What are you doing for the holidays?
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Headlines and Opinions
An overview of key industry player’s plans for the holidays.
Fiona Ramsay, Actress:“December is often the busiest season for actors and performers and this year is one of those for me! I am playing Bouboulina the Blue Fairy in this year’s pantomime Pinocchio at the Joburg Theatre – and will be doing so right through the holiday season and into the New Year! After a break of 6 years since I last strutted my stuff in ‘pantoland’ – it’s fantastic to be back treading the vast boards of the Nelson Mandela Auditorium. All characters in panto explore aspects of the clown – both comic and tragic – and this year am playing the Blue Fairy in the mould of that great comedienne Mae West – who managed to make sexual reference and allusion funny! It feels fantastic to give such pleasure to audiences. I am followed by an entourage of Blue Ballet Fairies – every girl’s dream! So will be enjoying making people laugh over the festive season – signing autographs for enchanted little ones and of course unwinding with the large cast after the shows! But you can bet that after the season I will be on safari – enjoying a well-deserved bush break. Walking, game spotting and enjoying sundowners while watching the magnificent African sunsets! So much more enjoyable when one feels one has earned the break!!” |
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Simphiwe Mdlalose, CEO of Capricorn FM:“What holiday? It’s all work, work and work – but good work in that I am part of a number of projects that will be delivering some really fantastic Christmas gifts to people who need it including the hand over of 16 homes to 16 women who have been victims of domestic violence with the Department of Local and Provincial Government. There’s also a Shoprite sponsored project where we give R10 000 to five homes that are looking after children that are orphans or disabled. I’m also participating in a walk to commemorate the World Aids Day, promoting the radio Station and hosting a New Year’s Eve Bash sponsored by MTN. In between that, I will make time to spend with my wife and kids. So all in all – a busy but really “feel good” time.” |
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Jason Levin, Managing Director – HDI Youth:“Since I have only just come back from Thailand, the holidays will be spent in quiet, sunny Johannesburg; Christmas with my family which will be wonderful since my brother will be visiting from Sweden. I’m also likely to go up to Sun City for a few days at some point over the hols. Happy Holidays…” |
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Imraan Coovadia, Author:“This year it’s Christmas in Durban, with my parents. New Year’s in Berlin, with, I guess, the Germans. I found an extremely cheap flight with Egypt Air. Not that I’m looking forward to flying but at least there’ll be other Muslims on the plane for people to worry about. The pilot, especially…” |
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Fortunato Mazzone, Celebrity Chef“On the 13th of December I am leaving for Europe with my family and we are landing in Zurich and taking an old school slow grand tour by car down to my holiday home in Pietrastornina near the Amalfi Coast. Our itinerary is Zurich, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, Graz, Trieste, Venice, Perugia, Orvieto, Rome, Naples, Pietrastornina and then back via Milan, Piedmont, Geneva and back to Zurich. Yay…I can’t wait….Great food, beautiful Opera and incredible Family.” |
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“It’s a mystery.” – Brandon Faber
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Brandon Faber
So the Mayans reckon we’ve got about three years left before we never have to see another dishwashing liquid ad. . . or read copy marketing luxury guesthouses – with riveting selling points such as, “our hand-picked staff will make sure you blah blah blah”.
Hand-picked staff hey?
What a novel idea. Here I was under the impression that a big bus rides around town, randomly dropping off hospitality industry employees that venues are obliged to use. Sounds like something the intellectuals at Cosatu would come up with. . . For most part however, hotels, guest houses and the like have to go the old-fashioned way and interview people for vacant positions.
Yup. All hail the random adjective – after 21 December 2012 we shall sadly hear of it no more.
Returning to those Inca Impies and their pot-fuelled predictions. I bet they never knew that getting bored with chiseling millennia worth of detail would culminate in block buster movies and over 34 million Google search results.
I bet if they saw the cult offshoots and nervous clambering by the feet of men who claim divine inspiration from Alien communication and / or messages from their future selves, living free from fear in some parallel universe where humanity is at one with each other, they’d have done the right thing and at least put a “To be continued…” at the end of it all.
“We are running out of leaves to smoke, finish this later, promise” would also have done the job.
Instead the hysteria is gathering momentum as we prepare for the Apocalypse, the end of days, the (apparent) re-entering of “Planet X” into our solar system that will see Jupiter “ignite” and become a second baby sun. According to 2012warning.com we should all be able to see two suns’ in the sky by no later than May 2011.
Well I, for one, say “bring it on”. An extra sun would certainly add a bit of excitement to getting stuck in mid-May morning traffic. Products like “Hotballs Sunscreen” will keep us from frying like Like It Lean bacon rinds on a Sunday morning and Barack Obama will tell everyone to remain calm, while the US prepares to move its most important souls to The Hilton “Underground”.
Here in Africa the ANCYL will blame apartheid for the two suns while the unions will threaten to mobolise and take to the streets if Planet X doesn’t immediate heed their calls to retreat to the cold darkness of outer space.
