How Twitter challenged the illusion of journalistic omniscience

by John Jewell, Cardiff University Twitter’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) is due to take place today [Wednesday]. The company values itself at US$12 billion and expects to raise up to US$1.3 billion in sales.

twitterImpact

But let’s forget about the money and think about Twitter’s impact in its relatively short lifetime of seven years. On average there are now 500 million tweets a day. You don’t even have to tweet to be on Twitter. Some 40% of users simply use Twitter as a “curated news feed of updates that reflect their passions”.

“News feed” is important because Twitter has clearly changed the way news is gathered, disseminated and consumed.

This year’s biggest story, the Edward Snowden/NSA leaks, provides an instructive example. A senior Guardian executive pointed out that “the story really broke from us and on Twitter. It took an hour before the breaking news stations got this.”

Twitter drives traffic to The Guardian’s sites from areas where there is no print edition. According to Nicky Wolf in The Atlantic, June 10, the day after Snowden revealed his identity on The Guardian’s website, was the biggest traffic day in the paper’s history, bringing the site 6.97 million unique browsers. “On June 10, for the first time in the paper’s history, their US traffic was higher than their UK traffic.”

In this sense, Twitter facilitates the global expansion of The Guardian into previously difficult-to-reach markets. This is key to the business models of most modern news outlets — reaching new markets is of course a major demand of advertisers.

Newsrooms go social

Social media has transformed newsrooms, speeding up news gathering and enabling recourse to wider ranges of sources and material.

The corollary of the ubiquity of Twitter is that journalist’s roles have changed significantly. Twitter never sleeps and neither does the modern journalist, who is scanning updates 24/7, posting and retweeting.

This is often a hostile environment. As journalist and blogger Amy Cassell said:

One small error can compound itself instantaneously, thanks to the eager efforts of would-be investigators lurking in the comments section and armed with instant search. Corrections are no longer an afterthought process — they happen in real time for the world to see. This also means that the audience will penalise wrong reporting harshly. So you had better make sure your reporting is ironclad.

Where once correspondents were reachable only through the letters pages, the illusion of journalistic omniscience has been challenged.

News can be broken on Twitter by the participants in, or observers of, a particular event. The journalist often becomes an interpreter, reacting to events quickly and frequently — and he or she often has to sift through swathes of information and opinion before deciding on what to report.

As technology journalist Alex Masters argues, Twitter interaction has become synonymous with news reporting. Media outlets rely heavily on crowdsourced content to “help provide real-time information, reaction and public opinion during breaking news stories”. Consider that this process is relentless and we may begin to sympathise with the modern reporter.

Twitter becomes the news?

There are those who suggest that Twitter has had a trivialising effect on journalism. That it is lazy and convenient for journalists to rely on Twitter “outrages” for news.

A quick look the newspapers in the last few weeks gives some credence to that view. A the Twitter “spat” between Lord Sugar and Nick Clegg made it into The Guardian’s politics section, for instance, and during the recent vicious British weather various newspapers printed the tweets of celebrities who had ridiculed the effects of the storm.

These are just two examples of very many instances and as US media analyst Jeff Sonderman points out:

It is possible to overuse Twitter to the detriment of your other reporting; it is possible to pursue trivial tweetable “scoops” to the detriment of insightful journalism.

But, he says, “the solution isn’t to not use Twitter — it’s to not use Twitter that way”. Perhaps this is the key. It’s the way in which Twitter is used that determines its worth — and the power of the medium should not be underestimated.

Productive usage

There are numerous examples of this sort of productive use of social media. Perhaps most famously, Twitter was successfully used in the Arab Spring of 2011 to mobilise support for change both locally and internationally.

Closer to home [in the UK], it could be argued that in the early days of the phone hacking scandal it was the campaign on Twitter urging advertisers to refrain from dealing with the News of the World that quickened the paper’s demise.

Genuinely perturbed by the situation and the potential damage by association, one by one major companies began to distance themselves from the newspaper. Just a day after The Guardian broke the story, General Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, the Co-Operative and Lloyds Bank were among those who suspended advertising.

In May the Everyday Sexism Project, “Women, Action and the Media”, launched an international campaign against Facebook content that they felt incited rape and domestic violence. After more than 60,000 tweets using the #FBrape hashtag and another co-ordinated campaign aimed at advertisers, Facebook was forced to issue a statement promising to act upon each of the stipulations called for by Everyday Sexism.

While these are examples of activism and not journalism, they are certainly sources of information. Any news organisation which ignored or completely discounted what was appearing on social media during the Arab Spring would have missed the primary providers of news, both written and visual. That situation is unthinkable.

