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For marketers, a new way to reach social influencers

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Brands have been struggling to figure out the rules of engagement between themselves and what their PR agency calls ‘social influencers.’ These are the people behind the blogs and social media accounts who have emerged as influential in communities of interest by virtue of the popularity of their online musings.

Some set editorial standards on par with those considered standard in the world of traditional news journalism; others will gush your virtues in exchange for a free lunch. Now South African start-up Webfluential hopes to standardise business practices and offer transparent and accurate data on online influencers whom brand communicators can access, with a fair degree of certainty.

Maintain the trust relationship

Obviously, it also wants to maintain the trust relationship built up between many influencers and their readerships by setting decent standards in terms of the editorial/advertorial divide.

It’s an online communications agency that has spotted the gap in the market.

Retroviral is known for its work with Converse, SAB and Nando’s, among others, for whom it creates word-of-mouth campaigns through engagement with bloggers and their social networks. It has teamed up with investment firm Stratos Capital and developer David Philip from Silver Apple Studios to build the Webfluential platform, developed from scratch.

‘Grey’ space

Retroviral had been working with social influencers for the past three years, and its MD, Mike Sharman (@mikesharman), admits that, broadly speaking, in South Africa at least, it remains a ‘grey’ spacein which brands and readers find themselves. There are few rules or standards while, at the same time, the stakes — for both influencers and brands — have increased dramatically.

Marketers and PR agencies will in future be able to access contact details, influence scores and rates on a host of influencers via the Webfluential platform. An algorithm developed by Webfluential ensures social followers are legitimate and takes into account reach, relevance and resonance in its scoring of influencers.

For PR agencies, Webfluential offers a digital-era ‘media list.’

Added benefit

Traditionally, PR agencies bought lists of regularly updated contact details of media professionals; now they can buy access to contact details of influencers, with the added benefit that the data is owner-managed.

At the time of writing, 29 PR agencies had signed up for a trial account with Webfluential — eventually, an annual subscription charge of R5000 will be implemented.

Marketers, meanwhile, will be able to spec who they are interested in reaching (target market, age group, location, area of interest etc), and Webfluential will push them data on relevant influencers to target and the creative they require, in return for a cut of the influencers’ fee. Advertisers can then tailor the campaign to their budget.

Undergoing testing

As it stands, on average, advertisers can expect to pay 15-18c per impression on Twitter and 25-28c per impression on Instagram. The system is still undergoing testing but campaigns should be able to go live soon.

Webfluential is already attracting interest from abroad and the team hopes to launch in a number of key international markets. It is in the process of planning launches in New York, London and Nairobi.

“We can’t confirm exact dates on those launches yet, but we have already received an influx of influencers/brands keen on signing up,” says Sharman.

The service has already launched in major SA cities. For more information, go to https://webfluenti.al/, Facebook, @webfluenti_al and Google+.

Free Sherlock Holmes: the Copyright Battle of Baker Street

by Matthew Rimmer Sherlock Holmes faces his greatest challenge — since his fight to the death with Professor James Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.

Who owns Sherlock Holmes, the world’s greatest detective? Is it the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Or the mysterious socialite Andrea Plunket? Or does Sherlock Holmes belong to the public?

This is the question currently being debated in copyright litigation in the United States courts, raising larger questions about copyright law and the public domain, the ownership of literary characters, and the role of sequels, adaptations, and mash-ups.

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective first created by Conan Doyle for the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. Conan Doyle went onto publish a total of four novels and 56 Sherlock Holmes stories. And the Sherlock Holmes canon includes characters such as Dr John Watson, the Scotland Yard inspector Lestrade, Irene Adler, and Professor James Moriarty, the deviously evil and unhinged academic.

Such is his popularity, Sherlock Holmes has been the subject of a number of sequels, adaptations, and imitations. And there has been a revival of Sherlock Holmes in modern times.

There’s the BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. There’s also a rival series called Elementary – set in the United States, featuring Lucy Liu as Dr Joan Watson. There’s even been a dispute between the two series.

And there’s that rip-roaring movie franchise about Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey Junior, with Jude Law as his trusty assistant, Dr Watson.

Sherlock, the BBC version.

Scholars Megan Richardson and David Tan have observed that, for a long time, sequels to Sherlock Holmes were tolerated by the author and his estate. But there’s also been concern with how the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has sought to manage the ownership and licensing of intellectual property rights associated with Sherlock Holmes.

And this boiled over in 2013, with copyright litigation between an editor and the estate of Conan Doyle.

The case to Free Sherlock

In February 2013, Leslie Klinger — an author, editor, and Sherlock Holmes expert — brought legal action against the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Klinger sought a declaration that the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are no longer protected by copyright law. He wanted to ensure creative artists would be free to create new stories about Holmes, Watson, and other characters, without paying license fees to the current owners of the remaining copyrights.

Klinger and Laurie R. King had edited the 2011 collection, “A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon”, which featured new stories written by Lee Child, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Maron, and other writers.

