South Africa is a brand. It has products much like Apple, Ford Motor Company and Nokia have. The focus of brand South Africa, just like any other brand, is to make money by selling its products.

Sandy beaches, impeccable weather, wild life and cosmopolitan lifestyles are all products of South Africa. So too are murder, rape, theft and racism.

Like all other brands, South Africa has its loyal customers, the people of South Africa that live here, love here and remain optimistic about their future and the future of their fellow countrymen. These people continue to buy the products of brand South Africa simply by making a living in this country.

These people can be compared to die hard Apple fans. They buy an iPod, MacBook Pro, register for iTunes and then late last year, they got their hands on the much anticipated iPhone.

What makes these customers special? They tell everyone they know about their passion and loyalty to the brand.

The opposite also holds true. Negative, passive and skeptic customers of brand South Africa continue to dwell on the bad products that the country is selling to its people. They are confined to a maelstrom of depression, anxiety and paranoia. Many of them are ready to try another brand (like Australia) and many of them have already done so.

What makes these negative customers similar to the loyal ones? They also tell everyone they know about their distrust, dissatisfaction and the desire to change brands. Sometimes they go slightly further by seeking ways to negatively influence your reputation as a means to persuade others to tag along.

Blogging, love it or hate it, is a real and present outlet. An outlet which could either positively influence your brand or provide a springboard of exponentially dire potential for people that don’t particularly like your brand.

Let me give you an example of the power of community building: Darren Gorton, evidently a passionate citizen of this country, recently launched a new “book of blog posts” or “blook” as he called it: A Piece of Significance.

With brand South Africa in mind, he published his intentions of the book on his blog and welcomed any fellow citizen with the same passion to contribute chapters to it. The result, quite frankly, is a piece of significant brand building; something we have not seen since SA Rocks was launched.

The book thus far has 13 chapters, each chapter carefully crafted and published by 13 individuals on their respective blogs. One can only imagine the online presence this book will achieve as more and more chapters are added to it.

Of course, there are individuals out there who despise living here. Seeking out information about rape, murder and xenophobia to highlight to the people of the world why they deem this country as hell on earth.

What they seemingly fail to realise is that a community, a following, an army even, of dedicated, passionate and active people that come together to celebrate the beauty of a brand far outweighs any futile attempt of an individual trying to unjust it.

Let’s tie this together. Your business, regardless of size, shape and format, is a brand. It has customers. Some of them are madly in love with your products and some are looking for a way out. (You might not even know that)

A real and present danger lurks. The internet, mobile communications and community networks present the opportunity for brand haters to break your back. That is if you choose to see it that way.

If you’re anything like Darren, you’ll realise that all these channels provide an opportunity for you to not only create a loyal following of customers, but also allow them to publish their support for the world see.

Read Darren’s Blook: A Piece of Significance

Introduction
1. The new South Africa - is it real?
2. Is SA rich or poor?
3. What the world thinks of South Africa and what our global opportunities are
4. The importance of each individual’s contribution collectively
5. SA Inc and the business of doing business in SA
6. The beauty and grandeur that surrounds us
7. The importance of technology in SA’s global emergence
8. Building brand South Africa
9. Making the most of SA’s creative talents and abilities
10. Innovate for a better South Africa
11. The role of the younger generation in SA, and what we need to do to support them
12. Connecting South Africa - Communities that transcend technology
13. We are African - the role of collaboration in South Africa’s growth

I remember my teenage years vividly. I was very impressed with the Winfield advertisements and commercials. It carried the essence of manlihood, rugby and satisfaction. I was too young to smoke back then, but I knew that Winfield epitomised the “Maxi-Man”. I wanted to be that guy when I grow up. Esteemed, in the know and well associated with the sport of men.

The youth market is something hot on the lips of marketers and businesses, but something rather reluctantly pursued. For we (I included) know just how menacing teenagers can be. How a seemingly simple approach could amplify their distrust, distaste and “so not cool dude” attitude to their peers.

Let’s face it, we’re scared. We have a brand to protect. Not to mention our ego. And even worse, they hang about these weird places like Facebook and Youtube these days. Things I’ve heard of, but not likely something I’d bother to invest in. I can’t even manage to have him sit still and listen to me for one minute.

