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Q5: Winning as working moms, with Alisha Ramasar [interview]

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Alisha Ramasar (@mrs_alisha), co-director of Joburg-based brand and marketing consultancy, Hello A-list, speaks about running a company focused on empowering the youth while raising children herself. Both she and co-founder Almaza da Costa are #mombosses, and their agency positioning is “a special-empowered-women-ocd-kinda-brand-love”.

Founded in 2016 as A-list Communications, it rebranded to Hello Alist in 2019 as it moved more into full-service offerings and not just communications.

Q5: Tell us about the roots of Hello A-list — where did it begin? And what’s the OCD part of the tag line?
Alisha Ramasar: Hello A-list was a dream realised when Almaza and I decided that we’d had enough of inefficiencies and red tape against exorbitant fees that didn’t justify the quality of work being produced, nor the quantity being executed. We both have significant retail marketing experience, and I had many years in agency strategy prior, so when we sat down one day and I asked Almaza why we couldn’t do it ourselves; it was the defining moment in this story.

We agreed to take a leap of faith. After all sorts of life lessons achieved at the wise and wonderful age of 30, we had a pretty clear grounding in the reality that life is too short not to try. So, we risked our reliable income, some pretty fancy marketing titles and, without thinking about it for more than five minutes, decided to launch an agency and quit our stable jobs. We had the name in the bag before we knew exactly what we were going to do.

We launched A-list and resigned from our corporate roles within two months. The first year was rough: we, like most entrepreneurs, had a phenomenal learning curve. But, as the saying goes, when you are about to hit rock-bottom, something miraculous happens — and that’s exactly what happened to us. After working on a very ad-hoc basis, pushing through with cold-calling, trying to promote ourselves with almost no case studies to show, we were asked to come back to the corporate we left and pitch as the agency for at least 10 loved global brands. We pitched against other agencies and we won. That was really the beginning of Hello A-list.

The OCD in our brand DNA is really innate, and we embrace it as a very special and unique offering that both Almaza and I have. It [allows] us to be agile enough to offer clients exactly what they need — the first time, and with love. Sure, the fact that we are two females, pushing through in a world where ad agencies are still dominated by male leaders — yes, sometimes it’s challenging. But, as mothers and women, we have something special to offer brands that we believe is getting lost as time goes on, and as agency-client relationships are tested with the question: “Why do we have an agency?”

We make branding human by offering brands the love they deserve. It’s less about the money, less about the fancy names — it’s about getting the job done, and getting it done with love.

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Q5: Name the top three highlights for the agency to date?
AR: 1) Definitely winning our first big pitch. That was when we won the speciality business for Edcon, which included all the international fashion brands from Topshop, River Island, Dune London, Dr Martens, Calvin Klein, Lipsy, TM Lewin and many others, through to CNA, Edgars Active and Cellular.

2) Winning our first Bronze Cannes International Lion award.

3) Without a doubt, a constant highlight is having the most amazing teams working at A-list. We have honestly been blessed with the best. Regardless if they have left and moved on or stuck through, once you are part of A-list, you are part of our family. They all know they can always come to us.

Q5: Tell us about the work you do with young graduates?
AR: Our office is very close to Boston Media House. So, one day, when we were looking for an intern, we literally stopped the car and walked in and asked for someone who could help us — and that was one of the best decisions we ever made. The school is phenomenal, and we have consistently been amazed at the level of determined, smart, courageous young people we have to dominate the future of advertising. However, the challenge for [many] of these students is that they either can’t afford to complete their studies, or they aren’t being given a chance to gain experience. We have on multiple occasions hired on the spot. That’s how amazing they are!

We since have structured our business to be focused on upskilling students and growing young talent in the industry. Once they have experienced a three-month internship, we then move them to an account-assistant role in a space that together we have identified as their passion zone. From event[s] to public relations, social media, graphic design and videography — we give everyone a chance to see each side of our business offering and work with them to train and motivate their strengths above all.

Q5: What is your covid-19 response strategy?
AR: It’s tough at the moment for everyone. Brands are stopping all marketing outputs. They are downsizing teams. It’s not an easy time. However, our view on the situation is to push through, be dynamic in your offering and look for ways to fill the gap. One thing we have done is convert our website to an ecommerce platform for basic agency outputs. This is a time when marketing teams need to rally together and get the job done — sometimes without the luxury of a retainer agency on hand. That’s where we come in with smart deliverables and quick execution.

Q5: Finally, what’s something that working parents in this industry wish everyone else knew?
AR: You know, it’s one thing being a working parent; tt’s another being a working mom in this industry. We often get called into evening presentations and meetings that [go on] way past regular office hours — often a lot longer than they need to in the first place. All of which will knowingly end up with the infamous “drinks”, which doesn’t make sense when you’re a mom in this industry. Especially a mom who needs to get home, prepare dinner, get the kids sorted, bath time, bed time and still prep for the next day’s activities at work and for everyone at home. Not much else to do except apologise and excuse yourself early, right?

As glamorous as it may look from the outside, it’s an extremely cutthroat industry with a lot of amazing talent [who] just don’t get the chance to shine when they are overshadowed by “the big guys”. It’s a daily hustle of being something to everyone, and being everything to everyone.

“2020” — WTF?!

covid-19-calendar-agenda by Gerd Altmann courtesy of Pixabay

by Leigh Tayler (@LeighAnneTayler) As each day of 2020 ticks by, it seems a new WTF?! moment springs up like some sort of grotesque jack-in-the-box. All these moments, seemingly disparate, are flares in our collective society, moments that are screaming for us to review how our society is built and operates. It’s the year we won’t be allowed to look, hide or run away from the issues that need to be addressed — it’ll be the year we’ll be forced to face our societal demons.

The year started on fire, literally, as the world watched Australia’s bushfires burn. And the year has sought to continue as it began… on fire, one wild fire after another.

