ABC Analysis Q3 2013: Content marketing — the 1m club declines

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The latest ABC circulation results (for July 2013 to September 2013 — ABC Q3 2013) show that content marketing (custom publishing) print titles lost some ground compared to the same reporting period a year ago – circulation fell to 12,395,274 from 13,427,811. Some 2,195,572 of these were paid for copies. In terms of circulation the DSTV magazines continues to dominate – they are the only magazines with a circulation of over a million.

Private Life (correction: we incorrectly reported Plascon Spaces was discontinued. It is still being published by New Media) was discontinued as was AbouTime (the in-flight magazine of 1Time). Cell C discontinued its print magazine (circ 126,446). Vodacom Now (circ 866,090) also moved its attention online closing down the print title.

A number of titles saw significant circulation decline. Reality (for Sanlam) fell to 153,416 from 177,279 and JSE fell to 13,242 from 28,778. Mercedes fell to 15,840 from 26,352. Taste (Woolworths) fell to 25,651 from 31,073. Edgars Club fell to 757,293 from 906,376 and Ellerines Club to 111,662 from 152,450. Foschini Retail Group Club Magazine fell to 977,852 from 1,012,338. JD Group Club Magazines (A) fell to 165,597 from while 377,226 JD Group Club Magazines (B) declined to 98,605 from 211,231 (see JD Group ‘embarks on third lot of job cuts’). Jet Club fell to 861,943 from 915,678. Furniture City Club fell to 8,301 from 17,274. Clicks Club Card fell to 546,680 from 603,305.

Circulation winners included DSTV Compact – which grew to 1,304,235 from 1,159,748, Sea Rescue grew to 56,084 48,961 and Sawubona jumped to 87,500 from 61,303. Ackermans Club grew to 98,447 from 79,692 and Club X grew to 162,166 from 142,236. Foschini Soccer Club jumped to 84,832 from 66,999 and Foschini Sports from 246,991 to 237,645. RCS Lifestyle grew to 376,200 from 350,000.

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Custom Magazines

The biggest circulating custom magazines for Q3 2013 were:

1. DSTV Premium Mag / Tydskrif (M) 1,526,988 – New Media Publishing
2. DSTV Compact (M) (M) 1,304,235 – New Media Publishing
3. Discovery (3xA) 987,557 – John Brown Media
4. Foschini Retail Group Club Magazine (M) 977,852 – Highbury Safika Media
5. Jet Club (10xA) 861,943 – The Publishing Partnership
6. Edgars Club Magazine (M) 757,293 – John Brown Media
7. Clicks Club Card 546,680 (AltM) – The Publishing Partnership
8. Lewis Stores Club Magazine (AltM) 456,151 – New Highway Publishing
9. Woolworths W (3xA) 447,380 – New Media Publishing
10 RCS Lifestyle (Q) 376,200 – The Publishing Partnership

Edgars Club Man 200,000 (3xA) – John Brown Media
Spur Totem (Q) 199,400 – John Brown Media
Super Club for Kids (M) 186,865 – Highbury Safika Media

Highest single copy sales* – so over the counter sales basically – was achieved by Fresh Living (John Brown Publishing for PicknPay) with copy sales of 50,874 (total circ 72,424, total paid for circ 52,133) followed by TASTE (New Media Publishing for Woolworths) with 20,005 (total circ 25,651, total paid for 24,792).

*Excludes diaries

ABC Magazine Round-up Q3 2013: Consumer mags lost more than 800k copies over 12 months

Extracts from the 3rd Quarter ABC presentation (ABC Q3 2013) for magazine circulation figures.

Also see

Newspaper ABCs. A very bad day for the Sunday press
Newspaper ABCs Q3 – graphs & stats
The biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA
Newspaper ABCs. A very bad day for the Sunday press

4 Year Magazine Circulation by Quarter

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Consumer Magazines

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Consumer Magazines – Home

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Consumer Magazines – Travel

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Consumer Magazines – Woman’s General

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Free Magazines

Source: ABC

ABC Newspaper Round-up Q3 2013: Graphs & stats

Extracts from the latest ABC Q3 2014 presentation. Also see Newspaper ABCs. A very bad day for the Sunday press

Sector size ranked by average circulation– Quarter 3 2013:

The newspaper bump

ABC: “Total Newspapers increased by 180,000 copies compared to the previous quarter.”
MarkLives: Where does the growth come from? Judge for yourself:

ABC member circulation totals:
Daily Newspapers: down to 1,475,429 from 1,566,778 for the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down to 652,927 from 706,255
Weekend papers: down to 2,163,784 from 2,338,836
Local papers: down to 423,199 from 449,874
‘Hydrid’ papers: up to 166,325 from 166,181
Free papers: up to 6,499,162 from 6,116,772

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Daily Newspapers

ABC: “Circulation has declined (on daily papers) annually by 6.5% since 2009, equivalent to 433,000 copies. Q3 only declined by 1.5% (17,000 copies), compared to Q2”

MarkLives: Sign of a slow down in the circulation free fall or comparing apples (annual decline) and pears (quarterly decline). Either way the trend for dailies continue to be down.

