Perhaps Minister Carrim, a former academic, should pop over to the Department of Water Affairs to give them a crash course in access definitions.
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.
by Mongezi Mtati (@Mongezi) Ever since the dawn of humankind, we’ve created and spread stories; from generation to generation, we’ve talked about tribes and their significance. It’s natural for people to share stories and spread them, from older to younger, from one village to the next. These stories have had a lot to do with our preservation as a species.
We later figured out that we could interrupt these conversations with brand messaging but, of late, I’ve been seeing companies trying to fit themselves naturally into our daily lives — as naturally as one does when they are the highest bidder of eyeballs.
Over the December 2013 holidays, I saw less Christmas adverts than I usually do. It could have been because all the noise caused me to finally shut down, or less budget was spent on interrupting the consumer.
Stories emerged more than normal: needless to say, most of them — as you might have seen on your Facebook timeline — were photos of Coke cans with your name on them. There was also a little known campaign by Urban Degree and the calculated meteoric rise of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
The customer IS the story
Customer stories, as told by customers themselves, are the most powerful way to generate buzz. Urban Degree realised how much we love taking and sharing selfies, which gave rise to the #UrbanSelfie campaign. For a chance to win a R10 000 shopping spree, its customers took selfies wearing their desired Urban Degree garments; after showing their tweets, they could receive an instant R100 to R200 discount towards a purchase.
The campaign included Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where the most-retweeted selfie stood a chance to win a R10 000 shopping spree. Customers who uploaded pictures on the Urban Degree Facebook page could also win a long weekend in New York, London, Tokyo or a fashion capital of their choice.
On Sunday, 24 November 2013, people made their way to the stores, armed with cameras and ready to pay with their selfies. It was so well supported by customers that, because of the buzz they generated, this campaign went on for three weeks, instead of one day as initially planned.
The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town team shared the results and some of the selfies from the campaign.
The response
New Facebook ‘likes’: 16 947
Urban Degree ranked in the Top 250 Facebook Brand Pages in South Africa for December 2013.
Urban Degree had 873 351 campaign impressions.
There were 88 winners in the end.
Urban Degree made its customers the centre of its campaign and saved on the costs of marketing a sale through brochures and catalogues. This allowed it to seed their new stock to customers, ahead of the December holidays.
Its customers were also given a simple call-to-action that got their friends to participate and judge their new look.
Let influencers become evangelists
South Africans, following a GSMA report commissioned by Informa Telecoms and Media, are reported to spend more on their mobile bill than the global average. It seems that, among the tech-savvy, two brands come to mind when looking to upgrade to high-end smart phones: the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy, which have both risen to market dominance through less traditional methods than their older competitors.
Samsung’s White Glove Programhascaught my attention as it makes use of some of the oldest tactics in marketing. As detailed in Fast Company, The White Glove Program sends representatives to dinner parties where they seed Galaxy handsets to some of Hollywood’s high-flyers. The handsets are customised to suit the influencers who attended the dinner parties, down to their mobile network of choice.
An unnamed South African company plans to assemble Samsung phones this year, as reported by Reuters. Their head of content, Thabiet Allie, also shared that 50% of the 20 million smartphones shipped to Africa — in 2013 — were manufactured by them.
Connect the dots
The common thread in both the Samsung and Urban Degree campaigns is the activation of customer-led tribes. The brands gave their communities something to talk about without interference, and with little involvement, from the brands themselves. The buzz, as stories from friends among friends, spread organically and started conversations.
People are already having conversations about your brand, and being part of your customers’ lifestyle, non-intrusively, is the key to generating conversations. In most instances, campaigns become another thing that the customer has to do and, without an incentive, influencers are less likely participate.
The brands that understand their customers better build tribes that far surpass campaign objectives.
Mongezi Mtati (@Mongezi) is the founding MD of WordStart (www.wordstart.co.za). Apart from being a kiteboarding and sandboarding adventurer, Mongezi connects companies and brands with measurable word-of-mouth. He contributes the new “The Word” column on word-of-mouth marketing and social media strategy to MarkLives.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!
by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) The Pitch List is a new monthly summary of recently completed pitches. It draws data collected by the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) from across the industry and is not limited to pitches handled by IAS.