WTF?! A global pandemic just killed hundreds of thousands and annihilated the world’s economy.
WTF?! Another unarmed black person was just killed at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect. And another. And another.
WTF?! The president of the biggest democracy is encouraging the use of force against citizens exercising their rights to protest against systemic racism — in a tweet.
WTF?! Another woman and child killed at the hands of a man. And another. And another. And another. This one time she was hung from tree and was eight-months pregnant.

Is it just me or does it feel like these fires are building towards something?

Watershed year

Leslie Dwight, a writer/designer, penned something that gave me pause to think:

View this post on Instagram

“What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?⁣ What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?⁣ A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw — that it finally forces us to grow.⁣ A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.⁣ A year we finally accept the need for change.⁣ Declare change. Work for change. Become the change. A year we finally band together, instead of⁣ pushing each other further apart.⁣ ⁣ 2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather⁣ the most important year of them all.”⁣ ⁣ ?

A post shared by LESLIE DWIGHT (@lesliedwight) on Jun 3, 2020 at 12:38pm PDT

This will be a watershed year. At least, it should be.

Because things need to change, and change they will. I, for one, am worried that the change we need won’t be the change we get. Pressure forms diamonds yes, but it’s more likely to create fissures. How do we prevent this pressure, the discomfort of 2020, from changing the world into an even more-divided and -extreme places? How do we instead use the pressure to form something valuable, something worthy?

I wish I had the answers to these questions. But I don’t.

Perhaps some thinkers far more creative or ingenious than I will use their powers of creative thinking and lateral problem-solving and spark an idea that will grow into the answer the world needs. But we can’t wait for miracles — and we can’t wait for someone else to fix the issues.

Let’s seize the moment

So WTF?!, adland, even if we can’t solve the all the world’s problems, let’s seize the moment to create positive change within our own circle of influence: the advertising industry. Let’s start somewhere. Let’s make 2020 the year where our industry transforms through the fire:

Equal pay for equal work
Meaningful transformation, not just tokenism
Visibility of all types of diversity in our advertising, including LGBTQI+ and differently abled
Stop protecting perpetrators of racism, sexism, sexual harassment or any bigotry or discrimination
Stop greenwashing, pinkwashing, whitewashing, all the BS

Please let’s just stop doing anything that adds to the misery or brokenness of society; let’s rather commit to making meaningful, responsible and progressive work that makes the world a better place.

Maybe I’m naïve or expecting miracles but perhaps we can all be part of what I desperately hope will be the most important WTF?! moment in 2020 — the one where people will look back and say, “That was the moment where things changed forever. That was the moment where things started to get better for everyone.”

Hard Relate: Creatures of habit #coronavirusSA

change-board-door-new-beginning by Gerd Altmann courtesy of Pixabay with SA covid-19 stats 12 July 2020 - Media Hack Collective

by David Alves (@TheDavidAlves) Day… 4965 of lockdown and things seem to be getting worse, but hope remains high. Has anything changed in the media and advertising environment, you may ask?

Apart from flashes of brilliance from King Price and the unwarranted daily covid-19 SMS from my mobile provider, the answer is no; brands seem to be merely accepting that they can’t operate as they always have been. That’s part of the problem. You can’t keep doing what isn’t working and hope for a better result.

Our needs are in a state

So, what should brands be doing right now in order to capitalise on this state of flux? Consumers don’t think rationally; we think relatively and emotionally. We’re in constant need of an anchor, a reference point for all decisions made by the brain. Daniel Kahneman, author of “Thinking Fast and Slow”, referenced these as System 1 and System 2 thinking. For several decades, psychologists have been intensely interested in these two modes. The terms were originally proposed by the psychologists Keith Stanovich and Richard West.

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control (habit).
System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration (consider)

As consumers’ priorities have shifted in their Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, so should brands be similarly adjusting. It’s already been discussed how, during periods of disruption, consumers are four times more likely to switch brands due to changes to their contextual and motivational cues and habits. Here’s a relatively simple thought experiment:

You go to the shops.
You sanitise your hands.
You put on a face mask.
You stand in a queue to enter.
You sanitise your hands.
You select items based on necessity rather than personal preference.
You speak to someone through a plexi-glass window.
You sanitise your hands.
You wipe down your groceries.
You remove your mask. Breathe.
You drive/walk home.
You wash your hands.

More than likely, consumers will revert back to their old ways as soon as wearing masks and social distancing restrictions are lifted. The level of System 2 engagement here is so far beyond comfortable heuristics, one would struggle to see habits forming going forward.

An important aspect to consider when examining matters through our two systems is context. It always matters what we’re referring to. Context is hugely influential and is also hugely influenced. In “Sentence Comprehension: Integration of Habits and Rules”, David J Townsend and Thomas Bever state: “Most of the time what we do most of the time.”

The three Ms

Most behaviours require three things to happen:

A moment
A means (or action)
A motivation

When these three things happen, habits form. A moment may be defined in the context of the behaviour and refers to cues which activate that moment, such as emails, people, location etc. The means refers to diagnostic entities such as time, money and, alternatively, risk and autonomy. Motivations are somewhat obscure in nature but may be loosely defined as elements such as security, belonging and/or status.

So, what’s a habit?

Using the above as a framework, a habit is a behaviour that’s gone into a repetitive loop and our brain goes on autopilot (System 1). A habit is then formed when we have three things:

A cue (context)
A behaviour (simplistically)
A reward (satisfaction), which keeps the loop on repeat

Brands might mistake our System 1 thinking as brand loyalty, which is a huge danger.

Here’s another thought experiment to test that hypothesis: take a look at your most-recent shopping list. What’s at the top? Possibly bread, milk, tea. If you’re like the rest of us, your list will look exactly like that; it won’t say “Woolworths 90% linseed brown” and “UTH Long Life Milk cardboard cartons”. You get the picture.

