Author: Mark

Refilwe Mangweta, Digital Campaign Manager at The MediaShop

In a time when the whole world has been rocked by the tumultuous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the human condition shows how resilient it is in response to fighting this virus. Through these trying times I have learnt the importance of laughing at ourselves a bit. “A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder. For this blog, I wanted to share my pandemic woes on a much lighter note.

Like most people, when the lockdown initially began and upon seeing how the virus was going to change the world as we currently know it, I thought to myself “Ok I’ve got this! I can do my part to flatten the curve!” Dare I say, I even circulated a couple of quotes like ‘our grandparents were called to fight wars, and all we were asked to do is to stay home’.

So needless to say I was ready to stay home and saw this as an opportunity to also accomplish some of the things on my to-do list – procrastination is a real thing! What I was not prepared for is how much of a boujee person I had become which, in turn, made the task at hand uhm ‘superficially challenging’ or at the very least, interesting. Particularly in terms of things I had deemed as “essential” which were honestly just first world problems for instance…

– Store-Bought Coffee – Yep, nothing completes an Instagram picture like a cup of coffee from your favourite coffee shop. So to not have this available was shattering as a coffee lover. The lack of caffeine came a close second to the no alcohol (let’s not even go there).

– Yeast and Ginger – Oh how these previously disregarded items have become the most desired. But the struggle to find these became like the Pokémon challenge version 2.0. Who would have thought that in 2020 we’d be panic buying yeast? Today, yeast has also been promoted from being “just another baking item” to now being critical ingredient to brewing your own alcoholic beverage.

– Make-up – Firstly eyelashes (whether they happen to be your own or not) were definitely essential. And the amount of friends who are having to tame and shape their own eyebrows has made us appreciate all the photo filters on Instagram even more. Any time I needed to go out I would apply my favourite lipstick only to realize no one and I mean NO ONE would see my M·A·C Retro Matte Lipstick.Then there are those beautiful experiences we all thought we would have now that our fast paced lives have slowed down.

– The Zen, that just never came – The number of meditation apps on my phone and the neatly folded unused yoga mat are the perfect examples. Maybe I’ll give it a go tomorrow. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

– The TBR (to be read) pile still sitting on my bookshelf – Listen! As an avid reader this is painful, this was supposed to be my moment to shine. I mean while the world was panic buying toilet paper (before they moved on to the yeast) I stocked up on my fave reads getting myself ready to stay at home, and lose myself into stories and live vicariously through people sitting having drinks at restaurants . Sigh.

– Skin Regiments: My skin regiment has been affected because I used to wear a day cream in the morning then a night cream after my evening shower. But now I shower once a day because I wake up and jump onto meetings *don’t think we haven’t noticed these super early meetings added onto our calendars nowadays*, do work and schooling. So I only shower late afternoon and I can’t put on my night cream in the afternoon. Now I’m stressed because this beauty company promised me the night cream would rejuvenate my skin at night. So when do I use my night cream??? But like I said first world problems.

Thank goodness we’ve moved into level three which will remedy some of my first world problems :). I hope we can continue to laugh at ourselves a little as this virus seems like it will be a part of our lives for some time to come until we find a vaccine.

We need to come to terms with this and take the required precautions. We need to continue to show ourselves and those around us some love because this is difficult for everyone. But most importantly, find moments in each day of this new normal to have a good laugh. And where possible, share that laugh with someone else.

Claire Herman, Media Operations Lead at The MediaShop talks about the possibility of sanitisation pods, clothing bubbles and life after Covid.

In a matter of months our world has been turned upside down after experiencing a global pandemic infecting over 5.1 million people around the world and resulting in almost 331,000 deaths so far (Worldometer, 21 May 2020). Besides Bill Gates and the screenplay writer of Contagion, who could have predicted this?

In our fast-paced society with instant gratification being the order of the day, asking millions of people to go into self-isolation seems like torture – never before has the freedom to see your friends and family, to exercise or walk your dogs, been raised as such a bone of contention and “irritation” – first world problems. But to many, the harsh reality of their living conditions has made lockdown almost unbearable – restricted access to clean water and sanitation, over-crowded living arrangements, an ever-increasing level of unemployment and a massive shortage of food in many communities, is making it very difficult to keep people in confinement. President Ramaphosa’s announcement on Thursday the 13 ^th of May that we could possibly move from Level 4 to Level 3 at the end of May (for some regions at least), does give some hope, but at some stage we will need to be set free.

