MarkLives.com • Page 76 of 579 • Independent industry news for marketing, advertising & media execs

Side hustles… You won’t believe what happens next!

hustle-and-bustle-human-face-arrows courtesy of Pixabay

by Gerhard Pretorius (@gerriepster) Advertising is an interesting industry — literally. It pays people to think of interesting things that should be of interest to clients and consumers. For the most part, this interest in interesting things attracts a fair amount of interesting people. Yet the thing with interesting people is that they can’t help but become obsessed with things that they find interesting.

A creative (or anyone, for that matter) will have an idea. Tiny, trivial, and often in no way, shape or form relevant to your agency or any client. And every now and then, the idea will start to grow. It will multiply and metastasise. God forbid, it will lead to one of your creatives developing a full-blown, stage-four side hustle!

Let me Google it for you

A side hustle may be a passion project, general interest or hobby pursued by someone who’s already fully employed. It may be a thing they dedicate their free time to, hoping it’ll kickstart their career in a field that, perhaps, they’re more interested in.

Or it may be autotelic. That’s just a fancy way of saying it’s not eg for financial gain but rather to gain experience or fulfilment. It’s when the mere act of doing something becomes the reward for doing it.

The issue of passion projects and side hustles is actually more divisive than many realise. Some agencies fear it could be a distraction that may lead to reduced productivity or creative target blindness. Essentially, the thinking here is that your employees have a finite amount of creative energy, and they’ll waste it on ideas that you’re unable to bill for.

Alternatively, there’s the view that it’s a great way to boost creativity, fulfilment motivation, and morale.

By-products of ‘out-of-scope’ creativity

Ad agencies employee creatives to do one thing: create branded communication. But, when you think about it, that’s actually quite strange. It’s like an oil company that believes all it can make from crude oil is 95 unleaded petrol and nothing else. No wax for children’s crayons or birthday candles. No vinyl for LPs, nor any acrylic for fine-art paintings.

If you think of creativity as a crude natural resource, it begs the question: are you using it to make only the product that pays most of the bills (ads and branded communication) but missing an opportunity to create some of its most-wonderful and -rewarding by-products?

If you can create an environment where all ideas are celebrated and nourished — whether they’re applicable to the brief that’s on your desk or not — your agency will foster mutual respect through the acknowledgement of good ideas, boosting the morale and confidence of your workforce. Your agency will be a place where creatives feel rewarded beyond their pay cheques.

Factor in that clients are increasingly looking for new and engaging products (not just the same old 95 unleaded) and that ad award shows now reward everything from games to music videos, supporting the out-of-scope projects of your team can help turn those creative by-products into meaningful contributions for your business.

New skills

Hiring new talent for a specific skill set vs training existing talent to fulfil the same task is an age-old question. But, depending on the sector, research and studies have shown time and again that it’s better and more cost-effective to retain and train through motivation and development.

But now add the word “self” to that equation: It’s more cost-effective to retain and train through self-motivation and self-development.

It’s a simple human truth that being motivated by our own desires and internal ambitions for our future is far more powerful than being told what to do. So, if you have creatives who are already spending their free time editing videos or composing music, you have an opportunity to proactively approach them and help train them in that field.

Not only will they love you for it, the next time they are in an edit suite or working with a composer for one of your clients, they’ll have a far better understanding of the craft, and the work they do will be that much better. In addition, it’ll fast-track a creative’s development of commitment, responsibility, accountability, time management, craft, networking, self-motivation, refining their strengths and overcoming weaknesses, helping them reach ‘creative maturity’.

The environment

There are many schools of thought on what best motivates creatives. Some say it isn’t money but rather a cool Google-style office with an all-you-can-eat, Michelin-Star-worthy cafeteria, Coke fountains, hoverboards, and flexi-hours.

There’s one thing, however, that’s more important to creatives than any of that: feeling recognised by having their ideas recognised.

My personal passion is film. Over the past few years, the agency I worked at allowed me to write and direct two short films, go to film festivals, and eventually branch out into content for their clients. In other words, I got what I really wanted, and it gained a skillset that made business sense. Win-win.

Agencies have an opportunity to create a viable structure that incentivises employees by rewarding them with time to work on their own projects. What if you support them with sharing and feedback sessions from their peers? Or what if you pinch off some of your awards budget and earmark it for the best employee side-hustle idea of the year, one that anyone in your agency may pitch for and will be developed in association with your agency?

Imagine your agency helped create the next “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”. When it comes to proving your agency’s creative understanding of modern culture and insight, it would trump any advertising award.

A practical approach to prevent burnout

Every agency and creative team experiences spells of reverts or campaign changes. During these times, agency-supported side hustles can be an effective and constructive creative outlet that will remind creatives that we’re all in this together because we love ideas. To do something awesome. To make cool stuff.

By appealing to creatives’ passion and by creating an environment that allows them to dabble in it, you can hone the emotional drive behind their creativity, funnelling it through a positive creative outlet.

Of course, the real bottom line is the bottom line. And many would argue that, at the end of the day, an agency is a business and that any given employee is a person hired to contribute to it. Not quite. There’s a key thing missing there: You’re a creative business and they are a creative person.

Capitalising on creativity

Creativity is the reason clients pay your agency. And you pay someone else for their creativity. Creative agencies are just that — agents that buy and sell creativity. The question is whether there’s a way to run your agency that makes it clear to everyone, especially your creatives, that all creativity is of the utmost value. Do that and money will naturally intersect with passion.

