eMarketing Trends|Verbal Acrobatics & Graphic Gymnastics

We are here today at the second Ad Forum evaulating the work of 8 top agencies in relations to the World Cup. The invited agencies will be showing a piece of work and the expert panel (Oresti Patricios, Gordon Muller, Andy Rice, Sizakele Marutlulle along with Jeremy Maggs) will have an opportunity to question them. Our agencies taking part today:

MetropolitanRepublic – Wimpy
Trying to infiltrate the World Cup into the brand, didn’t use soccer but tried to use the patriotism of the country.
We wanted to ignite the brand of Wimpy and the world cup was the perfect opportunity. More than just the add also built a microsite  www.nationalbreakfast.co.za to hold all our viral elements. We also used billboards at the airports, we did a tie up with Engen where Wimpy was situated around the country. Found out that there are various legalities with putting ads on YouTube and therefore the microsite was the perfect solution.

Black River FC – Mini “6 Colours to stand By”
The initiative  for this ad was really to create some buzz and the idea was to get as many flags out there as possible. Mini manufucters give out flags for your mirror for free.

The intention really was to ge South Africans amped. The brand was the catalyst for making the public want to own the flag. We wanted South Africans to love the brand.

Nandos “Ama-Visitors”
Foreign visitors misconception about South African we wanted to have some fun with it. Created various ads showing these stereotypes and how ridiculous it is.  The brand is about commenting about things in society quickly in  a way that Nando’s have become known for.

King James – Kulula.com “the campaig for the ‘you know what’”
Initially pricing campaign – wanting to advertise flights for R499. Sort of expected Fifa to come at us but that just made our jobs easier at the end of the day.
Ran a second add where we removed the icons that Fifa complained about. This campaign success was really on Twitter and Facebook with all the conversations going and free publicity. Once we realised how powerful the anti-Fifa sentiment was here in South Africa we  followed up to trademark the sky on April fool’s day and continued the campaign right through the World Cup.

DDB SA- McDonalds “Four Shadows”
Objective to recruit children to be players escourt during the World Cup. Really wanted to leverage the dream that children have.

We actually added on activities where we went to rural communities and schools to give kids across the country to enter. The purpose of this was really to promote the healthy lifestyle more than just the menu items.

Ireland Davenport – MTN “Africa United Campaign”
Challenges was to do something that will work for a lawyer in Cape Town but also a fanpark in Ruwanda. Created a huge expectation for football in Africa and have high hopes to use this campaign going forward for future. After all the xenofobia attacks in South Africa this campaign was meant to really struck a cord with all.

Volcano – Sony “Imagine football in 3D”
Campaign based on Kaka but one of our challenges was how to show 3D to people watching on 2D.
The activition was key and you have to see this to experience it really therefore we built a huge 3D Dome at the Nelson Mandela Square to showcase our products.
This was not just focused on South Africa but important that it works for South Africans.

The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) – Hyundai “Gees”
Struggled with Hyundai as it seen as a non-competitive brand in this market. Objective was to improve brand tracking and sales during this campaign. We come in intentionally late to try and understand what the people on the ground is feeling. We have more traffic on our site than Volkswagen and since April we have been outselling Toyota. Hyundai is associated with the World Cup because we wanted to try and push product. The thing that changes perception in the mass market is that people want to buy cars that they have seen on the road

Ogilvy  – SAB “Superfan”
Great idea of reconciliation and making these people ambassadors for the brand. The fans is the liveblood of the sport and SAB reflected that in this add showing the true dedicated fan.

Welcome to another interesting Journal Debate and this month’s marketing breakfast takes an in-depth look at cause-related marketing with a range of experts. As always, the hour long debate will be hosted by Jeremy Maggs.

Cause-related marketing can, and should, become a cornerstone of your marketing plan, highlighting your company’s
reputation – but …how do you make sure you do it correctly?

