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The Gate Keeper (Chapter 1: In which help is secured)

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…

Mama E takes the helm at the TBWSJWBN executive offices and realises that not all is well. Nonetheless, she does her best to reassure a nearly naked – and now jobless – young graphic designer.

Chapter 1
In which help is secured

They started calling her Mama E as she arrived. Technically it was a play on her surname, but really everyone knew that this particular spirit did not reside within a delicate frame. She was, obviously, the Mother Elephant.

In her younger years she would have taken offence, but she’d been through most of it before and besides, she was as aware as everyone else that she had been hired precisely for her elephantine, post menopausal powers.

There was, she liked to say, ‘nothing I haven’t seen’. In quieter, more hushed tones she would let them all know that she had been through the line, over it and under it, around it, all her adult life. Mama E was particularly proud of the fact that she really did know viral from experiential from advertorial from PR – digital, social and otherwise.

She was also proud that they had called her at all – personal assistant to the executive office at TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande was no small gig.

Ok, yes, she would admit to those who cared to ask that it felt a little odd at her age and girth to be pulled back into the muck, but they called and she answered and, well sometimes life is just like that. Now she kept the gate. She set His agenda and vetted His emails and answered His calls and bought flowers for His wife and that little bit he’d been snipping in the downstairs ladies every couple of mornings.

And that’s probably all you need to know. She was almost 70 years old. They called her Mama E. She could smell the BS before the pot was even on the stove.

Oh, and she was prone to keeping a little memoir. A small jotting down of the thoughts and observances of one shooting through the media pipe a second time.

Dear Diary

I haven’t had as much time as I though to create this. Mothering this little pack of monkeys is more time consuming than I thought. I’ve been here two weeks and we’ve already had a jealous lover’s rage, an emergency rehab booking, three client showdowns and God knows how many calls from the wife, who is as aware of His dalliances as she is artificially boosted in the chest.

Nonetheless, I will do my best to document my experiences, as and when I can. If there’s one thing old age has taught me it’s that we never know the good stuff, the important stuff, at the time. We think it’s just stuff. It’s only years later, decades even, that we look back and think, damn, that was good stuff.

Like this morning, for example. Some government guy called asking for a brand audit and re-fresh for the SANRAL pot hole division, for God’s sakes, as if their problems are in anyway related to communication. They fill holes in the ground. Still, I understand. I booked a full Friday strat session at one of those golf lodges and sent the invoice.

Then, just after, a nearly naked little girl started sobbing on my shoulder. She literally fell to her knees and snotted violently on my skirt trying to get an audience with Him. Apparently they’re cutting viral back by three quarters (and really, who can blame them? Everyone knows there’s just no such thing any more. Chest colds aside, the mystery is gone), and she is one of the poor little lambs who will be forced to discover what actual work is again.

I did my best to placate her. I told her that every change is an opportunity, that freelance has always been the way and that real talent inevitably wins out. As far as I could tell she’s a graphic designer, so, to be honest, I really was choking back the tears. It can get quite emotional, this stuff. The thought of that pathetic little thing ending up at Post Net, well, shame. She’ll catch the death of cold.

Part 2: June 13th.
Author: Andrew Miller Illustrator: Lebohang Goge

The pragmatic Andrea Mitchell

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Andrea Mitchell is one of the original stalwarts of South Africa’s internet economy having been involved in the online advertising and publishing industry since shortly after the commercial web launched in South Africa.

When Mitchell picked up and moved down to Cape Town in the mid-1990’s, kids in tow, she landed a job at Media Direction as a media planner. Knowing not very much of media planning, and this, according to her at least, is putting it kindly, she spent quite a bit of time surfing the Net. It was 1996 and South Africa was still connecting via dial-up. The commercial internet was only a couple of years old and nobody really knew where it was gonna go.

Caught out at work, and with a boss intrigued about the possibilities online publishing held for media planners, Mitchell launched into the world of online media planning, just as the profession was born.

She moved to Media Africa, one of the first South African consumer publishing online content pure-plays, ran by Arthur Goldstuck, Cathy Stadler and a much younger version of me, where she worked on Gadget, media.toolbox (a forerunner to MarkLives), iStrategy and a range of titles published by that company.

After Internet Media, her first business focussed on selling online advertising, had closed down, she became the Media Director at Acceleration, a position she left after two years to launch an independent strategy house, which then promptly got co-opted into 34 degrees South, a new agency she co-founded with Andy Sutcliffe.

