Heavy Chef Magazine: The Creativity Edition

EDITOR’S LETTER I cannot remember another time when we experienced so much radical change in the field of marketing. Agencies and brands across the industry are anxious and unsure about where we’re going. Globally, the rising threat of Ad Blocking looms large. We’re seeing fraudulent traffic statistics that are destroying the trust of advertisers. Transformation remains as much of an issue in developed nations as it does down here at the southern tip of the world’s fastest growing continent.

Locally, there are the burgeoning challenges provided by the MAC (Media and Advertising Commission) Charter, skills shortages in key areas of digital marketing, POPI, the Media Tribunal and increasing fragmentation within industry bodies for print and broadcasting. At the same time, agencies are going through a crisis of identity.

Traditional agencies are stumbling into complicated technical areas and digital agencies are being tasked to play in established traditional areas. The result is mirrored by work that is increasingly, weak and unfocused. So what to do?

Talking largely to the industry leaders in South Africa, I’m convinced that now, more than ever, there are traditional tenets that we need to revert back to: The strength of a great idea. The resonance of a great story. The power of authenticity.

Following the success of the first two editions of the Heavy Chef Quarterly Review, proudly curated and published by the marketing and creative teams at World Wide Creative, we’re excited to explore these tenets in this, the Q3 “Campaigns” edition. Our theme is “The Exponential Return On Creativity.”

We’ve invited some of the most creative people we know to provide insight and perspective on this topic. And in between we are showcasing a selection of our favourite artists and photographers in the industry at the moment. Look out for these icons below the artwork.

What is clear (to me at least), is that in the midst of all this disruption and chaos, there is no better time to be alive. Small agencies, challenger brands, single entrepreneurs: we have a unique opportunity to change the world using old school creativity combined with new school innovation. Go forth and change the world!

Peace and light.

Fred Roed, CEO, World Wide Creative

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Contributors Meet our cartoon Alter Egos

Heavy Chef Review | Volume 3 Campaigns november 2015

Editor-in-chief Homer Simpson

Publisher World Wide Creative

Twitter: @Fred_Roed

Contributors Creative Director BatMan Twitter: @pleasewaterme

Head of Design Yogi Bear Instagram: @grantiscreative

Senior content strategist The little Mermaid Twitter: @reneejoyfortune

Melissa Attree, Ogilvy & Mather South Africa Aidan Baigrie, Facebook Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public Justin Gomes, FoxP2 Nicolle Harding, Effective Measure Alistair King, King James Group Fran Luckin, Quirk Tiffany Markman, Copywriter & Editor Paula Raubenheimer, SouthernX Chris Rawlinson, Ogilvy & Mather South Africa Sean Riley, Ad:Dynamo Charl Thom, FoxP2 Shane Joseph, World Wide Creative Maryke Mouton, World Wide Creative Fred Roed, World Wide Creative Sammy-Jane Every, World Wide Creative Alex Van Tonder, Copywriter & Novelist Mike Sharman, Retroviral Uno De Waal, Between 10and5 Lazi Mathebula, Greiispaces

Special thanks to Marketing Coordinator Snoopy

world wide creative

Twitter: @Ckeuris

Junior designer Tom the Cat Instagram: @philwassung

Photographer Minion

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Contents 5

Creative Culture Is Not Something You Design; It’s Something You Do

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From Copywriter To One Of SA’s Top Digital Influencers

Alistair King, Founding Partner/Chief Creative Officer, King James Group

An Interview With Content Creator, Wordsmith & Novelist, Alex van Tonder

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creativity pays: Why Exceptional Creative Produces Exceptional Results

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5 Lessons On Creativity & Innovation From Award Shows Around The World

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The Exponential Return On Creativity

Charl Thom, CEO, FoxP2 Group

Chris Rawlinson, Group Innovation Director, Ogilvy South Africa

A Roundtable With Four Of SA’s Top Creative Directors

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Creativity And Media. The Power Combo.

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The Anatomy Of A Successful Content Marketing Campaign

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The Three Part Formula Of Successful Influencer Marketing

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Native Advertising – ‘Product Placement’ In The Digital Age

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How To Understand Target Audiences And Their Buying Behaviour Using Programmatic Buying

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Why the Best SEO Specialists Are The Creative Ones

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Social Media Campaigns In South Africa

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Why You Need Rock-Solid Copy More Than Paid Search

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Between 10and5: Curating The Creative

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The 3 Not-Yet Perfected Marketing Media Channels I’m Most Looking Forward to

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“Illustrate This.”

Interview With Maryke Mouton, Head Of Media, World Wide Creative

Melissa Attree, Director of Content Strategy, Ogilvy & Mather South Africa

An Interview With Mike Sharman, Owner Of Retroviral Digital Communications

Nicolle Harding, Country Manager, Effective Measure South Africa

Paula Raubenheimer, MD, SouthernX

An Interview With Shane Joseph, Head Of SEO, World Wide Creative

A Conversation With Facebook And Twitter

Tiffany Markman, Professional Copywriter, Editor And Proud Word Nerd

An Interview With Uno De Waal, Founder & Publisher, Between 10and5

Fred Roed, CEO, World Wide Creative

An Interview With Graphic Designer, Lazi Mathebula

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Andy Mkosi, Her Legs

Andy Mkosi, The Wait

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CREATIVE CULTURE IS NOT SOMETHING YOU

DESIGN; IT’S SOMETHING YOU DO ALISTAIR KING OCCUPATION: FOUNDING PARTNER/CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER COMPANY: KING JAMES

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About 10 years ago, I read a book called

I have to admit King James has had all of the

Sweets: A History of Temptation, by Tim

above over the years, including a fully stocked

Richardson. It’s typical of the kind of book I like

bar (open every night of the week) thrown in

to read between every alternate piece of

for good measure. But as much fun as it is

fiction. The more arbitrary and seemingly

to have such ‘pleasure bombs’ on hand on a

puerile the subject, the more I love it when the

daily basis, I have to confess that I don’t really

author immerses themself in it. I’ve discovered

believe they feed the creative process or

over the years that books of this nature

inspire the creative spirit. The ultimate

frequently contain unexpected pearls of

motivator is a simple one, but infinitely

wisdom. On page 34 of this particular book,

harder to provide.

one paragraph jumped out.

What is it that all creative souls want more “The research department at Rowntree’s

than anything else on earth? It’s obvious

York factory must have been a busy and

really. They want to create. They don’t just

exceptionally creative place in the 1930s,

want to just sit and think up cool stuff and

because it churned out Black Magic in 1933,

store it away in their minds. They want to see it

KitKat Chocolate Crisp and Aero in 1935, Dairy

come to fruition. They want to think it, make it

Box in 1937, Smarties Chocolate Beans (later

and then show it to their family and friends as

copied in the United States) in 1938 and Polos

proof that what they do is not all airy-fairy. And

in 1939.”

any company that helps them do that more times than not, that’s the place to be. That’s

I remember being intensely fascinated by this

where they want to work. Because what’s the

factory. I tried to imagine what kind of a place

point of being creative if you never actually get

it might have been and, more importantly,

to create?

what kind of a person had led it. As much as I tried to picture a kind of pre-war Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, I suspected it was nothing like it. In reality, it was probably just a bunch of R&D folk in lab coats mixing sugar, colourants and flavourings in assorted beakers and trays.

There was no doubt a lot of culinary trial and error – most certainly more science than magic. The fact that this all took place as the ominous shadow of Nazism was slowly creeping across Europe makes it all even

What is it that all creative souls want more than anything else on earth? IT'S OBVIOUS REALLY. THEY WANT TO CREATE.

more intriguing. How did creativity flourish in such a conservative time and under such a threat?

There is lots of literature on the subject of creative spaces. Most of what I’ve read starts out with the premise that ‘Play’ is integral to the creative process. The belief that creative people need constant stimulus and high levels of entertainment is at the heart of why nearly every new-age company comes with a games room laden with pool tables and popcorn machines. For the slightly more progressive, pinball machines and X-Box consoles are also a firm favourite.

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I once read that the mortality rate for newborn Giant Pandas is 40%. That’s pretty good compared to the survival rate of the average good idea in the average advertising agency. Sadly, we’ve become masters at conceptualizing ideas that will never fly. There are countless opportunities for a great idea to be shot down, and more often than not they are.

It’s quite literally soul destroying.

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A creative culture is not something you design; it’s something you do.

It’s who you are and it can’t be faked. What you physically produce at the end of the day is the only real reflection of where you stand in the creative pecking order. The proof is in the proverbial pudding, and that’s easier said than done. It takes big balls and deep pools of emotional energy to keep fighting for the ideas you believe in, even when it strains your relationships with your clients. It is however the only way.

I’ve witnessed first-hand the spectacular energy that comes from turning your best ideas into reality. The feeling is highly motivating, almost contagious. I can only imagine what it must have felt like to pop the first prototype Aero chocolate on the table and say “There it is. Do you

Because what’s the point of being creative IF YOU NEVER ACTUALLY GET TO CREATE? Some ‘creatives’ find outlets for their creativity – a charity ad here, a pro-bono ad there – anything to keep the creative juices flowing. And if it’s not happening in the agency

want to hear my next idea? Tiny pieces of chocolate covered in brightly coloured candy. What do you think?” Before long, you’re so high on success and oozing in creative confidence that you’re sharing your crazy idea about a mint with a hole in it. Creative momentum is a tough thing to start, but once you’ve got it, oh boy, what a glorious thing it is. The more you create, the more you want to create.

THE MOST PRODUCTIVE AGENCIES ATTRACT THE MOST FERTILE MINDS, END OF STORY.

they’re in, they turn their interest and affection towards the agencies in which it is. The most productive agencies attract the most fertile minds, end of story.

As the creative leader of an ad agency, that leaves me with only one strategy if I want to attract the best creative minds to my agency.

I must make great advertising, year after year after year. And not the sneaky advertising that gives you a cheap and short lived creative thrill, but the kind that leaves an indelible mark on the industry and public, to be discussed for years over braais and around dinner tables.

Selling great ideas to my clients is pretty much the only way I can think of to build an authentic, credible creative environment.

I’ve long realised that a creative culture is something that slowly materialises with each piece of great advertising you make. It’s definitely not something you can write and hang up on the wall and hope that it will be inspiring. Likewise, a creative environment has little to do with the environment and everything to do with what actually gets achieved in the hours between breakfast and bed. One thing I can say for certain – any ambitious creative I know would be more than happy to work in a dungeon or cave, smeared in dirt and filth, if it meant their best ideas would see the light of day. And in my opinion, that would be a small price to pay to make something you’re proud of.

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Bitterkomix, Cover of French Bitterkomix (2009: Published by L’Association)

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FROM COPYWRITER TO ONE OF SA’S TOP

DIGITAL INFLUENCERS AN INTERVIEW WITH CONTENT CREATOR, WORDSMITH & NOVELIST, ALEX VAN TONDER

Blogger. Digital influencer. Integrated copywriter and content creator. Novelist. Alex van Tonder has worn a number of these hats at the same time, juggling the demands of life online and an unrelenting need to find new outlets for her creativity.

Amongst other coveted industry titles, Alex van Tonder has been named one of South Africa’s Top Ten Female Bloggers, one of the country’s most noteworthy influencers and the Cosmopolitan Twitter Queen. Her ten years of experience as a creative spans content campaigns, product launches, brand activations and novel writing – her latest novel being a thriller entitled This One Time.

On 16 September 2015, Alex van Tonder featured alongside Mike Sharman at the Heavy Chef event in Cape Town. Together, they presented both sides of the influencer marketing experience. We caught up with her for a quick Q&A:

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Q1

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT A CAMPAIGN THAT YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH, THAT DEMONSTRATES THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Consumers or ‘readers’ have more time to take in your content. ‘Disruption rage’ is a real thing because attention is currency. You need long-term vision and an even greater handle on the big idea, as well as a deep, patient understanding of human emotion. People have a very intimate relationship with their

I’d say the #Pharrellwithwoolies campaign has

phones. You can’t shout at them down the

really yielded amazing results. We have been

line. You need to seduce them.

working with local influencers for two years now but Pharrell has universal appeal and Ornico’s latest report just put Woolies at number 4 on the list of the most successful brands on social media, and there’s no doubt that this partnership has had a lot to do with it. While a lot is

Q4

TELL US WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO SPEARHEAD THE +ONE (SOCIETY) DIVISION OF KING JAMES?

said about influencers not being ideas – which I agree with – I believe they are powerful agents

At the time social media was still new and

for delivering strong ideas. When they speak,

clients were still scared of investing money in

people listen, and that’s how they should be

an unknown medium. Steri Stumpie (Parmalat)

used. Pharrell with Woolies has been powerful

was the first client who took a risk with social

because he’s a champion of sustainability, which

media and Dan Pinch (who now runs Society)

mirrors the Woolworths company values. It’s

and I had a lot of fun thinking up ideas that

been a strong and meaningful alignment.

were ‘blogworthy’ or ‘newsworthy’ for content

Q5

into both of our disciplines, so social has

YOUR EXPERTISE SPANS A RANGE OF GENRES FROM BLOGGING TO NOVEL WRITING (AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN). IS THE ADAPTATION BETWEEN GENRES AN INTUITIVE PROCESS FOR YOU OR DID YOU MAKE THE STRATEGIC DECISION TO MASTER A NUMBER OF MEDIUMS?