Pitches: October — December 2013
Client
Type
City of Cape Town
ATL, Digital, Media
NMMU
BTL
Auditors General SA
Recruitment advertising
Collette by Collette Hayman
Creative/ Digital/ Social Media
Bell Equipment
Creative
Distell
Creative, POS Design
Clover
Creative, POS Design
Samsung
Launch
Huawei
Digital
Hennessy
ATL
Pick and Pay
Direct
Telesure
Digital
Miller
BTL
AIG
Digital
Total
BTL
Nandos
Digital
Landrover
Digital
Panarottis
TTL
Miller TV
ATL
Joko Tea
BTL
Serengeti Lager
Full account
CSIR
Tender
Auto & General
ATL
Peermont
TTL
Faber Castle
TTL
Bantex
TTL
Active business moves: June — December 2013
Client
Discipline
Agency
Start Date
Henkel SA (Pty) Ltd
BTL
Blue Apple
13/04/01
KIA Motors SA
Advertising
OFyt Marketing & Communications
13/05/01
Mercedes Benz South Africa
ATL
The Old Shanghai Firecracker Fac
13/05/02
Wonga
Creative marketing
Bletchley Park
13/05/16
KitchenAid
PR
Manley Communications
13/05/24
Burger King
Media strategy and planning
Carat
13/05/29
Burger King
Retail branding
Clarion Printed Products
13/05/29
KFC
Retail branding
Clarion Printed Products
13/05/29
Grilled Resturant
Branding and in-store experience
five0six
13/05/29
City Power
Roadshow
Black Box Entertainment
13/05/30
Liberty in Health
Distribution
Snapplify digital publishing solution
13/06/04
RubiBlue
PR
Sapphire Street
13/06/05
Mat & May TFG (The Foschini Group)
PR
Greater Than
13/06/12
Business Intelligent
PR
Marcus Brewster
13/06/12
Celio
Advertising
TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Cape (Pty) Ltd
13/06/12
Dimension Data
Digital solution
Snapplify digital publishing solution
13/06/13
MTN
IT support
Integr8
13/06/14
World Design Capital (WDC 2014)
Advertising
MetropolitanRepublic
13/06/14
House of Coffee
PR
Match Creative Resource Agency
13/06/16
FNB Private Life
Digital distribution
Snapplify digital publishing solution
13/06/19
Africa Telecoms
Digital publishing
Snapplify digital publishing solution
13/06/20
Monarch&Co
Publicity and marketing
The PR Toolbox
13/07/08
Adidas
ATL
Machine
13/07/08
Joburg Style Magazine
PR
Livewired PR
13/07/11
Five Roses Tea
Campaign
Match Creative Resource Agency
13/07/16
Metropolitan Life
Events
Match Creative Resource Agency
13/07/16
Nespresso
PR
Volcano Advertising
13/07/18
LexisNexis
PR
Logico Creative Solutions
13/07/19
Ushaka Marine World
Advertising
Logico Creative Solutions
13/07/19
German Embassy,Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Publicity and marketing
Glass Slipper Communications cc
13/07/23
John Brown UK
Publish digital magazine
Snapplify digital publishing solution
13/07/23
Reggies
Advertising
Espresso dbn
13/07/24
Casa Labia
PR campaign
Fivestar PR
13/07/24
La Motte Wine Estate
PR
Amplicon Public Relations
13/07/29
Cascade Country Manor hotel in Paarl
PR
Dei Gratia Marketing and Communication Management
13/07/29
Kwikspace Modular Building Units
PR
Dei Gratia Marketing and Communication Management
13/07/29
Barbie Fragrance
PR
Green Queen Comm
13/07/30
Hello Kitty Fragrance
PR
Green Queen Comm
13/07/30
Braai-B-Que(ChesaNyama)
PR
Twiga Communications
13/08/08
groupon SA
PR
CLE Communication
13/08/20
Fraser Alexander
Advertising agency
Humankind Advertising
13/08/20
Fintech
Sales and digital
Stone Soup Public Relations
13/09/06
Urban Brandy Cocktail Route
PR
Paddington Station PR
13/09/12
Megnum Ice cream
PR
Marcus Brewster (Jhb)
13/09/17
Vitology
PR
The PR Toolbox
13/09/17
elev8
Publicity and communication
UrbanHouse Media
13/09/17
Natural Herbs & Spices
PR
Dummett & Co
13/09/18
Imibala Trust
PR
Paddington Station PR
13/09/18
New Media Publishing
PR
Irvine Bartlett
13/09/27
United Nations
Campaign
MediaCom
13/09/27
Standard bank
PR
Magna Carta Jhb
13/09/30
The Light House Boutique Suites in Paarl
Launch
Fivestar PR
13/10/01
Castle lite
Digital
Liquorice (CT)
13/10/01
Lipton Tea
Digital
BNRY
13/10/10
Ubank
PR
Marcus Brewster
13/10/15
Mxit South Africa
Communication agency
Bletchley Park
13/10/16
Kenilworth Racing
PR
Greater Than
13/10/18
World Cancer Leaders Summit(WCLS)
PR and media management
Greater Than
13/10/18
Jeffares & Green
Redesign its internal newsletter/magazine
Jabulani Design Studio
13/10/18
Tabasco
PR
Volcano Advertising
13/10/18
GL event Oasys
PR
UrbanHouse Media
13/10/23
Spinlet
PR
Networx PR
13/10/30
Mondiall
Launch project
Fivestar PR
13/11/01
Green. Kid Stainless
PR and publicity
UrbanHouse Media
13/11/04
Bullets4Peace
PR
Marcus Brewster
13/11/05
Pioneer Foods
ATL
The Jupiter Drawing Room CT
13/11/05
Ethiopian Airline’s
Campaign
Wet Paint Advertising
13/11/07
L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate event
PR and communication
Communication Services Africa
13/11/08
Western Cape Government
Marketing design
Young & Rubicam S.A. (Cape Town)
13/11/08
IPRA
Event
Millennium Travel
13/11/08
Granny Mouse Country House & Spa
PR
Goldfish Communications
13/11/12
Mr Price Sports
Advertising
The Hardy Boys
13/11/12
Oxford University Press SA
Digital software development
Realmdigital
13/11/18
FHM South Africa (For him magazine)
Advertising
Owen Kessel Communication(Pty) Ltd
13/11/19
Zulu Nyala Country Manor
PR
Lesley Simpson Communications
13/12/12
Qantas Airways
PR
PR Worx
13/12/12
Know of pitch going out or that has just been won? Email thepitchlist at marklives.com
Currently MD of the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS), Johanna McDowell has been in marketing and advertising since 1974, with experience both on the agency and client side of the fence. Follow her on Twitter at @jomcdowell. The Pitch List is a monthly summary of recently completed pitches, drawing data collected by the IAS from across the industry and is not limited to pitched handled by IAS.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!
