MarkLives.com • Page 482 of 579 • Independent industry news for marketing, advertising & media execs

With BDLive Business Day hopes to save its bacon

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Business Day recently shifted gear to relaunch as a ‘digital first’ news product rather than just the printed newspaper it’s been bargaining on to keep the brand afloat. It’s a strategy that’s long overdue and hopes to mimic some of the digital success achieved by the Financial Times (Pearson, owner of FT, also has a stake in BDFM which publishes Business Day).

The print product really had no choice but to reinvent itself as it and other business publications face the loss of revenue from financial notices by JSE listed companies – these notices, described by critics as a forced ‘subsidy’ for print business media, is set to fall away after changes to regulations by the JSE. The industry is expected to lose a significant percentage of the estimated R200m currently spent on these notices annually.

Advertising revenue has also started shifting towards digital environments in line with developments in other economies.

Bronwen Auret, GM: BDFM Digital, agrees that those in the business of business news face challenges but she is also excited about the opportunities the new digital centric model will afford the company.

Newspapers are the least sexy media right now, say Aurent, and where to from (for now still) profitable print have been a predicament for most newspaper proprietors given the high cost of bandwidth and slower Internet uptake by the South African market.

With the uptick in usage of online and mobile thanks to more competitive pricing and competition by mobile data providers the market is shifting and the introduction of apps has made South Africans more familiar and comfortable with ecommerce.

Auret says the paper’s owners and staff had to ask themselves what it is they really produce. A paper, or content? Once they identified their business as content they could develop a strategy to ensure the business remains sustainable and build it out beyond its print media roots.

While the website traditionally contained ‘yesterday’s newspaper today’ the content strategy has shifted so that news content goes up on the site when the team have it. The printed paper itself is set to become more thoughtful.

All this has meant expanding sections of the editorial department – while Business Day used to have a person dedicated to covering markets it now has four. The political team have also been beefed up. BDLive is publishing original content at the standard of the printed paper, says Auret. Diary meetings now happen a few times a day and online and print editors sit together and sort out what goes where.

The site will see a paywall go up in early 2013 and there will be print digital and bundled subscription offers available. Don’t expect subscriptions to be costed at significantly less than the current print product . Auret says readers will be able to get print, online an app subscriptions bundled which means they no longer have to get to the office to pick up business and market news from Business Day. The brand will now be available wherever its readers find themselves. Registered readers will still have access to a limited number of free stories.

The user experience has been improved and readers now has access to a console from where they can set up or view personalised news headlines, a share watch list or clip articles to read later.

BDLive saw 11 000 registrations in its first month (August). Session duration is up as is the number of page views per visit. The iPhone and iPad apps saw 50 000 downloads between them and an Android app is on its way, says Auret.

Auret says the paper itself will continue to improve as well. Stories accessed via search and social media will still be accessible to all readers.

The site was moved from the businessday.co.za to the BDLive.co.za domain as a way to tell the market of how seriously the company takes it re-invention, says Auret. Technically changing a URL is not easy but traffic has been climbing and the team is happy with its decision.

– Industry news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – A good reason to love Nando’s (even more)

MarkLives Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – A good reason to love Nando’s (even more)

Ever tried to list all the reasons why you love South Africa?

In a context saturated with mining violence and strikes, investor pessimism and ratings downgrades, you’ve got to love Nando’s for reminding locals to think of the reasons why they love this country.

In a clever campaign that celebrates the chicken people’s 25th birthday, the savvy brand has called on Fando’s (Nando’s fans, get it?) to use the hash tag #25reasons and to start showing the love.

There’s a Pinterest board called #25reasons where SA lovers can repin their favourite reasons or create their own. Fando’s were also required to Tweet their #25reasons or to post them on Nando’s Facebook page. The fowl brand says the most shared reasons will be made into online videos.

To drive interest in the campaign Nando’s agency, Black River FC, created a couple of spots that have been flighted on TV, can be seen on YouTube, and are doing the rounds via email, Google+, Facebook and other social networks.

The commercials are a laugh-a-minute, and aren’t shy in terms of pushing boundaries. Reason #2 (we all know the words to our national anthem) features a typical open plan office of a company that’s called ‘Royal Insure’. There’s a white woman standing in the foreground paging through some files when she hears kwaito star Mandoza’sNkalakatha playing on the radio.

