by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Melusi Tshabalala (@EverydayZulu), the country’s favourite isiZulu teacher, shares what he’s been working on, as well as a few thoughts on the (lack of) African languages in adland.
Q5: You launched the Everyday Zulu book last year. Where are you taking the project next? Melusi Tshabalala: The ultimate would be to do similar work, with different languages. I would obviously partner with writers [who] speak those languages. However, for now, the priority is getting more subscribers for the www.everydayzulu.co.za online learning portal. We are also developing intermediate and expert lessons.
Q5: How are things progressing at Studio 214 — what can we expect from the agency over the next 12 months? MT: The industry has been pretty rocky and we have not been immune. To try reposition ourselves, we have brought on board a new partner, who will also take over from me, as MD. She will steer the agency, going forward, and bring in a new energy and vision.
Q5: We’ve been hearing good things about your Ubudlelwano initiative — can you tell us more about that, and how people can get involved? MT: Ubudlelwano is the isiZulu word for relationship. It’s related to eating together/sharing food. Every first Saturday of the month, people from different walks of life get together, break bread, share drinks and talk about being South African and what we as normal citizens can do to take the country forward. The initiative is not politically aligned and anyone is welcome. I post each session’s details on my personal Facebook profile, on the Melusi’s Everyday Zulu Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin [accounts]. Those who are interested can also mail me on everydayzulu@studio214.org.
Q5: Here’s a hard one: how much talent and potential do you think goes undiscovered because the language(s) in which it is best expressed are underused in SA business? MT: I don’t think talent necessarily goes undiscovered, because the majority of South Africans speak and understand a lot of our languages. Look at industries, like music, where language is a major factor — the biggest artists record in African languages. The real gap and missed opportunity is in a corporate-control industry, such as advertising. Those who run and appoint ad agencies do not care much for African languages, whereas those languages mean a lot to the people they are trying to win over and sell to.
Q5: What can agencies and their clients do to better represent the linguistic diversity of our country? MT: If I were a marketer, I would definitely appoint agencies that have a deep love and understanding of African languages and the people who speak them. That way, I would know I am more likely to get ideas and solutions that resonate. That is what marketers must do.
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with a decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her new regular column “Q5” aims to hone in on strategic insights, analysis and data through punchy interviews with experts in media, marketing and design.
“We all have purpose, and I believe that each of us has an assignment we’re here to complete.”
by Kirsten Dewar.These are the wise words of Caster Semenya, the legendary South African middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist. This bold, unapologetic athlete has created a new gold standard for grace under fire. When I listen to and think about Semenya’s story, not only is it inspirational but it holds profound lessons for marketers about women and marketing — and about how complex identity is.
Semenya has borne the brunt of frequent and clumsy efforts by sports-governing bodies to develop gender divisions that are ‘fair’ to all athletes. Ever since she arrived on the scene over a decade ago, she’s been constantly subject to public scrutiny related to her gender. Her career is a reminder that, when people challenge perceived ideas about masculinity and femininity, their bodies may become public domain.
Caster’s response to all of this? “I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.”
Successful marketing to women
If you want to understand how to market to women successfully, take a look at how Nike has transformed. When it came to Semenya, Nike took the bold step of supporting the athlete’s struggle, by continuing the brand’s “Just Do It” and including her.
https://youtu.be/6UW-VgxlIZI
This glorious ad — which won a Bronze Glass Lion for Change in June 2019 — tells Semenya’s story, from her very first steps as a baby to the first time she crossed the finish line in an international race to win gold. The voiceover, her own, asks some uncomfortable questions:
“Would it be easier for you if I wasn’t so fast? Would it be simpler if I stopped winning? Would you be more comfortable if I was less proud? Would you prefer if I hadn’t worked so hard, or just didn’t run? Or chose a different sport? Or stopped at my first steps?”
The ad ends with a defiant statement from her: “That’s too bad because I was born to do this.”
I don’t know about you but this work fills me with courage, inspiration and joy. Because it is hopeful. Because it champions a human that I relate to and whom I admire.
Horrific stereotyping
But Nike hasn’t always made content that I admire. About twenty years, it created an ad that stereotyped women horribly. Take a look:
In a nutshell, the Nike/Sports ad is classic fear-based marketing. The ad follows a pretty standard horror-movie trope: a woman alone in a deserted house in the woods is attacked by a masked, chainsaw-wielding maniac. She screams and runs into the woods, followed by the killer. After much screaming and running, he staggers breathlessly to a halt as she escapes. The punch line reveals the intent of the ad: “Why sport? You’ll live longer.”