Future of journalism

Twitter’s importance to the future of journalism is evident. Paul Lewis, The Guardian’s Washington correspondent and winner of the best Twitter feed in the Online Media awards said in 2012:

Twitter is the digital footprint of things that are happening around the world. If Twitter becomes as ubiquitous as the mobile phone – there’s 4bn mobile phone users in the world – that’s huge. As a journalist who wants to find out things people don’t want you to know, that’s very exciting.

John Jewell does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published at The Conversation; read the original article.

Letter from NY: Matthew Bull’s house rules for entering award shows

by Matthew Bull (@StixBull) When it comes to entering awards with our work, we have a simple set of house rules we like to remind ourselves about. Here, for the first time ever, we publish them.

Matthew BullAward entry rules

      1. Entering an idea that hasn’t been approved by a client is just plain stupid.
      2. Entering an idea that hasn’t been bought by a client, even a non-paying one, does a disservice to our business and to that idea itself. It’s also cheating. No-one likes a cheater, no matter how brilliant they are (see Lance Armstrong). It’s also stupid.
      3. The second hardest part of having a great idea is having someone buy it. Because if it’s great, it must be original, covering unchartered territory. In other words, risky. This is part of our business and requires enormous amounts of skill and perseverance. Great advertising agencies aren’t just good at thinking; they’re good at doing. If you don’t embrace and appreciate that, you’re stupid.
      4. Not appreciating that your actions as a company can either build or undermine the entire industry’s relationship with clients — and the trust they have with us — is stupid.
      5. The time to behave like children is at the award shows. Not when deciding what to enter. Behaving any other way is stupid.
      6. As the agency leaders, not taking responsibility for the entries is like not taking responsibility for your audited finances. It’s stupid.

The moral of the story? Don’t be stupid when you’re trying to show people how clever you are.

Now for an idea

A new category for award shows that will help produce some of the brilliant ideas the industry has but which can’t be financed. This should apply only to raising money and awareness for non-profit organisations.

The ‘Kickstarter’ award (new name obviously needed): Ideas may be entered, whether they have run or not. Judges recommend the top three pieces of brilliance for the ‘Kickstarter’ award. Via the Loeries website, people may contribute amounts of any significance to the award they believe is the most meaningful. The idea that raises the most wins and sweeps the whole pot (this needs to be made clear to people donating). Loeries finds a sponsor of some sort to match the amount raised on the idea.

This way, the industry does good and produces great. Which is clever.

Matthew Bull (@StixBull) is a partner at The Bull-White House in New York. Before that, he served as chief creative officer/chairman of Lowe & Partners/Lowe Bull and chief creative officer at Lowe Worldwide. Matthew contributes the regular “Letter from New York” column to MarkLives.

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Africa Style: Why marketers can’t just delegate the Big Idea

by Masingita Mazibuko Spring is now fully ‘sprung’, at least in those parts of South Africa outside of the Western Cape. And, as we all know, its arrival heralds the flourish and bustle and gaiety of weddings. I’ve already been to two, and at both was reminded that it’s as easy to confuse the romance of the wedding day with the realities of marriage as it is to think that, once you’ve hit upon a communication idea that excites you, the job is done.

Masingita MazibukoMeans nothing

Yes, just as the tough teamwork that went into making the wedding day a success should continue unabated throughout the marriage, so too do marketers need to remain cogniscant of the fact that a great idea means nothing without excellent execution.

We often spend copious amounts of time in generating strong ideas and rush the second half (that is, operationalising the idea) as though it is not equally important. Execution is a critical part to ensuring a great idea remains just that.

As we begin our planning cycle for 2014, it’s worth remembering that many global iconic brands not only have a strong brand idea, they also apply significant discipline and processes to ensure that the idea is evidenced at every single touch point. Disney springs to mind, as does fast-food giant McDonalds1 with more than 33 500 restaurants in 119 countries, and whose growth has been fueled by a mix of astuteness and due consideration to local palettes and service variations.

Shouldn’t be delegated

In my experience, the fundamental consideration is that getting things done requires discipline and specific processes that should not be delegated.

Great ideas come to fruition as result of joint work between client and agency. It’s not as simple as putting in a brief and the reclining at your desk waiting for the Big Idea to be developed outside of your office. Rather, it’s about partnering to crystallise the ideas and thereafter challenging each other to ensure that Big One is delivered effectively.

Execution is deliberate and entails teamwork between the agency and the client; strategy is vital but so too is diligence in the operationalising2.

It is easy to marvel at Apple’s success and accord it to a brilliant product. However, dig a bit deeper and you’ll soon see that Steve Jobs was relentlessly obsessive when it came to translating the vision and getting his hands dirty during product development, as well as how the end result was launched, marketed and retailed.

Question relentlessly

Marketers can boost their own chances of success by relentlessly questioning and interrogating implementation details. In that way, they can ensure that an idea is more than just an idea, and becomes greater than envisioned.

