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AI Is An Opportunity To Hyper-Personalise Advertising On A Big Scale

By
DataCore Media
-

According to Natascha Torres, digital strategist at DataCore Media, one of the most exciting opportunities an age of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) holds for marketers is the ability to hyper-personalise advertising on a massive scale.

The tools we have at our disposal make it increasingly viable to customise messaging and creative on digital platforms for different people without the need for human intervention.

‘It is easy for AI to come up with something novel just randomly. But it is very hard to come up with something that is novel and unexpected and useful,’ said John Smith, Manager of Multimedia and Vision at IBM Research.  

Platforms such as Google’s Smart Display and Dynamic Search and Facebook’s Dynamic Creatives enable brands to automate the process of tailoring ads for different audiences and to do so at a highly granular level. In theory, this enables us to improve engagement and conversion by getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

But in practice, the technology cannot yet replace the intuition, imagination and insight of a good, creative thinker. The ads we can create with Facebook or Google algorithms are more personalised, but they often don’t create the engagement or emotional response you’d hope to get from a great campaign.

Merging two worlds 

At this stage, we are trying to merge two worlds that used to be distinct: the tech-driven world of data, analytics and algorithms and the human world of strategy and creativity. As we do so, we are leaning more heavily on the technology side, with some brands and agencies even thinking of it as an eventual replacement for human creativity. 

But AI cannot be truly creative in the sense of using imagination to develop truly original ideas and make something. AI systems are limited by the original datasets humans give them to learn from. So, the question shouldn’t be technology or creativity, but rather how AI can help creatives to meet their goals. 

AI and machine learning are useful for collecting data, analysing it to understand users’ intent and behaviour, and then presenting content that is most relevant to each person. But as the AI tailors ads to generate the right headlines, body copy, images and videos for different people, it can only work with the creative assets put at its disposal.

Getting it right isn’t as simple as testing various combinations of assets to achieve the highest relevance for each person and to ensure the best results for the campaign goal. It’s not just about putting together the right images and copy to address the needs of the user, but also about ensuring that the ad the person sees is interesting and emotionally engaging. That’s where human creativity comes in. 

So where do brands, agencies and marketing teams go from here? 

Start thinking about AI as an assistant for the creative team rather than a potential replacement for human insight and emotional intelligence. AI is invaluable and cost-effective for the rapid gathering of data and testing of different creative combinations, freeing up time for human creatives to dream up original thoughts and build emotionally engaging creative assets. Creatives and marketers will need to rapidly upskill to keep ahead of the tech advancements.

Marketers still need their creative agencies, perhaps more than ever. They should find ways to bridge the gaps between creative agencies and data and analytics teams and agencies. This will help them use data to drive better creative while leveraging human strengths around cultural nuances, understanding human motivation, and original thinking. 

Creative teams will need to move beyond the one killer concept or the one big idea towards developing multiple concepts that can be tested across various audience segments. The good news is that we can now try numerous ideas – cheaply and rapidly – without focus groups or surveys. This enables creatives to quickly create engaging assets and messages answering to different stages of the customer journey, and different consumer behaviours, demographics, interests and so forth. 

It’s time for media owners and digital media agencies to work more closely with creative agencies. A good media strategist will be able to offer a lot more value upfront when creatives are brainstorming rather than at the end. The role is no longer simply to select the best channels and propose the most suitable ad units, but also to help creatives to understand the potential of various channels and machine learning.

Practical tips for AI-enabled creativity:

– Brief media and creative agencies together.
– Give creative and media agencies more freedom and time to test different media and asset combinations.
– Do not wait for a new campaign to test new concepts and ideas.
– Do not waste time finessing creative according to what you think people will want to see before you test it.
– Test multiple concepts and then finesse the ideas that perform best for each audience segment.
– If one concept performs well, don’t leave it as the only creative running for months. This will avoid it going stale.
– Take learnings from the results and use them to optimise your creative.