The risk is that the consumer isn’t buying brands but categories (bread, milk, tea). If your brand isn’t available, the consumer will simply default to their System 1 thinking (habit) and move to the next brand available. They’re there for the category and not your linseed lure which, in most cases, is usually a direct competitor of the brand they usually shop for. Investment from brand owners also comes under fire as their investments into differentiating themselves and attracting consumers, even to build the category itself as well as the brand, will be for nought.

Dear disruption

The only thing that has the ability to break a habit is disruption. Enter covid-19. A case in point: the best time to give up smoking is when you change jobs or get married. As far as disruptions go, the pandemic has been enough to disrupt so many other parts of our lives, that, unfortunately, the removal of civil liberties such as access to liquor and cigarettes in South Africa has been viewed as oppressive and not necessarily the type of disruption one could positively use to change a habit.

Let’s go back to the elements that make up a habit. Two pillars: behaviour and reward. In SA, the lockdown has forced many people to rethink their way of being every day. Their entire world has been disrupted and all those regular, comforting cues are no longer there. Strike 1 for lockdown. Herein lies the problem. Due to the oppressive nature of the lockdown and the extreme measures taken by the government, when there is no cue, System 2 kicks in, our auto-pilot brain and System 1 take a back seat and we seek alternatives for satisfaction. Strike 2 for the lockdown. Additionally, with the autopilot switched off, the intrinsically linked reward changes to an alternative reward, one that could be deemed as destructive (grey market cigarettes). Strike 3.

The lockdown has done tremendous damage to our everyday routines, our habits, our lives. Consider this: what time do you wake up in the morning now? Exactly. Our regular retailers have disappeared or, at least, are a shadow of their former selves. Our usual channels have been restricted through social distancing and hygiene points for sanitation. Channel (think: context) is a hugely important factor, as many consumers have taken to ecommerce — yet another risk for brands as consumers are again more likely to switch brands when using an alternative channel to their regular in-store channel.

Restrictions regarding products on shelves have caused consumers to think harder System 2) about what time to buy. Meal-planning has caused consumers to be more circumspect about what they’re buying due to the uncomfortable experience of having to physically enter the shopping environment and endure the many disruptions to regular habits.

Lastly, and maybe more positively, consumers have adopted a more socially minded approach to their shopping behaviours. Gone are the panic-buying days of the early stages of lockdown. Perhaps you’ve even offered to shop for your elderly neighbour or family members, a behaviour linked to thinking about our own security and the needs of others.

Changes in behaviour

Consumers have also taken it upon themselves to shift in interesting ways when it comes to spending habits, which have both positive and negative consequences. Here are the four changes in behaviour consumers have and will likely continue to display:

Clean and sober: Without access to your regular artisan coffee, most consumers have simply gone cold turkey.
Work (not walk) around: Is the social distancing line at your nearest Woolies too long? Checkersparpay it is, then.
The old switch-a-roo: Blue Ribbon brown bread is fine. Your linseed what-what loaf takes a back seat. Sorry, linseed!
One for another: Can’t get your favourite takeaway because the app is overloaded? Consumers are buying their ingredients and cooking from scratch. Like cave people!

The danger for brands is obvious. If any of these become habitually easier or more rewarding, consumer preferences will be undermined, and new habits will form in their place.

Behaviours will continue to change; brands need to come along for the ride.

MarkLives #AdChamps of the Month [Jul 2020]

MarkLives AdChamps collage Jul 2020 with SA covid-19 stats 12 Jul 2020 - Media Hack Collective

by Kyle de Waal & Morgan Botha. Here’s our latest choice of South African ads that connect and engage: Volkswagen South Africa’s Drive Local, Metropolitan’s Three Word Stories, Ackermans’ Faces of Change, King Price Insurance’s Roadblock, and Tops at Spar’s Seriously Responsible.

View all our #AdChamps at a glance on our #AdChamps Pinterest board!

Watch our #AdChamps, #Campaigns and #CampaignRadar playlists on YouTube!

#AdChamp: Volkswagen South Africa — Drive Local

Volkswagen SA hasn’t only talked the talk but walked the walk in this exceptional ad that speaks to what the people need to keep moving through this year. It was also one of the first brands in South Africa to shoot with the new social distancing regulations in place, with entirely remote pre- and post-production.

Drive Local is a major part of VW’s plan to assist local people and businesses taking strain during the novel coronavirus pandemic. At the same time as creating this ad to encourage supporting local, the Volkswagen chairperson set up a temporary covid-19 medical facility with 4 000 beds, as well as organising VW Germany to donate R100m to the cause in South Africa.

Meredith Kelly, Volkswagen Passenger head of marketing, told MarkLives that the shoot in Darling in the Western Cape caused substantial excitement among the locals: “In many ways, it mirrored the actual advert as people were excited to see some activity returning to their town.”

Credits

Brand: Volkswagen
Clients: Meredith Kelly, Loryn Symons, Neo Nkosi
Ad agency: Ogilvy Cape Town
Creative group head: Marjolein Rossouw
Creative director: Alex Goldberg
Associate creative director: Riaan Van Wyk
Copywriter: Melanie Horenz
Art director: Lisa Hodgkiss

#AdChamp: Metropolitan — Three Word Stories

Caretakers and breadwinners are feeling an enormous amount of responsibility and may, therefore, find it difficult to speak up about their mental health struggles — according to a recent South African Depression and Anxiety Group survey, 40% of respondents said that depression has been the main challenge since physical distancing rules were put in place. In response, Metropolitan has stepped up to start stigma-free conversations on mental health issues to help those struggling.

Each week for five weeks during June and July 2020, Metropolitan has been using radio, print, and digital media to have an open dialogue with those in our country who, according to Llewellyn Allen, Metropolitan head of marketing, “feel that they are in some way responsible for others”.