The heroine of this ad rushes over to a black colleague intoning “I love this song, I love this song so much” before she runs over to the radio and turns it up full blast. This is followed by her cringe-worthy attempt at traditional Zulu dance, and hybrid jazz-hands movements, interspersed with a bit of ululating.

Nkalakatha of course was released in 2000 which instantly became a cross-over hit, winning multi-platinum status. While it’s a mainstay for loads of people who love Kurt Darren, it’s hardly revered by a mass of locals who have (let’s euphemistically say) moved on.

Eish. If you’ve seen it you’ll instantly recognise how funny, relevant and culturally astute the advert is. It plays off racial stereotypes in a way that pushes the envelope (which Black River FC seems to do often), but which is funny enough to make it endearingly inclusive. This is not so much a matter of laughing at people, as it is laughing with them.

Other ads in this series include Reason #24 (we’re so close to Europe). This spot features a plane trip where the punch line shows a family looking out of an airliner’s window and freaking out about Table Mountain (which is in that other country called Cape Town).

Full marks to Black River FC for creative, culturally astute spots which positions Nando’s as a brand that really gets under the skin of what it means to be South African, with all its beautiful complexity.

A special mention must also go to Jozi digital communications company Retroviral* which put together the crowd-sourced and social media aspect of this campaign.

Oresti Patricios is the CEO of brand and reputation analysis company Ornico.

* Added in 1012/10/18

The Gate Keeper: Chapter 20 (In which careers are addressed)

by Andrew Miller TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande is an agency in crisis. Their ‘basket of boutique services’ strategy has bombed. Only a massive new project can keep the doors open – all eyes are now on the corporate tent at Mangaung. Far in the background, an emergency replacement executive PA with decades of experience makes important decisions. Interns rise, board members take unexpected steps and things begin to change…

The intern’s place in the Mangaung corporate tent is debated, while the chairman of the board launches a hand grenade in no particular direction…

Chapter 20

In which careers are addressed

It was very unclear within the upper echelons of TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande whether Vatiswa Magubane should be invited into the corporate tent at Mangaung or not. Yes, she had unquestionably delivered unto the agency their meal ticket for the next few years. Budget to the tune of several tens of millions had already been approved for the coming fiscal year. All that was needed now was the final seal of government approval on this dynamic and socially revolutionary campaign, inclusive, of course, of the traditional tender nods and winks. These would all – if things went to plan – be delivered in the corporate tent, by the person or persons, as yet unnamed, responsible for such things.

Still, while Vati was unquestionably the brightest star in the TBWSJWBN universe, there were several deeper factors to consider. Young girls, unless present in an event managment capacity, bolted in marriage to an appropriate arm or born to a father of the highest position, didn’t get near the corporate tent at elective conferences. Not the inner part of the tent. Not the late night tent. Not the sanctum. For Vati to be ushered all the way to the centre would be unprecedented indeed.

Then there was her unnerving and rapdily evolving fashion sense. Vati had increasingly taken to wearing her mother’s traditional clothing. Which would have been good and well were she not combining it, Jozi city style, with converse trainers and a tye-dye train wreck of accessories. The combination had the more traditional among TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande talking in low tones. And when they weren’t talking about the danger of cultural disrespect, they were most certainly talking about the worrying tedency in recent times of young black girls working in advertising to share sexual favours with pimply white boy graphic designers named Phil.

The bottom line was that none of the executives were sure. While they had needed Vati, their doubts were strategically buried, but now that the ship had left the dock yard, her suitability for delicate political manouvering in the further corners of political tents was very much in question.

“The bottom line is that this whole thing was her idea,” Tim Broadbent said pasisonately to EXCO, who all looked blankly back at him, surpised to see and hear such commitment on this particular issue from the old buzzard. “She should be recognised more. Acknowledged in some way. If you’re not going to let her go to Mangaung then at least give her a Loerie or something. She’s young, but she saved all your fat backsides, that’s for sure.”

Isaac Ndimande choked back his laughter and waited for someone else to rise to the bait. The matter bounced uncomfortably around for a few more minutes, and was eventually decided. Vatiswa would go to Mangaung, but would not be present in the corporate tent as such. She would be given a double page profile spread in Advantage on the rise of young black female strategists in the South African ad industry. Loerees would be addressed.

“I think that’s it, ne folks?” Isaac Ndimande gathered his papers and made to stand.

“Um, sorry, if I could just detain us all for a moment longer,” Tim Broadbent beamed in an unsettling fashion at his colleauges. “I just have a little announcement to make.”