Gerhard Pretorius (@gerriepster) grew up just outside of Robertson in the Western Cape, studied drama, and then moved to the other side of the world to teach English. He started his copywriting career at Utopia, then moved to The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town), and eventually to Fuelcontent (part of Hellocomputer) where he’s head of concept. He has an ever-growing love for film that is only eclipsed by his love for his and his wife’s two cats. The real reason he’s pursuing a life in advertising and film is so he can cast the cats and make them famous.

“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.

— One subscription form, three newsletters: sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify headlines; The Interlocker, our new monthly comms-focused mailer; and Brands & Branding, launching soon!

SA TV Ratings: SABC 3 — primetime top 20 for Jan 2019

South African TV Ratings Top 20 shows 2018

by MarkLives (@marklives) The hottest primetime shows on SABC 3 in South Africa revealed: TV ratings for January 2019.

SABC 3, January 2019

Top 20 Programmes All Adults 15+
January 2019 Prime Time 5.30pm—10pm
Adults 15+ years U:35679 S:8198

Source: BRCSA January 2019

Day	Date	From	To	Station	Programme title	Genre	AR	Viewers	Share
Wed	23/01/2019	1900	1930	S3	Isidingo:the Need	Soap	2.4	873 479	7.8
Sat	19/01/2019	1658	1858	S3	Premier League:Manchester United vs Brig	Spor	2.3	808 016	10
Wed	30/01/2019	1300	2055	S3	Momentum One Day International:South Afr	Spor	2.1	757 098	9.6
Fri	04/01/2019	1000	1804	S3	Cricket:Castle Lager Test South Africa V	Spor	2	713 721	11.1
Sat	19/01/2019	2129	2334	S3	War of the Worlds	Movi	1.7	624 128	10.1
Sat	12/01/2019	1654	1857	S3	English Premier League:Brighton vs Liver	Spor	1.6	571 062	7.5
Sat	05/01/2019	2100	2129	S3	News @ 21:00	News	1.4	488 437	5.2
Sun	13/01/2019	1735	1832	S3	Top Billing	Maga	1.4	485 158	6
Wed	02/01/2019	1729	1756	S3	The Bold and the Beautiful	Soap	1.4	484 067	6.2
Sat	05/01/2019	1910	2047	S3	Steel Magnolias	Movi	1.3	449 653	4.6
Sun	06/01/2019	1830	1929	S3	Safari Live	Docu	1.2	432 417	4.7
Thur	10/01/2019	1630	1726	S3	Afternoon Express	Maga	1.2	429 591	7.2
Sat	19/01/2019	1900	2059	S3	Stranger Than Fiction	Movi	1.2	425 321	4.3
Sat	05/01/2019	2130	2400	S3	Minority Report	Movi	1.1	408 677	7.3
Mon	07/01/2019	1930	2024	S3	The Amazing Race	Real	1.1	404 571	3.2
Sun	27/01/2019	1824	1827	S3	Food Lab	Vari	1.1	402 983	5
Sat	12/01/2019	2130	2341	S3	Collateral (Mov)	Movi	1.1	399 277	7
Sat	12/01/2019	1900	2059	S3	Holy Man	Movi	1.1	388 157	4.1
Sun	27/01/2019	1827	1829	S3	Fun Food	Vari	1	368 849	5
Sat	26/01/2019	1857	2100	S3	Catch and Release	Movi	1	364 278	4

In 2016, the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) 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.

The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (the BRC) 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.

#BrandFocus: Vodacom’s Mokgwatsane on 2019’s macrotrends

by Sabrina Forbes. There are three macrotrends facing the market globally and locally, believes Abey Mokgwatsane, Vodacom managing executive of brand and communications. They relate to the shrinking middle-income household, the continued digitisation of business (including the telco sector) and a new political reality around identity and the avoidance of stereotypes. Mokgwatsane joined Vodacom at the end of September 2017 from Ogilvy South Africa, where he had served as CEO for seven years.

Company snapshot

In 1993, Vodacom was awarded a license to operate a GSM cellular network in South Africa. Initial growth projections of 250 000 subscribers within the first 10 years were trumped when it hit 5m after just eight. As of 31 January 2018, the count was at 73.6m subscribers.

In 2009, it listed on the JSE and, in 2011, rebranded to align more with the look and feel of Vodafone, its 65% shareholder. 2012 saw Vodacom as the first to launch LTE/4G in SA and, by 2014, the brand covered 99.8% of the SA population. Vodacom remains the largest provider in this country but also covers operations in Tanzania, the DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Kenya.

Macrotrends

Trend 1: Consumer pinch

Mokgwatsane highlights the shrinking middle-income consumer as the disparity between the rich and poor continues to grow, squeezing out a viable middle-income household. This missing middle creates a scenario where middle-class families are neither poor enough for support from government nor rich enough to access real economic mobility. It leaves a gap for populist parties and their leaders — whether here or in the US — to gain influence.

The middle-income sector is running out of steam and causing brands to push advertising based on value. More for less, two-for-one, buy-one-get-one-free, three-for-two. While Mokgwatsane doesn’t know what macroeconomic policy is going to address this change, he believes the current solutions for all brands is offering their services based on a value model. Brands need to create value for their customers by cutting costs while increasing efficiency.