Various SA motivators and radio personalities (including Musa Mthombeni, Malibonge Xaba, Hector Mathebe, Keabetswe Jan, Lehlohonolo Thoabala and Abongile Mangala) have been sharing stories from a personal perspective, and listeners are invited to weigh in on what the words mean to them and how they relate to their personal narratives. The topics range from education to motherhood and everything in between. Concrete and actionable advice has also been offered.

Credits

Brand: Metropolitan
Creative agencies: Black River FC and M-Sports Marketing
Concept: Black River FC
PR amplification: M-Sports Marketing
Talent sourcing: Metropolitan

#AdChamp: Ackermans — Faces of Change

This is a campaign that highlights and celebrates women’s empowerment in a series of ads honouring five extraordinary women who’ve made uplifting, impactful, and lasting changes in their communities.

Shameema Maloon, Ackermans advertising manager, told MarkLives, “During this difficult and uncertain time, people want to hear positive and ‘feel-good’ stories. We wanted to create a campaign which is relevant, centres around the same sentiments, while also speaking to the Ackermans’ brand values.”

Adds Chris Smith, 99c creative director, “We wanted to change the conversation around the power and possibility of women, to amplify their voices.”

While this idea was conceived before covid-19, the intent was to give recognition, respect and admiration to the women who deserve it — women who’ve for so long put others above themselves and have acted so selflessly that it was past time to put them in the spotlight and celebrate what they often do with no recognition outside of their immediate communities — and this is timeless.

Credits

Brand: Ackermans
Advertising manager: Shameema Maloon
Advertising specialist: Gabriella Nunes
Ad agency: 99c Advertising and Communications Agency
Creative director: Chris Smith
Business unit director: Melanie Roussouw
Digital account director: Nawaal Alexander
Senior art director: Camilla Grobler
Digital art director: Lee Stemmet
Digital copywriter: Skye de Chazal
Broadcast media producer: Adiela Mosaval
Art buyer: Lynn Siebritz
Social media manager: Railyn Kruiser
Photographer: Ulrich Knoblauch, Robin Bernstien (digital assistant), Ruan van Jaarsveldt (lighting assistant)
Stylist: Justin Jurd, Danica van der Veen (stylist assistant)
Hair: Jacqui Lupton, Vivienne Ngoma (hair assistant)
Makeup: Neveen Scello
Production house: Bioscope Films
Director: Kyla Philander
Producer: Lee-Anne Jacobz
Production manager: Naledi Khape
DOP: Zenn Van Zyl
Post production: Strangelove Studios
Editor: Emily Bussac
Online editor: Darian Simon
Grade: Nic Apostoli
Audio: Pressure Cooker

#AdChamp: King Price Insurance— Roadblock

We’ve come to expect light-hearted hilarity from King Price and, once again, the insurance company and Freckle have delivered.

While we all wait for travel bans to be lifted, it’s fun to imagine it would be as simple as hopping in our cars and heading for the nearest border; we also all know someone who just doesn’t understand how much things have changed and is taking a while to figure this out.

This glorious idea for King Price was inspired because Bennie Fourie and Bouwer Bosch of Freckle Creative Agency were actually stopped at a lockdown roadblock. According to Freckle, the two set up a writers’ room to work on concepts, asking what misunderstandings could arise from this situation and playing around with phrases such as “Ma’am, you’re hot” and the possible confusion caused. The ad was almost finished when Fourie had a lightbulb moment for the final joke and so the “permit” angle came to life to round out this hilarious ad.

Credits

Brand: King Price Insurance
Ad agency: Freck Creative Agency
Concept: Bennie Fourie, Bouwer Bosch, Schalk Bezuidenhout
Writer & director: Bennie Fourie
Editing: Bouwer Bosch
Music & foley: Peach van Pletzen
Director of photography: Brendan Barnes
Officer: Mbeu Kambuwa
Ditsy driver: Marijke Coetser

#AdChamp: Tops at Spar — Seriously Responsible

Taking a pre-covid-19 ad and adapting it to make it relevant for now, when we wear masks everywhere we go and try to understand muffled voices, is genius. This ad also gets top marks because it was easily achievable through remote work; none of the people involved in this new version ever had to be in the same room.

This ad promotes safe shopping behaviour while making us laugh. The brilliant idea came to life when Tops at Spar suddenly had to find a way to encourage physical distancing in-store, when buying alcohol had become legal again under level-three lockdown restrictions. To create something new out of what’d worked in the past and make it silly, hilarious, and hopeful is also an achievement in itself.

Credits

Client: Tops at Spar
Ad agency: TBWA\Hunt Lascaris Durban
Executive creative director: Alan Edgar
Creative director: Marcelle du Plessis
Art director: Mike Haakestad
Agency producer: Heidi Rughubar
Business unit director: Robyn Buchanan
Production house: Gentlemen Films
Director: Greg Rom
Producer: Bryony Webster
DP: Brendan Barnes
Editor: Julian Redpath
Colourist: Nic Apostoli
Offline and online facility: The Upstairs Ludus
Offline and online facility producer: Mandy Biart
Online artist: Michael Naidoo
Music composition: Honeymoon Studios
Composer: Markus Wormstorm
Final mix: Lorens Persson, Sterling Sound

Credits for covid-19 version

Client: Tops at Spar
Agency: TBWA\Hunt Lascaris Durban
Executive creative director: Alan Edgar
Creative director: Marcelle du Plessis
Art director: Jonathan Lavender
Agency producer: Heidi Rughubar
Business unit director: Robyn Buchanan
Production company: TBWA\MOTION
VFX: Kunaal Hiraman
Final mix: Johan Prinsloo, TBWA\MOTION

Thinking B2B: B2B marketing in a recession

business-success-winning-chart by PublicDomainPictures courtesy of Pixabay with SA covid-18 stats 12 Jul 2020 - Media Hack Collective

by Warren Moss (@warrenmoss) Every conversation I have with a CMO or marketing director lately revolves around the way a B2B business should be looking at marketing its product or service in the face of a recession. It’s a challenge that companies always struggle with when things get leaner, with marketing and communication generally among the first elements to be cut.