For me it comes down to applying the

never really been something separate to core

principles of branding to a persona – a clear

It’s been a bit of both. I am an avid pop culture

creative or the ‘big idea’ for me. It was always

message and values, iterated over and over,

consumer, so my attention goes where people

another way to amplify it, with PR, BTL and

applied through various fresh creative

are, where growth is; I am fascinated by the

ATL all forming elements of the broader social

executions. I explore influencers and why they

spirit of the times, I am hungry for experience

media experience. So in that sense it was the

gain traction a lot in my novel,

and knowledge and overexcited by

best grounding I could get as an integrated

technology. My blogs, first MyBrandedLife

This One Time.

creative, and I still believe that the KJ / Society

and then Cape Town Girl, were driven by the

Q3

/ Punk guys are doing great work. Because of

desire to learn about how to work with brands

my experience there, I’ve never seen social as

in an online space, whether a persona could

something separate to good big idea creative

be branded and developed, whether content

thinking, it’s more the crucible that holds the

made in such a way could be sustainable, and

bigger brand story together.

how to use that knowledge to complement my

Q2

WHAT QUALITIES ARE ESSENTIAL TO FULFILLING YOUR ROLE AS A TOP SOUTH AFRICAN INFLUENCER?

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE OF COPYWRITING AND DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION?

Wow, where to start. I think it used to be

creators. It was a fantastic way to learn, and kudos to our clients and our creative directors who gave us the freedom to experiment and figure it out. I was technically working as BTL Group Head and Dan was technically PR head, so that forced us to integrate social

creative offerings. And also, because I just like to make stuff, I do it compulsively.

drummed into us that you had a second to get an idea across – or 8 seconds if it was a billboard, or 30 seconds if it was a radio ad,

I’m the kind of creative who thinks of something I’d like to see done and then I just do it.

etc. But social media is the rise of long-form storytelling in advertising. Now skills like understanding a narrative arc, how to stagger clues and in the case of branding; how to tell a story over months or years, are more important.

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That is much of what has driven my career and the paths it has taken.

It doesn’t always make a lot of sense to everyone around me and I’ve definitely put some less than brilliant stuff out there. But I’m not afraid to make mistakes – it’s how you learn. I’d rather do something and learn from it and get it done than be a creative with a lot of ideas and things I want to do in my head and a guilty feeling because I’m not doing any of them.

CREATIVES GONNA CREATE..

I think as a creative, the more you do, the better you do, the better you are, and the happier you are – creatives gonna create – so it’s kind of been just following that drive to make make make, and trying to be strategic about it where possible. Blogging, online, technology, it all seemed like an evolution of branding and writing and something I wanted to understand, so I just went for it. I learn through doing. Writing fiction and novels – telling stories – that’s the underlying theme holding it all together. It’s all been in aid of that, whether it’s for myself or for brands - ultimately the two complement each other.

I TRY TO Q6

WHAT DO YOU DO TO NURTURE YOUR CREATIVITY?

BREAK BOXES, I TRY TO SURPRISE MYSELF.

I feed myself with new and inspiring music, books, series and movies. I get physical exercise to get out of my head as much as I can to maintain a balance. I write for fun, I write raps and rhyme and draw and paint.

I play, I have fun, I make collages, I write poetry. I am constantly seeking out people and creatives who inspire me and researching how they work and think. I try to break boxes, I try to surprise myself. I do things I wouldn’t expect myself to do.

Q7

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NOVEL, THIS ONE TIME AND HOW YOU DREW ON YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER AND INFLUENCER MARKETING SPECIALIST TO DEVELOP THE MAIN CHARACTER. This One Time explores the idea of responsible creativity. Brodie Lomax, the main character, creates a persona who becomes so powerful that he loses control of it and it creates a monster entirely separate from him which has its own power and influence and momentum.

At the moment the web is a wild west – you can create something with the click of a button and those ideas can make or break you. “The things you create have the power to create, too” – that’s a major theme in my work.

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Falko One, We Only Jump Forward

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WHY EXCEPTIONAL CREATIVE PRODUCES

EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS CHARL THOM, CEO, FOXP2 GROUP

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FoxP2 has had a reasonable share of success

making will be governed by a simple desire to make risk averse

at creative award shows since it was founded

decisions that protect their jobs.

ten years ago, but we only started entering effectiveness award shows for the first time

The second reason is that agencies have sometimes done work that

four years ago. Since then, we’ve won six

does not distinguish between artistic and commercial creativity, and this

times at the Apex Awards – a notoriously tough

has earned ‘creative’ work a negative reputation at times. Whilst artistic

award show where agencies are required

creativity plays a significant role in ensuring the brilliant execution of a

to use substantiated data to prove that their

campaign, creativity based on a deep understanding of the commercial

campaigns had a direct, quantifiable impact on

problem is at the heart of solving business problems. The results prove

business results.

this. On a fraction of competitor budgets, Frank.net sold R1-billion in direct cover during its first 4 months of operation. This grew to R5-bil-

HIGHLY CREATIVE WORK IS ALSO THE

MOST EFFECTIVE WORK.

lion after 12 months, and R11-billion after 18 months.

The argument is backed up by a 2010 study whereby the UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising merged data from their effectiveness awards with the results of the Gunn Report* (compiled from various data sources to create their respected creative league tables) to prove that there is a direct link between creativity and effectiveness.

The study analysed 435 campaigns over a 16-year period, starting in 1994. The results are compelling:

Our success at the Apex awards was another affirmation of our long-held view that highly creative work is also the most effective work.

Our Apex winners, Frank.net, Ster Kinekor, Garagista and brandhouse Drive Dry, were also some of our most successful campaigns at the local Loerie Awards, and some of them

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CREATIVELY AWARDED CAMPAIGNS HAVE BEEN SEVEN TIMES MORE EFFICIENT THAN NON-AWARDED ONES, OVER THE PAST 16 YEARS. Between 2003 and 2012, they were twelve times more efficient.

went on to be recognised at various international creative award shows.

There is however, a school of thought that believes highly creative campaigns generally aren’t commercially successful, and vice-versa – that you have to choose one or the other. This perception exists for two reasons. Firstly, not everyone has the skill or intuition to recognise the potential of a brilliant

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CREATIVELY AWARDED CAMPAIGNS ARE BECOMING MORE EFFICIENT OVER TIME. Non-awarded campaigns are becoming less so. This is because of the ‘buzz’ or viral effect caused by consumers sharing campaigns on social networks.

creative campaign, especially when the idea is in its infancy. Many ideas that have the power to deliver a disproportionate return on marketing rands, are killed long before they see the light of day. So why does this happen?

Because if it’s truly creative, it means that it hasn’t been done before, which means its potential can’t be measured against previous best practice examples. And this is what too many brands expect of their marketers – to

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THE EFFICIENCY GAP BETWEEN AWARDED AND NON-AWARDED CAMPAIGNS APPEARS TO WIDEN IN THE FMCG SECTOR. This suggests that creativity may be even more valuable for packaged goods.

follow best practice and thereby offer “guarantees” of success. It minimises risk. While it’s understandable that large companies have to put measures in place to counter the law of averages, in talent management, innovative and creative thinking must be encouraged, or employees’ decision

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THE MORE CREATIVELY AWARDED A CAMPAIGN, THE MORE EFFECTIVE IT BECOMES. Campaigns picking up five or more creative awards are around three times more efficient as campaigns winning between one and four major awards.

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THE BENEFIT OF CREATIVITY INCREASES AS THE BUDGET RISES: but can be negated if it’s cut too far.

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AWARDS JUDGES WHO CHOOSE EMOTIONAL CAMPAIGNS – THOSE THAT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE FEELINGS TOWARDS A BRAND – ARE DOING SO IN FAVOUR OF EFFECTIVENESS. Emotional campaigns work better than those just providing information.

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THE LINK BETWEEN CREATIVITY AND EFFECTIVENESS IN NOT-FOR-PROFIT CAMPAIGNS REMAINS UNPROVEN. This may be to do with the fact that awards judges are less influenced by emotionally charged creative work in this sector.

Strategically sound commercial creativity works, and it’s going to work even better as social networks continue to explode across digital and mobile platforms.

No one sends a dull piece of creativity around, and over time, social media’s viral effect will continue to erode the impact of big brands that rely on expensive media pressure behind average creative in order to beat competitors.

If the brand’s creative work is not talked about, the brand will become a modern day social (media) outcast.

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Daniel Hugo, A Genesis: Page 5

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5LESSONS ON CREATIVITY & INNOVATION FROM AWARD SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD

CHRIS RAWLINSON, GROUP INNOVATION DIRECTOR, OGILVY SOUTH AFRICA

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Creativity and innovation, it’s a love story as old as humanity itself. We tend to talk about this topic a lot in ad land but I think we often get going without first stopping to define the difference between the two. Simply put, creativity is about generating new and novel ideas, and innovation refers to the application of these ideas.

This year I have been lucky enough to do a lot of industry-related traveling, and as such have managed to get to chat to some of our industry’s top players…often in a bar at 3AM. But nevertheless, based on these chats and observations I will share with you my top five lessons on creativity and innovation in today’s marketing climate.

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THE RISE OF BRANDED UTILITY

This refers to brands creating products and services that are useful to

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COLLABORATION IS KEY Innovation is impossible without collaboration, and creativity tends to be

consumers in everyday life. If you think about it, this is common sense.

bettered by it. The more we share the more we win. Step one is to make

People are not really interested in brands. They are more interested in

your company more porous – open your doors, get out into your com-

things that can solve their everyday problems. If agencies and brands

munity, share and look for interesting people and brands to build some-

want to remain relevant they need to point their creativity in the direction

thing incredible with. The two most common examples in our industry of

of innovative utility. Just look for human pain points and then see how

this so far are collaborations with start-ups (particularly tech ones), and

you can simplify the solutions. Time is our most precious commodity,

brand partnerships that focus on social good. I have a feeling that “think

so the more you do this, the more you will win. The L’Oréal Make Up

like a start-up” is said about every 2 minutes at any big 2015 creative

Genius campaign is a great example of this.

gathering. And for good reason. The Delta Innovation Class case study demonstrates exactly how effective collaboration can be.

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BE FAST AND DO GOOD Our attention span four years ago was twelve seconds on average. Today it’s about eight seconds. For context, the attention span of a goldfish is nine! We live in a world where our views and opinions are becoming increasingly public and global news travels literally at the speed of light. Snapchat and other types of short messaging services are some of the fastest growing companies in the world now.

People often share things because they want to appear to be good, the exchange of a like here and a retweet there is a form of social currency. Because of this, brands are seeing that doing good can not only help make the world a better place, it can also help their bottom line. As Monika Lewinsky said at Cannes Lions this year: “Clicking is a public act and I would argue, a moral one too. With every click we make a choice.” Make sure that you

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THE LINK BETWEEN DATA, TECH AND NEUROSCIENCE IS GOING TO BE KEY

Data and technology work best when they enhance the human experience. The lines between machines and humans are blurring fast and it’s essential, not just for our industry, but also for humanity, to better understand this space. The majority of the world’s population now has a phone. Essentially it’s an extension of the human brain. If we want to know something, we just ask it and then move on with our day. A friend at Google said to me recently that ‘knowledge is powerful’ but it’s how we use it that defines us. The more brands and agencies can figure out how to merge tech and data to just seamlessly work, feel natural, and enhance our lives, the better we will all do. The virtual reality experience provided by THE VOID is a prime example of this new, immersive type of digital experience.

become a brand that people want to click. FCB Inferno’s This Girl Can campaign for Sports England showed the world how this is done.