Fifteen years ago, you’d find the likes of Steve Jobs on the cover of a Forbes or Fortune magazine. The creative genius and founder behind a brand was heralded as a hero. Nowadays, the C-suite is more often than not made up of CAs and economists trying to cut costs, at all costs. “There are no hard-hitter chief celebrity CEOs anymore. Companies are cutting down and trying to survive. It’s very difficult to think of expansive companies anymore,” says Mokgwatsane.

The brand honeymoon is over. Gone are the days of charging premium. “We feel that, at Vodacom, we have huge pressure to cut costs and a huge part of our brand narrative is how we’re bringing value to our customers. Customers know that our network and service [are] premium but that doesn’t mean we can inflate prices,” he says.

Examples of ways the brand has been adding value is in the reduced out-of-bundle rates, its Red Hot Deals communicating its best-value offering, and a huge drive around consumer education. “We overestimate how efficiently and effectively people are using technology,” he says.

Mokgwatsane also makes mention of how tricky it can be for a brand to grow while appreciating those customers who supported it first, and continue to support it: “Companies that have always grown have never had to think about customer appreciation. You don’t think of this when growing year-on-year. We have a lot of work to do in rationalising the customer decision to be with us and a lot of that has to do with value.”

Trend 2: Putting tech to good use

According to Mokgwatsane, technology is the second macrotrend facing the industry. We’ve all seen conference presentations on big data, machine learning, neural network algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), video on demand (VOD), etc. From a telco perspective, he considers Vodacom to be the bridge that connects people to technology, and that companies like Vodacom have been morphing from being telecomms-only to becoming fully fledged digital companies.

M-Pesa, started in Kenya by Vodacom unit Safaricom, is a good example of this. It’s a fast, safe, and easy way to send money and is “fundamentally helping people run their businesses, especially micro-businesses,” says Mokgwatsane.

Another example is Virtual Teacher, an education platform Vodacom launched late 2017 with the Department of Education. Virtual Teacher is an e-school programme that gives students access to their full syllabus through their mobile phones. Teachers can also deliver lessons in real-time to multiple remote locations. “We take helping people use technology to advance their lives very seriously; it’s something that’s evolving within our organisation,” he says, noting that most of us only use 10% of Microsoft Excel’s real power. This feeds back to his comment about brands overestimating how effectively consumers use their technology.

Trend 3: Politically correct culture

“Your skin colour, age, and race [don’t determine] an individual. We’re in a world where we’re all ultra-sensitive of perpetuating a stereotype,” says Mokgwatsane. More people use Vodacom as a service than any other in SA and. because of this reach and scale, the brand’s marketing therefore means something different to everyone and, without a set target audience, getting the message right across can be difficult. A 2018 New York Times article about pop music supports his theory that “huge clusters of audiences are being built online and these are often different to what is being perpetuated by big media.”

“Power is being democratised” he says and adds that it’s the whole purpose of democracy anyway. Fitting humans into stereotypes, based on the way they look or how old they are, is an outdated way for brands to communicate. While there’s still space for certain types of targeting for those brands not trying to please everybody and which can go straight to the core of their ideal marketing audience, the “currency of media is shifting from scale to depth of audience”, according to Mokgwatsane. Brands will realise that what people want from them is a determinant of how they should be communicated with, not who they are as people. Everyone wants value; everyone wants brand integrity.

Brand story vs product suites

For Mokgwatsane, Vodacom missed the mark in 2018 when it came to its continuous and fluid brand story. “We hadn’t really thought though how the brand manifests consistently through all of Vodacom’s product suites. Too often, we’ve been too responsive to the requirements of the product set vs focusing on the brand story,” he says. To him, the work therefore missed a key brand narrative and, going into 2019 and beyond, the team plus its partnership agencies (WE, Ogilvy, Cerebra, OpenField, SuperUnion, and WaveMaker) will focus on going back to basics with the CI of Vodacom. Consumers can expect a simpler narrative while the brand focuses on doing fewer things better, always focusing on the classical retail thinking of ‘value platform’ communications.

In 2018, Vodacom brought its entire media-buying centre in-house, using its own tech stack. Building on this digital capability is an important milestone for the brand, according to Mokgwatsane, and we can expect to see many more from this disruptive but freshly consistent brand.

“#AgencyFocus/#BrandFocus” is an ongoing weekly series updating the market on ad agency performance and brand, including innovation, initiatives, the work, awards, people and business performance.

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.

Kate Skinner — keeping an eye on the fourth estate

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) This year, the focus of the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is manifold, says executive director Kate Skinner. One key project for the organisation will be conducting an inquiry into issues around media ethics and credibility in the country. Another will explore ways of ensuring the sustainability of the local press, which she describes as being eroded by new models of information sharing and advertising.

Media freedom

Skinner began in her role at SANEF early in 2018, after more than two decades of work that included development, research, media policy and advocacy. With an emphasis on media freedom shaping her career, one of its highlights was her 2008 founding of the SOS: Support Public Broadcasting coalition, perhaps better known as the Save our SABC campaign. Today, her passion for the fourth estate remains as strong — and inspiring — as ever.

In the lead-up to the May 2019 national elections, a large part of Skinner’s focus is on the election workshops SANEF is running for media practitioners across the country. Since election periods are such critical political times, she says, it wants to ensure that journalists understand the nitty gritty of the legislation, regulations and process. In collaboration with Media Monitoring Africa, the workshops will also deal with issues of “disinformation, or fake news”, and how to cover elections in a way that does not comprise the safety of the reporter.

