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.
I’m in a phase where I see everything as art. Probably because I’m looking at investing, but not sure what to invest in, or which artist to take a risk with. This is my selection of recent covers that turned into art pieces (for me at least). I’ll just let the covers speak for itself…
– 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
by Anton Crone (@antoncrone) In the forest of the internet, is your opinion heard if you don’t put a name to it? I’ve wondered about this after a spate of opinion pieces regarding the relevance of the Loerie Awards on Bizcommunity and Marklives. These are two valuable forums where industry folk put their names and faces to often staunch opinions, yet they are often challenged by faceless people who hide behind pseudonyms.
I regularly visit 10and5, arguably the most popular showcase for South African advertising and design. Here, people willingly, and bravely, attach their names to the work displayed then wait for the onslaught of opinion, mostly from people who hide behind pseudonyms.
In a forum on 10and5 a short while ago, after a particularly scathing attack, I challenged the convention of using pseudonyms. Some supported this, others not, and the prevailing sentiments were that anonymity ensures a negative opinion does not reflect badly on that person thereby ruining their chances of getting ahead in the industry; that more traffic is driven to the website if people are able to comment anonymously and that the more freedom there is to comment the better we can gauge general opinion.
But Uno De Waal of 10and5 often has to close forums as pseudo people fling pixelated shit at each other.
So here’s my fucking opinion, and there’s my ugly mug to prove it’s me saying it: All you pseudonyms are pussies who don’t deserve a megabyte of the company broadband you waste trawling the forums looking for targets. By slagging off someone’s opinion or their work under a pseudonym, when they’ve willingly put their name to it, is not just disrespectful, it’s fucking kindegartern level.
But that wasn’t very well put. One should consider that a negative comment that is well put and has substantiation can actually improve ones chances of getting ahead in the industry; that a forum that provides stimulating debate with good arguments can attract more traffic and ultimately give a better gauge of general opinion.
Putting your name to an opinion means it becomes more considered and a well thought through argument stimulates commentary that arrives at something closer to the truth, something that can radically improve this industry.
The more infested the internet becomes with information, analysis and opinion, the less you will be heard. Frankly, if you don’t attach a name to your opinion, you won’t be heard at all.
by Andrew MillerTBW 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…
Rumours fly like knives as the intern meets head to head with the boss, who acts in an unexpected manner…
Chapter 17
In which things fail to come to a head
Dear Diary
Well the little one is as nervous as Bambi in a crack den. I can’t say I blame her. He really does drill her with those beady drunk eyes of His. I can see she’s making an effort to play it all down, but the flower will not be disguised. She’s hopping from one toe to the other here in front of me as she waits. Ag shame – she hasn’t realised how it works yet. The power is all hers…
Mama E stopped tapping at her keyboard and gave Vati a long, meaningful look. Vati was unsure as to whether she was being offered a lead or not. She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it, then opened it again. “Sometimes, He…” she whispered at Mama E, “He… well it’s His eyes more than anything. I struggle to keep focus with those eyes on me, if you know what I mean?”
“My dear, I’ve been dealing with those eyes all my life. I know exactly what you mean,” Mama E tapped her nose knowlingly, like they were in a 60s James Bond movie. “Just keep a two metre following distance and you’ll be fine. Better than fine, in fact. The eyes can only go so far. Stay out of physical range and you control the meeting. Let His knee touch yours and you’re finished.” Vati nodded gratefully. It was good advice. Mama E might be extremely weird and old and fat and prone to horrific pastel colour mis-matches, but there was nonetheless something about her she was learning to respect.
The buzzer on Mama E’s desk rang. She picked up and nodded. “There you go my dear. He’s ready for you.”
Vati breathed deeply, pulled her dress firmly down over her hips and marched into His office. Mama E tapped her nose a last time as Vati passed.
Back in the creative commons Simon Shone was thinking about advertising as a career choice. About how little satisfaction he had gained from his work and, simultaneously, how much better copywriting must still be than life as a Marikana rock driller. He was also thinking about Phil, and Vati, and how it had all happened as it had. And, therefore, how his life, when viewed in the reflected light of this racially integrated young couple, could possibly have turned out to be this dull.
He had no girlfriend.
He hadn’t worked on anything other than chewing gum for three years.
He didn’t even have a decent drug habit.
“Hey Phil,” Simon leaned back in his chair and threw a crumbled paper ball at his partner. “Is it love?”
“Ke?” Phil lifted a can off one ear. “Sorry?”
“You and Vati. Love? Lust? General foolery?”
“Hai,” Phil dropped the earphone back and muttered something about basic human decency.
“Hey Phil!” Simon threw another paper ball at him. “You know she’s there right now hey? In His office. Going through the great Mangaung strategy. What you skim the chances are she comes out the same way she went in?”
