Dent & Scratch Partners With Street Network For Latest Campaign

By

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March 13, 2019

Dent & Scratch Repairs Go Street Networking

Johannesburg panel beaters Dent & Scratch Repairs opted for a focused approach when partnering with Street Network as they recognised the value and impact of a high-frequency campaign.

The campaign ran on all nine bus shelters along Bram Fischer Drive, taking in the suburbs of Randburg, Blairgowrie, Ferndale, Linden and Robindale. In this way, Dent & Scratch leveraged the power of frequency and its impact on recall and engagement, with the campaign reaching approximately 430,000 people and delivering around 8.9 million impacts, thanks to an average frequency of 21.

Jonathan Everest, Head of Sales at Street Network said, ‘Frequency drives online search, mobile engagement and campaign recall from other media such as TV, and this can have a big impact on top and bottom funnel sales drives. You can reach more people more often, target the consumers most likely to be interested in your brand, drive consumer action, and optimise reach and frequency at a relatively low cost.’

Dent & Scratch wanted to engage with consumers who regularly use Bram Fischer Drive for their daily commute, or who live in the surrounding areas, with the thinking being that a customer looking for a panel beating, auto detailing and a vehicle sales service would be more likely to look for something relatively close to home, or with the convenience of being on one’s daily commute route.

‘Bus shelters are positioned to catch the attention of consumers on their daily commute,’ said Everest. ‘In this case, they were close to the point of purchase (Dent & Scratch) for those consumers looking for a conveniently-located panel beater, whilst also attracting high levels of brand awareness among consumers using Bram Fischer Drive every day.’

In this way, Street Network and its collection of bus shelters was able to assist Dent & Scratch in meeting two objectives: the almost-immediate driving of a purchasing decision for those with a pressing need for a panel beater nearby, and the raising of awareness of the Dent & Scratch Repairs brand.

OUTDOOR NETWORK
+27 86 177 6826
info@on.co.za
www.outdoornetwork.co.za

Touchpoint Research Proves That Print Advertising Is An Extremely Efficient Medium

By

Modern Marketing

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March 6, 2019

Kuper Research And PRC Research Well Received By Advertising Industry

The latest research commissioned by the Publisher Research Council (PRC) was conducted using the global Touchpoints model developed by TNS Kantar Germany, which measures a total of 23 consumer touchpoints. Print advertising cracks the top 10 in the automotive category, placing second, and is clipped only by television, in the ‘Paid For’ touchpoints.

‘Touchpoints’, a robust quantitative study comprising 1000 respondents across seven major metro areas conducted in October and November 2018, reveals that in the automotive industry, print advertising scores highly on key touchpoints driving this category. In fact, television and print are the only two media platforms (paid for touchpoints) in the top 10 that are mainly dominated by ‘earned’ touchpoints.

‘It is the responsibility of the PRC, through numerous investigations and research, to provide irrefutable proof that reading, whether online or on paper, delivers the highest brand cognition and recall. This we have consistently proved over the past two years, that the written word delivers the highest Return on Investment (ROI), whether used independently or in conjunction with TV,’ said Pete Langschmidt, consultant to the PRC.

The central premise behind the touchpoint survey is that brand equity is based on a lifetime of experience with a brand. Touchpoints measures this total brand reservoir vs the interaction with the ‘touchpoints’ within the last three months. The ‘earned’ touchpoints are by far the most powerful in any category. So, the fact the that there are more Toyotas and VW’s on the road and sold each month, just as there are more people drinking Black Label than any other beer in pubs, is a way more powerful indicator of brand love and purchase behaviour than any other touchpoint, including advertising or word of mouth.

The impact of the experience can be measured by using the elements of ‘recall’. We should be asking how many people recall experiencing the touchpoint, ‘the quality’ thereof and how the experience impacts consumers’ attitudes towards the brand. For example, value for money and high safety standards are the key drivers of brand equity in the auto market, supplemented by trust, comfort as well as badge effect. Consumers consider advertising to be less important in driving equity/brand desire.

In the automotive category, the research found that almost two thirds (64%) of the respondents are reading newspapers on a weekly basis; four in ten (42%) are reading magazines in comparison to the 52% and 24% respectively in the Establishment Survey of Jan-June 2018.