Titles Showing Largest Decline: Daily Newspapers

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Weekly Newspapers

Titles Showing Largest Decline: Weekly Newspapers

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Weekend Newspapers

Titles Showing Largest Decline: Weekend Newspapers

4 Year Category Trend by Quarter: Free Newspapers

Source: ABC

ABC Analysis Q3 2013: The biggest-circulating consumer magazines in SA

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period July 2013 to September 2013 (ABC Q3 2013). Here are a couple of consumer magazine ABC numbers that popped out for us (see our newspaper ABC analysis here). We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA! There was significant movement in the top 10 positions.

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter!

Overall circulation fell to 6,050,593 from 6,875,652 in the previous corresponding reporting period (and from 6,135,842 in the previous quarter). Single copy sales stood at 4,149,515 and total paid (includes subscription figures) stood at 4,974,133. Paid for digital copy sales stood at 69,581.

Some insights:

The business press generally held firm or saw some growth but Finweek has seen its circulation collapse quite spectacularly over the past seal of quarters.
Africa Geographic saw its circulation collapse to 11,645 from 17,992. It’s publisher has since closed down and its holding company is working to relaunch the title.
In the men’s market FHM continued its decline by falling to 27,352 from 37,444. It wasn’t the only title in this market segment to see its circulation fall.
TopGear saw a significant decline to 26,494 from 37,096 while long suffering CAR magazine claimed back some lost ground.
Cosmopolitan seems to be in serious decline. Circulation fell to 63,386 from 85,212 (and 78,619 in Q2).
Kuier jumps to 102,512 from 78,896 (and 97,135 in Q2).Woman and Home pulls off similarly impressive growth to 106,036 from 86,153 (following a collapse to 83,863 from 101,690 in Q2).

More bad news for Finweek

Financial Mail declined to 22,551 from 25,065 (total paid 20,466). Finweek collapsed to 14,013 from 21,978 (total paid 11,496). Entrepreneur grew its circulation to 20,609 from 18,619. Noseweek also grew to 17,312 from 15,886. Succeed grew slightly to 23,742 from 22,005.

Forbes Africa fell to 14,704 from 18,919.

Entertainment, celeb news

heat magazine saw some growth to 29,139 from 28,316. Bona jumped to 104,234 from 82,855. Huisgenoot climbed to 277,577 from 273,772 while sister titles YOU declined slightly to 161,200 from 162,879 while Drum fell to 113,555 from 115,375. Taalgenoot fell slighty to 68,330 from 69,766. The Big Issue grew to 11,736 from 10,817. Readers Digest resigned.

People fell to 77,201 from 84,323. Rolling Stone stood at 8,021 after failing to make a submission in the previous corresponding reporting period. The Red Bulletin reported a paid for circulation of 37. It has slashed its circulation (mostly free) to 38,425 from 68,461.

Home & Gardening, Leisure

In the home category Conde Nast House & Garden fell to 45,874 from 46,340. Food & Home Entertaining declined to 31,810 from 34,554. Sarie Kos fell to 48,524 from 50,996. SA Garden was discontinued. Prestige fell to 4,450 from 9,334.

Elle Decoration grew to 24,044 from 23,593 and The Gardener grew to 24,039 from 23,946. Die Tuinier grew to 22,627 from 20,829. House & Leisure is up slightly to 44,071 from 43,991. SA Garden and Home grew to 61,059 from 58,253 and Tuis/Home jumped to 82,994 from 79,524. Visi grew to 11,026 from 10,604. Passi posted a circulation of 7,365.

FHM collapse continues

FHM fell to 27,352 from 37,444 (but is up from 25,614 in Q2). Men’s Health fell to 56,022 from 64,186. Destiny Man declined to 18,730 from 19,250 and GQ to 29,672 from 30,054. Popular Mechanics fell to 43,307 from 46,862. Stuff fell to 19,379 from 25,811 (added 2013/11/04 – the publisher notes the title changed frequency – up from six issues a year to 10). Playboy resigned. Braintainment grew slightly to 13,133 from 13,080. PC Format fell to 12,738 from 15,219.