I can only imagine the madness as the time draws closer.
Unfortunately the world is full of souls with a home-shopper-mentality . . . hell, we do not need a mysterious planet to take us down, the pure idiocy of those who surround us is enough to destroy any civilization, given the opportunity.
Err. . .
I don’t know what’s going to happen and, frankly, I don’t care.
The true mysteries of this world comes not from the skies above, but from within. We find it in hand-picked hotel staff and “surprised” moms, truly impressed by the amount of foam some new dishwashing liquid makes. We find it in the choice of music used in Makro radio spots, in specials that are not really so “special” and in movies about our supposed demise.
We find it in our fascination with destruction and holiday death-tolls, in superficial presents and super-sensational scandals.
The year is gone. . . perhaps we only have three or so left. . . more likely, however, there’s a lot yet still to achieve and many more dreams to be realised.
Of course this also means that we’ve got many more years of award losing advertising ahead of us.
I can’t wait.
Books, movies and music to share
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Headlines and Opinions
The holidays are here and long glorious days lie ahead. Here are some great books, music and movies to while away the time.
BOOKS TO READ
Fans of True Blood have to read A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories) by bestselling author Charlaine Harris who has re-imagined the supernatural world with her Southern Vampire novels starring telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse. This is a collection of every Sookie Stackhouse short story ever written-together in one volume. Stories include “Fairy Dust,” “One Word Answer,” “Dracula Night,” “Lucky,” and “Giftwrap.”
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Read Swedish writing genius Stieg Larsson’s “The Millenium-series” which were published posthumously and comprise “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo“, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” You will love the two main characters of the series, the dysfunctional avenging angel Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Since his sudden death of a heart attack in November 2004, his trilogy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and he was the second bestselling author in the world in 2008.
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MOVIES TO WATCH
Animation buffs cannot afford to miss A Christmas Carol, a truly technically superb Disney production that will surprise with its hints of real darkness. Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (Gary Oldman) and his cheery nephew (Colin Firth). Scrooge makes it clear that he has no intention of enjoying the holiday and, as always, goes home-alone-where he encounters the ghost of his dead business partner Joseph Marley. Marley, who’s paying the price in the afterlife for his own callousness, hopes to help Scrooge avoid a similar fate and tells him that he will be visited by three spirits. But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take Old Scrooge on an eye-opening journey revealing truths he’s reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late.
Engage in the Boston Legal marathon. Fans of Boston Legal know that it is the best ever series on lawyers. The Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Krane (William Shatner) pairing is a match made in TV heaven. Nearly all episodes end with Denny and Alan sitting in the balcony, having a drink and smoking a cigar and discussing the events in the episode. Another favorite much loved character is the brainy Jerry Espenson with Asperger’s syndrome played by Christian Clemenson. Some dialogue to whet your appetite:
From “Boston Legal: The Cancer Man Can (Series2.Episode 11)” (2006)
Alan Shore: Jerry… you know I have tremendous affection for my own intelligence, and even I think you are smarter than me.
Jerry Espenson: Oh, I am.
MUSIC TO SHARE
The Very Best of Diana Krall includes great interpretations of timeless vintage standards by such composers as George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Van Heusen and Cahn, and Bacharach and David. Destined to become Krall classics are “S’Wonderful,” “Peel Me A Grape” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” It is smooth listening, ideal for a romantic night under the stars with a bottle of bubbly.
Get the dance shoes out with Brenda Fassie’s Greatest Hits featuring “Weekend Special” and that song that gets all South Africans jiving “Vul’indlela”. Brenda Fassie was the best-known – and probably most controversial figure in township pop, scoring a gigantic hit in 1983 with her debut maxi single “Weekend Special” which was recorded with her band The Big Dudes. Making disco history, this funky get down groove number became South Africa’s fastest-selling single making the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and featuring in concerts in the US, UK, Europe, Brazil and Australia.
Did you know – Christmas Marketing Trivia
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Did you Know
• “Rudolph the Reindeer” was actually created by Montgomery Ward in the late 1930’s for an in store holiday promotion. The rest is history.
• Coca Cola was the first beverage company to use Santa for a winter promotion.
• Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.
• More diamonds are sold around Christmas than any other time of the year.
• According to a 1995 survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
• During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the United States
• During the Christmas/Hanukkah season, more than 1.76 billion candy canes will be made.
• Frustrated at the lack of interest in his new toy invention, Charles Pajeau hired several midgets, dressed them in elf costumes, and had them play with “Tinker Toys” in a display window at a Chicago department store during the Christmas season in 1914. This publicity stunt made the construction toy an instant hit. A year later, over a million sets of Tinker Toys had been sold.
People, events and incidents that made the news
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News
What a year 2009 has been! It’s not been business as usual for the marketing sectors as budgets were slashed, companies shut down and clients demanded more value for their buck. But we survived and the recession is lifting to reveal a silver lining for those with blue sky thinking and rock hard experience and pragmatism. As we look back, what made the news?