While the woman escapes and the killer is foiled (and the payoff line could be interpreted as light relief), the ad embraces fear as a tactic to sell. Without the context of a horror movie, this ad bombs spectacularly. The problem? Nike was attempting to poke fun at movie genre but, unfortunately, simply reinforced a stereotype of women as victims in an age where females ongoingly have to face the threat of sexual violence.
If you want to create good content for women, the first thing you need to realise is that gender is complex and that we live in a world where society is renegotiating social, economic, cultural, political and commercial boundaries. Times, thankfully, have changed, but there’s still a lot of marketing content that hasn’t kept up with the pace of this empowerment — despite there being numerous tools, policies and guides that we, as marketers, can engage to challenge stereotypes.
Great initiative
A great initiative comes from the Unstereotype Alliance which makes it easy for marketers worldwide to check for gendered stereotypes that may unintentionally work its way into content. Called the Unstereotype Metric, this tool is free for any brand or agency to use.
Remember, though, that the bottom line to great content is understanding, and understanding customers requires research. Before heading out with any content creation initiative, at the very least you need to understand your audience, and the contexts they live in, to achieve relevance and resonance. In this way, brands can engage instead of upsetting and alienating.
Nike has come a long way in the last 20 years. When I watch the Semenya ad, it inspires me as a mother and as a human. This is because hope lives at the heart of this campaign. A hope that one day we will all be accepted for who we are and how we choose to identify.
Kirsten Dewar started her career in data and research, before moving into technology, which took her to Platinum Seed; today, she is the managing director of the digital specialist company. She contributes the monthly MarkLives column, Always Learning, which aims to teach marketers more about digital marketing, from how to conquer Facebook’s algorithms to what LinkedIn’s new company pages mean for B2B brands.
by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) Earlier this year, there was a lot of discussion around the merits of the pitch process and even talk around the “death of the pitch”. Yet, with more than 80% of agency appointments being made by marketers and procurement via a pitch process according to data from AgencyScope, it seems highly unlikely that the pitch process is out of date or unnecessary.
Our own experience this year has even demonstrated the importance of the pitch, both for clients and agencies.
Ten reasons
So, here are 10 reasons why pitching will still be with us as an industry for some time to come:
Pitching is neither dead nor old-fashioned, as long as it is run professionally and respectfully to all involved — brands and agencies alike
There are many different types of pitches that may be used eg creative, strategic, with or without RFIs, workshops, deep dives, fireside chats and pitch safaris — the skill comes in employing the most-appropriate approach
Media pitches have to include due diligence across media pricing, quality, technology and transparency — these are the minimum requirements that brands should be looking for in their media-selection process.
Corporate governance is particularly important in publicly funded pitches, ie government and SOE pitches, where pitches have to take place as a matter of course and not because of any client dissatisfaction — as a result, these pitches are managed differently.
Some opportunities don’t require a full-on pitch, especially when the project is small-scale or pro bono — this means just meeting some agencies, looking at their work and making a decision
Anyone can run a pitch and appoint an agency but achieving a long-term successful relationship, proven to deliver better work and better outcomes, needs a level of skill from those running and participating in the pitch that is not always evident
It’s not always necessary for agencies to do a huge amount of work in a pitch, with the hope that, if they win, they’ll be paid; rather, they should work like some of the strategy consultancies do, who show what they have done for other brands and their methodology and approach — this would be enough for many brands to make a decision
Agencies will freely admit that pitching galvanises the agency in a way that cannot be replicated — long hours, teamwork and getting “match-fit” are part of an agency’s DNA and will often produce its best work
The best-run pitches are not always a guarantee of business success for the work for that brand — but they can provide a degree of reassurance at top level for a brand that will resonate in the C-suite
If you’re a chief marketing officer (CMO) about to embark on a pitch process, work out what it is you really want from an agency and then undertake the most-appropriate pitch programme that stands the best chance of delivering what you want; if you are an agency and you don’t want to participate in a pitch, then don’t — it is always your choice.
AAR Group may be credited for some of the content in this piece.
by Sabrina Forbes. For Mike Abel, M&C Saatchi Abel founding partner and chief executive, it’s been an amazing journey building the youngest large ad agency in the country with a diversified group of companies in such a short amount of time. M&C Saatchi Abel will turn 10 in February 2020 and currently employs over 200 people across its Johannesburg and Cape Town offices.