Do note: I’m not advocating micro-management but staying continuously connected throughout.

In the computer world, it is often said that ‘weeks of coding can save you days on planning’. And, just like the courting that it takes to win your life partner, you need to consider the effort you put in to ensure a truly winning idea to makes its mark.

Masingita Mazibuko, marketing director at Unilever, contributes the monthly “Africa Style” column to MarkLives.com. The views expressed within this column are entirely her own.

  1. www.businessinsider.com/most-valuable-brands-in-the-world-2012-10?op=1#ixzz2hbsHuwUI
  2. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan with Charles Burck

Tech Law: How you sell for Facebook and Google

by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) Between Facebook and Google, these two companies have voluntold[1] us that we are now part of their sales teams.

Paul JacobsonIt started with Facebook’s announcement on 29 August 2013 that it intends amending its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (I’ll call it the “Statement” below) and the Data Use Policy, which included an expanded section describing what personal information it intends using, essentially, to sell products and services using you to make that happen.

Important to note

Before I go into more detail, it’s important to note something about how these policy changes bind you.

Whenever services such as Google and Facebook explain changes to policy frameworks and their terms and conditions, they explain that they won’t use your personal information in certain ways unless you give them permission to do so. They don’t but this is really just a ruse.

You have already given them permission when you signed up to use the service and your permission takes the form of privacy policies that include your agreement that they can amend the policies and other terms and conditions pretty much at will.

If they are going to be truly transparent, they should say something along the lines of — unless you give us your permission to do so (which you have already, so thanks for that)

Underlying dynamic

The underlying dynamic that likely drives Facebook’s and Google’s amendments to their policy and terms frameworks is that we users tend to place more value on recommendations from our friends and family. Facebook and Google’s advertising and promotional models (as well as a number of other services that personalise ads) are increasingly designed to manufacture these recommendations using our activities on the various services without the need for us to actively apply our minds to what we are recommending and what we choose not to.

At the moment, the dominant model is one in which we choose to signify our approval of a brand, product or service by liking or +1’ing it. These changes start to make those actions less important as a recommendation signal and are made possible through contractual models which include privacy policy frameworks and terms and conditions.

How you are selling for Facebook

The current Statement includes the following clauses dealing “About Advertisements and Other Commercial Content Served or Enhanced by Facebook” — Our goal is to deliver ads and commercial content that are valuable to our users and advertisers. In order to help us do that, you agree to the following:

  1. You can use your privacy settings to limit how your name and profile picture may be associated with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. You give us permission to use your name and profile picture in connection with that content, subject to the limits you place.
  2. We do not give your content or information to advertisers without your consent.
  3. You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such.

Note that you have already given your permission for Facebook to use “your name and profile picture” in connection with ads and sponsored content.

New proposed version

The new, proposed version, goes even further and may (it hasn’t been finalised yet) state the following:

Our goal is to deliver advertisements and other commercial or sponsored content that are is valuable to our users and advertisers. In order to help us do that, you agree to the following [2]:

1. You can use your privacy settings to limit how your name and profile picture may be associated with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. You give us permission to use your name, and profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or relatedthat content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us, subject to the limits you place[3]. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.

If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to the terms of this section (and the use of your name, profile picture, content, and information) on your behalf.[4]

  1. We do not give your content or information to advertisers without your consent.
  2. You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such.

Other changes

The other changes to the Statement addressed issues such as software installation, dispute resolution and a reminder that using mobile data could incur charges. The proposed changes to the Data Use Policy are pretty extensive and you have to read through the whole document to get a sense of the overall picture. For example, one of the edited clauses states the following:

As described in “How we use the information we receive,” We we also put together data from the information we already have about you,and your friends, and others, so we can offer and suggest a variety of services and features. For example, we may put together data about you to determine make friend suggestions, pick storieswhich for friends we should show you in your News Feed, or suggest people you to tag in the photos you post. We may put together your current city with GPS and other location information we have about you to, for example, tell you and your friends about people or events nearby, or offer deals to you in which that you might be interested in. We may also put together data about you to serve you ads or other content that might be more relevant to you.

Further down the marked up Data Use Policy, under part IV, one of the paragraphs begins with the following:

When we deliver ads, we do not share your information (information that personally identifies you, such as your name or contact information) with advertisers unless you give us permission.

Interesting read

It then goes on to describe how Facebook personalises ads. It is a very interesting read because it describes, in a fair amount of detail, how Facebook uses your personal information to sell relevant ads.

It is a powerful model and the proposed changes to allow Facebook to incorporate more of your personal information into what are effectively personal endorsements is likely to be even more lucrative for Facebook.

