The Lure of the Loeries

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by admin in Headlines and Opinions

The Loeries, Eagles, Apex, Pendoring , Khuza kids and young adults advertising awards, Ads of the Month, the Sunday Times Top Brands Awards, Adfocus awards, the Millward Brown Adtrack best-liked tables, the Cannes, the Clios – South African agencies go head to head each year vying for the top honours that make or break careers and companies. For a developing economy such as ours, there seem to be more awards than winning agencies when you consider that 92% of entries for the 2009 Loeries creative advertising awards walked away empty-handed.

A plethora of awards exist for every conceivable facet of marketing: retail, consumer, research, electronic, print, outdoor, online and digital, experiential and events, design and mobile but inevitably the big through-the-line agencies hog the limelight year after year. Smaller agencies with constrained resources often don’t have the means to pursue the awards entry game that need huge amounts of time and effort. Most awards require enormous amounts of information presented for best effect and very often the larger agencies will have a dedicated “award chasing” team compiling what they hope will be “winning entries”.

While many creative directors and agency bosses deny the importance of winning the big local and international industry awards, the truth is whether it’s the party-till-you-pass-out Loeries or the dead serious Apex night, industry awards are big business – literally. More awards often equal more clients, bigger billings and greater profits and so while seemingly frivolous on the surface, awards are serious business for creative agencies.

Awards are by nature subjective – different people, different night and the decisions can change. The local industry has been accused of incestuous back slapping, an orgy of mutual admiration and self satisfaction but is that not true for all industries? Whether it’s the Grammies, or the Clio’s, the winners’ podium becomes a bull’s-eye target for its detractors. But seriously, are creative agencies in SA in the business of winning awards or serving their clientele by getting the mix of form and function right?

Ultimately successful marketing has little to do with creative accolades and more about getting the mix right between product, price, distribution and communication so that consumers pay attention. That is the ultimate test. Media savvy audiences want to be engaged and entertained and thus likeability (read memorability) is key. Charismatic characters, jingles that linger, stories that stick all make for award winning campaigns that decades later are capable of conjuring smiles and fond memories. This month, Millward Brown Adtrack announced the best loved ads in the last 25 years with top spot going to Sasol and Draftfcb for the glug glug ad featuring a little boy and his suddenly turbo-charged car! Going through the list of 25 is a walk down memory lane in the company of old friends…

There is no doubt that the South African advertising sector is highly regarded in international circles annually winning highly contested and coveted awards at the Clio’s and the Cannes Festival. Creative sparks know that some campaigns win awards and some win customers and the litmus test for creative directors is to click on the winning combination.

District 92 – Brandon Faber

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by admin in Brandon Faber

“Sssshhk. . . Ssshhk k k !”

My left eye pops open like a tube of Pringles. “Sssshk!. . . Ssshhk k k !” My right eye joins the party in a miserable state. “Ssssshk. . . Ssssshhhhhk k k !”

“What the hell is that?” I think to myself and, even more alarmingly, “why does it sound so close nearby?”
I lean over, looking down from the lofty heights of my bed and see an object moving behind the curtain, roughly half a metre to my right. “Sssshhk. . . Sshhk k k !”

“Holy hell!” I scream in silent horror, “there’s a Tokolosh in my room!” What ungodly creature could make such a strange noise? I pull the curtain aside to find my cat, Max, prodding at the source of evil with a paw.

“Meaaaauw” he says with the kind of intensity that means “bring the garlic, wooden stake and silver-bulleted shotgun, something from the ninth gate of hell has arrived and has earmarked this house for a quick lesson in demonic possession.”

“Shit babe!” I alert sleeping beauty of the imminent danger. “Switch on the light quickly, there’s something dark and dangerous lurking in the corner here!”

Before you can say “Jacob, you are my father,” the lights flash on and 1 X female form takes a giant leap for mankind – downstairs, returning half-a-second later with a bottle of poison that promises to “leave nothing alive – guaranteed!”

I grab the can of salvation and lift Max to see who our mystery guest is . . . and there it sits. Horror of horrors, more terrifying than photos of celebrities without makeup, more sinister than Schabir Shaik’s pending pardon, Beelzebub’s Foot soldier – a big black Parktown Prawn and, by the looks of things, he is the “Mike Tyson” of prawns.

I take a step back, contemplating my mortality before calling on the power of the legendary prawn hunter, Wikus van der Merwe. With the fury of a thousand farts and a “Fokkit Wikus, here we go!” I let rip with my can of “never fail demon insect slayer”. The “odourless” gas sends everything flying: the cat, a mosquito from the Third Reconnaissance Brigade, three beetles and a retired moth.

The haze from my Shock and Awe campaign starts to clear. . . I can just about see my victim… “ARRRGH!” With murderous intent the Prawn of Darkness jumps into the air ala that chick from The Matrix and climbs around the front of the curtain to face his attacker, “me”, head on.

I let out a manly shriek and grab the cat from the path of destruction as Hellboy leaps from the curtain, onto the bed – with nothing but death and vengeance in his eyes.