Eighteen months in the partnership dissolved amicably when the team realised their business was ahead of the market, with little integration between the digital and below-the-line clients. Sutcliffe would continue with the BTL clients at 34 (which has since expanded its digital division) while Mitchell took her digital clients to a new business called Digivox.

The name and company got registered while she was taking a break in Natal. She also finalised the logo design before she even got back from her holiday. When Mitchell makes up her mind she doesn’t sit around waiting.

Of course, that is required of most entrepreneurs, and something they have to let go of once their business passes a certain growth point, as Mitchell freely acknowledges. At Digivox she is focussing on running the business and giving her staff the space they need to do the job. Not easy, she admits, but not negotiable either.

Digivox the start-up got a desk in the offices of Total Media, a PR firm, and Mitchell moved in on Jan 2, 2008. March last year saw the agency and its team of ten moved into its own offices at Black River Park. The agency offers services in display and search advertising, social media, and design and development.

Holding onto skill is a major issue for any smaller agency, especially when Mitchell’s trainees are in considerable demand, and when Mitchell doesn’t hold any interest in playing in the size leagues. Mitchell is keen to focus on more education and training to help address the shortage of skills in the industry.

She would much rather run a smaller outfit that builds its reputation on excellence. The company has had five offers to purchase, the first barely six months into her starting it, but she has declined every last one, preferring the flexibility and quick decision making processes anybody with an entrepreneurial spirit craves.

Mitchell is proud of the Bookmarks the agency has won – especially the Gold they took in the search category. She expects billings to double in the next year.

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Liezl-Mari van Rensburg new ECD at 60 layers of cake

– Ex Joe Public and TBWA\ Hunt Lascaris CT creative director joins agency
– Agency involved in management buy-out from Dutch partners

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Liezl-Mari van Rensburg has joined 60 layers of cake as new Executive Creative Director (ECD) and will also become a partner in the business. Van Rensburg is best known for her work at Joe Public, where she served as Creative Director (CD) at Joe Public Cape Town between 2004-2006 and then as CD and a member of its board after the merger of the Cape Town and Joburg offices between 2006 and 2008.

Since 2009 and up to the end of 2011 van Rensburg had been CD and co-manager at TBWA\ Hunt Lascaris CT, where she assisted in restructuring the internal day-to-day operations of the agency, and where she worked on the successful Unite Mzansi Unite campaign for adidas during the 2010 World Cup.

She joins the agency co-founded by Ben Wren and Michael van den Heerik in 2010. 60 layers of cake has grown to just under 20 people and recently launched a Social Media team which has already won the worldwide social media community management for Heineken International Ideas Brewery as well as the European rollout for sportswear brand Under Armour.

Wren and van Heerik had been looking for a creative partner to compliment their strengths in operations and production. The search had been ongoing as the agency sought out a proper partner and stakeholder whose thinking extended beyond ATL.

Van Rensburg has been tasked with building up the creative team at 60 layers and to produce work that responds to client needs but also raise the agencies creative credentials in the industry.

“I understand 60 have a different approach to the media landscape that focuses on sustainable, innovative thinking,” says van Rensburg. “I wanted to move from a traditional agency setup to working with a broader range of people, to collaborate more and better, because I believe ideas are the currency of the future.”

Van Rensburg promises a more realistic approach to marketing that adds meaning and not just push false needs onto clients.

Van Rensburg, who together with her team at Joe Public was responsible for the strategic repositioning of amongst others Clover (110% love), Clover Cream (Add love to the moment), eBucks (The Reward of Choice) and Tracker (Taking Back Tomorrow), argues that great ideas can no longer be developed in isolation. Clients need to be involved in the campaign process from campaign conception through to execution.

The entrepreneurial nature of 60 layers also appealed to her and she looks forward to the flexibility and hands on approach such a culture entails. A passion for creative work that also makes a difference on the part of van Rensburg has resulted in the launch of a CSI offering at 60 layers.

Collaboration is a word 60 layers brought to the local market in terms of agency positioning and it has quickly been taken up by many of its rivals. Wren agrees it’s become overused but argues few agencies really understand or are willing to implement collaborative strategies.

So his agency recently refused to participate in a pitch after only being granted a 30 minute interview and one page on the business. “We need to properly understand a business and evolve in partnership with clients,” says Wren. The agency is now on the two agency shortlist in spite of not participating in the pitch process as originally structured. The point, says Wren, is that there is a lot of talk about a collaborative approach to work but little implementation.