Isaac settled back down under a cloud of fluttering eyebrows.

“I’ve reached that age where I need to think about retirement,” Tim spoken in a confident, rehearsed fashion, “so I hereby announce my retirement from my position at the company, and from the TBWSJWBN board, before anyone actually shoves me off the cliff.”

The table rippled, but gently. Tim’s shuffling on was not completely unexpected.

“Before I go, though, I would just like to say, on the record, how unpleasant I have found the last few years to be, and, more generally, how repulsed I am when I look back on the things we have done that we call work. As I move to the last phase of my life, I feel it’s important to not only reach these understandings clearly within myself, but to communicate them to my colleagues. To you. I am compelled to tell you that when I look back on the last forty years of my life I realise now that I have wasted them all. I also know, like I know few things in the world, that our industry is nothing more or less than conceptual pollution. We sh!t on our fellow man on a daily basis, and somehow that makes us proud. Well, it shouldn’t.”

The TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande exective boardroom exploded into silence.

Tim Broadbent stood, nodded at his bewildered colleaugues, and left the room.

Part 1 -20. Part 21: October 24.
Author: Andrew Miller Illustrator: Lebohang Goge

The embedded Agency

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The founders of ad agency Derrick, Livio Tronchin (ex-Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town), Mark Stead (former CD at KingJames RSVP) and Myles Hoppé (former brand manager at the company behind the Joule), late last year packed up their office and moved in with the launch team of money management service 22seven.

The brainchild of Christo Davel, best known for his work on 20Twenty, the ground-breaking online bank that folded alongside Saambou, the Derrick team had been commissioned to move into the new start-up for a two week stint that made them feel like part of the start-up (and worked them just as hard!) rather than an agency apart.

22seven needed things to happen fast, in real time, and the procedures and processes in place at ad agencies was going to be a hindrance. So it all got tossed out the window. And while it was an exciting ride it did highlight vulnerabilities on both sides of the client/agency divide.

Tronchin says the view ‘from inside’ provided quite a different perspective on the business and it was wonderful not be bogged down with all sorts of internal corporate machinations – access was direct and quick. At the same time it did make it harder to keep perspective – as would be expected from living and breathing a project with such intensity.

The advertising/communication was evolving alongside the product, says Tronchin, leaving the team take much greater responsibility for its ultimate success, and turned them all in salesmen for the new service.

An embedded agency requires physical and structural flexibility. Hoppé says it also requires a brave client who is sussed in how creative teams work and who subscribes to a collaborative work model.

In a start-up you work with a blank sheet and a slimmed down management structure. It’s very much a trust relationship that is built between the agency (now part of the launch team) and the CEO, something Derrick enjoyed with Davel, who shared sensitive intellectual property with the trio.

Embedding an agency with a client means leaving your own culture at the door, says Hoppé, and adapting to the culture prevalent in the new work environment. Reviews no longer take place inside the agency but directly with the client, something Hoppé says is in the best interest of the client in any case. The agency also take on a different level of responsibility and is now closely associated with the perceived success or failure of the launch of a project.

Embedding the agency meant it could do in three-four weeks (two weeks inside, two weeks back at their own offices) that which would normally have taken three to four months, says Hoppé, as creative talent runs at its full potential dedicated to a single project and the team cuts out ‘time destroying stuff’.

Derrick was involved in the pre-launch phase of 22seven which included communication to beta users as well as the actual launch. It had to explain to beta users what 22seven does while the product was essentially still in development – something achieved through gamification.

Tronchin says by embedding the agency it built emotional links to the people they worked with (and for). “That’s a good thing and I wish we could do that with all the brands we work on,” says Tronchin, who is careful to add that this will only work with certain, and certain kinds of clients.

– News you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

After group buying shake-out CityMob changes direction

by Herman Manson (@marklives) CityMob, the group buying site started by three entrepreneurs in Cape Town in early 2011, has made a significant change in direction as the shake-out in the group buying market continues.

Although profitable at the time the trio – Luke Jedeikin, Claude Hanan and Daniel Solomon, had decided to move away from the mass discount, quantity over quality focus in much of the group buying space. As their competitors closed up shop, including the Naspers backed Dealify and the Avusa backed Zappon, the CityMob founders had already identified their key differentiator and were planning the relaunch of their business as an online design retailer specialising in ‘flash sales’ (time-limited sales).