At the same time, Skinner will be steering SANEF towards the achievement of its immediate and longer-term goals for 2019. “Our short-term goals are making sure that we are keeping on top of all the policy work, that we are keeping on top of any violations to media freedom, and that all of our council meetings and events are being organised,” she says. “The medium- and long-term goals are about making sure that the policy work has an impact, that it improves media freedom, access to information and freedom of expression in the country.”

Media ethics inquiry

To ensure those goals will be furthered, she says, SANEF will be launching an inquiry into media ethics and credibility issues in the country. “We’re worried,” she says, citing, among other concerns, the allegations of bribery of journalists that have surfaced in the Zondo Commission. SANEF’s inquiry will look at issues around cash, debt and the commercial capture of journalists, she says: “Our major aim is to build the credibility and ethics of the industry. We’re very enthusiastic and excited about the possibilities [of the inquiry]. Our sense is that it will have a very positive impact on the industry.”

The sustainability of the media industry in South Africa will be another major focus for SANEF’s activities this year, says Skinner. “There have been huge problems around journalists being retrenched and publications closing down,” she says. “A lot of money now goes to Facebook and Google, and the entire financial sustainability model for the media has been quite seriously eroded. That’s not only in South Africa — it’s an international phenomenon.”

It’s far from all being doom and gloom, however, she says: “We’re not running away from the problems; we’re facing them head on and looking at what solutions we can implement. We’re fairly positive that we are going to come up with various solutions for both the ethics problems and sustainability problems.”

“Make an impact”

For those trying to find their way in the field, or considering a career in journalism, Skinner offers words of encouragement. “It’s an incredibly exciting profession,” she says. “Yes, it’s hard, it’s shifting and changing, and you’ve got to produce a lot more material a lot quicker but, in terms of being able to make an impact, it really does give you the opportunity to shine the spotlight on corruption and societal problems. We have some incredibly good journalists — some of our investigative units are phenomenal in terms of what they’ve covered. Our sense is that is going to continue.”

For more, go to sanef.org.za.

Carey Finn (@carey_finn) is a writer and editor with over 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. She is a contributing writer to MarkLives.com.

Brands & Branding: Reputation risk to inform decisions

by Grace-Anne Belger. The advent of social media has made access to information and the spread of opinions easy, which has led to increased transparency and connectivity among the public. This inevitably increases the risks associated with your corporate reputation. Analysing and preparing to deal with reputational risk is fundamental to an organisation’s survival during and after a crisis.

Perception vs reality

The way people instinctively feel, act and behave towards your organisation reflects your reputation. Often perceptions don’t meet reality, and you need to continually strive to narrow the gap and have your reputation match your reality in a positive manner. Social and traditional media play a large role in extending the negative impact of a reputational crisis.

If someone feels positively about your company/brand, they are more likely to choose you above your competitors. Unfortunately, negative perceptions prevail over positive, which means that you have to work on your reputation consistently and strategically. The better your reputation, the better you will survive a crisis.

Millennials and the new Generation X and Y rate trust in a company higher than any other factor when choosing a brand. They believe the brand or company should touch them emotionally and make them feel special or they will switch to a competitor in a second. This also plays out in a crisis. If they are emotionally distrustful, they will move on.

No company can afford damage

In the increasing fight for survival, never mind profits, no company can afford damage to their reputation, even in a small way. CEOs and management teams should handle a reputational crisis in the same way as a product disaster but often don’t, tending to think only about threats that have already occurred and the most obvious risks. Response becomes reactive and turns into crisis management in an attempt to contain the damage. They may invest millions in risk-assessment plans but little into crisis-communications plans.

Elaborate control systems are in place for all the tangible threats and form part of ongoing business processes. Reputational crises are often dealt with informally.

Proactively planning for a reputational crisis is half the battle won. A company should carefully brainstorm each and every possible scenario or risk it could face that would potentially damage its reputation.

Respond faster

Imagining the risk or scenario and planning how to communicate when they occur will allow you to respond faster, with the least amount of reputational damage. Sitting idle will result in time wasted as public outrage escalates. Some companies survive a crisis and start the slow process of regaining trust — some don’t.

Once all possible risks are identified, the essential key is to plan for how you will handle them when they occur. While everyone is thinking about sending in emergency vehicles and calling the police, a dedicated team should be communicating with staff, the public and specifically with the media. Often a company will complain that it was tried in the court of public opinion via social media but, more often than not, ignored signs from stakeholders that expectations had changed. It also didn’t have clear-cut communications plans to deal with the situation and keep stakeholders (including the media) informed.

Key elements

Much of the process may be facilitated by drawing up a reputational crisis communications plan in advance. The key elements of the plan should include:

Who makes up the team and how can they be contacted? Share this information with staff. There should be two teams in a crisis, a management teamand a crisis-communications team. The former for business continuity and the other to reach out to stakeholders. The CEO should be used in both.
Outside experts such as reputation management consultants and IT experts should form part of the crisis-communications team. They are removed from the issue and consequently more objective and rational in their strategic approach to handling it.
Responsibilities need to be allocated well in advance and each team-leader needs to understand their role.
Prepared holding statements (possible media statements and social media posts that keep the media and public informed during the crisis, based on the risks that are identified up front).
Prepared sets of questions and answers for each risk scenario. While this list cannot be exhaustive, it will serve as a useful guide and should be constantly updated during the crisis.
Extensive training workshops where the team, as well as frontline staff, is trained in handling communications. Frontline staff members are often forgotten but they are the media and the public’s first port of call.