Similarly the agency had been approached to pitch for the redevelopment of the CI of Herold Gie Attorneys. Wren again declined to pitch on the brief provided, instead using the interview to argue for a redesign of the board room and reception area of the company offices, which had a dated feel, only to be told that the firm had indeed identified this as a problem area, and that he had been the only person to put this on the table as an issue to be addressed if it wanted to change its business image.

60 layers is working on the CI, is redesigning the reception area, as well as introducing the firm to social media and the Internet. From a firm perceived as extremely traditional the agency is helping it modernise its image and fundamentally transforming its business.

The agency recently bought back the shares held by its network partner in Amsterdam. While it remains part of the network all shares now reside in South Africa. The move allows it to collaborate with other international agencies in future.

Visit 60 layers of cake

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MarkLives gets gutsy

Nearly four years in and MarkLives is finally ready for the big time. Our readership has grown steadily over this time to a point where the site has become economically sustainable.

This allows us to introduce commercial partners onto the site, which in turn allows us to radically expand our editorial footprint, as well as speeding up reinvestment in our offering. You can look forward to a journalism-driven platform for industry news, opinion, analysis, case studies, profiles and marketing innovations. We intend to be the home of breaking news, sharp analysis and marketing news you’ll make time for.

With print in decline and media owners increasingly averse to investing in good quality content a huge gap has opened up in the market which is one MarkLives intends to fill. You already know us for presenting a fresh, independent and investigative view of southern Africa’s changing communication landscape and we promise to deliver more of that and then some.

We will be publishing a feature a day, every weekday, with stories originating both in Cape Town and in Johannesburg through a newly established network of professional journalists. Look forward to a weekly industry serial that plays out at the fictional agency TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande which is so good we doubled its original budget. Wednesdays just became something to look forward to!

The site design and back-end have been undergoing a slower transformation. The past two weeks have seen many subtle changes to the site which we believe will contribute to a slicker looking, easy to navigate, user friendly reading experience.

We have also introduced a Company News Office feature to the site. We have always had requests to run company press releases but have not been able to separate them out from the editorial content so we consistently declined. Some custom work on our CMS means we can now provide this as a commercial service while keeping a strict barrier between editorial and paid for content (in the form of press releases).

Finally – a round of applause please for our first eight sponsors – M&C Saatchi Abel, Lowe + Partners SA, FoxP2, Saatchi & Saatchi, Quirk, Machine, Prezence Digital and OFyt. Their support means our sponsorship slots are 80% sold out through to May 2013.

There will be more interesting roll-outs and collaborations launching through the rest of the year.

Finally, we promise only the good stuff, none of the bumf! Keep us on our toes. And stay up to date with our weekly mailer. Subscribe here. It’s free!

Herman Manson
Editor – MarkLives.com

Magazine covers we love (Mr Pistorius, geeks and Idols)

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 MediaSlutZA.

INTERNATIONAL

FT Weekend Magazine, 26 May 2012

The FT Weekend Magazine covers are definitely on my radar with their last 2 covers falling in my favourites list. This week the one South African sport star everybody is talking about, Oscar Pistorius, does the Greek God thing on the cover. This black & white picture has centrefold-potential and the striking coverlines in simple colours compliments it nicely. Inside this issue there’s also a very in-depth must read article for every Oscar-fan.

WIRED, June 2012

What a cute main coverline and cover image that just all work together. But not just that, the way the Creative Director played around with the WIRED logo and duct tape is pretty ingenious and very smart and unique. On CoverJunkie they went a step further and also published the original drawing the Creative Director did to show his idea for the cover-concept. It’s a must-see for any Art Director or person interested in design.

LOCAL

Playboy South Africa, June 2012

Stepping out of their comfort zone and NOT using a half-naked model on the cover must have been a long and hard decision for the Playboy SA team, but I think they pulled it off with this 007-conceptual cover. The cover might be a bit dark, and I’m hoping that they’ve added some kind of finish to the actual cover that’s not showing on screen, to make it stand out more.

Rolling Stone South Africa, June 2012

This is definitely one of my favourite Rolling Stone South Africa covers. It has a strong concept, message and the cover stars should be well-known to most of the general public, which should hopefully mean an increase in sales after their last set of ABC-results (the paid for stats was rather disappointing). It’s styled perfectly, is well-executed and perfectly timed for the 8th season of Idols starting on Sunday. I just love it when TV and print work this well together.

