Land of Hope

Growing up in South Africa, my memories are filled with regular trips into Hillbrow where my grandparents lived and where my father purchased his weekly stock of exotic seafood’s from the local Mozambique fishery. My three sisters and I would be crammed in the backseat of the car with large brown packets on our laps, filled with live crabs and crayfish, desperate to get out. It terrified us to no end and we could never understand how my father could even consider eating this. My grandparents were of French and Maltese descent. They left war torn Europe after the Second World War with very little to their names and came to South Africa to build a future for themselves and their children. They were joined by a gaggle of family members and friends, from countries like Italy, France, Belgium and Portugal. It’s here in this country of ours that they sunk their roots and their home. My grandparents were an exotic couple who were better placed on the streets of Paris, than in Hillbrow, but for as long as I remember they were always stoic South Africans and ever grateful for the refuge and opportunity that this country afforded them. They worked hard for many years to build a life from the very little they came with. Today their children and grandchildren, including me have been the beneficiaries of this hope.

My father-in-law arrived in South Africa after the War from Holland as a homeless young adult with only the clothes on his back and no family or friends to speak of. He spent his first months in this country living in a shipping crate in the back of someone’s garden. He is by all accounts an extraordinary individual, who spent his childhood years in the Resistance movement in the war after his mother was taken away to a Nazi concentration camp where she later died. Like my relatives, he too chose to come to South Africa and very soon sunk his roots deep into the South African soil. Over the years, my father-in-law has built a successful business, which has served this community through health, education and employment.

I tell these two stories because for me they are my South Africa whose experiences ebb and flow over the years, but fundamentally don’t change. This is a land, which many still hope to build a better future for themselves and their families.

Despite its darker hours and there have been many, this is a country filled with an amazing array of people who work each day for a better life. For me, South Africa will always be a place of opportunity for those who are prepared to seize it, to embrace and take sustenance from its strengths, to love it for all its weaknesses and most importantly to forgive it, for its injustices.

why www will never replace my favourite magazine

My favourite magazine of all time is Vanity Fair, not just because it's always an extraordinary visual feast for the eyes, but also because it publishes some really interesting stuff. I was having a robust conversation with some journalists who work with a fast growing news website the other evening and we were discussing the gloomy future of the print media worldwide. We all know of the catastrophic losses US newspapers in particular are facing as they limp along in declining economic circumstances, but more importantly they are less compelling to consumers in a world where information is increasingly being consumed on the web. While I agree completely that newspapers are the most vulnerable to the Web, I don't agree the same holds for magazines. Sure they will be under pressure as advertising moves to the thriftier and faster channel of web, but I have yet to meet a consumer who would substitute reading their favourite magazine online and foregoing the print version. 

Clearly there are some magazines that are just blah blah or mediocre, which consumers dip in from time to time, and these will probably not survive anyway the long haul of market dynamics, but I reckon there are many others who will stand the test of time. I for one will never substitute my purchase of Vanity Fair for an online version. I mean what would life be if I could not feel the smooth creaming pages in hand and feast my eyes on the extraordinary photography. I hanker after my nights and weekends when I can curl up on my bed propped up against my soft pillows, with my VF in hand and take in the fabulous and fascinating stories with an intimacy that my little Mac and its 3G connection, will never simulate. 

don't bet against the Internet

Recently, I participated in a debate on how GOOGLE services the SA market. GOOGLE South Africa’s model differs from its offices in other parts of the world. They will service a number of key accounts in South Africa by working mostly with clients and a few specified agencies directly. The business mechanism  operates on a transparent commission and discount free model and this is changing the way marketers do business and challenging the quality and focus agencies are giving to local Search campaigns.  This model could be construed as dis-intermediary by agencies, although GOOGLE is clear that it does not preclude them. The system places the onus on marketers to really get to grips with this area of business.

In the past local agencies buying GOOGLE Adwords worked through GOOGLE UK/Ireland and even Indian offices would receive discounts/commissions directly. These would vary depending on the country and deal. South Africa is one of the first countries to be adopting this approach It means the whole buying practice will be more transparent and because GOOGLE works on an auction model, you bid for your words, the better you are at Search campaign management the more effective your results. Specialised online agencies would have to agree fees upfront to clients and be held more accountable for search optimisation against the budget set.

As part of tackling this challenge in SA, GOOGLE suggested it would look at establishing an accreditation system for agencies to ensure that GOOGLE best practice is followed and thereby ensuring marketers who don’t work directly with GOOGLE will get the best possible GOOGLE service and bang for their buck.