Often a company’s response to a crisis is more important than the incident itself. A recent study by Weber Shandwick (2017) showed that more than one-third of global consumers says that how a company responds to an issue or crisis today clearly impacts its integrity, credibility and trustworthiness.

Key factors

Key factors to handling a crisis are as follows:

Act fast. In the age of social media, you have seconds to respond and set the tone otherwise rumours and false news will fill the gap.
Be honest and transparent.
Show empathy — you can say sorry without admitting liability. The public can be extremely forgiving but they don’t appreciate a company with no empathy.
Advise your audience at all times what you are doing to restore the status quo and deal with the fallout of the crisis.
Be wary of lawyers in the heat of a crisis. They tend to be conservative as they believe that everything you say must be completely accurate and not general, should it be played back to you once a matter gets to court. What they don’t consider is that, by the time you get to court, your reputation is in shreds and will cost millions more to repair than any legal obligations.
Be rational — humans react to a crisis with emotion and instinct, which easily overwhelm us before our brains can make a conscious, purposeful decision.

Preparation and continuous maintenance, plus scenario planning and training, are essential to each and every organisation at all times. Failure to do so may put you out of business.

2018 edition now available!

Grace-Anne Belger is a senior marketing executive and trainer with 24 years’ experience, and a media trainer with over 15 years’ experience. She joined Meropa Communications in 2005, where she runs the media training division, advises clients on their communication strategies, brainstorms and prepares thought leadership pieces and specialises in issues management.

The article first appeared in the 2018 edition of Brands & Branding in South Africa, an annual review from Affinity Publishing of all aspects of brand marketing — consisting of case-studies, profiles, articles and research — also accessible at Brands.MarkLives.com. Order your copy of the 2018 edition now!

Media Design: AdBusters, Broccoli, Cannibale, MAD, Newsweek, Kubrick

Shane de Lange (@shanenilfunct)’s weekly analysis of media design from South Africa and around the world:

Commercial print: AdBusters, Newsweek, and MAD continue the ongoing, ever-growing collection of covers that contribute to the mammoth amount of criticism of Donald Trump
Independent print: Broccoli attempts to rebrand cannabis as chic and sophisticated, driven by an ambitious all-female editorial team
Iconic: Cannibale broadcast the provocative spirit of dadaism, and helped to make it the international movement that it was
Online: Kubrick.life is an extremely accessible account of all Stanley Kubrick’s pioneering and highly influential films, allowing for an entirely new generation to appreciate his work.

Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @shanenilfunct.
Want to view all the covers at a glance? See our Pinterest board!

Print

  AdBusters (US), issue #142, February 2019
  Newsweek (UK), 15 March 2019
  MAD (US), issue #5, February 2019

A number of magazines have been published during the past few weeks that make valuable contributions to the ever-growing collection of Donald Trump covers featured in Media Design. All of them are critical, and shed light on his US presidency from varying perspectives.

Themed “Toneshift — The Year of Living Dangerously”, followed by the subtext “The Metameme Insurrection”, the cover to the latest issue of AdBusters arguably has the most-contentious visual presentation: picturing Trump in a compromising position, being hit in the face by a pie. Being the culture-jamming platform that it is, AdBusters tends to take the notion of poetic licence to the nth degree. The “Metameme Insurrection” here is an overt way to describe the negative influence that marketing has had on us as human beings, squarely blaming it on global socioeconomic and politico-historical crisis, with the west perceivably veering towards fascism as the status quo. In a world increasingly influenced by ill-informed influencers influencing ever-more ill-informed consumers, AdBusters tries to appeal to the current generation to become “maverick bullshit-detectors”.

Alternatively, Newsweek sets its own perspective about Trump on the furthest possible end of the spectrum to that of AdBusters: polar opposites, yet somehow allied in their defiance of Trump. Riffing-off age-old comic speech bubbles, this issue of Newsweek points out the spectacle that is the Trump brand, with the president surrounded by a cloud of his own bogus propaganda and baseless rhetoric — the ultimate influencer.

The fifth issue of the rebooted MAD Magazine issue takes the comical approach to the next level, picturing Trump as a B-grade horror-movie villain, Godzilla-style, stopping traffic with his iconic, oversized red tie, looking weathered with all his clothes torn apart, and exposing a classy t-shirt sunburn on his arm (implying his support base). Attacked from all sides, he still stands defiant, with his infamous hairstyle slightly affected and his pouted facial expression, plus stereotypical political hand gestures to boot. This issue was not initially caught on the Media Design radar when it was first published, as it is based on the closing of 2018, looking back at the 20 Dumbest people, events, et al, of the year.

Contextually, when placed next these covers, the narrative sadly remains all too clear, yet people simply can’t see.