And when that happens, we most certainly won’t be able to “return to normal” – or at least until we have a vaccine or a cure. Some are estimating that a vaccine is still 18 months away. There will also be “degrees of normality” depending on your age and state of health, with older generations and the immunocompromised needing to be extra cautious.

In the meantime, we need to adapt our lifestyles in the long-term as we navigate towards a “new normal”. But the burning question of what exactly this “new normal” will be is on everyone’s lips. For a sobering view on how some countries are entering this new world go to CNN.com’s article “our new normal, in pictures” at https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/20/world/gallery/new-normal-coronavirus/index.html .

Could our new normal be body sanitisation pods, face mask fashion outlets, clothing bubbles that enforce a two meter distance between people, a ban on all work meetings unless virtual? It could all very well happen, but let’s take a realistic look at what will need to happen when we are ‘set free’.

According to a recent Kantar webinar on Navigating Growth in a COVID-19 World, there are a few key shifts that we will experience, including:

1. Contactless love and affection: virtual dinner parties for adults and virtual playdates and birthday parties for kids, with grandparents needing to keep a safe distance from their grandchildren.
2. Super-hygiene society: masks may very well be compulsory over the next 18 months, our hands will never be the same again after all the hand-sanitizers and constant washing with soap and water, and we will not be able to shake hands in business meetings or hug our friends hello.
3. Insular lives: shopping online and shopping local will become the norm, a rise in the use of in-home media channels (TV and digital) and a renewed focus on the home as a safe sanctuary.
4. Technology super highway: technology as an enabler in society to just get things done from working, shopping and socialising to exercising and meditating.
5. Renewed respect for essentials: the demand for luxury goods will decline, with a major slowing down of the travel and hospitality industries.
6. An era of shared humanity: a renewed focus on giving back to the community and random acts of kindness, together with an increase in support for authentic brands that are helping to uplift society.

The reality is that there will be many restrictions imposed on us that we will need to adapt to quite quickly. Public transport will need to be heavily monitored to avoid over-crowding. Our retail spaces will need to be reimagined with employee and shopper safety at the forefront. Work environments will look to creating more personal space as opposed to having large areas where groups of people can get together for meetings and have breaks, and there will be a rise in shift-based work schedules and flexible working arrangements.

Schools and universities will continue to integrate distance learning platforms in certain instances, which may even resolve funding issues to cut costs and give more people access to education. Sport and music events will need to limit audience numbers, with an increase in virtual broadcasts and online performances, as well as a rise in eSport. Restaurants will have staggered seating with a drop in patron capacity and an increase in online ordering and home deliveries.

And families may just end up spending much more quality time together at home… Our new normal may not be too bad in the end, but what this crisis has done is put a spotlight on the shortfalls of our society and in our country. It is now time to actively change the way we have been living for a better future. We truly are #StrongerTogether

Herman Degener, The MediaShop

If your daily grind is remotely related to the marketing segment, you’ll probably agree that there is more ‘how to market in a recession’ research around than you can shake a stick at! Who does one turn to in times like these for advice, especially when there’s a cacophony of opinions? The short answer is a trusted advisor, and WARC is one such advisor.

Recent research from WARC forms the basis of this blog post which aims to provide a sense of comfort (in that we’re all in this together) and advice that is sound and practical. As Isla Prentis from our Tirisano Consulting division pointed out in her sobering post ‘ A lesson in humanity ’, we are all in the same storm, but in different boats.

There’s no one-size fits all solution here, no panacea. However, by weathering the same storm there are some useful nuggets of advice from the intellectuals over at WARC which I feel will provide a slightly elevated sense of ‘we’ve got this’ after reading them. So without further ado, here are five actions to take now as an advertiser: 

1. Review your lockdown playbook.

The burning question in South Africa, and globally for that matter, is will lockdowns intensify again to combat future outbreaks of COVID-19? Using lessons learnt from the past can help a brand prepare for further recurrences. One of the big themes of the current lockdown has been acts over ads, but can brands sustain an altruistic approach?