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DATA AND TECHNOLOGY WORK BEST WHEN THEY ENHANCE THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

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EVERYTHING’S CHANGED, BUT EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME. The shift from atoms to bits hasn’t changed the fundamentals, despite all the advances in technology going on in our world. We still burn with the power to succeed, to survive, to love and to take care of our own. When it comes down to it, culture is the most important thing that separates one business from another. We need to take more heartfelt care not just of our customers but of our own staff, the better we learn to empower both groups, the better, and more profitable our world will be.

Some of the most powerful work this year has been around empowering culture shifting movements, these are very much about the heart. Remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

Creativity and technology will be doing a dance for some time to come.

They are modern day conduits for how we express ourselves.

Innovation in this space will continue to grow exponentially each year.

If we can follow some of the steps above, I believe we are much more likely to dance towards a more positive future.

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THE EXPONENTIAL RETURN ON

CREATIVITY Advertise here

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What is the business value of creativity?

It’s almost impossible to determine the value of

Is there a correlation between the creative

an idea on paper. Up front, an idea is virtually

value of a campaign and its effectiveness?

worthless. Its value is only realized once it’s

In an economy where marketing teams

been executed and through its use by the

and brand managers prioritise ROI and

target market. Because ad agencies can’t

measurement, is creative thinking

determine the value of an idea upfront, we sell

being compromised?

hours and, for all intents and purposes, give our ideas away for free.”

The Heavy Chef team hand-selected four of Sammy-Jane Every – WWC:

four award-winning agencies, to tackle these

“Good ideas can come from anywhere but they

questions. Our industry experts are

don’t grow on trees. In a demand and supply

Sammy-Jane Every from World Wide Creative,

economy, the world is willing to pay for the

Xolisa Dyeshana from Joe Public, Quirk’s Fran

good ones. Mark Zuckerberg. Steve Jobs. Bill

Luckin and Justin Gomes from FoxP2. Here’s

Gates. Mark Shuttleworth. Elon Musk. Ideas

what happened when we got these creative

are what change an ever-changing world.

heavyweights on the same page.

They bridge the space we live in with the one

?

Client and agency relationship is key. At some stage, the client will need to take a step of faith as truly creative work has never been done before, and there is no best practice safety net. We’ve seen this approach bear fruit over the last few years with our most creatively

the country’s leading creative directors from

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

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WHEN TRUSTING CLIENT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS EXIST

awarded campaigns also converting at The Apex Effectiveness Awards.

(Justin Gomes, Fox P2)

we could live in. And wealth is the side-effect

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of this.”

Under conditions where people feel inspired.

WHERE IT IS NURTURED AND ENCOURAGED

Under conditions where it’s allowed to flourish.

Where it is encouraged and where there are

Xolisa Dyeshana – Joe Public:

brave people who get excited about ideas,

“Absolutely! Look at the most successful

defend them and make them happen

companies in the world today. Whether you

(Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public).

look at Apple and how they looked beyond the obvious in how we use technology or Intelligence having fun (Justin Gomes, FoxP2).

Facebook and how they looked beyond the obvious in how we communicate with one another and share experiences, or Uber when it

The ability to think beyond the obvious

comes to how we commute. I could go on but I

(Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public).

think you get the picture.”

The courage to let the dreamer dream.

THREE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH CREATIVITY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REAP EXPONENTIAL RETURNS:

To let the poet write and the music play. It is a question. The courage to ask “what if?” It is a time machine. A stitch, a stroke, a note, a mark. A restless night. A searching life.

Creativity is an opportunity. And equally, our responsibility. It is the beginning of something and the hope of what the world could be (Sammy-Jane Every, World Wide Creative).

Q

IN TODAY’S CREATIVE ECONOMY, ARE IDEAS CURRENCY?

Justin Gomes – Fox P2: “With businesses like Uber and AirBnB disrupting entire industries, ideas are more prized today than ever before.”

Fran Luckin – Quirk: “That’s an interesting image, because it captures something of the volatility of the value of ideas.

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1

!

CREATIVITY IS LINKED TO PROFITABILITY. AN EXAMPLE FROM THE STOCK EXCHANGE. For Quirk’s Fran Luckin,“breakthrough creativity has a very strong business case: research done by Donald Gunn and the I.P.A

IN A CULTURE DEVOID OF FEAR

has shown that creative advertising is more

When we put people in a situation of fear

Creativity (2011), James Hurman tracked the

it shuts down the thinking part of the brain

share price of Cannes Lions’ Advertiser of

and the reptilian part responsible for basic

The Year winners at the time of receiving the

functioning takes over. I have seen clients

award, and in the immediate lead-up to the

get excited about ideas at the agency and go

award. He found that, without exception, each

back to a culture of fear. Fear of failure and

of those companies had enjoyed a record

the possibility of losing a bonus or their jobs.

period of stock value growth as a result of the

Mediocrity thrives in these conditions. There’s

greater focus on creativity and innovation,

the oft-quoted story at Google of the time

which had evidenced itself in the

an employee cost the company millions and

award-winning creative work.“

effective advertising. In The Case for

co-founder Larry Page responded, ‘I’m so glad you made this mistake,’ he said, ‘Because I want to run a company where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too cautious and doing too little. If we don’t have any of these mistakes, we’re just not taking enough risk.’ (Sammy-Jane Every, WWC).

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DO FOCUS GROUPS AND RESEARCH KILL CREATIVITY? Fran Luckin – Quirk: “I think the focus group model is deeply flawed. I think ‘groupthink’ takes over and people say what they think the moderator wants to hear. You’re calling people together and paying them to tell you what they think. This is inevitably going to make people think that they have to deliver value by

Xolisa Dyeshana – Joe Public: “I don’t have a problem with research at all, but I think that if it’s not used properly, it does have the potential to do that. Research should be used to better understand people or situations, not for directly asking them what they want or what they think of a new idea. If it’s used for the latter, we will never be able to create anything because people only know what they know and the whole essence of creativity is originality.”

expressing as many opinions as possible.

APPLE’S 1984 AD. THE OFFICE CHAIR. THE PRIUS. IF WE HAD LISTENED TO RESEARCH GROUPS, THESE WOULD NOT EXIST..

I like research that promotes deeper understanding of the target market and the business problem. Research that’s designed to deliver insights. Not research that’s designed to cover the marketing team’s butts.”

FOUR WAYS TO MEASURE THE ROI ON CREATIVITY:

1

PLACE METRICS IN CONTEXT

We measure Facebook likes and fans, app downloads, “engagement” and (my personal favourite) the millions and billions of media

I don’t think the ROI on creativity is only measured in dollar signs, it can found in a

impressions we got. Martin Weigel calls this

motivated and (largely) happy workforce. Or it

“context-free data” and argues that a data

may be as humble but significant as a feeling

point on its own is devoid of meaning. What

of purpose and accomplishment

is needed is rigorous analysis, not a simple

(Sammy-Jane, World Wide Creative). Also

reliance on meaningless metrics.

“future-facing businesses like Google,

(Fran Luckin, Quirk)

Facebook, Virgin and Apple appreciate that

2

MONETARY VALUE

Creativity can be measured in monetary terms like sales and product innovation and company

Sammy-Jane Every – WWC: “Apple’s 1984

3

FULFILMENT LEVELS AMONGST THE CREATIVE WORKFORCE

value. The Wall Street Journal reported that a

the return on investing in a creative culture is an inspired and motivated workforce,” says FoxP2’s Justin Gomes.

4

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

ad. The office chair. The Prius. If we had

two year in-house creativity course at General

listened to research groups, these would not

Electric resulted in a 60% increase in

exist, certainly not in the format we experience

patentable concepts. Hewlett-Packard invest-

them. As Morgan Gerard, Chief Resident

ed over $2 billion in R&D in 1999 and netted

Anthropologist at Idea Couture says “when you

Gomes, Fox P2). Xolisa agrees: “It all de-

$42.37 billion. Facebook is worth $245million.

decide to ‘test’ your advertising or marketing

pends on what the objectives were in the first

Apple $590million.

campaigns through focus groups you are living

place. If it was sales, then measure the sales.

(Sammy-Jane, World Wide Creative)

If it was brand awareness or perception then

in La La Land.” Perhaps this has something to do with the inherently flawed concept of shoving a bunch of people into a confined space and plying them with liquid and food over several hours for a nominal fee and

Key Performance Indicators agreed by agency and client at the beginning of the process, should be monitored and measured (Justin

there’s ways to measure that too. There are so many examples of how creativity has not only made brands famous, but has delivered amazing business results too.”

watching how this evolves into a community where people take on various roles. All very fascinating research for an anthropologist but not so much for the company testing their idea.

So yes, I believe that focus groups do kill creativity.”

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QUIRK’S FRAN LUCKIN ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL AGENCIES: Digital technology has blurred the boundaries between consumer touchpoints, but this isn’t reflected in the structure of most ad agencies, who still default to legacy structures by creating specialist “siloes” as separate profit centres. The resulting competition for revenue, and the psychological distance and distrust created by housing specialist creative people in separate units away from the “above-the-line” creative people, undermines attempts to collaborate. The creative gold standard nowadays is the “seamless trans-media brand story”, and yet within agencies the consumer touchpoints are situated in different siloes in the business. As a result, ideas become fragmented. From the client side, marketing teams are also often divided up in siloes, with each silo having its own agency. This has a similar impact on the creative work.

WHAT’S NEXT? WWC’S SAMMY-JANE EVERY GIVES US A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE OF AGENCIES: In a couple of years I do not believe a distinction will exist. Agencies will cease to be categorised on media channels. As social media, online video, radio streaming and internet accessibility explodes, the lines will become blurred. The question of who the brand custodian is and the exercise of digital agencies panel-beating an Above-The-Line idea into a 728 x 90 banner will become redundant. But reaching consumers in a meaningful way will remain and this requires that idea and strategy are still king. But for now, traditional is less measured and may offer the industry the same dynamic that haute couture does to pret-a-porter.

Conversely, digital can be measured, very accurately, and perhaps this chases away new ways of thinking, however, I’d like to think that out of constraints or the need for efficacy arises even stronger creative thinking.

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CREATIVITY AND MEDIA.

THE POWER COMBO. INTERVIEW WITH MARYKE MOUTON,, HEAD OF MEDIA,, WORLD WIDE CREATIVE

25

Having kick-started her career as part of the

The campaign consisted of different themed

WWC internship programme, Maryke Mouton

takeovers, rich media banners and standard

now multi-tasks her way through usability

banners. The rich media ad was an interactive

testing, profiling target audiences, putting

mood board with images of different scenes

together media schedules and more. A Bcom

at the various hotels. The concept was based

Marketing degree from Stellenbosch University

around the user selecting 3 images

and an honours in Brand Strategy from Vega,

(their favourite one in each row), resulting in

set her in good stead to build on her passion

that user being directed to their perfect “The

for all things digital.

Last Word” hotel, based on their selection.

As World Wide Creative’s head of media (and

For these takeovers, we saw click-through

resident baking extraordinaire), Maryke’s role

rates of between 2.8% and 4.7%.

includes consulting with the agency’s other departments, including search and creative as

The rich media ad also performed really well

well as making strategic decisions with regards

with CTR (click-through rates) between 1.07%

to media buying and placement. This is what

- 1.89% on the various placements and an

she had to say about the role of creative

average CTR of 1.52% for the campaign. This

thinking in digital media.

is 13.8 times more than the average CTR for

Q1

HOW IMPORTANT IS CREATIVE THINKING TO MEDIA BUYING AND STRATEGY?

the travel industry. The overall engagement rate of the ad was 2.64% which is 7.7 times more than the industry average.

I believe creative thinking plays a critical role in the whole process and directly contributes to a campaign’s success. No matter how good the strategy, if a campaign is not executed smartly by using the correct channels, creating clever messaging and ensuring good creative execution to bring it to life, the success of the campaign is likely to be compromised.

In today’s world we are permanently exposed to advertising and in most cases we no longer even notice it. It has become wallpaper.

Creative thinking is what turns your ad or campaign from being “wallpaper” to being noticed, interacted with and talked about.

Q2

CAN YOU SHARE A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A CAMPAIGN WHERE THE CREATIVITY CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS PRODUCING REMARKABLE RESULTS?

Q3

WHAT KIND OF CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE DURING YOUR TIME IN THE INDUSTRY? “Going mobile” and “mobile executions.” The rise of mobile implementations is what I would consider to be one of the most notable changes in the landscape over the last few years.