by Roger Hislop (@d0dja) Just before the December 2013 holiday break, Media24 filed answering papers in Moneyweb’s legal action against it, in which Moneyweb alleged “plagiarism on an industrial scale” and anti-competitive behaviour. The reply by Jannie Momberg, editor-in-chief of News24, essentially amounts to a giant “up yours, sonny”.
As we speak, flocks of lawyers are poring over documents, finessing arguments and printing out gigantic invoices. There has been surprisingly little reaction in the media world to the copyright scuffle and its implications, which begs the question:
In a legal clash that shows all the signs of setting the tone — and the legal precedent — for our entire industry for decades to come, why is everyone sitting back, sucking their teeth thoughtfully, and leaving it up to corporate lawyers and high court judges to define what is, and what is not, allowed to be done in the name of profitable publishing, and what is, or is not, in the interests of journalism, publishing, South African readers and civil society?
The papers filed by Moneyweb, and the reply from Fin24, provide a perfect crash course in the business, ethical and technological issues the publishing industry has to get to grips with — as well as what the impacts may be upon the long-term health of journalism in South Africa.
While there are any number of straw-man arguments and point-dodging in the Fin24 answering affidavit, there are also a few telling points that Fin24 makes that suggest that the merits of each side’s arguments will be incredibly difficult to unpick by a court.
In fact, the only way to draw a clear line through the messy grey of copyright, fair use and what is allowable behaviour will be for members of the SA media industry to get together and actually draw it themselves, before they’re left having to live with rules they had no hand in writing.
Fin24’s reply to Moneyweb — a crash course in online publishing’s underbelly
The gist of News24’s answering affidavit to Moneyweb’s plagiarism and anti-competitive behaviour accusation is “No, we didn’t”, “So what?”, “You actually like it”, “It was barely anything, really” and finally, “Anyway, you do it, too”.
Using words such as “feitlik nonsens” (factual nonsense) and “belaglik” (laughable) in its answering affidavit, News24 has come out swinging.
The nature of modern online news journalism makes it stunningly ease to commit plagiarism in the minutes or hours timeframe that makes light-fingered scooping up of content worthwhile. At the same time, the insatiable hunger for new content is driven by the publish-first-at-all-costs imperative of the click-hungry digital-news market.
So what are the forces arrayed to combat this threat of a copyright free-for-all in South Africa?
Currently nothing but a do-nothing government department (DTI) that is signally failing to address it; a querulous industry and its professional bodies that have done little but wring their hands and tut in private; and a news media industry that itself plays both ends against the middle — it is not going to stick its neck out very far.
Quick recap: the Moneyweb/Fin24 drama that bought this issue to a head
Since a restructure at the beginning of 2013, Media24 has aggressively moved to a new business model where it slashes and burns its newsrooms that create original content, leaving ever fewer resources across more titles.
To make up for the hollowing of its original content capacity, News24 first pushed the lifting of licensed click-bait content from wire services into high gear across its slew of online publications, and then started rewriting content from competitors, effectively presenting it as its own (note the word “effectively” — this is key).
Moneyweb, a direct competitor of Fin24, had enough in September last year, and filed a legal challenge, complaining that Fin24 in particular was not only stealing high-value copyright material as a matter of course, but was also engaging in anticompetitive behaviour. News24 filed answering papers in December, and it’s headed for court mid-2014.
If Moneyweb’s legal challenge fails, and in the absence of any kind of concerted effort by industry organisations to write a code of conduct that is binding on local media, SA media will face a crisis.