Dale Partridge’s book ‘People Over Profits’ suggests this is a sustainable business strategy in a world of collaborative consumption, and perhaps one way to try and balance the two is for brands to invest in real actions, which consumers might applaud on social media (offline actions drive online conversations). 

2. Keep advertising, if you can.

There is plenty of evidence from almost a century’s worthy of research to validate the notion that brands who maintain ad spend in recession, will prosper post-recession. Cutting too hard has long-term impact on sales, market share, growth and ROI. Those who maintain their spend not only proposer post-recession but also recover quicker as a result.

The advice to keep advertising won’t apply to all brands, however as the hardest hit companies will be focusing on saving jobs and business continuity. Here are a few tips for those brands that are fortunate enough to keep advertising:

• Don’t panic and stop brand advertising unless you absolutely must. Media costs are lower and there’s less noise from competitive brands in your sector.
• Maintain brand campaigns unless it jars with public mood. Use emotional, warm advertising that fits (and lifts) the public mood.
• Look for tactical opportunities to create goodwill with customers: tap into first party data and seek to enhance the customer experience. Remember it costs 5 times more to gain a customer than to retain one. Random acts of kindness in times like this are certain to drive immense positive sentiment and earned media for your brand.

3. If you have to reduce adspend, use other levers to remain visible:

Even outside of recessions, there are always levers to pull that are low cost, high reward opportunities for brands. One is the use of first party data (as alluded to above) to keep customers informed, remind them of seasonal events, and even to drive referrals and good old positive WOM (word of mouth). In addition, brands can also:

• Use owned assets to communicate: it’s often less expensive to target your social media page’s followers than compete for new audiences. Noting the reality of low organic reach when a brand posts an update on social media, invest in ensuring your messaging is seen by more of your opted-in audience before investing in acquiring new audiences.
• Consider PR and partnerships to generate earned media: consider partnering with other brands or influencers who have a mutual interest in solving a particular problem, with each bringing their own expertise or capital to the collaboration.

Leverage your brand’s equity to collaborate with your own audiences and relevant influencers to help solve an original content challenge. This is particularly useful when focusing your limited resources in the build-up to key selling seasons. 

4. Look for signs of new habit formation:

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have given rise to all manner of new consumer behaviours, chief among them being online. This is especially prevalent amongst older consumers who are adopting online shopping. The time it takes to form a new habit and the time we’ve been in lockdown are not mutually exclusive, so there are definitely opportunities for consumers to try new brands and/or products. This is because the pandemic mirrors the psychological traits where people are more likely to try new brands when they go through a life changing event, such as marriage, a new job or the birth of a child.

A strong initial experience can help cement these new habits. This could range from free delivery of goods bought online, unexpected bonuses for new customers (akin to my point above about making your existing customers feel extra special is always a winning strategy), or information about how your brand is helping frontline workers during the crisis.

All these actions can create a positive memory for new and existing customers alike which they will recall as and when we enter recovery. 

5. Innovate, or die (and no, discounting is not innovation).

As the saying goes ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and never before in the modern era has innovation, or ‘out of the box’ thinking, been so needed both on the supply and demand side (no I’m not talking about the programmatic media buying ecosystem). WARC cautions that discounting is not innovation and it can lead to long term damage to your brand plus it creates downward pressure on margins. Rather rethink what value your brand creates for consumers; here are some key questions to ask when revising price in a recession:

In closing

Given the current, or at least inevitable recession, being driven by a pandemic and not an economic event, the impact is being felt across the entire value chain, from supply through to demand. Even where there has been demand, many brands have simply not been permitted to service it.

As the cliché goes ‘this too shall pass’ and The MediaShop and our sister companies throughout the Nahana Group are here to help you navigate your way through and out of this crisis. From content and creative solutions to brand PR and our very own relationships with South Africa’s media owners, we can help you say… “We’ve got this!”