Phil took off his headphones, grabbed his pack of Stuyvesants and went for a drive.
On the strategy side of the commons, similar thoughts were finding air, although in a less delicate fashion. Sizwe was explaining to the others just how freaky he thought those tie-die eighteen year old Newtown chicks in their crossover Ndebele neo hippie garb were. The conversation swung inevitably to Vati and her current one-on-one session in His office, with, Buntu noted, the door completely closed.
The girls clucked and tutted and tried to squash the whole thing but the ball was rolling by now. The boys chuckled gruffly, like old men really, even slapping their knees a bit as they returned to their work, filled with illicit thoughts about their new colleague.
The reality was nothing that anyone would have predicted, or expected, Vati included. He was stinking drunk.
She kept her two metre distance, shaking hands only lightly and then scuttling to the visitor’s side of His big and remarkably empty oak desk. Once the pleasantries had been concluded she extracted her laptop and powered it up, at which point He fell fast asleep, right there in his executive leather office chair.
by Louise Marsland (@louise_marsland) One of the things about the creative industry is the fact that if you say ‘black tie’ on an invitation, the only people who will pitch in full evening dress are the clients.
Everyone else will try out do each other in subverting the dress code and making a creative fashion statement.
People attend Loeries for the work, the awards, the parties and also to be seen rocking a statement outfit or being as ‘anti-establishment’ as possible by going against the grain.
I remember the first time The Loerie Awards, which had become a six-hour ordeal interspersed with M-Net continuity announcers, went to two awards evenings the first time at Sun City to try get the length of the evening down by splitting the awards into two nights.
In protest, one top creative, can’t remember who, went shirtless the first night, only wearing trousers and shoes and socks, and the next night pitched in his underpants with a shirt, tie and jacket on.
And I’ve seen someone draw a bowtie on a white T-shirt in black marker pen and proudly march up on stage to collect his Loerie.
So we had some fun tracking some of the more interesting fashion at Loeries this year… hemlines are still short for the women, jeans and sneakers are still the dress of choice for most men, but this year it was definitely mostly about the hair and the shoes!
Glitz is making a comeback with quite a bit of shiny metallic colours and fabric making an appearance.
Thankfully the trend for agencies to all wear hats or dress alike to show the world they are a TEAM is on the wane. Dressing alike is so 80s unless you’re in a boy band.
1. Award-winning hair
2. Thank God the hat trend is almost over. Leave them for the races next time.
3. Backless, strapless, short and pretty shiny
4. A big trend on the night was shorts
5. These shoes are made for awards, not walking…
6. Some dressed gangsta, some just looked like gangsters
Dressing gangsta…
A gangster
7. And then there were those that march to the beat of their own drum, who do ‘see the status quo and go in the opposite direction’, John Hunt!
*Louise Marsland is an independent editor and journalist who has been reporting on the media, marketing and advertising industry for two decades, as editor of publications like AdVantage, Bizcommunity.com and Marketing Mix. She currently edits a weekly Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper – appearing every Wednesday, and blogs at www.B2Bbeat.co.za. She loves fashion and watches Fashion Police religiously. Follow her on Twitter @louise_marsland.
by Herman Manson (@marklives) It’s like inviting Bucks Fizz to MC a champagne & sparkling wine event.
MC Hammer. Too Tight.
I’m of course talking about flying in MC Hammer to MC the Loerie Awards on Sunday evening, or not, as the case might be. The rapper’s uninspired and disinterested performance prompted one trade journalist to wonder aloud if it would not have been better to simply have a white sock present the event. Maybe Dial Direct could step up as the sponsor next year.
Never quite keeping up with the teleprompter MC Hammer stumbled over the word ‘Ubuntu’ once and then refused to have a second go at it. The teleprompter also tried helpfully to accommodate the organisers’ well known sense for irony by showing ‘loo-rie’ (being the bad PR investment I am I admit to a certain amount of glee in this instance) every time he had to say ‘Loerie.’
‘Where you going?’ ‘Just nipping out to the loo-rie.’
The CEO of SA Cape Town Tourism provided a moment of brief relief in one the opening speeches when she woke the crowd up with “the deeper you get into Cape Town, the more beautiful she gets.” The gentlemen in front of me kept hissing ‘sis people’ while pretty much everybody else sniggered and snorted loudly at the (apparently) innocent double entendre.
At least the audience, adequately buttered up by the Western Cape premier Helen Zille (she knows how to read a crowd, that’s for sure), had lost the hard edge of the previous evening when they loudly and unceremoniously clapped the deputy mayor of Cape Town off the stage in his own city. To his credit he didn’t seem overly phased.