On the sporting side Compleat Golfer fell to 10,700 from 18,615 and Kick Off fell to 53,568 from 61,140. SA Hunter grew to 43,014 from 40,539. ZigZag grew to 9,286 from 8,873.

Motoring

TopGear saw a significant decline to 26,494 from 37,096. Auto Trader fell to 10,436 from 15,551. Bike SA fell to 21,331 from 26,976. Drive Out/Wegry declined to 31,743 from 32,195 while Speed and Sound fell to 36,365 from 40,376.

CAR won some ground climbing to 79,041 from 73,521. Caravan and Outdoor Life grew to 21,108 from 17,289 and Leisure Wheels to 20,385 from 19,442. Getaway fell to 43,335 from 51,649 but SA Country Life grew to 38,826 from 35,183. Weg/Go fell to 75,349 from 77,540 and WegSleep to 27,806 from 29,544. National Geographic Traveller was discontinued.

The big Cosmo collapse

What on earth is going on at Cosmo? Circulation declined to 63,386 from 85,212 (and 78,619 in Q2). Finesse also continues its slide – down to 67,319 from 73,797. Real collapses to 33,947 from 60,986. Elle fell to 34,089 from 36,158, Glamour to 68,805 from 70,885, Good Housekeeping to 63,594 from 65,278. Ideas/Idees fell to 77,166 from 89,614. Leef declined to 36,182 from 42,332 and Marie Claire from 35,330 to 41,791. Move! is down to 123,058 from 125,952. O falls to 32,081 from 39,630. True Love falls to 61,292 from 71,126 and Women’s Health to 55,371 from 57,270. Your Family falls to 41,277 from 45,421. Seventeen falls to 24,327 from 29,125.

Kuier jumpe to 102,512 from 78,896 (and 97,135 in Q2). Woman and Home pulls off similarly impressive growth to 106,036 from 86,153 (following a collapse to 83,863 from 101,690 in Q2). Destiny magazine is up to 31,427 from 29,116 and Essentials grew to 36,396 from 34,780. Fair Lady stands at 54,509 – up from 53,436. Fitness magazine grew to 22,162 from 19,056. Grazia climbs to 21,475 from 20,745. Intiem grew to 33,070 from 27,975.

Rooi Rose fell to 94,492 from 100,949 while arch-rival Sarie fell to 92,661 from 100,855.

The MarkLives Big Magazine list*

1. Huisgenoot 277,577 –
2. YOU 161,200 –
3. Move! 123,058 –
4. Drum 113,55 –
5. Woman and Home 106,036 Re-entry
6. Bona 104,234 +3
7. Kuier 102,512 -1
8. Rooi Rose 94,492 -1
9. Sarie 92,661 -4
10 Tuis/Home 82,994 –

CAR 79,041
People 77,201
Ideas/Idees 77,166
Weg/Go 75,349
Vroue Keur 73,933

* By total circulation. Must have a cover price. Annuals Excluded.
Movement on the Big Magazine list compared to 2013 Q2 data.

Past ABC reports

ABC Analysis Q3 2013: Newspapers — a very bad day for the Sunday press

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period July 2013 – September 2013 (ABC Q3 2013). Here are a couple of numbers that stood out in terms of newspaper circulations.

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter.

For magazine circulation figures, click here

Daily papers:

Beeld fell to 64,329 from 70,070 and Pretoria News is down to 17,194 from 19,235. Sowetan declined to 99,061 from 101,155 and The Star to 100,804 from 105,686. The Citizen fell to 60,242 from 66,116.

Western Cape paper the Cape Argus fell to 30,777 from 33,006 while the Cape Times declined to 32,435 from 34,523. Die Burger (Eastern & Western Cape) fell to 58,134 from 61,817.

Daily News fell to 30,538 from 31,698 and The Mercury declined to 28,646 from 30,040 but Isolezwe climbed to 108,484 from 107,628. The Witness fell to 17,260 from 18,374

Daily Dispatch is up slightly to 26,501 from 26,390. The Herald is down to 21,446 from 22,563.

On the tabloid front Daily Sun fell to 291,132 from 336,319. Son fell to 86,598 from 94,610.

Business Day is down to 32,846 from 35,828. The Times** grew to 143,957 from 140,078.

MarkLives Big Daily Newspaper List*

1. Daily Sun 291,132
2. The Times 143,957
3. Isolezwe 108,484
4. The Star 100,804
5. Sowetan 99,061
6. Son 86,598
7. Beeld 64,329
8. The Citizen 60,242
9. Die Burger 58,134
10 Cape Times 32,846

Weekly & Weekend papers

Ilanga saw a significant circulation drop to 99,582 from 124,200 as did Soccer Laduma – to 334,869 from 360,668. The Mail & Guardian declined to 42,242 from 44,400.