DATACORE MEDIA
+27101406543
grant@datacoremedia.com
datacoremedia.co.za

Making The Advertising Industry More Accessible For Young Creatives

By
Modern Marketing
-

45% of South Africans are under 25 years old and employment for those of working age is scarce. But there is one bright career light that beckons: the real need for talented and passionate young people, from all walks of life.

M&C Saatchi Group SA Chief Creative Officer Neo Mashigo and Faheem Chaudhry, Managing Director of M&C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg, discuss the challenges facing the South African creative industry and ways to make the industry more accessible for young creatives.

Mashigo said, ’Right now, for the first time, young people are leading in the communication space – they are dictating the terms. The South African market is changing rapidly, and these changes are accelerating. The market is getting younger and more diverse, and more complex. A generational gulf has opened between marketers and their future market, and young creatives are the bridge across that gulf.’ 

‘They grew up with so much change happening in their environment, and in Africa and South Africa the future consumer is them. They are in a better place to talk to that market and right now you find that marketers have to learn what their future market’s behaviour will be like. Marketers have to integrate themselves into a world of young people which they don’t really understand. But because that is where the market is going to be, they have to be there,’ continued Mashigo.  

Chaudhry cautioned that advertising and the broader creative industry is not like other businesses. Usually, you would do the work you were trained for within specific parameters and the success of your work could be measured against known expectations. 

‘The creative industry is different, it’s about pushing boundaries. Because creativity is not defined or fixed, you have to look at what you haven’t seen before, and go where people have not gone before. Creativity is not about precedent, like many other fields, it is not about what has been done, it is looking for what hasn’t been done.’

‘This has to be done with tight budgets and extremely tight timelines. Technology has made everything faster, which means you have to create work quickly, edit quickly, become more agile, you have to respond, keep up to date with new platforms, and you have to keep learning.’

The product of advertising is ideas. Chaudhry explained that the process of ideas is subjective by nature. ‘You go through a lot of rejection. Sometimes people’s creative expectation is aligned with yours and sometimes it is not. You need a lot of resilience, and will take a lot of hits. Sometimes your great ideas get shot down, and you have to get up the next day and do it over again.’

Mashigo added, ‘In the creative industry you deal with things you cannot prove, and you have no numbers to support your idea. You rely a lot on your instinct and innate understanding of people. And that poses the challenge: how do you convince people that you are right? It’s an idea, but is it a good one? Based on what?’

Creativity is only interesting if it is relevant to your circumstances or your surroundings, and that relevance is what advertising requires. There are two streams where the industry finds new young talent: from advertising schools and in spaces where creativity thrives. 

Advertising schools are private, which means they are expensive. This does create a barrier to entry for many, and the industry works with these schools to create opportunities. According to Mashigo, who is also Chairman of the Creative Circle of South Africa, their goal is to give access to those who are really interested and have the talent: ‘We did a bursary scheme with only 40 available places, but 200 applied. The 40 that were successful included talented writers and designers, and all wanted to be in advertising. 

‘I think one way to solve this problem is to move advertising from private institutions to the public universities. We also have to bring in the Department of Education, because the arts are not supported at grassroots level. If you ask black art directors, the story is always the same: they were self-taught, driven to draw. It was not something they had access to at school, like art class.’

Many think that because they did not study advertising, the industry is closed to them. Chaudhry does not think that tertiary education is the only path into the advertising world. ‘I am looking for people who have done interesting things, not necessarily degrees, but a mix of interesting things. In a creative company, you never know where ideas come from. You get them in, and they can often learn on the go.’

Mashigo also believes in raw creativity. ‘I would go out searching for people with a passion, even people who had zero interest in advertising. If I am looking for natural writers, I find them at poetry or hip-hop sessions. They are what advertising needs.

‘You can find people who can be trained in the studio, but they must want to learn. Advertising people can come from any field: journalism, architecture or pure design. It is tricky though, because change is happening fast and time for teaching is limited.’ 

