The changing nature of consumers?

On 28 October, I had the opportunity to join Draftfcb Worldwide’s Global Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Fassnacht, for lunch and a brief presentation on the Future of Communications, and how agencies need to adapt and learn from the changing nature of the media. Fassnacht was in South Africa to update the local Draftfcb team on global initiatives.

Beginning the talk, Fassnacht mentioned that he feels a strong need to move from transactional to relational advertising. He went on to discuss what he sees as seven key views for advertising communication of the future. These include the fact that while TV remains a strong advertising force, the means of advertising on TV are changing – now TV advertising is littered with website addresses and short codes to be SMSed for more information.

Another key point is that marketers need to react to the fact that each person is comprised of multiple individual personality types and roles – be it father; worker; dad; athlete – and each micro-segment can be individually targeted in advertising. This is increasingly becoming the case.

What’s your opinion on the changing nature of consumers, and advertising as a result? Post your comments below.

Black diamonds and the long tail

Black diamonds are classified as the emerging, wealthy black middle-class South Africans. Long tail marketing is targeting groups with marketing or advertising campaigns ‘on the outside of the mainstream’. If black diamonds are the emerging South African mainstream, what about the rest? Those unemployed or struggling financially? Long-tail marketing says that this market is very lucrative and the way to approach it is through a trickle down effect. Instead of offering products in bulk to this segment, offer individual products, as the market is more likely to be able to afford it. Additionally, commuter transportation such as trains, buses and taxis are an important way to reach this segment and should be utilized, but currently isn’t. Isn’t it time to take a real look at South Africa and use the opportunities available, rather than simply praising ourselves for being a country that has them.

Making space for the ‘black diamonds’ to shine through

The term ‘black diamond’ has emerged fairly recently and refers to the new, emerging black middle class, full of confidence; well educated; perceived as relatively affluent individuals who are driven to succeed and achieve their goals.

 

Commentary around this term however, has tended to be negative, with a number of social commentators indicating that further labeling is simply not going to help anything. What these commentators forget is that segmenting is a typical practice followed by all marketers, and the emergence of the term was not intended as ‘another label’ or to be perceived in a derogatory manner.

 

Despite misconceptions, it cannot be denied that this market segment is on the rise. What is challenging, though, is that little research exists about what the market wants. A number of studies are increasingly focusing on this market, and have segmented it into further parts, by age group, value, key drivers, and employment status, besides others. This is important as television advertisers will soon need to start broadcasting adverts to this growing market; suppliers may need to re-evaluate strategies and offerings; and there is a real need to find out what actually appeals to the market.

 

Various studies have been done and while there are some overlaps of research findings, one controversial aspect which I came across, was where some research pointed to individuals enjoying the label ‘black diamond’ while others did not.

 

How important is such a label to a marketing strategy? What has your approach been? Let us know by posting your comments below.

Marketing through music

In last week’s Editorial Desk, I focused on the Nokia Music Store, MTN Xploaded and the Google Library Project – which are all online platforms that offer music; TV shows; and books. This week, I’d like to take the discussion further and focus on what these platforms themselves offer advertisers and marketers.

In August, I attended the second McCann Insight Exchange, which identified in-game advertising as one of the fastest growing, although unorthodox, methods of advertising. But what online music stores?

Both iTunes and Zune are competing against one another in the field of providing music. What they also do, is offer space for advertisers to increase the visibility of their products. After doing a quick search, what I found was that although many articles on Google indicate a variety of ‘Zune and marketing’ options, when clicking through, these appear to be comments from users talking about what Zune will be doing.

When doing a search on ‘iTunes and marketing’ the first site that appeared was the iTunes site for marketing, listing a variety of tools already offered to marketers to use on iTunes – which reaches millions of users.

There is a difference in strategy it appears, and it may be good to take note of the following: perhaps it’s not a bad idea to start looking into the more unconventional advertising methods; and, that it is a good idea to be very clear on what you do offer, and not make it a search for a needle in a haystack procedure for possible clients, who would like to see how your platform could help them.