Klinger and King had been co-editing a new book called “In the Company of Sherlock Holmes”, to be published by Pegasus Books, which featured stories by major mystery, sci-fiction, and fantasy authors. According to Klinger, the estate contacted Pegasus and implied that if they weren’t paid a license fee, they’d convince the major distributors not to sell the book.

Klinger refused to be dissuaded. “I’m asking the Court to put a permanent stop to this kind of bullying.”

“It is true that some of Conan Doyle’s stories about Holmes are still protected by the US copyright laws. However, the vast majority of the stories that Conan Doyle wrote are not,” Klinger said.

“The characters of Holmes, Watson, and others are fully established in those 50 “public-domain” stories. Under US law, this should mean that anyone is free to create new stories about Holmes and Watson.”

Klinger noted that the ten remaining stories still in copyright will be in the public domain after 2022, 95 years after the last one was published.

In other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the copyright in the works of Sherlock Holmes had expired, and the stories had fallen into the public domain.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Defending their turf

The Conan Doyle estate has sought to defend the copyright not only in respect of the stories, but also the characters in the stories.

The estate has argued that there should be independent copyright protection for Conan Doyle’s characters. The estate noted: “No court has yet addressed this issue in the context of a literary character continuously created in a corpus of works.” The state submitted that “A sufficiently distinct fictional character is recognised as an independent work of authorship with its own copyright”.

The estate argued that Sherlock Holmes is not a mere two-dimensional character and wrote that “highly creative fictional characters and works are at the core of copyright’s subject matter and are entitled to strong protection”.

But other regimes of intellectual property could be better suited to the protection of characters.

In the United States, publicity rights have been employed to protect character merchandising. In Australia, passing off has been used to protect Homer Simpson and his favourite beer, Duff Beer. Trademarks are sometimes employed to provide protection for distinctive characters.

The US Sherlock Holmes spin-off, Elementary.

To further muddy the legal waters, a Hungarian-born socialite Andrea Plunket has laid a contentious claim to the copyright of ten stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and trademarks associated with Sherlock Holmes. She is threatening to block the BBC from using Holmes in any further programs airing in the US, claiming they do not have permission to use her trademarks. “I love Guy Ritchie, but I am not enamoured of the BBC,” she explained.

Remaining in the public domain

Hopefully, the copyright Battle of Baker Street may lay some of these issues to rest. The Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle should not be able to unnaturally extend the life of copyright through its creative claims in respect of the canonical characters. Similarly, Andrea Plunket should not be able to block the appearance of works about Sherlock Holmes in the United States.

Sherlock Holmes and his companions should be in the public domain, free for all to use. As Leslie Klinger comments: “Holmes and Watson belong to the world, not to some distant relatives of Arthur Conan Doyle.” It’s elementary.

Dr Matthew Rimmer is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow working on a project entitled “Intellectual Property and Climate Change: Inventing Clean Technologies”. He is an associate professor at the ANU College of Law, and an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article here.

MagLove: The magazine cover that crashed

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

Bloomberg Businessweek
LAN Airlines “in”
Eurostar Metropolitan
British Airways High Life (South Africa)

Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @MediaSlut.

INTERNATIONAL

Bloomberg Businessweek, 4 November 2013

My grandmother (for example) won’t get the concept behind this cover, but those who do, should agree with me that it’s just plain brilliant.

LAN Airline “in”, November 2013

In-flight magazine “in” (for Chile airline LAN) features one of the brightest covers I’ve seen in a long time, with great street-art artwork. A cover that just simply draws you in into that world…

Eurostar Metropolitan, November 2013

I can already picture it. I’m on the Eurostar, taking a train from one city to another, and having nothing to read or do. This cover, with a paragraph of one of its published articles splashed on it, will surely draw anyone in, including myself!

And, after reading it on the cover, I think most people would actually continue reading the article on page 50. A very simple but very effective idea, and I’m sure this great concept will have thousands more people reading the specific story (than if it were not on the cover). It’s part of Eurostar’s latest ad campaign as an ode to its destinations’ possibilities, so it asks readers (and passengers) to share some of their favourite memories.

You can read the full issue (and article) right here.

LOCAL

British Airways High Life (South Africa), November 2013

British Airways’ magazine High Life is not just featuring a “Trail Blazer” Ryan Sandes on its cover, but it’s also trail-blazing the South African market with amazing covers! If it is allowed to enter the annual MPASA Pica awards, I really hope it gets recognised (And, if not, a plan should be made so that it can get the recognition deserved).

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. #MagazinesForTheWin

Hermaneutics: Two narratives on MetropolitanRepublic sanctions

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Two very interesting but diverging stories ran on Thursday, 7 November 2013, in, ironically, two media products that also shares a newsroom. Both cover the MetropolitanRepublic/Loeries awards scandal, which saw the agency stripped of its awards for entering work that did not meet entry criteria, and then blaming its juniors, the broader ad industry and the Loerie organisers when caught out (it did eventually take full responsibility for its actions).