Many young people entering the advertising world are in for a shock, said Mashigo. ‘A lot of them expect quick results – their world has always been fast-paced, with glory and bling, and instant. They don’t understand why it should take time. The ones who are interested in learning from someone with experience are the ones who actually get the chance to break through.’ 

Chaudhry believes South Africa is good at shaping creatives, ‘If you look at the creative industry now, worldwide our artists and musicians are doing well. We were ranked 17th at Cannes, despite our economy being so small. We punch well above our weight.’

The reason South Africa is such a creative hub lies in its diversity of people and challenges faced by its youth. Young people, he added, have the resilience to face adversity because they have to fight for what they want and that often gives life to creativity. That creativity, applied with discipline, is the future of South Africa’s advertising industry.

M&C SAATCHI ABEL 
+27 11 268 6388 
www.mcsaatchiabel.co.za

Havas Study Shows Consumers Support Brands That Advocate Change

By
Modern Marketing
-

Havas’ Global Prosumer Study, ReACT, done at the beginning of the year across 28 diverse markets, shows that more than three in four prosumers are concerned about the state of the world. While the impact of Covid-19 could not have been anticipated, even before the virus hit, consumers were concerned, and their desire for radical change was pronounced.

There are strong expectations from consumers for brands and businesses to do more and move from a passive state to one of drastic action to effect real change. The emergence of Covid-19 met a world that was already battling social justice and ecological catastrophes, with consumers calling for radical change. In different ways, and for a number of reasons, consumers were anxious about the future and as the world wrestles with Covid-19, these anxieties have become more pronounced, demanding urgent action. 

‘As the world manages the current tipping point on various social issues, much of the insights we uncovered in ReACT speak to the state of mind of people and predict further shifts in the consumer landscape. Covid-19 and the economic lockdowns along with the global Black Lives Matter protests have highlighted and exacerbated anxieties on the state of injustice in the world. People are not only demanding change, but radical change that makes a meaningful difference to the world around them, and this is key for businesses to really understand and act on,’ said Lynn Madeley, CEO of Havas Southern Africa. 

Some key findings:

  • Consumers demand a radical change: most people — including 3 in 4 prosumers — believe solving the big issues we face will require radical action. A third of the study’s youngest respondents (aged 18-34) think this requires a complete reorganisation of government and society.
  • Catastrophic predictions discourage people from acting: people need a reason to believe that their efforts matter and that a better future is within grasp. More than three quarters of respondents engage more with brands that promote a strong vision of the future. Even more people (82%) think consumers would be more motivated to act if they were shown the beauty of all we risk losing rather than reports focused on the bleak reality of eco-destruction.  
  • Consumers don’t trust brands: around 60% of prosumers don’t trust brands’ sustainability commitments and believe they are only an effort to improve their corporate image. Most people believe that companies are on the wrong side of the battle against climate change, using their economic might to persuade governments not to make meaningful advances on sustainability and reduced consumption.
  • More expectations for big brands to lead change: the majority of respondents expect businesses to play a key role in change and believe that larger companies are better equipped to bring about fundamental transformation. Prosumers are convinced that size matters and 71% think it is the larger companies that will be most effective in creating a better world. 

HAVAS SOUTH AFRICA
+27115493600
info@havas.co.za
www.za.havas.com

Chicken Licken Ad Campaign Pays Homage To Everyday Lockdown Entertainers

By
Modern Marketing
-

Together with their brand and communications agency, Joe Public, Chicken Licken created a brand film that honours South Africa’s everyday entertainers and are fuelling this spirit in the form of ‘Soul Food for a soulful nation’.

The advert, directed by Tebogo ‘Tebza’ Malope from Star Films, features recreations of some of the popular social media videos that have kept South Africans going during the last few months – starring the very people who created them in celebrating their soulfulness.

