With any new media there is always concern and uneasiness regarding its use, but the growth of digital has now surpassed this child-like stage, where more brands are now choosing to allocate a larger percentage of their budgets towards the use of digital media over the use of traditional media than ever before. According to the Digital Media and Marketing Association “The outlook for the South African digital publishing industry is positive with excellent results being recorded in the first quarter of 2010.”

It can therefore no longer be said that digital is an ‘add on’ to a brand strategy due to its rapid growth over the last few years. Digital should be seen as a viable platform; just like that of television and newspapers and just like with any other platform the selection for a brand will ultimately depend on the overall objectives determined within the strategy. A brand should thus always utilise a media neutral approach.

If digital does however work for the brand there are various advantages of its use. Digital can be updated and changed whenever necessary, unlike that of traditional media, so if there is an issue with a website for example, it can be fixed almost immediately. Secondly, the concept of instant links back to the world of digital and directly correlates with the ideals of the new consumer who ultimately thrives on instant gratification.  Digital media is also much more measurable in terms of reporting, as information is more freely available and through Google analytics for example information is collected and organised almost immediately.

There are many other digital tools for tracking and measuring data and many can be utilised free of charge, making it a lower cost medium in terms of measuring. Lastly, digital is more focused on Return on Investment (ROI), however it is vital to ensure what the set criteria is in order to achieve that success. According to Ahmed and Tunnah, who are both involved in large corporate digital endeavours “If you don’t have clear criteria for success and a way to measure your progress against them, there’s no way you can be deemed to succeed.”

Conclusion

Digital should no longer be seen as an ‘add on’ to a strategy, because it has gone through a rapid growth over the last few years.  It should however be viewed as a platform, whereby it is selected so as to achieve specific objectives. A brand should never just push digital to fit into a specific message, as this will simply result in wasted time and limited results. Digital offers many advantages over the use of traditional media and therefore if it is determined that digital media is relevant in achieving the objectives, the desired goals must be identified so as to measure the brands overall success.                                                                   

  How does your brand operate?

Have you used digital as an ‘add on’?

Are you operating in a media neutral way?

The answer is simple: Be available on the platforms that consumers want you to be available on. These days, that is just about everywhere.

When it comes to digital platforms, Yvonne Johnston recons that the consumer is making the choice to interact: “They are not just there, they choose to follow through and click on your banner”. Gordon Muller warns against this view by adding that consumers do not choose to see your banner or PPC advertisement, it is just there. They choose only when they click on that banner or start a conversation with you on Twitter, for example. So the ultimate goal would be to get that engagement from them and you can only do this if you understand their head space, explains Johnston. Digital platforms, specifically social media, provide marketers with the opportunity to understand this headspace better. We can see what consumers think about brands, and if it is negative, we can interact with them and attempt to change their mind and according to Johnston there is no better brand ambassador than a person that used to be negative about the brand and then changed their opinion.

This power of digital and social media has led to an increase of media spend going towards these platforms and ultimately a decrease on spend going towards above the line (ATL) media, says Jennifer Grace. She further stated that there is value in digital and this is proven by the statistics, but still digital should not be chosen over ATL media but instead be integrated. Donald Liphoko adds that this is why ATL is used to tell consumers where the conversation is; we use ATL to drive consumers to digital. He continues to say that digital is seen as more accountable than traditional media, although we do not know what the true value of a like or tweet is. Marketers are also still wary of using digital as the brand risk is high – “consumers can say what they want online”

In reality, consumers are already saying what they want online, whether your brand is listening and responding or not. Brands cannot afford not to be available on digital platforms if this is where their audience is and although there is risk involved, this can be managed and monitored. Grace also mentioned that although marketers are still wary of digital media, digital media also sees ATL as a threat, but instead should be tapping into it and integrating more. Muller agrees by stating that “We didn’t create TV agencies when we were first introduced to TV as a medium, so why do we have digital agencies? Digital should be integrated.”

Although integration seems to be the ideal, a member of the audience pointed out that “Digital is usually only used as afterthought, but actually requires upfront planning. In reality digital gets 2% of the planning but causes 120% of the headache, so most of the time it’s just cut out.” Muller added that although this is true it is similar to the example of your neighbour relieving himself on your lawn every morning – “It’s not your fault, but it is your problem.” He then continued to explain that the only way around this is through forward planning and not viewing ATL and digital as two separate campaigns.

