Medios Marketing Blog

It might have been the rabbit. When a year is as strange as 2011, one can only blame the mad hatter tendencies of a fury beast with one drooping ear. During the year of said rabbit, our democracy took two steps back with the POIB, South Africans were cheated by a whistleblower (we’re referring to Bryce Lawrence) and a Benoni princess cried on her wedding day in Monaco. Strange indeed.

However, the world also gathered around the telly for two of the year’s most watched spectacles – the Royal Wedding and the Rugby World Cup (the Royal Wedding being the Rugby World Cup final for chicks, as one marketing mogul described it). And with great events come great viral campaigns. Remember the T-Mobile Royal Wedding video that was based this viral wedding video?  Social media magic. Vodacom’s RWC campaign by Riverstone Films also went viral to gain support for our boys in the green and gold. Unfortunately, we got Bryced.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of making ‘best of’ lists, here’s our very subjective list of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of 2011

The Good

-       We said it before, and we’ll say it again. We are in love with Yuppiechef and the way they operate. They recently launched a very cool publication that is send out with every delivery.  Marketing and branding at its best.

-       The ‘Moer hulle Bokke’ ad for kykNET by tbsp///beyond the line  (just because nobody expected it)

-       Nando’s quirky and on-the-spot response to current affairs as well as their interpretation of African politics (uhem, yes, we’re referring to that ad). And of course, loads of fun was had in the Medios office with their Kota Bun campaign.

www.dailybun.co.za

-       We would also like to take this opportunity to applaud the Mr Delivery “Fire the Chef” social media campaign by M&C Saatchi Abel.  Unfortunately, the Loeries beat us to it. The team behind this genius piece of work received the first gold Loerie award for a PR Communications Campaign at the 2011 Loerie Awards.

-       @helenzille and her sense of humour on Twitter. And also @DeepFriedMan who made #askhelenzille go viral.

-       Infographics coming into their own.

The Bad

-       The ASA’s ruling against the Axe Angles ad. We are still a bit sour about it.

-       The Shoe City fiasco concerning a dead cat and retail therapy – we see the connection, but we are pretty sure South Africans will be offended (see The Bad #1)

-       The singing hippo and Steve from FNB. Repetition repetition repetition is not necessarily a good thing.

-       Blackberry bumbling their way through the social media universe. Conflicting statements + a CEO that isn’t PR savvy = disaster

The Ugly

-       The Durex Twitter campaign. A prime example of how a social media endeavour can go seriously wrong. And no, in this case any publicity isn’t good publicity. Sies man!

-       The Protection of Information Bill.

I recently came across a post showcasing 15 clever guerrilla-marketing ideas on Bored Panda. Guerrilla marketing, as the name implies, refers to marketing done in a non-conventional way. Jay Conrad Levinson first coined the phrase asserting that marketing should be waged as if it was a war.

In short the principle of guerrilla marketing encourages us to be innovative. Looking at the examples in the post, I realised that most of us continue to fall into the same groove that leads us to produce mundane advertising and marketing.

The 15 ideas posted vary in budget and goal, but they all have one thing in common; a simple message. Which gets me to the point of this blog. Innovation is about making things easier and not more complex. I think this theme is especially appropriate at a time when the world is singing the praises of the late Steve Jobs. For all that he gets credit for, his greatest gift to humanity was making technology easier to use.

 This Greenpeace ad is powerful and ironic. It depicts how bad print media is by adding an extra page to a magazine. The message is however clear as daylight and simple.

This is not an ad, simply a funny greeting card. The message is funny and super simple.

This one is my favourite. Who can doubt that the owner of this business card is a plastic surgeon? Sheer brilliance.

Note the little “buy” and “sell” on either side of this card. Not bad for an stockbroker.

This last effort proves that a good idea beats any budget. A perfect strategy for what is undoubtedly a low budget business.

I have not posted all the images provided by Bored Panda. Follow the link at the beginning of the blog to see the rest.

Go to Tom Fishburn.com for excellent marketing cartoons.