Mike Abel
Building a big agency quickly
“When I got back to South Africa, it was just me, Mike Abel. Nobody, nothing, no clients, no furniture, no agency. Bugger all,” he says, reminiscing on the time he returned to South Africa with plans to start his own after agency life in Australia (where he’d run the M&C Saatchi Group in Australia for 15 months, leading five agencies with 450 employees.)
Abel and his launch team of 12 key people together built the agency incredibly quickly. “I think that people don’t realise it’s a very, very seasoned team that are close friends, very cohesive, very tight, that run this company and have been in this industry for a long time. I have been in the industry for 29 years; I’ve seen most things,” he tells MarkLives, mentioning a story he enjoys of a woman who sees Picasso in a coffee shop, tells him how much she loves his work and requests he draw something on a napkin. The artist obliges and confirms his price at US$5m. Shocked, the woman says it only took him 10 seconds to which Picasso replies it took him 70 years.
Abel believes another reason for the agency’s rapid growth is because its orientation has always been consumer-focused, never brand-centric focused. He believes that, if you understand consumers, you know how to intersect the brand perfectly into their lives but, if you’re brand-centric, it’s very easy to lose the customer.
Nor does M&C Saatchi Abel ever try to contrive a purpose for a brand, as Abel believes that, when you get to that space, you take yourself down a road that might not authentic for the business. Although the industry is moving from a brand idea to the belief that every brand should have a brand ideal, he disagrees with that. “The reality is, not all brands should have or need an ideal because, if you’re a fruit juice or if you’re a snack, what’s wrong with being just that?Why do you need to have a higher purpose?” he says, believing it’s dangerous to suddenly say something is your purpose without having any evidence of it.
Growth story continues
M&C Saatchi Abel retained 100% of its clients in 2018 which, for Abel, is due to its tireless approach of building enduring relationships with clients. What he’s still most proud of is the Street Store concept, which is heading towards its 1000th event, and that to be a company that has created the world’s first rent-free, premises-free, pop-up clothing store for the homeless which has become a global movement is an amazing feeling.
The M&C Saatchi Abel growth story continues, too: Standard Bank awarded the agency in June 2019 with its through-the-line account.
Abel explains that he measures advertising in a very simple way by asking whether it is relevant, original, and impactful. For him, gone are the days of escapist advertising like Peter Stuyvesant used to employ; today, consumers will question what a bikini-clad jetskiing woman has to do with a toxic substance that gives you lung cancer. For him, that’s the empowering and terrifying part of social media because brands (and agencies) don’t own the conversation anymore. In the past, you could write a letter to the newspaper hoping it would be published; today, you can start a movement with a simple sentence.
“Great advertising is about making the strange familiar, and the familiar strange. And that’s what stands out, but most advertising you’ll see makes the familiar even more familiar. Yes, I know that about you and now you’re telling it to me again or I don’t know who you are and now you’ve confused me even further. If you watch a Cell C ad, it’s a spectacle. There’s a guy who suddenly finds himself on a private jet and then he’s paragliding and he lands on a boat with all of these rock stars and women. What the hell has that got to do with data or anything to do with your mobile phone? I think the days of buying into this fantastical lifestyle are over,” he says.
Business of business
According to Abel, he’s always been a businessman first and foremost, but one completely and deeply in love with advertising and ideas, rather than a creative in business. He believes there’s a fundamental difference between the two and explains that his strength lies in the how he understands the business of business.
An apt example is how and why electronic retailer Take2 acquired Mr Delivery and changed its name to Takealot in its bid to be bigger than Kalalari.net, following an intervention by Abel and his team (the two businesses have since merged under the Takealot brand). The business has been involved with the agency since its inception.
“That’s the kind of thing that we do; we get involved in, like, what are the pullies and levers to unlock growth? I always say to a client, if you’re going to appoint M&C Saatchi Abel, measure us on how we’ve grown your market share, how we’ve grown your topline and how we’ve grown your brand equity, not how many Loeries or Cannes awards we’ve won. We will win those for you, but those are the three hard measures that I want you to hold us accountable for because why give us your marketing budget if you’re not going to shift… market share, topline, and brand equity? [It’s] that kind of absolute focus on growing their business, the level of innovation and smart solutions [which] we bring that has allowed us to get to where we have,” he says.
Abel recently spoke at a conference in PE with 80 of the most-influential business people in the region. He asked who knew they lived a 40-minute drive from the only malaria-free, big five, game reserve region in the world. Nobody put their hands up, nor did anyone have a big idea for PE.