It’s a subjective conversation, which depends on plenty of factors — but, fortunately, there’s plenty of data from previous local and global recessions to illustrate how different methods of navigating the challenge have yielded specific results for companies. A Harvard Business Review feature, “Roaring out of Recession”, reviewed how just under 5 000 companies had navigated three recessions, comparing their performance three years prior to, and post-recession, considering the strategies they’d employed during the downturn.

Fascinating results

It’s a massive B2B sample size and the results were fascinating: just under 20% of the companies didn’t survive. Of the ones which did, 80% never saw their performance return to pre-recession levels. Of those which survived, 9% thrived under the harsh conditions. The key similarity across those which thrived was that they deployed a combination of offensive and defensive strategies, rather than focusing on one or the other:

Defensive measures included reducing head count, improving operational efficiency, or a combination of the two.
Offensive measures included investing in marketing to open up new opportunities, investing in balance sheet assets, or a combination of the two.

Drilling deeper, the study found that the companies could be grouped by four types of reactions:

Prevention-focused companies believed in survival at all costs, slashing numbers, driving efficiency and rationalising portfolios.
Promotion-focused companies saw the opportunity in recession, buying out competitors, investing in assets and capitalising on positive strategies ahead of competitors who took a more-defensive approach.
The third group was labelled “Pragmatic” — companies which reacted with a combination of offensive and defensive moves.
The final group of companies was labelled “Progressive” — and these were the ones which thrived, beating their pre-recession performance within three years of the end of the market dip. What set these companies apart was their adoption of a specific set of tactics: they defensively improved operational efficiency but didn’t reduce their teams; they rationalised their business by buying better and made offensive moves in terms of investing in balance sheet assets — and marketing aggressively.

Account-based marketing

In terms of the marketing conversation, it’s not about simply ticking a marketing box; it’s about employing one specific type of marketing, which focuses on the generation of revenue. In B2B marketing, success is best measured on revenue, as opposed to awareness, engagement, clicks or views. Success is binary: you either made money or you didn’t. The most-potent and -effective — but also most-misunderstood — type of revenue-focused marketing approach is account-based marketing (ABM). It’s commonly misunderstood because plenty of B2B companies think they do it by virtue of the fact that they have a key account plan, or go after specific client companies, or because their key account teams have customised collateral. We sit in front of so many teams and try to have ABM conversations, and they insist that they’re already doing it because they implement elements of ABM strategy — but that’s not ABM.

Only once a business takes the plunge and allows true ABM to be practised does it see it was nowhere near it. ABM is not about what the marketing team does for the sales team; it’s about what they do together. That’s my answer to CMOs who are looking for a revenue-based solution to marketing in a recession: look at the B2B companies which have historically thrived after an event like that, and you’ll see that ABM was at the heart of their marketing investment.

ABM is so powerful because it truly puts the customer at the centre of proposition, and the whole programme is crafted around how to help the customer grow their business. It changes the way your accounts see you, because they feel supported in that you’re working with them to grow their business, not simply selling. By becoming a partner in their business, rather than a supplier, you have conversations you never expected to have and you work together to create a pipeline of growth.

Only when every conversation is about how your customers can grow their businesses will you be able to work together to chart a way out of a recession that sets their businesses on course to be part of the 9% that thrive.

Q5: Monalisa Zwambila on PR, present and post-pandemic [interview]

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila, The Riverbed Agency founder and CEO, talks about the shape of PR during and after the pandemic. Her agency scooped no fewer than 12 titles at this year’s PRISM Awards, including South African Campaign of the Year for its work on underage drinking with Aware.org.

Q5: What is the impact of PR today, and how has this changed — if at all — in the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic?
Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila: If PR serves to influence opinion and manage and build reputation, then we need it now, more than ever. It is my belief that the true value of PR is no longer in its traditional form but the evolution thereof, as the lead narrator in what we at Riverbed call “Whole Idea Solutions”. [These are] solutions that unearth what people care about and, in so doing, ignite conversations, drive behavioural change and allow PR to create meaningful value in the delivery of integrated solutions. In the context of the pandemic, PR’s role is, first and foremost, simple and ongoing communication to the right people at the right time, managing reputation as businesses undergo transformative and difficult change.

Q5: Covid-19 has forced us to rethink so many areas of business. What does the future of PR look like to you?
MSZ: Brand empathy — an understanding that now, more than ever, brands are defined by how they show up. Their relevance has to transcend their products and services, and they need to have a point of view on issues that are redefining the world in which we operate. In addition, the future of PR is integrated, it is digital and it no longer needs the bastions and vanguards of traditional media to exist. I believe PR is now owning its rightful place, in creating and leading the narrative across channels. At Riverbed, PR is central to our ideation process as we understand the role that the media and influencers play in defining culture and shifting behaviour.

Q5: How about events? Is online here to stay?
MSZ: The future will be a hybrid mix of things. Businesses will review their spend, and what they once deemed essential will change. I’m not convinced, however, that the dramatic changes that are expected will happen. As human beings, our instinctive yearning for connection will ensure that events in some shape or form continue. When that will be, we’re not sure. But our large-scale events will return, and businesses will want to connect with their customers and stakeholders.

Q5: Even though things change, as you’ve pointed out, at the core much remains the same. What, in your experience, are the pillars of a successful PR campaign?
MSZ: Audience insights, the right messages communicated on the right channels. The realisation that there is now a convergence of disciplines, and that PR cannot work in isolation from that.