In a flash the lady of the house swoops around the other side of the bed, flicks open the sliding door and does a praying mantis Avatar warrior back flip over to my side. With grim determination she executes a super-swift wrist swipe with (rather fittingly) a book about South Africa’s secret nuclear programme.

The Son of Satan is sent flying out of the house, off the balcony and out of our lives.

Here I am, still standing with the cat in one hand and the can of empty promises in the other.

The lady of the house and I exchange a meaningful nod: “And the Oscar for best Actress in a supporting role goes to, Brandon Faber.”

Yeah.

Not to be outdone, however, the Oscar for best written screenplay, AKA, fictitious piece of writing that could not, should not, ever be remotely considered near the truth – “goes to the makers of all cans of insect spray.”
Frankly none of us would cut it on the streets of District 9.

Oscar Trivia: Did you know?

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by admin in Did you Know

 
 
 
• Only three films have ever won all top five Oscars – Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Writing. They are: It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Silence of the Lambs

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 • Walt Disney won more Oscars than anyone else. He was nominated for 64, and won 26!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 • Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars 18 times; Billy Crystal is in second place with 8 times.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the only film ever to have won every single Oscar it was nominated for.

 
 
 
 
 

 • The shortest-ever Best Actor Oscar-winning performance was awarded to Anthony Hopkins in 1992, having appeared for less than 16 minutes of screen time as Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs

 
 
 

 • The oldest actress to win an Oscar is Jessica Tandy – at 81 she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1990 for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy. Tom Hanks is the youngest recipient of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2002 at age 45.

 
 
 
 

 • The first ceremony took place on May 16, 1929 in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The first televised Academy Awards show was the 25th annual, held on March 19, 1953.

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 • The longest Oscar awards ceremony was in 2000, running for 4 hours and 16 minutes – beating a previous record by 16 minutes.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 • The first actor to receive an Oscar posthumously was Peter Finch who died of a heart attack while leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel to do a pre-Oscar ceremony TV interview with Good Morning America.

 
 
 
 
 
 
• George C. Scott refused his award for his portrayal of the title role in Patton in 1970. He said that “the whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don’t want any part of it.” Marlon Brando refused to accept his award personally, because of the way Native Americans are discriminated against by the US and Hollywood. Instead, he sent a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather to receive his prize, and gave her a fifteen page acceptance speech.

Global Shifts

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by admin in Trends

Fifty percent of the world’s population live in cities and by the year 2050,
6.4 billion people will be urbanites.
In 2009 we felt the impact of globalization as economies crashed driving home our inter-connectedness. Digitally united, technologically driven, our world and its weather are changing rapidly!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Heightened 3D Augmented More Real Reality

2010 is the year for applications that allow one to interface faster, more efficiently and creatively with the world (= reality)! Digital convergence has changed how people interact, meet, buy, sell, communicate, relax, LIVE. Augmented and extended reality applications and devices, track and report applications, user-friendly hardware and software is the BOOMING market. Brands, marketers, companies, hell… countries will need radical paradigm shifts to encompass and meet the needs of techno-savvy consumers who need immediate feedback, instant gratification and constant nurturing.

Luxury is time to smell the roses

In a world of things, things and more things, the definition of luxury has been transformed. The big spending consumer is a sophisticated urbanite with everything but time. Increasingly in a world where mink coats are cruel and passé, bling is bad, ostentatious displays of wealth are OTT, luxury is about less style and more life – time to smell the roses, to reflect and connect with you, family, friends, and the environment. That is not to say that Louis Vuitton is out of business, but that people are grappling with materialism and a new age mentality of restraint.

Finding the ME in Big Mac Land

Mass media, mass culture, mass production has sapped the soul of the individual. More people are searching for unique personalized products, experiences and places that treat them as individuals. It is a direct backlash against brands that have reduced everything to crude and basic demographics. Companies that cater to that need are on the up and up. From personal banking consultants, to made for you perfumes, to trawling outdoor markets for the handmade, one off or commissioned product that says “I am no number!” Marketers will do well to heed the need for personal, individualised and niche promotions.

Brands Adapt or Die

Consumer habits and needs are changing moment to moment as they respond to the latest gadget, technological innovation and fad. Brands needs to be respond quickly to these surges by anticipating and catering to the ever increasing/changing consumer behavior.

Collaborate to Relate

Passive consumerism is out. The collapse of 2009 has resulted in a loss of faith – in institutions, politicians and brand promises. The rise of social media means that we are creating communities who are constantly in contact, sharing information, networks and knowledge. Across a spectrum of social media sites; like minds have come together; to create tight communities that maybe divided by continents, but are united through their world views. In the chaos of undifferentiated brands, those that involve consumers and stakeholders from step one will prevail. Brands that engage intelligently with consumers via social media not only are able to defuse negative reviewing but are using it to collaborate on the creation of new products engendering loyalty from step one.