Chief Creative Officer, Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public said, ’More than ever, brands have to keep a voice in the market space that speaks to the heart of what people are going through and truly connect to what they are feeling. That’s why it is so important to see that a truly South African brand like Chicken Licken, with a deeply entrenched culture and heritage, has kept their ears to the ground. In doing so, they’ve harnessed the strength of their brand to elevate and celebrate the everyday South African during these challenging times. It is these unique insights that reaffirm how we can all be everyday heroes.’

Tyson Ngubeni plays the lead actor, as an everyday South African whose popularity has skyrocketed thanks to his hilarious videos about uniquely South African things. The film follows his character – a cultural expert of a sort – as he uncovers what makes South Africa such a soulful nation and how this, in the face of adversity, has somehow lifted the country’s spirits. Through these exploits, he is finally led to a Chicken Licken store, where he discovers the Soul Food that keeps this soulful nation going.

 

JOE PUBLIC 
www.joepublicunited.co.za

Book Now For The Adobe Online Beginner Workshop

By
Modern Marketing
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The Adobe Creative Cloud 2020 workshop for beginners – presented by Modern Marketing LIVE – empowers participants in their unique creative scenarios, giving them a competitive advantage, and confidence to deliver professional quality design across multiple mediums from print to video and everything in between.

Creative Cloud is a collection of 20+ desktop and mobile apps and services for photography, design, video, web, UX and more. Take your ideas to new places by preparing professional-quality designs, exploring tools, workflows and ideal user interface settings.

This one hour workshop is delivered by Mo Jogie, Design and Strategy Director at MSD, who is an Adobe certified expert, instructor, community professional and ambassador.

Date and time: Thursday 23 July 2020, 11AM.
Price: R250 incl VAT per seat.

Buy your seat here. Limited seats available. If you are unable to attend the time slot, you can still book and a recording will be sent to you.

MODERN MARKETING
+27114501650
modernmarketing.co.za/live

Industry Interview: Steph van Niekerk On Presenting and Packaging Ideas That Engage People

By
Modern Marketing
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Steph van Niekerk, Creative Director at Grey Advertising.

In our exclusive Modern Marketing Industry Interview series, we feature Steph van Niekerk, a Creative Director at Grey Advertising who discusses creating insightful campaigns that engage people.

Early life

I started off by studying Business Science at UCT as I was good at Mathematics and Science and never considered myself to be a creative. During those days, it was either you were a creative or you were clever. I got into advertising out of ‘scare rebellion’, it was exactly what my dad did not want me to do, but I did it anyway. I went and still go to the Red & Yellow School of Advertising – I got an internship when I was 20.’

Career highlights

Van Niekerk’s work experience includes Ogilvy Cape Town, Jupiter Drawing Room, Lowe Bull and more. ‘The most recent highlight was being part of a team that created the Citilodge radio advert, The Real Cost, which was the first Zulu radio spot that won a Cannes and D&AD One show award.’

What have you enjoyed the most about working in this industry?

‘We get to work with amazing, smart, passionate, people who are natural problem solvers. There is magic when you get to work with a lot of different experts in their fields, especially when it comes to the production of a film or advert as everyone pulls together for a common cause. I love that part of my job. I truly am amazed by the amount of talent that is out there. The truth about this industry is that no two days are the same, except for now during Covid-19.’ 

Industry-related changes 

Culture: advertising was crazy – there was a culture of long lunches, sex, drugs, alcohol and rock and roll. But over the years, with the rise of holding companies, the culture is changing and has become a lot more corporate and business-like in a sense. The good part about it is that the myth of being wild and self-destructive in order to be perceived as a creative, which was dangerous, is no longer a thing. I have noticed more people stepping in to help when they see someone in trouble, which is good as over the years I have a seen a lot of young talent blowing out before they even started.

Transformation: it is not where it needs to be, and it is coming in a bit too slow. But the growth of young black talent in the last decade has been amazing. Now we need to nurture, support and encourage this amazing talent and make sure that they get to the next level, such as management positions.