In conclusion, there are three things to remember:

• The campaign allows you to communicate what you want to, but remember that the audience is always looking – you should be where they are looking and when they are looking.
• Be relevant, topical and funny – keep up with the times, change according to the audience and resonate with those who are looking to participate.
• Remember that every media decision should be logically explainable – the issue is no longer about where to communicate, but about how to communicate.

This is a summary of the information shared at the Journal of Marketing breakfast debate.

The panellists were:

• Jennifer Grace: Head of Media at Native
• Gordon Muller: GSM Quadrant
• Donald Liphoko: Director at The MediaShop
• Yvonne Johnston: Head of Marketing at the SABC

How it works:

1. You post a status update to share information which could be anything from announcements, product releases, promotions, or just news articles straight from your Company Overview page.
2. Your status update is then posted directly to each of your followers’ homepages where they can comment, like or share your update with their entire network. (Companies will need to be very active and provide interesting and relevant updates to their followers to really reap the full benefits of this feature.)
3. You can also monitor engagement metrics of your posts to see what type of posts best work for your business goals and through this analysis you could optimize your conversations.

This feature could generate lucrative leads to companies that use it smartly and also acquire a loyal clientele.

You can learn more on how to set up your company page effectively to best benefit from this feature by studying the How-To Guide, for all the do’s and don’ts.

First of all let’s look at your newsfeed.

This has been made more efficient by removing both Top Stories (which showed the most popular topics) and Most Recent (which placed news in chronological order). The newsfeed now puts up one stream of all the stories relevant to the time they were posted, and according to Facebook “News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff.”

Facebook has increased the character limit for status update s from 420 to an impressive 5,000 meaning that brands now have the chance to say more than ever before. There are also bigger pictures in your newsfeed and you can mark stories as top stories meaning that Facebook will automatically put similar stories at the top of your newsfeed.

What is the ‘Ticker?’

Ticker allows the user to link up with friends in real-time whereby you can see immediate updates and join in conversations at any time as the news feed seems to lag in terms of immediacy. The ticker has now created the ability for you to ‘listen in’ on conversations that were meant to be private with people you may not even know (i.e. friends of friends).

What are Smart Lists?

Smart Lists allow the user to create lists based on certain aspects of an individual’s profile for example your family, school, university and so on. Once an individual in the list updates their profile or posts a comment, the list will indicate the total number of new posts by that group of people.

What about my privacy?

It is important to note that through the addition of the ticker, it is now easier for people  to view pretty much everything you post, like or add. You can limit this by changing your privacy settings to “friends only” or “custom” lists. These settings can be accessed either through the privacy setting in the top right corner of your post or at the top right corner of your page. Remember that with the new Facebook, everything you do will be shared immediately to your newsfeed so be careful when authorising various apps, and make sure you understand and are aware of your privacy settings.

According to an article by Alexandra Reid “If you’re friends with a prospect on Facebook, what you’re watching, reading and listening to, and even what locations you check into, can impact their perception of you professionally and damage business relationships.”

An important aspect you should however take note of is secure browsing. According to Carl “By default, Facebook sends your access credentials in the clear, with no encryption whatsoever. Switching to HTTPS is important because a browser extension called Firesheep has made it especially easy for anyone sharing your open wireless network—at cafe or conference, for example—to sniff your credentials and freely access your account.”

In order to change this, it is important to go to your account settings, select the security setting and enable the secure browsing option.

What should brands be aware of?

With Facebook’s new social plugin it is now possible to drive additional traffic to your site. The social plugin is installed on the businesses website and must then be permitted access by a Facebook member. Each time a user visits the businesses website a notification (stating that the page has been read) can be returned back to Facebook whereby a post will be shared on the users’ wall, and newsfeed. This facility is available to developers via Open Graph

A new button referred to as the ‘Subscribe Button’ could also assist in benefitting brands and their engagement with consumers (followers). The subscribe button allows the individual to subscribe to updates by public figures of the brand, who can share posts for the individuals who have subscribed. Additionally the brand can subscribe to regular influential visitors assisting in mutual relations. The subscribe button shares similar resemblance to the follow button on Twitter and works in a similar way.

The Ticker can be used to a brands adavntage as long as a brand has a cohesive strategy whereby updates are placed thoughtfully and interaction with consumers is relevant. Brands need to create relevant, consistent and interesting stories so as to keep the user interested and willing to engage regularly with the brand.

Conclusion

According to SodaHead a public opinion forum, 86% of users are against the Facebook changes with many saying that Facebook is overloading the user with too much information from both the Newsfeed and Ticker, being compared to a kind of Twitter feed, but it’s important to remember that “We are its product, not its customers,” says Andrew Brown editor of Cif belief, with its customers actually being the advertisers.

