Nfinity Media’s AdColony delivered an unprecedented 37% engagement rate for Telkom’s Summer campaign, smashing the average local industry benchmark of just 3%.

Telkom aligned with AdColony to extend their 30 second ad into an engaging media placement, tasking consumers to interact with the video, while collecting and inputting a correct sequence of numbers. These were correctly completed over 460,000 times. The objective of the campaign was to educate consumers on Telkom’s FreeMe Bundle service and to generate awareness and engagement around the *180# USSD string, in a fun and innovative way.
 
AdColony South Africa’s MD Andrew Kramer explained, ‘The campaign ran for a period of five months specifically utilising our Aurora product, which delivers interactive video advertising experiences like allowing users to tap and swipe the campaign on their phone or to shake and tilt their devices for added engagement. The technology is astounding – the ad was watched to full completion 1.2 million times during the campaign period. The Aurora product offers brands amazing life-like graphics, Instant-Play™ and HD quality video with lightning fast loading. These factors added to the campaign’s success,’
 
Nivasha Pillay, Digital Media Lead for Telkom SA at media agency Vizeum said, ‘Working with AdColony to bring to life our interactive video for Telkom Summer was both daunting and exciting. Mostly because it breaks the norm around what we do as a brand, and pushes our boundaries. The results were phenomenal and we are proud of the work which was done as it hit our KPI’s out the park in the first three weeks.’

NFINITY 
+27109002021
kevin@nfinity.co.za
www.nfinity.co.za

SheSays, in collaboration with the Vega School of Brand Leadership and newly formed Cape Town agency HelloFCB, will host the Girls Gone Bad – Beating toxic colleagues and building your pack event, which will take place at the Vega campus in Cape Town on 23 May 2019.

For its fifth event panel, SheSays Cape Town has brought together a number of industry heavyweights, such as John Brown’s Group Managing and Executive Director, Lani Carstens, HelloFCB’s MD, Robyn Campbell and The Friday Street Club Owner and MD, Emma King. They will be joined by editor-activist Palesa Kgasane (formerly from Between10and5) and 3verse strategic director, Kay Orlandi.

SheSays chapter director Anelde Greeff said, ‘As always, we choose topics based on direct feedback from attendees who share their ideas in post-event surveys. The topic of toxic colleagues has been a constant, so we welcome the opportunity to unpack this with a hand-picked panel of women in what promises to be another thought-provoking and entertaining evening. Most of us will have to deal with toxic colleagues at some point in our careers, whether it’s a queen bee boss, backstabbing teammate or backchatting junior. The best way to deal with these ‘anti-mentors’ is for women to support women and to build your pack.’

‘Vega is a brand that supports a culture of learning to find your purpose. Diversity is incredibly important to us, which is why we’ve been following the SheSays Cape Town chapter with interest. It creates a much-needed forum for career issues and sharing ideas that could propel women’s careers. We are delighted to host this topical discussion at Vega,’ added Dr Carla Enslin, National Head of Strategy and New Business Development at Vega School of Brand leadership.

Entry is free but space is limited, so RSVP to secure your spot. If you’re unable to attend on the night to please cancel the ticket via Eventbrite so your seat can be given to someone else.

SHESAYS
weareshesays.com

Alliance Media recently supported a charity that provides heart surgeries to children in Tanzania.

The Heart Marathon is organised to help children who are suffering from heart problems, and currently there are 512 children waiting to undergo heart operations at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JCI). The Alliance Media Tanzania team provided financial support and helped to create awareness for the marathon, which took place on 28 April 2019 in Dar es Salaam with over 3000 runners.

‘Supporting this charity allows us to make a difference, but we could not have done it without the support of our valued customers,’ said Greg Benatar, Sales and Marketing Director at Alliance Media.

ALLIANCE MEDIA
info@alliancemedia.com
www.alliancemedia.com

Maggie Pronto, Media Strategist at The MediaShop, states that research from ‘The State of the Connected Consumer’ by Salesforce, indicates that consumers’ attitudes about how their data is being used is changing.
 
Salesforce surveyed more than 7000 consumers to understand what drives them, and what they have discovered is that personalisation is not only expected but demanded. Personalisation in advertising communication is a key part of the consumer journey as consumers want a unique connection in exchange for their time, but they’re also concerned about how brands use their data.
 