I have worked with a lot of females in my career thus far. When I was a younger creative, I thought it was much more equal as my peers were girls but as I climbed the ranks, I started to see fewer women in higher positions. We have lost a lot of female talent to emigration, and that is something we need to be aware of.

To hear more about keys to executing a successful campaign, 2020 major advertising trends and van Niekerk’s hobbies or interests, watch the rest of the interview below.

Keys to success

‘The key to being successful in the advertising industry is resilience. It is not an easy industry – you need to roll with the punches and ride it out. There are many peaks and great moments that crash in disappointments and everything in-between. Do not give up.

‘As a creative, I have also realised that a good idea is one part of the job, but you still need to package it in a way that works for the clients and the consumers. Once you realise this, it suddenly all makes sense. The idea is 60% of the work and 40% is how you pull it together and present it to the world.’

Van Niekerk’s favourite campaign is the Citi Lodge Real Cost radio advert below:

GREY JHB
www.grey.co.za

OneOff Launches Customised T-Shirt Design, Order and Deliver Website

By
Reporter
-

OneOff’s new T-shirt design website allows users to select their own design and order online anywhere, anytime, from any device. Users can select a garment style from the company’s catalogue of quality products. The T-shirts can also be customised, with clients able to design their own shirt, and upload their own branding, wording or graphics. 

Full-colour direct to garment (DTG) branding from one item is available – there are no screen or setup costs. OneOff digital printing processes have been developed to address quality, efficiency and cost, using the latest in printing technology to deliver cutting edge digital printing options. Their advanced print-on-demand technology provides what users want when they want it. There is no more inventory and no more obsolete stock. Inventory or warehousing can be things of the past, and if you are a printer or wholesaler, there are no more prepress expenses associated with conventional printing processes.

OneOff digital printing is the future of printing and delivers high-quality full-colour printing, with no minimum orders, quick turnarounds and shipped directly to you or your customers. The apparel is printed with digital speed and precision.

The company is committed to creating value and sustainability throughout their manufacturing process – their T-shirts are manufactured in South Africa. From the sourcing of the cotton to the delivery of their garments, they constantly monitor and improve their processes, enhancing the Southern African value chain. 

They are also able to offer you an affiliate website, for free, and customised to your requirements with your own graphics. This is for you to advertise to your customers and for the orders placed to go to them to fulfil and send to you or directly to your customer – without you having to lift a finger to place the purchase order, control the print approval, fetch stocks, or have the goods delivered. You just reap the profits. For more detailed information, please contact: Info@OneOff.co.za. 

To place your orders, resellers can visit www.OneOff.co.za and retailers can visit www.OneOff-Retail.co.za. Only available in Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga at the moment. 

ONEOFF 
Mike@OneOff.co.za
oneoff.co.za

Tips For Influencers To Package Themselves Better For Marketing Campaigns

By
Reporter
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TT Ndhlovu, Founder and Director of NuWave Communications.

TT Ndhlovu, Founder and Director of NuWave Communications, states that marketers have grown to understand influencer marketing very well and can be rightfully finicky when having to select influencers to work on a brand campaign.

It’s pivotal for influencers to know this in order to package themselves in a way that is fitting to this criterion or they could be wondering why they’re simply not getting noticed.  It goes without saying that social media ‘influencerville’ has grown considerably over the years and marketers have embraced this wave, which has given their brands an opportunity to communicate messages in a way that has never been done before.

The world has changed: people don’t want to engage with brands, they want to engage with people. They want brands to listen to them, they want to create personalised connections that go beyond a one-size-fits-all broadcast message.

In this day and age, it takes more than just showcasing impressively large numbers of followers as a selling point. Influencers now find themselves in a space where they need to put some serious thought into what it is that they’re influencing and truly understanding their niche, packaging of tasteful content and what the stats behind every post and campaign actually mean.