So are we over-emphasising the need for social media? Herman Degener from Habari Group believes that if your brand is not on social media, you are missing out. “Your consumers are already there – you can talk to them, but do it in a strategic manner.” But where do we start?

1. Listen:

Before you set up your social media platforms, listen and research in order to find out where the best place is to set these up. Know where your consumers are; do they spend most of their day on Facebook or do they quickly check their Twitter feed at the red traffic light? Your social media strategy should start with an understanding of where consumers are talking about your brand. This may be difficult to determine with privacy policies in place, but on certain platforms, like Twitter, it is easy to search for your brand and to read what is being said about your brand.

Remember, consumers are not on social media to interact with brands, they want to interact with their friends, and this is who they will be speaking to about your brand. These consumers use your brand on a daily basis and interact with in at various touch points, meaning that they probably know your brand better than you do. Use this information to your advantage. Use feedback form consumers to improve business processes and customer service, to create new products and to improve the aspects of your brand that they deal with every day. So in short, there is no value in listening if you are not going to use the insights you gained from listening and push it back into your business with the goal of building a stronger brand.

2. Link your Social Media to other platforms:

What most brands are promising online is not translating to what they are delivering offline. It’s important that social media tie in with the rest of your business. Because people are spending lots of time on social media, it’s important to build a bridge between social and traditional media. How you interact on line will determine what you do in your traditional and offline media. It is no longer sufficient to say “follow us”. You should tell consumers, or even better, show them why they should follow you. Use traditional media to give consumers a reason to find and follow you on social media. People have their own impressions about a brand, whether the communication is online or offline, but if a brand is honest offline, it will work better online.

3. Engage

Carla Jones, form saidWot gives simple rules when it comes to engagement:  “Being on social media depends on your business goals. If you have nothing to say, don’t go on. If you have value to add and quality content, go for it.” Angus Robinson from Native added that social media is also not only about the platform – it’s also about networking and building communities of interest. People are passionate about the brand and will therefore follow it on specific social media platforms. This provides the opportunity to engage with them on a more personal level and in return reinforce their passion for the brand. Honesty is again mentioned as an important factor – Social media should not be used to try and fix bad products or services, it should be used to improve and interact. Brands should be honest about what they offer and not try and promote a wonderful product when in fact the consumers think the opposite.

4. Get them talking

It’s one thing to be on social media, and another to manage it correctly – it is important to always communicate in a manner that generates feedback. One way to do this is to follow the example of Woolworths who draws attention by using well-shot, professional images on their social media.

Social media should be used to get consumers talking about your brand. Herman Degener confirmed this: “positive or negative. If they can’t even talk about your brand, how are they going to buy it?” The problem here is that you cannot create a viral campaign – it can only become viral if the content is interesting and engaging. Suzanne Stokes, from MWEB explains this – social media is a form of word of mouth and brands should create content that is authentic and engaging in order to generate feedback from consumers to push back into the business. This creates trusts and loyalty as it leads to consumers becoming influencers. This is important as people listen to other people, rather than to brands.

So, is there a magic formula? Not exactly, but the best way to seed a conversation can be summarised as follows:

Value + Relevance + Engagement.

“As companies increase their social media marketing budgets to encompass almost 20% of their entire marketing budgets (in the US), and with online advertising comprising another 15% of marketing budgets (in the US), LinkedIn and other social media sites are vying for a potential third of marketing budgets over the next few years” - Neal Schaffer : ‘Social Media Today’.

LinkedIn Statistics:

LinkedIn has grown considerably to become one of the most important social networking sites. Stats indicate that:

• LinkedIn is the fastest professional networking site.
• LinkedIn now has 101 million members worldwide (LinkedIn Ad Platform: 2011 Stats).

The main difference of LinkedIn (from Facebook):

• It is a platform created as a closed and trusted networking site for business professionals.
• Its main targeted market is in the hearts and minds of the professional demographic.
• Compared to Facebook (described as the center of consumer culture for businesses), LinkedIn concentrates on establishing professional relationships between businesses.

Three main LinkedIn benefits (for your business):

With LinkedIn competing for the attention of businesses to include it as part of online strategy, they have number of nifty features that set them apart from other social networking sites.