The touchpoint list consists of 23 Paid For, Owned and Earned touchpoints. The automotive market sees a very high (22%) of brand equity that is driven by recent touchpoint experiences. The top ten touchpoints contribute 71% of overall impact on brand equity where print is an impressive number nine overall (out of 23). Most of the top ten are Earned touchpoints with Social Media being the only Digital touchpoint in the top ten. It stands to reason the actual vehicle on the road is the best touchpoint for any brand – which the research demonstrates.

Print Advertising On Top Of Consumer Touchpoints — Print Advertising On Top Of Consumer Touchpoint

*Moving vehicle – paid for advertising (eg. buses and taxis).

‘Print is the second highest Media/Paid For touchpoint after TV that drives the key touchpoints in the automotive industry. Combined, media accounts for 27% of the impact, similar to all Owned touchpoints which includes test drives, showroom, and car dealer staff, amongst others,’ explained Langschmidt.

Relative to other media or ‘Paid For’ touchpoints, print is extremely efficient and delivers five times more impact for its investment in comparison to radio, for example, providing a 1:1 ratio. Even though print only has a 3.8% share of advertising spend, the platform delivers a massive 19.5% share of impact.

There are great synergies between print and Television. A TV and print combination yields a 17% uplift, whereas this compares to only 12% for TV and Radio. Most notably, TV and online with no print yields weaker results than TV on its own, indicating a TV to digital strategy in this category without print is ineffective.

‘In almost every instance, the television and print combination provides a better impact than a television/radio combination,’ said Langschmidt. ‘The PRC has been investigating the inherent strengths of the written word for a few years now. This ‘Touchpoint’ research goes a long way in proving that print is an extremely efficient medium, particularly in the automotive category. When combined with a platform like Television, it delivers exceptional results. Automotive brands are welcome to make contact with us in order to see how individual brands performed (in a broad sense) across all the various touchpoints.’

PUBLISHER RESEARCH COUNCIL www.prc.za.com

The MediaShop Announces Passing Of Founder

By

Modern Marketing

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March 6, 2019

The MediaShop Announces Passing Of Founder

The MediaShop has announced the passing of founder Richard John Raddon Reed. He served the advertising industry for many years and was regarded as a doyen by many in the marketing and media industry.

He broke new ground for the advertising industry by creating The MediaShop in 1987 and then as a media independent in 1988. The company has since become an internationally awarded agency, based on many of the values that Dick, as he was called, instilled in the business during those early days.

‘It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dick Reed on 5 March 2019 in Cape Town, where he lived for many years,’ said Chris Botha, Group MD at Park Advertising.

‘All those years ago Dick had a vision for the future of advertising in this country and created the amazing MediaShop as a result,’ said Sean Clarke, Operations Director. ‘I’m sure that you are proud of your achievements, the company that you founded and what it has become. We continue to grow, a force to be reckoned with, adhering to the key values that you deemed non-negotiable. Thank you for the opportunity that you gave me and for being a friend, not just a business partner.’

‘Rest in peace Dick, your legacy lives on in this company and the industry and from each and every person (past and present) at The MediaShop we offer our condolences to Margaret, his wife, Marion, Tessa and Carrie, his three children and several grandchildren,’ concluded Kgaugelo Maphai, Managing Director for The MediaShop.

THE MEDIASHOP
www.mediashop.co.za

Using Google To Improve Your Facebook Marketing

By

Wordstream

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March 6, 2019

Using Google To Improve Your Facebook Marketing

Gordon Donnelly, SEO & Content Specialist at WordStream, highlights hacks for ads on Facebook and for using Google to help improve your Facebook marketing.

Why social media?

One of the first things an infant learns is how to swipe and unlock an iPhone. Between our phones, desktops and iPads, people are constantly connected, and according to BI Intelligence, people spend more time on social media than any other internet activity, including email.

Paying to play

Back in the day, Facebook was just a place for college students to connect, plan parties, tell jokes and share photos. Now the space is cluttered with parents stalking their children, singles looking for love, and businesses promoting their products and building their brands.

Having an organic social strategy is critical for the times when loyal customers are looking to further engage with your brand, site visitors are looking for more information or investors are trying to better understand your business. Unfortunately, none of these scenarios account for the person that hasn’t had exposure to your business or the distracted shopper that has forgotten about your products or offerings they previously discovered through search.

Where to start?

Between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Instagram, Periscope, etc. where in the world should you start?