The more influencer marketing grows, the higher the expectations from influencers as content creators. Back then, influencers could get away with just posting, trending a topic and moving on the next campaign but now a trending topic needs to come with greater analytics in order to track success on a campaign and that’s an area that influencers need to examine with a fine-tooth comb.

How to package yourself better for future marketing campaigns:

Content creation, appeal to the audience and audience relationships

Content lies at the centre of what social media influencers do, so it goes without saying that they need to critically consider the content they put out and what it looks like. Marketers also look at the relationship influencers have with their community and how they interact with each other. Do your followers look to you for information that affects their purchase decisions?

Number of followers in relation to impact, engagement, reach and real followers

Of course, the number of followers you have still matters, but there’s an added layer of how they engage with your content. Do your posts have reach? What percentage of your following is real or not? It happens that social media influencers have a high following but produce very little impact, engagement and reach.

Find your tribe and stick to it

There are various communities that influencers advocate for, and often those communities form part of a brand’s target market. In South Africa, we have influencers with strong voices in the music, fashion, beauty, fitness, food and travel cultures, and many brands find their passion points in these and other spaces; often relying on influencer partnerships to create conversations that infiltrate these cultures and their subcultures.

Although influencers can find themselves thriving in these spaces, understanding their audience, what makes them tick and the extent in which they connect with each other’s content makes them stand out amongst the pack.

Budget

Marketers will always want to know if the social media influencer makes sense for their budget. Usually, this is where the negotiations come in. It’s here that most marketers will want to get the most out of their buck for the brief at hand, and where most influencers and their managers will want to consider the scope of work and length, a potential new relationship, and the budget available (among other factors) in meeting the required brand objectives. Influencers need to have competitive, industry related rates as this will always make negotiations easier.

Previous work (with competitors)

Most marketers will always check your social media pages to see your previous work and particularly look at whether you’ve worked with any of their competitors and to what extent. This is an important element to think about and can’t be stressed enough.

Relationship with brand and authenticity

Has the influencer actually used the brand’s products? Having a relationship with a brand that you’re looking to work with is always a bonus. There’s nothing like an influencer that doesn’t drink beer but works on a beer campaign, although marketers can overlook this sometimes.

Influencer brand fit and personality

Does the influencer and his/her lifestyle fit the brand image? An influencer brand fit analysis will always help marketers find influencers who are the best fit for their brand, influencers with the right personality and attitude to represent the brand externally. Accessibility can sometimes be a hindrance in marketing messages reaching the desired target audiences authentically.

Influencer expectations vs brand expectations

Influencer’s expectations will always matter to marketers, and sometimes these expectations can be the reason why they don’t get the brief. We should remember that expectations will always differ from influencer to influencer. Some influencers have worked with many brands previously, so they may have their own processes on how they conduct business.

Essentially, influencers need to have an understanding of the industry, how it works and where they come in so that they can co-exist in an ever-growing eco-system. These are just some pointers for influencers and aspiring influencers to consider. It will help them get into the minds of marketers for a second and be able to package themselves better for future considerations and recommendations.

NUWAVE COMMUNICATIONS
+27728379400
tt@nuwavecomms.co.za

Crafting Shareable Online Content

By
Reporter
-
Abhishek Borah, INSEAD Assistant Professor of Marketing.

To help overcome consumer fatigue, Abhishek Borah, INSEAD Assistant Professor of Marketing, and his co-authors launched a research study to explore the potential for social media communication that customers do not get tired of and, on the contrary, love to share with others.

Crafting social media posts that drive both clicks and profits and how to engage customers effectively in the digital world remains a mystery for many businesses today. And it will not get easier anytime soon, because a growing number of consumers are frustrated by, and suspicious of, digital communications such as online advertisements.  In short, we encourage businesses to trade upon a provocative and novel marketing tool, namely Improvised Marketing Interventions (IMI).

What’s an IMI?

