Are traditional platforms dying and is digital taking over? Where is the money going? Which media channels are the best to invest in?

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

We attended the the JOM (Journal of Marketing) Breakfast Debate this morning (07:30 am – 09:00 am GMT +2) at the MichelAngelo in Sandton, hosted by Jeremy Maggs (@maggsonmedia), presented by Future Group and sponsored by Sappi and  ABSA bank, marketing debates supported by Remata. The focal subject of the event was Design and Packaging.

We had a great line-up of panelists to address us on Design and Packaging from various industries that are very influencial in the entire process. The panelists were as following: Gareth Pearson – CEO and Shareholder at BMI Reasearch, Andrew Human – CEO of The Loeries Awards, Adam Botha – Creative Director of Switch Branding and Design, Mariette Du Plessis – Partner at Adams & Adams, and Karen Saville – Client Service Director at Y&R (Johannesbburg).

Jeremy Maggs opened the discussion by sharing a few consumer behavior studies done which reveal that 70% of purchase decisions by the consumer are made in-store hence the importance of outstanding packaging which gives the consumer a different experience in their “mood of purchase moment”.

Gareth Pearson then took over taking us further into detail of “Consumer Insight” by adding how consumers are looking for value and convenience as the main factors influencing their purchase decision. And with the “Green” movement, now consumers are also environment conscious which affects the packaging of products.

The recycling process has quite a huge impact on logistics therefore added costs to the manufacturing of packages. Even though the Green movement has slowed down over the years, government regulations are being discussed to be put in place and the packaging industry will self-regulate through the Waste Management Bill.

Also social media has an impact on packaging, one example being the QR  codes on Doritos pack which pack design and product testing were done resulting from the impact of Waste Management Bill. But regardless of some of the limitations that affect design of packaging, we still come up on top for creativity and innovation in the world with the 2009 World Star Awards being testimony to that as South Africa won 9 awards, Japan 7, Norway 2 and Singapore 1. We must not downplay how creative we are.

Andrew Human then filled us in on how new and innovative packages create a different experience for the consumer. The Loeries Awards focus on the following quality of packaging trends: innovation and relevance to brand and audience. He then shared a few winning examples like, packaging by Bushmills and Cabriere.

It appeared that the most package conscious manufacturers are the Alcohol and Perfume industries. Well it has been researched and discovered that Alcohol and perfume purchases are highly driven by their packaging. Consumers almost exclusively purchase based on the packaging, which affects the pricing of the product.

Another example of great packaging is the Café Royale Tequila packaging – great innovation where South America meets Italy was the theme of the design.

Adam Botha talks sustainability of packaging design, the impact of CPA and the challenge to be creative taking all those parameters into consideration. As packaging is the final point of contact before the consumer makes a decision to purchase, it’s important for your product to stand out driven by creativity as the consumer notices what’s different.

A few techniques you can use is illustration to create a hand crafted, sustainable look. This can also help to curb the new rules of the CPA as The new CPA legislation is challenging creative minds to stay within the boundaries therefore limiting designers from being more innovative.

Karen Saville from Y&R shares with us their Pick ‘n Pay on Nicol project with us and all the design elements that went into the project including their target of their entire concept and how they brought that innovation to life with the help of the contractors they worked with. PnP brought global best practice, briefed architects and went away from the box format.

Y&R focused on making the store a sensory and comfortable experience for the visitors by being involved in every detail of the store. They used iconography rather than wording to achieve a more pleasant and interactive in-store experience for consumers which will make them spend more time in the store and make more purchases there.

Thyme on Nicol restaurant is seamlessly intergrated into PnP on Nicol whereas Good Food Studio is sexier and focused on ingredients. “the more pleasant and interactive you make your in-store experience, the more time people will spend in your store.” ~ Karen Saville.

With all the creativity and innovation needed in the design of your packaging, the companies who succeed at this face a lot of copy cats of competing products using the same theme of their creative to try to steal the loyal consumer purchases made based on the winning packaging.