These comments were published online and a raging debate ensued. GOOGLE was accused of wanting to cut off agency livelihoods and displaying big brother behaviour. However, there was also some support for the transparent approach and a need for some formal accreditation to ensure standards in the industry, although the process needed to be fair and inclusive.   

I thought the debate was very productive because it squarely put the devil on the table and if anything highlighted the need for a better understanding of the planning and buying mechanisms for the Web.   It also revealed a lot of activity and established interest in this space and there’s no doubt its going to challenge traditional agency thinking on how to integrate digital into traditional advertising.

Now if we can achieve transparency in buying web media, why not in traditional media?  Why shouldn't media houses that sell television, print, outdoor and radio be as aggressive and bullish about getting close to marketers and being completely open about media charges? I think that just as the Web is changing consumer's behaviour, it has to change business too.

The world’s changing rapidly, where consumers are increasingly on the web and in control of the conversation. The statistical evidence is there and in SA the market is wide open with just 5% Internet penetration and the fastest growth rate in usage globally, albeit off a small base. It’s a world in which marketers must in turn be empowered with more knowledge and insight, so that they too can be part of the dialogue and act quickly and appropriately to opportunities. Their agencies also have to take a good look at what kind of services they are offering and should see the growth in web as a major business opportunity.

The Web whether delivered via PC or mobile device offers far too much potential to be entirely relegated to third parties without due consideration and oversight.  And hopefully more debates like the GOOGLE Search debate will encourage marketers to start putting it more firmly on their agendas.

 

You advertise you get revenue

"Advertising is one of the first things that get cut, and its almost always a mistake, because you advertise to get revenue." This is what Eric Smidt CEO of Google said recently when asked about the current economic meltdown and its impact on Google and its advertising streams. We all know when tough times come the first thing companies look for are the soft lines on their budget sheets, marketing and HR (training etc) where they slash and burn. However they should think again before they get their choppers out. There’s a good deal of empirical evidence that recessionary times are one of the best times to be advertising. I was just looking at the latest Adex figures. While not 100% accurate they provide the best benchmark on spend in SA and there's some revealing trends. For one there has been no real growth in advertising and if you consider most media increase rates year on year then we are now in negative territory in terms of volume based advertising growth. For the past quarter advertising has remained static. Digital advertising is hopelessly under-read because Search is excluded and even with this, the category grew by 51% This is completely counter trend. I have little doubt that this area of media is growing at a much more aggressive rate than being reflected and its an ideal medium for recessionary times as it is measurable and flexible and generates leads – the lifeblood of sales.. What struck me in looking at SA’s top spenders is that the likes of Unilever and Vodacom who are market leaders have not headed for the hills or cut back on advertising. They remain steady and focused and no doubt this is paying off for them. Just like Warren Buffet’s view that now is the best time to be investing in the market, you could say now is the best time to be advertising and growing share of voice!

Is the Internet making us stupid?

It seems a lot of people are asking this question lately. A recent edition of Popular Mechanics suggested that humans are possibly becoming more stupid because of Google. Because Google makes everything so much easier - researching data, collating it and delivering it almost instantaneously, it's taking away our ability to really think and use our problem solving processes in our brains. Its kind of like exercise, if we don’t exercise enough our bodies turn to fat and are less agile and healthy – same for the brain. I think the older generation of digital immigrants are better able to cope with this, because their brains were brought up reading and having to think more, lesser so the younger generation of today. It's a hot topic because a real neuroscientist has just written a book called IBrain: Surviving the Technological alteration of the Modern Mind. Gary Small contends that all the Internet searching and text messaging has made millennial brains particularly adept at filtering information and making snap decisions, however the tech savvy, or digital natives as we know them, seem to be less capable of reading faces or picking up on subtle gestures, so traditional communications skills are being adversely impacted. Of course there are solutions to this, but nonetheless it does make one wonder what the generation of kids today who generally don’t read books, prefer to have conversations in cyberspace than face to face, expert at playing computer games, posting on FaceBook and fiddling with Mixit are going to contribute to the world as adults. Are we producing a future generation of digital innovators or will they all be dummed down having lost the human touch and instinct that makes for great business people and creators? It’s a big question and one we still wont know the real answer for in a while. Yes, the Internet it seems is the cause for some woes this week. The Internet is now being implicated as a major contributor to the global financial meltdown. According to Paul Kedrosky in the latest edition of Newsweek - who by the way has a great blog called Infectious Greed, the Internet has broadly delivered on its promise to bring information to the masses, however in so doing has opened up financial markets and sophisticated instruments to Joe Soap and allowed many credit innovations to be launched at hyper speed, connecting millions of speculators and wannabe investors in a dangerous and unregulated manner. He suggests that instead of causing a financial crisis, next time around the Internet needs to be part of the solution. Well I hope there isn’t a next time around, cause we haven’t even begin to feel the real impact of this time around. It made me think that the Google guys may have had to hire extra bodyguards. If Anna Wintour Editor in Chief of Vogue has to have some to protect her against he anti-fir activists, then its not inconceivable they will need to be protected against desperately indebted novice (and even skilled) ex-traders, hedge fund managers, bankers, speculators, pensioners, et al who have lost bilions. Ah.. just imagine if it was that simple to pin the world's greed and stupidity on virtual reality?