It was a natural evolution for the business which had specialised in sourcing high quality deals with top brands in its group buying days. Self funded to date, it didn’t have a massive database of users as some of its competitors had, and very little marketing budget, so all that was left was to compete on was product.

The entry of Groupon into the South African market shortly after the launch of CityMob helped the team up their game and taught them so hard business lessons as well, says Jedeikin, the MD at CityMob. As questions were raised as to the sustainability of the group buying business model, the entrenchment of Groupon as the dominant player in the market and deal fatigue starting to set in amongst businesses, CityMob needed to not only differentiate itself but also needed to find a position with a much higher barrier to entry, hence the move into selling products rather than vouchers.

The site is no longer pursuing bargain hunters as its core audience – instead normal retail type discounts of between 10-15% are applied where appropriate while other items are sold at full price. Initially relaunched in beta to cater to both group buying and flash sales, the site has been weaning its users off their discount mania and now only offers flash sales on curated design goods.

When Jedeikin talks design he talks about it in its broadest sense – well designed clothing, decor, art, the works. As long as it considered, of high quality, beautiful and well designed CityMob is interested in selling it.

CityMob, says Jedeikin, is now positioned to connect great design with an appreciative audience, especially welcome for designers without a retail space. Retailers can test products using CityMob, pushing for example six or seven colours to determine which will work best, before taking two or three into the more formal retain environment.

“It can take three months to get into a store and just as long again to start seeing what sells, our online pop-up shops (brand ‘sub-let’ space on the CityMob site) allow you to get data on what works and what doesn’t within seven days,” says Jedeikin.

Jedeikin says the closed member community allows retailers to be more experimental than they could be in-store and then push successes into stores. And where online retailers generally try to sign as many brands as possible, meaning your brand competes with a dozen or even several hundred others on site, on CityMob there is no long term lines set up, so you compete with much fewer brands.

The team currently consists of 15 members with Jedeikin looking to appoint another seven. While the group buying business was a profitable one CityMob 2.0 is still building momentum, and Jedeikin says he is looking for investors to help finance its expansion. “We are not profitable now but we are not profitable on our own terms, as we are re-investing our capital in growth” says Jedeikin.

At the moment CityMob has a database of around 100 000 users. It has seen some attrition, especially from bargain hunters, with the move away from group-buying, but has gained a more affluent customer base. The basket size of the average customer has increased from R65 in its group buying days to R550 today. “We are not obsessed with scale,” says Jedeikin, “we focus on activating participation by existing customers.

CityMob also doesn’t sit with stock or warehouse infrastructure – once a sale ends CityMob places its purchase order with the supplier, the supplier delivers to CityMob who then packages the parcels and ships them out using an established courier.

Pricing sits somewhere between wholesale and retail and CityMob takes around 30% of the asking price. Jedeikin says Johannesburg and Cape Town are their primary markets but increasingly people from outside these main centres are also shopping on CityMob as often they are unable to source similar quality products locally.

The flexibility inherent in the sales route and business model being pursued by the CityMob bodes well for the future of the business. Online curation of quality and good design is becoming a key differentiator for smaller ecommerce outfits in an environment that’s become increasingly cut throat.

* Reader special: Citymob is offering MarkLives readers a 15% discount (over and above the usual discount) on any item in the Citymob store. It can be used a maximum of twice PER user. Just enter the promo code MARKLIVES when at your check-out!

– Industry news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Magazine covers we love

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. By media blogger MediaSlut.

INTERNATIONAL

The Sunday Times Magazine, 7 October 2012

What a beautifully visual cover representing the ‘unseen letters of John Lennon’. Makes you want to get your hands on all of them, and read them all!

Intermediair, 12 October 2012

This cover is a bit weird (and disturbing) but it’s basically a good visual take on migraines. Looking at this cover for too long actually gives me a small migraine.

Bloomsberg Businessweek, 8 October 2012

It might just look like a bunch of dots, but each of them represents 1 000 000 Facebook users, and a few of them point out very interesting facts about the world and man-kind. If you can zoom in, do yourself a favour and try read a few of them to put Facebook (and the world) into perspective.

LOCAL

Advantage, October 2012

Advantage magazine is asking the age-old question “Does sex sell?”, or rather, does it still sell. If you look closely, you’ll spot the little Kama Sutra sex-icons, which I think is appropriate for this cover, but maybe a bit too visual for some. If you download a certain app, the cover will ‘be activated’…

– 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 South African magazines might fail, but most importantly, succeed. If you’re looking for a library about South African magazines and news, your one-stop pitstop is MediaSlut. #MagazinesForTheWin

– Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslut
Sign up for our free newsletter!