There’s one thing we know for sure: your customers are clicking on Facebook ads. With 22 billion ad clicks per year, Facebook is providing businesses with the biggest advertising opportunity since search. At WordStream, 85% of our new customers are already advertising on Facebook or plan to start soon. Not to mention that Facebook has an insanely granular level of targeting capabilities, re-marketing functionality, and other tools to connect with the exact right people at the exact right time.

So, you’ve built a Facebook page, agreed to Facebook’s Terms of Service, and set up your billing, but what now? Between choosing which content to promote, building compelling ads, determining how to properly allocate your budget, and putting your ads in front of the most relevant audience, Facebook ads can be more challenging than a Rubik’s cube.

One thing you can do is leverage your paid search data and apply a similar strategy to advertising on Facebook. Check out these three hacks to get started:

1: The VIP socialiser

Quality Score is to search as relevance score is to Facebook. If you’ve been in the paid search game for some time now, you are well aware that maintaining higher Quality Scores is insanely beneficial to getting better results for less money. Quality Score is the mystery metric that takes into consideration factors such as an ad’s click-through-rate and relevancy (keywords, to ad text, to a landing page) to determine a score on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. If your Quality Score is above 5, you end up getting a discount for each click.

For instance, with a Quality Score of 9, you could end up in position 2 but still paying less per click than the advertiser below you in position 3 or 4. Facebook’s relevance score works the same way! Just as CTR plays a significant role in determining an ad’s Quality Score, post engagement (think likes, shares, and comments) plays the largest part in determining an ad’s relevance score on Facebook.

2: The Savvy Social Stalker

Pay-per-click (PPC) search clicks add up! Especially the ones that don’t convert into customers. The number one reason marketers get fed up with paid search is because they’re spending all of their budget on a handful of clicks that never turn into customers, but the issue is not paid search; rather, the problem lies in that they’re not taking measures to push these leads that come in through search further down the funnel.

Someone clicked on your ad and visited your site. This is a good sign. We know they’re interested at some level, but they need a bigger nudge. There are thousands of marketing messages cluttering their brains, so give your PPC leads a push by re-marketing to non-converters on searches through social.

3: Cloning the cream of the crop

Who wouldn’t want to clone their converters? You probably didn’t think it was possible to expand your audience even further, but the power of lookalike audiences on Facebook ads makes this possible. Lookalike audiences allow you to reach more people who share similar traits with your current customer base (think age, gender and interests).

By ‘cloning the cream of the crop’ you can combine the power of lookalike audiences with your customers that have already converted through search to find demographically similar people to target on Facebook. How do you do this? By using the conversion pixel from your PPC landing pages, you can create a lookalike audience in Facebook to expand your reach to a new audience that has a higher likelihood of converting, since their clones have already converted.

To download the guide click here

WORDSTREAM wordstream.com

Spark Media Implements Next Step In Its Evolution

By

Modern Marketing

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March 6, 2019

Spark Media has announced that as from 1 March 2019, the company will be separating its digital and print sales divisions into two distinct entities.

The newspaper sales division will retain the Spark Media name, and will house booking, production, sales, marketing services, research (ROOTS etc.) and other market intelligence needed to build effective media strategies.

Gill Randall will lead Spark Media as CEO, along with industry veterans Olav Westphal as Sales Director, Debbie McIntyre as Marketing Services and Research Director, Diane Albertus heads up Advertising Operations Director and Celeste Blake as Finance Director.

The digital sales business will be rebranded as Spark-Hive Digital, and will continue to represent Caxton’s well-known and extensive online assets.

Current Spark Joint CEO, Marc du Plessis, will initially oversee Spark-Hive Digital’s leadership team, including Parmeshan Moodliar as GM Sales; Kristin Louw as GM Operations and Ashleigh Footit in the capacity of GM Programmatic and Data. Du Plessis will then be taking on further responsibilities within the Caxton-CTP group.

The media environment is deepening in its complexity, rendering the traditional separation of print and digital strategies artificial, at best. Consequently, media planners and strategists are expected to have a thorough grasp of all the channels within the media mix.

To help planners navigate this highly integrated landscape, the organisation believe that the onus lies with the media owner to offer specialised knowledge about how their channels can provide real value within a broader approach.

To state it succinctly, Spark Media strongly believes a more focused approach to the representation of its varied channels will best serve the interests of all stakeholders. It is excited to implement this next step in its evolution as a premier commercial channel provider, and looks forward to building on existing and new relationships with its valuable clients.