Beeld on Saturday fell to 59,690 from 69,109 and Die Burger (combined Eastern & Western Cape editions) declined to 72,381 from 76,727. Independent on Saturday rose to 44,141 from 43,780. Saturday Star fell to 73,408 from 75,682. Weekend Argus fell to 57,022 from 60,201.

City Press fell to 121,137 from 135,148 and Rapport fell to 183,187 from 220,494. The Sunday Times declined significantly to 420,066 from 451,676. The Sunday Independent fell to 34,490 from 35,033. Sunday Tribune fell to 70,167 from 74,856.

Ilanga Langesonto fell to 56,656 from 74,350. Isolezwe ngeSonto climbed to 84,726 from 84,577 and Isolezwe ngoMgqibelo climbed to 78,772 from 73,187.

Sunday Sun fell to 176,692 from 199,183 as did the Sunday World to 116,875 from 141,260.

MarkLives Biggest Circulation per issue Newspaper List*

1. Sundy Times 420,066
2. Soccer Laduma 334,869
3. Daily Sun 291,132
4. Rapport 183,187
5. Sunday Sun 176,692
6. The Times 143,957
7. City Press 121,137 +1
8. Sunday World 116,875 -1
9. Isolezwe 108,484
10 The Star 100,804 Re-entry

Ilanga 99,582 Out of Top 10
Sowetan 99,061
Son 86,598

** ABC considers The Times a hydrid (paid-for and free to subscribers of The Sunday Times) newspaper.
* South African titles only. Must have cover price. Excludes Free papers.

Ad of the Week: How to Wrangle a Kreepy

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) One of SA’s most popular homegrown inventions, the Kreepy Krauly, is as much a part of the South African way of life as braaivleis and rugby. For many it’s a ‘creature’ that seems to have a life of its own as it wanders around the pool, gobbling up dirt and leaves.

In an online campaign, Pentair, the US company that now owns Kreepy Krauly, has embraced the South African ethos and allowed agency Ebony and Ivory to have fun with a very “local is lekker” campaign. It’s a three-minute mockumentary that features a ‘Kreepy wrangler’ — played by Jason Goliath.

Ebony and Ivory online video for Pentair: “Kreepy Krauly Wrangler”

The character is reminiscent of the protagonist in Wes Anderson’s 2004 comedy, “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” — a man driven by a deep desire to hunt and destroy an almost mythical water creature. And just like the ‘Life Aquatic’ characters, Goliath and his sidekick wear red woolly hats… so I’m pretty sure this reference is not coincidental. That being said, the humour of this ad is pure South African — crazily corny, deadpan silly, and slightly slapstick.

Mini-movie

Goliath’s character, Kris Jnr, is dedicated to seeking the Kreepy out, and capturing it “before people realise there’s a problem.” In this mini-movie, Kris Jnr is being interviewed documentary-style, and the overlay visuals are of him getting ready for a ‘hunt’. He wears waders and a weird assortment of equipment dangling off his battle-vest, while his sidekick has more traditional navy attire, and swimming goggles.

To illustrate his talent for hunting these pool creatures, Kris Jnr uses his sidekick, Barry, as a demonstration model, lifting him clear off the floor to show how he immobilises a ‘Kreepy’. “Keep the head away from you, because just remember, this thing can bite!” he explains, continuing: “People became scared because it was like a horror movie, you could hear him. I used to hear him in my sleep” — and the scene cuts to Kris Jnr waking up from a nightmare.

The distinctive sound of a Kreepy Krauly is a result of its design, and what makes it unique. But where did it all start?

The story goes

The story goes that a young man, Daniel Chauvier, made a living selling pool chemicals door-to-door; and noticed that most people he sold to complained about the time spent maintaining — raking, brushing and sweeping — their pools. Chauvier’s father, a refugee from the then Belgian Congo, applied his skills as a hydraulic engineer to help him design and prototype an automated pool cleaner, using wood and rubber, in their kitchen.

Chauvier asked some of his customers to trial the machines, and found it very hard to persuade them to give them back: he had a product that could satisfy a huge market need. The wood and rubber were replaced with injection-moulded parts in 1978, and since then the design has hardly changed — its main feature being that there is just one moving part, and the entire mechanism is powered by the pool’s own pump system.