Programmatic buying. This is somewhat of a buzzword at the moment and advertisers are starting to explore this area. At present I would say we are simply scratching the surface of programmatic buying and

The Last Word – “Search with your Senses”

definitely not utilising this technology to its full potential. But the more we

campaign comes to mind. We were given the

use it, the more we’ll learn.

opportunity to do something really great for

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this client after the launch of their new website

The introduction of live streaming platforms and applications, like

(www.thelastword.co.za). The main aim was to

‘Periscope.’ I have not seen a good South African example as yet, but

build brand awareness and to visually

brands are starting to use Periscope to stream content and connect with

communicate luxury, warmth and an intimate

their followers on Twitter, having conversations with their followers in

setting for each of their hotels.

real-time and building their brands.

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Q4

CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF CHECKLIST FOR MEDIA PLANNERS WHO ARE IN THE PROCESS OF CHOOSING MEDIA FOR CAMPAIGNS?

1

YOU CAN BE CREATIVE WITH YOUR STRATEGY TOO

Make sure you have a good understanding of the brand/ product and the target audience you want to reach.

2 3 4

Know what the objectives are for the campaign.

Set clear KPI’s and benchmarks.

Ensure the channels and placements selected for the campaign are where your audience hangs out online.

Also look for high relevancy and high reach..

5

It is also important to keep in mind that the creative execution needs to work with the channels selected.

Q5

NICK BAUGHAN, SAID THAT “CREATIVITY AND MEDIA ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE CONCEPTS THAT NEED TO BE TRADED OFF AGAINST ONE ANOTHER. THEY ARE NOT IN COMPETITION. TODAY, MEDIA THRIVES IN CREATIVITY AND CREATIVITY THRIVES IN MEDIA, WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW IT SHOULD BE.” YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS STATEMENT? I totally agree. I could not have said it better myself. The two work hand in hand and you need to consider both in the process of putting together any media strategy. It is the one place where you are not restricted by a set of rules (e.g. the length of your ad copy, flash, HTML5 or other standards, moving objects etc).

Campaigns where the creative execution is strong and the campaign has an equally strong media strategy, are the campaigns that deliver the best results.

A media strategy is the core of how successful a campaign is going to be and as long as the strategy is strong, you have some leeway with the strength of your creative execution – but always try and keep the execution as strong as possible!

Don’t forget – you can be creative with your strategy too.

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Monica Alaya, Anatomy of the Wild and Free

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THE ANATOMY OF A SUCCESSFUL CONTENT

MARKETING CAMPAIGN MELISSA ATTREE, DIRECTOR OF CONTENT STRATEGY, OGILVY & MATHER SOUTH AFRICA

Although the term ‘content marketing’ is being thrown around a lot, it is not a new concept.

Given that much of our communication happens in the digital space at the moment, it’s perhaps rather a very relevant concept for digital marketers.

John Deere is credited as one of the first companies to produce ‘brand as publisher’ content. Back in 1895 they published their magazine ‘The Furrow’ for the first time, they placed a lot of importance on this form of communication and even invested in a printing press to run regular copies.

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An effective content marketing strategy aims to

Select people who you would like to work with

produce content that is relevant to customers

and; like a magazine would, pay for editorial

– this content should drive interest and build

pieces. Make sure that you commission pieces

brand awareness.

from people who align with your overall content

Q1

strategy and themes; always think about

WHAT GUIDELINES CAN MARKETERS USE TO ENSURE THAT THEIR CONTENT MARKETING INITIATIVES ARE SUCCESSFUL?

content in multimedia terms. It’s likely that well commissioned pieces will add credibility to your content and give you exposure to a Created Original created content is obviously what will set you apart on an ongoing basis as you

1

Effective Content Entertains Or Empowers (Or Both)

Brands need to find out what their customers need and want; it’s only by meeting these

have the freedom to experiment and create work that matches your content strategy and vision. It is sometimes less daunting to start the creative process by electing to effectively repurpose any existing content you have.

needs that you’ll be able to produce content that you know hits the spot. Use your databases and social media communities, start asking questions and finding out what your customers need.

Set KPIs and targets that are relevant for your business. By producing content that your customers need, you’ll have a more sustainable approach to ensuring that, that content is evergreen and shareable.

Curated This type of content is the easiest way to start any content marketing journey; discover relevant articles, videos and photos from the web and use them as part of your publishing.

Don’t steal content but rather frame it in a way that lets your audience know why you think this info is important together with an excerpt from the article. Think of effective curation as a way of helping your audience to discover relevant, interesting and shareable stories.

2

Pay Attention To How You Source Your Content

Great content sometimes comes from the most surprising places. In South Africa especially there are a lot of creative people producing great content. Brands or agencies need to be open to collaboration. Gumtree’s use of Suzelle DIY and commissioned guest pieces are good examples of open collaboration.

The sourcing, planning and distribution of your content is as critical as the actual content itself.

wider audience.

Crowdsourced When in doubt, ask. Tap into your existing communities (including the comments section and email databases) – ask them questions, questions that could lead to audience inspired stories ‘created by you, for you.’

3

Things Are Better When Shared

One of the key ways of measuring success in the content marketing space is if you can get an idea of who is sharing your stories, images or videos. We’re social beings and it’s a human need to share so when people like your stuff they’ll tweet it, facebook like it or email or whatsapp it to others. Get an idea of who is sharing your content and where they are sharing it. Don’t discount email as an effective way of ‘rounding up’ or sharing your content.

An effectively curated email can add a lot

Commissioned

of value.

Many brands work with influencers or have relationships with key bloggers or journalists.

Empower

Sales

Involve

Crowd sourced

inform

Created

intrigue

Curated

Work together with these people so that you can add a different dimension to your content offering.

This process helps with the planning and publishing process: Content = Curated + Created + Commissioned + Crowdsourced

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“SHOWS THE DIFFERENT STEPS IN COMMUNITY BUILDING AND RELATED CONTENT SOURCING METHODS.”

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4

Different People Have Different Needs

Humans absorb information in different ways, some like to read, some watch videos, others prefer audio recordings, cartoons or infographics. Repurpose your content in different mediums to cater for different consumer needs (and channels). Where possible, give people choices and extend the longevity (and reach) of your content.

5

Measure And Adapt

The beauty of the digital space is that it’s immediate and dynamic. Don’t be scared to experiment on different channels and test what works with your customers. If your approach is not working and your content is not gaining traction then stop, assess and revise your approach. The ability to be adaptable is a

6

Apply An Editorial Lens

key component of an effective content

If you’re playing in the content marketing

marketing approach. Pay attention to what

space, you are a publisher – act like one and

people are sharing and commenting on

apply an editorial lens to your communication

and iterate.

planning. Managing publishers, editors, editorial teams and editorial calendars are all essential tools for success.

IF YOU’RE PLAYING IN THE CONTENT MARKETING SPACE, YOU ARE A PUBLISHER.

7

ACT LIKE ONE.

amplifiers and conversation facilitators.

Are You Renting Or Owning?

The massive growth of the big social media platforms has meant that most large brands have thrown their time, and money, into building large communities on properties that they are renting. In the long-term the brands that are starting to consider owned spaces for content are the ones that are ahead of the game. Owned spaces that are supported by social media platforms, act as content

Effective content marketing requires a slow burn approach. Some of the most established international brand examples are only gaining momentum four years later. Plan your efforts, invest in publishing and measure your growth.

How do you measure success? Seth Godin says ‘will they miss you when you’re gone?’ rule of measurement. For me, success could be as simple as seeing others curate what you’ve created.

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Jacques Erasmus, The Lumber Jack

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THE THREE PART FORMULA OF

SUCCESSFUL INFLUENCER MARKETING AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE SHARMAN,,OWNER OF RETROVIRAL DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

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Also fondly referred to as The Sharmanator,

It is really important to understand what you

Mike Sharman loves making ‘stuff go viral.’

want to achieve from a business point of view

And that’s the short version of what he does.

first and then to work with the influencers who

Sharman is the owner of Retroviral Digital

have the ability to talk through their channels

Communications and specialises in the

to provide peer-to-peer suggestions and

online word-of-mouth spread for brands using

product/service endorsements.

bespoke strategy, social media and web tactics.

As a prominent conference speaker on influencer marketing, Sharman has won a number of awards. These include PRISA PRISM Gold awards for the Douwe Egberts

Q2

IF YOU HAD TO USE ONE CASE STUDY TO ILLUSTRATE THE EFFICACY OF INFLUENCER MARKETING, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?

Yawn Activated Vending Machine campaign and the Nando’s #25Reasons campaign as

When we look at influencer marketing, it

well as the award for the best small public

cannot be looked at in isolation. It is really

relations consultancy. Mike has successfully

important that everything is incorporated from

implemented business-supporting traditional

a 3Cs (Retroviral mantra) point of view. The

and digital communication campaigns for

3Cs are content, community and commerce.

both established brands and start-ups in the

You have to have remarkable content at the

consumer and B2B technology/finance, and

source of everything you do. Once you have

entertainment sectors.

that remarkable content then you can use that to work with communities – fans, followers or

On 16 September, Mike Sharman featured

influencers and their communities, and when

alongside digital influencer, Alex van Tonder to

you pair the content with a community, that’s

present on Infuencer Marketing at Heavy Chef

when you can have an impact on commerce.

in Cape Town. The team caught up with him

Our Jozi Jockeys campaign for the Sansui

for a quick Q&A:

Summer Cup utilised all these aspects. Taxi

Q1

drivers are the protagonists in this piece

WHAT MAKES AN INFLUENCER? DO THEY HAVE TO ‘TICK ALL THE BOXES’ OR IS IT RELATIVE TO EACH INDUSTRY?

of branded content. We then worked with influencers to seed and encourage people to attend the Sansui Summer Cup. The digital campaign alone drove 10 000 tickets sales to the event. Winning.

An influencer is someone who has the ability to make an impact on his/her audience in a variety of ways and through a number of channels. Certain people are influential on Twitter for example, whereas others may be YouTube rockstars or superstar bloggers. It is incredibly important that brands understand who they are trying to communicate with in order to determine and identify influencers in their market. There are pockets of influencers who are not necessarily mass followed, but rather have niche audiences. A great example would be the mom/parent blogger network

BRANDS ARE NO LONGER IN CONTROL OF OWNING THEIR MESSAGE – THE MESSAGE IS IN THE HANDS OF THE CONSUMERS.

in South Africa that doesn’t necessarily have hundreds of thousands of followers, but rather a highly engaged base of subscribers that hangs onto every word about nappy and moisturising advice or reviews about the best baby products available.

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Q3

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN CUSTOMERS AND BRANDS?

There are numerous studies out there, but PwC released a white paper about 18 months ago that talks about how 70% of online purchases are supported by peer-to-peer recommendations.

Nowadays, customers want real time reviews. They want honest and transparent reviews about the products and services of different brands.

People will pose questions to their fans, friends or followers before they engage with a brand in order to make a decision. Brands are no longer in control of owning their message – the message is in the hands of the consumers. That is why it is important to work with the right brand champions who are relevant to your offering; they will convey a far more powerful message than you can.

Q4

ACCORDING TO A 2014 MCKINSEY STUDY: “MARKETING-INSPIRED WORD-OF-MOUTH GENERATES MORE THAN TWICE THE SALES OF PAID ADVERTISING, AND THESE CUSTOMERS HAVE A 37% HIGHER RETENTION RATE.” WHAT DOES THE PICTURE LOOK LIKE FOR SOUTH AFRICA IN PARTICULAR

?

There have not been enough formal studies conducted to give us a purely South African view of marketing inspired, digital word of mouth.

From our own experiences with using remarkable content and working with online influencers, we are seeing actual tangible impacts on business and bottom-line support. With regards to what I mentioned earlier about the 3Cs, it is crucial to have content and community in order to drive commerce, and this will only get bigger in South Africa as social media adoption continues to increase on a daily basis. Blog usage and readership is growing, Twitter engagement is increasing as well as the adoption of Instagram and Facebook. This, in conjunction with the reduction in broadband prices will lead to greater adoption and engagement, not only with text/image based platforms, but video based platforms too.

Q5

GETTING DOWN TO THE NITTY-GRITTY: THERE ARE MARKETERS AMONGST US WHO REFER TO INFLUENCER MARKETING AS A FAD. BUT WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE BELIEVE AFFORDS IT LONGTERM RELEVANCE

?

Influencer marketing needs to be looked at as another media channel.

I believe it is not a fad, because we are always going to look at other human beings for their reference and their stamp of approval on the best brands and trends. With that being said, it is important that when you work with influencers you also invest media budget to back the spread of relevant content. As with all things, in order to get the reach and frequency you want, it is imperative to bolster the activity with media.

Q6

HOW CAN THE ROI OF INFLUENCER MARKETING BE MEASURED?