 *For a copy of the WARC document “The WARC guide: Marketing in the COVID-19 Recession”, which informed this Blog post, please free to drop me an email at herman.degener@mediashop.co.za

Victor Koaho, Business Unit Manager, The MediaShop

The world is currently experiencing the worst pandemic and economic downturn seen in the past 75 years. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused serious economic ramifications not only for South Africa but for the world at large. This has been exacerbated by the fact that governments around the world have encouraged their citizens to socially distance themselves in order to ensure that the rate of infections is reduced, and to avoid more people contracting it.

This measure however has led to most non-essential businesses and products from not being available in the community, causing most of their suppliers to also close for a long period of time. This means some of the employees of these institutions are now unable to draw salaries and thus unable to participate and contribute toward our ailing economy.

All industries have been dealt a blow and have had to re-look their business models for new ways of doing things. The media industry has been dealt a blow as well, with some epic media institutions having to close down. One of the largest publishers of magazines, some as old as 100 years, are shutting down, and will not be able to print going forward. This means that advertisers will no longer use these platforms to connect with ardent and loyal readers. The Outdoor or Out of Home industry has experienced the same with clients questioning whether or not to continue advertising on billboards, because the audiences they were trying to reach are no longer moving around outside their homes.

On the flip side, some mediums have seen an upsurge and an influx of audiences. These have largely been digital and social media platforms. This influx has been attributed to crowd-sourcing engagement in the form of DJ’s hosting social distancing live parties where audiences can party without leaving the comfort of their own homes. Similarly, a lot of consumers who like to keep fit, have gone as far as sharing their exercise routines on social media and encouraging those in their circles to participate online. This phenomenon also has people sharing new ways of preparing food and recipes with online audiences and the social media community at large.

However in every good situation there will also be some bad apples. There are those who have shared recipes of making their own home brewed alcohol as is it no longer available for sale during this social distancing period. The number of unqualified journalists and political commentators have also been on the rise, with some of them sharing fake news largely based on unverified information.

So how do clients look at these phenomena and still connect with their consumers? They need to understand what makes their audiences tick and try and connect with them on the social platforms they’re most likely to be. But brands also need to be careful to not only try and make a sale but to be comforting and giving back to consumer in one way or another. Whether its brands giving advice or sharing recipes and even sometimes just talking about mental health to try and empower the consumers they serve. But staying dark and invisible in these trying times is not an option, because this tactic allows competitors to occupy the headspace of consumers and make them the preferred brand or product once their categories are once more made available. The old adage, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ rings true – so stay visible.

Andrew Dabbs, Digital Media Strategist at The MediaShop

They said, “there is time”, “the investment in technology could be made next year” and that “things were not going to change overnight”, “consumer habits will remain the same”, “don’t change something that not broken” and then came COVID19.

The world has spun into absolute shock with global economies taking the brunt of the devastation. South Africa is providing relief to the tune of at least R500bn, while other countries like the UK announced an unprecedented package of government-backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses, making an initial £330 billion of guarantees available (R23 to £1 = R7,590,000,000,000Tn).

Business has been caught out more than ever before and the companies that held back on their digital transformation may not make it through 2020. But what is digital transformation?

According to Technopedia: “Digital transformation is the changes associated with digital technology application and integration into all aspects of human life and society. It is the move from the physical to digital”.

According to Mckinsey, “16% of respondents say that their organisations’ digital transformations have successfully improved performance and also equipped them to sustain changes in the long term. An additional 7% say that performance improved but that those improvements were not sustained. In traditional industries like oil and gas, automotive, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals, digital transformation is even more challenging: success rates fall between 4% and 11%. Success rates also vary by company size. Organisations with fewer than 100 employees, say that their respondents are 2.7 times more likely to report a successful digital transformation than those from organisations with more than 50,000 employees.

It’s not a promising picture and this has been substantiated by the budget speech, UIF temporary relief, the Solidarity Fund, etc… so on a positive note, let’s consider which industries have successfully embraced digital transformation. In my opinion, the fitness/health and wellness industry is a leader in adopting technology. The myriad of online content covers anything from dieting to high intensity exercise, which can all link back to a virtual leader board if you require it for your medical aid. Virtual games can be created between you and your colleagues, friends, family or even people who have the same interest and live in an area around you. The applications and associated brands are endless who have connected individuals, built communities and collated databases based on goals, body weights and heart rates.