The two Loerie ceremonies were slick and well produced, but sometimes felt forced, as with the over scripted opening banter between the hosts of the Saturday event, Noot Vir Noot presenter Johan Stemmet and Zizo Beda. That said the duo did a perfectly good job as MCs and it felt more like the audience was laughing with Stemmet rather than at him, which was not necessarily the impression I got last year when Riaan Cruywagen and David Hasselhoff ran the show.
Stemmet, by the way, would have been the perfect host for the Pendoring Awards, which took place the Friday evening before the two Loerie ceremonies.
Andrew Human: ‘Ek sien jou.’
The Pendorings, which seated a much smaller number of people than the Loeries had to cater for, opted for a sit down dinner to encourage good behaviour. The award ceremony tried to meet somewhere between adland cool and Skouspel but veered toward Skouspel (which in the context of the two following evenings wasn’t a terrible thing at all). I thought it had heart and that people were really engaged. The winning work was up to standard.
Like all award ceremonies in the history of award ceremonies it was too long, clocking in at just over four hours, but it has secured credibility in the industry in spite of the Creative Circle refusing to let winning work count towards its point system, which in turn discourages agencies from entering the Pendorings. It’s important this oversight be corrected urgently and Creative Circle Chair Chris Gotz has indicated that he would be willing to engage on the matter.
Ad award ceremonies really aren’t made up of cinnamon and spice and all things nice. Like the industry it serves, it struggles to get right and balance the varying interests of its stakeholders, industry politics and its own commercial viability.
The excitement in a trade associated with aloof cynicism before the Friday, Saturday and Sunday award ceremonies were quite palpable and possibly a little endearing. Ad award shows has the potential to put a human face to a trade which might otherwise appear anonymous and distant to outsiders. In this regard the Pendorings certainly succeeded while also busting some cultural stereotypes around its core constituency – note this tweet by Khaya Dlanga (@khayadlanga) stating; “Black folks winning all over the place … #Pendoring Is this a case of Nationalise Pendorings?”
It really is wonderful to sit in front of a massive screen and see (the entered) best the industry has to offer. Of course, less so when one piece takes multiple awards, in which case organisers could do well to limit repeats to the first three or four seconds instead of running it at full length five or six times during the course of the award ceremony.
At the Loeries four Grand Prix trophies were awarded. OFM’s ‘Change your Tune’ Direct & Promotional Mail by Joe Public, the SAB ‘Be the
John Hunt. Even ad people go fishing.
Coach’ Integrated Campaign by Ogilvy Cape Town, the Mercedes-Benz ‘Attention Assist’ Radio Campaign by Net#work BBDO and the Nando’s South Africa ‘The Last Dictator Standing’ TV & Cinema Commercial by Black River FC all took home the big bird.
Also for the first time one Gold Loerie was awarded to two (effectively) competing campaigns from two different agencies. King James and Black River FC shared an award for the respective parts they played in the Nando’s vs. Santam non-spat spat. It made for a nice little moment on stage – lots of high fives, hugs and a little bit of bump and grind.
I retrospect however – what were the Loeries people thinking – that the force of ‘creativity’ will magically chop one bird in two with either party happily taking half of it home? King James Group Creative Director Alistair King was prompted to tweet “So they lumped Santam ‘Sir Sneaky’ and ‘Back at ya’ together and gave out one award. So. Fucked. Up. And stupid. #loeries2012”
At least you landed Justin Gomes Alistair (professionally speaking of course). Well for 30 seconds you did, until Gomes, who was presenting an award and was announced as from King James, used the mike to quickly confirm he was still ECD at FoxP2, much one assumes to the relief of Charl Thom.
The biggest winner of the night was Ogilvy Cape Town’s ‘Be the coach‘ campaign for Carling Black Label. I counted six golds and the Grand Prix. It was absolutely deserved and a brilliant example of an integrated campaign which brought together digital, mobile, TV, print, sponsorship, PR and eventing. Cry your heart out Trillion Dollars. And for a paying client nogal.
New kid on the block Machine must be pretty happy with its haul of eight trophies and certificates for Marmite and Habari Media. Joe Public’s newly launched brand and design studio, Shift, meanwhile surprised with a Grand Prix and a Craft Certificate (Design Crafts).
The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town did inspiring work with its installation for Skip (yes a washing powder!) for which it landed a gold. MetropolitanRepublic impressed with its truly innovative Braille Burgers campaign for Wimpy. DDB, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg, Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi were all present in the print category while FOXP2, Net#Work BBDO, Joe Public and 140 BBDO dominated radio.
In TV and cinematography Ogilvy Cape Town and Jozi both, Black River FC, King James, MetropolitanRepublic, 140 BBDO, Velocity and Egg Films all took gold. The powerful Lowe Bull Cape Town (now Lowe + Partners) ad for the Organ Donor Fund took silver, but frankly, it was the only one to choke me up. Ok that and maybe ‘Dog’ (MetropolitanRepublic for FNB) which did win a gold.
