Month: September 2019

Sean Sullivan – Business Unit Manager at The MediaShop

Bracing and gearing our businesses for the onslaught of the future consumer is key to remaining relevant in the media industry and beyond. The new human is wired very differently and if we don’t comprehend their world, we will fail to connect with them.

Generation Z are the first true digital natives; their brains are mapped in a different way. They don’t know a world without smartphones, Google or voice command. So what can we expect from their children, Generation Alpha? It’s a scary thought that perhaps we can’t fully comprehend yet.

Coined by sociologist Mark McCrindle , the term Generation Alpha applies to children born between 2010 and 2025. According to McCrindle, an estimated 2.5 million Alphas are born globally every week.

What consumer businesses need to remember is that these generations don’t wait around to ask questions; they’re more than comfortable just searching for the information they need online. As such, they need to be taught differently and brands need to interact with them and sell to them in a very different way.

Generation Alpha is a growing and lucrative consumer market. Collectively their spending power is huge. These kids are marketing’s newest power brokers. They’re already playing an outsize role in household buying decisions, even though the oldest among them is only 9 years old. These children are as comfortable swiping a tablet or speaking to a voice assistant than most of their adult relatives are. They pick up tech intuitively and constantly consume information and entertainment. They’re learning soft skills at an unprecedented rate: problem-solving, multi-tasking and quick thinking. Their biggest desire? Devices and screen time.

 The Enhanced Human

Unlike their parents, the millennials or informally known as digital natives, many Alphas will have a digital footprint before they are even born. Celebrity kids like Prince William and Duchess Catherine’s son, George , already has an Instagram account, managed by his parents. Generation Alpha is the first group who will be immersed in technology their entire lives. These kids are also referred to as the Glass Generation because their glass-fronted devices will be completely integrated with their lifestyle, they will not know communication without it. This generation might be the first to truly embody the enhancement to humanity that technology can be, in their lifestyle and perception:

• They will be living at 5G speeds in terms of internet and the rate of consumption. It’s instant gratification like never before.
• It’s the five year old who can rock a YouTube search before they can read.
• They’re expected to be the wealthiest, most highly-educated and technologically-connected group to date.
• Studying to master’s level will become the norm for most.
• The rest will avoid the higher education system altogether and opt for online learning (self-learning is a norm for these kids).
• They will take on jobs that don’t yet exist.

Demanding

It’s not just the instant gratification at the speed of 5G that makes this generation demanding, it’s their slightly scary level of self-assurance too. They live and consume on their own terms. They only know the world as one of instant and self-curated access. They navigate Netflix in their sleep, Siri and Alexa are their Aunties, and they won’t believe you when you try and explain the world before Spotify. They have every tool they could ever need at the tips of their fingers and on voice command.

 Collective Mindset

Although they’re engrossed in screens, this generation may be the one to fix the disconnection and loneliness of which millennials have taken the brunt. Generation Alpha may be the ones to successfully bridge the gap between digital worlds and the real world because they recognize the entire globe as one big group of friends.

Marketing to these children requires simple, detailed content which will assist in cultivating consumer loyalty at a young age. From the onset, Alphas would have been widely exposed to multiple digital platforms. Businesses will have to adapt to radically new ways of interacting and communicating with Alphas, compared to their parents. Generation Alpha’s consumer experience will have to be seamless and integrated, with a personalised online experience. This will provide new opportunities for marketers. Alpha kids are watching less TV than previous generations, so marketers need different ways to reach them such as tapping into a rising crop of child influencers who have their own Instagram pages and YouTube channels with subscriber counts well into the millions.

They are digitally-savvy humanoids and social media connoisseurs; and I’m looking forward to their impact on society.

Sources: Flux trends, Vice.com, Scarymommy.com

Lukhanyo Bushwana, Strategist at The MediaShop

In recent months there has been a lot of talk about our deteriorating economy and calls for President Ramaphosa to come up with strategies and policies to rectify the situation we are in.

Government has identified SMEs as one of the crucial sectors that can drive our economy and create jobs for our people. However, with less than 1% of our R42 billion in adspend going to black owned agencies, SMEs in SA continue to struggle. The marketing and advertising industry needs to be doing more.

The vast majority of SMEs in SA don’t survive beyond three years. These are some of the challenges they face every day:

To help SMEs deal with these challenges government, together with a number of big corporates including Vodacom, Sasol, Nedbank, Absa and Distell to name a few have formed a R1 billion SMEs Fund. The objective is to support SMEs financially and to equip them with the necessary skills to help them grow, develop mentorship programmes and provide them with access to markets and technology.

The Competition Amendment Bill aims to boost small and medium companies and open the economy to new investments and innovation, which has recently been signed into law by the President.

 Now let’s bring it home!

The Nielsen 2018 Adex survey indicates that out of the total advertising spend in South Africa, which is sitting at ±R42bn, less than 1% is spent with black-owned agencies (SMEs).

This is a clear indication that there is a lack of transformation in the marketing and advertising industry and why the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had to formally introduce the Marketing Advertising and Communication Charter (MAC Charter) in a bid to get the industry to transform. Some of the big brands in SA are leading this transformation by partnering with both big and small agencies to ensure that their budgets and marketing efforts are shared equally.