Too harsh a reaction?

One, published in the Financial Mail, suggests that MetropolitanRepublic — coming in for sanctions from not only the Loerie organisers but also the ACA (which found it had brought the organisation into disrepute) and the Creative Circle (which found it had brought “the entire industry, but most particularly the creative disciplines of the industry, into disrepute”) — is facing too harsh a reaction from industry bodies and associations. “…[A]s different bodies queue up to mete out their own punishments, there is a growing sense that the industry should ease up on its pursuit of the disgraced agency,” the story reads.

“…Innocent parties have already been hurt in the retribution meted out to MetropolitanRepublic,” the Financial Mail continues in its reporting. “Clients whose campaigns legitimately won Loeries have seen their recognition snatched away as part of the agency’s overall disqualification. The latest actions may have a deeper impact on MetropolitanRepublic itself and the more than 100 staff.”

Over at Business Day, Anton Harber, an adjunct professor of journalism at Wits University and a regular columnist for the paper, seems to have taken an opposing view. He’s castigated the industry, MTN and the media for giving the agency a slap on the wrist:

“Coverage in the media has been slight, especially if you compare it to how quickly the misdeeds of sometimes obscure and small-time public officials can make the headlines,” writes Harber. “This agency damaged itself, without doubt, but it also hurt the industry, the Loeries and the credibility of a corporate sector that purports to oppose corruption, demands strong action when it is in the public sector, but eases up when it is in its own backyard.”

A difficult story to cover

Let me start by pointing out that this has been a difficult story to cover. After several early media interviews in the wake of the scandal, in which agency execs set blame firmly on its junior team, MetropolitanRepublic declined all further comment or interviews.

Its client, MTN, is also declining media interviews. “We are directing all media requests on this matter directly to Metropolitan Republic,” says MTN. “From MTN’s perspective, this is a matter that rests principally with MetropolitanRepublic and as such, should be managed directly with and by them.”

The ACA itself, after sending out a media statement that pretty much ripped MetroR a new one, has declined all further requests for comment, with a standard reply sent out to all media queries on the matter:

“Thank you for your request regarding further information on the ACA’s sanctions imposed on MetropolitanRepublic,” reads the ACA statement. “The matter was an unfortunate and isolated incident which has been dealt with through a process of self-regulation in line with the Articles of Incorporation of the Association. The ACA’s position was comprehensively expressed in the media statement issued 31October 2013 and the matter is now deemed closed and dealt with, therefore we will not be making any further statements or comments on this matter.”

All toeing the same line

It does appear a bit cosy, doesn’t it? The agency, the client and the industry body all toeing the same line — no comment — hardly makes for a transparent environment, and effectively stifles any balanced conversation on the issues at hand. And it’s a conversation we should all be having, make no mistake, with input from all parties involved. If self-censorship might not rock the boat, it won’t save it from sinking, either.

In short, MetroR won’t give the real story, although it has apologised; MTN says it believes “the necessary actions have been taken post this incidence and moving forward, to ensure this never reoccurs,” but won’t give details on those actions; and the ACA, claiming strict sanctions have been imposed on MetroR, won’t provide details on the supposed sanctions, including a figure for the fine imposed or which board/operations-committee members have been affected by its decision to suspend agency membership for a year.

I agree with Harber that the private sector, and the media, is quick to jump on public sector shenanigans. MTN, by not publicly sanctioning its agency, does appear soft on the face of it, if only by virtue of its silence.

Print media especially, meanwhile, has less and less capacity to cover the advertising industry, having divested from specialist reporters. The last print title dedicated to covering the industry, AdVantage Magazine, was killed off by Media24 earlier this year, and Finweek recently dropped its coverage of the ad industry. Online media is relying heavily on churnalism rather than journalism.

Why specialist reporters are important

Harber’s column is an example of why specialist reporters are important. For one, he’s missed that the remaining trade media has covered the scandal extensively and from various angles (MarkLives certainly has…). He’s also missed the ACA and Creative Circle (only released yesterday) sanctions already imposed on the agency when he wrote, “We have not heard from other industry bodies, all of whom should be insisting that the agency — and the responsible individuals — be banished from competitions and industry organisations for at least five years.”

On the flip side, I don’t buy the Financial Mail’s “too many red cards” angle, either. The agency cynically exploited images of impoverished children it claimed to have helped, but really didn’t, to win an award. Its actions mocked its peers, its client, the people of the country it was claiming to assist and the awards organisers. It was utterly shameful.

MetropolitanRepublic has messed up big time. BIG TIME. The sanctions now being imposed are appropriate. Of course the agency staff has sympathy from the industry, especially those much-maligned juniors. But let’s keep perspective — next year it will be back, entering awards with legitimate work.

It would be unfortunate if MTN, MetroR, the ACA and the broader industry miss an opportunity to evolve best practice as an industry. It’s something that can only happen if the silence is replaced with constructive and transparent dialogue.