“Stuff that changes stuff”
“Eight-five years ago, somebody said let’s make cars here and so you did. Ok, you have a shitload of wind, [so] become the no. 1 wind sport destination in the world or push green energy. There are so many advantages if you are the windy city; harness it. The cleanest air, why? Because it’s all blown away. There are great benefits to the wind as opposed to saying, well, it’s kind of hard to play tennis here. That’s the kind of thing that me and my partners like to get involved in. Stuff that changes stuff,” he says.
“#Agency/BrandFocus” is an ongoing weekly series updating the market on ad agency performance, including business performance, innovation, initiatives, the work, awards and people.
Sabrina Forbes (IG) is an experienced writer covering the food, health, lifestyle, beverage, marketing and media industries. She runs her own full-stack web/app development and digital-first content creation company. For more, go to moonwrench.com. She is a contributing writer to MarkLives.com.
by Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) I spend the majority of my time consulting to B2B chief marketing and revenue officers, helping them deliver greater returns on their marketing and sales efforts. Recently, I found myself on the client side of the B2B marketing and sales experience, as I was searching for a particular service that our B2B marketing agency is looking to bundle as part of our offering.
Research process
As part of my research process, I looked at some options online, read a host of articles and watched a few explainer videos. I also called a few people, asked for their opinions, was WhatsApped some pdfs, and so on.
After about 10 days of research, I’d narrowed my options down to three service providers, so I reached out to each of them via mail. After a series of hearteningly quick responses, the result was that I was left sitting with three brochures describing each offering. As is standard in the B2B world, each brochure pretty much described the same service, with similar pricing, but I was struck by how different the presentations were — and how that affected my experience.
One of the providers called me after sending his brochure to ask me not to pay too much attention to the design, since a redesign by a designer was currently underway. It struck me that his focus was on the cosmetic appearance of the brochure, rather than on the offering itself.
Strategic thought
This is something we come across time and again in the B2B space, where businesses don’t put enough strategic thought into sales collateral, from brochures to folders and articles to explainer videos. His primary concern was that his brochure was going to be made to look ‘better’, whereas it actually should have been strategically redesigned to not only help me make a decision — but to swing the decision his way.
If any of the documents had included a matrix to show where that company’s offering could deliver the most benefit to our business, had pointed out the key elements that would have influenced my decision or had outlined the most-important considerations in choosing a particular service, I’d have been won over. Instead, I had to take all three documents and create my own matrix to compare the offerings, which to my mind was an obvious obstacle in the sales funnel.
The B2B marketers whom I know spend so much time doing research, writing strategies and creating adverts that they often lose sight of the fact that every piece of sales collateral is an ad, too. B2B businesses spend a fortune on developing brilliant print ads, tradeshow experiences, events and radio spots, but what is actually presented at the point of decision making — the collateral item — is actually more important. Therefore, I’d argue that it deserves as much, if not more, investment.
Information design
The information design needs to be considered seriously and take potential customers on a journey which needs to be logical, pragmatic, and make sense of the industry, and the offering, for the buyer. It’s the equivalent of a point-of-sale (POS) element in B2C — and the science, art and money that goes into creating those elements to win over consumers at the point of making the purchase decision is astonishing. So why do B2B marketers not commit to the same extent when it comes to that final element in the purchase journey that they’ve worked so hard to guide the customer through?
Adopting an outside-in approach to your sales collateral would be a big step. Put customers at centre of the plan and design and create sales collateral that makes it easy for them to understand your offering, evaluate it and get them over the line to purchase it. Think about B2B sales collateral as B2C POS, aimed at encouraging your customer to make a decision and buy — as opposed to telling them more about your company or service. They know that already, because of where they are in the purchase journey. To help improve this process, B2B businesses need to research their customers, develop an understanding of how they buy, know what they look for and understand how they compare offerings. Ask clients how they evaluate your service against those of a competitor so you know how to make those points of differentiation stand out.
Possibly, most importantly, every piece of B2B sales collateral needs to have a call to action. Phone this number. Email this person. Buy this now. Otherwise, what’s its purpose?
Things to note
About six providers were excluded from my decision-set before they even knew that they were being evaluated. I made those calls based on the sophistication of their websites and the ease of use of their information.
A lot of information was shared with me via WhatsApp, so make sure documents are easily shareable via WhatsApp in particular.
I completed over 80% of the purchase journey before I spoke to a human representative of the company.
Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) is the CEO and founder of Demographica, a multi-award winning full service agency that specialises in the B2B category. He has been chair of both the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) and the Assegai Integrated Marketing Awards (Assegais), as well as the only African to judge the B2 Awards, which recognise the top performing B2B marketers in the world. Warren contributes the monthly “Thinking B2B” column, which looks at the latest trends in B2B communications and explains why it is fundamentally different from B2C comms.
by MarkLives (@marklives) This time we feature insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of the 141 Responsible Drinking campaign for Pernod Ricard South Africa from Publicis Machine and TinToy Productions, which ran October 2018 to February 2019.
