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.

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

Dr Iraj Abedian CEO, Pan-African Investment and Research Services takes a very close view on the economy and what will happen in 2010.

• The end of recession in South Africa
  Credit extension fallen sharply and will reverse in 2010

• Further dollar weakness will mean stronger demand for gold, and general commodity price appreciation
  US dollar is on a one way track

• Continued rand volatility with an appreciated bias
  This complicates business planning and exports
• Increased electricity and water tariffs, and other public utilities, leading to higher cost-push inflation.
  Last 25 years South Africa has underinvested in our public infrastructure and it’s impossible to catch up with that in a year or two

• Expect tariff increases and a lot of political debate around it
• The return of ‘high deficit’ fiscal regime with prospect of rising taxes. However public debt is relatively low, and foreign public debt is relatively small, immunized against Rand volatility

• Fairly stable monetary policy with low interest rates
  Interest rates failing at last

• Rising demand for ‘social delivery’ in the face of public sector’s limited delivery capacity
• The return of macroeconomic policy uncertainty
• Growing focus on economics of income disparities
• 2010 Soccer World Cup will showcase South Africa’s infrastructure resilience

Dr John Ledger – Associate Professor of Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg looks at 2010 as the year of biodiversity and what that means for all of us:

Energy ideas

• After 2010 how are we going to cope with household and business energy needs? Get hold of a solar water heater
• Look at the possibility to invest into a small systems to use sun energy
• You need to convert your lighting to energy efficient lighting
• Wood – use wood burning stoves rather than open burning fires

Environmental ideas

• Respect water and how we use it
• Education is at the basis of everything – need future generations to understand how fragile our planet is
• Support Eco warriors – the people that work tirelessly for the environment
• Johannesburg Zoo – a jewel in this city, support it and likewise establishments

Martin Rosen the MD, Mega Vision Media admits early on that he is actually a retailer at heart and not really a marketer. Martin believes that 2010 is like a big wave approaching South Africa.

• The people that catch the 2010 wave will be innovative, opportunistic and aggressive – ambush marketing will not work. The people that take advantage of the world cup need to come with something really original to be able to stand out.
• Everybody in South Africa will play a role in how the people that visit our country will perceive South Africa. Real opportunity to prove to visitors that we are good host and run a first class show.
  Advertising is all good, the real experience will be in the queue all across the country. In the service levels that people will experience when visiting the country.
• You can’t con people in media anymore- the real tools are so much more powerful than mass media, facebook, linkedin, twitter, myspace. In agencies not big enough shift from traditional spend to the digital arena. Mass media is playing a less important role. Revenue in mass media is gonna dry up.
• Great brands will always exist, people can really compare and talk to other people about services.
• When you look at new toys out there like mobile marketing, ecommerce, social media. There is a real lack of understanding and a shift is needed from traditional marketing spend to digital/ new media tools.

It’s important to use all of the tools to our disposable to ensure that the people who visit our country really get to experience the countries hospitality as this will build a legecy for post 2010.

Lebo Biko – Managing Director, BBDO Consulting identified 5 Marketing Trends and 5 Opportunities looking towards 2010.

5 Marketing Trends and Ideas

• Consumers new value equation from impulse and indulgence to value and simplicity
• Brands will have to redefine and re-articulate their essence
• Business should be marketing: yet marketing is not always business
• Definition of consumer equity will need to take into consideration the intangibles – more on meeting unmet needs
• Giving is the new taking and sharing the new giving

5 Marketing Opportunities for 2010

• The 2010 FIFA World Cup has immense opportunities for both country and brand – build next 1994 moments
• The soccer spectacular will build legacies for brands that are not just external- great opportunity to motivate staff
• Brands that connect with soccer will build a new emotional connection with their existing and potential market
• Accelerate the brand externally towards measurable results, legally – use the 2010 as springboard

Keys to success for 2010 and beyond

• Be prepared for the most unlikely events
• Think the unthinkable
• Focus on value but never forget values
• Have a story to tell
• Be adventures
• Be proactive
• Be revolutionary, incremental changes is backward changes

According to Prof John Simpson (Director, Unilever Institute for Strategic Marketing, UCT) consumers behavior lacks quite considerable from what economist tell us is the current state of the economy. So although there are talks about the recession being almost over consumers don’t experience that, in fact the complete opposite. Specific research on how consumers are experiencing the recession will be important for marketers especially looking to 2010. Specific groups have been identified, looking specifically at LSM 5-10 that is making up 80% of spend:

Strugglers are low on confidence and low on financial flexibility
Struggling to survive which has great bearing on what products and brands they buy. Most of them spent money on food. Highly resourceful to stretch their money – bargain hunters. Low Brand loyalty. Have also influenced culture, can’t share anymore.

Pre-family
Brands are very important to them, all about me and me. Don’t compromise on brand image

Young Family
Being hit very hard, sacrifice a great deal. Going more and more towards house brands. They are developing intense dislike of shopping. Looks at the future rather than today.

Older Black Middle Class
Brand is still important, not going to give up anything, brands are still important. Self image and brand are very important.

Prime Timers
Lifestyle spending money on, and to try and improve on it. Not going to change my lifestyle.