SPARK MEDIA
+27104928391
info@sparkmedia.co.za
www.sparkmedia.co.za

IAB Announces 2019 Bookmark Awards Finalists

By

Modern Marketing

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March 6, 2019

IAB Announces 2019 Bookmark Awards Finalists

The 11th Annual Bookmark Awards will be held at The Forum in Bryanston on 28 March 2019 in partnership with Vicinity-Media. 68 judges across 76 categories reviewed and judged over 750 Bookmark Award entries these past few weeks, with the anticipated shortlist being announced.

Jerry Mpufane, 2019 IAB Bookmark Awards Jury President said, ‘We are thrilled with the list of finalists. Each one sets a precedent for excellent work in their category and represents the exciting, diverse range of talent in the South African digital industry.’

The 2019 IAB Bookmark Awards honours students, individuals, agencies, publishers and brands that have produced creative and innovative work that delivers on their set business objectives. The final round of judging takes place on-site in Johannesburg and Cape Town from 8-9 March 2019 and the winners will be announced at the 11th Annual Bookmark Awards on 28 March 2019.

Molefi Thulo, Jury Chair of the Marketers Panel said, ‘I was struck by the depth of insights that went into creating some of the work, and also by how digital platforms are being used to create meaningful connections between brands and their consumers.’

The Marketing Panel received a record number of entries this year with the final list trending in the following categories: Branded Content, Craft Excellence in Online Video Production, Social Media Campaigns and Social Media Innovation. Mobile features across the board, and specialists’ entries for Channel Innovation, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Paid Search Marketing are strong, but Social and Video are the more dominant categories in the 2019 Bookmark Awards finalist list.

New publisher categories for the 2019 IAB Bookmark Awards includes, but are not limited to: Data Stories, Online News Videos and Social Media News Coverage feature, but in the finals, Craft News, Feature Writing and News Innovation dominate. The judges are also excited to see who wins the new Special Honours category: IAB Bookmark Awards Best Online Journalist on the 28th of March.

Izak Minnaar, Jury Chair of the publishers panel commented, ‘Digital publishing is moving through a period in which the very integrity of the medium is being challenged. This year’s publishing entries reflect this landscape and provide innovative strategies to thriving in today’s digital world.’

‘It is exciting to see the wide mix of brands, agencies, publishers, consultancies, and specialists in our finalist list this year and this excludes the Special Honours entries that are judged in Round 2. We attribute this to both the hard work across the industry to create and share their business case studies, as well as the diversity of our judging panels in 2019. The final round of judging will be hard work, but with strong results to set the bar for digital excellence that drives business results in South Africa, and beyond,’ said Paula Hulley IAB CEO.

Audrey Naidoo, Head of Digital for Absa and a member of the Builders panel added, ‘Digital businesses in South Africa are becoming adept at using technical excellence to create user experiences that drive results.’

2019 Finalists

BRAND	PRODUCT	TITLE	ENTRY AGENCY

	Artificial	Intelligence
Red Bull Studios		Red Bull Studios Algorhythm	Publicis Machine
Debonairs Pizza	On The Double	Christopher enhances social sentiment	The MediaShop

	Bots, Messaging & Dark Social
MARS Africa	Royco	Royco Rewards	Mobitainment, ARC South Africa, Asakhane
Sanlam	Sanlam My Choice Funeral Plan	Lives of Grace	King James Group
MultiChoice	DStv	DStv #Fanalysis Chat Group	Ogilvy
Standard Bank	Standard Bank SE Banking	My Fearless Next	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
The Coca-Cola Company	Coca-Cola	Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup Soccer Bot	Cerebra (WundermanSA)
Debonairs Pizza	On The Double	Christopher enhances social sentiment	The MediaShop

Brand, Commercial & Retail Websites
Sanlam	Sanlam Financial Products	Conversations with Yourself	King James Group
Tiger Brands	Doom	Make Them Stop	TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg
Absa – L’Atelier	L’Atelier art competition	L’Atelier 2018	Hellocomputer, FCB Africa
Cell C Girl		Cell C Girl Website	Arc Interactive