Client: Pernod Ricard South Africa Ad agency: Publicis Machine Title: 141 Responsible Drinking Campaign
Information supplied by Publicis Machine.
What would convince the cool crowd to adopt a culture of consuming one bottle of water for every alcoholic drink while out on the town? A stylishly packaged water called 141, of course, to promote the idea of water as the “drink to drink between drinks”. Then you roll it out at key lifestyle events, where the right people pose with it because the coolness of the bottle is simply irresistible. This gets a lot of talk value and, suddenly, drinking water is not only acceptable but fashionable and trendy, too.
Brief
The team at Publicis Machine wanted to position client Pernod Ricard as a responsible alcohol distributor. The desire was to create a campaign that encourages people to drink responsibly — without using the usual advertising industry shock tactics.
Creative summary
Pernod Ricard, a leading liquor distributor in South Africa, is intent on “Bringing Good Times from a Good Place” — to create a more-convivial world, a world without excess. As the world’s leading premium spirits and champagne company, it provides brands of origin such as Jameson Irish whiskey, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet in the Scotch whiskies portfolio; Absolut Vodka; Beefeater gin; Martell cognac; Red Heart rum; and G.H.Mumm and Perrier-Jouët champagne. Based in France, the company has 86 affiliate operations around the globe — adopting a consumer-centric approach to marketing and doing business in local markets. In SA, Pernod Ricard has been building brands and creating conviviality for 25+ years. As passionate hosts, the company brings people together, to connect, share and celebrate in the spirit of conviviality — believing, always, in the virtues of responsible consumption.
Pernod Ricard’s long-time communications agency and partner, Publicis Machine, was faced with the challenge of entrenching the brand’s positioning among its South African consumers and the business industry at large.
The result was a campaign that the agency believes makes a powerful statement of how big (liquor) brands can lead the way and make a massive impact in promoting responsible liquor consumption among the ‘party’ crowd.
Setting the scene
For years, responsible drinking campaigns have taken the same approach, drumming the fear of death, disability, and detention into anyone who would listen. But what do you do when faced with a population which doesn’t scare easily? Headed up by Publicis Machine power team, group creative director Brendan Hoffmann and creative director PJ Eales, the agency set out to change this perception with the launch of the Pernod Ricard 141 campaign, which used the target audiences’ design-consciousness as a means of encouraging them to drink a bottle of water between every alcoholic drink — as in “1 bottle of water 4 every 1 drink”.
“Drinking water is a proven way to moderate alcohol consumption, especially if you drink water between alcoholic drinks. It is also proven to aid the body’s metabolism of alcohol, allowing party goers to enjoy themselves for longer,” says Gareth McPherson, Publicis Machine MD and chief creative officer.
“We knew from research that shock tactic advertising doesn’t work. We needed to find a solution that would — in a very positive way — motivate and assist people to drink responsibly while still having a good time. The result is a campaign for Pernod Ricard that not only struck a conversation-starting chord with its trendsetting target market but that also, for the first time, actually provided this ‘work-hard, play-hard’ audience with a solution that allowed them to enjoy a couple of drinks with their mates, without letting it get out of hand,” he explains.
Water.
Production
The agency created beautiful, single serving water bottles called 141. The name doubled as a call to action to drink one (1) water for (4) every one (1) alcoholic drink.
The campaign line used was “Drink 141 — The drink to drink between drinks” with the hashtag #Drink141.
The 141 bottles were served free at all Pernod Ricard brand events over the 2018–2019 festive season, as well as via popup bars at select events across the country. They were also hand-delivered to a group of highly relevant social influencers and celebrities, while the campaign was actively supported both above-the-line and digitally to ensure the message was spread as widely as possible.
The cornerstone of this campaign was the bottle itself, designed by Publicis Machine to appeal to the target audiences’ discerning eye for design. Looking more like an exotic vial of premium vodka than your basic bottle of water, it miraculously transformed the mundane act of drinking water into a social phenomenon — the “drink to drink between drinks”. Ten thousand bottles were produced and distributed at key Pernod Ricard events.
Popup bars were designed by the team and these were the 141 ‘stations’ at each event. They were designed with the stackable nature of the bottles in mind (their unique square shape) to conserve the amount of space needed to display them. These activations were manned by promoters who explained the initiative to consumers: what 141 is and how drinking water between drinks can help you pace yourself.