And the last time I asked if I could drop him off somewhere, his “friend” with the tattoo and weird peircings ogled at me as if I’m from another planet.

Remember the days when we as teenagers watched 3.2 hours of TV a day, listened to 2.3 hours of radio a day, read 1.7 newspapers per day and 3.3 magazines each week?

Do they do that today? Unlikely. But I reckon we can just ignore them until they grow up and transcend back to normal human beings.

The chances of that happening are even less my fellow people. They grow up with more savvy, more knowledge and a stronger opinion than you have ever dreamed of having. Their voices carry more influential substance than your greatest public speech or television interview.

If you do not believe this, then I’m willing the venture a guess that you’re probably a very gullible and naïve person. Straight up.

This is all well documented and understood by most, but the real issue lies not in acknowledging fact. It lies in implementing fact into a strategy that could ensure actual returns, a reputation that’s intact and brand that is engaging the emerging market to great effect.

We know they won’t appreciate your authoritarian television commercial. They also don’t click on your banner ads or pay the slightest reaction to your grandiose testimonials, quarterly reports or inflated bottom line.

They’re willing to participate in a brand that provides them with an incentive. It is in their inner being to expect something back for their time and effort. And that trend will continue from hereon in.

There’s a couple of things that should be at the top of anyone’s mind willing to engage the youth market and looking to do it right:

1. Engage them using their medium of choice, not yours.
Mobile marketing is top of the list. Social networking sites such as Facebook, blogs, Mxit, Youtube et al are all platforms they frequent. Fortunately, these platforms also allow them to pay your message forward to your friends very easily.

2. Make it worth their while.
Like a kid willing to do you a favour if you give something back, so to will they be willing to experiment with your products or services if you are willing to incentivise it.

3. Make sure they think it is cool enough. Not your wife, not your product manager, but them.
The coolness factor is important. This will change over time, but best would be to research popular trends, hot topics and engaging matters to grab their attention. Once you have their attention, it is yours to mess up.

4. It has to make them feel part of your brand.
Gone are the days when your brand is forced down their throats. These days they’ll tell you straight up that you suck and they’ll make damn sure their friends know about it too. You need to plan your campaign that would interest them in associating with you.

As you can see from these 4 points is that everything is about them. It has always been about them and one of the biggest reasons we’re getting it wrong is because we continue to build our marketing campaigns around our brands.

Are you contemplating taking on the most difficult market of them all? Share your wisdom and fears here and let’s make sure these campaigns are successful the first time.

From a recent analysis it was found that banner advertising is dying very quickly. Looking back, in reality, banner advertising never stood much of a chance at a good life anyway, at least not independently.

So what is the fixation marketers have with banner advertising and why is it a multi-billion dollar industry?

The short answer is twofold:

1. It is easy to track clicks. Marketers use clicks to sell advertising against.
2. There’s really no other way to track the effectiveness of banner advertising.

Here is a short summation of the report conducted in the US:

1. Most people do not click on ads, and those that do are by no means representative of Web users at large.

2. Ninety-nine percent of Web users do not click on ads on a monthly basis. Of the 1% that do, most only click once a month. Less than two tenths of one percent click more often.

3. Who are these “heavy clickers”? They are predominantly female, indexing at a rate almost double the male population. They are older.

Assumptions derived from these findings indicate some interesting points:

1. Clickers are more representative of lower income households than the average user.

2. They are less educated than the average user (or from less-educated environments in the case of minors).

3. They are more likely to live outside of the major metro regions.

Readers of this blog will know that I’m constantly looking to improve ways in which businesses can capitalise on the web without intruding their clients’ privacy, without interrupting their experience on the web and without force feeding their products to them.

Banner advertising done well does lends a credible amount of brand awareness, especially when the ad is informative, funny, experiential and bold. These banners are not about the clicks but more about the relevant experience gained from the associated brand.

These are unfortunately difficult to measure as page impressions serve as the most accurate form of metrics.