That sound, which Kris Jnr describes as its “heartbeat”, is now being modified and, if anything, that is the one sales message that is being promoted in the ad. As Kris Jnr sees it, “I think they knew that I was coming for them, and they had to find a mechanism to evade me, becoming almost silent.”

Absurd humour

The final scene is of Kris Jnr and Barry using a stethoscope and microphone to track down a ‘Kreepy’ — which they then wrestle from the pool, amid much thrashing and splashing. “That, my boy,” Kris Jnr says to Barry, “is how you wrangle a Kreepy.”

The humour is absurd and one has to give a big thumbs-up to parent company Pentair for allowing its product to be abused in the name of comedy; a more conservative company would balk at that.

At this stage the mini-movie movie is only available on YouTube. Hermias Nel, national sales and marketing manager at Pentair Water, SA, explains the strategic decision: “It is important not only to improve our products, but also our communication methods. We realise the growth of the YouTube platform, especially in South Africa, and the need to develop strong brand narratives as opposed to disruptive advertising.”

Digital-only campaign effectiveness

The video production was by Team Best, and the digital and seeding was done by Retroviral Digital.

The effectiveness of a digital-only campaign like this is dependent on various factors, and results may vary wildly, depending on the uptake from the market — ie whether or not it manages to ‘go viral’ and continue to be spread by people on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Sometimes results are fantastic but, too often, even good stuff is buried in the clutter of Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus that seems to rule the YouTube domain.

YouTube’s becoming the perfect place for clever brands to seed mini-movies with the potential to go viral. Given how watchable the Kreepy creature flick is, it’s likely to get more than its fair share of clicks.

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.

Design Annotator: 3D Printed Chocolate

by Uno de Waal (@Unodewaal) In our roundup this week, we bring you:

Amazing shots from 8 South African photographers using a Nokia Lumia 1020.
LAyers of NYC by Josh Hayman
Kit-Kat has created a world first 3D printed chocolate.
Kreepy Krauly Wrangler
Out of Office: Bean There
Glaceau vitaminwater City Insiders | Cape Town
Design Indaba has showcased their great bar designs with Fine Brandy by Design.

Nothing Else Comes Close

To celebrate the launch of the new Nokia Lumia 1020, eight of South Africa’s most exciting photographers were given the opportunity to use the device to interpret the phrase: Nothing Else Comes Close.

We chose eight distinctly different photographers to demonstrate how the Nokia Lumia 1020 performs across a variety of styles and genres. They are: Ross Garrett, Dylan Culhane, Amy Scheepers, Brian Molepo, Justin McGee, Lee-Roy Jason, Sherilea Gaspar and Andrew Berry.

Over the past four weeks each photographer has been using the Nokia Lumia 1020 to assemble a series of photographs or a video that translates their vision. The resulting collection of works – as varied and exciting as the photographers themselves – will be presented in a group exhibition at the Alexander Theatre on the 29^th November 2013.

View the start of the Nokia Lumia 1020 Nothing Else Comes Close Group Exhibition

LAyers of NYC by Josh Hayman

A bona fide art director/graphic designer/filmmaker Josh Hayman has worked in a range of roles in the creative industry, from an art director in an ad agency to a director for music videos. His work has taken him from Cape Town to London and back again where he spends his time working on a variety of projects and brand campaigns.

Most recently, Josh took a trip to The States – New York City and Los Angeles specifically – with the exciting prospect of documenting his travels with no brief or client to answer to. This is the result.

CHOCNOLOGY Exhibition Presented by Android™ KitKat

Chocology For the launch of Android™ KitKat, Nestlé SA and NATIVE VML presented Chocnology – an exhibition of 3D-printed sculptures made entirely out of – yes, you guessed it – chocolate.

Ten local creators — Joey HIFI, Marchand Le Roux, Arno Kruger, Muti, Liron Segev, Rene Roussouw, Hans Fouche, Orijin, Native and Am I Collective — were selected to each design an edible artwork inspired by Android™ KitKat. The sculptures were revealed for the first time at the Museum of African Design (MOAD) on Thursday 7 November and were open for public viewing until Sunday 10 November 2013.

See more of the 3D Chocolate printer designs.

Kreepy Krauly Wrangler

Ad agency Ebony & Ivory together with Team Best on video production have created an online mockumentary-style video for Kreepy Krauly.

In the proudly South African short, we get a glimpse into the life of Kreepy wrangler Kris Junior, played by Jason Goliath, whose life is defined by his obsession with hunting the pool cleaner creature. He now faces even more of a challenge while stalking his target, due to its evolved noise reduction elements.