The panel includes:

• Joanna Oosthuizen – Managing Director of Ogilvy PR
• David Barnard – Executive Director of the South African NGO Network (SANGONET)
• Dr Ivan May – South Africa’s pioneer in the area of Cause-Related Marketing
• Trisch Rosema – Trustee of the Dis-Chem Foundation
• Marilyn Dutlow – Director of Procter and Gamble’s Pampers/UNICEF ‘One pack one vaccine’ campaign

Cause related marketing has been with us since a local store setup a collection box in 1893. The phrase was coined by American Express to raise money for the statue of liberty, so it has been around for a long time….

Having said that though, does cause marketing still have appeal and does it add any value to your brand?

The interesting points from the morning debate include:

Dr Ivan May

• Cause related marketing is a secret weapon and not many people in SA know exactly what it is.
• Generally companies look at how to differentiate the products from one another as in banking.
• In the case of Nedbank, the profitability of Green alone was bigger than the entire KZN region (it made over R430 million rand). Just illustrating the power and profitability of cause related marketing.
• NGO’s need to develop themselves as businesses and brands, they need to show compliance and their legal compliance so they stay on the radar and get noticed
• NGO’s need to be positioned not as trustee, but more as a trusting relationship
• Cause related marketing needs to be treated separate from regular brand marketing and not confused as the same thing, but needs to be integrated with all marketing initiatives

Trisha Rosema

• There is always something bigger with cause related marketing than just the cause.
• Cause related marketing helps take away the guilt by giving users the chance to contribute to something meaningful.
• Customers will tell you about Causes, so you need to listen and this will help find causes worth contributing toward
• If staff gets involved in the cause as it helps productivity and also makes them believe more in the initiatives of the company

Marilyn Dutlow

• Cause related marketing allows one to have that warm fuzzy feeling when it comes to helping out.
• The cause though has to contribute towards the profitability of the brand as well.
• People are more loyal to Brands that utilise cause related marketing.
• A brand has a heart, a soul and a body… what does the brand stand for… Brands need to understand their consumers well enough to know what causes they relate to most.
• You need to know how to market the cause correctly to consumers in order for them to care and actually know about the cause supported by the brand.
• There has to be a quantifiable result at the end of the campaign / relationship

Joanna Oosthuizen

• PR is more about awareness of the cause.
• The digital space is definitely the best place to start.
• The challenge is always on how do we get buy-in and the online space creates a platform where people can engage and interact with the brand and the cause.
• Igniting the conversation helps ignite the cause.
• Its all about sustainability at the moment.
• Understand your customers and make sure the cause matches and talks to your brand.
• Cause marketing should not be your sole purpose if you want to build your brand.
• Always look at making your cause media worthy.
• There is no need for a product to be used in cause marketing, a brand can be used as well

David Barnard

• Need to get the message out from social media platforms, to corporate websites.
• Your general standing in the society at large also contributes to the cause
• CRM is something that NGO’s need to consider to expanding their funding base
• Cream of the crop NGO’s have powerful brands and people believe that their causes are worth following
• Companies need to investigate causes to make sure the money is distributed correctly and the cause is “clean”

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The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Outdoor & Mobile Media” -Thursday 9 September.

Today’s Journal of Marketing Debate,hosted by Jeremy Maggs; focused on Direct Marketing or Marketing Direct, titled – “Is traditional marketing as we know it dying, or is it dead?”

The panel included:

• Debi Loftie-Eaton – Managing Director, Wunderman SA
• Brian Mdluli – CEO, DMA
• Michelle Perrow – Strategic Director, Lesoba Difference
• Andrew Ambrogioni – CEO, Action Ambro’s
• Howard Fox – Marketing Director, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)

Direct Marketing is argued to be a properly developed and strategic discipline (direct marketing can be one of the most effective brand builders in the mix); and it has moved beyond simply the notion of paper flyer’s into a highly sophisticated database process, where customer loyalty is maintained and rewarded and potential customers are tracked down and targeted with the precision of a stealth bomber.