What do you think about unorthodox advertising? What are some of the more unconventional tools that you can think of? And how much do you value the importance of a clear message? Leave your opinions on these and other questions below. We enjoy receiving your comments!

You’ve got the attention-grabbing ad – but will people contact you?

I saw a street pole ad a few weeks ago that grabbed my attention – not because of the service offered, but because the contact details were not merely comprised of a cell phone number that needed to be scribbled down with haste.

To my surprise, the sign gave an email address – something simple, like ben@company.co.za. This is definitely easier for me to remember than a complicated cell phone number. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to recall a number from ‘property for sale’ signs, only to forget part (if not all) of the number before I have a chance to jot it down.

Short, snappy email addresses are definitely easier to remember – maybe it’s time to rethink the details left on outdoor advertising? Perhaps the answer is to give your company’s web address, as people can then visit the ‘contact us’ page to send an email or make the call!

What do you think?

A glimpse at the success of South African advertising

The South African advertising industry has been in the spotlight in the past few weeks with both the Pendoring Advertising Awards and the Loeries Awards taking place. We have an extremely high standard of creative work in the country, as is evident from the winners of these awards and from the type of ads we see on our TV screens; hear on the radio; and see in print. Our creative work is also often compared to an international standard, winning international awards, and with many commentators saying that our advertising is far superior to its international counterpart.

So what are some of the reasons for this impressive creative standard? Festus Masekwameng, Chairman of the Loerie Awards, feels that there is a commitment in the industry to maintain high standards, while South African advertising awards also reward outstanding work from student level, meaning that students are encouraged to produce their best work from early in their careers, and it will only get better with the type of prizes they receive – for example, bursaries and overseas study trips handed out at thePendorings for their Student Awards.

South African creatives also understand what appeals to their audiences, and what they need to do to be successful in their campaigns. As a result, they create impressive adverts that capture the spirit of South African citizens and portray aspects of life that they can relate to and which are topical.

Mike Barnwell, Executive Creative Director of Grey South Africa, who has been chosen as a judge at several international advertising awards, feels that South African ads can stand up to any of their international counterparts, and the South African creative industry has earned its place at any international awards show.

What is your opinion of South African advertising, and how does it compare to its international counterpart? We would love to hear your comments!

Virtual space offers platform for creativity

The virtual reality space is yours to play with. Will you?

If they say that a single picture is worth a thousand words, then what is an entire video worth? I ask this with a niggling suspicion that I have. Although it hasn’t received as much hype as other areas in IT over the years, I find that increasingly, the virtual world is becoming more important, and not only that, it is being used more. What sparked my curiosity was Google’s recent announcement of its launch of data collection for Street View in South Africa. I overheard a comment about virtual tourism, which can benefit people interested in pre-viewing a holiday destination, or those who’ve always wanted to visit certain places, but for various reasons, have been unable to.

I dug up a little research on virtual tourism and saw that it evolved from virtual tours that started in a British museum in 1994. After museums and galleries started picking up on the trend, the real estate sector snapped-up videoing properties and began posting them online. Not much happened for a while after that, until the tourism sector picked up on it. Now, anyone is able to type in a search destination, ‘arrive there’, and visit almost any area that they wish to – online of course.

Some of the more technologically correct language on ‘the virutal world’  is better knonw as three-dimensional (3D) virtual tourism (3DVT).

This is street-level navigation of virtual reality environments for exploring physical places in space and time without physically traveling there. 3DVT invokes a virtual tour that uses three-dimensional models in addition to two-dimensional panoramic images; a sequence of hyperlinked still or video images, and/or image-based models of the real location and multimedia support elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text. 3DVT does not require travel and viewing is supposed to evoke an experience of moving through the represented 3D space.

Now the point I’m trying to make is this: it appears as general consensus that we are living in a tough economic climate owing to the global financial crisis; many companies are slashing their budgets; clients are holding on to their cash; and it seems harder than ever to get the client on your side.