It is crucial to have an end goal in mind. You need to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to convert people to customers? Are you trying to gain email addresses to grow a database? Are you targeting consumers that you want to download your app? There are different metrics that apply to different scenarios and different brands. It is important to understand what you want to accomplish first, then how you can achieve that using media channels, and influencer marketing. Once you have set your objectives you can say ‘Hey we want 10 000 people at our event,’ and if 10 000 people attend your event then you have effectively won your campaign.

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Q7

BACK TO ONE OF OUR FAVOURITE ARTICLES AUTHORED BY YOU: ‘SEVEN DEADLY DIGITAL SINS FOR BRANDS TO AVOID IN 2013.’ ARE THESE SINS STILL AS DEADLY’ IN 2015?

Here we are two and a half years later. I think the points are still as relevant as always. Over promising and under delivering is still happening on the Twitter front in terms of greed and gluttony.

The majority of brands are still obsessed with vanity metrics over those that are quality based, and clients still want to ‘go viral’. I think there has been a reduction in sloth-like behaviour in the sense that there are more community managers getting involved in real time, and not relying on the auto post. With regards to the term ‘humble brag’, I think brands are becoming less ‘braggy’ which is great. Brands shouldn’t be concerned with imitating the success of competitors. I still feel there are too many brands trying to be ‘me too’ brands, and not creating their own unique selling positions in the online space. Lust-wise, brands are still obsessed with the digital perception of success associated with ‘trending’.

There is still too much reliance being placed ‘on trending’. What does that actually mean?

Are you actually gaining success off the back of that? Ask yourself.

BRANDS SHOULDN’T BE CONCERNED WITH IMITATING THE SUCCESS OF COMPETITORS..

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NATIVE ADVERTISING – ‘PRODUCT PLACEMENT’ IN THE DIGITAL AGE NICOLLE HARDING, COUNTRY MANAGER, EFFECTIVE MEASURE, SOUTH AFRICA

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ONLINE MARKETING THE STATE OF AFFAIRS

THE EMERGENCE OF AD BLOCKING

As internet adoption in South Africa increases,

blockers that block advertisements, trackers, scripts, and other similar content. For

so must the industry’s understanding of how

the user, this has led to dramatically increased browsing speeds. For the publisher,

to include digital media into the marketing mix.

however, this means no adverts. The South African market, where iOS penetration

Everyone from IAB SA to Google has spent

is still relatively low, won’t be seriously affected. However, the inclusion of content

countless resources on sharing knowledge to

blockers points to a growing trend – users are increasingly looking for ways to hide

ensure adoption and continued growth. Here’s

advertising.

In the current digital economy, to innovate is to survive. Even Apple has had to deal with push backs from digital publishers – the iOS 9 release includes content

a quick industry overview: Locally, the online media owner’s revenue is under severe pressure.

The saying: “the internet has no borders” has never been truer.

Programmatic media buying is on the increase, offering agencies the ability to purchase media through automated platforms and sending large portions of digital media budgets to global players.

According to the Effective Measure IAB Tagged Panel, mobile penetration has increased from 16.66% (August 2012) to 45.12% (August 2015).

Mobile banners have been notoriously dis-

ENTER NATIVE ADVERTISING

missed as ad units of little value, so as mobile penetration increases, publishers will need to

However, all is not lost! Many of you will have

adopt well thought-out mobile ad placement

heard of the growing trend of native

strategies in order to produce results.

advertising, which offers publishers a valuable opportunity for real engagement. It’s not to

Advertising is still a major revenue generator

be confused with sponsored content or online

for the majority of websites. And where it isn’t

advertorials, where the lines between editorial

being used as a profit-generating tool, the

and advertisement are blurred. Content

effects are widespread.

marketing has paved the way for native advertising as a way to craft brand messages into insightful and valuable pieces of content which are strategically placed.

Many may argue that native advertising compromises journalistic integrity.

However, I believe it to be digital’s equivalent to ‘product placement.’ It’s subliminal and integrated into the overall message, but it is paid for. It doesn’t require the consumer to click through to another website. Instead it works by enhancing the message that the consumer has already chosen to engage with.

This poses a few problems regarding the measurement of these campaigns, but more on that later.

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Q1

HOW HAS THE INDUSTRY RESPONDED TO NATIVE ADVERTISING?

Google has recognised the opportunities that native advertising provides. Recently, they launched a new ad format in Gmail, which allows users to purchase the ad unit they have been BETA testing since 2013 through AdWords. With cool features such as forwarding and “save to inbox,” Google has found a great way to add contextual value to ads while driving more engaging user experiences.

With the increased use of ad blockers, native advertising offers publishers an attractive opportunity to fill their ad revenue hole. In the USA, a survey by Adobe and PageFair showed that millenials have a higher propensity to use Ad Blockers – 41% of respondents being between the

Q2

HOW CAN NATIVE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS BE MEASURED?

Many advertisers have come to expect their CTR (click-through rate) reports to validate the success of an online campaign. At Effective Measure however, we believe that it’s not only about the CTR, but also about the impact that the campaign makes and ultimately, its ROI. Current research shows that while CTR is the most used metric to determine impact, brand lift is considered the most important.

ages of 18 and 19.

Through Effective Measure’s Campaign Impact Studies a survey was conducted on consumers who have been exposed to a native advertising campaign vs. consumers that haven’t. By combining this with an overall view of the market and comparing the results, these studies were able to provide brands with a better understanding of who their campaign reached and how strong the impact was.

Global publishers and content providers are adopting native advertising as an opportunity to build value for their audience whilst addressing their commercial needs. Are the days of display banners numbered?

Will native advertising and sponsored content be the answers to reaching consumers who use ad blockers? It seems likely, but the jury is still out. The digital media ecosystem is continually evolving – maybe there is a different solution just around the corner.

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Lazi Mathebula, Tsakani Vangoma

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40

HOW TO UNDERSTAND TARGET AUDIENCES AND THEIR BUYING BEHAVIOUR USING

PROGRAMMATIC BUYING PAULA RAUBENHEIMER MANAGING DIRECTOR SOUTHERNX

41

UNDERSTANDING PROGRAMMATIC BUYING

USING TECHNOLOGY LAYERS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

At its most advanced, programmatic buying

Demographic profiling technology, if used to its

provides a wealth of consumer data which

full potential, can be used to aggregate data,

helps brands to find their ideal customer, better

formulate bidding and yield strategies. Coupled

understand what makes them tick and what

with the fact that a sell-side platform like

influences their buying behaviour. Essentially,

SouthernX has technology that allows

it allows user data to be collected, collated

publishers to set price floors (meaning that

and related back to the agency to ensure that

automated rules can be set to control the

campaigns are reaching the

lowest prices being paid for inventory) both

intended audience.

the buyer and seller benefits. For example, publishers have the option to drill deeper than

A SNAPSHOT OF PROGRAMMATIC IN SOUTH AFRICA

setting price floors and can prioritise and price inventory based on: Placement position

In 2014, most of the money spent by South African media buyers (or international media

Section

buyers) on SA eyeballs was on international sites with South African traffic. However, we

budget. This means that advertisers have the ability to purchase specific users, with specific habits right across the SouthernX group of publishers.

However, Demographic Profiling tech does not only benefit the advertiser. Publishers are also able to access data for users that visit their websites, which allows their direct sales teams to better monetise each impression, by selling brands that their actual target audience wants.

Utilising each technology layer takes the guesswork out of marketing and advertising.

You no longer need to ask: how many people saw my ad? You can now ask “who saw my ad, and how did they react to it?” It may take a couple of campaigns, but all the data gathered can be used to retarget and sharpen your next campaign.

Geography

are beginning to see the focus shift towards local sites. According to Google’s media

Buyer or audience segments.

platform sales head for the Americas, Jay VanDerzee, the number of transactions

Buyers are able to target cookied data that all

occurring on Google’s DoubleClick Ad

publishers who are part of SouthernX have

Exchange now supersedes every stock

gathered on their users. So brands are able to

exchange in the world combined. Whilst

identify certain parameters for each campaign.

programmatic buying in the local context is not

These parameters are used to segment the

nearly as prolific as it is in the US or Europe, it

broad target audience into more specific

is beginning to gain traction in the SA market.

groups such as:

Programmatic inventory suppliers like

Gender

SouthernX provide a controlled private marketplace where buyers and sellers can

Age

trade in a safe environment comprised only of local IAB audited websites. We are seeing

Location

more and more acceptance among the top local publishers like Gumtree, Times Media

Monthly household income

Group, SuperSport and the 24.com group who are all currently trading across the SouthernX

WITH EACH CAMPAIGN THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD A NEW AUDIENCE SEGMENT .

.

Buying interest and intent

platform. Due to the controlled way in which the platform operates, buyers can be assured

Size and age of family

that adverts will be displayed on platforms that firstly, speak to their overall brand and

Shopping habits

secondly, reach their desired target audience.

This allows for accurate and precise targeting.

So when an advertiser runs a campaign aimed

42

HOW CAN THIS OPTIMISE YOUR CAMPAIGN?

at a specific audience, the campaign will only

With each campaign there is an opportunity

be served to people who fit that criteria, right

to build a new audience segment or add new

down to the propensity to consume certain

users to an existing audience segment. Over

products and services. In essence, this gives

time, as segments become larger and more

the advertiser access to the right audience,

diverse, it can significantly increase ROI by

in the right context, at the right time therefore

providing very specific messages to particular

reducing redundant impressions and saving

cross sections of audiences.

42

Goals Customer Ads to run By utilising cookie data a car brand, for example, can use the following campaign tactics in order to increase yield and decrease

HOW PROGRAMMATIC BENEFITS BOTH BRANDS AND PUBLISHERS

wasted impressions: In addition to the various tech layers discussed Set Up A Campaign That Targets

above, in a private marketplace a combination

Specific Groups Of Users – such as

of automated and human auditing provides

users we know are in the car market with

a safe environment for brands, ensuring that

a specific age, gender and income

adverts are only displayed on legitimate sites.

profiling. Different creative messaging can also then be directed at each of

The automated quality control system looks for

these different groups of users.

malware, unusual rotation patterns and policy violations, whilst the human auditing team

Set Up A Second, More Generalised

scans and categorises creative for sensitive

Campaign Strategy (Known As

content and technical attributes. This auditing

Prospecting) – to find and then retarget

process not only ensures that the advertis-

other users who may not be in the car

ers and publishers are legitimate, but it also

market but who are interested in the

protects data and intellectual property. By

particular brand of vehicle or may know

buying through a private media marketplace

someone interested in purchasing a car.

(like SouthernX), brands can be assured that the publishing sites are vetted and legitimate;

From here, the campaign can be set up in a

it allows brands to have complete control over

way that messaging is tailored based on how

where their adverts are displayed.

the targeted users reacted with the advert displayed, for example:

Initially, programmatic selling was seen as a great way for publishers to sell remnant in-

1

Tailored messaging can be applied to

ventory that is not already monetised by direct

users that visited the site, but did not

sales teams and whilst this still rings true, the

convert.

real value in programmatic selling lies in the

2

Tailored messaging can be applied

inventory which can be used to add value to

to users that visited the site and

each impression sold to buyers, thus increas-

interacted with the advert but did not

ing their overall yield.

data that publishers can gather about their

convert.

We’re in a very interesting time within the

3

Users that have already converted

media landscape. Programmatic buying is only

can be excluded from the campaign

just starting to disseminate into our local

to mitigate budget wastage by

environment, providing publishers with a

reducing redundant impressions.

unique opportunity to work with sell-side platforms to ensure that their needs are met

A recent campaign utilised similar strategies

and that they get the same benefits that

and had some very successful results:

buyers receive. With all the various tech layers working together, programmatic buying gives

The overall CPA (cost per acquisition

marketers, media buyers and brand managers

or conversion) was 50% of the cost of

a simplified way to read analytics and make

other, less targeted digital media.

more intelligent decisions going forward.

43

Ruramai Rudo Musekiwa, King

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44

WHY THE BEST SEO SPECIALISTS ARE THE CREATIVE ONES AN INTERVIEW WITH SHANE JOSEPH, HEAD OF SEO, WORLD WIDE CREATIVE

45

The day Shane laid his hands on a CGI screen, he knew the digital industry was where he was heading. His earliest career moves involved repairing the first DOS computers and building websites while nurturing his love of hands-on learning in all aspects of digital.

With qualifications in business management, web development, SEO and web analytics,

DATA ALONE CANNOT MAKE BUSINESS DECISIONS.