Here are some of the important points from today’s marketing debate:

Howard Fox – Marketing Director, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)

• Weakness of Direct Marketing is ‘mass personalisation’ by data bases e.g with sending letters to consumers – they don’t speak to the individual
• Direct Marketing is about person communication.
• Direct mail revolution should not focus on being channel driven.
• Creative restraints exist that exceed the ability of the database limiting the information the database can get from an individual – “Marketers can never claim to know the consumer fully from 5-10 questions in the database”, Howard Fox.
• Direct Marketers want involvement and participation in the brand – getting a more personal participation with the consumers will lead to effective Direct Marketing.

Andrew Ambrogioni – CEO, Action Ambro’s

• Everything we do is direct marketing – brand advertising – uses every single channel we utilize.
• “Advertising is about being intrusive and let’s not act as though you will create a long lasting relationship” – Andrew Ambrogioni.
• Direct Marketing is not complicated and it’s about reaching the market in the most optimum way.
• Advertisers should test and re-test with direct marketing – some companies are afraid to put a significant amount of their budget into Direct Marketing.
• Data analysts should be marketers and they should understand the data collected.
• Case Study: Direct mail and digital marketing is working – proven correlation with visits to the website.

Debi Loftie-Eaton – Managing Director, Wunderman SA

• Direct Marketing aims to change behavior of the market.
• Direct Marketing gives accountability to the advertisers – above and below the line (you know who you are talking to and what the results are).
• Marketers are not investing in proper data base back-end that gives insights that are relevant to understand the consumer better.
• A lot of direct marketing crosses the border by getting all information through continuous data collection – not a once off event.
• Case Study: Microsoft product launch worked well with above the line marketing.
• Data strategy is important to target the market efficiently.
• Digital and Social Media in the future will become important for Direct Marketing.

Michelle Perrow – Strategic Director, Lesoba Difference

• Direct marketing is changing – companies need to understand and communicate well with the market (be a honest and credible brand).
• Advertisers are afraid of using Direct Marketing due to the accountability aspect.
• Self profiling – engage with the consumers (what are your likes, what are your dislikes) so you can understand them more.
• Case Study: Exclusive Books have a very robust database – consistent application process and constant investment in the database.
• Important to collect data with ‘relevance’ – not just collecting data.
• In the future all marketing will be Direct Marketing.

Brian Mdluli – CEO, DMA(Direct Marketing Association)

• Direct marketing is an industry on its own- it has grown over recent years.
• Consumers want to understood and Direct marketers want to be treated as individuals not just a consumer
• Brands can get proven results on Direct marketing RIO.
• Direct Marketing is a ‘multi–channel’ industry using TV, internet for example.
• Direct marketing is trying to drive education to the industry and community.
• DMA is moving towards ‘identifying the consumer’ and their needs.
• Privacy Issue: there is a problem of buying and selling of stolen database – DMA is addressing the issue.

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The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Cause Related Marketing” -Thursday 19 August.

The Journal of Marketing – The Battle of the Youth Brands continues…

Jimmy Muteba – Brand Ambassador of Trace

• Trace TV is made of two channels: Music and Lifestyles – passionate about youth expression (urban, young, sheek).
• Other Trace products include Trace Mobile, Trace FM and Trace Website.
• Trace is 99% about music videos and being exclusive – getting content before others (being the first).
• Branding has been important for Trace success to the urban youth culture (focus on the brand culture).
• Hip Hop culture and living the culture brings people back to get more information – Trace is about creating a platform where consumer finds what they need regarding Urban and Youth Culture.
• Youth marketing with music has been successful as youth love music – youth relate more to this content.

