By Remy Raitt

“I’m all about engaging content,” he says. “You can compare communication to stand-up comedy; the audiences are a mix of people of different ages, races, genders and creeds and when you are dealing with so many different people, you need to deliver a key premise that engages the audience, something they can all relate to. This needs to be a truth that contains local relevance, you need to create ideas that people will buy into.”

Sharman has actually tried his hand at stand-up comedy, so his analogy isn’t just verbiage, it comes from personal experience. “I basically do business comedy,” he says about his work now. “I use humour as a link to education. The only way people learn is through remarkable content. I like to entertain, my business is to entertain.” Retroviral campaigns like the Nando’s Last Dictator Standing videos made with lead agency Black River FC, the Kreepy Krawly Wrangler concept developed with E+I and the Douwe Egberts yawn-activated coffee vending machines made with Joe Public all demonstrate the agency’s cheeky approach to attaining clicks, views and shares.

With some 12 600 followers on his personal Twitter page and over 2000 on Retroviral’s, Sharman says social media is an ideal way of monitoring what people are saying about a brand. “On social media people are more honest and open, I find focus groups can be contrived.”

“I Tweet therefore I am,” he jokes. “I have been on Twitter since 2008, I really like the access it allows. Those bite sized pieces of information, I love them. I like the way data is consumed and can be converted to ideas which can transform into pitches.”

He says he is passionate about digital because of its honesty, transparency and constant evolution.  “Digital is a place where concepts and unique ideas can really take off,” he says. At Retroviral they concentrate on “The 3 C’s”; their content aims to inspire and move owned and earned communities to drive sales, which directly translates to commerce.

Connecting with their audiences is the main aim. Retroviral’s work for the Sansui Summer Cup depicts this intention perfectly. In an article he wrote for the PRISMS, where Retroviral won gold in the Social Media for Public Relations category this year, Sharman describes the campaign. “The organisers wanted to show residents of Johannesburg that local horseracing events are as relevant to them as the J&B Met is to Cape Town, and the Vodacom Durban July is to that city. However they wanted to tap into a relevant, local truth to connect emotionally with the target market, resonating with the daily realities faced by city residents.”

Retroviral did this by conceptualising and producing ‘The Jozi Jockeys’ with Spitfire that showed the similarities between jockeys on the racetrack and taxi drivers on the busy streets of Johannesburg. This branded content piece created resonance with their target audience by making taxi drivers protagonists that city residents could support like they would a favourite horse at the races. The content had a click through opportunity to drive users to buy online tickets for the Sansui Summer Cup. This kind of community engagement is what Retroviral aims for, and if their client list and PRISM, Cannes and Loeries silver wear hold any traction, they are certainly meeting their objections.

Before starting Retroviral in 2010 Sharman worked as an account manager and executive in the UK and locally. He says he drew from his experiences at other agencies and applied the lessons he learned to his own company. “When it comes to entrepreneurship people always say you have to have passion, but passion will only get you so far,” he says. His advice is to not let financial fear cripple you and not to expect things to get easier as time goes on, “as you grow the scarier and harder it gets”.

He says his infatuation with his work is what spurs him on through growth spurts and the trepidation it sometimes brings. “I’m obsessed with content, it’s kind of unhealthy. People don’t realise it’s never glamorous, it’s all about the hustle.” But it’s a hustle he is more than happy to move along with; pitching, creating and joking along the way.

For more information, visit www.retroviral.co.za. Alternatively connect with him on Facebook or on Twitter.