An online publisher with light fingers and deep pockets has access to technology and resources that will bury a poorer one. Without being able to differentiate on quality and originality of content, the winner in the short term will be those with faster servers, better software, more investment in user interface and multimedia technologies, more resources to spend on gaming the search engines, more lawyers to tie up challengers…
Like an infestation of mistletoe, the parasitic plant that grows in trees, content parasitism will make the media woodlands look green and lush for a while, before the hosts are drained of their vitality, and both parasite and tree ail and die.
So what are the accusations and ripostes?
Copyright: fair dealing or unfair theft?
Moneyweb’s suit asserts that a number of high-profile stories that Fin24 ran were the entirety (or the vast majority) of its stories, rewritten very slightly, and that Moneyweb was credited with (at best) a glancing reference, easily missed.
Moneyweb claims that this is not just content theft but that it actively damages its ability to compete.
In its answering papers, News24 takes a position as spectacular for its cynical chutzpah as for its non sequitur misdirection.
Gambit 1: there is nothing to copyright
Fin24 starts by claiming that no copyright violation could even have happened, because news is made of “public domain news elements”.
It says: “There is no copyright or exclusivity in news items. No copyright exists on facts, figures, names, places or even quotes in news stories. These elements are not original to the reporter and copyright and exclusivity do not arise when one reports them, even in the first report.”
Essentially, their arguments is: “You use bricks, we use bricks. You went out and found some really good bricks that fit together to build a compelling and original sculpture. We then looked at what you did, used similar bricks assembled in the same way to build an almost identical sculpture. But since we both used bricks, how can you claim you did something special?”
Gambit 2: Even if we nicked your article, it’s “fair use”
News24 then claims that even if the stories it copied were original, under the copyright law, it is allowed “fair use”.
So what is the law?
The Copyright Act, section 23 (2) talks of general exceptions.
(1) Copyright shall not be infringed by any fair dealing with a literary or musical work—
(a) for the purposes of research or private study by, or the personal or private use of, the person using the work;
(b) for the purposes of criticism or review of that work or of another work; or
(c) for the purpose of reporting current events—
(i) in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical; or
(ii) by means of broadcasting or in a cinematograph film:
Provided that, in the case of paragraphs (b) and (c) (i), the source shall be mentioned, as well as the name of the author if it appears on the work.
The nub of the legal matter revolves around “fair dealing”.
The act is a very poor and outdated piece of legislation, the last little tweaking done 15 years ago. In the law currently, “fair dealing” is not explicitly defined. It is, however, commonly used in copyright legislation in Commonwealth countries, where copyright laws explicitly outline the amount of dealing that is “fair”. There is plenty of solid legal work for the court hearing this case to draw from, and for the shamefully out-of-date Department of Trade and Industry to review the legislation.
While the letter of the law is poorly articulated, the intent of section 23, the act is clear. Fair dealing implies fairness. Wholesale lifting of an article by a direct competitor would be difficult to describe as ‘fair’.
Furthermore, the section relevant to news publishers would be part (c). It is perverse to use it as a defence of the wholesale lifting of stories. Fair use in ‘reporting of current events’ is reasonably read to mean that the derived work uses information from some source in order to report on an event that is currently in the public arena — the individual facts about the current event are fair use, not the article that gathers them into a structure and provides an interpretation of the event.
The key here is the matter of degree… using specific lifted facts to create a news story about an event that is current is one thing; using whole sections of almost verbatim content is another.
Gambit 3: Let he who is without lifts, cast the first stone
In any event, Fin24’s affidavit goes on to admit that it lifted material, but that it was attributed and therefore okay.
This is true; Fin24 did attribute — but often in the most crafty way. A typical approach: in the middle of a Fin24 news articles concerned, a source is quoted or a fact is given, followed by a “… according to Moneyweb” rider. Just the word “Moneyweb” is hyperlinked back to the source.
To a casual reader, it would appear as if just that individual quote or comment came from Moneyweb, not the story itself. Further, the hyperlinked word “Moneyweb” looks like the common practice of linking a company name to a reference about it, not like a back link to a source. The referencing of the source material is (by design) hidden in plain sight.
While Fin 24 often obeys what there is of the letter of the law in terms of attribution, it is demonstrably not adhering to the spirit.
Unfortunately, Moneyweb also appears to play fast and loose on attribution in some of its stories, with the Fin24 legal papers detailing a number of examples of pretty sketchy content use by Moneyweb sourced from Financial Times, Guardian and others.
No one looks good here… the magpie culture of online media already runs deep. Few publishers would be lily-white in this regard, which may explain the deafening silence from them.
Gambit 4: Even if we nicked your article, it is good for you
News24 then goes on to say: “Content was clearly attributed and linked providing valuable exposure, transfer of audience and strong benefits for search engine optimisation — a common practice among digital publishing operations.”
On inspection, this “we’re driving traffic to you” claim is meretricious.
For linking to be of any use to the site that the content was taking from, Fin24 readers would need to click through.
