social • Tags •

Digital spend jumps from 1-2% to 10-15% of SA media budgets

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The online media planning space is moving at a hectic pace – where else can you can lose two big spending clients close together and still plan for 100% growth over the next two years? Lighthouse Digital, the media agency launched only three years ago, has grown from 4 to 26 people, and has been doubling its revenue every year since then.

Aaron Van Schaik, Managing Director at Lighthouse Digital, estimates the value of SA’s digital advertising spend at around R1.2 billion – Aaron Van Schaikbetween 40-50% of that is spent on search. Google doesn’t release its figures for the South African market making it difficult to be sure of exact actual spend. But growth has been rapid with spend jumping from 1-2% of media budgets a year ago to between 10-15% today*.

Van Schaik attributes this growth to marketers realising the value digital media represents as well as directives form international parent companies asking local operations to shift budgets online.

Oreo gets Licked and Liked

What could be less controversial than the iconic Oreo cookie? Well, try an Oreo with rainbow crème filling. Nabisco, a division of Kraft Foods made a calculated marketing move in June 2012—which amongst other things is LGBT Pride month—by posting an image of a pro-pride cookie on their Facebook page. By Oresti Patricios, CEO Ornico

The imaginary cookie had a six-layer rainbow-coloured filling, reminiscent of the pride flag; below was the simple text: “June 25 | Pride”. It went viral, and attracted kudos from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

Within 24 hours, the company’s Facebook post had 177 000 likes, 52 000 shares and 22 463 comments. There were negative remarks from anti-gay commentators, but most of the comments were supportive of Oreo’s marketing intent. And the debate has resulted in free publicity for the product, made by Nabisco, a brand owned by Kraft.

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.

Who blogs? asks Technorati

Technorati recently released its State of the Blogosphere 2008 report. The site surveyed bloggers on the why and how of blogging with some interesting results.

The multi-channel book of the future (today)

Lauren Beukes is a much admired journalist who has just released her futuristic debut novel, Moxyland, that plays out in Cape Town and is in her own words a hi-tech fable of the day that “corporate apartheid separates the haves from the have-nots.” But the really interesting aspect of this publishing venture is the multi-channel approach Beukes took in marketing the book.

The unreal world of House & Garden magazine

. With their own long term viability in mind business is finally starting to talk about social justice. Then there is Condé Nast House & Garden who sees it fit to plug “Green-painted wooden LOGS from R3262.58.

Garbage bins become urban art

Five Cape Town agencies worked together on urban design project that saw five black garbage bins turned into works of art.

A kids book for grown ups

Wie is Dit? is a quirky picture book of Bible stories launched earlier this year by Vuvu, an imprint of Electric Book Works. Its PR blurb says the book is being marketed to kids “and inquisitive grown-ups
of all religious persuasions.” But Mark predicts another audience for this book,