Q5: For black women in South Africa and globally, what are the barriers to career development in PR?
MSZ: We’ve seen through the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests that, unless there is will and pressure, change is always slow to take place. The same is true of business with few black women in senior roles. The dial hasn’t shifted. I interview many black women who are keen to join Riverbed because it is important for them to have a black female leader and, for them, that is the only environment in which they believe they will progress. There aren’t enough black female leading voices, unfortunately — and that has to change.

#AdForumSummit: More acquisitions planned — Accenture Interactive

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) This highly anticipated eighth and final virtual session of the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 on Wednesday 8 July from non-holding company, Accenture Interactive, along with one of its acquisitions, renowned creative agency Droga5, didn’t disappoint.

Jon Wilkins, Accenture Interactive global creative council chair and MD, led this session, along with Neil Heymann, Droga5 global chief creative officer, and Sean Lackey, Droga5 CMO. Jeannine Falcone, Accenture Interactive global and North America creative marketing agency lead, gave us an overview and we learnt that clients are increasingly in contact, in the main, to ask Accenture Interactive how they as marketers can reorganise their businesses.

Brand purpose

Accenture Interactive believes in unified brand experience and that brand purpose is the key to accelerating growth in today’s experience landscape.

Wilkins, whose agency Karmarama was Accenture Interactive’s first creative agency acquisition in 2016, heads the Accenture Interactive Creative Council, which is represented by all of the creative agencies that’ve been acquired. Accenture Interactive has 180 agency/studio sites around the world which support the creative agencies and overall Accenture offering.

Wilkins very refreshingly engaged us with various thoughts and comments using well-known musical titles and sounds, pieces of which were played during the presentation.

“What’s going on” — Marvin Gaye
- Cracks in business have become cavernous in the past few months
“Ball of Confusion” — The Temptations
- Confusion reigns
Classic “In the Mood” — Glen Miller
- People have become more reflective
- There’s more listening happening
- Research is valued
- Experts have become more valuable; the rise of the expert
“Get up, stand up” — Bob Marley
- Ethics vs profit
- Time’s slowed down
- Issues have been raised that might not have come up before
- A reappraisal of purpose on many levels is in progress
- #BlackLivesMatter has happened and brands have responded with a point of view; those that haven’t risk exclusion
“Video killed the Radio star” — The Buggles
- The shift to digital has changed dynamically
- There is a huge uptake in ecommerce, and people won’t go back to the old ways
- Direct communication to consumers is increasing rapidly
- Retailers are moving rapidly to ecommerce
“Speed of Sound” — Coldplay
- We’re moving in real time
- CMOs are having to move even quicker
- CMOs are having to ensure that more and more content is produced faster and faster
- In-housing of production is becoming the norm
“Money (That’s what I want)” — Barrett Strong
- There are cost pressures
- These have been massively accelerated by covid-19
- It’s leading to a complete transformation of marketing

“Unified brand idea”

Heymann, along with Lackey, then talked to us about the concept of a “unified brand idea” and how the integration of Droga5 with Accenture Interactive has enabled them to apply brand thinking and creativity across the whole experience, transforming a client’s business. Key clients where this has already happened include IHop, Huggies, Harley Davidson and The New York Times. Colleen Leddy, Droga5 chief media officer, identified the media — online and offline strengths of Accenture Interactive — along with its data capabilities.

We then went on to Q&A and, as with most Q&As in the last 10 days, this really helped the consultants to understand the capabilities of the agencies and how they may be applied to clients in the various markets.

Much expansion is planned for Accenture Interactive, with more acquisitions in key markets; if it can’t find the right agency to buy in those territories, it’ll source the best possible talent and build accordingly. Eighteen months will see many changes for this new player which is definitely not a holding company.

#Transformers: A brave new remote-working world

by Charlie Mathews & Kyle de Waal. The big lesson that has come from covid-19 is how adaptable people are, and how transformation is critical to becoming #FutureFit. Now that remote is the new normal, MarkLives looks at the future of work.

“Transformers Transform 2020” is a special series produced by MarkLives and HumanInsight and sponsored by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), running Jun–Sep 2020. Our objective is to explore and map new paths for brands and marketers to transform, adapt and build resilience while the world adapts to covid-19 and its resultant social, political and economic toll. This is an independently managed, journalism-driven research project.

Unemployment rate

“This is the first [time] ever that we have hit the 30% mark,” a sombre Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General of South Africa and Stats SA head, declared as the country’s unemployment rate hit a new high in June 2020. This is the figure for joblessness before covid-19 hit, and shows a profound weakness in this country’s economy prior to the national lockdown that, importantly, helped saved human lives but strangled business revenues.

The first quarter announcement of unemployment figures showed that SA was clearly in a recession before the pandemic, with a Q1 unemployment rate of 30.1% — up from 29.1% recorded for Q4 2019.

In the same week that Maluleke announced that SA’s unemployment rate had hit a record high, Amazon Inc announced that it would give this country a boost by adding 3 000 new jobs. The Seattle-headquartered ecommerce and technology giant stated that it would hire both permanent and part-time staff, bringing Amazon’s SA workforce count to some 7 000. The 3 000 new positions were remote-working roles as Amazon sought to expand its customer service base locally. The positions offered were for customer support staff, as well as for technical experts.

Working from home

After covid-19 hit South Africa, most locals found that their world of work had transformed, but a new global remote working survey shows that workers around the world want to keep working from home (WFH).

The 2020 State of Remote Work by distributed companies Buffer and AngelList (both great companies to look for work-from-home opportunities), shows that people want to keep working remotely. “There’s one statistic that remains unequivocal each year: remote workers almost unanimously want to continue to work remotely (at least for some of the time) for the rest of their careers,” the survey reads, continuing: “This year, 98 per cent of respondents agreed with this statement. Also, it seems that once someone gets a taste of working remotely, they tend to recommend it: 97 percent told us they would recommend remote work to others.” Over 3 500 remote workers from around the world took part in the survey, which explores the human attitudes towards remote work.