Joseph is also passionate about the team-building and personal skills development aspects of digital. We caught up with Shane to get his perspective on how to approach SEO creatively.

Q1

MANY DIGITAL MARKETERS THINK OF SEO AS A TECHNICAL DISCIPLINE. BUT HOW IMPORTANT IS CREATIVITY TO PRODUCING REMARKABLE RESULTS IN THIS FIELD ?

Q2

HOW DO YOU FOSTER A CULTURE OF CREATIVITY IN AN ARGUABLY DATA-DRIVEN INDUSTRY ?

The field of search engine optimisation is not what it used

The internet is flooded with left brain (data-driven), right

to be. In fact it has become far more integrated with other

brain (creative) digital marketers. Some research even says

aspects of digital marketing. Five years ago you would have

there is no such thing. It was Albert Einstein who said that

been required to have a solid web development coding

“the greatest scientists are artists as well.”

language in your skill set to rank well in search engines, but this has changed. I’m not saying you don’t require any cod-

Data alone cannot make business decisions. It’s the SEO

ing knowledge now, but it’s not like back in the day where it

specialists who use data to inform their decisions who are

was all about driving traffic to your website and hoping con-

most successful in this industry.

sumers would bite – playing the good old numbers game.

Creative culture in the SEO field consists of a few of the SEO’s have more control now – they can facilitate the

following attributes:

user’s journey from viewing their listing in SERP, all the way to transacting or enquiring on their website.

Making connections

The user experience, compelling content, enquiry forms,

Asking questions

checkout processes – these are key elements of good search engine optimisation and without these key elements,

Always striving for perfection

driving all that traffic is actually worthless. Getting others to acknowledge you – that’s a skill that is not technical at all.

Taking risks, but not being afraid of failure

In fact creative thinking is needed to negotiate the acquisition of good backlinks or removing toxic backlinks which

Listening to intuition but never trusting it blindly

could potentially be painful to your online presence.

Understanding neurolinguistics programming, user intent or paving the path of a user journey is very much part of being a creative SEO specialist.

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Q3

PANDA, PENGUIN, HUMMINGBIRD – HOW DO SEOS MANAGE TO STAY AHEAD OF THEIR GAMES WITH ALL THESE ALGORITHM CHANGES ?

The industry is constantly evolving – even faster than five years ago. Researching, studying, watching videos and experimenting is all part of keeping abreast of these evolutionary developments.

Q4

Q5

ANY MISCONCEPTIONS THAT MARKETERS OR THE PUBLIC HAVE ABOUT SEO THAT JUST AREN'T TRUE ?

Whether you are asked for an ROI from a cli-

WHILE WE’RE DEBUNKING THE MYTH THAT SEOS AREN’T CREATIVE, LET’S DEBUNK A FEW OTHERS. ARE THERE

SEO is dead Having a website is enough Paid search helps organic search

WHICH METRICS DO YOU REFER TO

WHEN MEASURING THE ROI OF AN SEO CAMPAIGN? ent or not, make sure they receive it from you.

Clients have misconceptions about SEO ROI such as organic traffic, rankings or backlinks.

I believe SEO ROI should be calculated in 2 steps:

1

Expected ROI: This would come into play when pitching to a new client and would be calculated as follows: Expected ROI = (Anticipated Revenue from SEO efforts – Proposed Cost of the SEO Project) / Proposed Cost of the SEO project

2

Actual ROI: This comes into play once the SEO campaign is being run: Actual ROI = (Total E-Commerce Revenue through SEO + Total Goal Value through SEO) – cost of running the SEO campaign/ cost of running the SEO campaign.

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Grant Taylor, Hydroponic speculation

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48

Social Media Campaigns In South Africa A CONVERSATION WITH FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

49

For the majority of consumer brands in South Africa, social media has become a vital

TWITTER IS A MEDIA FORWARD PLATFORM.

constituent of the digital marketing mix. And it should be.

In the South African case, Facebook and Twitter continue to lead the pack in terms of the rate of adoption and brand engagement.

We caught up with Aidan – the Business Head of Facebook in Africa and Sean Riley – the CEO of Ad Dynamo, Twitter’s ad sales partner in Africa. The result was a collection of valuable insights into how brands are utilizing these two powerful social media platforms.

Q1

THE MOBILE REVOLUTION IS HERE. HOW HAS IT IMPACTED THE UPTAKE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ?

THE FACEBOOK PERSPECTIVE “Africa is a mobile first continent and Facebook is a mobile first company. We now have just over 120 million users in Africa and that is growing rapidly at 20% per year. The vast majority of those who visit Facebook monthly in South Africa do so from their mobile

THE TWITTER PERSPECTIVE

phone. Mobile is an incredible creative canvas for brand building. For many people in Africa,

“The uptake has been incredible to watch. Smartphones are now more accessible

mobile is the entry point to the internet, and

than ever, and Twitter is a media forward platform, which means that a bigger screen

devices are primarily internet-enabled feature

makes the experience complete. Perhaps what’s most exciting for us is that conver-

phones.” (Aidan Baigrie)

sational volume on Twitter is building – Christmas, Braaiday, Valentines Day are all examples of annual events that are attracting larger audiences and interaction.”

(Sean Riley)

THREE LESSONS FROM THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BRANDS/ COMPANIES ON FACEBOOK

1

The brands who are really succeeding at hitting their business goals on

2

With more than a billion people visiting Pages on Facebook every month,

Facebook, are not talking the language of likes, comments and shares.

Rather they are talking about brand building and achieving real results.

Pages are the best place for businesses to reach the people who are already interested in what they’re doing. In South Africa, 80% of our monthly active users are connected to a Page.

3 50

Marketing has to be driven by great creative and great storytelling. Success is delivering real value to the people who use the platform through relevant and authentic content.

50

Q2

WHICH INDUSTRIES DO THE MOST ACTIVE BRANDS/COMPANIES ON TWITTER BELONG TO?

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING CASE STUDY: VIRGIN MOBILE

“There’s no real rule here,” says Sean Riley.

Virgin Mobile teamed up with Facebook’s

“The usual suspects were generally first:

Creative Shop to take part in the first ever

Banking, Telco and Alcohol. Now we’re seeing

Creative Accelerator programme, designed to

all sorts of verticals taking to Twitter –

inspire the Virgin team to think about how they

including the Government sector, FMCG,

could use Facebook to reach people through

Automotive and B2B. Brands in SA have really

compelling, emotional stories rather than lean-

evolved their approach to Twitter advertising

ing on the strength of their logo.

over the past couple of years. Brands are now building long term relationships with their Twit-

The result was a campaign that celebrated the

ter audiences – and they’re achieving this with

uniquely colourful voices of people and cul-

engaging content that is typically not accessi-

tures all over South Africa, delivered via native

ble elsewhere – some good examples include

ad formats on smartphones, feature phones

Cars.co.za, Woolworths, Ford and ABSA.”

and mobile devices. Virgin Mobile delivered a fresh creative approach that spoke to South Africans with a new sense of authenticity and relevance.

Looking beyond Likes to leverage Facebook’s ability to drive real brand metrics, Virgin’s campaign reached more than 3 million people and achieved an 11pt lift in ad recall.

Q3

WHAT DO YOU THINK SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS ARE GETTING RIGHT ?

Q4

WHAT DO YOU THINK SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS CAN DO BETTER ?

“Social media managers have a tough job with

According to Twitter’s Sean Riley,

many platforms evolving rapidly. Speaking

“Internationally, big brands are really starting

from a Twitter point of view, I’ve been

to break rules and take risks. I realise that the

impressed with how social media managers

ability to do this is largely dependent on the

are remaining current with Twitter’s offering.

organisation and culture that a social media

Periscope, Video and TV Targeting are

manager finds themselves in. However, it

examples of how new features are being

would be great to see more experimentation

leveraged by marketers who are eager to keep

and risk taking by African brands.”

innovating,” says Sean Riley.

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Thina Zibi, Zano Skorzch

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52

WHY YOU NEED

ROCK-SOLID MORE THAN PAID COPY SEARCH TIFFANY MARKMAN, PROFESSIONAL COPYWRITER, EDITOR AND PROUD WORD NERD

53

A couple of years ago, I wrote crap.

Truth. My professional life was largely dominated by creating web copy that I really, really disliked, but that got the job done really, really well. It was peppered with synonyms, keywords, and cautious-but-very-deliberate repetition.

CLIENTS, YOU NEED TO READ THIS… So, clients, if you’ve read this far, keep reading, because you need to know the truth.

The truth is:

1

Organic search drives more traffic. Paid search yields, in South Africa, ap-

2

It’s not actually about ranking, though that’s still a thing. It’s about best an-

It wasn’t link-bait, but it wasn’t beautiful.

If I’m honest, the crap copy was fun to create, because I was writing puzzles – using my right brain to generate original content that relied on my left brain to be strategic enough to

proximately 10% of traffic to a site, while organic search accounts for 51% (source: Graeme Stiles, Group Head: Organic Search, Quirk).

swering the user’s question. According to www.writtent.com, you’re “better off investing in one piece of content that engages your buyer personas than six pieces that fail to answer their real-life questions”.

rank highly. But I was aware that, in the grand scheme, it sucked.

THEN GOOGLE CHANGED THE RULES.

3

Suddenly, the user’s experience was par-

algos) are content-focused; i.e. they’re interested in the website as a whole. Is it quality? Does it make sense? If you have a website with thin, repetitive or irrelevant content, search engines don’t want it and they won’t recommend it.

4

The ‘stories’ you tell must resonate. And they must be specific, relevant, in-

5

Reconsider the length of webpage copy. If you only have a few sentences

And then, thank heavens, Google did what Google does best. It changed the rules.

It’s about all content on a website. Panda and Penguin (Google’s recent

teresting and personal. If not, they won’t achieve the two things you need: reach (exposure to suspects) and recall (by those who are your prospects).

per post, search spiders will think your content is too skimpy. Granted,

amount. Meaning and ease and simplicity

there’s no minimum or maximum word count, but I’d aim for 200 words or

were key, and needless repetition was…well,

more.

needless. My focus changed, from giving Google what it wanted to answering the users’ questions. I started writing what I called ‘sticky’

6

Forget making your site an article factory. They don’t work anymore. (Plus

7 8

Forget clicks. Reach is everything. (This little nugget came straight from

copy; copy that was appealing to both readers

there are local writers you should be employing, instead of content-conveyor-belts in Asia, which churn out pieces of limp twaddle for $1 each.)

and algorithms.

Readers. Then algos. In that order.

The problem? Clients hadn’t caught up yet, and were (are) still asking for 10 posts a week, packed with keywords and geared to ‘rank high,’ not to ‘inform well’.

Aidan Baigrie, Commercial Team Head: Facebook Africa. I heard it myself.)

Forget asking writers for wanton plagiarism. Don’t avoid eye contact if you’ve done this one before. No more asking a copywriter to visit your competitors’ sites and ‘just tweak’ their copy for your site. If we’re rewriting what’s already out there, Google will know it. And so will we.

And so will you.

AND NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS…

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I’m not just a nay-sayer. (Well, not today.) In return for dashing your hopes about being able to skyrocket your business using only

4

AdWords and a shoddy site with poor design

Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

and pitiable copy, I’ll give you some free tips

5

Does the page provide substantial

that contain valuable advice.

6

Does this article contain insightful

Don’t be too shy to put a human face on

If these questions frighten you – if you’re

for creating quality:

Give away your expertise for free. (See what I did there?) Write; or brief a copywriter to write or edit, web articles

your business. Remember that although

value when compared to other pages in search results?

analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

thinking, ‘Hell’s bells, I don’t know. How do

your business remains the primary

you tell? This isn’t my area! I’m not a writer!’

brand, it’s operated by people. Your

– you need a professional. Simple.

consumers are also people. And people

NOTHING WITH ANY VALUE COMES EASY.

like to engage with other people.

Work to establish yourself, and others in your business, as thought leaders.

(Many of my clients want me to write thought leadership for them, while they

SO WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?

remain hands-off. This is counter-intuitive.) The public wants your insight.

Nothing with any value comes easy. If it did, every site would rank equally highly and the

Always keep in mind that quality copy

resultant traffic jam would cause the informa-

creates and sustains customer loyalty,

tion superhighway to collapse altogether. So,

supports public relations and other

if you’re not going to leap aboard the quality

efforts, and provides fodder for social

content bandwagon and make the effort to

media.

create or source top-notch content, perhaps you should take your site down and try smoke

BUT DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT

signals instead. They worked well for the Greeks in 150 BC.