The comment period for these changes closed on the 7th of September and we will have to wait and see to what extent these proposed changes will be applied. Of course, these changes are not isolated. Facebook made a number of additional announcements recently which reinforce this trend.

Innocuous first change

The first change was fairly innocuous. On 30 September, Facebook published a post titled “Graph Search Now Includes Posts and Status Updates” which is fairly self-explanatory —

Starting today, Graph Search will include posts and status updates. Now you will be able to search for status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments to find things shared with you.

Search for the topics you’re interested in and see what your friends are saying, like “Dancing with the Stars“ or ”Posts about Dancing with the Stars by my friends.”

Attracted more interest

The next announcement, which attracted more interest, was the one on 10 October which was styled as a reminder and is titled “Reminder: Finishing the Removal of an Old Search Setting” –

Last year we announced the removal of an old setting called “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” along with new controls for managing content on Facebook.

The search setting was removed last year for people who weren’t using it. For the small percentage of people still using the setting, they will see reminders about it being removed in the coming weeks.

Whether you’ve been using the setting or not, the best way to control what people can find about you on Facebook is to choose who can see the individual things you share.

Even more becomes accessible

More publicly shared profile data, coupled with all that profile data being indexed by Facebook’s powerful Graph Search, means that even more users’ personal information becomes accessible for use in personalised ads, with the only limitation being selective sharing by choosing whether to share updates publicly or friends (this can be further delineated using friends lists, if you use them).

Assuming Facebook’s proposed changes to its Statement and Data Use Policy are implemented (and they likely will be, in some form or another), you can expect even more personalised ads that include what appear to be more personal recommendations from your Facebook connections.

It is both very sneaky and, at the same time, very clever and you have agreed to this (whatever this turns out to be) already.

Yes, you work for Google, too

Google’s approach is far more nuanced than Facebook’s and users do appear to have an option to opt-out of its personalisation model (and it is an opt-out, you are opted-in by default).

The changes were announced on 11 October in a document that summarises the changes that Google will implement on 11 November 2013. In contrast to Facebook’s governance model, which still allows for some degree of community involvement, Google tends to announce changes and implement them without much public consultation. Google explains its “Shared Endorsements” model as follows:

We want to give you — and your friends and connections — the most useful information. Recommendations from people you know can really help. So your friends, family and others may see your Profile name and photo, and content like the reviews you share or the ads you +1’d. This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) — and the only people who see it are the people you’ve chosen to share that content with. On Google, you’re in control of what you share. This update to our Terms of Service doesn’t change in any way who you’ve shared things with in the past or your ability to control who you want to share things with in the future.

Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results for you and your friends across all Google services, including Search, Maps, Play and in advertising. For example, your friends might see that you rated an album 4 stars on the band’s Google Play page. And the +1 you gave your favorite local bakery could be included in an ad that the bakery runs through Google. We call these recommendations shared endorsements and you can learn more about them here.

When it comes to shared endorsements in ads, you can control the use of your Profile name and photo via the Shared Endorsements setting. If you turn the setting to “off,” your Profile name and photo will not show up on that ad for your favorite bakery or any other ads. This setting only applies to use in ads, and doesn’t change whether your Profile name or photo may be used in other places such as Google Play.

If you previously told Google that you did not want your +1’s to appear in ads, then of course we’ll continue to respect that choice as a part of this updated setting. For users under 18, their actions won’t appear in shared endorsements in ads and certain other contexts.

For greater control over your experience with ads on Google, you can also use Google’s Ads Settings tool to manage ads you see. Learn more.

The main change

The main change to Google’s Terms of Service is this insertion under the heading “Your Content in our Services”:

If you have a Google Account, we may display your Profile name, Profile photo, and actions you take on Google or on third-party applications connected to your Google Account (such as +1’s, reviews you write and comments you post) in our Services, including displaying in ads and other commercial contexts. We will respect the choices you make to limit sharing or visibility settings in your Google Account. For example, you can choose your settings so your name and photo do not appear in an ad.

Google users can opt-out of this option and a help page explains the process. An interesting part of the process is the following (I highlighted the interesting bit):

Go to the Shared Endorsements setting page. If you are not already a Google+ user, you will be asked to upgrade your account.

Pretty devious

Why is this interesting? Because it is a pretty devious way to persuade more Google services users to “upgrade” their Google accounts to Google+ accounts and integrate deeper into the broader Google platform.

Driving Google+ user adoption (in other words, persuading users to activate Google+ integration) is how Google is going to make meaningful inroads into Facebook’s dominance on the social web. It is Google’s metaphorical arms-buildup in its battle with Facebook for dominance on the social web and for a larger stake in the social marketing space.

I imagine that even if you opt-out of the Shared Endorsements program, you will still see personalised ad suggestions. Reducing the likelihood of your personal information being used to personalise ads will probably require browsing the web anonymously or, at the very least, reviewing your privacy settings very carefully and customising them to suit your preferences.