NewsNow, 31 May 2012

I’m not going to explain the reference to President Jacob Zuma and “The Spear” in the cover because I’m pretty sure that even Queen Elizabeth is completely up to date with all the trials and tribulations of this saga…

But I’ll give NewsNow the credit that they had a perfectly timed cover (even though they are also jumping on the band-wagon), but most importantly, they did it with a twist, and a successful twist at that. They also produced a little video to incorporate the ‘defacing of the painting’ (which happened after they’ve gone to print).

– The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlutZA 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 MediaSlutZA. #MagazinesForTheWin

– Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us @marklives and @mediaslutza
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City Press takes i magazine national

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The glossy Sunday read launched by City Press in October 2011, i, will be distributed nationally from this Sunday (June 3). The magazine was previously only distributed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal – two key growth markets for the paper.

i magazine is published for City Press by content marketing firm New Media, which also holds the contract for My Tyd, the Sunday glossy distributed by Rapport.

According to New Media’s business development director, Andrew Nunneley, the intention had always been to eventually distribute i nationally. However, initially it proved prohibitively expensive, but with increasing advertiser buy-in the magazine is now more sustainable and national distribution has become viable.

It will also be an easier sell and make it easier to attract big brands with a national distribution. City Press is still investing in the title which is produced as a 32 pager and averages around 14 pages of advertising a week. The magazine is already being used by large jewellery and fragrance brands which compliments to title – launched after research showed City Press readers wanted a more aspirational lifestyle element to their Sunday reading experience.

The print run is doubling from 115 000 to 230 000. There will be slight rate increase from roughly R50 000 for a full page ad to R57 000.

The content has continued to evolve and will now feature a broader geographic split making it accessible to a wider variety of people.

Nunneley says the move validates the work that has gone into the magazine which aimed to copy the success of the UK newspaper markets’ high-end Sunday magazine reads.

Nunnely says i magazine and My Tyd, produced for Rapport, now has a footprint of 550 000 copies between then, making it attractive to national advertisers, and for which package rates are available.

City Press saw circulation increases of 15,64% year-on-year and 9.5% against the previous quarter to 163 705 the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for the first quarter of 2012 show.

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Cloud computing needs new image

by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Cloud computing has the potential to save time, money and energy for businesses large and small, but new research shows it remains a source of doubt and even fear.

Cloud computing is going to save us all. If you’re talking about time, money and the hassles of technology, that is. “The Cloud”, as techies know it, is simply a convenient way of describing any computer programme that is stored somewhere on the Internet but accessed from a computer, tablet or phone, and used while you are connected to the Internet.

Online banking is, in effect, Cloud banking. Web-based e-mail like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are alll examples of Cloud e-mail. Many of us are using Cloud computing all the time. It’s just that the servides we use are seldom described as being in the Cloud.

In the past year, that has started to change, as four of the world’s major technology brands have released their versions of Cloud storage. Microsoft Skydrive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Amazon Cloud Drive now compete with a host of hosters of your content, ranging from free to large corporate pricetags.

But then come the vendors. Hardware and software developers, distributors and resellers are all trying to sell businesses on the benefits of the Cloud. These are fairly obvious, and range from reduced costs to improved efficiencies. If you don’t have to worry about the capabilities of your computer when using new software or a new service, a big chunk of your technology headache suddenly goes away. Along with a big chunk of cost.

The problem is that, simply because it is stored elsewhere, it is regarded as insecure. This is especially ironic, considering that most cloud solutions are more secure than the average PCs owned by an individual or a small business. But it goes further. Many organisations simply don’t understand the concept of the Cloud, due to industry terminology shrouding it in jargon.

The findings of the SME Survey 2012 research on Cloud computing, released this week by World Wide Worx, show that just 9% of small and medium enterprises in South Africa made use of the Cloud at the end of 2011. And that will rise to only 18% in 2012.

This should come as no surprise, though, as the SME sector tends to follow in the wake of technology adoption among corporations. Around half of all corporates in SA are still not making use of the cloud.

Ironically, the reason more are not doing so are almost exactly the same reasons as for SMEs: traditonal fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Yet, businesses large and small could benefit both from driving down the operational and capital costs of IT, and from obtaining richer functionality and better business flexibility. But no one has told them that in words they can understand.

Now the industry is changing tack.

This week, a senior Microsoft expert on the topic came to town to show not what could be done, but what is already being done to make the benefits of Cloud a reality for companies.