Green is still Hot

Despite the Copenhagen fiasco/farce, eco-friendly living has become the mainstream. 2010 will see companies that greenwash, named and shamed. Consumers are tired of empty promises, double speak and a willful distortion of the facts. But it’s hard for the ordinary consumer to make environmentally friendly lifestyle choices with the plethora of more harmful but cheaper products. Companies that offer consumers MORE green products and services at better prices are going to steal the march on their competitors. 2010 is going to be a year when governments start legislating to ensure a safer, sustainable environment.

Did you know – Weird Fads that swept the world

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by admin in Did you Know

 
 
 
The Ask Doctor Spock Fad
Simple sells. In 1946, Spock wrote Baby and Child Care that outlined his revolutionary child-rearing advice. And what was that? Just relax. Americans lapped up the laissez faire methodology and in 10 years, Spock’s book became the second-best selling tome in the United States (after the Bible).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Telephone-Booth Stuffing
In 1959, 25 South African students climbed into a telephone booth announcing they’d set the world record for a non-existent event! Within weeks, college students across England, America, and Canada immediately set to work to outdo the South Africans from using physics to starving themselves. Arguments and accusations of cheating followed but later that year they all seemed to reach a truce when everyone abandoned phone booths in favor of Volkswagens, the latest people-stuffing container of choice!

 
 


 
 
 
Conical Bras
Movie producer and ladies man deluxe Howard Hughes touched off a decade-long fashion fad in 1943 when he designed a state-of-the-art cantilevered bra for actress Jane Russell – thus allowing women to stride confidently into the 1950s lifted, separated and pointed toward the future.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Ant Farms
Inspired by the events at an outdoor barbecue, “Uncle Milton” Levine modified a clear plastic tissue box into a prototype for an ant farm. Between 1956 and 1966, he sold almost 12 million of them (ants originally not included), thanks in part to creative product placement. Levine gave away fancy, mahogany ant farms to Dick Clark and other TV personalities who kept the trinkets on their on-screen desks and, thus, in the public eye.

For more weird and wonderful fads go to www.neatorama.com

Missfits and morons – by Brandon Faber

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by admin in Brandon Faber

Apparently the Miss South Africa pageant was held in December last year.

Apparently a certain “Nicole Flint” is now the ambassador of the nation, or whatever title we give winners of this sort and, apparently, there are some concerns in lofty circles that she is, in fact, white.

Well klap me with a golf club and call me Tiger, you mean there are white South Africans?

I must say that I have always considered myself a brother of this land and I, too, find it absolutely unacceptable that a pale skinned brunette with great boobs and wonderful legs should win such a prestigious and meaningful title.

We all know where this leads.

Miss South Africa’s of pageants past have been known to influence local and foreign policy, establish peace in the most notorious of conflict zones, save millions from starvation and have always been the moral compass for the nation to follow when times were dark. . . OUTRAGEOUS that we should entrust such immeasurable responsibility and, frankly, the fate of the world as we know it, to a white chick – from Pretoria, or Tshwane (who cares as long as it works?) – nogals.

I find this injustice ranks right up there with Willie “die Breker” du Plessis winning the Summer 2009 Margate Mince pie Eating Championship and a foreign actress being chosen to play Winnie Mandela in a feature film that is bound to have as profound an effect on the box office as quiet diplomacy had on Uncle Bob.

Take heart though all ye upset souls, at least you are not a certain Mr. Daniel Roux, the boyfriend of the new queen of the country. Reportedly Nicole had stated that her title now comes first in her life . . . which is pretty kak news for Daniel who was probably looking forward to coming first for some time.
Be strong lad, we all have to make sacrifices.

Yours is to say goodbye to love, forever cursed to walk the planet alone, a broken soul with nothing but your memories and the promise that the pain will eventually subside (a few decades from now). For the rest of us it is having to contend with the dramatic impact a white Miss South Africa will have on the country in 2010.
Shares are bound to plummet, two suns will appear in the skies, crops will fail and tsunamis will wreak havoc along our coastline. The end of days is not 2012, 3013 or 4014, no. The age of anarchy has now surely arrived with this aberration – this, scandalous ascent to the national throne of beauty.

I don’t know about you but I am heading for the nearest cave to wait out the worst. Nicole is bound to appear in a string of powder puff advertisements flogging hair products and nail polish and I, for one, will not stick around to witness the horror of it all.

May you and your family survive this calamity called 2010 . . . May this not be the end.

Read more about the author: Brandon Faber

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.

Did you know these sensational tabloid facts?

Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by admin in Did you Know

 
 
 • That Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union is currently part of a Louis Vuitton ad? A decade ago, Mr. Gorbachev’s appearance in a Pizza Hut commercial was generally greeted as a low point in his career.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ;
 

 
 
 • The Sun was the first tabloid ever to print a picture of a topless model on Page 3

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ;
 

 
 
 • More than 1.6 million people read the National Enquirer compared to the 1.1 million that read the New York Times

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 • Matt Drudge is the internet’s hottest scoopster and the one-man news bureau that broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Now, his website gets 6 million visitors a month, making him the largest known online tabloid journalist. He has more readers than Time Magazine

 
 
 
 
 
• Think only tabloids create sensationalistic headlines? Consider these from CNN.com

And MSNBC.com outré news headlines:

And Foxnews.com home page