“What people want is to … “ If another pseudo marketing expert starts a sentence like that I am going to punch them. The most recent candidate for a clobbering was the new sales rep of a client. I had heard the story before from all the other reps I deal with at one time or another.

The problem with the sentence that starts with your declaration of what you know to be true is that it is exactly that. A declaration of what you know. We all tend to focus on our own frame of reference rather than facts at hand.

In this particular case the genius giving me his sage advice is adamant about which sports I should sponsor and how the kids eat up everything that these sports stars wear. The facts that he were ignorant of are;

• That the client does not view the particular brand as key to its strategy.
• The client has a limited budget
• The sports that he wants to see sponsored has little exposure to the key audience
• Sponsorship on its own is ineffective, you need back-up from social media, branding, events etc
• His knowledge of how the kids communicate is out of date
• The kids in question are more savvy then he gives them credit for
• Many of the brand’s competitors followed the same strategy with little success

Truth is few of us, experts included, know what people want. People themselves don’t know what they want. It is the nature of the zeitgeist. Viral and popular cannot be manufactured. It like the Beatles said, “Can’t buy me love.” Except in this case can’t buy me love for the brand.

Branding is the same. You have to ply your wares, present your offering and make sure there is something in it. Be clear and honest and then rely on those who have benefited from your product to tell their friends.

Of course you can’t just put it out there and hope someone does the work for you. You have to use the platforms, ask the market, punt when you can punt, be respectful when you can’t. You have to see the opportunities, add the value where possible.

It all comes back to the opening statement. To know what the market wants you have to ask them. Engage.

So pretty please with sugar on top, don’t say you know what the market wants.

We spend a lot of time talking and thinking about technology and social media in the office. Steve Jobs’ resignation sparked one of our lengthy theoretical conversations about social media – particularly why some companies are still reluctant to give their employees access to social media sites.

First, I think it’s important to mention that the social media uptake in South Africa differs from that of the Western world. A large part of the population has limited or no access to the Internet. A staggering 63% of South Africans still use dumb phones, with the Nokia Dinosaur at the top of the consumer list.

Speaking of dinosaurs, it’s a sad and shocking fact that most CEOs and other members of upper management in South Africa are predominately white, predominately male and predominately old.

Mr. CEO?

When my grandmother was a child, the most amazing technological advancement of her day was electricity. Being able to turn on a light was something magical. Compare this to the technological advancements of my mother’s day. While electric light and refrigeration didn’t exactly shock her, South Africa only got television in 1976. She was already married by the time the National Party decided that we’re also allowed to mindlessly stare at boxes like the rest of the world.

I was born in the eighties. By the time I was out of diapers I could use a tape player, a video machine and a microwave. I even got to mess around with LP players for a while before my parents replaced it with the infinitely magical and glorious CD player. I was still in primary school when my parents got our first PC – one of those big, white ones with the floppy drive. Oh, man! The Tetris I played!

I had a cellular phone by eleventh grade, which was a lot later than most of my peers. In the nine years since I left school (oh god! oh god! oh god!) I’ve had more phones than I care to remember. I have an iPod, an iPhone, a MacBook, an iPod docking station among other technological wonders. If there’s a new technological advancement, I want it. If there’s a new app, I want to know about it. One of my very own apps might even be in the making. (Watch this space.) Technology doesn’t scare me.

Now, let’s consider the differences in communication.

In my gran’s age, long-distance communication consisted of letters, telegraphs and phone calls through a central operating room. When my mom was my age, they had thankfully figured out how to make calls without involving the neighbourhood snoop. By the time I was four years old South Africa had Internet access. Sure, it took a while before it would be available to households, but by the time I got to high school I could send an email. I started using Facebook in my second year at varsity, I text, I MMS, I email. I have more social media accounts than anyone should have. I only ever write my gran, who lives in Schweizer-Reneke and can’t hear all that well. I’m not even too fond of phone calls.

