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.

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.

It’s the first Journal of Marketing breakfast and Virtuosa once again are here giving live updates through Tweeting and Blogging to bring you all the news firsthand. Moderated by Jeremy Maggs this morning we are talking about Radio and why this medium is still relevant. The panel consists of Lance Rothschild (Media Consultant & Radio Commentator, Opportun(at)e), Norman Gibson – (GM, Radio Advertising Bureau) Omar Essack (Executive Director: Broadcasting, Kagiso Media) Andrew Smythe (GM Radio Sales & Alternative Revenue, SABC, Terry Volkwyn (CEO, Primedia Broadcasting).

Interesting for me is the panels diverse opinion around what role digital should be playing in radio stations. Some seem to be of the opinion that internet access in South Africa is not high enough to warrant really investing into it. I find these opinions surprising. Others on the panel recognise that digital is exploding and see this as an unique opportunity to offer an integrated approach to their listeners. What’s clear is that there is an uncertainty on how best to integrate digital with their offering and how to  manage the communities that are developing around the station and especially the websites.

If you want to read more about what was discussed during this morning session be sure to get your hands on an issue of the next Journal of Marketing.

Dion Chang, Trends Analyst ended of a very interesting morning with his 10 things for 2010.

• Peak experience
  We all have high point  and low points in live. 2008/2009 will be remembered for the financial crisis the world experienced. Brands need to adapt to this changing consumer mindset.
• Shift in value system
  2009 very demanding year that govern a change in our lives which led to a questioning of value system on a very personal level.
• New world order
  Consumers are taking back the power, taking more responsibility over their purchase decisions
• Shift of power
  Move away from power-hungry, greed-based leadership model towards a more ethical and responsible style of leadership
• The female century
  Along with shift of power also a shift from left brain, logical thinking towards a more right brained, intuitive approach
• Social media
  Boundaries such as a race, geography and culture become less important and shared interest matters more
• Tribes
  No longer able to box people in set categories and think that they will react the way you want them to – throwing traditional marketing on its head
• Pick and mix society
  People have freedom to pick and choose products, gadgets, lifestyles etc which has led to multi-coloured spectrum of individuality
• Ambient awareness
  Information overload leads to the development of filter/alerts to help us cope with this
• Empathetic economy
  Civil society demands more ethical traits as we reach a fork in the road concerning our economy

The 2nd last speaker at The Annual was Dr Alan Knot-Craig former Vodacom CEO that discussed issues and possible predictions in relations to the Telecommunication Environment in 2010:

• Mobile operators will reduce some of their tariffs by some 20%. The opportunity will be lower input costs for business and consumers but challenge on the other hand to incentives private investors to continue investing in infrastructure.
• Television broadcast to mobile phones may become reality and impact current pay TV
• Broadband speeds should increase by 50%
• Lower margins will squeeze out competitors
• Vodacom as a brand may disappear and Vodafone will enter the arena

Glen Lomas – CEO, DDB South Africa had a refreshingly different outlook from some of the previous speakers at The Annual. Some of his advise for marketers that are still debating what to do and say around the World Cup:

• Don’t lose your head
  Wonderful to get excited but keep your head especially when it comes to budgets in this economy
• Event fans, not football fans
  Most people watch it as a spectacle, not necessary because they are football fans
• Don’t force football relevance
  If the fit isn’t natural don’t force it – most common error
• Leave a legacy post 2010
  If you just state how excited about the World Cupyou are in your marketing, what are people going to be left with after this? Time is limited and your window of opportunity is small. Be impactful, brief, to the point, know that the attention span of people are limited, use it wisely.
• Own some real estate
  Not everybody is going to the game, use things like rural fan parks, cinemas, radio with relevant sponsorship
• Capture the mood
  People want to have fun, raise the spirits
• Be real, bare your soul
  Nothing worse than to be fake, do one activity that shows your real brand value
• Take everyone you know – not just your clients

Matthew Buckland – General Manager Publishing & Social Media, 24.com had some intersting facts to share not just about 2010 but also the years beyond.

• Media is undergoing a foreign change – technology is shifting power away from the editors, publishers, mass media
• Media is experience competitors from their own readers – citizen journalist
• Media experiencing competitors from non media companies like National Arts Festival, publishing via blog & website
• Idea – All companies on the web is essentially media companies
• Everyon’s a reporter – virally passed along
• Mass media increasingly not the major influence on society it once was
• Rise of individuals and entrepreneurs – open source
• Mobile entering the mainstream
• Most online publishers expect their mobile sites to surpass their traditional sites in the near future

Challenges

• Focus on developing filters and aggregators to deal with information overload
• “Switch off” holidays will be required