Caught in the crossfire

When the media covers these sorts of changes, the implication tends to be that personalisation is bad and should be resisted at all costs. That isn’t necessarily the case. If you accept that you will be faced with ads in a service you find truly useful and don’t pay for, being presented with more relevant ads is probably going to enhance your experience of those ads.

The real question is whether users have meaningful control over their personal information and can opt out of personalised ads and still have use of these services. I think that answer will increasingly become “no” as more and more functionality becomes dependent on your participation, willing or not.

Facebook frequently talks about features it is removing and which were only used by a small percentage of users. Most recently. one of those features is the option of not being included in Graph Search. The fact that so few users have enabled that option says more about how aware users are of these sorts of “features” and whether they are adequately informed about their value. The answer is overwhelmingly “very few” and “definitely not”.

Legal equivalent of stealth weapons

For the most part, users just want to post fun photos and videos and share stuff. They don’t think about how their rights are affected and that only changes when there is significant attention on major changes. To combat this, services such as Google and Facebook have adopted the legal equivalent of stealth weapons and make use of nuanced language, misdirection and selective emphasis to deflect attention from the problematic changes.

What we see is a sort of war by proxy between the major social services and in which users could find themselves fuelling various services’ efforts to gain market share, without being aware of much more than more personalised ads and being prodded to “upgrade” their accounts to take advantage of the new flashy options.

For as long as users feel they benefit more than they are prejudiced, this deal works for them, but the challenge has always been whether users are aware of the extent to which their options are being limited and they are being traded for bigger weapons in this digital battlefield. The answer for the most part is “no” and that is not likely to change any time soon.

  1. It’s a made-up word for what happens when you sort of volunteer and are also told that you are signing up for something, especially when you don’t usually have much choice. ↩
  2. I have marked up the proposed edits with strikethrough for deletions and bold for insertions. ↩
  3. Isn’t this an interesting deletion? ↩

  4. This is a challenging one. If you are under the age of 18 in South African law you may lack the legal capacity to agree to this so the consent Facebook takes may still amount to a violation of children’s rights to privacy. ↩

Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) is the founder and director of Web•Tech•Law/CC BY-SA 2.5

Hermaneutics: As lines blur, the Bookmarks seeks new relevance

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Bookmarks Awards, the digital-centric advertising and publishing awards show, is reaching a tipping point, one that will either see it evolve away from its digi-only roots into something covering more integrated work, or see it link up with another award show to focus on a digital niche within more mainstream work.

bookmarks 2013Evolution is essential

Nikki Cockcroft, chair of the Bookmarks Awards, says while it remains uncertain which way — or even on what timeline — the Bookmarks will evolve to have the most impact, the blurring of digital/traditional lines in the ad world makes such an evolution essential.

Cockcroft is asking and answering a key question facing digi-centric industry associations and award shows everywhere. If you were created for people functioning in the digital silo, and the digital silo is bust, just how relevant are you? It’s a brave decision to face up to the question and to seek viable answers that serve your key constituency.

In terms of the actual awards event this year, Cockcroft says entries are up, to over 600, from around 582 last year. Entry fees were unchanged this year, even as The Loerie Awards announced a significant increase.

Expanded judges’ pool

The Bookmarks has also expanded its pool of judges to over 70, increasing its reach into the broader industry (it has always been an oft-repeated complaint that the awards show reaches only to a limited pool of industry personalities, a complaint the organisers seem keen to address). It has also brought in specialist judges and members of the Creative Circle onto its judging panels.

The Creative Circle’s involvement is hopefully a precursor, says Cockcroft, to the Bookmarks making it onto its points system next year.

The list of finalists announced this year shows an increase in entries and finalists from “traditionally non-digital agencies” (including Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town, TBWA\Tequila\Johannesburg, Ireland/Davenport, M&C Saatchi Abel, 1886 and DDB SA), as well as a number of niche agencies breaking in. Categories that have seen significant entry growth included online video, integrated work and mobile.

Not showing yet

Looking at the Best Agency shortlist, the more-integrated future of the Bookmarks isn’t showing yet. Finalists consist of a range of digital-centric agencies, including NATIVE, Retroviral Digital Communications, Hellocomputer, Liquorice, Quirk and World Wide Creative. Cockcroft says the awards show takes into account how well an agency does at the Bookmarks in the year it makes the shortlist, rather than being a reflection of the South African agency landscape at its broadest.

All the Best Agency finalists are asked to pitch to judges as to why they should take home the award, and the judging panel are able to interrogate the agency before they make their decision, which seems a smart way of handing out the night’s premier award trophy, and is something the Loeries could consider doing before handing out Grands Prix in the future. It would certainly be an effective way to ensure only the best, legitimate work take home the big prize.