Zayd Abrahams – Head of Marketing – Sparkling: The Coca-Cola Company South Africa

• Coca Cola has been marketing at grassroots and this is key to their success.
• Coca Cola is South Africa’s number one brand and the coolest brand – 4% GDP contributor to the nation.
• Focusing on the future of the nation – taking the action to the people e.g taking the World Cup trophy around the world to make people part of the experience.
• Youth Marketing is about integrity – long-term sustainable relationships.
• Coca Cola is global and drives optimism through youth marketing.
• The brand is about making a difference in people’s lives and changing them to make them better.
• Communicating brand vision and making sure that there is a brand fit with the marketing (youth) is essential to success.
• Coca Cola has not changed it logo but changes its tag lines to fit a period and market.
• Coca Cola always finds ways to integrate itself to the popular culture so that they stay relevant in the youth market.

The Next Breakfast will be on the 29th of July titled: Direct Marketing or Marketing Direct – “Is traditional marketing as we know it dying, or is it dead?”

It’s another interesting Journal Debate and today’s discussion was about “The Battle of the Youth Brands“  hosted by Jeremy Maggs. Jason Levin – MD HDI Youth Marketeers – stated that the chosen panel of brands was selected due to their influence on young consumer’s e.g Samsung doing well in cellphone and computer brands; and the celebrity’s category was occupied by local DJ’s (DJ Cleo).

The debates panel included:

• Jason Levin – MD HDI Youth Marketeers
• Mark Kronenberg – Vice President of Cheil Worldwide South Africa – (Samsung)
• Zayd Abrahams – Head of Marketing – Sparkling: The Coca-Cola Company South Africa
• Jonathan Cherry – Founder of Cherry Flava
• Enver Groenewald – General Manager of Advertising Revenue and Strategic Communications: Avusa Media
• Andy Rice – Chairman of Yellowwood Future Architects
• Mzamo Masito – Brand Manager Nike South Africa
• Jimmy Muteba – Brand Ambassador of Trace
• DJ Cleo

Some of the interesting points from the morning include:
Jason Levin – gave a brief introduction to the HDI Youth study

• Youth market study called Generation Nest – on how young consumers feel about a product/brand conducted from Feb – April
• The youth is a big spender (direct spenders) spending average R30 Billion
• Young South Africans want to live a good lifestyle and now focusing on Energy. They are focused on achieving goals and they are service guru’s.
• Young consumers trust celebrity, family, friends and TV endorsements – music plays a bigger picture in their lives.

Mark Kronenberg – Vice President of Cheil Worldwide South Africa – (Samsung)

• Perception of Samsung may not be as cool to consumers but they are leaders in being a Multi facetted business.
• Largest growing brand in the world. Number 1 in TV, Cellphones – in South Africa number one in copiers, washing machines, fridges.
• Samsungs started from humble beginnings in Korea after the war and is now a power house today. The culture and vision is to look for a better tomorrow.
• Products developed are made for innovation and experiences that consumer’s feel.
• New slogan: “Turn on tomorrow”
• The challenge was to turn people’s Asian perception of compromising quality for mass production. Samsung is moving towards more consumer marketing.
• Samsung phone embedding social media was selling a million units per day.
• The Youth Market is key to Samsung – focusing on music and green environment (Social Development e.g offering training to youth for call centre skills).

DJ Cleo

• We learn through experiencing – “life is a journey” and “visualize your dreams”.
• DJ Cleo the brand was a brand in the making e.g dyeing the hair blonde – branding and imaging.
• Creating an identity is important e.g on all songs you mention your brand.
• Sex sells in youth marketing but always watch your brand image.
• Surrounding yourself with the best is key to creating and managing your brand e.g Brand Advisors give consultancy to where to interact with the youth.
• Focusing on your brand strengths is important – and learning along the way is essential to creating a brand.
• Personality branding and image consultancy is growing fast in South Africa.

