Independent industry news for marketing, advertising & media execs
The design and publishing agency, The President, has collaborated with Berlin-based design agency, onlab, on the Intersections pages for the July/August issue of the Italian architecture and design magazine, Domus.
Nicolas Bourquin, Managing and Creative Director at onlab, approached The President to design the cover and four illustrations for the Intersections pages of the Africa issue. The style of the illustrations by Hannes Bernard were inspired by Dutch wax fabric designs.
A story about a little boy’s first kiss and his willingness to share what he has been given with the World.
Product/Service: OLF
Title: The Kiss
Country of broadcast: Norway
Production Company: Velocity Films
Production Company City: Cape Town
Director: Keith Rose
Producer: Toni Marais
Agency: Kitchen Reklamebyra
Art director: Anne Granvingen
Copywriter: Bendik Romstad
Agency Producer: Caroline Werring Otnes
Account executive: Ellen Hilleren
Euro RSCG South Africa has turned the fictional wooden puppet who dreamt of becoming a real boy into a fashion model, for a creative campaign launching a new range of fragrances for Mr Min Furniture Polish. The campaign takes inspiration from cologne advertising. Mr Min Natural Essences is positioned as “the new fragrance for wood”, in a line reminiscent of a fragrance ad. In addition to the print ad, Euro RSCG also created an in-store display that brought the fragrance counter to shoppers. It designed a wooden ‘perfume stand’ displaying the four variants of Mr Min Natural Essences, complete with wooden test strips.
Creative director: James Daniels
Art director: Laura May Vale
Copywriter: Justin Wanliss
Illustrator: Clive
* It’s so romantic
THE RECIPE: Take whatever disparate journalists you can lure, stuff them into a plane. Fly them down to East London. Take them on tour. Feed them. Encourage them to drink. Throw free goodies at them. And hope like hell they give you good coverage for the new logo you’re unveiling. Story by Mandy de Waal.
I’m standing in line with a gaggle of other journalists waiting to pick up my gift – a Slazenger wind breaker – when I think of the ‘red envelope’ practice in China. I hear from a friend of mine who does PR for an international marketing agency that there are very distinct ways of handling media relations in the People’s Republic.
If you are planning a media tour, a press conference or want to meet a member of the Chinese press then it is expected that you hand them a ‘red envelope’. Said envelope contains cash that ostensibly is for the journalist’s travel costs, but is essentially a bribe. If you don’t offer the ‘red envelope’ then don’t expect coverage or to see that member of the media again. However if the envelope is discreetly included in the media kit, you are damn sure guaranteed coverage.
Not that the Eastern Cape Tourism Board and their public relations agency, Hip-Hop Media, were doing anything wrong. Spending R1 million to launch a new logo is fair practice in the tourism industry which relies heavily on credible editorial coverage and a strong online media foot print. Plying the media with gifts is also pretty much standard practice.
What made me feel ‘dirty’ was the continual reference the management of the Eastern Cape Tourism Board (ECTB) and their PR agency made to “getting good coverage”. It wasn’t innuendo. Or a hint. Or a suggestion. The ECTB and Hip-Hop Media demanded good coverage. They stated on several occasions that since the media had been transported, toured, wined, dined and given the ‘red envelope’ (plied with free gifts) anything less than great coverage could be considered traitorous.
Sitting in a freezing, drafty tent after being frog marched to a press briefing at 22h30 following an evening of insane drumming and appalling industrial theatre studded with poor sex jokes and sad caricatures, I started thinking about brand experience. How if you’re launching a new brand the best way to do it is to ensure the media you want to champion that brand have a brilliant experience.
To my mind this means spending that R1m really well. How about forgoing the ‘red envelopes’ and throwing old school PR out the window? Packing away the drafty marquees in the middle of winter, retiring the odious speeches, the predictable three course meal and open bar. I would suggest taking the media on a real adventure and letting your province sell itself. Then for goodness sake pay attention to detail and ensure every part of the experience speaks to your brand promise of friendliness in what is an “adventure province”.
This point was driven home when booking into our accommodation after the late night media briefing, when cold and hungry there were about 15 members of the media desperate to flop into bed. We received the cold shoulder from the person at reception who was obviously put out at having to wait up. When I advised the management the next morning that this was ill considered, the management simply shrugged off the complaint.
2010 is just around the corner. Let’s hope we get a whole lot more professional in the next couple of months before those good folk from CNN, The New Yorker, The Guardian or BBC head to our shores.