	Branded Content
Builders Warehouse		Builders Summer Campaign	Publicis Machine
Sanlam	Sanlam My Choice Funeral Plan	Lives of Grace	King James Group
Sanlam	Sanlam Financial Services	The 200 Year Old	King James Group
Unilever	Magnum	Magnum x MaXhosa	Digitas Liquorice
Mercedes-Benz	S-Class	Return to Chapman’s Peak	Net#work BBDO
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	Francois Van Coke – Dit Raak Beter	King James Group
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	Rouge – DÉJÀ VU	King James Group
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	Goodluck – Taking It Easy	King James Group
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	Kwesta – Boomshakalaka	King James Group
Sanlam	Sanlam Investments	On Life and Surprises	King James Group
Sanlam	Sanlam Investments	On Life and Planning	King James Group
Sanlam	Sanlam Investments	On Life and Longevity	King James Group
Sanlam	Sanlam Investments	On Life and Bucket lists	King James Group
Absolut vodka	Vodka	Africa on Fire	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Joburg Ballet	Joburg Ballet	Breaking Ballet	TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg
Standard Bank	Standard Bank SE Banking	My Fearless Next	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Philips & The Nelson Mandela Foundation	Philips	#ShaveToRemember	Ogilvy
South African Tourism	South African Tourism	Bheki The Mbhaco Maker	Hellocomputer/FCB Africa
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	Desmond & the Tutus – Teenagers	King James Group

	Channel Innovation
Stones	Bottle Operated Table	Stones BOT	Publicis Machine
Sanlam	Sanlam My Choice Funeral Plan	Lives of Grace	King James Group
First National Bank, South Africa	FNB	FNB App 6.0 Snap Lens	BrandTruth & Sprout & Ad Dynamo (SnapChat)
MultiChoice	DStv	DStv #Fanalysis Chat Group	Ogilvy
American Swiss Jewellers	Engagement Rings	Drop the Hint	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Cadbury P.S.	Cadbury P.S.	#SayItWithPS	Ogilvy
Cell C	Data Bundles	Skip to the best bits	The MediaShop
South African Breweries	SAB Entrepreneurship	Your Business In Lights Billboard	Joe Public Connect
Black	Black	Boring Pre-roll Ads	Joe Public Connect

	Content Strategy
Sanlam	Sanlam My Choice Funeral Plan	Lives of Grace	King James Group
AVBOB		The AVBOB Poetry Competition	ENGAGE et al, a member of the et al GROUP
Philips & The Nelson Mandela Foundation	Philips	#ShaveToRemember	Ogilvy
Western Cape Government	Department of Education	Raise your voice. Not your phone.	Hellocomputer, FCB Africa
KFC	Streetwise 2	Make a Meal of it.	Ogilvy
Sanlam	Sanlam Financial Services	The 200 Year Old	King James Group
Unilever	Knorr	Leave No Food Behind	Digitas Liquorice
Cipla South Africa	Asthma Inhaler Casings, Comic Book,	Bronki Boosters	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
American Swiss Jewellers	Engagement Rings	Drop the Hint	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Sanlam	Sanlam Financial Products	Conversations with Yourself	King James Group & 42 Digital
Sanlam	2 Minute Shower Songs	2 Minute Shower Songs	King James Group

Craft – Digital Media
American Swiss Jewellers	Engagement Rings	Drop the Hint	VML South Africa (Pty) Ltd
WesBank		Dialling Down the Call Centre	Rogerwilco
Mercedes-Benz	X-Class	X-Class	Performics

For the full list of finalists click here

Tickets for the awards ceremony can be purchased here.

BOOKMARK AWARDS thebookmarks.co.za

Is Digital Burnout A Thing?

By

Sugeshni Subroyen

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March 6, 2019

Is Digital Digital Burnout A Thing? — Image source: www.inc.com

It is March 2019 already, but I still remember thinking about my goals for the year and chatting to colleagues about how fast 2018 flew by. Is it just me or does everyone seem tired this early in the year?

We have already found the need for a quick weekend away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Weekends just cannot come any sooner and when they do, we find ourselves saying ‘where did this week go’?

At the end of January, I heard a radio interview with South African trend analyst, Dion Chang, where he confirmed my sentiments by saying that South Africans are tired this early in the year because of a phenomenon called digital burnout.

The lines between our online and offline worlds are fast becoming blurry and the addiction to one’s smartphone is quite apparent. We saw it on our weekend away, where people probably had the same idea of relaxing and escaping from the busy city. The irony though was that everyone had a phone in their hand, quite engaged and oblivious to their surroundings or the people they were with.