Resources
From origination to execution, the 141 Responsible Drinking campaign was a collaborative project, headed up by the Publicis Machine team and the brand teams at Pernod Ricard.
Says Paul Scanlon, Pernod Ricard SA MD, “People are at the heart of everything we do. As creators of conviviality, we are constantly looking at innovative ways in which our consumers can enjoy our premium brands in the company of friends and loved ones, in a responsible manner. We know people want to have fun but we also want to encourage them to be conscientious about balancing every drink with water.”
Duration
A finely engineered campaign was rolled out, leading up to and over the 2018–2019 festive season.
Production of the beautiful single-serving water bottles (10 000 produced so far)
First batch: April–June 2018
Second batch: September–November 2018
Activations at key Pernod Ricard events leading up to and over the 2018–2019 festive season:
The Glenlivet JazzTown Durban July 2018,
Absolut One Source Live in October 2018
Martell x Afropunk in December 2018, and
The Sun Met in January 2019
An influencer campaign, designed to generate excellent social media activity. Each Influencer Drop was personally conducted by one of Pernod Ricard’s charming brand ambassadors (4–13 December 2018).
A traditional media campaign targeting key lifestyle and business media platforms, generated huge awareness and interest around the idea, Drink 141 — The drink to drink between drinks — and the campaign (November 2018–February 2019).
A social media campaign promoting the presence of the 141 water bottles at events such as One Source Live, AfroPunk and The SunMet (4–31 Dec 2018).
Measurement
The results speak for themselves, with over 12 000 bottles of water consumed over the period, a reach of 44m, AVE of R1.3m achieved over a two-month period, and a massive 82% impact.
Credits
Brand
Pernod Ricard South Africa
Brand representative: Clair van der Mescht, communications manager, Pernod Ricard SA
Agency
Publicis Machine
Group executive creative director: Gareth McPherson
Group creative director: Brendan Hoffmann
Creative director: PJ Eales
Producer: Nicky Scheepers
Designer: Kelsie Blake
Media planner: Caroline Halton
Strategist: Marc Horne
Writer/s: PJ Eales, Sam Newdigate
Production company
Production company: TinToy Productions
#Campaigns is the latest MarkLives column featuring insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of South African communication campaigns, both ongoing and recent. Have a campaign worthy of being featured in #Campaigns? Submit a short motivation to and we may well be in touch. Please include links to campaign material, when it ran/is running and why you believe it should be featured.
The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) is a non-profit, industry body that was incorporated in 2015 to cater to the audience research needs of the radio and television industry in South Africa. In 2016, it changed its policy about giving away TAMS and now only monthly reports, highlighting the top 20 or 30 primetime shows on several popular channels, are available.
by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) What with media freedom and truth in South Africa increasingly under threat, Adriaan Basson (@AdriaanBasson), News24 editor-in-chief, shares insights into staying strong — and safe — in news journalism.
Protect journalists
“If you become a journalist, you know that you’re going to have to take shots,” says Basson. “Because you’re showing the world things people want to hide — and that will naturally upset those people.” Basson — a seasoned investigative journalist and co-founder of the Mail & Guardian Centre for Investigative Journalism, better known as amaBhungane — is himself no stranger to bullying and intimidation. He’s determined to do what he can to protect journalists as they, in turn, work to protect freedom of information and democracy.
“I remember the first time I received a death threat, when I was a young reporter,” he says. “It’s quite overwhelming.” Where a journalist is being intimidated, he advises, as a first step, speaking to colleagues who’ve experienced similar situations: “I was in a privileged position, working on the Mail & Guardian, to have people like Sam Sole who I could speak to. I now try to mentor younger investigative reporters in my team around these things, because there are different ways to react, and [it’s important] to try and keep a healthy distance between yourself and the threats.”
Basson believes in more than just talk, though. “We do a range of things,” he says. “We arrange bodyguards when it gets really hairy; we go to court; we instruct lawyers to write letters to people who intimidate us.”
Approach to criticism
He has a similarly pragmatic approach to criticism: “Especially on social media, I’ve learned you just have to ignore the trolls sometimes. You literally cannot read every piece of criticism against you — there are not enough hours, and it will drive you completely insane if you’re rolling in the mud the whole day, and trying to respond to people who have absolutely no interest in the truth. At first, it may come as a shock when people criticise or attack you, but it’s part of the game; it’s part of the job. Obviously, there are levels of that criticism, so part of it is normal debate or disagreement, which is perfectly fine and then, on the other extreme, it’s death threats, slander, things like that, where you have to take legal action.”