Mzamo Masito – Brand Manager Nike South Africa

• Nike is a cool, young, sporting brand – the focus is on the athlete and great product innovation e.g converting plastic bottles to 100% recycled soccer jerseys.
• Retail experience is important and Nike strives to be the number one brand.
• Nike is obsessed with the consumer and remaining consistent e.g Nike Swoosh.
• Credibility comes from having great athlete’s e.g the Ronaldo boots were sold out in two weeks after release.
• Just Do It is still relevant in the market – and listening to the consumer has been important to building and maintaining the brand.
• Nike focuses on their athletes – it’s key to remain on the loyal to athletes even when they are unethical beyond the sport (as long as he/she is not unethical on the field of sport).
• Making athlete adverts – “Write the future” – is delicate to the performances of the athlete but Nike chooses them because they are the best and will remain the best regardless.
• Counterfeit goods are a huge challenge for every brand including Nike. Nike makes the same product for the consumer and athlete in order curb counterfeit products.

The Journal of Marketing – The Battle of the Youth Brands continues in the next blog post.

Last week, Mario Gamper paid Virtuosa a visit taking time as an ‘intern’ with the hope of learning more about specifically online  marketing and  search marketing  in the Agency  environment in South Africa. He met Ingrid Rubin, our GM, at Cannes two years ago at a Lowe Worldwide Digital Conference; and made Africa (specifically South Africa) one of his stops as he is interested in seeing how agencies are structured here, the maturity of the market and approach to strategy and emarketing.

For 5 days Mario had  an intense ‘internet marketing crash course’ to help him in writing his book before he continues with his worldwide tour to other countries and continents.

I had the opportunity to interview him while he was here and I must say that he is a very knowledgeable and interesting guy, with a fresh approach to looking at online advertising. I envy his vision and the end result of his worldwide summary of advertising and the future is certainly going to be interesting.

Mario’s Background

Mario Gamper has a TV and Print Ad agency background where he worked at Scholz & Friends for 10 years. After heading up the interactive department, he finally decided to travel and write a book on changes in the advertising sphere around the world and what to expect in the future.  He has teamed up with designer Raban Ruddigkeit, who is the editor of Freistil, a magazine on Illustration in Germany.

What the book will be about?

Mario’s project is called ‘Ideas Will Travel’, which is derived from the notion that people have to be moved by the ‘ideas’ in a campaign/ad. Mario views ads as ideas in motion and the book goes further to investigate:

• how we create ideas that are being talked about,
• why they are being talked about,
• how they are being passed on.

Basically, in Mario’s view the challenge for ad agencies (on and offline) all over the world is to generate a successful ad that can generate a discussion, in his own words “that is the value… that is the lesson“.

Why is the book different?

Mario believes that we are already living in the ‘future’ that we predicted 5 to 10 years ago with micro-blogging and augmented reality, and the question the book answers is: “What can we expect in the next 5 years of the advertising industry?”.

He believes that ads/campaigns (on and offline) will aim to constantly re-educate and their success will be measured by their ability to create new ideas and be shared through various mediums.

It was great hosting him and I for one can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this insightful contribution to advertising. There are not too many authors and books in this market that have managed to provide a well researched and global insight into changes in marketing and advertising.

To keep track on Mario and his journey visit: Facebook and to ask him any questions, you can also visit his blog: www.ideaswilltravel.com .

Mention the words green marketing at a management meeting and you’re either labelled pony-tail wearing bunny hugging whale saver or you’re told to put it on next month’s agenda where serious consideration will be given to environmentally friendly packaging! It’s another Journal Debate and as Jeremy Maggs facilitates the debate some of the interesting points from the morning include:

Simon Gear – Green Business Consultant, SDB Consulting

• Green Marketing is getting to a stage where it is becoming more mainstream but it’s not enough
• Eskom doesn’t do any Green Marketing it’s more Crisis Management. But they are extremely transparent about their carbon footprint.
• In terms of  Sappi the reality is that a tree farm is not a forest
• You do things properly inside your company and then you tell that story

Jacques Brent – VP Marketing, Sales & Service, Ford and Mazda

• Transparency is driven by competitive disclosure. Use the good to build your brand up but you rarely make active disclosure of the negative if nobody else is doing it in your industry. This is one of the problems.
• Education is key, the more it gets spoken about the greater awareness and the quicker the change should come.