Broccoli (US), issue #4, 2019

Most magazines about pot have been pretty crass and unrefined, which has, for the most part, negatively impacted the weed brand and supported the stigma that surrounds the act of smoking cannabis. Since its humble beginnings, Broccoli has tried to reshape perceptions and attempted to portray weed culture in a more-sophisticated light. The result: Broccoli is the Kinfolk for women who have an appreciation for weed. Being a magazine for cannabis lovers, one would be forgiven for interpreting the cover image for issue #4 in a certain manner, in which artist, Adrienne Kammerer (whose portfolio website bio simply states, “pls buy my drawings and prints”), has appropriated an 1896 painting by Frances Flora Bond Palmer. A little mental, in a good way, this eccentric publication is produced by an editorial team of proud and ambitious weed-smoking women. Their aim? To rebrand cannabis — make it more chic, ambitious, and sophisticated — and break away from its historic ‘stoner’ stereotype. Super-fresh, early-morning stuff this is, defining a category.

Online

Kubrick.life — Work and life of Stanley Kubrick (Ukraine), February/March 2019

Stanley Kubrick is often acknowledged as one of the most-influential film directors in history. An online homage to the legendary American film director, screenwriter, and producer, “Stanley Kubrick — Work and Life” is a well-crafted ode delivered with sheer class and didactic finesse by Tubik Studio.

In honour of Kubrick’s 90th birthday (he was born on 27 July 1928), which would have been last year July, this site seems to be getting more attention around the 20^th anniversary of Kubrick’s death, 7 March 1999.

Well-designed, with dynamic spreads, great animated transitions and rich interactive elements, the site offers palatable and manageable amounts of information for a younger audience to become more familiar with Kubrick’s canon and legacy. The site is an extremely accessible account of all his pioneering and highly influential films, allowing for an entirely new generation to appreciate his work.

Iconic

Cannibale (France), 1920

Published in March and July of 1920, Cannibale was a two-part journal edited and designed by Francis Picabia, an influential artist and poet mentioned previously in Media Design for his association with Blind Man, 291, and 391. Cannibale was produced in the months between issues #12 and #13 of 391, and was yet another effort on Picabia’s behalf to create an international journal that could effectively broadcast the somewhat-obscure tendencies of the dadaists, which could be seen as form of proto-culture-jamming, especially when compared to a contemporary magazine such as AdBusters mentioned above.

As opposed to culture consumption, which destroys culture, culture-jamming seeds the everchanging and fluid production of culture by continuing the pendulum swing between mainstream and underground tendencies. Cannibale did exactly this, simply by opposing commerciality, conventionality, and, for lack of a better term, ‘bourgeois civility’. Today, very little may be more bourgeois than a person (consumer) being influenced by an influencer taking a selfie on Instagram. There is absolutely nothing revolutionary or cultural about it. It was this dada spirit of provocation that made it an international phenomenon, evolving onwards to set the foundation for other avant-garde platforms, including a number of revolutionary movements during the ’60s, such as fluxus, and punk in the late ’70s. The dadaists were enlightened, informed, and aware, and Cannibale is proof of this, as a collection of theories, philosophies, and other literature from various dada exponents in Paris, including Louis Aragon, André Breton (leader of the surrealist movement), Tristan Tzara (the self-proclaimed founder of dada), Marcel Duchamp (arguably the ‘father’ of conceptual thinking) and Paul Éluard, to name a few.

Sources

Shane de Lange (@shanenilfunct) is a designer, writer, and educator currently based in Cape Town, South Africa, working in the fields of communication design and digital media. He works from Gilgamesh, a small design studio. Connect with him on Pinterest and Instagram.

Media Design is a regular slot deconstructing media design, both past and present.

African Echo: Ghana’s unique relationship with the world

flag-ghana-red-yellow-green-black courtesy of Pixabay

by Lesego Thomas (@leethomas92) One can argue that the presence of foreign brands and brand chains isn’t all that unique; globalisation is a real thing. But the extent to which this is so in Ghana is quite remarkable. And what makes it even more so is how it reflects their overall relationship with the rest of the world.

Believe in one another

The people of Ghana are a population that not only love, but also believe in, one another. If you were to ask each one what the most-important thing is to them, the answer nearly 100% of the time is their family. Additionally, their version of ‘black tax’ is not like ours here in SA. Instead of an almost life-long obligation those who ‘make it’ owe to their families, here the gesture ends when they are in a position to start making a living for themselves in the big city. This promotion of self and their identity really is something to marvel, as shown by corporate Ghana reserving every Friday for people to flaunt their cultural wear, whereas we South Africans restrict it to a single day in the year. In short, at the centre of Ghanaian identity is a strong love for and belief in one another, as well as the desire for everyone to succeed.

If it’s local? Great. If it’s black-owned? Even better!

True in SA but not so in Ghana, as I came to realise. Instead, success is shown in how regularly people engage with, and consume, international brands, often at the expense of their local counterparts. In SA, promoting and consuming locally bred businesses is a key part of the SA success story, which has added, and continues to add, pressure on foreign brands (think Topshop and River Island vs Tshepo The JeanMaker and Skinny Sbu Socks).

Standard Chartered and Barclays, both from the UK, lead the Ghanaian banking category as a result of the ‘status’ associated with them — a privilege not quite enjoyed by local institutions such as GCB, Ecobank and UniBank. Also, from an academic perspective, studying abroad is preferred over studying locally whereas, in SA, institutions such as Wits University and University of Cape Town (UCT) are able to attract some of the brightest minds from home and abroad.

Interesting tension

Therein lies an interesting tension. On the one side, we see a country where the people really push their fellow countrymen and women to succeed as best as they possibly can. On the other, we see those who have made it choose to engage with the rest of the world, and all it has to offer, at the expense of locally produced products and services.

