Monthly Archives

November 2015

November 25, 2015
2

Rebels with a Centrum Guardians Cause

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Rebels with a Centrum Guardians CauseFor all its excitement, advertising can be dull at times. Generic projects with generic strategies and generic outcomes. Just watch television for an hour and you’ll see the lack of love and enthusiasm. You’ll see the effect of agencies going through the motions. Trying, but not really caring.

But every now and again, you come across a project that transcends advertising. It sounds dramatic, but it’s true. Projects where you don’t sell anything to anyone. Where your target audience isn’t a statistic, but a common denominator called compassion. One such project is Rebels with a Centrum Guardians CauseCentrum Guardians. As an example of cause marketing that drove a brand proposition, it leads the way as one of South Africa’s best yet. But that’s not what this entry is about. (If you’re interested in the numbers, drop us a line and we’ll gladly share them.)

This entry is about ad people who have the rare chance to pour their passion into something they believe in. An idea with a cause. A campaign that pays homage to the brave souls from the Rebels with a Centrum Guardians CauseEmergency Rescue Services all over the country. In a way, it is the perfect marriage; a bunch of oddball ad people teaming up with fire fighters, paramedics and lifeguards (to name but a few) to retell their tales of ‘heroism’ (they don’t like it when we used that word). From the outset, we were willing to walk through fire, literally and figuratively. We became rebels with a cause.

Too often we get told that if you really believe in something, you’ll do whatever it takes. You go above and beyond. You’ll even sacrifice. But rarely do we get the opportunity (read: project) where our hearts give us the spontaneous thumbs up. Centrum Guardians is one of those rare projects. The last eight years has seen us produce work that connects with people, but more importantly, it allowed everyone to flex their considerable marketing muscles for a good cause. It showed everyone that hidden nirvana in the marketing world that’s not about sales or awards. It’s about doing good, and when you do it well, it feels great. Amazing, really.

These rebels are looking for a new cause. Watch this space.

November 14, 2015
1

The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South Africa

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The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South AfricaThe recent AMASA Awards afforded us a great opportunity to announce South Africa’s official benchmark in Content Marketing: The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South Africa.  The association was launched as an affiliated branch of the global BCMA, who have a head office in London.

We revealed the South African Branded Content Marketing Association Chapter at the AMASA Awards by sponsoring a give-away draw for a Go Pro camera as well as the Best Branded Content Campaign Award, won by Native VML for Nedbank’s Ke Yona Team Search.

But the real story of The BCMA in South Africa started a few years back with advertising agency One Lady and a Tribe and our work with Pfizer on the Centrum Guardians Project. As this campaign (now in its eighth year) evolved from a The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South Africaprint ad and 3Talk campaign into a 13 week TV series, it was clear we weren’t working within a conventional advertising framework. We had begun creating branded content, but we hadn’t given it a name.

So we searched for an institute or association which could teach us more about advertising within the context of content to engage with consumers and came across the BCMA, with branches around the world (including USA, South America, Russia, Scandinavia, Middle East & North Africa and Spain) but there wasn’t a Chapter in South Africa – which made the next step obvious.

Anyone interested in marketing will be excited about transmedia or branded content: it’s a narrative expressed across a variety of touchpoints in different ways, changing the way ideas are captured.Transmedia planning is, in essence, one story with multiple expressions of that story shared on different channels.

The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South AfricaMarketers want to connect globally, share ideas, set industry standardsand develop best practice.To help us do this The BCMAhas created a proprietary measurement tool with Ipsos, determining what makes branded content effective and how it delivers on ROI. We look forward to holding regular forums and workshops for BCMA SA members and share best practice as technology evolves and we need to be able to measure its effectiveness.

This note from Andrew Canter, Global CEO, BCMA, inspires us on our journey: “We are immensely proud to have launched the BCMA South Africa Chapter. It is an exciting time to be involved in branded content marketing and we are looking forward to working with the leading practitioners to showcase best practice and share learnings. We are so pleased to be working with such an inspirational team of people and are sure BCMA SA will be a great success.”

The Branded Content Marketing Institute of South AfricaThe SA Branch of the Global Content Marketing Association promoting best practice, sharing knowledge, growing the branded content industry.

Email: Sheila@oneladyandatribe.co.za

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November 3, 2015
1

Three Types of People You Need In Your Next Brainstorm

By | Food for thought

The South African consumer, enabled by technology, is now so ahead of marketing trends that they’re creating them. As we become more and more disrupted by digital, the buyer landscape will compel us to deviate from traditional marketing strategies. We no longer need to think outside the box, we need to think about the box not being there at all. One way of doing this is to invite non-traditional marketing people into the mix when you’re brainstorming your next advertising campaign.

To tap in to what the consumer may not even know they’re looking for yet, invite different kinds of people to contribute to your marketing campaign strategy upfront. And where better to start than in your initial brainstorm? The objective is to look for virtuosos engaged in the production of culture who can input on our exponentially changing society. People (like artists) who are engaged in the production of culture. These types of professionals bring different knowledge and energy into the mix and will help to inspire some magic by throwing art, data and futurist predictions into the creative melting pot.

Three Types of People You Need In Your Next Brainstorm

1 Artist Consultant

Artists are being used as consultants for big-brands (GAP, MTV, and Coca-Cola) to bring fresh vision and acumen to short and long term strategies. As Skull-A-Day  creative phenomenon, Noah Scalin, says about using Artist as Consultants: “The set of skills artists learn allows us to be consistently innovative and consistently come up with new ideas.”  An artist with a different world view could be the innovative creative force you need to unlock a different way of marketing your brand.

Three Types of People You Need In Your Next Brainstorm

2 Data Scientist

In Benjamin Spiegel’s article “Why Every Marketing Department Needs a Data Scientist” he says: “Data = Power”. You need someone with “power” in your brainstorm – that person is someone who knows what the best day to sell airtime to teenagers is. Spiegel goes on to say: “In today’s marketing world, the power and knowledge often lie with the person with the best data access and deepest understanding of that information.” Who better than someone who can translate customer data into behaviour to help you roll out your next marketing campaign?

Three Types of People You Need In Your Next Brainstorm

3 Futurist

Simply put, a Futurist a person who studies the future and makes predictions about it based on current trends. The word has also become a verb: “To Future”; and “Futuring” is now being used as a disruption technique by business leaders trying to tap in to the zeitgeist that they can’t quite put their finger on. The benefit of inviting a skilled Futurist into your Tribe is that they may identify mega-trends that will have a great impact on the social and business economy.

And if you’re looking for more fresh faces in 2016 you may also be calling on a Virtual Reality Experience Designer and 3D Printer Design Specialist. Exciting times ahead!

Sheila McGillivray, Tribe Leader