A beautifully fresh morning welcomes everyone at this, the next episode of The Journal of Marketing Breakfast, at The Michelangelo in Sandton. A Loerie themed morning, Hosted by Andy Rice, today’s topic revolves around “Squawking About Winning Advertising”.

Loerie ads are judged according to 5 categories:

• Innovation – creativity in terms of being distinctively different
• Quality – how well is the idea executed
• Relevance to the brand,
• Relevance to target audience,
• And relevance to the  chosen medium

On the menu today to talk and question about winning ads are:

Andy Rice, Chairman, Yellowwood Brand Architects
Oresti Patricios, CEO at Ornico Group (Pty)Ltd
Steve Miller, CEO at BF Strategy
Lou Boxall-Davies, Chief Strategist at Morris Jones
Geoff Whyte, Managing Director at Snackworks

Advert 1:

The Vodacom Music Station, done by Draft FCB, directed by Neo Mashingo.

Goal: To promote that Vodacom provides the listener to have radio at their fingertips, their own choice of music.
Creative angle: The DJ Keeps talking over the music, that the listener really wants to listen to. Where as they have their own choice of music via Vodacom.
Delivery: Pointers were given for the voice artist to talk about, and then were elaborated on in studio.

• The voiceover artist did a fantastic job at depicting the DJ.
• The ad explains that it is music without a DJ, any category any music. Like listening to a radio station, on your cellphone.
• Was flighted on vernacular ALS radio stations.
• The Vodacom brand doesn’t come out strong, but appears as a spot read by the DJ.
• Sales increased in terms of data markets. A lot of teaching still needs to happen. The campaign was driven to teach people on ALS stations to use their phones for other functions, like data, and not just voice.
• In terms of building the brand, they wanted the brand to be viewed as a friend, with a comedic thread.

Advert 2

Yuppiechef vs Woolies
Agency: Hello World
Danni Vos, CEO

The sign, which had the incorrect URL on, which Yuppiechef held ransom.

Yuppiechef.co.za hijacked Woolies’s misspelt URL, registered it, and held it ransom.  Challenging them to donate money

• They had less than 14 days before Valentine’s day.
• Social media driven, but mainly driven by the PR.
• How do Yupppiechef now continue to engage? They are an online company, so they continue with online and social media.
• It’s about finding the right social idea, and backing it up with the right brand.
• If it were to be done again, would it be done differently: Because of time constraints, strategy couldn’t be planned.  A bigger base could’ve been achieved, and the Yuppiechhef current bas could’ve been utilized.
• Great opportunistic campaign, and a great PR exercise – what was the PR strat: was totally focused on radio and online media. Power of online has turned a corner, to use Online PR more – to engage online bloggers more.
• Built their social media database immensely.

…./2

Today’s Journal of Marketing Debate is titled “Design and Packaging: The Last Touchpoint (or is it?), and Why we ignore it”.  Hosted by Jeremy Maggs, the panel of experts for today’s debate includes:

The panel included:

• Brain Ferns – Y&R Touch, Creative Director
• Adelle Wapnick – MD, Creative Strategist, Cross Colours Consultancy
• Nathan Reddy – CEO of Grid Worldwide Branding and Design
• Bill Marshall – MD, Syndicate Graphics (Pyt) Ltd
• Janet Kinghorn – Creative Director, Coley Porter Bell South Africa
• Brian Steinhobel – Steinhobel Group of Companies

“Packaging plays an important role in the marketing mix of today. It doesn’t matter how good your advertising is, the last hurdle to purchase is and always will be the allure of what is on the shelf and whether hands will reach out and guide said item to the shopping trolley”.

The interesting points from the morning debate include:

Brian Steinhobel – Steinhobel Group of Companies

• The power of packing is never to be underestimated – it is extremely important.
• The way a product feels is also as influential as the way it looks.
• Packaging design must be careful not to over shoot in its packaging design as consumers mostly know what they will purchase before they get to the shop.
• Progressive and technology consciousness are the characteristics of great designer in packaging.