Design Times eyes a digital future

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Mark Rosenberg was flipping through Wallpaper magazine when he saw a feature on newspaper design. It was sometime in 2005 and he had just getting started in the ad biz, with a background in the arts. Rosenberg went home and designed his first newspaper. It was called Design Times. He was 20.

Rosenberg knew that students with a design interest could hardly afford the international design glossies imported into the country. He also struggled to find design orientated publications that spoke to him as a consumer. With this in mind the first print run of Design Times would sell at R2 a copy. He printed 500 four pagers and was selling ads at R500 a pop. It just covered his production costs. He sold his first ad to a reseller of Adobe and Apple products.

Overheads were low – he was staying with his folks and putting the newspaper out from his bedroom.

At the time Rosenberg had only a limited amount of exposure to the publishing business (the agency he was working for had a travel client and was producing their in-house magazine).

Initially Design Times, which covered graphic design and photography, was less about content and more about layout and design admits Rosenberg but this has gradually been changing. Rosenberg has expanded editorial coverage to touch on multiple facets of design including fashion, interiors, architecture and product design.

Over the next three years the publication gradually built up a readership and an advertising base, but as the global financial crisis was knocking down ad budgets, two of his biggest clients, both well known tech brands, pulled all their advertising from print. Rosenberg, who had gotten married and moved out of the house by now, took a two and a half year break from publishing the paper.

It would only restart in mid 2010 as a bimonthly when he cut a deal with Beyond Publishing to relaunch the title. Rosenberg had previously been doing some design work for them. Beyond would provide the sales team and admin infrastructure and Rosenberg would design and edit the relaunched Design Times.

Looking ahead Rosenberg says he is working on an app for Design Times that would move it away from being solely a print product. This is to protect ad revenue, which has been moving online, and to access an international audience interested in South African (and global) design trends.

The app should hopefully be ready by the time Design Indaba swings by next year, says Rosenberg, and will feature content unique from the print title. While the printed paper and the app will run concurrently Rosenberg says he believes the future of Design Times will be digital. His market certainly plays in that space – around 60% of his readers fall in the 18-25 age bracket.

– News you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

Amarula – the elephant in the global liqueur cabinet

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Amarula, the cream liqueur owned by Stellenbosch based Distell, has in recent years emerged as a global brand name that is achieving ongoing growth in numerous key markets including Brazil and Angola. Few consumers would guess that the brand launched in 1983 as a clear spirit with an alcohol content closing in on the 40% mark.

Distell was looking for indigenous ingredients with which to compete in a market which had just gone crazy for fruit flavoured liqueurs ranging from strawberry to peaches to litchi. It picked the fruit from the Marula tree. The clear spirit was of middling success.

Six years later the cream liqueur we know today was launched. The lower alcohol content produced a softer taste and opened it to a wider audience. By 1991 it was being exported to the Netherlands and given an international brand focus. Today it’s exported to over a 100 markets.

Drinks International, a magazine devoted exclusively to the global spirits market, this year ranked Amarula as one of its fastest growing global brands at a time when rival Baileys (the biggest selling cream liqueur brand globally) experienced “sluggish growth” as did the number two cream liqueur brand De Kuyper which experienced a decline in its main US market.

The Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay triangle makes up the second biggest market for Amarula after South Africa and is followed in turn by Angola.

Drinks International ranks (PDF file) Amarula 147th in terms of global volume sales of spirit brands having increased volumes from 1.08 (millions of 9-litre cases) in 2008 to 1.10 in 2009, 1.20 in 2010 and 1.30 in 2011.

Interestingly in the South American market the drink is viewed as an aphrodisiac, says Siobhan Thompson, Global Category Manager – Liqueurs & International Whiskey at Distell. The Marula tree has a rich African heritage and plays a part in the folk lore of a number of tribes, some of whom marry under the tree, while others believe bark infusions form the male or female trees will help determine the gender of unborn children.

The Jamie Uys documentary Animals Are Beautiful People, released in 1974, featured a scene in which various animals, including elephants, get drunk on the fermented fruit (the yellow fruit fall from the tree to ferment on the ground), and helped cement the Marula into popular culture.