Media coverage (available online) on the scandal:

Bizcommunity
DMMA: Loeries disqualification of MetropolitanRepublicLoeries …
MetropolitanRepublic apologises to Loeries, marketing industry
MetropolitanRepublic’s Project Uganda stripped of Grand Prix

Memeburn
MetropolitanRepublic hit with ACA sanctions as Loeries fallout …
Loeries strip MetropolitanRepublic of all awards after Grand Prix …

Screen Africa
Statement from MetropolitanRepublic re Loeries and MTN

Independent/IOL
Ad agency in Loeries scandal
‘They should not have stripped our Loeries’

The Media Online
MetropolitanRepublic sanctioned by ACA
Talking scam advertising with Cannes Lions CEO

Business Day
Fine feathers fly at the Loeries

eCNA
Slap the ad agency around a little

Mail & Guardian
Technology the fly in the Loeries’ ointment

Adlip
ACA imposes penalties on MetropolitanRepublic
Loeries and the marketing industry receive apology from MetropolitanRepublic

MarkLives
Creative Circle sanctions MetropolitanRepublic
Letter from NY: Matthew Bull’s house rules for entering award shows
ACA suspends MetropolitanRepublic membership
Hermaneutics: Lessons from MetropolitanRepublic’s Loerie nightmare
Industry reacts to MetropolitanRepublic Loeries scam ad scandal
No more interviews, says MetropolitanRepublic
What MetroR, MTN should know about education in Uganda
MetropolitanRepublic in Loeries scam scandal

Hermaneutics is a column by MarkLives.com editor Herman Manson (@marklives). It indicates opinion as much as reporting.

Creative Circle sanctions MetropolitanRepublic

The Creative Circle has sanctioned MetropolitanRepublic for bringing the industry into disrepute following a scandal involving work that won several major awards at the Loeries but didn’t meet entry criteria. The agency has since been stripped of its awards and had its membership to industry body the ACA suspended.

In a letter (published on the website of digital industry body the DMMA) the Creative Circle informed MetropolitanRepublic that it has found that MetropolitanRepublic brought “the entire industry, but most particularly the creative disciplines of the industry, into disrepute.” It disqualified MetropolitanRepublic from its own Annual Awards (Project Uganda won the digital category of the CC’s Ad of the Month in July, which qualified it for the annual award). It also withdrew the July CC Monthly Award and no MetropolitanRepublic work will be held eligible for the CC Annual Awards to be held in March 2014. The agency may enter no work into Ad of the Month for the rest of 2013.

For a period of 24 months (from November 2013 – November 2015) no member of MetropolitanRepublic will be permitted to serve on the CC ExCo or judge in the CC monthly awards. “To this end no MR Creatives will appear in the 2014/2015 individual creative rankings used to select the CC ExCo and the judges for the CC monthly awards.”

For a period of 24 months (from January 2014 – January 2016) all MR entries into the CC awards must be accompanied by a letter of confirmation and validity from the relevant client. In addition a media plan indicating first flighting must also be supplied.

Letter starts:

On October the 28, 2013 the Creative Circle received a letter of complaint from the Loerie Awards regarding the recent behaviour of one of our members, Metropolitan Republic, hereafter referred to as MR.

A simultaneous complaint was also laid with our fellow industry body the ACA (Association for Communication and Advertising).

The details of the complaint were as follows :

1/ MR submitted an entry into this year’s Loerie awards, MTN Project Uganda, which was awarded a Grand Prix and a Gold Loerie. On investigation by the Loeries, it was found that the entry did not meet the entry requirements. Specifically, the Loeries entry rules require that all entries must be commercially published, launched or aired to a substantial audience for the first time between 1 June 2012 and 31 May 2013. The Ubuntu category also requires that entries reflect an active and on-going campaign in this period, and that entries demonstrate a positive social or environmental impact. In addition to this, each entrant warrants that their information provided is true and correct. When queried by the Loeries, the agency withdrew the entry. The Loeries imposed additional sanctions, including a judging ban and the requirement to submit media schedules and letters from the brand representative for all entries for the next two-years.

2/ Subsequent to the above, both of you made statements during an interview on SAFM that questioned not only the integrity of the Loeries but the industry as a whole.

The Loeries Board has subsequently met, issued its own sanctions and penalties, and has accepted an apology issued by MR, in which the statements made on SAFM were recanted.

However, the Board of the Loeries felt that, in addition to this, it was necessary to lay a formal complaint with The Creative Circle, hereafter referred to as CC, the details of which are outlined above.

The CC then held an extraordinary ExCo meeting to discuss the letter of complaint, and any additional issues arising out of the MR incident/s.
Resolutions and Actions tabled at the Extraordinary Ordinary meeting of the Creative Circle Exco held on 28th October 2013.

The CC ExCo, based on the above complaint, has met and tabled the following resolutions and actions:

1. The CC notes with concern the actions of MR with regards to the entering of the Project Uganda piece into the Loerie Awards.