Television advertising used to be the benchmark for advertising. With the likes of PVR and the multitude of channels available these days though, commercials tend to be skipped very easily and the effect of advertising on TV has decreased dramatically.

It does however still serve as an impressionable level of brand awareness. More and more brands turn to interactive campaigns as a means to engage consumers in participating in the campaign. The reason is to allow for greater measurement as participation can be used to warrant the budget spend and also as a means to extend the level of brand experience.

Consumer attention therefore becomes very important and the campaign material needs to be interesting enough to gain this. Therefore, we’ll find that competitions are usually the most popular drawing tool used.

It has been documented on this blog before that mobile serves as the perfect vehicle for consumer responses. Their mobiles are usually within reach of the majority of users and are perfect for everyday, everywhere advertising engagement.

So despite push campaigns (where products and services are delivered to the mobile phone), the pull campaigns are very effective in conjunction with print, radio, TV, outdoor and the web where consumers are often offered an incentive for their participation.

There are still opportunities for advertising, especially banner advertising, to serve a marketing purpose. The obvious truth is unfortunately that marketers and companies will need to keep adding interactivity, interest and inevitably sometimes more money to their campaigns to have their consumers experience the advertising in a positive light.

It is no secret that the future of marketing and advertising lies with the enormous growth of mobile communications and the advances of cellular technologies. In tandem with the other mass media tools mobile will serve as the ultimate differentiator between highly successful campaigns and the intrusive presence of (online) advertising.

We’re rapidly approaching the festive season and most of us cringe at the dreaded prospect of Christmas shopping. With 38 days left to crunch time I’m sure many businesses are working on strategies to establish some client loyalty over the silly season.

These often include give-aways, drastically reduced cost on products and services or a sincere best wishes and happy returns message to show them you really care.

As with most things this time of the year however, these courtesy messages are often left to the last minute due to unfinished work and your own rush to get the business to a state where you’ll feel comfortable breaking away for a couple of days.

When you think of mobile, it helps thinking about an always on, always nearby, personal communications device. Come Christmas time and New Year, we all curse at the service providers for not being able to deliver our messages to loved ones.

In fact, so personal are our mobile phones, that we sometimes feel neglected not receiving that special text message from that special person during the holiday seasons, right?

What better communication device then to initiate client communications? Corporate relations rely on e-mails, professional meetings and monotonous telephone calls. But customer relations are personal and we need to treat it as such. Sending your top clients a text message over Christmas shows them you really do think about them and value their business.

It establishes a communications platform for future promotions, news and latest developments. Once you have managed to obtain entry to your clients’ personal channel, maintaining those relationships become much easier and ensure the type of brand affinity that sets you apart from your competitors.

Mobile platforms enable anyone to manage, compile and execute these mobile campaigns within a stringent time frame. It is a cost effective way to keep close to your clients, to show them you value their support and that above all, that the relationship is so much more than just about the money.

The biggest gift you receive this Christmas might just be the one you give your clients.

The wonderful thing about Opera’s mobile platform (If you’ll excuse a bit of self promotion) is undoubtedly the range of possibilities it has for companies to stimulate brand awareness, drive sales and encourage community interaction.

I’m going to use actual brands as it will aid in creating the hypothetical competition and allow my readers to get a feel of the vibe.

Klipdrift and Dros franchises throughout the country could run a combined mobile campaign to secure sales, brand awareness and stronger brand affiliation.

In my world, this is how the competition should work. Of course, every campaign needs objectives, so let me discuss this first.

My objectives:

1. Getting more people to indulge in the Klipdrift brand.
2. More feet through the doors of Dros franchises.
3. Creating a social buzz around the two brands.
4. Forming a community among Klipdrift and Dros enthusiasts.
5. Having the community interact with each other physically and digitally.
6. Driving sales.

Entering the competition

By running an in-house campaign, regulars at the Dros are introduced to a mobile sports quiz. By ordering a round of Klippies & Cola they will receive an entry code to the challenge. To register for the competition, all they need to do is to sms their names to this code. The entry forms are also available on the neckers of Klipdrift bottles, with the purchase of any Dros meal and on the respective websites.

How it works

The sports quiz campaign will consist of sports trivia questions and participants are to submit the answers via sms.