Since 2003 the brand has had an aligned global brand strategy. Thompson, who helped oversee the project with the assistance of brand consultancy Yellowwood, says all campaign material is overseen by the South African office, and makes extensive use of the Internet to distribute to regional and country agents (outside Africa Distell uses an agent route to market), who is allowed to adjust it for local nuances.

Amarula is positioned as a uniquely African product and experience. Thompson says the story told by its advertising campaigns focuses on two streams – the sensorial (its exotic taste) and the adventurous (which transports viewers to another place in ‘wild’ Africa).

South Africans buy into the Amarula brand story with a sense of national pride – Amarula is positioned to present some of the best of Africa – space, myth and majestic wildlife. Even in a market as mature as South Africa the brand has been experiencing double digit growth. It’s also viewed as an affordable luxury – it makes for a great gift without breaking the bank.

The latest growth spurt was thanks in part to the subtle modernising of its packaging. A sleeker bottle and some changes to the colour of the branding (taking it from gold to maroon to make it more legible in the retail environment) and a more prominent rendering of the elephant and Marula graphics rolled out in March/April 2011.

Draftfcb has been the brands’ agency since 2003 and has just produced the fourth TV ad for the brand which will flight in October. Starting with ‘Majestic’ the campaign has moved to ‘Plantation’ which explores the relationship between the Marula and elephants, ‘Sociability’ which imports people into the ‘dreaming Africa’ setting (‘where there is a sunset we share Amarula’) and, breaking in October, ‘African original’ which highlights the brands African heritage and roots.

Majestic

The Plantation

‘Socianility’

The Marula, which isn’t farmed, is harvested in the wild by local communities who drop off the fruit at Amarula collection points, according to Tessa de Kock, in a case study completed for Unisa. They are paid per kilogram and after destoning the fruit the nuts are returned to the community who use the oils from the inner kernels “to eat and to produce various ointments and moisturisers,” according to de Kock.

The pulp from the fruit then makes its way to Stellenbosch where it is fermented and distilled. The Marula wine is then twice-distilled, reveals de Kock, the second time aging slowly over two years in small oak barrels.

According to Thompson Distell believes in long term agency relationships, although they set strict output requirements and deliverables, and would only consider changing agencies if an agency persistently underperformed on the targets. “We are a loyal company and treat people and our partners with respect,” says Thompson.

That is quite a statement from a top marketing executive in such a competitive industry, but with Amarula hailed as one of world’s fastest-growing global brands across all spirits categories, also one that speaks volumes on the benefit of maintaining a consistent brand DNA across several decades.

Not only is this a positive South African business success story it is also a positive brand/agency story that takes a longer term view of what solid partnerships can contribute to a brand.

Brand news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!

The Gate Keeper: Chapter 19 (In which the road opens)

The great Mangaung survival strategty is presented, and Mama E notices the chair of the board’s smile…

Chapter 19

In which the road opens

“Friends, collegues, fellow creative soliders…” Sizwe paused to beam at the hundred or so faces staring disdainfully at Him. “It gives me a great deal of pleasure to present to you the concept developed by this agency for EFT bank. It’s a concept which has required many months of effort, and which has, I am delighted to say, met with an extremely warm reception at EFT, as you know, one of our largest and most important clients.” He paused, cleared his throat, and took a quick look around. The crowd of TBWSJWBN staff was resolutely passive. It reminded Him of when He used to sing at the old age home on Sunday nights in the primary school choir.

He clicked play on the presentation.

At the back of the bar area Tim Broadbent stood next to Phil the graphic designer in comfortable silence. They were an odd pair, and no one except Vati would have noticed that their physical proximity was anything other than an accidental.

Truth be told, Tim Broadbent, Phil the graphic designer and Vati had enjoyed a perfectly pleasant lunch at the Hyde Park shopping centre a few days back. Each had – for their own reasons – wiped their lips at its conclusion with the napkin of satisfaction. Now, with the EFT song and dance in full swing, Tim and Phil could think of no better company in which to endure their mutual pain.

“Have you noticed,” Tim whispered into Phil’s ear as the presentation cut rapidly between the agency’s rapper for hire and stock shots of rural mama’s doing rural things, “the smell of vomit lately?” He sniffed the air suspiciously. “The last few months, every now and again, I get this whiff.”

Phil nodded while still looking ahead, the corners of his lips curling slightly. He had indeed noticed the smell. He was feeling cautious about appearing too close to Tim Broadbent, however. There was enough talk about him and Vati doing the rounds. The last thing he needed was to be seen all elbows and ears with TBWSJWBN’s original papa bear.