My gran was convinced her electric blanket will be the death of her, my mother struggles with the concept of social media, my dad (who’s slightly older than my mom) only just figured out how to use email. If we consider that most people in upper management in South Africa share a socioeconomic history with my parents (which, let’s face it, they do), it’s not surprising that a lot of otherwise forward-thinking suits still haven’t caught on to the fact that social media can’t be ignored.

How to bridge the gap

This brings us to the difficult part of this somewhat longwinded blog. How do we convince terrified CEOs that social media is replacing email, just like emailed replaced faxes, just like faxes replaced letters, just like letters replaced carrier pigeons, just like carrier pigeons replaced smokes signals? Okay, I’ll stop now.

Sadly, I don’t think we do. I think it’s a waiting game that will end up doing a lot more harm than we anticipate. Employees will find a way to participate in social media. The nature of technology means Mr. CEO can control which websites his employees visit from the company network, but not from cellular phones and other nifty devices. Maybe someone should tell him his employees are blogging about the tedious status meeting and his horrible tie while he’s in the room. He’s the only one who’s not in on the joke.

His competition, his customers, his friends, his employees and their friends are all talking about his company, and he has no control over what they’re saying. It comes down to simple public relations. If there’s an issue, which you’re not addressing it will become a problem. The fact that you don’t understand social media won’t get you a pardon.

By the time the old guard kicks it, the damage would have been done. I’m not sure how easy it will be to recover from it.

Peace,

Kris

I read a blog in Ragan’s PR Daily today that claims PR firms are hiring a new type of employee: the content provider. According to the blog PR firms are no longer seeking writers or video specialists or audio specialists or even photograpers. They are seeking people who are proficient at all four disciplines.

I couldn’t agree more! I am looking for people who fit that description. Fortunately the job is much easier these days. For one, the quality and complexity of the tools required to produce the content is much improved and much reduced respectively. Many of the outlets where you need to post make the process much easier. In the fast-passed content world, the technical quality of the content you require is far lower. Look at successful series like the In Plain Englishvideos. These are not quite with a Handycam standard but not quite Hollywood either.

In Plain English

The technical issues are therefore minimal. What is key however, is the communication skills that have to back these technical skills. Plain English, the Old Spice man and many others have one thing in common – a clear message. Understanding the message and translating it into the four mediums is the difficult part. I should know, I have been struggling with a simple video for over three weeks now.

The shift in skills illustrates two macro issues perfectly. The first is that easy-to- obtain skills are being outsourced. The web, China, India wherever the skills are. They are cheaper and faster than you anyway. The winning formula is to be the message originator, the content maestro, the innovator. Seth Godin alludes to this in his book Poke the Box. (read a short review on my LinkedIn profile reading list)

The other macro issue that that fields of expertise are converging. There is a (stupid) debate about the survivability of the PR industry in some quarters. What the change in required skill sets indicate is not so much that PR is dying but that it is evolving and merging with social media. PR has always been about communicating. Now it is about communicating with a far larger megaphone.

Whether you believe that global warming is eventually going to lead to the birth of human babies with gills or not, consumers like to feel that the environmental shit storm isn’t their fault, which is why they don’t want to associate with brands that are infamous for bad environmental practices.

Greenpeace recently challenged the two biggest sportswear companies in the world to commit to more responsible manufacturing processes after an investigation revealed that major clothing manufacturers like Nike, adidas and PUMA are releasing toxic chemicals into the water in China. The Detox Challenge addressed the manufacturing giants directly to take a “precautionary approach to chemical management”. Consumers suddenly took notice of these two manufacturers for all the wrong reasons.

Following the public challenge, PUMA let go of the sport scene hind tit, stepped up to the challenge and publically committed to “eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals from its entire product lifecycle and across its whole supply chain by 2020″. The company launched the PUMA.Peace programme in which it outlines its plans for safer manufacturing processes.

In response, Greenpeace released an article commending the sportswear manufacturer for its boldness in environmental change and PUMA received the award for best Corporate Social Responsibility at the Peace and Sport awards. I can almost guarantee that every consumer with vague notions of environmental awareness will at least consider this incident the next time they’re in the market for a pair of trainers.