Each question throughout the competition becomes increasingly more difficult and only correct answers will see contestants through to the next round. All winners and losers will be notified by sms on their progression in the competition.

After each round the winners of the previous rounds are displayed on the big screens and receive a free drink if present at the Dros. All the winners, previous questions and answers, images and videos of the previous rounds are also published on the Dros website with mobile download options. This allows non participants or previous losers to follow the action.

To secure stronger traction to the Dros’ and Klipdrift’s websites, clues on the questions could be hidden on the websites respectively. This will continue for the duration of the campaign and would familiarise the browsers with other specials and promotions.

To create a lively atmosphere at the Dros, Klipdrift should position branded coasters with the questions on top and answers at the bottom. These coasters will also carry the code to enter the competition. For the duration of the campaign, anyone can still participate in the weekly draw and be in contention for the main prize.

The competition spans across each week of a year with each weekly winner receiving a prize. All participants are also in contention for the major prize at the end of the year. This prize could be a memorable trip to any sporting event of choice anywhere in the world.

Losers

For the losers there is a chance to win a text and win consolation prize.

Winners

To stimulate an even bigger participation, the weekly winners and those in contention for the main prize are encouraged to record their own mini television commercial that is uploaded onto Dros and Klipdrift’s combined Sports Quiz Youtube page.

The general public is also invited to submit their own material and by voting for the favourite, the winners will be featured on Klipdrift and Dros television commercials, displayed on the Big Screens during selected time slots at the Dros and will also feature on the respective websites.

Strategically positioning the competition on sites like Facebook, Flickr and Youtube will see the internet carry the message to online prospects. Television commercials could also drive participants to a nearby Dros to partake in the event.

By encourage people to invest in a minimum expense to take part in the competition will drastically boost sales at the Dros and liquor stores. Premium visitation to the websites is secured and carefully positioned promotions could be featured on these pages.

I believe this competition will drive substantial sales of both brands’ products with the incentive of reaching the finals of the weekly draw as well as a spectacular main prize at the end of the campaign.

About this work:


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa License.

I need to have a dental checkup soon. I haven’t been the most loyal occupant of the dentist’s chair and I must admit I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

But, and I’m sure many would agree, my dentist just isn’t the sort of guy I’d add as a friend on Facebook. I’ve been sold the lie of “This won’t hurt one bit” more times than I’ve been told that girls like bald men. (I get that a lot)

Thank goodness for the nice reception lady, because once you pass her door your sudden need for a toilet indicates that trouble is imminent.

Therefore, I think it is fair to say that dentists have the most difficult job in maintaining customer loyalty. There is just no way he can get away with: “The only dentist never to hurt you.” Blatant lie, we all know that.

Nor can his ad read: “I bought my new drill at the hardware store.” Honest maybe, but not smart advertising.

I’ve only once in my life recommended a dentist and that was when he managed to pull a tooth in 3 minutes without me noticing that it was done. However, the pain thereafter, the trickles of blood oozing down my throat and the inevitable tongue poking of tender flesh is not what I’d refer to as great after sales service.

What I would prefer is the ability to make the dentist appointment a more convenient process. I would appreciate it if they could remind me of appointments or follow up visits. Mobile communications enable them to reach me on my mobile phone at any given time.

It will save the receptionist ample of time in calling me, leaving a message and calling me back. She could schedule automatic text messages for my birthday, Christmas or during the Easter weekend. Urging me to drive safely because they need my money and to floss after a meal would be most welcome.

What if I could receive a yearly checkup reminder by text message since I’ve erased the date given by the dentist from memory the second I left his room? By allowing me to simply reply to the message with my name to schedule this appointment would ensure I commit to better dental care right there and then.

With our busy schedule we conveniently postpone making “minor” calls. And dentist appointments are last on my list of calls I’d like to make.

The morning before my appointment the platform will send out a text message to remind me of it so that I don’t double book my time.

Then, my personal favourite: Once you leave the dentist room a text message that says: “We know because of the anesthetics you won’t (be able to) talk to us, so here is a thank you for your visit. Enjoy the tingling sensation in three hours.”