Deep in Moneyweb editor Ryk van Niekerk’s affidavit is proof that this is not the case. Readers simply don’t click through from Fin24 to Moneyweb. They got what they wanted already.
Example: Moneyweb’s biggest news scoop — the Defencex scandal — had 20 000 reads. A third of 1% of the page views on Moneyweb.co.za came via Fin24’s lift.
Why would readers of news on Fin24 click through? Since Fin24 has published the entire story, why would readers need more?
Some open-source/digital pundits have castigated Moneyweb (see story comments) for being ‘old skool’ on the whole copyright thing, “You should be more like open source software — you need to change your business model. Look how it is working in software. You’re all just clinging to outdated business dogmas,” they say.
The vapidness of this position is plain — if I copy and use software, it continues to be valuable to both me and to the writer I copied it from. If I copy a news article and someone reads it, then its news value is spent.
Gambit 5: “It was just a tiny little thin one”
And, finally, in a straw-man argument to beat all straw-man arguments, Fin24 says: “In the year the seven articles in question were published, Fin24 published well over 10 000 articles, 11 of which had content sourced from Moneyweb. It is ridiculous to suggest the 11 out of 10 000 is ‘on an industrial scale’.”
“During the relevant period, only 2.05% of Fin24’s articles sourced or ‘aggregated’ content from non-syndicated third parties such as international and local news sites. More than 97% of content was either original, syndicated or user-generated material.”
For Fin24 to count “user-generated material” (generally user comments and unpaid, largely uncurated opinion) and syndicated content into the scope of its content is cheeky beyond measure, the equivalent of, “We copied a couple of your original sculptures to put in our exhibition, but it’s only a tiny fraction of our total offering, if you compare it to the building the display is in, and the parking lot around it, and the free stuff that people leave lying around…”
More to the point — it’s not important how many articles were allegedly lifted; it was that they were some of the biggest news scoops (and hence biggest audience magnets) of their day. It doesn’t matter whether you take a kilo of sand or a ton of sand; it matters how many diamonds were in it.
When is aggregation really aggregation?
A concept that is commonly used, but defined in the way that best suits the user of the term, is ‘aggregation’.
The core of News24’s position is that, in the modern publishing world, it is acting as a news aggregator such as Yahoo! News or Google News.
The big difference is that the “pure” aggregators are looking to draw eyeballs to interesting headlines (and the ads they serve alongside them), and then often the reader needs to click away again to the source to read the rest of the article.
The pure aggregator quotes the headline and a few intro lines, and then provides the source link. To get the news value, the reader must click through. Everyone wins.
If you ‘aggregate’ by taking the whole story so that the reader doesn’t need to click, the source loses. And loses big.
If you look at the definition of news on news sites as including aggregated story elements from various sources into fresh news content, the lines grey, and ethics become deeply subjective.
News24 gives the example of The Huffington Post as vindicators of its “aggregation” practices; yet the HuffPo-style content model has been roundly and stridently criticised in its home market. Only after many years of riding the coattails of other publications’ content has HuffPo started investing in its own newsroom and original reporting, although it is still largely a ‘scrape and drape’ operation.
Compare and contrast Jason Calacanis (of Engadget fame) spanking new news-aggregation service inside.com, where curators find stories, write a 300-word précis, and link to the source.
Grow up, Moneyweb, that’s how the modern news industry works
Fin24 says that first prize for a news organisation today is not to be first with the original story with facts reported directly from the source, but to act as an ‘aggregator’, and preferentially pick up material from whomever was at the scene first and run with it as quickly as possible. Instead of multiple journalists from competing publications scrambling for the better story, finding new angles, or uncovering additional information, the modern news publisher should take whatever is available the fastest, and run with it.
Says Momberg: “The method of journalism — of sending out reporters to the scene of each event, trying to conduct interviews and generally trying to obtain all information first-hand — has become largely outdated and antiquated in the 21st century practice of digital media publishing. Practically, media houses rely on the news being disseminated by the first reporter on the scene and then picked up upon and disseminated further by digital publishers, provided the courteous attribution of source is done by means of a hyperlink to it.”
Moneyweb’s Van Niekerk is withering in his scorn: “If the above approach becomes the norm, original journalism will suffer a quick and sudden death. It is very expensive to generate original articles and I don’t agree that mere technological change in news dissemination justifies Fin24’s conduct. I also doubt whether other media institutions, including the several excellent original content publications within Media24, share Mr Momberg’s view.”
The dire consequences of Moneyweb losing in court
The threat to the SA media space of a gargantuan, deep-pocketed media giant being given the legal nod to take content from other players and use it to build its own business is significant. If there is no hard-headed, principled stand by the media industry and, at the same time, Moneyweb loses in court, the dog packs of plagiarism will run free.
The consequences are dire for Moneyweb’s bottom line, but more so for the survival of ‘proper journalism’ as newsrooms get turned into cheap, profitable, rewrite sweatshops. Journalism will become a McJob, not a calling.