I put it down to our need for feeding our virtual existence – something that is becoming more prominent than our physical existence. We must ‘check in on Facebook, ‘update our story’ on Instagram, Tweet about the experience and tag the relevant people. Oh, and add a few Snaps with cute furry ear filters, just for good measure.

According to Chang, ‘This always on, always connected, lifestyle is what is fuelling digital burnout. It has rewired our brains to be on a permanent multi-tasking mode. Our new default reaction to any spare time is to delve back into cyberspace. Just watch people at an airport, or any place where they are required to wait for any length of time: they will no doubt be locked into their mobile devices. No one simply stares into space anymore.’

South Africans spend on average more than seven hours a day on consuming media. Unlike a physical store, the internet is available 24/7 and we need to ensure that we are mindful of going down the rabbit hole of information overload. The internet is increasingly commercialised and as marketers, we want to make use of the platform to reach our customers whereever they are travelling on the net.

I find this ever-connected world we live in so fascinating. Everything changes at the speed of light. There is even a word to describe snubbing someone you’re talking to by looking at your phone – ‘Phubbing’. I am sure you have experienced this at least once in your life?

The simple solution to this phenomenon is to be aware of the time we spend on digital media and make a conscious effort to give our minds a break from the hyperactivity caused by engaging with digital media for prolonged periods. Go back to basics – your physical self will thank you for it.

MINT GROUP OF COMPANIES www.mintgroup.net

Outsourcing Versus Insourcing Your Marketing

By

Bernard Jansen

-

March 6, 2019

Outsourcing Versus Insourcing Your Marketing — Image source: www.firejuice.co.za

Doing marketing successfully requires a close finger on the pulse. The marketing function does not operate in a silo and keeping it outsourced will make it difficult to do the necessary adjustments and measure a return on investment. Marketing is like a child – it can give you great joy, but you need to keep a constant eye on it.

You should not outsource your marketing; rather you should gradually insource it. Marketing is simply too important a business function, with too much room for nonsense to trust outsiders for extended periods of time. Your marketing should be an in-house function.

However, in saying that, having certain partners to help with specialised tasks is a good idea. Developing your brand identity is something that requires a professional and a classically trained graphic designer.

Clearly, you don’t need someone like this on an ongoing basis. The same is true for building your website or printing a new brochure. These are once-off functions that should be outsourced. But ongoing communication should not be outsourced, at least not as a long term solution.

Ongoing marketing activities should gradually be performed inside the business. Your business should do its own social media, its own website maintenance, its own copywriting and track its own marketing analytics. In short, you need to take ownership of your marketing because this is the only way you will seriously engage with it and ensure it is properly integrated into your sales process.

Since the onset of digital marketing, it has become customary for agencies to bamboozle clients with technicalities, letting them believe they can’t do it themselves. The simple truth is marketing is too important for business growth to outsource it. The question is not ‘what marketing functions should I outsource?’, but rather ‘how can I gradually develop an in-house marketing department?’

What functions should you bring in-house and in which order? The way to determine this is through a marketing plan. This clarifies what marketing your business will do, how much you will invest in each function and who will be doing what. It is at this last stage where you should take the chance to insource as much as possible.

FIREJUICE
bernard@firejuice.co.za
www.firejuice.co.za

Rocket Creative Celebrates 21 Years

By

Modern Marketing

-

March 6, 2019

Launched in February 1998, Rocket Creative has evolved exponentially to become an innovative player in the design and display industry.

Richard Nilson, Rocket Creative’s founder and MD said, ‘February 2019 represents our company’s 21st anniversary, and we couldn’t be more elated. We had a very positive year in 2018, and based on the state of the industry, this seems to be more the exception than the norm.’

The expansion of the business, coupled with a focus on quality client service and delivery, confirmed that the company needed to boost their team. The company was very fortunate to have a few talented members join them, with the newest employees appointed primarily to boost the company’s client liaison resource, as well as to up-skill production and operational support infrastructure. Having found their feet, the skills and capability enhancement of the new team members have already added substantial value to the operation.

‘We were very fortunate to be entrusted with many amazing projects throughout the year. We handled a very broad range of display manufacturing work ranging from trendsetting interior ‘store-in-stores’ to large scale eventing projects, brand activation furniture, retail and product merchandising displays as well as virtually everything else in-between,’ Nilson concluded.