Talking of which, the Bookmarks focuses heavily on results, with 40% of the judging score across most of the categories reserved for results, 20% for the creative concept, 20% for execution and 20% for the effective use of the appropriate technology. Results from the scoring platform are final.

Breakout agencies

This year’s breakout agencies for Cockcroft are NATIVE, which she says delivered really impressive work, and Liquorice, an agency that flies below the radar of many of us, more often than not.

Tickets for the awards evening are on sale now. Gareth Cliff will MC the event, which will take place at Artscape in Cape Town on 14 November 2013.

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

Marketing 101: Time to overcome the fear of commitment

by Odette van der Haar (@odette_roper) In this day and age of easy-come easy-go, there seems to be a ubiquitous fear of commitment. Even when signing on the dotted line or closing a deal with a firm handshake, an exit strategy is already being formulated at the back of the mind. Just in case. But in case of what?

Odette van der HaarA lot like marriage

Business is a lot like marriage — especially the business between advertising and communications agencies and clients. If looked at simplistically, the same parameters apply: compatibility, chemistry and communication, which set the foundation for the creation and implementation of great work. After that, sometimes, it’s champagne and flowers (everything goes smoothly and expectations are met and exceeded); other times, it’s the war of the roses (things go awry, for whatever reason).

So, due to the nature of relationships, clients may fear getting into bed with agencies. This becomes a barrier to long-term contracts and, in the long run, may be problematic. Why should a client get rid of its agency partner because of one thing that didn’t quite meet expectations? You don’t just divorce someone because you’ve had a bit of a wobbly.

How the magic happens

You must consider that it is through prodigious, long-term relationships that the magic happens. Magic that goes beyond the initial fireworks, giddiness and sleepless nights. The kind of magic that results from clients and agencies finding their groove, communicating and growing a brand that not only becomes legendary but part of the lifeblood of a nation and a culture.

What it boils down to is this: clients and agencies need to make the relationship work to save everyone a lot of heartache and remorse. Ask yourself: why walk away from something in which you’ve invested time, emotion, intellect and creativity, when all it takes are a few checks and balances to find a solution, put things right and continue?

Measuring for benefit

Relationships are measurable and there are times when you need to measure your performance for the benefit of your relationship. With this in mind, the ACA has recently licensed a relationship audit and management tool that assists businesses (both clients and agencies) to measure campaigns and performance — in real time.

With the tool, called Relationship Radar, there is no need for procrastination; if there is a problem, it can be addressed immediately and nipped in the bud. It provides senior management with access to a quick and regular scan on the health of its client/supplier relationships, resulting in numerous benefits:

  • It encourages good corporate governance
  • It conveys to stakeholders the dimensions of the marketing relationship
  • It highlights opportunities to weigh up client/agency marketing skills
  • It reflects that the relationship is taken seriously, and
  • It provides an opportunity to demonstrate ROI

These are all principles that the ACA instills among its members.

Competitive edge

It’s time to discard the fear of commitment and, with the right tools, optimise your client-agency relationship to continue to generate work that is relevant, creative and results-orientated. In the current business environment, this is not only critical but may give you the competitive edge you’re after.

Odette van der Haar (née Roper) is the CEO of the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), the recognised industry body of the advertising and communications profession in South Africa. Odette (@odette_roper) contributes the regular “Marketing 101” column to Marklives.com.

MagLove: Zombies, bromances and the walking dead

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

  • Atlanta (annual school guide)
  • ELLE Denmark (birthday issue)
  • Kiblind France
  • Playboy South Africa

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

INTERNATIONAL

Atlanta, 4 November 2013

Atlanta, 4 November 2013 Atlanta, 4 November 2013

“The Walking Dead” fans will absolutely love these two Atlanta covers, for a number of reasons!

On the two covers, being attacked by zombies (while still looking ultra hot), are two of the biggiest stars, Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus. You can read its full article here.

ELLE Denmark, November 2013

ELLE Denmark, November 2013 ELLE 2 ELLE 3 ELLE 4 ELLE 5

For ELLE Denmark’s Birthday Issue, it created five stunning celebratory covers with model Louise P, but the one that stands out for me is the Gold/Silver one with the big ELLE-shaped balloons!

Hip Hip Hurray on its birthday, and also five fresh and great covers!

Kiblind France, Autumn 2013, Issue #46

Kiblind

What an interesting cover, for a number of reasons. Not just its (strange) use of ants on top of the picture, but also the unique logo-placement and usage. Definitely something unique!