Here are six questions that the Google Webmaster Central blog suggests you ask yourself, when judging the quality of your prospective website copy:

1 2

Would I trust the information

3

Are the topics driven by genuine

presented in this article?

Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?

interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

55

Thulisizwe “Sizwe” Mamba, July in Durban

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56

Photo credit: Darren Gwynn

AN INTERVIEW WITH UNO DE WAAL, FOUNDER & PUBLISHER, BETWEEN 10AND5 57

Between 10and5 began as most creative initiatives begin – as a solution to a problem.

The problem? There was no single online destination for South African creative work. It was 2008. South Africans were painting, sketching, sewing, crafting. The creative landscape was filled with emerging talent. But the digital space for creativity was a wasteland, with a

Q2

HOW DID YOUR BACKGROUND AS A DIGITAL STRATEGIST ASSIST YOU WITH GETTING BETWEEN 10AND5 OFF THE GROUND ?

I practically built the content marketing portfolio at the previous agency I was at, with

tumbleweed or two. You get the idea.

help from the rest of the team. We worked on

Together with his partner Johann Schwella,

Estee Lauder. Here I could understand what

Uno De Waal turned a standard Wordpress

multinational clients like Nokia, Total, Nike and brands are looking for in content marketing,

template into a blog that would grow into what

and how to deliver that value to them. The time

is now, South Africa’s largest, most well-known

at the agency fast tracked my knowledge of

online showcase for local creativity across the board. Here’s what Uno had to say about his investment into this thriving industry.

Q1

online tools, media buying, media planning and social. I got to work with some really smart people there too, which helped with the problem-solving process.

Q3

Q4

WITH BETWEEN 10AND5, YOU’VE BETWEEN 10AND5 HAS BECOME INVESTED EXTENSIVELY IN THE LOCAL WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE SOUTH SYNONYMOUS WITH SOUTH AFRICA’S AFRICAN CREATIVE INDUSTRY THAT CREATIVE INDUSTRY. IS THERE A GREAT CREATIVE INDUSTRY. WHAT HAS THE RETURN” ON THAT INVESTMENT BEEN FOR MADE YOU BELIEVE IN ITS POTENTIAL RESPONSIBILITY THAT COMES WITH THIS ENOUGH TO BASE A BUSINESS YOU AS THE PUBLISHER ?

GREAT POWER ( AS SPIDERMAN MIGHT VENTURE ON IT ?

PUT IT )?

It’s been incredibly rewarding to meet people who we have helped grow creatively. Not a

I had been running 10and5 as a side project

Absolutely. There is always a challenge when

week goes by that someone doesn’t tell us

since 2008. I had invested my own money and

one is “the voice of...” an industry/field or even

how much we’ve meant to them as a creative

time into it, but there was a full-time editor on it

just as a curator. Curatorship ultimately implies

professional – either by introducing them to

who was running our editorial content. During

excluding certain things too. We want people

the broader creative community or by exposing

2012 we started getting more and more people

to visit 10and5 and see a broad selection of

them to an audience for more work. It’s an

interested in running banner ads on the site.

the SA creative industry.

honest feeling from them, and it’s really per-

I’ve never really been a fan of banner ads, and

sonally rewarding.

I didn’t want to monetise 10and5 in this way.

It’s important for people in the fashion industry

To some extent I was pushing back on that

to see what happens in the art world, and

Professionally, these connections help. 10and5

business model quite a bit. But people kept

art practitioners to see what’s happening in

helps the corporate world connect with the art

knocking. It became clear that there was a

advertising.

industry. We’ve done projects with big brands

demand to reach and engage with the

like Nokia, FNB, Nando’s and Capitec where

audience that we had built up over the years.

We’ve always tried to not have an opinion on the creative work, or industry, or society, but

we help them create public art installations, branded content or experiences. Because we

It also became quite clear that in order for me

lately we’ve been pushing an agenda a little

have relationships with the art and creative

to capitalise on all the opportunities that were

more. You can’t live in our society with such a

world we can navigate these sometimes

being presented to us, and for me to create

dominant role and not have an opinion.

muddy waters.

new opportunities I had to be in the business full-time. I quit my job at the agency

You see that with our Young Creative

and jumped into it head-on. As I was research-

South Africa series, where we ask young

ing similar businesses overseas, different

people what it means to be creative in South

business models emerged that are all viable

Africa, and get some really good answers on

once you have that critical audience of scale

controversial topics (see the series here:

(which is what we have now). We’ve pivoted

10and5.com/youngSA), or through our Cre-

a few times, but we’re now settled on what we

ative Women series and Conference that has

do and are executing that model full steam

an all-female line-up of exceptional speakers

ahead.

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58

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT MEANS MORE PEOPLE ARE OPTING TO DO THEIR OWN THING. Q5

IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR CREATIVE FIELD THAT YOU FEEL IS UNDERGOING FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE OR STARTING TO REALLY FLOURISH AT THE MOMENT? All of them are undergoing radical shifts through underlying macro-trends.

Youth unemployment means more people are opting to do their own thing. The means of production (e.g. in film making) has brought down barriers to entry and access to opportunity is increasing through some great initiatives. I think the advertising industry is getting hit hard with a squeezing of an available talent pool (why go into advertising when it’s underpaid and over worked and there are so many other creative careers for you to follow?). African creatives also now have access to global markets which is changing how we think of retail, marketing and story-telling.

Q6

Q7

MEDIUMS ?

REMARKABLE CREATIVE ?

We run a very successful series of exhibitions

Business Savvy. Creative Brilliance.

and we’ve recently held our first big scale

Execution Power.

CAN YOU GIVE US THREE WORDS/ YOU’VE FINE-TUNED YOUR DIGITAL PHRASES THAT CAPTURE THE PLATFORM WITH GREAT SUCCESS. ANY PLANS TO BRANCH OUT INTO OTHER ESSENCE OF WHAT MAKES A

Creative Women Conference that was sold out and trended at No. 1 on Twitter – it was bigger than rugby on the day! We also have a residency program in Cape Town, and are definitely looking at an alternative awards evening. There are some great international examples that we can follow, but we’re looking at something that adds local flavour. Our main goal is to connect South African creatives. If we do that online or offline it doesn’t matter, as long as we get them talking to each other and doing great work that we can use to showcase South Africa.

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Philip Wassung, Rueful Realflow

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60

THE 3 NOT-YET PERFECTED MARKETING MEDIA CHANNELS I’M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO FRED ROED, CEO, WORLD WIDE CREATIVE

61

At the turn of the previous century, around 120 years ago, the world was undergoing radical change. However, despite an unprecedented rate of industrial change and entrepreneurs tinkering in every third garage in America, no one could predict some of the accomplishments of the next millennium. Nuclear war. Nuclear power. A moon shot that landed, literally.

We’re currently going through a similarly disruptive time, and I believe we can also expect some similarly extraordinary leaps (or as my one photographer friend says: “cra-azy shee-yut!”) in the near future. It’s fun to look into a crystal ball. Working in a digital marketing agency, I seem to permanently be peering around the corner.

Recently, I’ve been involved in some high level strategy work for our clients and I’m compiling some thought-starters on what lies on the digital horizon. Here are the three most interesting to me:

VIRTUAL REALITY

Imagine following a basketball game from the middle of the basketball

Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re getting ready for the

court. Imagine following Riaan Manser’s crazy exploits as if you were on

platforms of tomorrow. By far the most exciting platform of tomorrow is

the bike/boat with him. Imagine movies told entirely in virtual reality. A

around vision — or modifying what you see into augmented and immer-

whole new world opening up, stories directed by tomorrow’s Scorseses,

sive experiences.”

as seen through VR headsets. Imagine a horror movie where you are witnessing the scenes unfold right around you, with the bad guy creep-

So far, the front-runners are all competing to establish their claim to a

ing up over your shoulder.

dominant platform. This will depend on many things, such as removing lag (which, if not 100% accurate, causes nausea in the user), price

As Mark Zuckerberg announced after Facebook spent $2b on acquiring

accessibility and applications.

VR company Oculus Rift: “The history of our industry is that every 10 or 15 years there is a new

Me, I’m just picturing Star Wars 10, 11 and 12, from the driver’s seat of

major computing platform, whether it’s the PC, the web or now mobile.

the Millennium Falcon.

History suggests that there will be more platforms to come, and that whoever builds and defines these will not only shape all the experiences that our industry builds but also benefit financially and strategically from it.

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HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTION Imagine meetings where everyone is standing in the same room as you, but no one is actually there. People have been dreaming about this eventuality since R2D2 projected Princess Leia in the first Star Wars, but so far the tech has been clunky and mainstream attempts have appeared gimmicky. This will change, and start-ups (plus at least three mainstream tech giants) in the US and Europe are betting that people who find holographic technology will find an engaged audience.

The benefits of getting holography right are enormous — and not just for advertising. Imagine holograms so rich and real that it feels like the person is right there. Think surgical rooms where the best of the world’s best specialists can collaborate across continents. Think distance learning; teleporting teachers across multiple classrooms and university auditoriums. Think of the savings on travel costs for business meetings.

And yes (someone has to say it), think of the opportunities in the porn industry.

Holography will only be truly compelling if the imagery reaches a believable reality. Similar to Virtual Reality — wherein the company that successfully removes lag from the technology will be the leader — the company that can trick the viewer into believing they’re talking to a real human will forge ahead.

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EXPERIENTIAL ADVERTISING No, I’m not talking about a branded party, or a launch event. What I’m looking forward to are the moon-shots of marketing, where we get to go along for the ride. Think Felix Baumgartner’s jump, only you’re doing it with him — along with 500 other participants. Far-fetched? Don’t be so sure.

We’re transmitting trillions of signals each month. We’re deploying every type of blinking, bleeping, transitioning, shifting and shaking online ad we can muster. We’re spending more than five hours a day in front of screens. When we’re not in front of a screen, advertisers are trying to move screens in our way. We’ve reached saturation point. It’s no surprise that Ad-Blocking Technology was the biggest talking point at this year’s IAB conference in New York. It provides an obvious solution to an obvious problem, one that marketers surely must have foreseen. So, what does this mean?

Brands will have to create hyper-value in order to reach us.

Essentially, the true currency of the new media will be a combination of experiences and old school values — i.e. integrity, authenticity and telling good stories. Only, in this medium, those stories are really kick-ass. This means creating the most unbelievable experiences, in real life, where humans can interact with brands in increasingly exhilarating ways. Think deep (really deep!) sea diving. Think extreme (really extreme!) bungie jumping. Think beyond — deep space travel, Mars holidays, biosphere

Red Bull Stratos Project

communes on the poles… hey, even teleporting?

People will have more time, therefore more opportunities to advertise to them. Conversely, people will be more precious about that time. The only way audiences will want to be advertised to is if there is real value added. Increasingly, individuals in the 21st Century will choose to apply Parkinson’s Law. Before the 2nd Industrial Revolution ushered in the five day work week, the working class failed to predict a thing called a ‘weekend’ where you get to spend two consecutive days just chillin’ every week.

Looking forward, wrap your mind around the ‘flexible week’, where millennials work around specific tasks and deadlines rather than 9–5 schedules. If this means working 20 hours in a single week, so be it.

This also means an awful lot more time to fill with experiences.

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HAS THERE EVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO LIVE? I CERTAINLY CAN’T THINK OF ONE.

.

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ILLUSTRATE THIS.

AN INTERVIEW WITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER, LAZI MATHEBULA

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Infused with African pride. Bursting with colour. Existing at the edge of

my passion. I worked extra hours at my job to focus on my craft be-

urban life and something utterly surreal. Lazi Mathebula’s work

cause back then I didn’t have internet at home. My main objective was

transforms everyday subjects into their wilder forms. The result is

to strike a balance so that I could get to a point where I could do my

simply, remarkable illustration.

own thing – which is what I’m doing now.

Mathebula’s work has been featured in galleries from Braamfontein to Croatia, and in exhibitions like The Path Less Deconstructed, hosted by the M Contemporary art gallery in Sydney, Australia. In 2013, he was selected as one of Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives – another benchmark in his flourishing career. With his career in illustration well under way, Lazi has his sights set on other creative avenues like interior design, décor and fashion. The hard work never ends.

We were eager to interview Mathebula about his work, his creative journey and his approach to illustration.

Q1

YOU WERE ONE OF DESIGN INDABA’S EMERGING CREATIVES IN 2013. HOW HAS YOUR CAREER DEVELOPED SINCE THEN ?

It’s grown very organically. I got to showcase my work at Design Indaba but I also put in a lot of hard work on top of that so that my work and my name was everywhere. I was touching everything – I had my finger in most pies (so to speak). I was working hard before and after the Design Indaba to ensure that I was always doing something to grow.