An industry based on “news aggregation”, with little investment in original reporting, is death to the aspirations of young writers who would build a career as a true journalist. A true journalist, in the mould of Hunter S Thomson or Bob Woodward or Mandy Wiener or Rob Rose — a journalist who breaks the hard stories, stories that are meticulously researched and fact-checked. Someone who risks all to tell the truth — someone doing what they do from a sense of conviction in their craft, because heaven knows they don’t do it for the money.
Without true journalists, the status and authority of the Fourth Estate as an independent investigative check-and-balance upon the endemic corruption and malfeasance in government and business wither quickly.
What SA’s media organisations can do
Media industry and journalism organisations have to step up, and draw a line in the sand. The Press Council of SA has to wake up from its geriatric slumber and issue a statement of policy. Draw up guidelines. Put something in black and white. The same with the SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF).
Currently, both organisations are concerned with duties with regard to readers, but not with the ethics of what publishers do to each other. Neither organisation has any active programmes looking at best practices or a code of conduct for news aggregation, or referencing, or hyperlinking.
The Professional Journalists Association (ProJourn) likewise has no clear policy: “ProJourn hasn’t officially documented guidelines on what is considered fair use, preferring to leave that to the people in the newsrooms responsible for such things — the editors,” says general secretary, Samantha Perry.
Since the law is weak, creating formal, accepted best practices is the next best thing.
Perry wants to see clearer industry rules: “Publishers need to be clear that content that is not originally generated in totality by their own newsrooms needs to be attributed as such, very clearly and explicitly. Possibly we need to go one step further and only allow the re-use of content where permission has been explicitly given and some sort of agreement crafted between the publishers concerned if a news service wants to do more than just refer to an original piece.”
She warms to the theme… then deflates in the face of the challenges: “How practical this would be, on the other hand…”
Without legislative force, getting publishers to even sit in the same room, never mind agree upon binding rules to toe the line she is proposing, would be very difficult. But it would create certainty. It is worth doing.
The internet changes everything
If plagiarism can become institutionalised in online publishing, those with the deepest pockets, with the most to invest in the online technology platforms and online design and content optimisation will flourish, like mistletoe.
If the media houses don’t agree on a sustainable model for what is, and what is not, acceptable in taking and reusing content, the courts will decide. We can only hope they will decide well because, if plagiarism becomes the norm, for a while our media forests will look green and healthy – until the hosts are sucked on for just too long.
And then our society will no longer have a Fourth Estate with the will and the skills to crack open the Defencex scandal, penetrate the e-toll spin, or hack through the Zuma spy tape evasions. We will just have 5 Mind Blowing Things You Never Knew About Belly Fat.
Roger Hislop (@d0dja) is a writer and analyst on media and technology, with a day job in technology strategy and product innovation in the telecoms space. He has spent most of the last 15 years writing on technology, media and business from both sides of the fence — as a journalist, and as a corporate communications professional. He writes in his personal capacity.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editors or publisher.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!
This is a selection of (smart and creative) covers focusing on the Winter Olympics, Gay-rights and also Putin — I’ll let the different covers talk for themselves. May the media keep fighting for people’s rights and not be silenced!
Note: this is not a magazine cover but branding for a campaign Reporters Without Borders started, and I just thought it so strong, it had to be included.
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!
by SAARF & MarkLives (@marklives)The SAARF/MarkLives #Top40TVratings Chart reveals the best-watched shows of the week before, where it ran and how many South Africans tuned in to watch.
This collaboration between the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) andMarkLives will be a weekly roundup of South Africa’s TV audience viewership, helping you to see which were the most popular shows to air in the previous week.
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.
For the week of 28 January 2014 to 3 February 2014, Generations topped our National chart (Generations is broadcast on SABC 1 but moved to SABC 2 for the duration of the Orange African Nations Championship). Society was the top-watched show on SABC 2. See the full table below.
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: “ociety achieved a share % of 52.59% from 28 Jan- 3 Feb 2014 on SABC 1”.
