By Remy Raitt
Fred Roed, the CEO of World Wide Creative announced that the Heavy Chefs talks will now be monthly features in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. He also reminded the crowd that the quarterly Heavy Chefs magazine is available for download and contains all the juicy information from previous talks.
Graeme Stiles, group head of organic search at Quirk was up first to tackle search in 2015 and beyond. He said that most search happens organically. 51% in fact, with 10% coming from paid search and 5% from social.
He says this organic searching is also done in a conversational way. “People speak to Google like they speak to their friends,” he said. So long-tail search phrases are the new keywords; instead of just typing “pizza” and “Durban”, searchers are more likely to type in “Where do I get the best pizza in my city?” This means businesses need to focus on semantic search, where they can provide the answers to all the questions their users have instead of focusing on how to rank the query.
It was no big surprise when Stiles mentioned the power of mobile when it comes to search. Currently 77% of searches happen at home or work and 17% on the go. But, with that said, the use of mobile is ever increasing with more Google searches taking place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries in the world, including Japan and the USA.
Another rapidly growing aspect is voice search. People are, more and more, physically asking Google what they need to know. 55% of teenagers already use voice search once a day, with 40% of adults doing the same.
In 2015, Stiles said SEO needs to be conscientious about link building. The links needs to be focused, with the more links pointing to your website, the better.
In terms of paid search; Stiles said a big developing trend is merging the individual user’s data with client product data so that users are presented with targeted ads that reflect their interests. Remarketing and retargeting is also the way of the future in search, he said.
“But the secret sauce to search success in 2015 is creativity,” said Stiles. So while optimisation and alignment will get you far, a great idea will really create connections and direct users your way. A brilliant example of this which Stiles shared is the www.adoptabletrends.com campaign.
Business head of Facebook Africa, Aidan Baigrie was up next to discuss what mobile means to South Africa and the power of clicking.
“Social is about discovery,” he said. And this often leads to search. The trick is blending the two, added Baigrie. A way in which this can be done is by telling memorable stories on platforms like Facebook. And of course this can all be done from a mobile device.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is leading the charge in digital, faster than anywhere else in the world,” said Baigrie. Until 2010 TV had the most eyeballs glued to it but now mobile is keeping more peepers occupied. “[M]obile drives digital,” said Baigrie. And it’s happening quickly. Four years ago, Facebook made 0% revenue from mobile. Today they make 70% off of it. Mobile wasn’t even part of the strategy back then but now it is, seeing as 94% of South Africans use their mobiles as their primary way to access Facebook.
Baigrie also said that mobile is bringing back the days of personalised market. He used Coca-Cola Super Bowl advertising as a prime example, as it targets particular users, with content that’s exceptionally relevant to them.
These are the opportunities South African marketers need to seize. With 12 million monthly Facebook users in the country, seven million of them accessing it daily, and 40% of that interaction taking place on feature phones. As Baigrie said, mobile makes prime time, all the time, making anytime a good time to interact with users.
Like Stiles he believes creativity is key. Baigrie said the way to drive sales, increase your market share, growth and, of course, get clicks is by creating characters and stories with imagination.
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