Month: March 2020

Chris Botha, Group Managing Director, Park Advertising

Can you say ‘Corona mania?’

Audience = Income.

This equation has been true in the media game for years. In theory it all makes sense. Editors and producers are incentivised to make content that appeals to the pallet of the majority of the population. Media owners pay top dollar to get the best writers, producers and editors who have the closest feel for what works in the world out there. The scary thing in modern media though is “what works”, and what works is eliciting an emotional response from an audience.

We’re all familiar with the concept of “clickbait” (content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page, regardless of the accuracy of the content). I think we are moving into an era of “Emotional Clickbait” where media owners produce content that will shock / anger / upset readers – as it is the most likely to be viewed.

Emotional clickbait is all around us. All you have to do is go onto any major news or social platform, and you will see that the most commented on, most trending, hottest topics are the ones with the most emotional sting, and often very little substance.

The appeal in media is no longer necessarily what makes for good content – but what makes for content that attracts views / comments / likes. Emotive content.

The current Emotional clickbait topic in South Africa is the Corona Virus. It is the number one trending topic on Twitter today (and yesterday, and probably for the rest of the month and into April) and for good reason. I am not an expert so will completely refrain from commenting on the virus itself. As a media expert though, I am worried about the tone of the communication out there. Some media platforms are all of a sudden professing opinions ranging from “this is a common cold, ignore it” – to “It’s the end of the world, panic!!!”. These views are not backed up by science. Not backed up by statistics. They are typical of the extremism that emotional click bait is associated with. But because of the Emotional clickbait it is impacting markets, share values, and the price of oil!

The media do this the world over. I’ve been following the circus which is American politics with great interest over the past few months. Some of the Democratic Party debate has been taken up by candidates literally close to exploding and hanging campaign promises on being called by their “preferred pronoun”. This is a matter I would imagine is largely irrelevant to the majority of Democratic Party supporters, who actually only want to know how they can get President Trump out of the White House!

Emotional clickbait!

In South Africa, I would love to know how much air time the EFF receives relative to their political peers. I would guess far more (relatively speaking). Why? They ride the wave of Emotional clickbait. Whatever the issue is, big or small, the EFF are often there to turn it into a race related matter. And the media will report on it to their hearts content. Why – yep, Emotional clickbait.

The EFF have done very many great things for our country, and are an important stakeholder in the national narrative. At last count they received 1,8 million votes to the ANC’s 10 million, yet they play the online news game far better than anyone else. Kudos to them.

It’s a fact that consumers are more attracted to news that shocks or illicit an emotional response. So what do the media do? They try and outdo each other when it comes to news that shocks and illicit an emotional response.  Anyone remember a business called Bell Pottinger? There’s an organisation that was built on Emotional clickbait.

Each media knows its audience and what will and won’t work and correctly, adapts their editorial policy accordingly. A website called “The Edit” learnt an interesting lesson not too long ago. A junior journalist wrote an article on why she thinks the music of Beyoncé is “overrated AF”. The article became the most clicked on and commented one on the site. You can imagine how the publishers of the site are relooking their reviewing criteria right now.

I once read an interesting article about a book entitled The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. The book is among the many by the author stating that God doesn’t exist. Dawkins holds a strong atheistic angle throughout.

The author of the article postulated that the book will be most read by Christians. Why, because they disagree with it, and want to argue the point. Atheists who don’t believe in God are less likely to read a book that affirms what they already think to be true. So inadvertently Christians are often the ones funding the writings of Mr Dawkins. It’s the supreme irony of emotional click bait.

As South Africans we need to become more aware of Emotional clickbait and actively work to avoid it. It doesn’t give a real perspective of reality. It is a negative incentive for media owners and drags the fourth estate to the lowest common denominator. Let’s look at the facts and figures. Let’s crack a book open and do some of our own homework on a topic before being dragged down an emotional rabbit hole.

TransUnion reports that consumer credit extension in South Africa is currently around

R1.8 trillion, with approximately 9% of this debt at least three months in arrears. In addition,  around 45% of the approximately 22.5 million credit-active consumers have impaired credit records. This is a major obstacle to collections activities as it becomes increasingly difficult for credit providers to collect payments as the level of debt rises, with many collectors across multiple industries trying to solicit payments from the same consumers. “Business needs to think about these realities when preparing for the launch of DebiCheck,” states Andrew Springate, CEO of PAYM8, a leading technology and financial gateway services company for payments, collections and mobile commerce.

From 1 November 2019, South Africa became the first country in the world to implement a debit order system that requires banks to request electronic authorisation, directly from their clients. It’s called DebiCheck and it was instituted by the South African Reserve Bank and Payments Association South Africa (PASA), in response to an increase in fraudulent debit orders, while also protecting merchants and credit providers from a spike in disputed debit orders.

There is a lot of information being released about DebiCheck, most of it confusing. “I’m not sure debit order dependent companies have fully understood the implications,” warns Springate.

“The change will have a profound impact on any business that currently uses Non-Authenticated Early Debit Orders (NAEDO), and to a lesser degree those who use Authenticated Early Debit Orders. Both these debit orders sit under the EDO (early debit order stream). The EDO system will be replaced by DebiCheck,” Springate explains.

Many South African companies are highly reliant on debit orders as a payment channel and in a weak economy, no company can afford to put their payment processes at risk. Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) states that 48 million debit orders are processed monthly across all industries, totaling approximately R80 billion in revenue.

“Without the DebiCheck system, your company will have to use an EFT based debit order for all new client debit order payments”, says Springate, “This will mean you can no longer take advantage of the ‘early window’ and your debit orders will no longer be processed in the early morning but rather late in the evening. This will put your debit orders at the back of the payment queue. It will have the biggest effect on companies, like debt collectors, credit providers and many others, who rely on being able to ‘strike first’ when a customer’s salary hits their bank account. Currently EDO’s allow companies to track a customer’s account for up to 32 days for available funds. This benefit will also no longer be available to you without an approved DebiCheck.”