Here’s why PUMA wins:
• They responded to a challenge that didn’t even involve them
• They responded quickly
• They took responsibility
• They owned up to their faults publically
• They offered a solution publically
• They were bold

PUMA recognized an opportunity for wonderful, positive publicity, while Nike and adidas simply acknowledged the existence of the Greenpeace Dirty Laundry Report. Remember that the next time there’s a shake-up in your industry.

If you have a few moments (I know you do), have a look at this Greenpeace campaign at adidas and Nike stores across the globe. It contains partial nudity, so turn your monitor away from your boss and that zealot next to you.

Peace!
Kris

A viral ad featuring a very upset woman complaining about being evicted from a movie theatre in Austin Texas is doing the rounds on YouTube.

The movie theatre in question, the Alamo Drafthouse, received a voicemail from the irate customer. They recognised that her compliant demonstrated their unique selling proposition and decided to use it to their advantage. The key to the success of the ad is that the Alamo Drafthouse understands that it can’t please everybody. They also realise that the complainant is the kind of moviegoer that dissuades other film lovers from going to the theatre.

In a presentation by Nikki Cockcroft, CEO of Primedia Online at the recent Integrated Marketing Communication Conference (IMCC) she mentioned a tweet she sent from Heathrow airport. She had tweeted that her flight was delayed. Within minutes they had DMed her with updates. The net result is that an unhappy customer told a packed auditorium how good Heathrow is. Was she less inconvenienced? Did she get anything from Heathrow (other than info)? No. Yet she was willing to praise them.

Not every business has the opportunity to use a customer complaint on such a dramatic scale. There are nevertheless endless opportunities to be derived from unhappy customers.

Solar water heater supplier and Solahart distributor, Selected Energy, noticed a hellopeter.com complaint from a customer. The customer was upset that a salesman had not honoured an appointment. Selected Energy immediately contacted the customer and sent another salesman. The customer will have at least two additional interactions with Selected Energy, giving them an advantage over their competitors.

In addition Selected Energy was open and honest about the mistake and published the event on their Twitter feed (@SelectedEnergy) and on Hellopeter, demonstrating their ethos and willingness to accept responsibility.

In all three cases the service supplier failed a customer. In all three cases the supplier made amends in different was ways – not by solving the problem so much as by communicating about it.

Irate Alamo customer

Medios recently learnt two essential lessons in the art of maintaining a customer’s website. The first lesson is stick to what you know. As it turns out Medios knows a lot about generating and updating content for websites, the strategic role a website plays in a marketing strategy and how to make a website effective (three-click rule, SEO, links, blogs, etc).

What Medios does not know is how to build a website. In fact, we suck at it. We found this out the hard way. We tried to build a website for a friend using the Joomla content management system. Joomla is a breeze to update. It is a bitch if you are to build it from scratch.

We had to go to a web designer for help. Our search took us to many designers. It immediately struck me how few web developers develop with any consideration for goals, strategy or the longevity of the website. Most of the ones we spoke to wanted to do a fast, once-off solution that fits into their template.

As it turns out they are as bad at maintaining websites as we are at building them. Smaller web developers are experiencing severe pressure on margins. They need to get in and get out quickly. The easiest way to do this is to produce websites the way you would produce a widget in a factory: quickly and using a mould you already have. Web developers therefore use templates that they customise with minimum effort. They add modules and put them all on some sort of CMS platform.

They have no real strategy for your website. Sure they will add a few modules to cover your needs but really they could care less. It simply is not profitable for them to spend too much time working out what you need to get from a website.

From what we can gather from these developers this approach suits their clients just fine. The majority of clients seem to know they need a website but no idea of why or what to do with it once they have it.

This is where a good agency can add value. By answering the question ‘Why?’ and translating it into the brief they can guide the developer to produce a website that suits the client, not the manufacturing process.

A good agency will then advise their clients on how to manage the site to keep it relevant and to make sure it achieves its goals.

This week’s blog is difficult because it cuts a bit close to the bone. I had to learn some key lessons in managing a communications firm. As you will see these are not easy lessons to have learnt. Good thing I like a bit of drama every now and again.