Mandy de Waal is an Associate Editor at MarkLives.com
MarkLives invited EC Tourism and its PR agency to respond to the story in writing. Only EC Tourism responded.
From: Veliswa Mhlapo
Sent: 20 July 2009 14:58
Subject: RE: Response required : ECTB story
Dear Mandy,
My sincerest apologies for not adhering to your 8am deadline. I have been to (and still am actually) trying comprehend if you really had such a terrible time in the Eastern Cape that you had to title your piece “media junket from hell” and write so negatively about the event. Unfortunately, that experience was completely the opposite to what most of the other journalists experienced.
Thank you for drawing our attention to the aspects of the launch that you did not enjoy. We will indeed pay attention to these aspects as we gear up for 2010 FIFA World Cup.
It is always very useful to get feedback as we continuously strive to improve our service in the province. The fact that you went to bed ‘cold and hungry’ saddens me- especially because we ‘wined and dined’ you and made a concerted effort to ensure that none of our guests went cold and hungry.
Regards,
VELISWA MHLAPO
Communications/PR
EC Tourism
Following on news that Old Mutual is out to pitch we received the following statement from Ogilvy Cape Town which has held the account these past 22 years:
“Old Mutual, Ogilvy Cape Town’s and Ogilvy Johannesburg’s financial services client have decided to put their creative business out to pitch later this year and the Ogilvy Group SA decided that neither Ogilvy Cape Town nor Ogilvy Johannesburg (who share the account) would participate.”
Old Mutual sent us the following statement;
In recent years, Old Mutual South Africa (OMSA) has begun re-positioning itself as the leading investment and savings champion in South Africa, which signals a significant change from long-standing perceptions of the company as a traditional life assurer.
In line with OMSA’s forward-looking business strategy, the company wishes to continue building its brand and strengthening its footprint in South Africa in an effort to become more relevant to a larger customer segment.
Old Mutual sees it as an opportune time to open up room for new ideas in its above-the-line advertising, by inviting selected agencies to engage with the company in a bidding process for its advertising account. We are currently in this bidding process.
OMSA has therefore given three months notice to Ogilvy as required by the current contract in force.
‘We are very grateful to Ogilvy for their incredible support in building our strong Old Mutual brand over the past 22 years. They have demonstrated a solid understanding of our business and we have extended an invitation to them to participate in the pitching process for the new contract,’ says Stephen Cahill, Old Mutual Marketing Executive.
Festival goers at the recent Innibos festival in Nelspruit had a first look at The Flying Germ Show, ‘a major theatrical production extolling the benefits of using the household cleaning product Domestos,’ sponsored by you guessed who. The show will also hit the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Durban as holiday entertainment from July 9-19 with free shows daily. The cast includes Isidingo star Emmanuel Castis, former Idols finalist Bianca Le Grange and comedian Alan Committie.
Agency: Ogilvy Action
Old Mutual is out to pitch in early August. Net#work BBDO, DDB, Lowes and FCB all pitching. Ogilvy CT must be holding its breath.
This new TV ad for Plascon was created by King James. You would never say this was an ad for a paint brand.
GROUP EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ALISTAIR KING
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: DEVIN KENNEDY
ART DIRECTOR: DAMIAN BONSE
AGENCY PRODUCER: CAZ FRIEDMAN
DIRECTOR: ADRIAN DE SA GARCES
PRODUCTION CO & CITY: VELOCITY CAPE TOWN
PRODUCER: KAREN KLOPPERS
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER TISCHHAUSER
POST PRODUCTION CO & CITY: CONDOR CAPE
The latest direct mailer which is being used to engage international and local music artists and corporate sponsors to Joe Public’s Rock4Aids charity. Rock4Aids is an annual benefit concert raising funds for the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The latest ad that by The Jupiter Drawing Room for the Woolworths re_jeans brand. It is a new direction for the brand as it aims to become more fashion-forward and edgy.
Creative: Fred Benistant, Ruth de Vantier Chowles, Waseema Sukhadia, Katia Beeden & Caryn Brits
Egg Films: Kevin Fitzgerald & Jon Ronbeck
Upstairs Post: Greg & Michelle Barrows
Music: Fort Knox (Shawn Duvet and softserve remix) by GoldFish (published by universal written by David Poole and Dominic Peters) Featuring Sakhile Moleshe on vocals