Maseda Ratshikuni – Head: Cause Marketing, Nedbank Affinities Marketing

• The truth is South Africa is behind in terms of sustainability.
• Surprisingly 53% of people are Green supporters in this country. But Green is like religious. You have to live it.
• More responsibility to ensure people is educated and informed. Green is not something that happens out there, we need to start internally. And we need to make sure that our business accept the strategy of being green.

Bernhard Riegler – Marketing Director, Sappi Fine Paper

Latetia Venter – Marketing Manager: Demand Side Management, Eskom

• Eskom has an energy efficient program that has managed to save over 2000 Megawatts.
• Eskom launched an internal program where we started for energy efficiency to get our employees to be brand ambassadors.

Deon Robbertze – Creative Director: Ogilvy earth South Africa

• Green marketing is about sustainability, and there are three pillars, social, financial and environment.
• Consumer knows everything about your business, fixed what’s wrong don’t shout about what’s right.
• You have to implement sustainability from the top down. You have got to get people in your company to believe that change is going to happen.
• Sustainability is intuitive, it’s not rocket science.  We need to reach the age of transparency. It has to become part of the brands DNA.

From this mornings debate one thing is clear, it’s really important that we get to grips with issues like this. The conversation has provided food for thought and attendees walk away from another successful morning.

Join us for the next Journal debate. Book now…

How should existing and potential costumers be spoken to, what are the optimum methods of communication, what role is technology playing in the dynamic? Jeremy Maggs as always keeps everybody on their toes, with some of the highlights from the session this morning including:

Andrew Ambrogioni, CEO (Action Ambro’s)

• The system or technology we use doesn’t build the relationship it’s how you apply those date insights into your creative communication.
• Social Media is great as a service level tool. It’s opening up a new channel for constant content upload. Instead of a push strategy it’s becoming a pull strategy.
• You can create promotions online and ask customers to engage with you. Utilize it to create more focused campaign.
• The way we communicate, the way we design, way we approach the customer needs to be looked at far more closely. Touch the heart and then reach into the pocket.

Etien van Loggerenberg, Territory Sales Manager- Africa (Maximizer Software)

• It’s all about understanding the customers, what makes them tick. Profile them and communicate in a way that they understand. Track the effectiveness of how you are communicating.
• In terms of Reputation – you have to priorities on how to respond to messages and have the tools and people to do that.
• Measurability is key in order to drive your business forward.

Bridgette Ward, Sales Manager (AdvanceNet Group)

• Getting adoption of the system is key, people don’t always understand the systems. But you have to integrate this throughout your business in order for this to be successful.
• Key need to be looking at  a client in a 360 degree view.
• Social Media can now start pushing information into your relevant information into your space. More on the networking side
• We need to be building the system to take us to the next sale
• CRM is a culture, you are creating transparency in the business

Michelle Perrow, Strategic Director (Lesoba Difference)

• Have to get the basics right, which is:  good service, answer the phone on time, speak to customers correctly, speak to customers on the channel that they require, adding value at the same time.

• There are very few organization that have the web or call centre interaction linked into the CRM. Various reasons for this, lack of support, internal politics etc.

• Direct Marketing Association is the champion in challenging the legislative regulations. The opt- in, opt- out discussion have been reversed so that we are now only talking about opt out.

• We need to self regulate. 17 pieces of legislations that cover CRM at the moment and you need to be aware of this and implement this.

   

   

   

Once again another interesting morning with diverse opinions on this topic.

For more on this event make sure you get a copy of the next edition of The Journal. Also don’t miss out on the next Journal of Marketing Debate talking about Green Marketing.

On the 6 May 2010, The Journal of Marketing will host another one of their illustrious Breakfast Debates titled “Customer Relationship Management [CRM] – An overused acronym or a Marketer’s Secret Weapon?”