“If you go back 15 years, the big buzzword among business people was the Internet,” explains Edwin Yuen, a Director of Cloud and Virtualisation Strategy at Microsoft. “But the hype was around the concept and having an ‘Internet strategy’ rather than about what they were going to do and how. Today we see the same for the Cloud.”

Yuen presided over the launch of a software platform called System Centre 2012, designed to give corporations a framework for managing data centres and Cloud applications, rather than dictating a specific solution.

“But we’re not talking about it as Cloud,” he says.”Instead, we’re showing how to use it. The Cloud means you can double the number of people that can use your system, without having to double the support. That makes you more productive and able to focus on business needs rather than on managing the system.

And that, says Yuen, is no longer the visionary concept that most businesses still think it is.

“It’s here, and it’s now.”

* Arthur Goldstuck heads up World Wide Worx (www.worldwideworx.com) and is editor-in-chief of Gadget. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. Reprinted from Gadget.

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LinkedIn in Africa – the numbers

LinkedIn, the fast growing business-oriented social networking site, has seen a noticeable lift-off in African markets as business professionals adapt to social media. Couple to this anecdotal evidence that users of social services like Facebook are trying to shift business contacts and bosses from the rather informal ‘social’ social network to something that’s more professional and offers just a little bit of extra distance. The economy also helps of course as people look for tools that might connect them to jobs. All this makes sense of the LinkedIn surge. Globally the network is signing up around 2 new members every second.

Habari Media, the sales partner for LinkedIn in Africa, is experiencing an increase in commercial interest in the site as well.

Currently LinkedIn has 161 Million members worldwide of which 1.9 million are in South Africa. The tally for members from Africa comes to more than 5.89 million.

Other significant markets in terms of the number of users includes Nigeria (672 610 registered users), Egypt (556 335), Kenya (407 827), Morocco (362 683), Algeria (294 345) and Ghana (232 807).

By industry 7 974 South African LinkedIn members are farmers, 36 134 are in ‘arts’ (12300 of them in design), 61 000 are in construction, 74 012 are educators, 176 347 are in finance, 46 286 work in government, 154 258 work in IT, 24 000 are lawyers, 139 211 are in manufacturing and 77 578 are in the consumer goods segment. Then there is over 40 000 media professionals, 59 000 work in the medical sector, 26 000 work for non-profits, 77 000 in recreational (entertainment, casinos, hospitality etc), 38 000 in transport and 25 000 in the service industry.

Falling under the ‘Corporate’ heading are 107 000 South African LinkeIn members, including 29 900 in marketing and advertising, more than 5000 in PR and 19 000 in management consulting.

The gender breakdown for LinkedIn members in South Africa stands at around 55.6% male and 44.4% female.

For Q1 2012 LinkeIn announced 101 percent revenue growth year on year to $188.5 million. Hiring Solutions revenue was $102.6 million while advertising brought in $48.0 million. Premium Subscriptions revenues ended the quarter at $37.9 million.

Source: All LinkedIn data, including those we used in the graphs and charts, were sourced from Habari Media. Financial information was sourced from LinkedIn.

Back to human (relationships change – will marketing?)

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Nicky Steel is pondering the evolution of human relationships and wondering why marketing hasn’t evolved alongside everybody else’s wants and needs. The traditional marketing funnel is still used by many marketers in building “relationships” with people. It’s a dated approach that is threatening their seat at the executive table according to Steel.

Instead they need to be focussing on becoming consumer champions within their organisations pulling together all the various touch points.

Steel is the COO of Yellowwood – a brand and marketing strategy consultancy founded by Andy Rice that is also part of the TBWA\Worldwide Group.

MarkLives: Human relationships have evolved – and you are saying marketing haven’t kept track with how we engage and relate. What happened?

Nicky Steel: Yes, consumers have evolved significantly in how they conduct their relationships, from the early 18th Century where marriages were arranged by family members and the couple involved had no say or choice, to the early 19th century with very formal courtship and marrying for life, to today when they are less committal, keen to trial things before committing, wanting things their way and always re-evaluating.

But as marketers we haven’t echoed this evolution in how we establish, build and grow relationships with consumers. If one looks at the “purchase funnel” that many marketers still use to map the relationships with consumers, we appear to be stuck in the days of courtship and marriage for life, assuming that if we give consumers enough reason to buy our brand they will choose it amongst their competitor set, progress to using the brand and on to life-long loyalty.

MarkLives: You argue that we need to rehumanise marketing if we are going to be building relationships with people. In practical terms how can this be done?