Recently one of my employees walked into my office and announced her resignation as well as that she will be taking over two of my bigger accounts. Both the accounts are linked to one company with whom she has family connections. The battle is on but a clear winner has not emerged yet.

Here are the lessons:

• Do not let a single employee get too close to a single client.
  • Split the jobs for a client among your staff. This way there are many people who know what is happening with a client.
  • The client also benefits because you can allocate tasks based on individual strengths. Finally splitting jobs will put the employee’s ability and skills in context for the client.
• Be careful how you share your pricing information with your employees.
  • Do the invoicing yourself and keep it between you and the client and those who signed end-of-the-world-if-you-breach-non-disclosure agreements.
• Contracts are key. Make sure that the terms in the event of breach are stipulated.
• The law does protect you if someone conducts him/herself unethically/criminally, even if there is no employment contract.
  • Common law frowns upon stealing.
  • Your actions are sometimes measured by what we would describe as common sense.
• The client will understand.
  • It has happened to the client as well.
• The client may nevertheless use the opportunity to negotiate.
  • Why not? They are in business to do the best for themselves.
• If your former employee uses your pricing information against you, you have recourse but it will be too late.
• Familiarity breeds contempt.
  • This is a hard one. Being a nice guy just means the kick in the balls will hurt more. Boohoo!
  • Being nice won’t stop someone from stealing from you. If they want to steal, they will.
• To retain the client, you have to have a plan.
  • You’ve sold to the client once before. They have seen value in you. Sell it again. You know the client’s needs better than anybody else. You have the skill and the experience to do the job right. You know what the former employee knows.
  • You have the experience the former employ lacks.
  • It is probable that the former employee does not understand the full scope of everything you do for the client. Make sure the client knows this.
• Don’t bad-mouth anybody, but be clear about the facts.
• Don’t defend yourself against anything you suspect the former employee said. Whomever they told either believes them or doesn’t. Whatever you say won’t make a difference.
• “Why?” doesn’t matter to the client.
  • It shouldn’t matter to you either. It happened. Deal with it.
• Big crocodile tears and “it’s the hardest thing I have ever had to do” won’t stop the former employee from stealing your information and using it to gain your client. That’s just their own guilt.
• Defending against such a hostile attack is very expensive.
  • It will cost you a lot. There may be a way to get it back with law suits etc. but it will take time and effort.
• Don’t feel too sorry for yourself.
  • It doesn’t help. Besides, a little excitement is a good thing.
  • Change is not easy but you always learn something and then you are stronger.

Some of these lessons I knew before hand and applied. Some other lessons…let’s just say I took a few courses at the university of life.

I always believe in the clichés. In this case one failed me; keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Jeez Louise, keep your enemies well out of your affairs. And then there is: play your cards close to your chest. Guess that makes this blog a little ironic. How very emo.

Leave it to Nando’s to capitalise on another company’s advertising campaign. Cell C is currently at the receiving end of the tongue-in-cheek advertisements of the chicken franchise.

Comedian Trevor Noah has been on almost every billboard and TV screen as Cell C’s Customer Experience Officer, or CEO. The billboards tell the audience how he is watching Cell C to see if they make good one their promise to change and improve their service and product offering.

Nando’s parody the Cell C ad with its own CEO or Chicken Excellence Officer comedian. True to form, Nando’s manages to fit their own message into the parody, highlighting their flame-grilled heritage, 5G’s (five new sauces) and promising to keep things the same.

What impresses me most about this campaign, however, is Cell C’s response. Their campaign was not well received and caused them much trouble since its launch. Initially, social network users criticized them for faking an attack by comedian Trevor Noah so that they could make a PR response. The company also had some trouble with their logo, which many consider being too close to the copyright symbol.

Many would have attacked Nando’s, but Cell C knows better. An attack would only give the Nando’s ad more legs and make Cell C look like a bully. Instead they sent two Cell C USB Dongles to Nando’s and said they enjoyed the ad.
Well done, Cell C. You did the right thing. But were still watching you. Like a chicken.