SAARF/MarkLives #Top40TVratings Chart: 28 January — 3 February 2014
National (include all households — free-to-air viewing and DStv platform)
Market
Target
Activity
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
22.1
8 863 521
68.74%
2
SABC 2
Soap opera
LOCAL
19.8
7 948 374
63.81%
3
SOCIETY (DRAMA)
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
16.3
6 541 066
52.59%
4
AMAZA
SABC 1
Drama
Drama
14.2
5 683 145
45.59%
5
MUVHANGO
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
13.9
5 577 210
48.22%
6
UGUGU NO ANDILE
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
13.8
5 534 435
43.14%
7
CUTTING EDGE
SABC 2
Actuality
Actuality
12.5
5 020 684
41.24%
8
INTERSEXTIONS
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
10.4
4 165 502
35.87%
9
MR & MRS SMITH
e.tv
Movies
ACTION/ADVENTURE
9.5
3 816 776
39.26%
10
POWERBALL
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
9.4
3 761 739
37.11%
11
DRUNKEN MASTER
e.tv
Movies
ACTION/ADVENTURE
9.2
3 671 435
37.77%
12
LESILO RULA
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
9.0
3 620 767
33.06%
13
SCANDAL
e.tv
Drama
Drama
8.7
3 505 779
30.72%
14
90 PLEIN STREET
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
7.7
3 107 030
40.92%
15
KHUMBUL’ EKHAYA
SABC 2
Magazine
Magazine
7.4
2 955 331
33.54%
16
RHYTHM CITY
e.tv
Drama
Drama
7.0
2 794 668
29.39%
17
ZULU NEWS
SABC 1
News
News
6.6
2 637 213
24.16%
18
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2014 GHANA VS LIBYA
SABC 1
Sport
Sport
6.5
2 595 269
30.57%
19
EKASI OUR STORIES:THREE DAYS IN HELL
e.tv
Drama
Drama
6.4
2 552 156
24.58%
20
SINGLE GALZ
SABC 1
Sitcom
Sitcom
6.0
2 407 221
22.81%
21
MUVHANGO -R
SABC 1
Drama
Drama
5.9
2 359 062
49.76%
22
7DE LAAN
SABC 2
Soap opera
LOCAL
5.7
2 280 492
23.87%
23
XHOSA NEWS
SABC 1
News
News
5.6
2 237 927
22.21%
24
NEWS
e.tv
News
News
5.5
2 206 927
22.45%
25
FRIENDS LIKE THESE
SABC 1
Variety
Variety
5.4
2 164 957
23.02%
26
SPEAK OUT -R
SABC 2
Actuality
Actuality
5.4
2 148 141
28.06%
27
SELIMATHUNZI
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
5.3
2 110 630
18.58%
28
GENERATIONS -R
SABC 1
Soap opera
LOCAL
5.1
2 032 593
45.93%
29
ZAZIWA
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
5.0
2 023 968
17.50%
30
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
SABC 1
Sitcom
Sitcom
5.0
1 996 683
43.38%
31
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
SABC 3
Soap opera
INTERNATIONAL
5.0
1 989 989
24.07%
32
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2014 GHANA VS NIGERIA -R
SABC 1
Sport
FOOTBALL(SOCCER)
4.8
1 943 310
21.57%
33
WWE WRESTLING RAW
e.tv
Sport
WRESTLING
4.7
1 900 429
22.62%
34
VELAPHI
SABC 1
Sitcom
Sitcom
4.7
1 891 224
40.34%
35
ABO MZALA
SABC 2
Sitcom
Sitcom
4.6
1 844 224
16.99%
36
MUVHANGO -R
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
4.6
1 825 310
29.30%
37
NYAN NYAN -R
SABC 1
Reality
Reality
4.4
1 770 689
38.55%
38
NUUS
SABC 2
News
News
4.4
1 770 466
18.28%
39
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS
e.tv
Movies
DRAMA
4.4
1 763 417
21.05%
40
SKEEM SAAM
SABC 1
Drama
Drama
4.3
1 731 568
22.32%
DStv platform only
Market
Target
Activity
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
17.7
2 057 210
50.33%
2
SABC 2
Soap opera
LOCAL
14.9
1 732 128
44.19%
3
MUVHANGO
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
9.9
1 150 467
31.42%
4
SCANDAL
e.tv
Drama
Drama
6.2
724 931
19.09%
5
CUTTING EDGE
SABC 2
Actuality
Actuality
5.9
690 842
17.39%
6
POWERBALL
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
5.9
683 929
20.62%
7
SOCIETY (DRAMA)
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
5.6
646 957
16.11%
8
INTERSEXTIONS
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
5.4
632 339
17.19%
9
RHYTHM CITY
e.tv
Drama
Drama
5.4
627 194
18.97%
10
MR & MRS SMITH
e.tv
Movies
ACTION/ADVENTURE
5.0
586 250
17.42%
11
LESILO RULA
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
5.0
583 013
16.47%
12
ISIBAYA
Mzansi Magic
Variety
Variety
4.6
537 810
19.59%
13
UGUGU NO ANDILE
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
4.5
526 316
13.28%
14
DRUNKEN MASTER
e.tv
Movies
ACTION/ADVENTURE
4.3
504 845
16.15%
15
KHUMBUL’ EKHAYA
SABC 2
Magazine
Magazine
4.2
492 119
18.34%
16
7DE LAAN
SABC 2
Soap opera
LOCAL
4.2
488 224
14.72%
17
NEWS
e.tv
News
News
4.2
486 084
14.12%
18
AMAZA
SABC 1
Drama
Drama
4.2
484 629
12.38%
19
ZULU NEWS
SABC 1
News
News
4.1
475 317
13.09%
20
BIG BROTHER MZANSI LAUNCH
Mzansi Magic
Variety
Variety
4.0
464 751
12.19%
21
NUUS
SABC 2
News
News
3.4
392 898
11.56%
22
SPEAK OUT -R
SABC 2
Actuality
Actuality
3.3
387 027
14.62%
23
SELIMATHUNZI
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
3.3
385 812
9.88%
24
ABSA PREMIERSHIP MOROKA SWALLOWS VS KAIZER CHIEFS
