By Remy Raitt
Kicking off the conference, Graham Warsop, the founder and chairperson of The Jupiter Drawing Room, stated that marketers today have a lot to take congnisance of. “The world is infinitely more complicated in the ways we communicate with people,” he said.
A sentiment echoed by many of the speakers was that there is no point integrating bad ideas. “The two things that you have to get right are quality of work and integration. There is no point integrating rubbish,” said Warsop. Sanlam and Santam chief executive and executive head, Yegs Ramiah and King James Group co-founder and CEO James Barty, in their talk about client-agency relationships further drove this idea. “For integration to happen, there has to be a great idea,” said Barty. “An integrated campaign is a single idea made stronger and more effective by the use of additional communication disciplines. Rather ask for a great idea than an integrated campaign,” he continued.
And these great ideas come from great creative. Telkom CMO, Enzo Scarcella said that consumers are emotional beings and instead of talking to them in bytes and bits address their wants, needs and desires. “In your brief understand what attitudes and behaviours you want to shift,” he said. “We need to engage and maintain. You don’t need gimmicks, you need great storytellers.”
In order to get this integration right a good client-agency relationship is integral. “It’s good to do the journey together,” said Warsop. “Get all the partners into the room. This is not always comfortable but it can work if it’s gone about in the right way. Egos need to be left at the door.”
This journey will help put the customer at the centre of your work, which is exactly where Acceleration MD for the Middle East and Africa, Richard Mullins believes the customer should be, and yet he said very few companies put them there. This is directly linked to data, a huge buzzword of the conference. “Data-driven business links everything the brand does to its brand purpose,” said Mullins, “it leverages insights and analysis to drive consistency across all customer touch points.”
If customer-centricity is embraced by all functions, Mullins said it works to link disparate data sources. But this engagement and collection of data has to be “always-on”. “You need to put the customer in the centre,” he said. He advised to integrate your data; owned, earned and paid for content, as deeper levels of data offer deeper potential insights, deeper relationships and greater customer and brand alignment.”
Nikki Cockroft, the Woolworths group head of online, also spoke about data and how it should be used to maximise customer relationships. “Data allows you to build a relevant experience that adds value to the customer experience which ultimately drives business,” she said. Cockcroft said that it’s important to realise that your customer is constantly evolving and therefore you have to have evolving data requirements. She said what companies and brands should be striving for is to give their customers an “enriched experience that doesn’t evade their trust”. She says this can be done by making your data useful.
“The way forward to being a data-lead organization is to gather and analyse collective data and identify more granular segments in your user data base,” she said. Cockroft also drove home the point that we’re dealing with “an internet of me”, therefore your marketing has to be honest, relevant and personalised.
This idea of personalisation was also a strong theme at the IMC. The managing director of Added Value, Lynne Gordon spoke in-depth about the fact that cultural vibrancy is the new essential insight for growth. And by culture she doesn’t mean the language you speak or the colour of your skin, she means “the stuff of life”. Gordon said that because loyalty is increasingly hard to maintain, marketers have to deeply understand their consumers. “Cultural aspiration and consumer insights and the brand role are all equal in creating a culturally iconic brand purpose,” she said. Gordon believes brands need to contribute to the culture through cultural activation. “Brands who commit to culture and a long-term plan see commitment back.”
Arcade Content film director, Lebogang Rasethaba said intersecting these cultures is successful when content is created that the audience wants to watch. “Engage someone on their level of confidence,” he said. “We should let subcultures be themselves, out of that that you’ll get great work.” Rasethaba said who delivers these cultural message is important. “It needs to be someone who would use the product, it needs to be realistic.” But it has to be cool too, Ahmed Tilly, the executive creative director and CEO of Black River FC said; “Capture the subculture before it’s too mainstream.”
Aidan Baigrie of Facebook Africa spoke too, especially on the importance of utilising mobile to target audiences. “The ability to access people through mobile platforms rivals other traditional mediums (in Africa) and yet only 5% of marketing budgets are spent on mobile,” he said. He believes great marketing budgets are spent on mobile and social media marketing.
The conference also hosted a range of workshops. On day one Everlytic, Continuon, SAS, True North and MediaCom provided insights and practical advice, and on the second day Boomtown, Cerebra, Clockwork Media, Dentsu and Stretch Experiential Marketing did the same. Stay tuned for more details on this.
The conference drove home that marketing and communications are most certainly still relevant, but overcome difficult times, it is imperative that agencies and other stakeholders work closely with one another, rather than driving separate goals.
For more information, visit the IMC Conference website. Alternatively, connect with the event via Facebook and Twitter.