Well worth looking at its previous covers also, and hopefully this will inspire a few other art directors to also ‘break the mould’ once in a while…

LOCAL

Playboy South Africa, November 2013

Playboy South Africa 11 November 2013

The writing really is on the wall: this cover with Slovenian model Katarina Bencek is just pure bliss…

MediaSlutMagLove 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

ACA suspends MetropolitanRepublic membership

The Association of Communications and Advertising (ACA), the self-regulatory body of the South African advertising and communications sector, has imposed severe penalties on MetropolitanRepublic following its disqualification from the Loeries 2013. This includes the suspension, with immediate effect, of its membership of the ACA for a period of twelve months. As a result the agency’s representatives must resign from the ACA Board and its various operations committees.

The ACA will also issue a written reprimand to MetropolitanRepublic, regarding the agency’s transgression of the ACA Code of Conduct. MetropolitanRepublicMetropolitanRepublic is to provide the ACA with a formal undertaking regarding the agency’s future conduct and support of the ACA’s Code of Conduct. Finally MetropolitanRepublic will be levied the maximum fine allowable in terms of the ACA’s Articles of Association.

According to the ACA, of which MetropolitanRepublic is a member, it received a written complaint regarding MetropolitanRepublic’s actions and had convened a Special Board meeting to consider the matter. The Special Board meeting found that actions by MetropolitanRepublic to be a “profoundly serious transgression of the ACA Code of Conduct. Their actions had brought the ACA and its members into disrepute.”

“MetropolitanRepublic has the right of appeal against the sanctions imposed,” according to the ACA statement. “Failing any appeal, MetropolitanRepublic’s membership with the ACA may be reinstated after the suspension period, subject to a review of the agency’s compliance with the ACA Code of Conduct during their suspension.”

The ACA indicated that Alison Deeb, Chief Executive Officer of MetropolitanRepublic, presented a formal and unequivocal apology for the manner in which the agency won and subsequently withdrew their 2013 Loerie Awards for the ‘Project Uganda’ entry. The agency also formally apologised to the Association and admitted culpability for failing to protect and uphold the ACA Code of Conduct, after calling into question the integrity and ethics of the ACA and its member agencies.

At the time of writing it was still unclear if the agency would appeal the sanctions imposed on it.

Update: The agency has confirmed it will not appeal the ACA sanctions.

More coverage:

Hermaneutics: Lessons from MetropolitanRepublic’s Loerie nightmare
What MetroR, MTN should know about education in Uganda

Shelf Life: Did KFC miss the global obesity memo?

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

  • Sea Harvest launches a whole new food category in SA;
  • Vote for your favourite Russian Bear designer vodka bottle;
  • KFC dispels Hope with this press release; and
  • As if we didn’t have enough advertising clutter, we now have billboards on top of cabs!

Sea Harvest launches Quorn in SA

Quorn ProductsWhat the hell is Quorn, I hear you say?! That’s what I said too when I got the invite to the launch yesterday at the Cape Town Hotel School on the seashore in picture-perfect Granger Bay.

In technical terms, it is a mycoprotein derivative. In layman’s terms, it comes from the same fungus family as truffles.

It’s not as gross as it sounds, I promise. It is actually a tasty meat-free, soya-free alternative foodstuff that has the same texture and taste of chicken. In fact, as the sales and marketing director of Sea Harvest, Konrad Geldenhuys says: “It tastes more chicken than real chicken does!”

Quorn is Sea Harvest’s second foray into product diversification, the first being its launch of Findus frozen vegetables.

Of course, this is not just a new product launch, but a new foodstuff entirely. Sea Harvest is relying on the success of Quorn and increasing shelf space allocated to it in countries such as the UK, Australia and many retailers across Europe – a total of 13 countries worldwide.

While it was discovered 50 years ago when alternative foods were being investigated, it was only in the last decade that the technology became available to produce it on a larger scale by Quorn Foods in the UK.

Sea Harvest intends to leverage its current distribution network into major retailers to launch Quorn on shelf and Pick n Pay will be the first retailer to take the new product nationwide. The frozen foods range consists of burgers, hot dogs, mince, chicken-style schnitzels and BBQ dippers. It is high in protein and low in fat, with zero cholesterol – so a healthy fast food alternative too. Check them out at www.quorn.co.za and follow them on Twitter @QuornSA.

Okay, now you know what it is, here’s how to pronounce Quorn: it sounds just like “corn”, but with a lisp, as in “Qworn”.

Word on the street…

VodkaTo celebrate urban street culture, Russian Bear Vodka commissioned 10 artists/designers to translate the theme ‘Urban Expressions’ onto black-coated Russian Bear bottles.

Edward Snell & Co distributes Russian Bear in South Africa and they asked the designers to represent their understanding and influence of urban culture.

“Urban street culture is believed, by some, to be shaped by its surroundings, and design is considered a primal language that helps us make sense of our surrounds,” says Schalk van Wyk, marketing manager at Edward Snell.