2. The CC further notes the subsequent actions of MR which undoubtedly bring the entire industry, but most particularly the creative disciplines of the industry, into disrepute.

3. The CC notes and fully supports the statements and sanctions of both Loeries Board and the ACA in the matter.

4. The CC notes and acknowledges the apologies offered by MR and the recanting of the comments made about the industry by senior members of MR.

5. The CC notes additionally that the Project Uganda piece was entered into its own competition, Ad of the Month, where it won the Digital category in July. At no stage prior, during or after this, did any member of MR bring to the attention to the CC any irregularities with regards to the work. In fact, after a query was made by an ExCo member regarding the originality of the idea, the CC received a letter from a senior creative person at MR defending the integrity and validity of the work. In light of later revelations this is alarming to say the least. Additionally, no member of MR has subsequently contacted the CC to withdraw the work, which clearly won the CC monthly award in serious contravention of the rules of the competition. Currently the MTN Project Uganda piece still qualifies for the CC Annual Awards in March. This is clearly untenable.

6. The CC disqualifies the entry, Project Uganda, from participating in the CC Annual Awards in March. The July CC Monthly Award is also withdrawn. In addition, as a further sanction, no MR work will be held eligible for the CC Annual Awards to be held in March 2014.

7. No MR work may be entered into the Creative Circle Awards for the remainder of 2013.

8. For a period of 24 months : from November 2013 – November 2015 – no member of MR will be permitted to serve on the CC ExCo or judge in the CC monthly awards. To this end no MR Creatives will appear in the 2014/2015 individual creative rankings used to select the CC ExCo and the judges for the CC monthly awards.

9. For a period of 24 months : from January 2014 – January 2016 all MR entries into the CC awards must be accompanied by a letter of confirmation and validity from the relevant client. In addition a media plan indicating first flighting must also be supplied.

10. The CC notes the commitments and comments made in apologies and statements by members of the MR executive, especially those regarding bringing the industry into disrepute. The CC reserves the right, should these undertakings not be observed, to take further action.

Kind regards,

CHRIS GOTZ
CHAIRPERSON
CREATIVE CIRCLE

Shelf Life: Dove mirrors positive reinforcement for women

Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s pick of new product, packaging and design launches this week:

Caring for moms and tots — Mommy Care launches in South Africa;
Pyrotec has the on-pack label market zipped up;
Dove mirrors positive reinforcement for women; and
Hungry Lion hunts with Moving Tactics.

Mommy Care launches in SA

International organic skincare product Mommy Care, aimed at pregnant women, babies and toddlers, will be launched in SA this month. The range contains over 35 botanical and certified organic ingredients, including aloe vera, avocado, calendula, chamomile, geranium, lavender, olive oil, rosemary, shea butter, sweet almond and wheatgerm.

In addition, the Mommy Care products only contain fragrances and additives found in nature. “Skin safety is of key concern, so our products are free from any doubtful ingredients such as parabens, petroleum-based ingredients, phthalates, SLS, or any other ingredient for which safety has not yet been established,” emphasises Innike Rajput, Mommy Care South Africa MD.

The products are aimed at addressing the specific skincare needs of pregnant and post-pregnant women’s changing bodies, and the sensitive skin of babies and toddlers.

The product will be on shelves in Checkers and Baby City stores towards the end of November.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

A zipper-type perforated closure has been incorporated into Fix-a-Form’s range of leaflet-labels. Timothy Beattie, GM of Pyrotec PackMedia, explains that this new product innovation is a first in the SA market.

“This new type of convenient resealable leaflet-label is aimed at improving product usage through consumer information and education, and therefore consumer safety. It is also a premium product aimed at enhancing brand image for our customers. The production lead time has also been shortened because of eliminating one of the processes previously involved, thus simplifying the overall production process.”

Manufactured exclusively by Pyrotec in SA, Fix-a-Form is a leaflet-label that includes extensive information in the space of a standard label, making it particularly useful for pharmaceutical and agrochemical products that need to include copious amounts of information in a small area of space.

The new zipper perforation means that the booklet on the label can be easily opened and resealed. Beattie says the new on-pack technology allows customers to repeatedly refer to the product information, which ultimately results in better usage of the product.

One of the major challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industries is patient compliance. Millions are spent each year on the research and development of pharmaceuticals, yet an estimated 40% of prescriptions are not taken as directed.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

We’ve all seen the moving Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign at every single conference or industry workshop we’ve been at in the last year, which demonstrates graphically that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful.

Some of you may even have seen the parody ‘Real Men’ counter video, claiming that only 4% of men view themselves as average, which naturally is one of the funniest things we’ve ever seen!

The official Dove campaign has also been taken through to below-the-line media through TLC in SA (PrimediaUnlimited’s washroom-advertising platform). Mirror decals, applied in women’s washrooms in five upper LSM shopping malls, greet customers with the messages ‘Hello Beautiful’; ‘Love the Skin you’re in’; and ‘Show off your beautiful smile!’.

