Often, when speaking to agency MDs and creative directors from many of the traditional flagships of South African advertising, the name of some specialist below-the-line agency would come up, and the conversation, flowing so easily around the currents of industry gossip but moments before, would grind to a halt. “I’ve never seen any of their work.” And I would go, “But you have…”
Tag archives: digital
Listen before you jump into social, says Diane Charton
Acceleration Media is an old hand at the digital media game. It was launched as a specialist online media company more than 12 years ago, at a point in time when everybody was talking about the potential of online media but when advertisers were not nearly as invested in the medium as they are today.
Hewlett splits Habari Group, launches major new agency player
Adrian Hewlett, CEO and founder of the Habari Group, has combined his group’s significant through-the-line, below-the-line, research, digital and social businesses to launch a major new independent advertising agency called Machine.
Punk’d out of ATL funk
Alistair King, group creative director of the King James Group, doesn’t bother to hide his enthusiasm for the latest, possibly bravest, move within his agency to further define its offering in a competitive market, where budgets are shifting from above-the-line to integrated campaigns and what was traditionally considered below-the-line work.
Modise Makhene on how the Great Recession changed ad land
Modise Makhene, CEO of JWT South Africa, says the singing by protesters in front of the JWT Cape Town office at 30 Keerom Street makes a familiar sound-track, what with its offices situated right across from the Western Cape High Court. The chanting and singing of the well-behaved crowd drifting into the offices on the Velocity building’s third floor is a reminder that ad land can’t afford to cocoon itself from the broader society – here ordinary South Africans are literally reminding them of their daily struggles on an agency’s doorstep.
2010 hit the reset button in Cape adland
In spite of some turbulence, post Great Recession it turns out that 2010 wasn’t such a bad year for Cape Town’s adland after all. While big account moves in Cape Town were rather limited, agencies are taking the initiative to reinvent their internal processes, in some cases shedding staff and departments, while looking for work coming out of Johannesburg or internationally.
The perils of the online discounting culture for your brands and business
I’m fascinated by the growth and proliferation of the on-line couponeers and discounters like Groupon, Catch of the Day and the like. “Everyone loves a deal” this we know, but what does it mean to brands, margin, customer trust and sustaining pricing models? Asks M&C Saatchi Abel boss Mike Abel.
New gadgets don’t kill old media
South Africa cleaned up the awards at the Cannes advertising festival last month, but it failed miserably in the digital category. There are lessons to be learned, writes Arthur Goldstuck.
Jason Xenopoulos wants to win the advertising war
Jason Xenopoulos recently re-emerged as an important player in the SA digital arena through his role in facilitating and leading the merger of Brandsh, Stonewall+ and Cambrient,to launch Native.
The ultimate social media strategy is not having one
by Dave Duarte. On Sunday 1st May 2011, Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin-Laden had been killed. The strike against his compound in Pakistan was not televised, but it was tweeted. The thing is, Al-Qaida was already looking irrelevant after the “Arab Spring” – the social-media enabled revolutions that occurred throughout the Middle-East in early 2011.