A marketing agency, for instance, needs to reach people. But how will they do this if the client doesn’t go to them? What about integrating this funky technique on your website? I don’t necessarily mean to say that your company will shift to offices of tourism, but integrating video aspects about your activities and your unique specialist business into a type of video presentation. It is said that people don’t read as much anymore, but they do look at pictures, photos and videos. Why not integrate this strategy? The client won’t feel bombarded and harassed by sales pitches, he or she would be viewing your strategies in a 3D format which is much more likely to catch their attention (and here you could go pretty big, thus placing your organisation at a strategic level, being firstly, innovative, and secondly, creative) than simply words on a screen. 

Just a suggestion. What do you think?

Andy Rice’s advertising heroes

Last week, I attended a media forum hed by The MediaShop and Primedia Broadcasting at the Bryanston Country Club. The forum featured Andy Rice, who has his own advertising and marketing segment on Talk Radio 702 with Jenny Crwys-Williams every Wednesday.

I thoroughly enjoye the session, as Rice mentioned that internet ad campaigns are growing in popularity, with some only being screened on TV after they have gone viral online.

A few of the very effective ads mentioned by Rice are as follows:
The Volkswagen Touareg ‘Roadtrip’ ad by Ogilvy, which depicts a moody teenager going on a road trip with his dad, to the sounds of Arno Carstens’ Another Universe.

The international ad for the Dove Self-Esteem Trust, which shows a plain-looking girl, with short hair and no make-up, being primped for a photo shoot – with hair extensions; extensive make-up; and a great deal of ‘Photoshop-ing’ to lengthen her neck and create a sharper image, before finally appearing on an advertising billboard.

An ad depicting a typical preppy New England clique performing to a hip hop music video – all in the name of promoting Smirnoff ‘raw tea’ parties drew many laughs.

Coca-Cola could not be left out with its creative campaigns – ‘Open Happiness’ shows a group of children against a bright fantasy background, who notice a zebra walking past. They follow the zebra and are lead into a fantastic carnival world of semi-reality. Interestingly, there is not a single Coca-Cola logo or product mention in the ad, yet the audience still recognised that it was for the soft drink brand based on the Gnarls Barkley song alone. Rice stated that this is a key point to remember: “Coke got big because it’s good – it did not become good (well-known) because it is a big brand.”

This was followed by the ‘Life’s for sharing’ an which started out as a big, planned-yet-spontaneous dance event that took place in London’s Liverpool Street station, which lead to a dance revolution as passers-by and travellers in transit joined in the fun. T-Mobile later picked up on the piece for a successful campaign.

Effective advertising doesn’t follow a formula – and is often quite irreverent – but it always needs to connect with its audience on some level. What do you think? Which ads do you connect with?

The move from brand loyalty to font loyalty

I’ve long been a fan of ‘pretty’ handwriting and swirly fonts – if people use Times New Roman out of choice, I seriously wonder about their creativity. However, the Church of the customer blog reports that when popular furniture store, IKEA changed the standard font it used in its brochures, it’s customers became very ‘upset’. The change was from Futura to Verdana – both pretty standard, in my mind. Nothing to blog home about. It just shows you how much impact the font that is chosen for a logo and corporate identity hold, as there has been a flurry of irate tweets and online discussions – even petitions! – over this change in typeface.

On this note, I have discovered to my joy that along with the myriad ‘handwriting’ style fonts out there, you can now devise your own personal font – all you need to do is fill out a template using the handwriting you would like as your computer font, and hey presto! Typed documents that look handwritten.

A laugh as rare as chicken teeth…

Conceptualised by Cape Town agency FoxP2, the latest Dairyboard campaign, featuring ‘Tortoise’; ‘Seagull;’ and ‘Chicken’, sees animals exhibiting ‘jaw-dropping feats of strength’, all thanks to a healthy dose of dairy.

I’ve only laid eyes on ‘Chicken’ so far, and to be honest, I find it slightly scary. A chicken suddenly hops up onto a picnic table and starts drinking from a full glass of milk. It then opens its beak and reveals a full set of scary fangs.

That’s not exactly the kind of thing to inspire me to up my calcium intake!
Click here to view the ad in all it’s ridiculousness.

Scary image from Freakingnews.com.