The study clearly shows the benefits and drawbacks of working from home. “There are always challenges that come with remote work, though they vary from person to person. Over the past three years of putting out this report, we’ve seen two unique struggles remain in the top three: the difficulties with collaboration/communication, and with loneliness,” the survey authors write.

Benefits

But there are huge benefits to remote work. A massive boon is greater flexibility — the independence, resilience and growth that comes from being more agile and adaptable.

As South Africa went into lockdown, a large number of people forced to work from home discovered that their internet access and coverage was inadequate. Then there was the challenge of parents needing to cope with schooling and caring for their young ones, as home spaces doubled up as working spaces and classrooms.

Global consultanting company, PwC, advises businesses to be more involved with staff and counsels leaders to be more present and involved in workers’ lives. “As a business leader, you want your team members to have what they need to do their jobs. Are they facing any issues — family, health, domestic situations — that might hinder their work? Are some overloaded with tasks while others have time to take on more? How can you communicate that leadership is there for them and wants to understand how to support them, without infringing on their privacy?”

Distributed companies and agencies

But the big question that job seekers in the creative and communications industries want the answer to is: “Where do we find remote work?”The good news is that there is a growing number of distributed companies and agencies looking for skilled people. But what is a “distributed company”?

Buffer is a great example because it doesn’t have a centralised head office or real-world workspaces; rather, it operates as a virtual business and its employees or teams are distributed across the world.

Drupal development company, Lullabot, has the perfect description of this kind of work: “A distributed company is one in which the vast majority of employees work from wherever they are comfortable and productive. Perhaps most importantly, communication and culture are moved outside the boundaries of a physical location so that everyone is able to be included wherever they live.”

Where to look

There are a growing number of sites that feature remote-only work for creatives and marketers. The better places to look include:

AngelList: A US-based platform for angel investors and startups, AngelList has a jobs board, and a growing number of emerging enterprises at the site are looking for remote workers in marketing or growth-marketing positions. With a similar register-to-participate model as LinkedIn, AngelList boasts up to +130 000 IT and marketing jobs that you mayapply for, once you’ve set up your profile.
DynamiteJobs: A well-curated site for remote jobs, the owners scour hundreds of jobs from distributed companies and remote-working sources each day to verify the positions. This platform claims to have more high-quality remote jobs than on any other site.
WeWorkRemotely: This site claims to be the largest remote-work community in the world with 2.5m monthly visitors. WWR features a regular list of fresh writing, design, content and remote-marketing positions.
Remote.co: A great place to look up a growing list of distributed companies, and there’s a job board with frequently updated remote positions in development and marketing. Take a look at the blog which has hints, tips and good advice for going virtual.
HubStaff Talent: As with LinkedIn and AngelList, you need to register to use HubspotTalent, but it is well worth taking the effort for this free service. Hubstaff has a good reputation with companies and talent alike, but there are a lot of starter positions, or low-paying hourly positions, so choose carefully. Smart curation is how you can use this hub to supplement your income — or land a full-time remote gig.
RemoteOK: Primarily focused on developers and technology types, the job board also has a number of marketing, design and customer-care jobs that may be found at this global site.
TranscribeMe: If you can listen closely to a video or voice clip and type it out quickly and accurately, then TranscribeMe might be a great place for you to earn top-up income. For the most part, transcription is an uncomplicated job, with easy-to-follow style guides. It’s something you can do for a couple of hours every day or in your spare time on weekends. This type of job won’t pay your rent unless you do it 9–5 all week, but it can inject of some spending money into your bank account each week to help you make it through month-end.

Clover, your advertising is misguided

Why Clover Blue Twitter and Facebook collage

by Jarred Cinman (@jarredcinman) Far be it from me to pour scorn on other people’s work. Who knows? One day, Clover might put out a pitch and it would invite us, save for this article. Maybe, one day, we’ll also paint someone desperate for work, or lacking in self-worth, a primary colour to announce a product launch. Glass houses, sharp stones and so forth.

So, a smarter person would not write this perhaps. Or would confine their remarks (as so many have) to nasty tweets which can vanish more impressively into the mists of time.

But still…

From white to blue

Clover has decided to change its milk bottles from white to blue. It claims it “opted for blue as it is the Clover corporate brand colour, and since fresh milk is the core of Clover — it makes sense to consistently drive the Clover values and identity through our fresh milk products”.

Now, for all I know, it did extensive market research showing that making blue milk bottles was a winning idea. I’m vegan, so I don’t have a dog in this particular fight (or any fight). For all I know, milk-drinkers like having their bovine beverages dispensed from a bottle that looks like Jik.

Leaving the packaging choice, the thing that has gotten South Africa talking is the video of a man painted blue announcing this rebottling. This is a film over which expense has been spared. If I remember my James Bond, painting someone from head to toe is a way to murder them. Which is to say, I fear for this man’s life, in addition to his dignity.

Why are Clover Milk bottles blue now? #WhyCloverBlue pic.twitter.com/8c68RvEUfB

— Clover (@CloverWayBetter) July 3, 2020

Vitriol and scorn

This campaign has drawn a tremendous outpouring of vitriol and scorn plus, as is customary in these troubled times, a chorus of anti-scorners who’ve added insights such as “well, it’s trending” and “everyone is posting about it” and “they probably spent almost nothing on it and look at the talkability it’s received”.

On most days, most of these same people are happy to extol the importance of branding and advertising. They cheer on brands like Nike and Nando’s and Burger King for their ingenious ads and carefully orchestrated design and execution. But give them a cheap stunt that effectively sets a company’s brand on fire and, all of a sudden, none of that seems to matter anymore. Attention, it seems, trumps all (I say that with no limits to its newfound applicability).

Why Clover Blue Twitter collage — Click to enlarge to view properly.