Vati appeared at Tim’s left, also smiling, for her own reasons, and the three of them stood in an unrecognised row, watching TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande’s full and final attempt at survival unfold before them.

The presentation faded out and everyone clapped. There were whistles and cheers. He dipped his head several times in appreciation, cleared His throat, and started talking again.

“I’ll try not to keep you all too long – there is, as we all know, much work to be done. I just wanted to offer a few notes on execution. Yes, this campaign is innovative in the sense that it is rurally based. But the innovation doesn’t stop there. We have also been working very hard at ensuring there is follow through in important channels. To that end, our strategy team have emerged with a fascinating series of youth events to be held at secret locations across the country’s major urban areas. More will be released about this later, but suffice to say we’re negotiating with several national TV channels to thread the entire camapaign into the plots of three major soap operas. We’ve also managed, quite successfully I believe, to convince the SABC decision makers to replace that doumentary on the four violin ladies that has been running for the last year with a series of mini documentaries addressing issues of rural finance…”

Mama E stood slightly behind Him, in full view of the entire agency. She felt, in a word, exposed. Eyes were roaming all over the place, and few of them were settling on Him or His presentation for very long. Many roamed over her, quietly quizzing her form, her fashion sense, her very presence. She made an effort to pin her shoulders back and stand straight.

She spotted Tim Broadbent, who was smiling strangely, his hands behind his back. Now that she saw his smile, she realised she had never seen it before. Tim Broadbent was not a smiler. She wondered what the sudden spark was. Not only was he smiling, but his posture was much improved. He looked like a confident, contented almost-retiree.

Mama E would have been shocked – as would the rest of the agency – to know that Tim Broadbent was smiling at the thought of getting the f*#ck out of dodge. Things in his world had suddenly changed. In fact, the smile in his mind was already well out the door. It was only genetic politeness that kept him standing there, acting like he gave even the slightest bit of a sh!t about EFT, rural finance or the long term future of TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande.

Part 1 -19. Part 20: October 17.
Author: Andrew Miller Illustrator: Lebohang Goge

Lack of innovation means newspapers failing visual journalism

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Judges of the recently held Sikuvile Standard Bank Newspaper Journalism Awards, which also recognises newspaper excellence in advertising, printing and production, layout and typography, as well as the balanced use of pictures and graphics, were critical of the limited visual innovation they saw in entries this year. The judges raised concerns about the standard of printing, the lack of illustrations and pointed out that typography were also not used to its full potential in newspaper design.

Charles Apple, a freelance visual journalist and instructor, have spent a considerable amount of time in South Africa (for Media24) and Kenya (for the Nation Media Group) to consult on visual journalism. Apple, who runs a blog on newspaper design and visual journalism, shared some of his observations on the state of South African visual journalism with MarkLives.

MarkLives: You visit South Africa every so often. Any noticeable changes in the evolution of the production and design of our papers over the couple of times you have been here?

Charles Apple: Not so much. In fact, I continue to be disappointed in the level of infographics – or lack thereof – in South African newspapers. I don’t see nearly as many in the other leading national papers as I do in the Media24 papers. The fact that Media24 swept the design categories of your national contest this year doesn’t surprise me a bit.

MarkLives: The judges at the recent Sikuvile Standard Bank Newspaper Journalism Awards commented that the “standard of printing has fallen and unfortunately there appears to have been little visual innovation this year.” How would you recommend editors and publishers address this?

Apple: For starters, visuals shouldn’t be about the visuals. GOOD visuals are about storytelling. One of the things a good visual journalist needs, in fact, is the ability to tell an editor: Hey, I realize what you asked me for. But instead, here’s a better way to do that.

In fact, I don’t think that happens in South African newspapers. South African newspapers – or most of the ones I’ve seen – seem to be very much “top-down” management systems. In other words, the editor gives the orders and then the staffers carry out those orders. A pecking order is very well-established. But this system doesn’t allow for much innovation. Unless the editor is open to new methods of storytelling.

So that’s the first thing I’d suggest: Editors who are more open-minded and less embedded in the old, traditional way of doing things. Or, more simply: If you want to see innovation, then you have to put innovative people in charge.

Once the editor is open to different ways of telling stories, then part two comes into play: Do it. There are so many interesting things a paper can do with alternative story forms. Or picture pages. Or informational graphics. Or multimedia presentations. Only a few papers are dabbling in these areas. Yes, it helps to have talented visual journalists in key positions who have experience or training in these matters. That’s where the training comes in.