Adelle Wapnick – MD, Creative Strategist, Cross Colours Consultancy

• Carrying out the brand strategy should be reflected in the packaging.
• Use all mediums to show branding/packaging – online and print should be the same.
• Take into consideration the product and the consumer and how it all fits in together.
• The marketer is the most critical person in the mix in order to understand the dynamics of engagement, budget, target market – he/she is the custodian of the brand.

Janet Kinghorn – Creative Director, Coley Porter Bell South Africa

• Breaking down the user is important in packaging – for example gender, or age of the user (done to relate to the consumer).
• Packaging must be tactical – when someone walks down the aisle, you have literally 2 seconds to grab the consumers attention.
• Simplicity is key in packaging: focus on creativity and avoid focus on constraints (e.g budget).
• The Marketer should communicate and make the designer understand all the portions of the business and the product.

Nathan Reddy – CEO of Grid Worldwide Branding and Design

• New trend: Bio-degradable packaging – for example Puma campaigns with shoe packaging and t-shirts.
• Use of initiatives such as bio-degradable packaging is gaining popularity among consumers.
• Consumers are generally prejudiced so you have to mix beauty and intelligence in your packaging.
• Brands fight for product positioning through their packaging to differentiate themselves from the competitor.
• Clever brands are looking at new ways of packaging to their consumers.
• Consumers are now more conscious: thinking where a product comes from and where it is going.

Brain Ferns – Y&R Touch, Creative Director

• The story of the egg: everyone understands what it is and where it comes from, therefore product packaging should aim to catch the eye of consumer and he knows what the product is.
• Create packaging that goes back to the basics – simple, innovative and works.
• Packaging has to match the product – there has to be a fine balance.
• Talk and engage with the ‘above-the-line’ department in order to get the packaging right.
• Best packaging considers new trends in the market (keep it fresh) and works around the constraints.

Bill Marshall – MD, Syndicate Graphics (Pyt) Ltd

• Understand the technology that your packaging will use consider all constraints.
• Test your boundaries in your creativity – always ask “Why can’t I do this”.
• Every aspect part of your packaging must match your brand positioning and brand strategy.
• Packaging is very diverse and designers should challenge the way the consumer thinks of the product.

Look of for the next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Squawking About Winning Advertising”.

Date: Thursday, November 4

Time: 7:30am – 12:00pm

Location: Michelangelo, Sandton

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

Global numbers released about 6 weeks ago about Social Networking sites:

• 47% of online adults using social networking sites
• 1.5 million businesses have active pages on Facebook
• Average user is spending 55 minutes per day on Facebook
• 73% teens are members of at least 1 social network
• 50 million tweets sent a day on Twitter

The interesting points from the morning debate include:

Mike Stopforth – CEO – Cerebra

• Begin by examining our motivation for engaging in social media
• Brands need to have a compelling business reason for being on Social Networks
• Problem with social media is that it’s not just applications and platforms. It’s actually more an evolving role of the consumer towards brands.
• I believe that we have to realize that consumers are no longer recipients of messages but are now participants
• People are going to complain because you are doing a bad job, bad service, not because of Facebook. So risks have always been there.
• Community self-regulate, brand advocates will come up for the brand
• Everybody is the media, every digital citizen has a platform and an opinion

Ingrid Rubin – MD – Virtuosa

• Social media is not about campaigns
• Social Media is an evolving technology
• Brands aren’t using the medium correctly because they are trying to advertise
• Use social media to the extent of integrating it into your business
• Take from social networks what is meaningful for your brand and filter out the rest.
• Mistakes that brands are making – start engaging without doing the necessary research, but need to first do research to see what is out there.
• Not just about marketing, it’s about business processes and how you facilitate this online.