“Dove [is] building a movement in which women everywhere have the tools to take action and inspire each other and other women in their lives,” says TLC Unlimited’s Brett Tucker. “The purpose of Dove’s campaign is to encourage women to embrace their own beauty. When looking in the washroom mirror, they’re surrounded with positive words.”

Dove’s payoff line for this campaign is ‘Together we can change how women see beauty’.

Web-controlled menu boards

We carried the story of fast-food chain Hungry Lion’s rebrand and rapid expansion into SA and Africa a couple of months ago on Shelf Life and it has now partnered with Moving Tactics, the digital-signage-solutions company, to implement a dynamic digital signage solution within its stores in SA and Africa.

Hungry Lion, part of the Shoprite Holdings Ltd Group, has had a presence in Africa for some time and is continuing to grow its footprint on the continent with the first phase of new stores opening in Zambia. It is one of the fastest growing quick-service restaurants (QSR) in SA and Africa, with over 150 stores already, and the new in-store digital media platform will be implemented in its new stores, as well as included as part of existing store upgrades.

Chris Day, Moving Tactics MD, explains that menu boards are no longer just a simple list of food items available for sale. Digital menu boards are changing the way in which consumers perceive value, affecting what they order and generating an immediate response to an in-store promotion at the point-of-sale. The X2O digital menu boards provide franchise organisations with the ability to effectively manage the uniformity of design across all their stores, while maintaining integrity of brand and product information at any of their stores. The digital menu-board system can be managed from any secure web device in the world.

Moving Tactics is implementing this system at 49 of Hungry Lion’s stores in SA and at all 22 Hungry Lion stores across Africa, with the first four stores in Zambia due for completion in November 2013.

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

Louise has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25-year media career as a former editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing, as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the co-founder and publishing editor of South Africa’s industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.

The Ad Contrarian: The ‘engagement’ farce at the YouTube Music Awards

by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), San Francisco Bay Online advocates have been trying to convince us that the proper measurement of online success is “engagement.”

Engagement is a very imprecise and confusing term. Nobody can agree on what engagement means, how to measure it, or what value it has.

So it’s the perfect flavour of online unaccountability. Just like we disguise our traditional advertising failures behind branding (“it’s not supposed to sell, it’s a branding ad”), we now hide our online failures behind “engagement (“clicks mean nothing.”)

As Martin Weigel, head of planing at Wieden+Kennedy’s Amsterdam office says,

“‘Engagement’ is an unworkable and meaningless concept. It means everything. And absolutely nothing. And as such it cannot possibly claim to be any kind of metric.

Searching, viewing, visits, spending time on site or page, opening promotional e-mails, completing a survey, page views, linking, bookmarking, blogging, forwarding, following, referring, clicking, friending, liking, +1-ing, playing, reading, subscribing, posting, printing, reviewing, recommending, rating, co-creating, discussing,…uploading, downloading, adding an item to favourites, joining a group, installing a widget…All of these and more are potential measures of ‘engagement’…It really is time to call bullshit on ‘engagement’. Better, to bundle it into a coffin labelled ‘Agency Puffery’ and put a nail firmly in it once and for all.”

Let’s take a real-world look at engagement and see how it translates into consumer behavior.

Last week, Google, oops, I mean YouTube, put on its first YouTube Music Awards featuring two of the biggest stars on the planet, Eminem and Lady Gaga.

According to YouTube press release, it received over 60 million votes for these awards. Get 60 million actions of any kind and you’ve hit the engagement jackpot. And yet…

According to reports I’ve read, YouTube only averaged about 180,000 viewers at any particular time.

In other words, for every “engagement” action there were about .003 as many people actually watching the show at any given moment.

This is not the kind of “return on engagement” that is likely to build confidence in engagement as anything other than another bullshit “metric” dreamed up by the ad industry.

And if that’s all you can do with Eminem and Gaga, imagine the results without them.

The Ad Contrarian is Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), the author of The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. Reprinted from his blog The Ad Contrarian.

Design Annotator: Bilingual reklame and African design

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

Career highlights young photographer Mack Magagane
Joe Public pulls another cracker out of its creative bag with the ads for Bryanston Dual-Medium school
With two major art events over the past two weeks, we know it’s difficult to get to both; that’s why we sent our photographer team to Southern Guild at MOAD and the Cape Town Art Fair as well.

Featured: Mack Magagane Photography

Twenty-three year old Soweto-born, Johannesburg-based photographer Mack Magagane is one to watch. Since his studies at the Market Photo Workshop, his work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions abroad and locally in Paris and Portugal, and at the FNB Joburg Art Fair 2011 and 2012.

Currently, Magagane is completing a residency at the Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France in Paris as part of the French — South Africa season 2013.

We got chatting to Mack Magagane find out more about his background, his style and his future plans.

Print ads by Joe Public Ignite for Bryanston Parallel Medium School

Joe Public Ignite created this print campaign for a school in Johannesburg that teaches in both English and Afrikaans.