the strongest steel is forged in the hottest Furness

The bad blogger is back. I’m beginning to think I should change the name of my blog from toocleverbyfar to thebadblogger. But then life is pretty hectic right now. The financial world is in crisis, the meltdown predicted for years by economists that the US financial system would collapse, has come to fruition. In the past weeks terror has reigned on stock exchanges around the world. The US Treasury has made a move to step in to guarantee American’s savings and funds. In Europe governments have followed suite. There's no escaping it! A stockbroker friend said to me recently, these times are unlike anything experienced before. We just have to hold our nerve as we go along for the ride. And what a ride it’s going to be, we just don't realise how bad it actually is!

I've been noting significant decreases in media spend around the world and SA is no exception. Taking at look at advertising figures for June/July 2008 vs 2007 in South Africa you can already see a significant decrease in our adspend. There's no question these figures are going to drop even further. What’s particularly interesting about these figures is that the country’s second largest cellphone operator MTN decreased its marketing spend by 38% compared to the same period last year and most of this was in television.

South Africa has another interesting dynamic to contend with and that is our shifting political scenario. We have a new President and even some re-shuffling of ministerial posts. They face challenging times indeed. However, as our Group CEO Paul Harris says; "the strongest iron is forged in the hottest Furness." On the subject of politics and media, I was reading a recent US AdAge poll result which asked the question - Who is the better marketer. Obama or McCain? 68% went in favour of Obama and only 32% to McCain. Obama continues to use progressive digital media channels to communicate. In checking out some stats on this interesting subject I found a blogger who is tracking the the online noise of these candidates at http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2008/09/low_level_of_activity_on_mccain_space_social_network.asp . Now there's got to be a media lesson in this!

how much is your reputation worth?

We all know reputations take a long time to build and can be destroyed in a very short space of time by a lack of judgement or misguided actions and I'm not talking about the young executive who throws her name away at the office party after having one two many tequilas.
Today some clever digital natives from a company called Quirk showed us how they track and measure the reputation health of companies on the www. They spoke about about how a company or brand's online reputation can spread faster through www than traditional media channels and unlike a newspaper or a radio report which is transient or thrown away, thanks to Google it will live forever. You can't delete stuff disgruntled customers may have blogged or posted comments about, although I'm sure there are many companies out there that wouldn't mind if some hack created a virus to erase the damming evidence against them? Despite SA's online penetration lag, local companies should be tracking www and formulating strategies to deal with negative online noise. I enjoyed having some robust discussion with the passionate Quirk team around the influence of a blogger out there versus a journalist in traditional media. This was an interesting debate. If a blogger has an avid following who hang on every word blogged and said blogger trashes your brand, could they do more damage than a respected columnist or editor of a major newspaper or magazine who does the same? Interesting thought. In terms of our business, I reckon traditional press will do more damage to us right now than online, mostly because the Internet has not nearly reached the scale yet of our national press in terms of eyeballs. The press in SA also enjoys very high levels of credibility among South African communities. However, what I will concede is that popular bloggers can be exceptionally powerful in their persuasion of their dedicated audiences, who in turn tend to be key influencers in society and this is a critical consideration. If a person trusts and believes everything you say, they will act on it. We have tracked some fascinating blogs rating us a great bank to do business with versus other banks. but we have also been at the butt end of some unforgiving remarks that have needed addressing. The noise out there is growing as more and more flock to the web and given brand reputation is a business imperative, we frankly don't have a choice, but to get in there and be a part of it.