You see, some creatives showcase their work at Design Indaba and then they just sit on it and nothing happens. I wanted greater things – to build on the experience. Because of that, my growth as a designer has happened very organically and now that I’ve worked with brands and been commissioned for certain projects, my work holds more weight. I just keep going and don’t stop for anything. I want to hit the glass ceiling and break it.

Q2

WHAT WAS IT LIKE AS A YOUNG CREATIVE, TRYING TO MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDUSTRY ?

It was hard. The first thing that legitimised my skill and my talent was when I got featured twice in Migrate (the official magazine of the Loerie awards) and as a result of that, I got a commission. For designers, being featured in magazines is a ‘thing.’ I remember being at Vega and seeing magazines like Migrate at the library, borrowing those magazines and books – wanting to keep them to myself and inspect every creative element. The illustration part of those books really got me going. I wanted to do that and so I pursued that ability. Eventually, I saw myself featured in the same magazine that I looked up to.

It wasn’t easy to get to a point where things are happening. Now I have shows in Australia, I’m having a show in Europe and word about my work is spreading but it wasn’t easy to break into the industry. I had to work hard. I had to stay fresh. I had to pay bills. Of course I wanted to

TOWNSHIP. KWAITO. AND TRADITION. MY STYLE PUTS ALL THESE THINGS TOGETHER..

pursue the passion full on but I had to find a way to work and develop

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Q3

WHICH 3 WORDS/PHRASES BEST DESCRIBE YOUR CREATIVE STYLE ?

Township. Kwaito. And tradition. My style puts all these things together – traditional, black lifestyle combined with contemporary township vibes and kwaito culture.

Q4

ARE THERE ANY PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT CREATIVES NEED IN ORDER TO THRIVE IN THE LOCAL CREATIVE SPACE ? ?

Honesty, and a sense of personal truth should come through in the work. It’s about expressing your truth and telling your story. My work is based on my experience – the things I know, the stuff I’ve learnt, the things that I keep learning. It’s about being original. Keep it real and work hard. Young designers need to realise that success doesn’t come easy – you have to take a lot of risks, create your own style, build your own formulas.

If you merge traditional and digital, amazing things

.

can happen.

Q5

WHAT IMPACT HAS DIGITAL MADE ON YOUR CREATIVE ABILITIES ? ?

I play a lot – in my work. And digital allows you to play with so many different tools without restrictions. At the same time though, I still work in a very traditionally artistic way so that digital doesn’t determine my creative capabilities, it just enhances what I can already do. For me, it’s important to use my natural skills and then apply them digitally and use things like Instagram to showcase my work and make it more accessible. If you merge traditional and digital, amazing things can happen.

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Alna Kotze, Be

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ANDY MKOSI Photographer

The boys of Bitterkomix are no strangers to sedition and definitely no strangers to artistic acclaim. And therein lies the beautiful paradox that is the Bitterkomix brand – the

DANIËL HUGO Illustrator

collective brilliance of South African artists, Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes.

Created in 1992, their trademark comic anthology became synonymous with subversive political commentary that placed the Afrikaner cultural mainstream under fierce scrutiny and laid the results bare for all to see.

Anton and Conrad have weathered their fair share of harsh criticism but their work has also been described as “consistently challenging, undeniably brilliant” and “impossible to ignore.”

Bitterkomix is an industry benchmark for what creativity looks like when it is driven by a powerful, paradigm-shifting sense of purpose.

FALKO ONE A deep love for cameras and an intuitive inclination towards photography led Andy

Graffiti artist

Daniël Hugo’s earliest memory of drawing is of “lots and lots of cowboys.” Since those early experiments, his illustrations have ventured to fictional lands, across imaginary seas, to the furthest reaches of the galaxy – and beyond.

As a comic artist, book illustrator and character designer, Hugo has completed projects for household names in publishing, including Maskew Miller Longman, Cambridge University press and Oxford University Press.

In his entourage of artistic accomplishments

Mkosi down a creative career path from an

are the self-published comic books – The

early age. As a child, she dreamt about seeing

Oneironaut & Other Tales (2013) and The

her name in movie credits and she’s getting

Souvenir (2014). Daniël’s portfolio of work is a

there, one photograph at a time, or perhaps

dreamscape of creative talent – a rethinking of

one line at a time, given that she moonlights

the timeold “pencil to paper” kind of art that’s

as a rap artist.

delightfully authentic.

As a multi-genre artist and social activist,

MONICA ALAYA

Andy captures images in a way that sparks conversation and speaks to the realities of life in South Africa. Photography, music, poetry – these avenues have become channels for Mkosi’s artistic expression.

BITTERKOMIX Illustrators

Gone are the days when graffiti was frowned

Illustrator

upon as a subversive art form. Today, it is a means of urban rejuvenation. In the words of Falko One: “it’s about a man who can paint pretty pictures with a spray can (and a ladder).”

With over twenty years on the South African graffiti scene, Falko One is one of the country’s most notable creative minds. His graffiti has transformed South Africa’s built environment into character-filled landscapes of human expression. The Cape Flats, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Kenya, Greece: these have become landmarks for his work.

Monica Alaya’s career as a digital designer, has spanned continents. Having moved to London for 7 years to kickstart her career, she later moved to the United Arab Emirates where she worked as a freelance designer.

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After extensive travelling throughout the Middle East, Alaya returned to The Mother City to start her own clothing label and keep creating beautiful things.

LAZI MATHEBULA Illustrator

Her most recent collection entitled Sibahle, is a visual celebration of African women – heroines from around the continent, venerated for their individual contributions and inspiring legacies.

Soon to be released is Musekiwa’s children’s

For this creative chameleon, the design

book series – a literary collection focused on

process usually begins with a question,

teaching life lessons in African languages.

which leads to an answer, which turns into an idea that cannot wait to be visualized.

As an artist who is passionate about “effecting

The rest – is art.

change, using creativity as a vehicle to do so,” Ruramai’s work is bold, lively and distinctively

JACQUES ERASMUS

African.

Illustrator Lazi Mathebula has built a successful creative career on unyielding determination and consistency. As they say, becoming an overnight suc-

GRANT TAYLOR Illustrator

cess takes years of hard work. After studying at Vega, Lazi worked hard at conquering the working world while developing his unique art style and expanding his portfolio.

Mathebula’s work has earned him a coveted place at the Design Indaba show and at exhibitions like “A Path Less Deconstructed” at More commonly known by his pseudonym,

M Contemporary in Sydney, Australia. Inspired

The Jaakness, Jacques Erasmus is a graphic

by township culture and the growth of kwaito

designer, illustrator and self-entitled facial hair

music, Lazi’s art reflects a personal sense of

enthusiast from Cape Town. Jacques’s

reverence for the fusion between traditional

illustrations have been featured on beer

African lifestyle and contemporary culture.

glasses and cards for e-commerce giant, Superbalist as well as in editorial pieces for local publications.

His artistic style is distinctively hipster-esque – perhaps an extension of his characteristic tache. As one of Cape Town’s

RURAMAI RUDO MUSEKIWA Illustrator

After being turned away from pilot academy for not having the correct jawline, Grant Taylor decided to conquer digital, one remarkable design at a time. Taylor supplemented his two year course in multimedia design with selftaught skills and natural abilities in illustration and photography.

Grant’s illustration style is irresistibly quirky,

emerging illustrators, his work is imbued

executed with clean lines and simple colour

with authenticity and a quirky sense imag-

ways. His designs tell multi-dimensional

ination. A winning formula.

stories, infused with his love of cats and good junk food. His creative philosophy is simply: “If you’re not learning anything, then you’re in the wrong place.”

To step into the world of artist Ruramai ‘Rudo’ Musekiwa is to step into a wellspring of vibrant colour, creative activism, and artistic philosophy. This Zimbabwe-born, Johannesburg-based designer translates powerful messaging into works of art.

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THINA ZIBI Photographer

Thulisizwe Mamba was one of the young graphic designers who was chosen to showcase their work at 2015’s Design Indaba as an esteemed Emerging Creative. Handpicked

ALNA KOTZE Illustrator

from over 270 other candidates, Thulisizwe is one of Durban University of Technology’s most gifted students and the owner of conceptual design studio, Less.

Clean. Simple. Thoughtful. Using these principles as a foundation for his work, Thulisize has found his niche within an approach he defines as “Horizontalism Design – a form of design that pioneers an Thina Zibi captures beautiful moments and

equitable arrangement of forms to achieve

good fashion. Her fashion blog, Below R300

harmonious balance.” Less is more? We

After studying design for four years, majoring

showcases vintage-chic ensembles that Thina

think so too.

in advertising and multimedia, Alna Kotze was

curates and styles for less than R300. As a young art director, she draws inspiration from Joburg’s concrete jungle and urban energy.

Her enviable ability to capture “stolen mo-

ready for the world of “9 to 5” and promptly

PHILIP WASSUNG Illustrator

took her place as a designer and videographer for World Wide Creative. Kotze’s natural inclination towards the field of design was prompted by her passion for making things beautiful

ments” when her subjects are oblivious to

and finding the creative spark in everything.

her lens, imbues her photography with a rare

Her artistic style occupies the creative mid-

sense of honesty. Most recently, she was

dle-ground between ‘bold’ and ‘simple.’

commissioned to photograph award-winning a capella singing group The Soil. Through her

Helvetica is her heaven. Comic Sans is her

photography, Thina presents everyday lived

hell. Most importantly, she knows why the

reality in all its authenticity.

quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Contact her for more details on this.

THULISIZWE “SIZWE” MAMBA Illustrator

Since it was anatomically possible for him to hold a pencil or paintbrush, Philip Wassung was trying to copy his mother’s artwork. Over time, having been inspired by the creative people around him as well as a number of tattoo artists, music and childhood stories, Wassung developed his own design style which he describes as “an intense juxtaposition of chaotic feeling and unconscious thought.”

Eager to experiment and break rules, Philip has entered the world of digital as a designer at World Wide Creative. Watch this space.

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THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN THE DIGITAL MARKETING MIX

Social Media Marketing

33.3%

Email Marketing

Media Campaigns

SEO

PPC

15.6% 15.6% 19.8% 12.5%

All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey. Survey respondents

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include mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers.

Mobile Marketing

3.1%

TheTHE Percentage OfMARKETING Marketing PERCENTAGE OF BUDGET DEDICATED TOToDIGITAL Budget Dedicated Digital of survey respondents spend 0.5% of their budget on digital

10.5% 28.4%

of survey respondents spend 5-15% of their budget on digital

14.7%

of survey respondents spend 15-25% of their budget on digital

46.3%

of survey respondents spend more than 25% of their budget on digital

All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey.

Survey respondents include mid-senior marketing managers and digital All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey.marketers.

Survey respondents include mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers.

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DO YOU BELIEVE ENOUGH OF YOUR MARKETING BUDGET IS BEING SPENT ON DIGITAL?

38.1%

61.9%

Yes

No

Why not?

3.3%

answered that agencies are difficult to understand - they talk too much ‘tech’ and not enough business

7.8%

answered that it’s due to the lack of effective results measurement

15.6%

answered thatit’it’s aswered that s what they’ve always done always done what they’ve

40%

answered ‘Other’ ‘Other’ answered

33.3%

answered that senior management senior management is unwilling to is unwilling to dedicate budget to dedicate budget to “the unknown” “the unknown”

All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey. Survey respondents

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include mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers.

PERCENTAGE OF DIGITAL MARKETING SPEND DEDICATED TO SEO

Technical Optimisation Traditional Link Building Link Building Through PR Effort

Other

One Page Optimisation - Content And Media Data

All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey. Survey respondents include mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers.

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WHY DO SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS FAIL?

Why Do Social Media Campaigns Fail?

25%

20.8%

17.7%

Lack of Creativity

Lack of Budget Inefficient knowledge of social media within your team

14.6%

Lack of media to support social media efforts

9.4% 7.3%

5.2%

Poor brand influencers Other Social media team’s lack of understanding of your brand

All dataAll sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Marketing Campaigns Survey. Campaigns Survey respondents data sourced from the October 2015Digital Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Survey.

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Survey respondents includemarketing mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers. include mid-senior managers and digital marketers.

WHICH TEAM POSES THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO DIGITAL INTEGRATION IN YOUR ORGANISATION (OR THOSE YOU WORK WITH)?

All data sourced from the October 2015 Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Campaigns Survey. Survey respondents include mid-senior marketing managers and digital marketers.

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