The ads feature a poem and sentences that can be read word for word — with only occasional changes in meaning — in both languages, and end with the message: Only four out of every 100 people realise this can be read in Afrikaans and English. Give your child the best of both worlds.

See the rest of the print ads by Joe Public.

Russian Bear | #UrbanExpressions campaign

For this campaign, Russian Bear Vodka commissioned 10 artists/designers from across the country to participate in a design challenge under the theme ‘Urban Expressions’. The artists were encouraged to represent their understanding and influence of urban culture, using black-coated Russian Bear bottles as their canvas.

Their designs have been submitted and are now up for public vote until 8 November 2013. The public’s favourite design will become Russian Bear Vodka’s next limited edition run.

See more of the designs in the Russian Bear Bottle Designs.

Southern Guild at MOAD

The brand new Museum of African Design (MOAD) opened almost two weeks ago on 24 October with the largest yet showcase from the Southern Guild collection. Also at the gala event, the six winners of the second annual Southern Guild Foundation Awards 2013 were announced.

The awards endeavour to broaden the awareness of the caliber and potential of the South African design landscape, as well as motivate the industry. They are intended to relate directly to the ‘business of design’ for the winners, addressing practical and real challenges that face designers in the current landscape.

Selected by the Southern Guild Design Foundation board members, comprising top design and business leaders, awards are made across two categories: Future Growth and Recognition of Excellence.

See our full coverage of all the local design work curated by Southern Guild at MOAD.

Out of Office: Vélo

Art. Coffee. Food. These three things are the very essence of Vélo — a cosy little coffee shop on the corner of Juta and Melle in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. During peak hours, Vélo is filled table upon table with a jovial atmosphere, the realised vision of owner Nick du Plooy, who wanted to cultivate a space that would encourage networking.

The light and freshly decorated space welcomes creatives, students and businessmen through its doors on a daily basis, a testament to its wide appeal. There are quieter hours at Vélo, and these are the times when it wouldn’t be unusual to find people reading and working — making the most of the free wi-fi — in the intimate surrounds.

More about Vélo and other places to get Wifi in Johannesburg.

Featured: Patrick Dinneen

Patrick Dinneen’s body of work can’t help but challenge one’s understanding of the medium of photography and what most of us comfortably consider as art. Perhaps that is why his name is often quickly followed by the description “anti-art” or “anti-photography”.

Pinpointing the exact definition of what makes a piece of work anti-anti is also not an easy task. In his Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, George Dickie talks about the four different types of anti-art, one of those being art which has strikingly unusual content.

With this in mind, I must admit that, when looking at some of Dinneen’s work, the phrase “anti-art” is the first thing that comes to my mind.

My day job: Jonathan Liebmann

As little as 10 years ago, the very idea of the Maboneng Precinct as it is today (and what it’s fast becoming) would have seemed an impossible feat to most. But to Jonathan Liebmann, after returning home from a trip abroad and missing the urban lifestyle he was able to live there, the area was alive with possibilities.

With a vision to craft a vibrant urban community, Liebmann founded his development company Propertuity in 2007. His first property investment was Arts on Main, which has since grown into a major drawing card for the Maboneng Precinct.

Read about Jonathan Liebmann’s day job as a creative property developer.

Cape Town Art Fair 2013 | In pictures

Produced and managed by Fiera Milano Exhibitions Africa, the ground-breaking Cape Town Art Fair is set to reshape the contemporary art landscape in the Mother City.

The inaugural event took place two weekends ago at the V&A Waterfront, with more than 130 artists and 40 leading galleries exhibiting. The hugely successful fair has prompted the organisers to host a return of the show in February next year.

See our full coverage of the Cape Town Art Fair 2013.

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.

Ad of the Week: Stop, start. Cry, sleep.

by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Poking fun at your own brand feature can be a risky move, especially when that feature has already had to stand up to considerable user criticism.

But VW’s a brand with considerable experience and wisdom, which is possibly why the vehicle manufacturer — whose name literally means “people’s car” when translated from German to English — manages to be both self-effacing and to create a charming commercial that beautifully positions its new, green innovation.

Adam&EveDDB TVC for VW: “Volkswagen — Think Blue: Baby”

Backstory

The backstory is that vehicle manufacturers are increasingly under pressure to reduce carbon emissions, and the Start/Stop system cuts the engine when the car is not in motion. This has been shown to create between 7-9% greater fuel efficiency in town driving. Engine restart is quick and efficient, but it does take a little getting used to, especially in automatic models.

It’s an alternative approach to reducing fuel consumption, as opposed to the increased manufacturing cost of developing a hybrid engine, which is essentially two (or more) motors in one. Volkswagen’s BlueMotion Technologies also include strategies such as recuperation (recycling energy normally lost during braking); low rolling resistance tyres; and aerodynamics.

But let’s get back to that endearing advert, shan’t we?

Good vibrations

Many parents have discovered (by word-of-mouth or through trial-and-error) that their newborn baby can be more easily soothed to sleep by the vibrations of a car. Some people have been known to make the evening drive part of an infant’s going-to-bed routine because, when Junior can’t sleep, s/he can drive anyone to desperate measures.