What does this mean for the growth of homegrown brands?

The truth is that Ghanaian brands barely form part of their quintessential success story. Another way to think of it: the less local you buy, the more that qualifies your level of success. If we analysed that further, we can see how it ties back to the continent’s dark past; particularly how colonialists managed to suppress the self-esteem of Africans. That bit of history repeats itself in how local brands are a gateway to the brands they truly aspire to.

What will it take for African brands in this market to reverse this tide, and subsequently win a share of the consumers’ minds, hearts and wallets? My answer is that they would first need to acknowledge the advantage they have (being a favoured option by virtue of being international brands), and use that to build confidence in purchases for African and Ghanaian products and services. Then, leverage that as a key step in moving the continent forward through the brands we build.

Updated at 12.09pm on 14 March 2019.

Lesego Thomas (@leethomas92), an FCB Africa strategist, has over four years in strategic planning. He’s worked in the financial services sector, as well as on some of the largest brands in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. African Echo seeks to unpack markets in Africa, highlight business opportunities and share insights into what works and what rebounds.

Market Research Wrap: Seven types of SA cricket fans

by MarkLives (@marklives) Our weekly wrap of the latest market and consumer research:

Fan segmentation
Mobile access in emerging countries

South Africa’s unique fan positioning

Nielsen Sports Cricket SA Fan DNA segments 01 — Click to enlarge

Nielsen Sports has launched its first South African “Fan DNA” report, featuring a new way to segment sports enthusiasts and revealing SA fans as highly nuanced and difficult to understand. [Cheryl Hunter]

Commissioned by Cricket South Africa, the local report was built on the global Fan DNA model, which incorporates 10 years of fan insights across 30 countries and 450 000 interviews focusing on all major sports. The purpose of the study was to determine the size and profile of the key fan segments amongst SA cricket fans to enable CSA and its key stakeholders to reach, communicate and engage with fans in a far more-efficient, -strategic and -meaningful manner.

Seven clearly differentiated groups of fans have emerged, each with its own distinctive characteristics, behavioural tendencies and attitudes to sport and sponsors:

Connection Fans love coming together to enjoy sports
Trend Positives love sport and what it says about them
Game Experts want facts, statistics and tactics
Armchair Fans connect to the world from home
Busy don’t have time
Cynics think sports activation is a con
Disengaged don’t understand the fuss around sports

Nielsen Sports Cricket SA Fan DNA segments 02 — Click to enlarge

Some of the key findings include that the highest number of local cricket fans are Connection Fans — 45% of the SA cricket fan base, vs the 25% global sports fan average. These are fans whose principal underlying motivation for being a fan is the opportunity it creates for doing things with their friendship group and/or family. Activations that celebrate, enhance, or amplify these connection opportunities therefore strike a strong chord with this group.

Thirty-three percent of cricket fans attend braais more than once a month; this is also the fan segment that attend cricket fixtures the most, account for the largest proportion of all sponsorship response, and often have the highest proportion of their lives engaged with a sports property.

The study has produced other in-depth data on different segments of cricket fans, including lifestyle interests, the type of events, social interactions and content they enjoy, as well as the media platforms they use to access sports content — all invaluable insights for planning and execution of winning sponsorship strategies.

For more info, go to Nielsen.

The morality of mobile

Pew Research Center concerned adults percentage — Click to enlarge.

The Pew Research Center has released a new report on “Mobile Connectivity in Emerging Economies” showing that the public across 11 emerging countries sees mobile phones and social media as bringing certain benefits to them and their societies, but that these views are paired with widespread concerns about their impact on children. [Cheryl Hunter]

The centre has intensified its exploration of the impact of online connectivity among populations in emerging economies — where the prospect of swift and encompassing cultural change, propelled by digital devices, might be more dramatic than the effects felt in developed societies.

Surveys conducted across four global regions (Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia; South Africa and Kenya; India, Vietnam and the Philippines; and Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon) have found that the vast majority of adults in these countries own or have access to a mobile phone, with 53% of these devices being a smartphone capable of internet access and running apps.

Worries that mobile phones might expose children to immoral or harmful content are a key flashpoint in these fears. A median of 79% of adults — and majorities in all countries surveyed — says people should be very concerned about this. More broadly, a median of 54% says the increasing use of the internet has had a bad influence on children in their country, and a median of 63% says the same about mobile phones.

Kenyans, South Africans, Jordanians, Tunisians and Lebanese who use a mobile phone are more likely to say their phone is something they couldn’t live without. But, in the six other countries, larger shares say they don’t always need their phones.

For the full report go to Pew Research Centre.

This weekly “Market Research Wrap” column offers an overview and critique of the latest market and industry research.

Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.

Media Redefined: The dangerous new power of media agencies

soap-bubbles-bird-burst-fantasy courtesy of Pixabay

by Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) The priority of efficiency over effectiveness is something that has been bothering me since I’ve been in the advertising industry — and it’s getting worse.

So, there we were. Eight of us, 8am and just landed at OR Tambo International Airport, needing to get to our office in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Before we knew it, the more cost-minded among us had taken charge and done the simple calculation of eight Gautrain tickets vs the cost of an UberXL. The decision was made, and in we piled, feeling smug that we had heeded the financial director’s call to cut out unnecessary wastage.