Steel: In today’s world where people can connect, filter, share, involve, all seamlessly and intuitively, the expectations people have of any real relationship are different and much more dynamic today than in the past.

We’ve been busy planning in annual cycles and then implementing something what was decided up to 12 months ago, whilst consumers want to have a conversation NOW about something that is relevant to them.

We need far greater agility in delivery. Yes we need to plan but we need to spend a greater percentage of our time in real-time conversations with consumers.

MarkLives: What are the key marketing assumptions and practices in place today that need to be challenged if marketers want to maintain their position at the executive decision making table?

Steel: Whereas previously marketers behaved like we had one thing on our minds – get me to buy – we need to rather show that we have a holistic view of what’s important to consumers and that we “get them”. They will then decide what to buy and in all likelihood it will be the brand that they connect with most strongly.

Rather than telling consumers what they want and being the maker of messaging, we need to listen and observe our consumer’s mood, mind and behaviours so that we can shape relationship moments by demonstrating empathy and understanding in what we do and say and being present at the tight time (rather than when the annual media plan says we will).

Instead of talking about ourselves all the time, we should pay a bit more attention to what we do and how we do it. Actions speak louder than words and consumers will pick these up.

We need to shift from rather predictable brand messaging to conversations and content that is interesting because we really understand our consumer and because we are constantly monitoring and analysing consumer-driven data.

MarkLives: Why aren’t marketers the consumer champions within organisations – surely this should be part of their core function if they are to be trusted to build relationships with people outside the organisation?

Steel: Other functions in the business have more information and potential insight into the consumer than Marketers, for example the IT department. They are therefore empowered to better represent and champion the consumer than marketers who are still caught in the cycle of internally driven planning and brand driven messaging.

Marketers need to get their hands on the real-time data that is being generated, listen to the conversations that are happening and translate this into real consumer understanding. This then needs to be shared within the organisation, enriching the business’ knowledge and empowering them to support the marketing team as the consumer champion – but ultimately every touch point that the organisation has with the consumer is the responsibility of the marketing department. These touch points are where the relationships will be built (or destroyed) and as marketers we need to be there.

MarkLives: Brands are increasingly content creators – what are the keys to creating engaging content?

Steel: 1. Find entertaining and engaging ways to get consumers’ attention: We are all aware that there is a huge amount of media content out there – with brands competing fiercely for the attention of consumers. The brands that are winning, find innovative ways to catch the consumer’s attention and engage with them in a positive manner for longer periods of time.

2. Frequently interact with consumers in a meaningful way: Brands that are winning today search for insight into what consumers are passionate about and demonstrate that they share those passions. They are constantly finding ways to interact with consumers to create stronger, more meaningful connections. These brands supply high interest, newsworthy, relevant content and facilitate meaningful conversations.

3. Invest in social network familiarity: Brands that find ways to facilitate closer connection between friends or other interest groups become part of those social circles and form bonds with consumers that are hard to break or replicate.

4. Value intimacy or closeness: We know that consumers are more likely to consider and be loyal to brands that they feel connected and close to. Leading brands are finding innovative ways to get physically and emotionally closer to consumers through their content and actions.

5. Disclose more of themselves: Leading brands have an open conversation with consumers. They are proud of their intentions and successes, but big enough to ask for help and input from consumers along the way and to be transparent about their shortcomings and faults.

6. Illustrate powerful insight into consumer goals: Leading brands win the game by being relevant in what they say, offer and do.

MarkLives: How are broader changes in the consumer and business environment impacting on how our industry is structured?

Steel: Structure is becoming irrelevant. Insight and relevant ideas and content are the key. He or she that has these is best placed to build a real relationship with the consumer.

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S’HOT: Quirky campaign for Comic Choice Awards

Team Quirk was asked to create a digital campaign for the Comic Choice Awards Sponsorship. The objective of the campaign was to drive brand awareness for Savanna as ‘the official drink of funny’.

Creative solution: Team Quirk thought it would be cool if we gave viewers the opportunity to ‘kill the comedian’ if they thought their joke sucked. This became ‘Dead Funny’. Featured comedians include Rob Van Vuuren, Martin Evans, Rustum August and “Mum-z” Mokoena.

Production process: Quirk filmed a series of well-known stand up comedians and, depending on whether their performance is “Liked” or “Lame”, created alternative, surprising and humorous responses – literally killing them off. These interactive YouTube video’s form part of a wider integrated digital campaign including social channels, rich media display advertising and email.