The ad starts with a VW Tiguan driving down a deserted town street at night. The soundtrack starts: ‘Go to Sleep My Darling Baby’ — a 1950s hit originally by the DeZurik Sisters. In the back of the car, safely strapped into a baby seat, is a child, fast asleep.

The car rolls to a halt at the traffic light, and — click! — the engine switches off. Within a second, the baby wakes up, looks around… and starts to cry. The light turns green, the car pulls off — and the crying stops.

Cheating fate

The dad has a wonderfully ‘new father’ look about him… bags under his eyes, with an expression that implies that he is resigned to his fate. At the next red light, Dad tries to cheat fate by slowing down well before the intersection but sadly mistimes it; the engine goes off, and Junior wakes up bawling again.

At the next intersection, another Tiguan pulls up beside him and, yes, there’s another dad with a crying baby in the back. The dads exchange wry glances as the light turns green and they pull off.

The voiceover reassures: “At least you’ll save money on fuel.” Which is, let’s face it, why Dad originally bought the car — to help save the planet for future generations.

Universal appeal

The TVC was produced in London by Adam&EveDDB and, although I prefer to focus on local ads, I thought this one has the kind of universal appeal that makes it worth highlighting.

Most young parents will identify with the story, and it’s part of VW’s smart strategy to rebrand its vehicles as family cars, moving away from its previously established image of sporty or fun cars for the young, single person.

Features such as fuel efficiency, safety and comfort are now part of VW’s more ‘grown-up’, credit-crunch-era image: a wider range of models to suit most markets, and BlueMotion technology to save the planet.

Wide awake

Perhaps the dad in the commercial was too tired to read the manual, but there is, in fact, a switch to turn the Stop/Start technology off; he might have been able to lull his child back to sleep a lot sooner if he’d known this!

By sharp contrast, VW is wide awake in the brand game. Those of us who have children and who are ‘greenies’ want to make better choices that will benefit our offspring, and VW cleverly plays directly to this market.

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.

Media Future: BlackBerry’s corporate battery dies

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) If you like rollercoaster rides, you should ask BlackBerry for a job. Not that it’s hiring off the streets right now, but the CEO job is available, for one.

Thorsten Heins was fired on Monday, 4 November 2013, after presiding over the collapse of BlackBerry’s customer base during the past two years. His interim replacement, John Chen, is best known for turning Sybase from a failing business into a leading enterprise systems company by taking a massive bet on mobile at a time when it was dismissed by most.

US$1-billion lifeline

That sounds like the kind of vision medicine BlackBerry has needed badly for a while now, but of course many will say it’s far too late: the patient is already terminal. Nevertheless, it’s also been given a US$1-billion lifeline in the form of a loan put together by its main shareholder, Fairfax Holdings.

That buys it a few more months to execute a new hardware and software strategy that can bring back not only customers, but also market sentiment. However, it’s hard to put together a convincing argument why anyone should buy a BlackBerry device right now. When there is uncertainty around the future structure, strategy and direction of a company, there cannot be certainty about its products either.

There is no guarantee that the plug won’t be pulled on any of the elements that make up what is still a powerful BlackBerry security and communications ecosystem. For that reason, any positive commentary on the company, its products and services must be seen in the context of a story that could still have an unhappy ending.

Reasons to go with BlackBerry

If you can live with uncertainty, here are a few reasons to go with BlackBerry:

The new Z30 is a great device, with a sharp 5” screen, 18-hour battery life. A new industrial design ethos brings it closer to the cool look and feel of its high-end rivals, mainly through its more curvy shape. Puzzlingly, it’s not quite as sharp as the older Z10, though, if you have an eye for such finer detail. And it is one of the heaviest of the current high-end phones.

The update to the new Blackberry 10 operating system, 10.2, is the most efficient and user-friendly OS yet from the company. It introduces Priority Hub, a catch-all inbox which groups all communications together, and gives instant access to the individual messaging apps.

Notifications, alerts and a peek at incoming messages on the lock screen are the most visible of the new features — and among the most useful, together with previewing incoming messages while in another app, and replying without leaving that app.

“Best in class” security

BlackBerry itself claims, with some justification, that it offers “best in class” security, enterprise mobility management and mobile social network. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) works best on BlackBerry devices, which allow voice and video calls from within the instant messaging app. The Android and iPhone versions don’t support these yet.

BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), the R59 a month unlimited Internet package pioneered in South Africa and still offered on phones running the old Blackberry 7 OS, remains one of the best mobile data deals for the budget-constrained.

If the Thorsten-Heins roadmap is not completely ditched, we can expect to see, early next year, a low-end BlackBerry 10 handset with QWERTY keyboard. It will be a year late, of course, but will find a ready audience in South Africa.

Then again, many BlackBerry loyalists don’t believe in “if” anymore.

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. Reprinted from Gadget.