• LinkedIn Company Pages

Competitors such as Facebook have recently upgraded their company/business page platform, and so has LinkedIn with the ‘enhanced’ company pages (announced November 1, 2010). These LinkedIn Company pages are more customizable (able to add Twitter feed, Office location map, add Blog feed & Careers tab) although not as extensive as FBML customisation from Facebook.

LinkedIn also allows users to “Recommend” company products and services (opposite of “Like” – on Facebook), add comments to the recommendations, and see who in their network made what company recommendations.

Example of well optimized LinkedIn company page below

• LinkedIn Groups

The LinkedIn Groups, compared to Facebook Groups for example; offer more significant engagement with the professional community as there is plenty of room for discussions, and sharing the discussions among industry leaders not like the small status update boxes on the Facebook groups platform.

LinkedIn Groups also have the ability to send daily and weekly digests which Facebook Pages lack. This therefore creates even more engagement from Group members.

However, the main problem with LinkedIn Groups is that they are a private world: Unless you were a member of that Group you couldn’t see inside it – although this may change soon with the talks of LinkedIn Groups being given the option to make them ‘public’ or ‘private’.

• LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn has their own Pay-Per-Click advertising in 3 types: Banner Ads, Media Box Ads and Direct Ads.  Neal Schaffer from ‘Social Media Today’ states that we must always bear in mind that: “Facebook has companies and LinkedIn has professionals (professional demographic)” – so when targeting your ad audience it is important to consider this.

Other features to look at once you have created your company page on LinkedIn include the “Follow Us on LinkedIn” button and a host of Applications that may be added to your page (these will be discussed in our next blog post).

For more LinkedIn reading visit:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/nealschaffer/252062/linkedin-vs-facebook-business-2011-battle-begins : [LinkedIn vs. Facebook for Business in 2011]

http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2010/09/linkedin-demographics-and-visitor-statistics : [BooleanBlackBelt LinkedIn Stats]

http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011 : [LinkedIn Ad Platform: 2011 Stats]

Our panelists were:

• Natasha Basson – GM of Brand & Communication, MTN SA
• Terry Volkwyn – CEO Primedia Broadcasting
• Gordon Patterson – CEO of Starcom Mediavest
• Rachelle Jaques – Sales Manager of the Media Connection
• Omar Essack – Executive Director: Broadcasting – Kagiso Media

Jeremy Maggs lead the discussion and here is an overview of all the questions and answers from the session:

Is radio as a medium dying?

• Terry Volkwyn – We don’t think radio is a dying medium but it does face challenges from digital media. The most important factor for radio is that the medium is driven by advertising and this is pivotal to its survival.

• Gordon Patterson – Radio is not dying, infact stats show that listening minutes are increasing over South Africa and radio has the advantage of ‘direct reach’ to clientele.

• Natasha Basson – Radio is not dead but when marketers advertise, they should advertise by programme and not by station.

What are the limitations of radio advertising?

• Gordon Patterson – The limitation is that marketers are planning/targeting TV advertising by station but they should plan by programme (people tune in to a station because of the programme not because of what station it is).

“In addition, broadcasters are now in a habit of discounting sales and advertising services and this is hurting industry player (for example SABC making loses due to discounting)” – Gordon Patterson – CEO of Starcom Mediavest.

• Natasha Basson – Another limitation the industry has is that research is limited in terms of knowing more about their ‘listenership’ (who they are and more about their demographics).

How do small businesses owners benefit from Radio advertising?

• Gordon Patterson – They need to know which radio stations are in their area and analyze the cost effectiveness of advertising with each station. It is also important to look at the budget and consider advertising with local radio stations.

• Terry Volkwyn – My advice would be to approach a radio direct sales team and calculate the cost per response.

• Rachelle Jaques – The benefits of small companies is that they are flexible and there is a lot of room to be creative in advertising.

“Using community radio stations for small business advertising may be most beneficial however they are limited to the community” – Rachelle Jaques – Sales Manager of the Media Connection.

Do Brands use radio to build the brand or just for product promotion?

• Natasha Basson – Depending on your strategy, national radio broadcasting stations are often used for company branding campaigns (e.g MTN) whereas regional broadcasting stations help in ‘sell brand products’.

What should clients expect from radio advertising sales individuals?

• Terry Volkwyn – We make sure that the sales team is fully trained and give professional consulting so they approach clients (advertisers) effectively.

• Omar Essack – A good radio sales team must understand their clients’ needs and strategize the ways in which they can reach the sales conversion. They must offer the client the most relevant channels to reach the most optimum strategy for the advertiser.

What is radio advertising added value?

• Omar Essack – Radio advertising added value are the extras added on to the service offering such as in depth reporting of results.