ROCKET CREATIVE (+27 11) 262 4698 hello@rocketcreative.co.za www.rocketcreative.co.za

Ethics Behind Low Paying Creative Internships

By

Friends Academy

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March 6, 2019

Ethics Behind Low Pay Creative Internships — Image Source: shutterstock

Tracey Hadfield from Friends of Design Academy of Digital Arts states that when searching through the job listings for creative careers in South Africa, you’ll start to notice a curious trend emerging.

While middle and heavy-weights are in relatively high demand, entry-level junior positions (as in, open to graduates with no on-the-job experience) appear to have become an endangered species. In their place, low or no-pay ‘creative internships’ are proliferating at an astonishing rate – something that has industry veterans, educators and savvy graduates seriously questioning the ethics behind this trend.

‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with legitimate internship programmes,’ said Kate Hilson, Head of Graphic Design at Friends of Design Academy of the Digital Arts. ‘Having the opportunity to learn the inner workings of a studio or agency under the mentorship of a seasoned professional can be really valuable when you’re just starting out. The problem is, some companies seem to be redefining what an internship is, and that new definition sounds an awful lot like an underpaid junior-level job.’

According to Kerry Hugill, Head of Web at Friends of Design, the requirements lists for these internships are often a dead giveaway that they’re not the supportive learning experiences they’re supposed to be.

‘We’ve seen job specs for year-long ‘internships’ that involve a huge amount of responsibility, with virtually zero supervision and full accountability,’ Hilson said. ‘A lot of them would be a handful for a junior, let alone an intern, but instead of a junior’s salary, they pay anything from R2000 to R5000 a month. That’s so far from fair compensation that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so shocking.’

Apparently, the typical excuse for these pitiful wages is that recent graduates don’t contribute meaningfully to the workforce straight out of college. ‘That might be a valid argument if we were talking about an internship where the graduate is doing odd-jobs and absorbing the agency experience for a couple of months,’ said Hilson, ‘but that’s not what’s actually happening in the majority of cases. These supposed interns are being tossed straight into the deep end, are expected to produce professional-quality, income-generating work, and are then paid less than R100 a day for the privilege.’

‘If a person’s work is good enough to use, it’s good enough to pay for,’ said Hugill. ‘Rebranding a junior role as an internship doesn’t give you licence to pay a pittance for someone’s skill. You may as well be asking these kids to work for exposure – that’s not a growth opportunity, it’s exploitation.’

As for using internships to weed out underperforming juniors, a year seems excessive in comparison to other industries’ typical three month probation period.

‘It’s not as if employers are hiring graduates, blind,’ said Hilson. ‘They vet portfolios, check references, and have face-to-face interviews. If, after that whole process, you still think it’s going to take a year to bring a candidate up to speed, you might want to hire a different person or source your graduates from a better-quality college.’

But what options do creative graduates have when every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to be trying to take advantage? ‘We teach our students that when a company is interviewing you, you should be interviewing them, too,’ said Hugill. ‘If you think the relationship is going to be one-sided, and there’s no room for negotiation, it’s honestly better to just walk away. Real jobs are out there, I promise – 85 percent of our students get a job within three months of graduation. You just need to do the prep and have the confidence to go out and find them.’

It’s not just up to students to say no to exploitation, however. ‘As an industry, we really need to rethink the message that we’re sending,’ said Hilson. ‘So much of the world already undervalues what we do – let’s not add our voice to those saying our skills aren’t worth paying for. If we band together and put our experience to better use nurturing our juniors, we can create a more resilient, more effective and more valuable industry for all of us.’

Join Friends of Design in speaking out against institutions and designers taking advantage of young graduates in creative fields.

FRIENDS OF DESIGN ACADEMY OF DIGITAL ARTS friendsofdesign.net

OUTDOOR NETWORK+27 86 177 6826info@on.co.zawww.outdoornetwork.co.za

Why social media?

Paying to play

Where to start?

1: The VIP socialiser

2: The Savvy Social Stalker

3: Cloning the cream of the crop

SPARK MEDIA+27104928391info@sparkmedia.co.zawww.sparkmedia.co.za

2019 Finalists

FIREJUICEbernard@firejuice.co.zawww.firejuice.co.za

OUTDOOR NETWORK
+27 86 177 6826
info@on.co.za
www.outdoornetwork.co.za

SPARK MEDIA
+27104928391
info@sparkmedia.co.za
www.sparkmedia.co.za

FIREJUICE
bernard@firejuice.co.za
www.firejuice.co.za