Set in motion with in-field interviews in March 2018, South Africa’s largest quantitative community survey #ROOTS2019 is being launched in June across South Africa. A partnership with Ads24 means the inclusion of 16 new areas to gain insights from. This enables the building bricks of the survey to be a total of 112 surveyed areas.

‘The ROOTS survey has been conducted every three years since 2001 and a large portion of the question set has remained the same, with necessary additions to remain relevant,’ said Debbie McIntyre, Marketing and Research Director at SPARK Media. ‘This year, the survey boasts some different areas and communities, and more insights that ever before.’

ROOTS’ quantitative research explores shopping behaviours and decisions, and can be used to create an in-depth analysis on areas where the economically active population lives. Want to know how many homes are owned or rented in your suburb? Overall, 37% of homes are owned and bond-free. Most bond-free homes can be found in Umzinto (64%), as well as Sedibeng and George (58%). 24% of homes are rented, with the highest percentage found in Burgersfort, Berea (Durban) and Kensington (Johannesburg).

36% of households have dogs, however only 5% of pet owners have pet insurance even though 57% took their pet to the vet in the past year.

The research methodology model provides a national snapshot that is designed to enable detailed analysis and decision making at a local level. 77% of Randburg residents purchase take-aways at least once a month. Seapoint has the highest percentage of people that travel (41%). Social media usage ranks highest in Bellville.

‘Every local area is different in terms of structure and shopping behaviours, and the data continuously proves this, showing us changes and new trends,’ said McIntyre. ‘Shoppers are not willing to travel too far to buy food and groceries; while 61% of consumers will only travel a maximum of 15 minutes to shop.’

‘The best read and used papers across the ROOTS sample areas are still, by far, local papers, with 65% of shoppers having read them. The gap has widened significantly in this category, with only 17% of shoppers having read weekly or weekend newspapers,’ McIntyre added.

ROOTS launches in Durban on the 4th of June, Johannesburg on the 6th of June and Cape Town on the 11th of June. For more information or to book your seat for the launch, use the contact details below.

SPARK MEDIA
+27114928391 
info@sparkmedia.co.za
www.sparkmedia.co.za/about-roots/

According to Impact BBDO Dubai CEO, Dani Richa, the Loeries has played a major role in setting the bar high and in establishing the gold standard for creativity in the region, and it has brought out the best in agencies.

He believes the high quality of competition expected by the Loeries has had a positive effect on creativity in the Middle East. ‘To us, it is like competing in sports – it is the arena where you want to outperform yourself and others in a healthy competitive environment with a great spirit.’

The agency is ranked number one in the Middle East in the Loeries Official Rankings, and among its highly creative, bottom-line driving work is the Loeries Grand Prix award-winning ‘Lucky Face’ campaign.

Ticket sales were way down for Lebanese lottery company, La Libanaise Des Jeux. Young people just weren’t buying tickets. Then Impact BBDO Dubai came up with the idea of turning selfies into lottery tickets using face-recognition technology to generate a six-digit code from people’s features. The fact that your face literally becomes your entry into the draw enthralled young people to the point where weekly ticket sale records are now consistently being broken. ‘The campaign is bold – even daring – using technology to make something old-fashioned feel fresh, and consumers simply love it,’ said Richa.

Another inspirational mash-up of old-school and high-tech came from TBWA\RAAD Dubai – again a Loeries Grand Prix winner. Their ‘Highway Gallery’ campaign for Louvre Abu Dhabi, in which giant images of masterpieces from the museum were placed along the desolate Dubai-Abu Dhabi E11 highway, added interest and colour to a dry expanse of road. But the real innovation is that, as commuters drove past the billboards, their radio signal was replaced by the Abu Dhabi Louvre audio-commentary about the artwork outside their car windows.

Copywriter and 2019 Loeries Jury President Nedal Ahmed, who was born in Libya to Sudanese parents, said that working at the highest level in the US or Europe, she doesn’t always get to see the diversity of creative material she would like. ‘Sometimes we tend to get in a bubble, we get busy. You don’t seek work that doesn’t fall into your lap.’

Broadening her horizon was part of what motivated Ahmed to head up the Loeries jury – she wants to be inspired by work from the region: ‘I really want to be involved in a show that is focused on Africa and the Middle East, because I want to see and be a part of the work that is coming out of the area and to understand it.’