As channel strategists, planners and buyers, we have a big role to play because we deal directly with a large number of SME’s that are our media partners and owners. So how can an individual or a business play their part in supporting SMEs in our industry?

As brands and media agencies, let’s include them in our briefs and lucrative proposals, offer guidance where necessary as some of them are new to our industry, but consider and include them in client campaign budgets, lend an ear and listen to what they have to offer.

Remember, we as individuals and as corporates have as much of a role to play in the future of our country as the

For the seventh time in the past ten years, The MediaShop Johannesburg has taken top honours at the annual MOST Awards. This year, The MediaShop Johannesburg was crowned Full Service Media Agency of the Year and overall Media Agency of the Year.

 “It is always humbling to be recognized by your industry peers and stakeholders. 2019 continues to be a spectacular year for us with all the evolution we are going through as an agency,” says Kgaugelo Maphai, Managing Director of The MediaShop Johannesburg. “I am immensely grateful to our management, staff and media owner partners who continue to support our journey towards a more diverse, inclusive, insights driven, pioneering agency.”

The MOST Awards celebrate excellence in the media industry and encourages healthy competition, and as a result, better service delivery. The annual highlight on the media industry’s networking calendar, the awards celebrates the sector’s best of the best in terms of service delivery, knowledge and innovation, but this year in particular offered an opportunity to reflect on the successes, challenges and changes in the media industry as revealed by MOST’s research survey, presented by Freshly Ground Insights Global.

“I’d like to make a special mention to The MediaShop Cape Town for taking second spot in both Media Agency of the Year and Specialist Media Agency of the Year and to our eight month old sister agency, Meta Media,  for making a remarkable entrance into the MOST Awards, taking a third overall in both these categories. We are all very proud members of the Park Advertising family!”

For more on The MediaShop visit www.mediashop.co.za, like them on Facebook: The MediaShop, follow them on Twitter @MediaShopZA or LinkedIn.

Lorraine Gwewera, Digital Strategist at The MediaShop

Two years ago I was exposed to a course that completely blew my mind but also spoke to my heart. It was entitled “Innovating Business at the Base” and was coupled with the book “New Markets, New Mindsets”. It was quite eye opening content and exciting for me, both as a marketer and a consumer in a third world country where socioeconomic factors are dominant when it comes to addressable marketing.

The most exciting consumer segment is the base-of-the-pyramid consumer, mainly because that’s where the majority of South Africa’s population lies. This segment proves to be a challenge for most brands because they have to be highly relevant, speak to a specific need and find innovative ways to grab the attention of this consumer. Brands accomplish this with the right product tapped into the correct mind-set, needs and trust relationships of low income earners.

The growth of brands lies in this untapped market which has a lot of potential. Credit Suisse wrote that global inequality is one of the biggest threats to worldwide growth. Can brands afford to cater only to the needs of the wealthy and middle class when the bulk of the population in developing economies resides in the lower income space? Of course not.

The revenue from the base of the pyramid market is far less a victim of fluctuating economic cycles and can actually be a stable revenue base during economic downturns, which is essentially what we need in the current economic climate that South Africa and Africa as a whole is experiencing.

Innovating business at the base allows organisations to offer new technologies, operating methods, and management approaches which increase productivity, gain efficiency and expand markets by serving new needs. We need more brands that take the time to know what the base of the pyramid consumer needs – what their expectations and aspirations are.

Brands need to know what this segment’s reason for being is and tailor their products accordingly. Base of the pyramid consumers are predominantly located in townships and rural areas which are infrastructurally marginalised, and coupled with limited disposable income, gives rise to the need for reverse innovation, consumer centric design and frugal engineering which are critical in this space. Collaboration, partnerships and social and business networks are key for social embeddedness which is vital in these markets.

MNC’s, social entrepreneurs and governments have undertaken a shift in thinking in order to cater for this consumer. We applaud brands that have paid attention to this segment and created products that speak to their needs like Nestlé, Nedbank, McCain, Unilever and Danone, to name a few, have done. Danone’s yoghurt is filling and does not require refrigeration, providing the brand with an opportunity to penetrate this consumer segment with a nutritious dairy product that’s affordable and is cognisant of the realities that this segment faces such as no refrigeration, electricity and the need for a filling food product.

From a media perspective we have several solutions that help us communicate with the BOP consumer while minimising wastage. African Language Stations (ALS) and community radio stations such as JoziFM help us reach this consumer effectively. TV also plays a vital role through the use of free to air channels such as SABC1 and 2, Openview HD, eTV, community TV like Soweto TV and DSTV access which is the more affordable package on the direct broadcast satellite service packages.

Out of Home media offers commuter media, taxi branding, taxi TV, rank TV and rank radio which makes this consumer segment very accessible. Digital media makes things more exciting considering we are a mobile first continent. The provision of placements such as Facebook Lite, sponsored calls, sponsored SMS, Please Call Me’s in text and video, sponsored WIFI, Opera Mini and zero rated services such as Freebasics by Facebook to name a few certainly help the cause.

So just when you thought we were faced with an impossible challenge to reach bottom of the pyramid consumers, you find that we actually have the capability and the means, we just need to be strategic about tapping into this market that can make a massive difference to a brand’s bottom line.