Out of Office: Bean There

If you’ve visited Bean There before, you would have noticed the smell of freshly roasted coffee as soon as you set foot inside. What you would have soon discovered, too, is the fact that their coffee tastes just as good as it smells. Now — if you haven’t been — you’ll just have to take our word for it and pay them a visit to experience this for yourself.

See more Wi-Fi hotspots in your area.

Featured: Fixate

CMC-stationery-fixate_mini-620x421

Fixate is a Joburg based web, illustration and design agency; the brainchild of two designers and two developers who say, “Designers and developers don’t often see eye to eye, but by some marvel, we managed to break the old stereotype and be friends!” Fixate was launched about a year ago in the hopes of bringing customised design and advanced functionality together to create cool stuff.

See more design work from Fixate.

FINE BRANDY. BY DESIGN™ Bar Design Initiative

Distell and Design Indaba came together and launched the FINE BRANDY. BY DESIGN™ Bar Design Initiative competition in February this year at the Design Indaba. They challenged 10 designers to design the ultimate modular bar, that would enhance consumer experience at tasting events. The brief was to ‘Think Outside the Bar’.

Glaceau vitaminwater City Insiders | Cape Town

vitamin water

Durban kicked things off and Johannesburg is next, but right now it’s Cape Town’s turn to take part in the Glaceau® Vitaminwater™ City Insiders competition; a competition all about knowing your own city to win an all-expenses-paid trip to one of the greatest cities in the world, New York. As the contest is currently all about Cape Town’s City Insiders we decided to put together a list of some of the newest spots the Mother City has to offer.

Here are a few of CT’s most recently opened shops, eateries and projects that we’re excited about now, and their owners’ favourite Cape Town hang outs.

Featured: Darren Gwynn

Darren Gwynn is a local photographer with an international reputation. He has assisted Rankin, owner and co-founder of magazines Dazed & Confused and Hunger in London, and has also worked in New York and Paris. He’s now back in Cape Town, and busier than ever. We caught up with Darren to chat about his work.

Design Annotator is a regular column on MarkLives featuring the top design work from South Africa’s biggest online creative showcase, Between 10 and 5, which is curated by publisher Uno de Waal (@Unodewaal) who is also a social strategist.

The Switch: Give your Loerie to your client and other love lessons

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) As an advertising professional, what is your love language and do you know your clients’ love languages? Are you treating your clients the way they’d like to be treated or do you default to how you’d like to be treated?

I’m afraid the old adage, “Treat others as you would like to be treated,” is misdirected. It’s more effective to treat others the way they would like to be treated.

A lot said and written

A lot has been said and written about relationships and what makes them successful. Being married myself, I’ve read a fair share of these books and I still haven’t found the Holy Grail. One of the more famous relationship ones I’ve read is “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.”

As good as this best seller is at explaining the differences between men and women, it is no guarantee for success. Every relationship has its fair share of challenges, particularly once the honeymoon phase is over.

There is one relationship book, though, that I would recommend. It’s called “The 5 Love Languages” by Dr Gary Chapman and it’s the closest thing to a relationship manual.

Keep the flame burning

What the author has managed to achieve with this book is break down, in very simple terms, why some couples manage to keep the flame burning and why others, despite their best efforts, end up calling it quits.

The central premise of this book is that we all value, and therefore respond to, different love languages. And, to be effective in a relationship, you first need to understand your own love language, and then see if it’s the same as your partner’s. Your love language is what your partner needs to do to appeal to you and vice versa.

You cannot impose your love language on your partner and hope that he or she will be happy. That never works.

Five love languages

According to Dr Chapman, there are five love languages. For some people, it’s words of affirmation. For others, love means receiving gifts. For yet others, it doesn’t get better than quality time. Then, for some, love equals acts of service and, lastly, other people see physical touch as a signal of love.

Most people have primary and secondary love languages. A primary one is non-negotiable, while a secondary is something we can go without.

My primary love language is words of affirmation, and receiving or giving gifts is secondary. It took me many years to realise that my wife’s love language is quality time. It doesn’t matter how many sweet nothings I whisper in her ear and how many gifts I shower her with, it’s quality time she is after.

A little goes a long way

Are you big on personal touch? Are you a hugs-, high-five and kisses-on-the-lips kinda person? Have you ever checked with your clients if this is their love language? Or are you Mr/Ms Words of Affirmation? Do your clients give you a poker face when you go all sentimental and mushy on them or do their faces light up when you tell them they are your favourite client? How often do you complement a client for a thorough brief, a speedy revert and an objective assessment of the work?