When consumers evaluate purchases, they equally rank personalisation and reputation. In fact more than 52% will not hesitate to switch brands if they don’t receive the customisation they expect. Once they have chosen a specific brand, 62% want personalised product recommendations and discounts – like Netflix for retail.
 
As long as there are real benefits, a brand’s customers will likely become repeat buyers with 40% of consumers (Segment’s research) saying that they have purchased something more expensive than they planned because of their experience. It’s like when I receive my tailor-made Pick n Pay vouchers – you never leave the shops with what you planned to!

According to Evergage’s Study on Personalisation, there are a wide range of benefits, with results from marketers provided based on their programmes:
 
• Realised a measurable lift in business results (88%) – with 53% reporting a lift greater than 10%, and 10% reporting a lift greater than 30%.
• Increased conversion rates (63%).
• Improved overall customer experience (61%).
• Increased visitor engagement (57%).
 
These results would surely encourage marketers to prioritise personalisation, understanding that budget is a key barrier. Where would a brand start and how would they use it? Findings indicate the following:
• Channels for personalisation – marketers are using personalisation in email campaigns (72%), as well as on their company’s website (57%), mobile site (28%), web app (20%) and mobile app (18%).
• Personalisation criteria – marketers report personalising based on visitor location (60%), demographics (56%), pages/content viewed (54%), campaign source (50%) and previous behaviour (48%).
• Machine learning on the rise – among marketers applying just rule-based personalisation, one in three (32%) plan to use machine-learning-driven personalisation next year.
• More personalisation staff – 59% of marketers say their organisations have personnel focused on personalisation while 38% say it’s a full-time responsibility for those individuals.
 
We have come a long way – from broad to more individual based communication. With all the messaging that consumers have to sift through – more relevant and tailor-made messaging makes for more ‘stoppable’ moments and from what we have seen, brands really need to inspire consumers to make a purchase.

THE MEDIASHOP
+27112584000 
www.mediashop.co.za

Avukile Mabombo, Group Marketing Manager at Protea Hotels by Marriott stated that a few years ago, the demand from clients and agency heads was to create campaigns and posts that ‘go viral’. It didn’t take long for online audiences to prove that to be nearly impossible. But every now and then, with some quick-witted ingenuity, it’s possible to get your brand caught up in a viral tornado.

Where’s the best place to reach relevant audiences? That’s one of the primary questions marketers ask.  Here’s how this can change lives, for a brand and the people involved.

Monitoring the news

Key word and phrase monitoring on the part of media tools relating to your brand can only take you so far. At times, your social media person will be manually working through streams of online content, trying to filter out what’s relevant, which ones require an active response and which ones are just ‘noise’.

‘Seventy-two percent of people who use Twitter to lodge complaints expect a response within an hour,’ according to a report by Lithium Technologies. ‘That puts huge pressure on companies to have both staff and a strategy in place to deal with customers on Twitter.’

In December 2018, our social media team was doing just that when they came across a remarkable story: BA Law graduate in Political Science, Inge Beukes, took to Twitter on Sunday 9 December and said, ‘Called my gran to tell her I got my degree and she burst out in tears. Turns out she’s been using her pension for the past few months to save up for a flight ticket to Gauteng for my graduation. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.’

A lovely Tweet on its own, but what happened next reflects the power of social media and the heart-warming impact when people engage. Airline Kulula took up the call, offering to provide a ticket for Inge’s gran to get to the event.

This was followed closely by Protea hotels by Marriott: ‘Hey @ComradeInge. @ProteaHotels would love to make your gran’s stay in Gauteng all the more memorable. How does putting her up in one of our hotels for the night sound? Maybe a special dinner as well? DM us your details so we can make this happen. Happy graduation.’

Even the Gautrain jumped in to provide a transport option and fast-food brand Nandos also sweetened the deal. Of course, we can’t all have our wishes granted on social media but, when it’s for as touching a moment as this, we’re all thrilled. Fast-forward a few months; Beukes’ graduation is happening, Gogo is on the way, and all the wheels set in motion months ago are rolling. While it took time to come to fruition, this good-news story is happening at a university near you!

Whether you’re a mom-and pop business or a global brand leader, that conversation has to happen. A single Tweet can circumnavigate the globe in less than a minute. Right or wrong, the customer can never be ignored.