We were awash in Awards but some of the most notable were:
• The inaugural Media Owner Sales Team (MOST) Awards was held to celebrate the top media marketing and sales teams in South Africa, an initiative of Wag the Dog Publishers and the Overall MOST Award went to the team at Avusa Media: Newspapers.
• TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg and Net#work BBDO Johannesburg roared off with two Grand Prix – Outdoor and Radio respectively at the 56th Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival. TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg also won a record number of Cannes Lions for its Trillion Dollar campaign for The Zimbabwean newspaper. This is believed to be the single most awarded campaign coming out of South Africa in Cannes’ 56-year history.
• At the BASA Awards, The Times earned the fiercely contested Media Sponsorship award for its Art Page with other notable awards being Increasing Access to the Arts to First National Bank for the ‘Joburg Art Fair’ and Exclusive Books for ‘Ndodeni Library’
• Above-the-line advertising agency DDB SA won the ANGY trophy as South Africa’s top advertising agency. More than 70 local agencies were asked to vote for what they thought was their best performing agency of the year and DDB came out tops.
High flyer Scandals
It was a year of scandalous revelations as big, not so big and very big names hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Everyone profited – the media, the PR agencies and even the infamous famous who got to sell lots of their belated “I’m telling the truth – now” stories.
Adultery, child molestation charges, gender testing, golden handshakes for the good for nothing and physical abuse sent the guilty scrabbling to the media to tell their side of the story. Joost, Amor, Khanyi, Zola, Jurie, Hestrie, Joelle and Minki among many others loved, lost and lied about their relationships, marriages and sexual peccadilloes to an agog public. The ever enterprising Khanyi Mbau even launched her own website to ensure everyone knows just how famous she is.
Winners, Losers and Scam Artists
Voting gone wrong, rigged voting, competition scams left egg on the face of a number of big brands like Idols and MTN.
When M-Net announced that both Sasha Lee Davids and Jason Hartman were the winners of Idols, both Idols judges and the public disagreed furiously about the decision. About 600 000 SMSs had been delayed during the final round of the competition resulting in Sasha Lee being declared the winner. Lo and behold, one week later and the results showed Jason’s standing increase from 47.23% to a majority of 54%. Sasha-Lee eventually got 46% of the vote. Everyone blamed the mobile network providers!
Network provider MTN’s 15 competition was run to celebrate the company’s 15th birthday. Users were asked to subscribe to the competition at R7,50 an sms. Supposedly persons who sent in the most correct-answer SMSs could win laptops, a car and finally a R1-million house bond. From the beginning it was dogged by controversy. FNB the major partner pulled out because MTN was supposed to have charged R1 per sms. Story after story emerged about many of the winners knowing each other, rigged voting and internal employee corruption. What a fiasco.
The SABC was rocked by scandal…sagas of high level corruption, mismanagement, power hungry board members, blacklisting and financial disaster. A new interim board, umpteen inquiries later, high level suspensions and a R1,6 billion government bailout is supposed to result in a sleek new public broadcaster. Others who got quite sleek as the result of the debacle were hunger striking actors like Sello Maake Ka Ngube!
District 9, the innovative Sci-fi political satire directed by South African born Neil Blomkamp was shot in Chiawelo Soweto and took the world by storm rising to the Top of movies charts in the US taking $37 million in its first week! Not bad for a film produced for $30 million!
Teazers’ advertising is risqué at the best of times but consumers considered the billboard showing a naked woman lying on her back with the payoff line, “No need for Gender testing ” offensive to the extreme. The advertising authority found the billboard mocked the gender controversy involving 800m world champion Caster Semenya.
Roll on 2010…
Meet the 2010 Challenge
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Trends
Understand the numbers to beat the budget cuts
Yes, really understand them by investing in analytical skills that allow you to make strategic, fact based decisions that arise out of relevant insights from all the available data. Some sectors may be out of the recession but financial constraints will continue for a long time yet and we know that marketing budgets are the first to get the snip. Demonstrate marketing value with hard facts rather than waffling subjective extrapolations. Remember no proof, no money!
Know thy customer
The modern consumer is sophisticated, knowledgeable, aware and UNLOYAL. No one wants to be treated with disrespect or kid gloves so don’t patronize. Engage in authentic and real dialogue and above all ADD value to their lives through the experience of your product, service and brand.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
So maybe there have been budgets cuts and you need to market more for less. Rethink your strategy, embrace the online revolution but don’t make assumptions about traditional media being too expensive. Print media and television advertising owners have also been pinched by the recession and so like you are offering “specials” and added value packages.
Be a socialite.
Master the art of using social media like Facebook, blogs, wikis, Twitter, YouTube. Companies around the world from big corporations to start up businesses are using these social utilities to create buzz, generate support, promote events, expand databases and create dialogues around their brands. They are ideal platforms for word of mouth endorsements, creating brand champions, viral campaigns and interactive brand experiences.