Let’s get a few things straight

First, simply being spoken about is neither an achievement nor a desirable outcome. The covid-19 virus has fantastic talkability, as did the cops who killed George Floyd and the woman who said she’d get AIDS from coming to Africa. Would Clover — or any other brand — enjoy being grouped with that list? The phrase “spreading virally” doesn’t introduce a value judgement on the content that’s spreading. When it’s support for civil rights, it’s a good thing. When it’s anti-vaxxing, it’s not.

Being idiotic, causing a scene and humiliating yourself and your company for the sake of attention is not a solid marketing strategy. There are some exceptions to this rule but not many. And certainly not in the dairy products category.

Secondly, painting someone any colour in a country like South Africa — and, indeed, in a world beset by racial injustice — can’t avoid raising the spectre of “blackface”. Call me a left-wing, over-sensitive snowflake, if you will, but the cloying association of this particular racism isn’t easy to shake off.

Finally, and permit me a moment of rare sanctimony for the advertising industry, if you will: this kind of lazy, unwise, poorly executed and embarrassing work demeans us all. It doubles down on the public perception that advertising is engaged in clumsy deception and, worse, condescension. In its very “popularity”, it pushes purposeful messages off the timeline and gives those, who regard our profession as wasteful, more ammunition. The nuances are obvious to those with an investment in the business. To the average consumer and the CEO who hates marketing anyway, this makes us a laughingstock.

“Who am I to judge?”

I started by asking “Who am I to judge?” and I’ll end in the same place. People have blamed 5G for the coronavirus and shack dwellers for staging their own evictions, and so I can neither guarantee this nonsense won’t capture the hearts and minds of the average milk drinker and make millions for Clover and its suppliers. Nor that this will turn out to be the genius work of a master brand-builder, and this is just the launch campaign for something truly iconic.

But I seriously doubt it.

Jarred Cinman (@jarredcinman) is the CEO of VMLY&R South Africa, part of the global VMLY&R network. He founded one of the first professional web services firms in 1995 and, after selling this to the VWV Group, he became part of the founding team of VWV Interactive, which went on to dominate the web development industry during the late 1990s. In 2010, Jarred was part of the team that merged Cambrient into NATIVE, which became NATIVE VML in 2013 and VMLY&R in 2018. Jarred was IAB South Africa chair for three years, is on the Loeries committee, is an ACA and DALRO board member and, in his spare time, answers his email.

“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.

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#AdForumSummit: Tech and consumers rule — IPG

by Johanna McDowell (@jomcdowell) This seventh virtual session of the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2020 on Tuesday 7 July was directed by Philippe Krakowsky, IPG group COO, whom we’ve met with many times at AdForum over the past 11 years. Right-hand man to Michael Roth, IPG group CEO, Krakowsky has been a key driver of change at Interpublic Group of Companies.

Ahead of the session, the agency group sent us some content to review and to ensure that we’d be able to view the video material; it doesn’t always translate well over Zoom. Good idea!

Tech and consumers rule

IPG consists of many agencies in different disciplines but this presentation was about the group layers that support the various agencies. Those agencies include: FCB, Mullen Lowe, McCann, UM Brands and Weber Shandwick, among many agency brands within the group.

IPG told us that the conversations with clients in the last few months have changed: there’s an acceleration of everything in tech.

Key market priorities

Enterprise data strategy
Clients are taking control of first-party data
There’s is an audience-led approach
Spend less, making fewer better assets
Customer experience (CX) is key — be with the consumer at every step

Vision

IPG’s vision is to reframe marketing as a more-valuable service by building technology that puts data to work intelligently, creatively, responsibly.

A case study for “Go back to Africa — displace the hate” was shown to us.

IPG, as an ideas organisation, is moving towards becoming a business-solutions company with four new services underpinning all of the agencies in the group. These four layers include:

IPG Production: 2 000+ people globally
Hedy: 800 people — platform experts
Kinesso: 1 400 experts in data and tech
Acxiom: 2 100 + data and solutions experts

It’s with this formidable team that IPG as a group goes to market, as understanding people has the become the backbone of any marketing engine. We learned more about the data layers in particular:

Acxiom was an acquisition by the group and provides an understanding of more than 2.3bn people globally
Kinesso is a marketing intelligence engine — a data connector and a data transformer

IPG is using these platforms in every pitch in the group — and with great success.

Another case study was Microsoft Xbox, which won at Cannes Lions with a Grand Prix for best use of creative and data.

Long relationships

We observed that Acxiom is so powerful that the agency will be enabled to have long relationships with clients as the agency will be deeply involved with those clients’ businesses. While IPG agreed that this might be true, it was clear that it wouldn’t force clients to only use its tech stack and would be happy to accommodate client martech service providers along with its own platforms.

We also commented that IPG has created new revenue streams for the group, applied open architecture to martech, and had some great case studies with Xbox and Mini. It was a highly detailed session, with some excellent discussion later in the presentation.

Our final session will be with Accenture Interactive, today, Wednesday 8 July.

See also

Watershed year

Let’s seize the moment

See also

Our needs are in a state

The three Ms

Dear disruption

Changes in behaviour

See also

#AdChamp: Volkswagen South Africa — Drive Local

Credits

#AdChamp: Metropolitan — Three Word Stories

Credits

#AdChamp: Ackermans — Faces of Change

Credits

#AdChamp: King Price Insurance— Roadblock

Credits

#AdChamp: Tops at Spar — Seriously Responsible

Credits

Credits for covid-19 version

See also

Fascinating results

Account-based marketing

See also

See also

Brand purpose

“Unified brand idea”

See also

Unemployment rate

Working from home

Benefits

Distributed companies and agencies

Where to look

See also

From white to blue

Vitriol and scorn

Let’s get a few things straight

“Who am I to judge?”

Tech and consumers rule

Key market priorities

Vision

Long relationships

See also