Therefore it’s very important to register your creative to avoid such, as most companies do not register their creative which would cost them way less than a legal lawsuit against copy cats would cost them. Product creative counterfeiting is the biggest growing industry in the world!!!, and that’s where legal firms such as Adams & Adams come in.

Mariette du Plessis educated us on the legal and regulations side of the whole matter at hand. Any packaging can be protected if it can be graphically presented. She used the Jack Daniels packaging as an example of a very distinctive and subjective design. The Coke bottle is also a great example of trade marking.

Words like “pure” and “natural” cannot be used on packaging. “Original” can only be used if you are the first to launch such a product in that category.  Due to the CPA we need to design packaging to be more transparent and give the right and full information for the consumer. The package must not just only say “green” but the brand must be able to support by giving more information.

Conclusion:

Packaging design is a highly influencing factor in consumer purchase, therefore for product manufacturers, design innovation must be an informed business decision. Not just the design, but also the green and organic factors are now being considered by consumers in packaging.

Innovation in packaging is determined by budget as packaging can cost up to 45% of the overall product cost. Design registration is very important to protect your creative design from copy cats.

Insights for the day: Be interactive, responsible, sustainable, innovative and creative.

Social Media marketing and management of this event was done by saidWot and Virtuosa.

Sport Sponsorships in South Africa has grown with 5.2% in 2010 alone and is now a $46 billion market. This is according to David Sidenberg from BMI, who was one of the panellists at the Journal of Marketing breakfast debate on 25 August. One reason for this is that Sponsorship is becoming a popular marketing tool, which leads to a big amount of brands Sponsoring teams or events, which in turn then leads to a need for larger chunks of the budget to spend on sponsorship to compete with the increasing noise. A reason for the popularity of Sport Sponsorships is explained by ABSA’s Lynn Naude, who says that ABSA invests in Sport Sponsorships because “It allows us to cater for all markets”.  Thus, a large benefit is reaching your audience and creating an association in their minds between the Sponsor and the rights holder. Barends adds that Sport Sponsorship can also give a brand personality and help them to engage with heir consumers, and so create awareness.

In the case of creating brand awareness, Sport Sponsorship has become popular due to the amount of Television Broadcasting time dedicated to Sport. Unfortunatily, there is a correlation between the amount of exposure on Television and costs. So what if your brand can not afford this large investment in Sponsorship? According to Barends, “if you want to be seen, but you do not have the budget, you must be creative”. He uses the example of Sponsoring a Sport Union or Federation, rather than the team or club. This will allow your brand to be associated with specific products instead of the big event. Vosloo gives a further example of Total forming a female team to extend their publicity.  Sidenberg adds that product placement is also not used as effectively as it could be in South Africa.

But according to Naude as well as Nadia Vosloo (Brand and Communications Manager at Total SA) there is a range of benefits associated with Sponsorships, and brand awareness is but one of them. Sponsorships may also develop due to a need for Corporate Social Investment (CSI). A good example of this is the Sponsorship of community sport events by Total, which leads to a reduction in crime but also builds brand loyalty from a young age, or the provision of vegetable tunnels in Kwazulu-Natal to fight pollution and feed 100 children per day. According to Lyndon Barends, CSI is usually a part of Sport Sponsorships as it also provides the team members with the opportunity to break away from their daily activities. And although individual sportsmen and women are sometimes associated with a specific Sponsor, this is becoming a risk as these individuals can have a influence on the Sponsor, as they generally have access to large audiences via social media.

Ultimately, a perfect fit is needed between the Rights Holder and the Sponsor to make the partnership work. This fit is determined by the brand DNA as well as the objectives of the Sponsor. The objectives may vary from brand awareness, to increased sales, to engagement with the target audience to CSI. In some cases a natural fit exists between the Rights Holder and Sponsor, as the case is with Total and Motorsport.

So at the end of the debate, when the question was asked if Sport Sponsorship is worth it, the short answer was “Yes”.

The opening question that kick-started the course of conversation at this morning’s Journal of Marketing breakfast debate was: “You have to be on Social Media to be relevant. But can you monetise your involvement, and how do you link it with traditional platforms and manage the process?” – Jeremy Maggs –

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.

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.