To prevail in what can be extremely challenging situations, Basson believes that both commitment to the pursuit of truth and supporting each other in the media industry are of the utmost importance. To the latter end, he encourages reporters to work in teams as much as possible, with the reasoning that it can promote both safety and quality.
The content focus of News 24 has shifted significantly in recent years, says Basson, adding in-depth reporting and investigative journalism to its former combination of fast news and aggregation. It’s rewarding to see that the top 10 stories for any given month are always investigative or political pieces, he notes.
Ideally positioned
In the investigative arena, Basson believes that News 24 is ideally positioned, as the biggest website in the country with around 7m unique visitors monthly, to play a key role. “It gives you so much reach and impact,” he says. “In one way, it’s a platform, and we work with amaBhungane and publish their stories, and, in a second way, we also have our own team that’s done amazing journalism which just won the Taco Kuiper Award for Bosasa.”
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with a decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her column, “Press Pass”, is a monthly feature spotlighting media leaders and their responses to the trends and tribulations in the industry.
by Erna George (@edgeo23) Context doesn’t only matter — it’s everything. The definition, according to Lexico Dictionaries, is “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood”. From my point of view, context gives meaning and, without this, you could make statements, deliver products or projects that are less relevant.
Context is the environment in which consumers and businesses operate; it’s a reference point against which people respond — the backdrop that influences how information is considered. Without context, much of what you can offer could come across as well-justified but inappropriate. If you do nothing else before a meeting or interaction, understand the context you are about to engage with to land your message and objective well.
Think of a consumer’s life
As brand teams, we think of our brands all the time; they are our world for much of the day, week, year. The reality is that, within a consumer’s world, your brand is but a blip.
I’ve had the privilege of working with amazing marketing mavericks and doyennes across my career. One of these drew the relative importance of marketers’ brands in consumers lives as a pie, where the circle represents the consumer’s life or world and the slight sliver to a single line represents your brand within their world.
In short, the message was:
Your brand matters less than what you would like to think, given the clutter or other stuff in consumer’s worlds, and
Without understanding the ‘clutter’, your brand’s impact will be reduced or will matter less
This clutter includes elements such as their needs, challenges, dreams and more — their context. Without context, your brand may not speak about or offer relevant features or communication. Go and find out about consumers’ worlds, then ask about your brand within this world to get a real view. Once consumers give you how they see your brand, compare this vs the brand’s positioning/role aspirations. This will highlight gaps and opportunities. Together, this full view gets you a cohesive perspective — provided no personal bias or context, please.
This matters in the ‘rands and cents’ also as it avoids a spray-and-pray approach. If you consider the trend of personalisation: consumers expect to have conversations or benefits specific to their lives or needs. Consumers want to feel special and acknowledged, and this can be critical to brand success. How well do you employ these considerations with consumer care lines and social media responses? This process requires good listening and gaining a sense for where to deep-dive to avoid data overload. Gain an overview and ask more on hot buttons to help get to the right level of personalisation balanced with what is manageable. This active focus on consumer context helps maximise the relevance of each of your brand levers, the channels used and your spend.
Context critical when working within organisations
If you, as the project leader on a new launch (as marketers often are for new innovation), don’t understand the context of the engineers, manufacturing and other team members, you will find leadership challenging. Your ability to influence and effect change is heightened when you reflect a clear view of what others need or what hot buttons are. You can make the same request focusing on different benefits or using different language with distinct outcomes. When dealing with an ego-driven person, language would be quite different with more accolades vs discussing with a pragmatic someone needing the facts. If culture is straightforward and honest vs being highly competitive, this requires different approaches or levers.
After listening, determine the way forward — is it guided or do you direct? Is it facts-only or connecting with the person first? Is it weekly check-ins or less regular feedback? You will need to use your ears and mouth in the ratio in which humans were given these — 2:1 — more opportunity to absorb what is being said or shown to you. When context is understood, you, your projects and your tasks can gain more traction as they just fit neatly.
Consultants
Lastly, think of consultants who come into one’s business to provide new thinking or processes.
Without understanding context, the advice, process or idea will struggle to land. Saying you are an outsider doesn’t always work to land new thinking but it does help to innocently ask the obvious. This is a tool I used when moderating — nothing like playing dumb to get people to open up and teach or to feel they can download, as someone is bothering to listen. Frustrations I’ve heard expressed during or post consultant sessions include being fed up with the continuous convincing of the process/idea — the sales pitch. Win the pitch and move on to a focus on how it integrates with the organisation. If you are there to sell a stock standard process or to dictate without first understanding, please understand why your services may not be welcomed with open arms. (Also please avoid going to the senior team, who often is too removed from the context on the ground.) This doesn’t mean teams don’t welcome change or challenges; they just want something that acknowledges current reality and then makes a positive difference in their context.