An IMI (a term we coined for the paper) is a marketing communication launched on the back of a high-profile event as it is happening. The real-time, endlessly scrolling nature of social media newsfeeds makes them the ideal medium for IMI, but email messages, web browser notifications, etc. could be vehicles for IMI too.

A textbook example of an IMI is Oreo’s famous tweeted graphic from the 2013 Super Bowl, inspired by a power outage that stopped the game cold for half an hour, ‘Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.’ In addition to unexpectedly commenting on events as they unfolded, Oreo’s ad used humour to promote affection for the product – a combination that led not only to its going viral but also to a healthy financial reward, our research suggests.

The impact of IMI

We began by digging deeper into the Oreo tweet and its effect on the brand’s virality (as measured by retweets) before and after the ‘dunk in the dark’ marketing coup. Comparing the hour before the tweet to the hour after, we noted a more than a six-fold increase in Oreo retweets per second, from 7.5 to 48. These were not the raw numbers (which recorded a much higher tweet count per second of 115 post-‘dunk in the dark’), but the figures as they stood after we accounted for the unusually high volume of Twitter activity during the 30 minute blackout period.

Further experiments confirmed that humour and timeliness were key drivers of virality. For our second study, we showed 800 participants fake tweets and asked them to rate them for humour, timeliness and surprise, as well as their willingness to retweet. We found that tweets that were judged as both funny and surprising, as well as funny and timely, inspired far more social media sharing spirit. The third study analysed 462 actual IMI tweets sent between 2010 and 2015 (with the help of human coders evaluating the attributes of each one). Not only were the ones in the humour-timeliness-surprise sweet spot more viral, but their virality seemed to translate into an abnormal bump in the associated companies’ stock price in the days immediately following.

Finally, in studies four and five, our findings were further reinforced through a separate set of comparisons. First, we compare a sub-set of tweets (both IMI and non-) from the airline industry, then a complete set of tweets sent by 25 firms (randomly selected from the S&P 500) during April 2019. Again, humour and timeliness, as well as humour and surprise, added up to virality. Tweets with all three qualities were correlated with a 0.4 percent increase in abnormal stock market returns on average. This boost equates to a per-firm average of 5.1 million USD in market capitalisation.

The five rules

1. Use quick wit

Wit or appreciation of humour has a major influence on the quality of an interaction and shapes the impression one forms of another. However, sending a funny tweet is not good enough, we found. Instead, the effectiveness of a tweet’s humour is closely associated with timing and surprise.

2. Engage social media users in a conversation about what is happening now

People in general and internet users, in particular, have a desire to engage spontaneously with events as they happen. This helps users contribute to their communities in more valuable and meaningful ways than they could with outdated and uninteresting news. Timeliness in response to an external event injects new fuel into a marketing communication’s humour, providing more impetus for people’s desire to bond with others via the swift sharing of a tweet.

3. Co-opt external events

Rather than paying millions for a Super Bowl ad, businesses may consider sending a witty and timely (or unanticipated) tweet related to:

  • Tent-pole events, which occur at regular intervals (e.g. Oscars, Grammys or Olympic Games – when these are revived after the Covid-19 crisis).
  • Specific events on established dates for which some details remain uncertain (e.g. messages designed to stoke the mystery about anticipated products such as the iPhone 12).
  • Specific events on uncertain dates (e.g. speculations about when a Covid-19 vaccine will become available).
  • Trending topics addressed by popular Twitter hashtags (e.g. #launchamerica or #BlackLivesMatter).

4. Trust and empower your marketing team

Many managers believe that a firm’s marketing message is best planned well ahead. Potential advantages of such an approach are well understood. However, this strategy can also lead to a brand being seen as out of touch, drifting from its target audience and failing to capture the zeitgeist. We encourage firms to empower marketing teams with the latitude to keep a close eye on trends and spontaneous chatter so they can quickly formulate witty messages in response to these events.