• Rachelle Jaques – Added value is not an advertising discount but more of a ‘tailor-made’ service – monitor, watch and respond to the client’s needs anytime.

• Gordon Patterson – this is addition support that makes sure that radio stations run a campaign that works.

When can you tell that a campaign is not working?

• Natasha Basson – It takes roughly 24hours to see if a radio campaign is going to be successful or if it needs extra attention to reach its benchmark – especially if it is an interactive radio campaign.

In conclusion, the last question the panelists addressed was “How will radio work for businesses?” It was generally agreed that radio advertising will work effectively when advertiser focus on leveraging on the relationship the radio station has with the community in order to unleash the power of its advertising potential.

Clients were:
Dept of arts and culture – artist interest.
City of JHB – Callabash interest.
FIFA

Click here to view advert 3

• The grass was taken extremely seriously by FIFA, so the grass had to be taken into extreme regard in strategy execution.
• Rehearsals were only allowed twice
• Legacy of the work: 30 students from Educational institutions, 400 people crew, 130 from SARU, 60% of the spend with BEE level 3 and beyond, and only 10% were spent on international partners.

The story:
• Raise the curtain on the biggest, most watched final in the world.
• Find a way to represent the contemporary and progressive side of SA
• Don’t forget the heart and soul of Africa.

Questions answered:
• Jack Morten produced the Athens games, and assisted in all dimensions of the production, in terms of charting and mapping the project.

• Innovation in terms of picture projection made it all stand out. 18 of the world’s biggest projectors around the stadium. Projectors were positioned on the ring of the Calabash, to create 1 unified image on the floor. Mapping was used to project images around objects that aren’t necessarily flat.
• The message to the diverse audience, to glue it all together, is when “we come together, we can do it”. Also they Africa can compete on global level.
• Most panicked point: Contract was only signed on 5 March, with not a lot of time or budget to get it done, up until 5 March. Strikes threatened the ceremonies twice.
• How was it sold to client: presentations were done to boards. To all three mentioned above. DVD packaging was used, to distribute to the different board. Wrapping an emotional context around the message.
• Back up plan if the projectors didn’t work: There was NO room to fail. There was no back-up plan.

Advert 4:
TV Campaign for Chicken Licken
Rob Mclennan from Network BBDO

Click here to view Advert 4

• Only 4 ads every year
• Objective: Based on, “if you havn’t tried it, where have you been?” – from the principle that it has become a huge cultish poduct in the black markets.
• Humour was the differentiator, with the typically South African proposition of the 1994.

Questions and comments answered:
• Brand is very unique, and the brand colour stand out a lot.
• Ad had to have a very broad appeal, in terms of audience and reach.
• Was told to appeal to everybody.
• Idea was very creative. But how does it communicate Chicken Licken above the other brands? It’s about the craving, the hangover cure, and the it thing to have on a night out. This ad worked mainly on one segment, and mainly the higher LSM markets.
• The shift from Chicken Licken target market from black markets, to more white markets. It feels a lot younger audience driven – is the brand trying to go younger? Yes, a shift is seen to student markets. Trying to play on societal leadership.
• Shift in consumption profiles can be seen where franchise membership has been granted.
• The brand has grown from a small franchise operation, to something a lot bigger, and going through all the growing presence.

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

The Facebook Like Button has been in existence quite a while now but only a few people have ever bothered to actually think of its power in terms of numbers in web traffic.

The kind people at Mashable have written a comprehensive article on this ‘tool’ after attending the Facebook’s Developer Network Insights Conference. They found that the Facebook Like Buttons don’t just generate interesting data about the ‘likers’ (users that click ‘like’ on the content) but this “data also speaks volumes about click-through-rates, time on-site and other engagement metrics”.

Here are a few points i picked up from the article:

• The Facebook Like Button is now present on roughly 2 million sites around the web, from sports sites to news organizations and many other publications.
• On average, a Facebook user who “likes” your content has more than double the number of friends than a typical Facebook user.
• An even more interesting stat about the likers is that they click on five times more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user.
• News sites: The average Facebook user who “likes” content on a news website is 34 — that’s about two decades younger than the average newspaper subscriber.
• Facebook relays messages from publishers saying that these users “are more engaged and stay longer when their real identity and real friends are driving the experience through social plugins.”
• Facebook is only part of social media referral traffic, but it’s becoming a larger part as the network grows and users become accustomed to interacting with third-party and external content from within the comfort of their social graph.

Read the full article here.