’If you look at the work and how it has progressed over the years, I would definitely credit the Loeries with having elevated creativity in the Middle East. And as a testament to that, work awarded at the Loeries is also celebrated on the global stage,’ concluded Richa.

The Loeries final extended deadline for entries is 7 June, 2019.

LOERIES 
www.loeries.com

Youth engagement specialist agency Andpeople were tasked with creating a multimedia campaign to support the launch of adidas’ reflective Nite Jogger silhouette. The challenge the agency faced was a desire by the brand to reach a broadcast audience, but without the material or media budget to meet this ambition.

The solution was to create a unique collaboration between two unlikely individuals: Gqom King DJ Lag and commercial pop sensation Stream Queen Shekhinah. By bringing their creative powers together, the duo produced a unique track, entitled ‘Anywhere we go’, supported by a high impact music video; directed by award-winning director Kyle Lewis.

The result is not only a heavy-hitting visual interpretation of Nite Jogger, but a sonic composition, which is getting infinite plays across all commercial radio and online streaming channels, with all signs leading to this extending well beyond the campaign period.

With the support of a robust digital and social plan, the campaign now transcends all broadcast channels through the creation of non traditional assets that don’t rely on a media buy to flight.

Critically, the execution creates cultural currency for adidas by empowering the creativity of two of our country’s most exciting artists, and using this output to provide long lasting inspiration for creativity among South African youth.

‘We live in a time when our audience are seeking and consuming content at a rate we can hardly comprehend. But they’re seeking out content that matters to them, and that creates value. Our intention was to use the power of culture to launch Nite Jogger in a way advertising alone couldn’t. We wanted to create material that wouldn’t simply launch a shoe, but would represent a cultural moment in time for years to come,’ said Duncan MacLennan, Managing Director of Andpeople.

Andpeople hello@andpeople.com www.andpeople.com/contact/cape-town/

On-demand marketing has arrived in the form of the world’s first units that offer free samples of multiple brands in exchange for automatic data collection. Conceptualised by creative agency owners Ursula MacDonald and Pippa Capstick, the duo are proud to introduce Automated Business Intelligence Engines (ABIE) from Trial Run Media.

In the Mckinsey and Company report on ‘The coming era of on-demand marketing’, Peter Dahlstrom states that ‘digital marketing is about to enter more challenging territory. Building on the vast increase in consumer power brought on by the digital age, marketing is headed toward being on-demand – not just ‘always on’, but also always relevant, responsive to the consumer’s desire for marketing that cuts through the noise with pinpoint delivery.’

It’s exactly what the entrepreneurial creators of ABIE from Trial Run Media had in mind when they conceptualised the world’s first network ABIEs, launching this spring, that offers on-demand content like free samples and loyalty rewards, linked to automatic data collection. The Intellectual Property is owned by Trial Run. While sampling isn’t new, it has never been automatically linked to data.

What Trial Run Media has created is a consumer experience radically integrated across the physical and virtual environment. With Trial Run, consumers are in charge of the marketing experience. They choose the ‘content’ – a free sample of the brand they want to try – by entering a campaign URL into the browser of their smart phones. They are then prompted to enter their name and cellphone number, after which, they effortlessly receive a code to enter into ABIE’s keypad to release the sample.

A live dashboard tracks each sample in real-time and connects it to the recipient’s mobile phone, creating an instant feedback loop that connects consumers to the brand world on their own terms. The holy grail of marketing is cracking the code that would see consumers choosing to interact with a brand or business. Trial Run allows consumers to choose their marketing experience and their engagement is tracked, leading them down a funnel towards purchase, loyalty and personalised engagement.

Appointment sampling is dead. Gone are the days where consumers had to purchase a magazine to try a new product or be harassed in a shopping mall to get their valuable attention. On-demand sampling is the new disruptor that puts the consumer in charge and gives brands and businesses access to instant business intelligence.

Founders Ursula McDonald and Pippa Capstick call it ‘Advertising on-demand’. McDonald explained, ‘Trial Run will give brands the data they need to make informed business decisions, understand who their market is and reward their most loyal consumers.’

Capstick sees exciting engagement possibilities with consumers: ‘When someone has chosen to try your brand, they want to hear your brand story and with Trial Run the possibilities are endless – you can share videos, you can chat in real-time, you can invite consumers to events and even direct them to your online store in the moment when they have your brand in their hand.’