5. Relinquish some control over tweets’ content at times

For their team to respond to external events as they unfold, businesses may need to relinquish some level of control over the message at times. Be aware, however, that a marketing team may hit the ‘send’ button too quickly. To protect themselves against backlash, firms must identify the right employees to execute witty and timely tweets – their sense of humour and timing should be on point and not offensive.

Increasing the impact

As our research highlights, tweets that manage to go viral are not only about enhanced market capitalisation, but also relate to investor foresight and signalling. If investors can spot tweets that pair humour with surprise or timeliness, they will be able to make better investment decisions. Managers can use these tweets strategically, to signal their firm’s performance and marketing capabilities to financial markets (more often than they could via quarterly reports).

Co-authors of the study were: Sourindra Banerjee, Lecturer, Leeds University Business School; Yu-Ting Lin, Teaching and Research Associate in Marketing, Imperial College Business School; Apurv Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, MacroXstudio; and Andreas B. Eisingerich, Professor of Marketing and Head of Analytics, Marketing and Operations, Imperial College Business School.

INSEAD
knowledge.insead.edu

Opportunities For Brands In Gaming, eSports And Content Creation

By
The Mediashop
-
Neo Mtshatsheni, Media Strategist at The MediaShop.

According to Neo Mtshatsheni, Media Strategist at The MediaShop, platforms like Instagram and Facebook Live have certainly proved their worth over the past few months.

Moving away from posting images of themselves enjoying a meal at the coolest, trendiest restaurant or spotting their latest pair of jeans, sneakers or sunglasses, South Africa’s youth have used these platforms to engage on issues ranging from racism, gender based violence (GBV), etc.

Despite the pandemic holding many hostage in their homes, South Africans have continued to find innovative ways to have their voices heard and to show off their skills through, for example, gaming or content creation.

From a channel perspective, digital was always going to reap more benefit from this audience and the lockdown period has certainly affirmed this, especially in the eSports category and on social media.

Instagram TV (IGTV) saw its first Instavella created by Ayanda Mkayi, which depicts the lives of individuals living in an apartment block in Johannesburg during the national lockdown, with all scenes shot individually from the actors’ homes. Shooting ads and general TV production during lockdown was prohibited and now despite the extensive safety measures that are put in place, production still falls victim to the invisible Covid-19 enemy halting production. But fresh, relatable content remains key and as there is a growing need for local content, IGTV soapies are something to look out for!

On the eSports front, South Africa may not compare to its global counterparts in terms of the sheer size of active gamers but the interest and gaming community numbers are increasing steadily and will continue to do so. For every mobile device in hand lies a gamer and current stats show that 71% of connected South Africans play games exclusively from their mobile device. And for a category that is usually perceived to be predominantly male, 63% of them are women aged 30, and 50% of them are older than 34 years and are using the platform as a means to escape their everyday lives. There are also many that play competitively against their male counterparts.

Console owners also provide a sizeable opportunity for marketers with 53.8% of households having children that go to school. 39% are 35-49 years and 25% are 24-34 years. This audience might have a male skew, but paired with the mobile universe it most certainly delivers numbers and diversity.

Most importantly, right now in South Africa mobile gaming is probably also the easiest way to buy media and get your brand in front of eyes. The growth in this category has been exponential compared to general entertainment. The global e-sports industry has been growing at a rate of 30% year on year and the PC gaming market is set to be worth 788.1 billion ZAR (45.5 billion USD) in 2021! The global box office, which generated revenue to the tune of 722.2 billion ZAR  (41.7 billion USD) in 2008 and the gaming market generated 2.6 trillion ZAR (151.2 billion USD). With fewer eyeballs available for live sports and more time indoors, this category is certainly one that cannot be ignored.

As marketers, with the ever-changing landscape and demographic, we are constantly challenged to not only look for meaningful insights but re-evaluating the norm as the bar continues to be set high. Change is the only constant throughout this.

THE MEDIASHOP
www.mediashop.co.za

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