media update’s Aisling McCarthy attended the Masterclass and the awards ceremony at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday, 6 July.

Jeremy Maggs started off the proceedings by explaining the importance of attending such workshops, as it allows the creative industry to discuss the best possible way forward in the marketing industry, in order to ensure success for any business.

“I’ve been reporting on the [media and marketing] industry for over 30 years, and I have learned how important it is to keep up with the latest trends,” Maggs said.

The era of selfies and hyper-personalisation

Brett St Clair, ex-Googler turned banker, explained how the exponential growth in technology has changed the way in which people interact with the world around them.
“It is no longer about the mobile device mapping the world around us, but about putting ourselves into the story.”

St Clair said that people no longer want to show others what is going on around them, but to rather place themselves into the story. This means that advertisers need to find a way to make people feel like that advert is a personalised experience for them.

“Listening to your customers is vital – hyper-personalisation is a huge deal for consumers.”

Using Coca-Cola as an example, St Clair explained that through simply putting names on Coke cans, people felt more connected to the product than through buying a normal can.

Further, St Clair said that in order to win over customers, you need to “build delightful experiences” for them. He suggested that the power of data can be used to create good customer experiences by understanding exactly what they want.

It’s more important to make consumers feel first, then think

Natalie Botha, account director at Kantar Millward Brown, said that because we are living in an age where people are extremely time-poor, it is imperative for marketers to reach their customers within the first five seconds of the advert.

“Consumers struggle to pay attention, and 60% of them would rather skip an advert if they could.”

Botha said that it is a tough time to be a marketer, quoting fellow speaker Gareth Cliff, saying that “people don’t have time to read books, and they don’t even really have time to watch adverts.”

She offered four tips to succeed with a marketing campaign:

  1. Make a meaningful impression: brand purpose must be clear;
  2. Work with the brain, not against it: make people feel before you make them think;
  3. Good storytelling leaves an impact: good storytelling makes people want to watch an ad; and
  4. Make a lasting impression: lacking consistency is one of the biggest brand killers.

Use data to target the right market

Luke Mckend, country director for Google South Africa, said that using data needs to get more sophisticated in order to fully understand who we are reaching out to, and what kinds of adverts we are serving up to them. He explained that by using data, marketers need to work out what consumers are worth to them.

“We know that the 45-50-year-old consumer is worth more to us than the 18-24-year-old because they have more money to spend. We can actually make more profit on someone who costs us more to acquire.”

Mckend said that with digital marketing, it is fortunate that every part of the engagement with consumers can be measured. However, by that token, data needs to be used better to ensure consumers are not bombarded by the same adverts that they are not interested in.

“To be followed around by the same advert you don’t want to see is a bad initial engagement. You wouldn’t buy that product, even if you wanted to, because of a bad initial experience.”

The importance of audio

Gareth Cliff, from CliffCentral, also pointed to modern people being extremely time-poor, so audio is a great platform because people can do something else whilst listening.

He also added that the way in which marketers reach out to consumers has to change. Nowadays, people can skip ads, fast forward past them, or install ad blockers – so something has to change.

“You can’t do the hard sell anymore – you can’t force your brand, logo, and product on to people anymore. They have to invite it.”

Cliff said that in the past, brands would try to reach a certain audience, LSM, gender, or age group, but now, the audience picks you.

“It’s like fish jumping into a boat, rather than you actually fishing.”

He said that audio, especially in the form of podcasts, has a personalised feel. This personalisation leads to a trusting, niche audience, which Cliff believes is more important than a mass market.

Creatives are the leaders of progress

Justin Spratt, head of business for Uber in Sub-Saharan Africa, explained that numerous big brands started out as toys or things on the periphery.

“Progress often looks like a toy and sits at the edges.”

He mentioned that brands like Uber, SnapChat, and Facebook all started off very different from how they are today, and that when they began, no one could have predicted their success.

“Uber started on the periphery as a toy for rich people to get a ride in San Francisco. SnapChat started as a means to send nudes without them being saved, and Facebook started off as a ‘Hot or Not’ list at Harvard.”

Thus, Spratt said that creatives are the most important people in society, as they are the drivers of progress.

APEX Awards

With Donovan Goliath, Jason Goliath, and Odette Van Der Haar as MCs, the 22nd Apex Awards celebrated agencies who had worked hard and succeeded in creating great campaigns.

Having started their bursary programme seven years ago, the APEX Awards has awarded 60 bursaries to students of the AAA School of Advertising. This year, Van De Haar said that 12 bursaries would be awards, bringing the total to 72 bursaries.

Ivan Moroke, chairman of the APEX jury, said that he had noticed this year that certain lines which divide the industry are falling away, for the better.

“The client-agency line, ATL-BTL and departmentalisation lines are falling away. Agencies are starting to allow creative teams to do their own thing, and creativity is what we are here to celebrate.”

Want to stay up to date with the latest marketing news? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Interested in how the marketing world is changing? Read more in our article, 6 marketing FAQs answered by South African experts.