Springate also cautions businesses to think about how DebiCheck will affect their sales processes. “DebiCheck will add a new step to your current sales process. Before any sale or contract can be deemed final, your sales representatives will have to wait for confirmation of the payers authorisation of the mandate. The decision to accept or reject a DebiCheck lies with the consumer. It is sent by their bank, via an electronic platform. No bank will proceed with a debit order until they have received positive confirmation from your customer via DebiCheck.”  But, Springate adds that the positive change coming from this new regulation is that disputes will be almost impossible. “As long as you process the debit order exactly in line with the date and value loaded when the mandate was created and the payment matches the authorisation given to the bank, the payer will not be able to dispute or reverse a payment.”

Time is running out if your business relies heavily on the NAEDO early window – no new NAEDO’s will be processed from 1 May 2020, and, from 1 November 2020, DebiCheck will be the only early window debit. “There is a lot to think about,” explains Springate, “There are many variables that could derail your current payment system and affect your monthly cash flow and collection targets. It’s not a process that can be done in a rush and as time runs out for companies reliant on the early window and account tracking, you are going to need to make some strategic decisions”.

As the TransUnion figures show a low-growth economy is pushing more and more South Africans into a fiscal struggle, with more and more unable to pay their monthly bills. “If you need to be at the front of the payment queue,” states Springate, “you need to get on top of DebiCheck. It’s a risk many businesses haven’t seen coming”.

The DebiCheck system will replace the EDO system from November 2020 although the switchover could start as soon as May 2020.

For more information visit PAYM8.co.za

Citing a stalling economy and ongoing power shortages, ratings agency Moody’s has cut South Africa’s GDP growth forecast from 1.5% to 0.7% for 2020. As growth stagnates, businesses, both large and small, are struggling to find the additional revenue generation needed to meet shareholder expectations. 

It’s in times like this that business needs to adapt quickly by embracing advanced technology that can provide access to new business opportunities and previously unchartered markets.

 “The old way of finding new business opportunities has run its course,” says Ursula McDonald, Managing Director of women led and owned marketing and business innovations company ‘A Country For Jane’. “Cold calling, desk drops, trade shows and list brokers are not yielding the results they used to.” As South African businesses look for growth in an economy where job losses and budget cuts are the new norm, traditional marketing efforts, especially in the B2B arena are being pushed to innovate. “Costs attributed to a sales force with no pipeline of verified leads, are being questioned,” says McDonald. But the reality is that new business contacts are hard to reach, and the most influential decision-makers are protected by layers of gatekeepers whose job it is to keep out the ‘salesmen’. 

“The quality of sales pitches is also often shallow,” explains McDonald. “There is often no effort made to understand the potential client’s challenges in a specific industry, or how a product or service being pitched could alleviate their pain. It’s often just a ‘one pitch’ for all scenario, which leaves prospects feeling that sales representatives have no understanding of their business.” It’s a pain point being experienced by multiple companies across South Africa. “Business leaders will listen if a sales pitch takes into account their unique challenges,” says McDonald. But how does a company execute multiple pitches for multiple industries?

“Leads by Jane is our answer to stagnating business growth,” says McDonald. The advanced technology works off an intelligent LinkedIn platform, but that’s not where the innovation lies. “For businesses to succeed in a weak economy, they need to be able to forecast projected growth. This can’t be done with any accuracy unless there is a pipeline of new business prospects,” states McDonald. “Leads by Jane is a digital platform that links relevant content, in our case, highly researched content, that marries an understanding of macro-economic factors, causing industry pain points, with a product or service that can offer relief.” The platform developed internationally by Scott Cundill, Leads by Jane’s development partner, offers businesses the chance to engage one-on-one with business prospects. “It aims to get sales reps in front of the prospects most likely to purchase,” says Cundill. This is done through the use of a tracking system that measures content engagement. “We need more thought leaders in South Africa,” explains McDonald. “People who have a researched opinion, on how to kickstart growth and add value to the economy. We position sales reps as those thought leaders to give them a business opinion that is authentic and resonates with business leaders. This sets them up, with a differentiated view from their competitors, allowing them to make a standout impact in the market. We then track the reaction to their opinions and identify business prospects with whom the content resonated.” McDonald calls this ‘Idea Economics’. “Idea Economics was born out of our frustration, at the lack of business understanding inherent in many sales pitches. For our economy to grow, we need businesses to thrive”, says McDonald, “Idea Economics ensures every business is marketed from a business reality, not with a catchy slogan.” 

Can South Africa surprise its critics and finish 2020 with a higher GDP growth number than 0.7%? “Leads by Jane has been developed to create real business relationships based on a shared understanding of business realities. In the end, businesses have a solid pipeline of verified leads”, says McDonald. “Many companies are under pressure to meet sales targets,” continues Cundill. “But in the current economic climate, these targets aren’t being achieved. Leads by Jane pinpoints the sale cycle weaknesses and determines where in the process things are going wrong”. Having verified leads can quickly become a moot point when the sales team lacks the skills needed to turn them into sales. It’s why Leads by Jane has incorporated a sales training module that equips sales reps with the tools and confidence they will need to continue the relationships and close the deals. 

Leads by Jane has the potential to increase the chance of turning a business pipeline into business success. “Beating the growth forecasts, both as a country and as separate businesses is going to require new ideas. Leads by Jane closes the sales loop for companies who need to get traction in tough times,” states McDonald. 

For more information visit countryforjane.com