MK is… by Ogilvy Johannesburg, which dominated the Pendoring Awards on Friday night, looked like it might be skipped over by the Loerie judges on Saturday evening when all it managed to land was a silver, but it did land a Campaign Gold on Sunday.
A Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to John Hunt, Worldwide Creative Director at TBWA\ Worldwide and Robbie Brozin of Nando’s was honoured with the Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award.
* Hermaneutics is a column by MarkLives.com editor Herman Manson. It indicates as much opinion as reporting.
* Pics: The Loeries
MarkLives.com picks its favourite campaigns from the 2012 Loerie crop.
1. South African Breweries – Carling Black Label ‘Be the Coach’
Ogilvy Cape Town
Grand Prix: Integrated Campaign
Gold: Branded Mobile Content & Applications
Campaign Gold: Digital Mixed-Media Campaign
Campaign Gold: Sponsorship
Campaign Gold: Media Innovation – Media Campaign
Gold Branded Mobile Content & Applications
Campaign Gold Digital Mixed-Media Campaign
2. Nandos – The Last Dictator Standing
Black River FC
Grand Prix: TV & Cinema Commercials – up to 90s (Black River FC)
Craft Certificate: TV Crafts up to 90s – Direction (Bouffant)
Craft Certificate: “TV Crafts up to 90s –
Best Use of Licensed Music” (Black River FC)
3. Wimpy – Braille Burger
MetropolitanRepublic
Gold – Direct Mail – Dimensional Mail
Bronze – Microsite
Silver – Media Innovation – Single Medium
4. Marmite Sandwich Spread – Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark AND Blogger drop Machine (Big Wednesday)
Blogger drop
Silver Brand Identity & Collateral Design – Direct & Promotional Mail
Craft Certificate Design Crafts – Illustration
Silver Direct Mail – Dimensional Mail
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Campaign Gold Posters
5. Instituto Criança Nosso Futuro – False Promises
DDB Mozambique
Campaign Gold Africa & Middle East: Print & Outdoor Communication
MarkLives.com picked the two creepiest ads awarded at the Loeries this year.
1. Fox International Channels, TOP TV: Life goes on. Again.
Agency: Ireland/Davenport
Loerie: Campaign Silver TV Trailers, Channel & Station Promos
WARNING: VIOLENT VIDEO NOT SUITED FOR MINORS.
2. VW Polo GTI: Date Drive
Agency: Ogilvy Cape Town
Campaign Bronze PR Communication Campaign
Silver Microsite
Campaign Silver Digital Mixed-Media Campaign
South Africans could apply for date drives in the new Polo GTI. It would help them impress a hot date ‘and improve their chance of scoring.’ Participants filled in pre- and post- ‘drive’ questionnaires.
“Hidden heart-rate monitors on each driver tracked their excitement levels on the website, in real-time. A customised Android phone app mapped their smallest movements on our site, live. The app also let drivers send secret updates from their dates to our site and twitter feed, for all to read. In 4 weeks, the site received 112 402 visits from 32 528 unique visitors. 93.98% of visitors returned to view the content more than once and 17.27% returned more than 26 times.”
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Havas is rebranding its Euro RSCG network, including its agency in South Africa, as Havas Worldwide.
The Havas group will now operate under two primary brands, Havas Media for its global media agencies, and Havas Creative for its communications agencies.
The 316 Euro RSCG offices are all renamed Havas Worldwide. Euro RSCG South Africa will now become Havas Worldwide Johannesburg, Euro RSCG 4D South Africa will become Havas Worldwide Digital Johannesburg and Euro RSCG Worldwide PR becomes Havas PR.
Lynn Madaley, CEO, Havas Worldwide Southern Africa, says the name change send a signal to the market of just how different the network has become. Madaley says Havas Worldwide places digital at the core of its offering and follows a collaborative approach which puts all the discipline heads together and talking to one another as well forming a true partnership with clients and their various agencies.
Madaley says the network rebrand has allowed staff and management to refocus and understand what the group aims to achieve in terms of its digital centric strategy. It means building a network that is transparent, authentic and fast in an age where people have easy access to information and speed has become an essential business requirement.
Havas Worldwide South Africa saw profit growth of 47% last year and has spent much of this year consolidating the business, says Madaley. It currently employs 74 people – most of them in Johannesburg.
In its 2012 First Half Results Havas reported revenue growth of 8.4%, a 9.4% increase in income from operations and a 20% increase in net earnings per share. Net New Business strengthened to €1,266 million in H1 2012 versus €940 million for H1 2011.
Havas Worldwide Johannesburg clients include Citroën, Peugeot, Revlon, Netcare and Liberty.
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.