But much of their focus has been on creating value to the sales funnel. ‘Trial Run connects traditional advertising to the trial of a product effortlessly,’ explained McDonald. ‘Brands can add a Trial Run short campaign URL to their TV or print adverts, social media posts and in-store collateral. Consumers will receive a code with a link that tells them which ABIE is closest to them. Or they have the option of simply accessing the code whilst standing in front of the machine, with the added option of a QR code. We know that trial is fundamental to getting consumers to switch brands and Trial Run makes this effortless for both brands and consumers.’

The marketing can also be time or location based. ‘Follow up marketing messages can easily be tailored for the time of day when consumers are receiving a sample or relevant to the location in which they are receiving them,’ said Capstick. ‘Imagine the loyalty possibilities – who wouldn’t thank you for a free umbrella when it’s raining? That’s the power Trial Run can bring to your marketing arsenal.’

It’s a new concept, never before tried anywhere in the world but these two marketing pioneers are excited about the measurable results Trial Run can deliver. ‘We can offer 24/7 automatic sampling, automatic stock control, automatic POPI compliant data collection and an instant data driven marketing campaign,’ explained McDonald. ‘There is no wastage, no pilferage and results are measured in real-time. Promotions can also be automatically linked to real-time sales. It’s the switch machine marketers have been waiting for.’

At launch Trial Run’s footprint will extend across 50 malls in Gauteng, offering 1.9 million sampling opportunities monthly across multiple consumer profiles. This will soon extend to malls nationwide as well as corporate offices, gyms, airports, retail environments and schools nationwide.

TRIAL RUN MEDIA
+27101410265 
trialrun.media

Science fiction movies and novels did an amazing job of creating and dramatising encounters with Artificial Intelligence (AI) – but did it prepare us for the real world of AI? Unfortunately not, according to Jarred Mailer-Lyons, Head of Digital at The MediaShop.
 
People probably still envision AI in the form a robot straight out of The Jetsons. If you didn’t watch episodes of that in your youth, then I’m sure you can recall our very own South African filmed Chappie? Of course, the unpredictable nature of self-improving machines lends itself well to fictional stories but is it really something that tech companies are investing in?
 
Not really – well, not physical robots at this stage that are going to cook you a decent meal at least! But I do know that machine learning is on the cards and of course it’s no surprise when it comes to the likes of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. These tech giants, some more so than others, are heavily invested in the acquisition of companies that have built their empires on machine learning before being snatched up by one of the big players.
 
Machine learning is all about moving forward, and whether we like it or not, it will play an essential role in our technological future. The largest and best companies in the world already know this, and they’re heavily invested.
 
But what does this mean for us as advertisers – will we have a role to play in digital advertising in the coming years?

Give machine learning the credit it deserves. We have all consumed content through traditional and digital means – all the while knowing that we’re bound to be served a random untargeted, irrelevant ad along the way. It was unfortunately a relationship we had to accept in the past, unless we had invested in premium rated services or some sort of ad blocker. But, it’s no surprise that we became increasingly intolerant and immune to this form of disruptive and sometimes untargeted advertising.
 
Some of the big players have identified this problem and saw the need for change in order to continue to grow and hold on to their current and loyal audiences. A prime example back in 2018 was when Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be changing its news feed algorithm to prioritise content to focus more on friends, family and groups and promised us less exposure to public content like posts from businesses, brands and media. It was a step in the right direction but of course Facebook is built on its commercial offering so how do you adapt the algorithm to the changing needs of individual consumers?
 
Companies build AI that delivers on customisation – a buzzword that stuck a couple years back. Now that ads are delivered through a medium marketed on the promise that it would be personalised to us, mass ads don’t cut it anymore. Consumers don’t only want to be heard – they expect to be heard, understood, respected and not just fed mass advertising – especially when it comes to the social space. In fact, according to SalesForce’s Connected Consumer Report, 51% of consumers expect that by 2020 companies will anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before making contact.
 
I mean how does a giant tech company like Facebook even begin to understand an individual consumer’s needs before they have even made up their own mind? Well that’s machine learning for you and that’s what makes us better marketers. These algorithms will allow us to better refine our targeting based on individual needs, interests and characteristics.
 
What we do need to remember though is that technology has a way of outpacing our ability to understand what is actually going on – and that’s definitely the case with machine learning. So much like some of the major tech companies making advances in AI and machine learning, what are you doing to continually learn about your consumers? Don’t let your brand become a distant memory.

THE MEDIASHOP
+27112584000 
www.mediashop.co.za