If we consider the pure shortage of live sport and the inability for people to connect at races and events right now, it’s been wonderful to see people running a virtual two oceans marathon and multiple other races around their houses or on treadmills. We’ve also been lucky enough to see with the world’s top cyclist competing on SS1 in a virtual tour https://www.tourdesuisse.ch/en/ .

Ultimately, technology is there for us to embrace and to make life easier, its time consuming and costly, but in the long run it might help you keep your doors open and keep customers engaged. Hopefully we didn’t hedge all our bets on their being another day to look at digital transformation.

Isla Prentis, The MediaShop

We keep hearing that everyone is in the same boat. But it’s really not like that. We are in the same storm yes, but we are not in the same boat. Your ship can be shipwrecked and mine may not. Or vice versa.

The text above was the beginning of a social media post about COVID-19 but when I read it, it reminded me of life in 2020 – even prior to the global pandemic we find ourselves in at the moment. Not being in the same boat remains a universal truth – and COVID-19 is probably the most far reaching storm the world has seen in recent history. The storm and boat analogy has so many different layers but for the purpose of keeping this to the length of a blog, and not a book, I’m going to focus on the reality we face in South Africa – both in and out of lockdown.

So often during lockdown it has been those in metaphorical luxury yachts that have found loopholes or excuses to not comply while those in basic canoes sacrifice their livelihood to comply. So many complained about the crowding in Alexandra in the first week of lockdown (to use just one example) but did those people complaining and judging stop to think about the crowds’ circumstances? The complainants might have been part of the crowds that emptied Woolworths’ shelves just a few days earlier (panic pantry loading – with not a care for anyone else they are impacting) – but have they even known what it is like to have an empty fridge, and an empty wallet? Have many of our citizens even imagined what they would do if they had nothing left and only got paid as lockdown was setting in? Have they ever known what it’s like to be truly hungry, truly desperate?

The below image was the front page of Time magazine about a year ago. It was described as a visualisation of the unequal scenes we see in South Africa. While the specific image is of Primrose alongside Makause, it’s an image that is all too true throughout our country. Our Gini coefficient is one of the highest in the world – in other words, we are a dual economy – our inequality is described as persistent. In marketing (not just media), it is our job to walk in someone else’s shoes to understand what their life is like. Remember it is not a target audience – it is a group of human beings each in their own unique boat. And actually this is something that every single South African should do. Take the time to walk in someone else’s shoes to understand the life they live, the challenges they face – not because of COVID-19 but every single day.

We all have a choice no matter the situation. We can choose to give in, or we can choose to keep fighting and find an opportunity. We can choose to support and help, or we can choose to take advantage. We can choose to judge others, or we can choose to understand. I love hearing the many stories of people supporting feeding schemes, local businesses, and the all-round Ubuntu spirit! But it saddens me that there are just as many stories of judgement and negativity.

After all, humanity should be something we focus on from the day we are born until the day we die – it should certainly not be something newly discovered because of COVID-19. Humanity is what will differentiate us in the 4^th industrial revolution – it should be seen as a strength, something we actively grow within ourselves. But let COVID-19 do this for us – let it act as a reminder that in the rat race that we live in, we neglect basic humanity and become self-absorbed. Let it remind us to stop and think of someone else. Next time you are going to judge someone else’s behaviour – stop and think about what boat they might be in. And next time you choose your own rules, think about the impact it has on the storm (and the impact on less luxurious boats weathering the storm). We say that in the upcoming decade brands are going to have be more human to connect so now is the time to for an evolution if you’re not yet thinking about the humanity of your brand.

I leave you with a final thought. Rather than using the time to complain about how tough life is in lockdown, use the time to learn about someone else’s hardships (either on a personal level or of the human audience you are trying to reach), to understand, to help where you can and to grow your humanity. And one day when life returns to “normal”, or at least a new normal – don’t forget the humanity that lockdown taught you. We’re all in the same storm.