Arthur Goldstuck – CEO – World Wide Worx

• Facebook is the mainstream 6.6 % of South Africans are Facebook members – need to use a combination of services to get to your market.
• Must listen and must engage
• Brands must have a social media policy – says what type of communication will happen from the brand and who is responsible for this interaction.
• Social media is no longer a youth platform, the age curve is becoming older every day

Brent Shahim – MD – Aquaonline

• Brands don’t need to regain control of their brand, key opportunities to gain insight. Consumers can talk to each other and the brand can listen in on this.
• Real opportunity to gain invaluable insight into the brand.
• Social media is just visible word of mouth.
• Social networking is a cheaper form of communication
• Organizations needs senior people to be responsible for social media
• You need to look at digital as a whole not just social networking

Toby Shapshack – Editor – Stuff Magazine

• Live in a brand new age, where brand belongs to consumers
• Brands have no choice but to be there listening to conversations
• A good social media strategy is not going to change the fact that it’s a screwed up company
• People want to be heard, ultimately they want acknowledgement

Pierre Odendaal – Creative Director Jupiter Drawing Room

• In the digital space you can cost effectively get your message out there and have a more profound effect on the brand
• Social Networking has a lot more punch then people think
• Digital is face to face contact, it’s just in a digital world
• Digital is the most dominant communication of our time and will shape our future

The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Design and Packaging” -Thursday 28 October.

Whether you like it or not they’re talking about your brand. Not only in supermaket aisles and in restaurants but on Facebook and on Twitter; on blogs; on YouTube and in chat rooms.

Brand managers no longer control the message, customers do – finished and klaar.

All of this requires a massive shift in mindset and an implicit understanding that brands need to take on and embrace the inherent risk.
Apart from the brand chatter, social networking also opens new channels of communication and distribution and that’s good for the bottom line.

Join Jeremy Maggs for another power breakfast marketing debate as he’s joined by a panel of leading thinkers on the subject as they explore where social networking intersects with brand development – the new brand frontier.

When you leave you’ll know more than your competitor, increase your brand awareness, make more money, get famous and eventually retire to Barbados – where you can social network for fun.

The panel:
• Mike Stopforth – CEO – Cerebra
• Ingrid Rubin – MD – Virtuosa
• Arthur Goldstuck – CEO – World Wide Worx
• Brent Shahim – MD – Aquaonline
• Toby Shapshack – Editor – Stuff Magazine

Bookings: Contact Megan Larter on megan@thefuture.co.za

If you are unable to attend the morning in person be sure to follow the live updates on Twitter and eMarketing Trends.

This morning a panel of experts, with Chair – Jeremy Maggs interrogate winning brands in the Top Brands Mega Forum in order to  dig a little deeper into the DNA of these specific brands. On the panel this morning:  Enver Groenewald (General Manager – Avusa), Louise Boxall-Davies ( Head of planning, morrisjones&co), Doug de Villiers (CEO Interbrand Sampson), Sean McCoy (CEO HKLM) and Neil Higgs (Director, TNS Research).

Chris Faulker – General Manager, Retail Marketing ABSA

• Challenge to transform our brand but to remain relevant in the evolving South African economy
• We have a single brand that needs to span across a variety of markets
• A considerable amount of time is spend, dissecting our market segments due to the diversity
• Insuring consistency, making sure an Absa customer have consistant experience regardless of the channels they engage with

Claire Veitch – Marketing Manager, Carling Black Label

• Most importantly that our expression of masculinity needed to be relevant, needed to be modern, needed to be inspirational, Black Label is a brand for everybody and they need to feel that this is a brand for me.
• Key indicator for us – that our consumers were saying that the brand is no longer relevant for me
• With a possible ban on alcoholic advertising in South Africa we see that the focus on experiental marketing is going to become so much more important, it will be a new chapter for us

Jessecca Perumal – General Manager, Avis

• We don’t structure our communication around our competitors but rather around our business structure
• “We try harder” – cornerstone of our brand, business and operational structure
• Average life span of Avis staff is no less than 10 years – strength of the brand is that we invest in our people
• We deliberately recruit “choose to” people

Rinie Erasmus – Marketing Manager, Yardley

• Established in 1770 – the first brand Yardley started with is Old English Lavendar Soap -incredible brand heritage
• Proudly middle market brand
• Much easier to convert current Yardley shoppers to extend their spending on Yardley products

Heidi Brauer – Executive Group Manager, Group Marketing Strategic Partnerships, Comair responsible for British Airways and Kulula

• People who fly British Airways, want to fly on our airline and love it
• Personal attention is key for us along with a passion for giving great service which is followed through
• The only growth that the domestic market has seen in the last year has been out of Lanseria, which is growth for Kulula

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The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Social Networking” -Thursday 07 October 2010.

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.