Although the post is slightly tongue in cheek (excuse the pun), it is usually these little things that distinguish consumer brand preferences and their recommendation to friends. Not all brands are fun, sexy and creates a buzz simply by launching a new product, but often it is the little things that separates them from their competitors.

Mobile marketing present these businesses with a cost effective tool to personalise their relationship with their clients and more often than not, this is all we need.

I’m going to spill some grey matter onto this blog post and illustrate the birth of creative marketing strategies.

I’m going to use three random industries as chosen by my colleagues. The first industry will serve as my client, while the other two will serve as collaborating partners to drive the campaign.

At this very moment, I have no idea what these industries are. Within a couple of minutes, I’ll have a list of three which is the foundation for the blog post.

I will then have 1 hour to devise a strategy that would pay reasonable ROI to industry number 1 and profit margins for the other two industries as well. Of course the glue that holds this piece together is mobile marketing.The time now is exactly 12:20pm.

Right, it’s 12:23 and the industries followed by the colleagues responsible for them are:

1. Building Industry: Riaan Jacobs - Operational Manager.
2. Golf: Werner Viljoen - Senior Creative Consultant.
2. Beauty Industry: Lisa de Lange – Accounts.

The clock starts….now. [Devising strategy and plan article]

Phew, it’s 13:11 and I’ve got some time to spare even. Starting with the post now.

Ok, so the team from BuildaHouse approached me for a campaign that could improve their relatively unknown brand and ultimately establish themselves as a competitor in the market currently dominated by De la Rey.

Their budget denies us the opportunity to advertise on television, radio and print, thus we are left with the internet and mobile.

What we suggested was to collaborate with a golf estate or course in the vicinity and schedule a 4-ball match up. To create a buzz around the event we’ll use some social media and cause marketing to evoke some interest. A Facebook group is initiated and the word spread through the principle of digital word of mouth, buzz marketing and 6 degrees of separation.

We’ve also let them create a quick inspiring video to serve as traction as well as to highlight the cause to which a percentage of the proceeds are donated. Since we’re in the building industry, we’ve decided to donate some of the money to a homeless charity for food and shelter.

The video will be published on the BuildaHome website, Youtube, Facebook and the company blog. Each of these visual attraction points, including the Facebook group will inspire people to send a text message to a short code to participate in the competition of which a percentage is donated to the cause.

BuildaHouse is to brand 1000 golf balls (bought or donated by the pro shop) as well as another 12 sets with a unique code on each of the ball (Four different codes representing a prize) and a grand prize for the winner of the 4-ball being played on the day.

12 winners from the sms competition will be selected, notified and invited for a quick photo shoot. These (branded) images will be loaded onto the website, the company Flickr page and the entire video of the event published on the Youtube page.

These 12 winners will make it to the 4-ball on the day. Four representatives of BuildaHome will accompany 3 of the winners each to compete for the ultimate prize. The goal is to not only win the competition, but to also beat the BuildaHome representative to stand a chance of winning the grand prize.

Golfing is predominantly a man’s game, so to reach a more gender equal audience we’ve been fortunate that BeautyBeU availed a group of their beautiful therapists to accompany us on this day. Each girl will of course represent BeautyBeU and will also use this day to promote skincare products that can be ordered via sms service, give away vouchers and a couple of hand massages for the golfers sweating away at the main prize.

The crowd at the day of the competition will have the opportunity to sms and win a selection of prizes ranging from golf ball sets (branded of course), a luxury treatment for him and her at BeautyBeU or a sponsored golf set.

The winner of the 4-ball will win the grand prize as sponsored by BuildaHome. The unique code (remember the code?) on the branded golf ball will be presented to one lucky sms winner. The code obviously reflecting one of the prizes set out in the beginning and this lucky winner will then accompany the winner of the 4-ball for the prize giving ceremony, photo shoot and the video which will once again be published on the internet.

Finally, BuildaHome has a database of mobile numbers which they can use to permission-market their products and services to.

And lastly, a percentage of all the money raised from the sms campaign, sales of beauty products, drinks and snacks etc are donated to the charity of choice.

Phew…It is now exactly 13:45. Time to publish.