Smart companies like Apple understand the power of talking directly to their customers. That’s why the consumer electronics giant launched its dedicated Twitter support account. ‎@AppleSupport has gained more than half a million followers, generated more than 150,000 likes and Retweets, and won the first-ever Twitter Award for Outstanding Customer Service.

It’s not always about customer service or even those #heartmelt moments, brands can engage just for fun, too. Remember that time chicken nugget uber-enthusiast Carter Wilkerson asked US fast-food chain how many ReTweets it would take to get a years’ supply of nuggets? 18 million, the brand’s Twitter account responded without batting a virtual eyelid. Carter managed to hit 3.5 million in the end, but still scored a heap of nuggets from the brand as a reward. Consumers and brands both benefit from the best kinds of interactions.

Marketing takeaways

The lesson learned is this: in a fast-paced social media world, there isn’t always going to be an existing template on how to engage with audiences online. Be prepared to ‘Tweet out of the box’ at times , whatever that may require according to context. Remember, you’re dealing with real people with real lives, and your brand persona should reflect that. Be human, relate to your audiences, and they’ll respond in kind.

It’s not about making narratives, hashtags or images go viral – but about providing the human touch to a digital space.

PROTEA HOTELS
www.protea.marriot.com

CWDi is the result of a merger between Colourworks and Designers Ink. The newly formed powerhouse rings in a new approach to developing brand engagement. Their mission is to create compelling brand stories that inspire curiosity.  Their belief is that once curiosity is piqued, the obvious response is to look for more information. This results in an engaged audience.

The exciting merger now brings about a brand-new for CWDi, which tells the story of how the two agencies became one and includes its very own narrative on its brand positioning. CWDi also has an ‘insights’ section on its website where the company shares hot industry topics. For brands intent on creating stories that stimulate curiosity, the insights section will offer key thoughts on how their forward-thinking approach to brand storytelling can create endless opportunities for brands.

Steve Jobs once said, ‘The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.’
 
Businesses need to move away from the instant gratification ‘we want it all and we want it now’ approach to marketing. Instead, creating richer, more engaging connections results in brand believers that will eventually become loyal brand activists. Their narratives create a curiosity inspired mental itch – the only way that consumers can scratch that itch is to actively find out more and more about the brands that they are falling in love with.
 
CWDI
CPT@CWDi.co.za
cwdi.co.za

Education, training and consultancy services company, Flossinet, will run short WordPress courses on SEO, Newsletter, Forms and building online social communities in Johannesburg, Centurion, Cape Town and Durban. Courses require some knowledge of working in the Backend/Dashboard of WordPress.

WordPress SEO Course: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) entails a combination of strategies and best practices being applied to website content in order to improve the ranking of your web pages with search engines such as Google. The course deals with on-page optimisation.

The aim is to get your website display on page one of the search engine results page (SERP).

Course dates:
• Alberton: 9 May 2019.
• Cape Town: 15 May 2019.
• Centurion: 23 May 2019.
• Durban: 30 May 2019.

WordPress Newsletter Training Course: a newsletter, which is an essential part of any website for e-mail marketing, is another way to reach your customers, clients or prospects. E-mail marketing is one of the most powerful tools today to take your businesses to the next level. Anyone signing up for your newsletter has already shown their willingness to continue to listen to what you have to offer.

Course dates:
• Alberton: 10 May 2019 (9am -12pm).
• Centurion: 24 May 2019 (9am -12pm).

WordPress Forms Training Course: A form is an essential element of a website; it streamlines communication. A form can be used for enquiries, online registrations, surveys, feedback, quotes, bookings. Data from forms can be exported in CSV format for further analysis, if need be.

Course dates:
• Alberton: 5 June 2019 (9am -12pm).
• Centurion: 7 June 2019 (9am -12pm).

Building Online Social Communities Training Course: this course will equip you with knowledge and skills to build online social networks/communities websites with a view of members sharing their thoughts, experiences, stories, assisting one another, making friends, uploading content and images/photos.

Course dates:
• Alberton: 4 June 2019.
• Centurion: 6 June 2019.
• Cape Town: 3 July 2019.

In addition to face-face delivery of the course, there are alternative options of delivering the course or the feature:
• On-Site – the courses can be conducted at your premises in Gauteng during the week or on a Saturday.
• Online Training – some courses can be conducted online using TeamViewer and Skype during the week or on a Saturday. This applies to the Newsletter and Forms training courses.
• Consultation – we can create and implement the above for your website and provide you with training.
• Training Venue Hire – we can hire the venue (Alberton or Centurion) where we conduct our courses and train you and/or your colleagues during the week.