Two hours later, stressed, frazzled and sense of humour lost somewhere on Gillooly’s Interchange, we piled out and rushed to our respective client meetings. The impact of our lateness was felt across various boardrooms, as presentations were being presented by the unexperienced and clients were making silent mental notes that, if this agency couldn’t even get to meetings on time, how was it going to manage their multimillion rand accounts?

Data-efficient vs creative effectiveness

I see a lot of happy media people walking around, celebrating the final victory of data-efficient media-buying over the effectiveness of a creative solution. In partnership with procurement and finance departments, and marketing teams that are not able to stand up to an insatiable thirst for numeric proof that activity will work, media teams globally seem to have all the power.

What is the definition of efficiency? “A system achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.” (Oxford Dictionaries)

And effectiveness? “Successful in producing a desired or intended result.” (Oxford Dictionaries)

All the focus seems to be on getting the engine of the car as fuel-efficient as possible. Who cares if its heading in the wrong direction?

Three insights

There was a great article that I read at the start of the year by Rory Sutherland (@rorysutherland), Ogilvy Group vice chair, where he spoke about the “efficiency bubble”, which a lot of the marketing industry seem to be stuck in at the moment.

There were three great insights that he pulled out:

1. Marketing is a source of value creation, not a cost to be minimised

In the pressure on cost, marketing’s role gets lost. If it’s not creating brand value, what is it doing?

2. Advertising is now treated like it’s a branch of logistics

It’s been easy to add advertising into the logistics efficiency equation. It makes a lot more sense to those who don’t understand the power of ideas.

3. Media and message are interdependent. Solving one in isolation is like solving all the “across” clues first on a crossword.

The solve for media is to move away from the spreadsheet, and understand that the real power lies in how effective the end product is. Yes, where and how consumers see it is important, but what they see is equally so.

Brands that are winning understand that getting this balance right is key. Media agencies need to realise that they might think they hold all the cards now, but the “efficiency bubble” will eventually burst.

Martin MacGregor (@MartMacG) is managing director of Connect, an M&C Saatchi Company, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Martin has spent 18 years in the industry, and has previously worked at Ogilvy and was MD of MEC Nota Bene in Cape Town. He contributes the monthly “Media Redefined” column, in which he challenges norms in the media space, to MarkLives.com.

FastFoward: The future of power

by Marguerite Coetzee. The time into which a generation is born shapes the way that they view the world, and the impact they make on the world.

Generational theory

In South Africa, baby boomers grew up in a highly racialised, segregated and uncertain time, while the world welcomed innovations in health and safety (birth control pill, polio vaccine, seatbelt, smoke detector) and challenges to civil rights when Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream” speech.

Gen X saw the end of the Vietnam war, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the introduction of new technologies (laptop computer, the World Wide Web, cellphone). Although SA lagged behind with the introduction of television and experienced violence and volatility during this time (Soweto Uprising, state of emergency), it miraculously made progress of its own (first heart transplant, Nelson Mandela freed from prison, democratic negotiations).

Millennials/Gen Y (born frees in SA) saw continued efforts in fighting for human rights (combatting HIV/AIDS, legalising same-sex marriage) and improvements made to technological innovations (Hubble telescope launched, MP3, electric car). Centennials/Gen Z and the Alpha generation were born into the euphoria of SA winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup and hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but have also seen the horrors of xenophobia and the frustration of loadshedding.

In order to better understand an age group — and to more effectively connect with, respond to, and communicate to them — we need to consider both their life stage and their historical context. There are social dynamics and power shifts constantly at play which influence the way people experience the world.

Knowledge is power

We can often tell a lot about a country’s present condition by what it considers to be ‘utopia’. This is a time and place in the future imagined to be ‘perfect’. Usually, people will point out the things they imagine in a utopia as a response to the negative qualities they experience in the present. Gillette’s portrayal of masculinity indicates how the brand imagines we could combat present gender-based discrimination and toxic forms of masculinity for a more-flexible future. AirBnB’s “We Accept” and Diesel’s “Make love not walls” were responses to present forms of exclusion and resistance to difference for a more-inclusive future. Nike teaming with Kaepernick was a statement against racial injustice, and Nando’s tackled ‘you people’ stereotypes for a more-informed future.

https://youtu.be/koPmuEyP3a0

https://youtu.be/Fq2CvmgoO7I

Brands create culture. They impact the way people see the world, how they make sense of their experiences, and what decisions they make. It’s vital for brands to use their platforms wisely to communicate purposeful messages, and to follow through with their promises. Be considerate, compassionate, and courageous. Support and spark movements while avoiding glorifying, glamorising, or commercialising serious social issues.

What’s next

Social shifts and power plays are of concern in Africa, particularly in terms of enforcing colonially created national borders that result in xenophobia and restrictions on trade and collaboration on the continent, perpetuating the idea that Africa is underdeveloped by Western standards, disregarding the exploitation of Africa for its mineral wealth, provoking racism and considerations of emigration, or even conjuring up notions of Africa as a dependent, undisciplined, dangerous place. These thoughts all shape the notion of power in Africa. Pay attention to what concerns consumers today, in order to anticipate and shape what futures might unfold.

Marguerite Coetzee is an anthropologist, artist and futurist who provides research and insight services through Omniology. FastForward, the latest series in her regular column on MarkLives, takes an intellectual, scientific and artistic approach to the future – particularly the future of Africa.