SuperSport 4
Sport
FOOTBALL(SOCCER)
3.2
378 339
10.88%
25
90 PLEIN STREET
SABC 2
Drama
Drama
3.2
376 311
13.71%
26
VODACOM YEBO MILLIONAIRES
SABC 2
Competition
Competition
3.0
353 375
11.57%
27
GENERATIONS -R
SABC 1
Soap opera
LOCAL
3.0
351 319
24.06%
28
WWE WRESTLING RAW
e.tv
Sport
WRESTLING
3.0
344 233
10.74%
29
EKASI OUR STORIES:THREE DAYS IN HELL
e.tv
Drama
Drama
2.9
342 323
10.67%
30
MUVHANGO -R
SABC 1
Drama
Drama
2.9
339 249
22.53%
31
SINGLE GALZ
SABC 1
Sitcom
Sitcom
2.8
328 930
8.70%
32
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
SABC 3
Soap opera
INTERNATIONAL
2.7
320 252
10.79%
33
XHOSA NEWS
SABC 1
News
News
2.7
309 428
8.82%
34
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2014 GHANA VS LIBYA
SABC 1
Sport
Sport
2.6
308 606
11.72%
35
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2014 GHANA VS NIGERIA -R
SABC 1
Sport
FOOTBALL(SOCCER)
2.5
285 559
10.44%
36
BABY GUARDS
Africa Magic Movies
Movies
DRAMA
2.4
279 791
14.47%
37
ZAZIWA
SABC 2
Variety
Variety
2.4
273 885
7.15%
38
BLOOD SISTER
Africa Magic Movies
Movies
DRAMA
2.3
270 458
8.61%
39
ISIDINGO -R
SABC 1
Soap opera
LOCAL
2.3
266 671
19.85%
40
BINNELAND
kykNET
Soap opera
LOCAL
2.3
263 675
7.89%
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.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!
by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), San Francisco Bay Let’s pretend for a minute that we can measure ROI for advertising.
And let’s pretend we’ve measured the ROI for our brand this year and it turned out to be 10%. In other words, for every $1.00 of advertising cost, we got additional sales of $1.10 and, therefore, a return on our investment of 10%.
So the question is, if that is true, why not spend every dollar we have on advertising? I’d be happy to give you every dollar I have if you’ll give me $1.10 in return.
The answer is, we don’t do it because we intuitively understand that this measurement is bullshit.
Here’s why.
Let’s say you’re the brand manager for Bob-O-Cola. You did a Christmas promotion for Bob-O-Cola during the fourth quarter this year and during the promotional period you spent $10 million on advertising and you did $11 million more in sales. You report to your management that you had a 10% ROI on your advertising expenditure. They applaud and make you C-Something-O and give you a nice fat raise. Seems simple enough, right?
It ain’t.
How about the cost of all the advertising you’ve done over the past 20 years that got you on the shelves in the first place? How about the cost of all the advertising you’ve done over the years to convince consumers that your brand was made from artisanally curated cola beans? How about the cost of all the advertising you’ve done to the trade to convince them your displays will earn them more money per square inch of floor space?
In other words, how about all the hundreds of millions in advertising dollars you’ve spent to get you to the starting line for this promotion that you are not including in your ROI? How do you account for that?
And conversely, how about all the sales you’re going to get during the next quarter, when you will not be advertising, that are the residual effect of your Christmas promotion? How do you account for that?
Do you think McDonald’s sells a billion burgers every minute because of the Christmas holiday ads you saw? Do you think Coca-Cola is on every shelf in the world because of the advertising it did last quarter? Do you think Nike rules the world because of the website it launched last month?
The total effect of advertising is cumulative, not discrete. These companies have spent billions of dollars on advertising and marketing over the years that have a multiplier effect on the advertising dollars they spend in the short term.
In fact, the billions they’ve spent over the decades — that are not being counted in the ROI calculation — may have far more effect on the outcome of their Christmas promotion than the short-term effect of the recent advertising.
Or it may have no effect at all.
That’s what’s wonderful and interesting about advertising — nobody can figure out a fucking thing.
ROI? Just another dubious entry in the encyclopedia of advertising ignorance.
The Ad Contrarian is Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), the author of The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.
exhaustive list of new platforms that are likely to woo the bandwidth of the Digital West this year, be sure to check out her claims, when her presentation hits YouTube. As a mere mortal however, I’d rather suggest your pursuit for 2014 should not be for what’s new, but rather for what’s better.