I think that’s why Media24 is so far ahead the rest of the country’s newsprint media in visual journalism. They’ve tried to get editors to innovate (with varying degrees of success). And they’ve invested in training (Umm, me).

MarkLives: They did highlight Typography as a design issue – what is the trend internationally in terms of the use of typography in newspaper design at the moment?

Apple: The trend is toward sophisticated, intricate use of typography. It looks simple on the page. But in fact, there are lots of balances between weights of fonts, leading (the space between lines), widths of copy blocks and so forth. For the past few years, the Guardian of London has been the standard for typographical-minded editors. I see a lot of papers emulating what they do.

In truth, though, a lot of South African papers use older, clumsy-looking typefaces. There are newer, more elegant choices to be made. By sticking with what they use, many of your papers seem to be falling further behind.

And the actual font is just part of it. There is spacing to consider. Use of white space. When to use colour text and when not to.

It puzzles me why South African newspapers don’t use type better. Some of your magazines use type VERY well. So it’s not like there are no designers in the country who are up to the task.

MarkLives: Are you happy with the standard of infographics the newspapers (you have reviewed) here are producing?

Apple: No. I started working with the infographics artists at Media24 in August 2009. By now – three years later – I would have expected to see the other papers around the country trying more infographics and experimenting more. But during my last visit – in August – I didn’t see anything at all, really.

I find it puzzling.

Also, I would have expected the country’s journalism schools to become interested in teaching news design and infographics: “visual journalism.” I’m not seeing much of that yet. The designers I’ve worked with haven’t been contacted themselves for classroom appearances. The assumption I have to make: There is no interest in visual journalism on the part of your universities.

And that’s a shame, because the field is so ripe. As bandwidth continues to improve in South Africa and folks increase their use of devices like iPads, do you know what’s going to make FANTASTIC content for those tablets? That’s right: Infographics.

So I don’t get it. Papers should be all over infographics. And your journalism schools should be scrambling to prepare students for that need.

MarkLives: And online – are you positive in terms of how design and production of SA newspapers are evolving in a multi-media environment?

Apple: I’m not seeing much online at all. Just the same ol’: Web sites and stories.

I’m impressed with how well South Africans have taken to Twitter. That’s because of the widespread use of smart phones there. Twitter is a powerful tool. I’m glad the nation’s journalists have jumped on that.

But I’m not seeing a lot of multimedia graphics. And I’m constantly searching for them.

MarkLives: What was your impression of the newspaper market in Nigeria and Kenya where you recently did some consulting work?

Apple: In both countries, I saw a deep hunger for more visual journalism.

In Nigeria, I was able to work with a few journalists and teach basic infographics and design principles. The issue there is: How do you get graphics into the paper? Seems to me what they’re lacking is the first part of the equation: Editors who are open-minded enough to allow for new forms of telling stories.

Until they get to that point, the visual journalists – no matter how eager or talented – can only get so far.

In Kenya, I saw nearly the opposite: The level of design was much higher than I would have thought. In fact, I saw a number of folks there who I thought might make good hires… if papers in Nigeria or South Africa don’t mind recruiting from Kenya, that is.

I was fascinated by this. And despite the fact that I tried hard to be prepared for each visit, neither turned out the way I had expected.

I ended my travels this summer convinced – more than ever before – that there is SO much potential there in Africa – and not just in South Africa, but all over the continent – for fabulous newspapering. I can’t wait to see what folks there do next.

MarkLives: I’ve seen somebody argue that newspaper re-designs lack innovation preferring to copy of other designs. Is this a fair complaint and if so how can it be remedied?

Apple: It’s a fair complaint. I think it’s the result of editors – or perhaps publishers or owners or perhaps all of the above – who are afraid to take chances.

Bottom line: You can’t innovate unless you’re willing to take a chance. If you’re too afraid to take chances, then the best you’ll ever do is stumble along a well-beaten path. It’s that second one that you’re noticing, Herman.

If it makes you feel better, though, U.S. papers – to a large extent – have that same problem. The unwillingness to innovate is one reason the news industry here is in the financial state it’s in. Editors and publishers are waking up. But their efforts now may be too little and too late.

My advice to editors in South Africa, Africa and, yes, here as well: Stop making the same mistakes over and over again. Find new mistakes to make. If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not trying hard enough to innovate.

– News you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!