The public gets to choose which designer bottle will be used for a limited edition range in 2014. Votes can be cast up until November 8 on www.russianbear.co.za/urbanexpressions.

Three designers will be shortlisted from the public votes, with Russian Bear choosing the overall winner. The winning artist will receive R40 000 in cash and even the voters can win various spot prizes.

KFC super-sizes

KFCMaybe KFC missed the global obesity memo, but it seems to have gone all American on us and started “super-sizing” meals.

Billed as its largest box meal yet, the Power Tower Box Meal encourages KFC customers to “go large” – and not in a good way. The box set consists of a Tower Burger, one piece of Original Recipe Chicken, a regular mash and gravy, large chips and a large ice-cold cold drink – all for only R69.90!

But wait, there’s more! The cringeworthy headline to the press release reads “With KFC – Size matters!”And it’s all downhill from there, with KFC South Africa marketing director, Lizaane Bartlett, saying: “We’ve taken big to a whole new level with the launch of our new Box Meal. Made to satisfy even the biggest ‘man size’ appetite.”

Hardly original. Stick to Hope.

And now we have… car billboards!

3D carsCar advertising has been on the increase for a while now and national taxi branding company, New Wave Outdoor Media has now launched “3D cab innovations” in South Africa. Basically they’ve popped a product on the roof of the cab to distract as many people in the traffic as they can.

New Wave says the concept is not just a case of “inserting a giant structure on the roof of a cab.” Months of research into the right materials and consumer engagement levels went into inserting a giant structure on the roof of a cab.

This is their research: one in six respondents noticed the branded cab; one in three recalled the correct brand on the vehicle and one in 16 respondents recalled an electronic billboard. New Wave also offers online tracking so that you can check how long the vehicle carrying your brand has been in a specific zone or LSM area.

Louise MarslandShelf 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.

Media Future: Console gaming is having a healthy second career. So is Nintendo.

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Far from mobile gaming killing the console, the fun has just begun as the Nintendo 2DS enters the South African market.

We still call them, quaintly, video games. Their roots go back to the days of hooking up primitive consoles to TV monitors, as if you were playing a video. If that sounds archaic, be grateful we don’t call them “cathode ray tube amusement devices”, as the first computer game patent application put it back in 1947.

Now, 66 years later, and past the retirement age, the world assumes video games have been put out to pasture. Or, at least, those based on consoles and “video” screens. Now that you can download endless free games on smartphone and tablets, why would you need to buy a console and spend a fortune on each individual game?

But guess what: Console gaming is having a healthy second career. And that console brand that everyone seemed to think was going away? Nintendo? It has a strange way of saying goodbye.

“Everyone thinks mobile gaming is cannibalising console gaming,” says RJ van Spaandonk, executive director of Core Group, distributors of Nintendo in sub-Saharan Africa. “What we used to call the casual gamer is now using mobile games. But a lot of people who are for the first time introduced to gaming via the mobile platform suddenly have an interest in console gaming as well.”

As a result, despite the prevailing view, console gaming is still growing.

And, in most European countries, the Nintendo 3DS is the leading platform in terms of sales of both handheld and “home consoles”.

Nintendo

Worldwide, the Nintendo 3DS is the second best-selling console ever, having sold about 155-million units since 2004. And it’s closing in on the best-seller, Sony PlayStation 2, which has sold 158-million units since 2000. The most telling evidence of Nintendo’s endurance is games sales. The world’s top-selling game for the first week of October 2013 was Pokemon for the Nintendo 3DS, selling 4,1-million units, more than double the 1,4-million racked up by runner-up Grand Theft Auto V for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 combined.

Van Spaandonk was talking after the launch of the new Nintendo 2DS in South Africa last week. As opposed to its predecessors, the DS and 3DS, which both had dual-screens that folded over each other into a neat little box, the 2DS presents similar dual-screens on a single surface. It comes with connectivity and sharing functionality, but minus the 3D.

The most telling element of the launch was the news that Nintendo had agreed to drop its price for South Africa, in order to make it affordable to a growing market of aspirant gamers. At R1499, it will be 15% cheaper than in the United Kingdom.

This is recognition of both the nature and potential of the local market.

“Console gaming has a future at the bottom end of the market, because people do not have advanced smartphones and tablets, don’t have broadband at home, don’t necessarily have 3G contracts or data allowances,” says Van Spaandonk. “For them, mobile gaming is out of reach. That is also why our value offering consists of two devices that don’t require data connectivity.”

With the  launch of the 2DS, he says, Nintendo now has a comprehensive range of “console solutions”, consisting of the mid-range price points of the Wii U and 3DS, and the “affordable and value market” of the 2DS at R1499 and the DS Lite at R999.

Don’t plan on any goodbyes yet.

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.

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