If you any questions directly related to the above courses, then send an enquiry here before you to register. 

FLOSSNET +27 (0) 81 782 7520 training@flossnet.co.za flossnet.co.za

Michelle Morgan, Director of Client Services at Clix Marketing, shares strategies that can improve B2B lead quality that can help any lead generation campaign.

According to Morgan, lead generation leaves the door open for anyone to convert on the initial lead conversion stage, regardless of their actual ability to buy the end product. ‘We need to develop strategies to target higher quality leads and deter unqualified users from filling out our forms.’

These strategies include:

Target more specific keywords

When working to improve lead quality, one of the first things you should do is revisit your keywords. Keywords are the backbone of search campaigns, and they determine who you will get in front of, what ad copy needs to be written, which landing pages you should use, and so on. The shorter the keyword, the less intent you can assign to its associated queries.

To address poor matches, you’ll need to pick one of two strategies:
• Be more vigilant with search query reviews and negative keyword additions, or
• Limit your use of broader match types.

One requires more ongoing optimisations while the other can limit volume more severely. Choose the one that’s right for you, but don’t be afraid to make adjustments over time. 

Write landing pages for targeted customers

Landing page copy is another tool to further qualify the users on the page. The landing page copy outlines what our ideal customers would be. In the body copy of the page, call out specific characteristics that your product is built for (i.e young) and use images of young, healthy people living their best lives.

The same type of logic would apply to a B2B SaaS provider – those companies make more money on larger accounts. Even if your solution works for businesses of all sizes, use copy that specifically calls out ‘Businesses with 50+ Employees’ or whatever your parameters are. You could even write a header that says, ‘Best suited for companies who…’ and then give a series of bullet points outlining your target customer. You can be as subtle or as bold as you like, but ensure that you’re using your landing page to help qualify users.

Lead quality, not quantity

Give your form the attention it deserves. If you’re noticing a large number of forms filled by lower quality leads, try increasing the amount of information you ask for. But do not throw any old question in there, be sure it makes sense in the context of the form.

What additional piece of information does the sales team need in hand when following up with this lead? Annual revenue? Number of employees? Income level? By adding in questions about industry, job title, and company name, sales teams might be able to better speak to the lead’s individual needs simply by doing a little research before the follow up call. The sales team will feel prepared and the lead will feel heard. 

Pay close attention to what exactly you’re asking for in a form as there’s a big difference in asking for an email address and a work email address, and yet for the sake of ease or laziness we leave the field identifier as ‘Email’. Similar to a slight change in keywords ‘insurance’ to ‘life insurance’, be sure you’re asking the user to give the exact information you want in your forms.

For more strategies click here.

Wordstream  www.wordstream.com

Philip Morris International SA (PMI SA) recently granted a tender to Technique Media for a digital project for their new IQOS 2.4 Plus device.

IQOS is a heat-not-burn, smoke-free alternative to cigarettes. The brief was for a solution to be installed at Super Spar point of sales in Cape Town and Johannesburg. ‘They wanted a tablet with a security holder that would allow cashiers and prospective clients to capture legal aged IQOS user information for communication purposes. The tablet had to be locked down to block users from accessing other webpages from the IQOS landing page and screen saver,’ explained Darren Kirby, Managing Director of Technique Media.

Once the tender was granted, PMI SA required a prototype within two days to present to Spar managers for approval. Thereafter, units required manufacturing and device software and content installed within six to seven working days. Installation of the devices had to be coordinated over a two-day period to tie in with the launch of the new product, bearing in mind that these times also had to suit the availability of store owners/managers and PMI SA area reps.

‘As consumers become more tech savvy, the demand for brands to be innovative and include digital touch points in their strategies increases. With Technique Media’s turnkey solutions, quick turnaround times and out- of-the-box thinking, we’re able to deliver the right solutions to brands that want to meet consumer demand,’ Kirby said ‘This was the first time we’ve used this particular IT & Telecommunications technology and, whilst deadlines were extremely tight, we had a lot of fun with the project and with the PMI SA team. We fulfilled our commitment from concept through to installation and we’re thrilled with the end result.’

TECHNIQUE MEDIA 
+27 (0) 82 391 7717
darren@techniquemedia.co.za
www.techniquemedia.co.za