Mention the three letters CRM and marketers generally fall asleep or have a spam attack. But unless you’re engaging one-on-one with your loyal customer base and looking to add to it, you might as well quit and go farming. CRM is a marketer’s most important weapon, but can also be the greatest curse.

The debate will discuss how should existing and potential customers be spoken to; what are the optimum methods of communication; what role is technology playing in the dynamic, and how do you execute and quantify the results of a cost-effective CRM campaign. And, once you’ve done all that stuff, the debate will discuss how it all fit in with bigger issues like sales, distribution and overall brand development.

Hosted by Jeremy Maggs, the debating panel will include:

Fraser Lamb – Group CEO, Y & R Brands SA
Michelle Perrow – Strategic Director, Lesoba Difference
Andrew Ambrogioni – CEO, Action Ambro’s
Prakash Patel – Head of Digital, Draftfcb Johannesburg
Etien van Loggerenberg – Territory Sales Manager – Africa, Maximizer Software Ltd
Bridgette Ward – Sales Manager, AdvanceNet Group

To book: email Marcia Minnaar at marcia@netactive.co.za 

Date: Thursday, 6 May, 2010
Time: 07h00 for 07h30 – 09h00
Venue: L’Incontro Ballroom, The Michelangelo Hotel,
Nelson Mandela Square, West Street, Sandown
Cost: R395 (subscribers to The Journal); R495 for non-subscribers (prices ex. VAT) includes breakfast and parking

The big question today at the Journal’s breakfast debate is whether Sponsorships are consider to be money down a deep hole or the best brand builder ever? On the panel we have:

• Clive Grinaker - Group Executive: New Business, SAIL Group Ltd
• Gavin Cowley – Marketing Director, Addidas SA
• Billy Lascaris – Director, Matchworld (Pty) Ltd a division of Primedia Sport
• Serame Taukobong – Chief Marketing Officer, MTN SA
• Stanley Anderson – Marketing Director, Huyndai Automotive South Africa

In marketing terms sponsorship is probably the biggest word flying around right now as we gear up for … well you know what. Some insights on this topic from the panelists:

Stanley Anderson: For us we believe that you are seen as a best quality brand if you are associated with the World Cup and you must be doing something right. Perceived quality is doing a great job for us in this regard.
We have been lucky as the World Cup has given us huge visibility also with an audience that we don’t always get into contact with. Our website hits have grown extensively in the last couple of months. The website gives the customer an opportunity to interact with our brand at its own leisure.

Billy Lascaris:

• Sponsorship is an emotional platform.  It helps you build that trust.  Essential to integrate consumers into a campaign.
• All brands can use sponsorships regardless of the industry you just have to be clever on how you approach it and leverage it.
• In terms of CSI sponsorships be sure that if you do it you do it properly  otherwise it will come across as insincere and be more harmful.
• Naming rights are important as this forms your platform to develop on but it depends on who your target audience is.  For me naming right are more about visibility and association.

Gavin Cowley: Addidas have been around for a long time but for us it’s about reinventing for us. We are different than the rest of the brands as we are on the field of play. Have a lot of commercial variables to help us measure our return on investment. The benefit is not just for during the event but it’s about positioning your brand during the event for you to successfully take it forward.
Need to approach things in a holistic way, signing is easy but servicing is not. Use all the elements of the marketing mix and part of that is social responsibility to ensure you leverage it.
Staff involvement is key and we make them part of this event with regular information on the event.

Serame Taukobong: We do have a post World Cup strategy. This event has allowed doors globally to open up for MTN. The value is that now we have instant recognition globally for our brand.

Social networking is part of our consumer lives. Beauty of mobile and social networking gives you a one to one ratio.

Clive Grinaker: Sponsorship is about strategy and the objectives you have for the brand. It’s got to align with your target audience. Sponsorship does give you a much better return on spend than electronic media.  It’s a fine ratio between what you want to get out of it over what you put in. Your staff is your brand ambassadors and it’s key to get their buy in.

For more on this event make sure you get a copy of the next edition of The Journal.