One of my favourite sayings, “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly”, espouses the view that, when context is understood, making a shift or changing anything becomes more achievable. When it works, the impact becomes the pitch and proof. Spending the time upfront, to learn the organisation, the behaviours, language that works and people who influence in addition to current processes you need to integrate with, means you can land a change process in their language and showcase it in a manner that fits their world. It will feel like less of a stretch as it’s not in consulting or theoretical speak.
Get ready to formulate a well-considered, relevant response and not a reaction
Listen to and observe consumers or teams or environments to get the context — avoid filtering through your brand or personal lens
Use questions to understand where elements are not clear
Once general context is understood, deep-dive into hot spots or brand-related areas as these will unlock levers to land brand or fresh thinking or to effect change
Once prepared, find the key influencers and make a real difference — the easier way.
After starting at Unilever in a classical marketing role, Erna George (@edgeo23) explored the agency side of life, first as a partner at Fountainhead Design, followed by the manic and inspiring world of consultancy at Added Value. She has returned to client-side, leading the marketing team in the Cereals, Accompaniments & Baking Division at Pioneer Foods. Her monthly “Fair Exchange” column on MarkLives concerns business relationships and partnerships in marketing and brandland.
by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) At just 28, Tanya Davis (@tans_tan) is East Coast Radio’s youngest-ever brand and communications manager. She speaks to us about her fast career track, and what she’s learned so far.
Q5: What attracted you to radio? Tanya Davis: I was 13 years old and I remember a campaign that was running on East Coast Radio that completely blew me away. I would get into the car every single day and beg my mom to put the radio on so that I could hear all about the “Live inside and win the ride” campaign. The campaign consisted of three couples living in one car together, with no showers, short bathroom breaks and eat what you get. The couple to [outlast] everyone would win the car.
I was so captivated, intrigued, curious and absolutely hooked. Radio wasn’t a platform that just brought us music anymore; it was a medium that told stories and brought you content that was different, bold and big. Ever since that day, I knew I wanted to be part of radio, East Coast Radio [specifically].
Q5: In what ways, in terms of experience and skills, would you say you were prepared to take on this role? TD: I believe that anyone could have the right experience and skills to take on any role, yes; studying and putting in the effort at varsity is important, but not everyone has the right attitude (be positive and optimistic), commitment (don’t clock-watch, be the first one in and last to leave) and enthusiasm (stop the blame-game and become a team player by looking for solutions and not mistakes) to take their experience and skills to the next level. I believe that has prepared me for this role.
Q5: What do you think millennials can bring to management positions? TD: Breaking the stereotype of “this is how a manager should be.” It’s okay to have a bad day; it’s okay to feel stressed and overwhelmed; it’s okay to admit you were wrong and change your decision in front of your team; it’s okay to have fun and show it at the workplace. Millennials bring authenticity to management positions — real, raw and relatable.
Q5: How may young managers, particularly women, bust assumptions that older people might make about their ability to do the job? TD: The truth is, because you are a young manager, all eyes will be on you all the time; you can’t drop the ball because, if you do, then you will be reminded that you did. The way young managers, particularly women, can bust assumptions is to be authentically you; don’t lose your voice because you are afraid your opinion might be wrong; speak up and make your voice heard; listen when criticised: there is always someone testing you to see how you would react to difficult situations, [so] don’t be defensive; instead, take what is shared with you, consider it and decide how to best apply it going forward. Prove to people that you listened when they spoke and applied their feedback in your own way.
Q5: Where do you see yourself in five years? TD: Always looking for bigger and better things. Breaking the mould.
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with a decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her new regular column “Q5” aims to hone in on strategic insights, analysis and data through punchy interviews with experts in media, marketing and design.
Q5: How are things progressing at Studio 214 — what can we expect from the agency over the next 12 months?
Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with a decade and a half of industry experience, having covered everything from ethical sushi in Japan to the technicalities of roofing, agriculture, medical stuff and more. She’s also taught English and journalism, and dabbled in various other communications ventures along the way, including risk reporting. As a contributing writer to MarkLives.com, her new regular column “Q5” aims to hone in on strategic insights, analysis and data through punchy interviews with experts in media, marketing and design.