How often do you acknowledge the role a client plays in producing outstanding work, or do you take all the glory and send them a photo of a Loerie? Ever thought of letting a client keep a Loerie for the first six months of the year and you the other six months? Some of these little gestures go a long way in cementing our partnerships with clients.

A challenge that most agency MDs face is striking a balance between the right amount of client engagement and smothering a client with attention. Some clients value quality time and others are way too busy to even take a phone call, but this doesn’t mean they don’t care. They do; it’s just that their need for face-to-face engagement with their agency partner is on the low side.

What to deliver on

What you need to do is find out what matters to them and deliver on that.

You might find that your clients value acts of service and would rather not play golf or have drinks with you because you have very little in common. By offering to do a presentation for them free of charge, or proactively sharing information with them that might make their jobs easier, you might win more love. We often refer to these random acts of service as “value add.” Perhaps you need to dial up on these and slow down on the boozy lunches.

On the subject of gifts and boozy lunches, some clients absolutely love receiving gifts. It’s about understanding what gifts are relevant and appropriate to your client.

Built over time

What all this boils down to is that successful relationships are built over time. They take hard work, dedication and sacrifice.

Falling in love is easy. We meet, we share credentials, we flirt, there’s chemistry and we sign a contract to become partners. The difficult part is staying in love. Perhaps it’s time we started discussing love languages in our chemistry sessions, followed by a love temperature check every month with our clients to see if our love tanks are full or empty.

Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) is a Unilever-trained Chartered Marketer with lots of blue-chip marketing experience. He’s currently MD of Draftfcb Joburg. Mokoena contributes the monthly “The Switch” column to MarkLives.com.

Grubstreet: Developing the Eyewitness News app

by Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) We all know we want one – a mobile app, that is, what with the stunning cellphone penetration in this country and the rise of smartphones in particular.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck recently estimated that there are 14.3-million smartphones in use in SA and this figure is expected to

Lynette Hundermark. Picture courtesy of Destiny magazine/Adam Letch Photography

pass the 16-million mark next year. Even the not so interweb-savvy Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team recently said of the future of news in this country: “Mobile access will be the game changer, translating into unprecedented reach, even at grass roots level, where basic handsets are shared.”

So what should you be thinking about when you’re looking at a news app for mobile? Should the primary concern be simplicity and ease of use or should it have plenty of bells and whistles? It this about design or it chiefly about development?

Grubstreet chatted to Lynette Hundermark, apps business director at digital agency Prezence. She directed the development of the recently released Eyewitness News free mobile app (as well as Primedia’s very popular Ster-Kinekor app, Media24’s Leisure Books Android app and mobisite and Bidorbuy’s apps).

What a fascinating, specialist field – and Prezence is fast becoming one of the leading South African authorities on apps development and strategy.

So pay attention hacks and publishers. We can all learn a thing or two from the dev people.

Grubstreet: When you’re developing a mobile app, what’s the key thing you’re thinking about? That it will be user friendly and intuitive for the user to figure out or that it has all the bells and whistles and really makes full use of all the functionality of a smartphone?

Lynette Hundermark: It’s actually everything. It’s to make it user friendly and functional and especially with the app, it’s smart bells and whistles. It’s literally about coming up with a solution that ticks all the boxes quickly because the thing with apps is that it is the next step from a mobisite.

With Eyewitness News (EWN) they already had a mobisite, which is functional and has got everything.

With all my clients, it’s pointless taking a mobisite and repackaging it as an app. There’s no added value to the user if they don’t get anything different, bearing in mind you do get two different types of users. You get those who love mobisites and the people who love apps.

If clients have the budget, I’d say: “By all means, go into both at the same time”. But it seems that most of our clients have already gone into the mobile space. So with EWN and Ster-Kinekor, they already had really cool mobile sites so when we came to do the app, it couldn’t just be that repackaged.

The EWN app had to go in on all the platforms – iOS, Android and BlackBerry, and this is the old BlackBerry – and it had to give the user… all the basic functionality that you expect: all the breaking news, latest news, search functionality. But ideally an app needs to be developed for the specific platform so we needed to think of the capabilities of the iPhone, the Android phone and the limits you have on the BlackBerry phone. Because the target was the smartphone market, it needed to be rich and very, very picture perfect – it’s all about the pictures and the graphics.

It needed to be extra special so what we did with this app is that we tried to present news in a different way because when it comes to app users, you need to move with the times. You need to be monitoring user behaviour – especially with news where it’s no longer a linear process, where you switch on the radio or the TV. People don’t just sit down and consume news. Now they can consume news pretty much whenever they want to.

So when they go on to an app it’s not just a matter of getting a recap. People want all the details, like we saw with the Oscar Pistorius story.

