Politics and advertising plus social media and a word on award season. Brand Sunday radio feature 2 March 2014

1.        Politics and advertising/communications

We can make some observations that there is a lot of activity in South Africa around the forthcoming elections, although most of it is on the ground and around social media.  WE know that there are agencies involved with the political parties but they are shy to talk about their involvement and we think that this is understandable in a new democracy such as ours.

 

Political advertising has always been a hot potato – worldwide.

 

More advanced democracies are more open about their advertising strategies and many well-known agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi back in the 70”s ( remember “ Labour isn’t working”  - billboard)    and now M&C Saatchi UK – brought the Conservatives back into power a few years ago again with their ad campaign.  Havas – has always been involved in political advertising in UK and US. 

 

Agencies here in SA such as The Agency – going back more than 30 years ago – helped the National Party.  Hunt Lascaris in the 90’s helped the ANC in its first campaign and later Ogilvy helped the ANC.

 

Why would agencies be shy here? 

·         We think that it is a tricky one to navigate as other clients of those agencies might object to being in an agency that looks after a particular party.    

·         We also think that agencies want to protect their staff – in an era where violent protest about politics is rife – witness Egypt and the Ukraine.

 

So it was impossible for us to obtain comment from the agencies who we believe are looking after the current political campaigns for the respective parties – and we must respect that. 

 

Perhaps after the elections it will be easier.

 

What is also interesting of course – is the use of social media by the party leaders – that is a full time intensive job!

 

2.       Awards season

 

Awards are here and everyone is starting to build towards them.

 

The PR industry, PRISM awards (locally) and internationally – the Golden World Awards run by IPRA.    

 

The ad industry,  Loeries (still quite early for that) and the Cannes Lions – the most important event on the calendar and celebrating 60 years this year.  Lots of categories – more than ever and lots of opportunities for South Africa which has always been very successful at Cannes, often punching well above its weight. 

 

So the role of awards?

 

·         Helps the industry become more competitive in terms of standards

·         Recognizes success

·         Peer recognition

·         Attracts staff – staff like to work for successful recognized agencies

·         Clients – clients like to know that their agencies are strong industry players and they like to be proud of their agencies

·         Clients like to feel that they too had a role in the success of the awards

·         Generally speaking awards measure campaigns from a creative AND effectiveness perspective – and this trend has grown in recent years

 

Great case studies – essential

Well presented on video – essential

 

In fact often the case study video demands more time and energy than the campaign itself. 

 

Digital campaign success is the new kid on the block and an opportunity for agencies in the advertising and PR space>

 

·         Regardless of our bandwidth – this will improve soon

·         Agencies need to prepare

·         Consumers want to be part of the story now – it’s a two way street or a 360 story

·         Consumers want to engage – measurement of success

 

 

 

 

 

 

The client/agency relationship blog: 2014 and innovation

The client/agency relationship blog: 2014 and innovation: The ten day break over Christmas and New Year was a good time to pause and reflect and to start thinking about goals for 2014. I am not talk...

2014 and innovation

The ten day break over Christmas and New Year was a good time to pause and reflect and to start thinking about goals for 2014. I am not talking about new year resolutions - we all love to make them and break them - but rather some specific goals in the world of client/agency relationships.

The IAS has a big year ahead.

First of all we are introducing the four alternative methods of pitching - these  are:

* the chemistry pitch
* the no-pitch pitch
* Pitch in a day - PIAD
* the workshop or tissue pitch

We think that these will be of huge benefit to clients and agencies alike as they will take a lot of the pain out of pitching - including cost and time.

Secondly we are focusing heavily on our TLC range of products.  We invented these products five years ago when the IAS started out here in South Africa.  Based very much in the management disciplines that I learned when running ad agencies and PR agencies, these products are designed to assist marketers and agencies alike in the construction and management of their service level agreements and contracts.

Currently we have two products:

* TLC which is a management tool which measures client/agency relationships at periodic intervals ie nine months, 12 months or more often
* Honeymoon Helper - which sets and manages up the early client/agency relationship expectations

Both of these products have worked well to date and we are now re inventing them for the market in 2014.  In addition we plan to introduce a third product which will manage the immediate post pitch work including the agency handover arrangements, the construction of the contract and SLA and the expectations on both sides.  To date, the product has not been named  but "First three months" is the working title.

Beyond relationship management, we will be investing time and money into opening offices in Lagos, Nigeria as well as in Cape Town. 

In Cape Town there are currently 157 agencies of all types - advertising, PR, media, digital and design - along with 220 large clients.  It is a market we have been active in - albeit at a distance - for five years and although we know that 70% of the business of marketing communications is in Johannesburg, Cape Town has a sizeable market and clients will welcome our presence there.

Nigeria - as we all know - is the second largest economy in Africa and is destined to over take South Africa this year.  Colleagues in the country assure me that our services are needed and that training is an imperative.  In addition we now receive enquiries almost daily regarding Nigeria and other parts of Africa - there is no question that the market is there.

Of course back in South Africa, the elections are going to be a huge event during the first four months and it will be interesting to see which agencies are active with which political parties.  Political advertising and PR is always very interesting and we will be watching to see which agencies innovate and communicate with the electorate in the most interesting new ways and to see if any new trends emerge.

So in my view, with a world economy on the mend, and with our elections ahead, 2014 is the year to create and innovate.

Opportunities beckon.

Have a great year ahead.

  

 

Alternative ways of pitching

There are days - although not many of them I must confess - when I think it would be so wonderful to live and work in London, as I did in the early 70's and then again in the late 80's.  Of course one week of that awful weather would immediately drive me back to sunny South Africa.

However I do appreciate the quality of thinking that is evidenced in the marketing and advertising industry in the UK and in particular with some recent posts regarding The Good Pitch.  My colleagues at ISBA- the Voice of British Advertisers - along with the AAR Group ( our UK partners at IAS)  as advisors have done some excellent work on alternative ways of pitching. 

This work was precipitated by the findings of research done among client companies where it was found that the current fully comprehensive pitching process was considered to be expensive in time and money, and not always completely necessary in some cases.

As a result ISBA and the IPA ( Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) developed some new pitch alternatives which we have examined and found to be very practical.  We know that these alternatives will work extremely well in South Africa.

So keep a look out for news on:

* the chemistry pitch

* the tissue pitch

* the No Pitch, Pitch

and the * Pitch in a Day (PIAD)

which we will be making available from December 2013.

For more information in the interim visit www.thegoodpitch.com



 


       

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All of us are tempted to think that social media networking can replace individual one to one contact. The reality is that in today's world, we need both elements to work in order to maximize our contacts.  It is so noticeable, for example, that when I am with some business colleagues on an Ad Forum Summit in New York - and I see these colleagues once or twice a year - we become even more active with each other on the social networks during the course of the Ad Forum week.

People love photographs and sharing thoughts with each other.  From where I view things, social media networking helps to deepen this experience and sustain it in between personal interactions.

How we then use the social media networks tells our colleagues and friends about the roles that they have in our lives both personally and business wise. Sometimes these lines become blurred but the better we become at thinking about our social media networks strategically, the more useful they can become to us and to our colleagues and ever broadening network.

Ends

  

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