There are a lot of news apps out there and it would have been easy for us to just go and clone a News24 app but we didn’t want to do that. It needed to be something a little bit different.

Grubstreet: How long did the design and development take for the EWN app?

Hundermark: There is this idea that apps are these quick little things you can pull together.

There are some apps like that but the approach that we use for major clients like EWN and Ster-Kinekor is that it needs to be something valuable because users are multitasking all the time. So development is a big thing but we place a lot of emphasis on the design and the user experience. If anything, the design and user experience added longer to the development.

When it comes to design, you work a lot with the client because it’s their brand. So we will make recommendations but they need to be on board with us totally so that takes a lot of feedback to get the perfect user experience. This was about a three-month process and then it took about another three months to actually do the development.

But depending on how the user experience and the design goes, it’s not a matter of just developing. Especially with EWN, the user experience is very different to the News24 app.

So how long the developer takes to implement depends on the functionality and experience you want to create.

The development (on the EWN app) took a lot longer that we thought it would because the user experience was so different to any other bog-standard app like a CNN app.

Also, because mobile development is such a niche, new market at the moment, it’s not like traditional web development where there’s pretty much a standard way of doing everything. Here it changes pretty much all the time. For instance, an operating system will come out so how you are going to do it today is different to two month down the line.

And we had the challenge of iOS 7 being launched in the middle of this (EWN process) so we had to tweak the design a bit – and we’re still tweaking things a bit…

Grubstreet: How many people would work on a project like this?

Hundermark: Well, there’s a design team and, if it’s a native application, it’s separate developers for each platform. So iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows have their own sets of developers.

Basically, it depends. With something like EWN, all the platforms were developed in parallel but there were different developers. It wasn’t one guy doing them all.

Grubstreet: And, of course, in South Africa – and in many other African countries – BlackBerry is still big.

Hundermark: It is very big. And I think Prezence is the only company in South Africa that is doing BlackBerry apps.

Developing for BlackBerry takes very long – it takes almost double the time. It’s very, very challenging and there’s a shortage of developers so that’s also why the EWN app was delayed: because they insisted on getting it released on all the platforms at the same time. Android and iOS was ready probably about a month and a half before (BlackBerry was ready.)

Grubstreet: The Ster-Kinekor app has been around for a while and is hugely popular. Are you still working on that?

Hundermark: We’re adding more and more features. At the moment, we’re taking it up to the next level and piloting bar-code scanning in Sandton (with QR codes) so you don’t actually have to swipe your card to collect your tickets.

The thing with apps is to build them with longevity in mind. You build them with a foundation that you can add to later without starting from scratch.

South Africa’s leading media commentator Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) offers intelligence on media, old and new. Reprinted from her site Grubstreet.

Plans to save Africa Geographic after license holder fails

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Africa Geographic Holdings is working to save the print edition of Africa Geographic magazine after its licence holder, Black Eagle Media, unexpectedly closed down.

Outsourced to two companies

Africa Geographic Holdings CEO Simon Espley explains that his company holds the IP and trademarks to Africa Geographic, and outsourced content to two companies, Big Fig for digital and Black Eagle Media for print.

Black Eagle Media, headed by the founder of Africa Geographic magazine, Peter Borchert, held the licence from Espley’s company to publish the print magazine. Espley says he hasn’t seen Black Eagle’s numbers but it would seem, from the outside at least, that ad pages and circulation figures had been on a downward trend. The publishing licence was terminated by the holding company at the end of October.

Black Eagle Media had relaunched Africa Geographic in August 2012 when it folded its second magazine title, the magazine Africa – Birds & Birding, into Africa Geographic. In May 2013 the magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary. Africa Geographic had originally been published under the title of Africa – Environment & Wildlife.

Go in-house

Espley hopes to relaunch Africa Geographic by April 2014. Although he is talking to new possible partners, publication will probably be taken in-house. Espley says there are no plans to take over the current editorial team and that he is looking to put together a team that understands multiplatform publishing, rather than one with a long track record in print only.

Print publishing, especially in the consumer space, is in an evolutionary phase, says Espley, and needs to work hand in glove with digital. He says the new hybrid magazine, which will operate as a unit across multiple platforms, will have a wider content mix and target audience.

In a statement posted on the Africa Geographic website, Espley undertakes to honour all outstanding issues owed by Black Eagle Media to subscribers once the new magazine has been launched. The brand will continue to operate its website and social channels while it redevelops its print product.

Calls to Black Eagle Media’s offices went to an automatic voice recording. A second message indicated no voice recording was possible at this stage.