Archive for December, 2008
Cherryflava 2008 report card: Our year in review
Posted on 22. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
2008 has been a stellar year for us at Cherryflava.
As a marketing company that uses innovative strategies and tools to
achieve goals, which make solid business sense for our clients – we’ve pioneered
some very forward marketing thinking in South Africa this year.
Looking back now, our theme this year [coincidentally] with the work
that we did, was definitely one of ‘alternate reality marketing’ [Cherryflava's
definition - 'marketing that uses an interactive narrative and the real
world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements,
to engage an audience and creatively showcasing a brand']
By far our biggest project in 2008 was the launch of the Woolworths
brand, Twist.
Our solution to their brief was South Africa’s very first
ARG [alternate reality game], which we called ‘Can You Twist’.
The campaign was an online short story competition, which over a 6-week
period blurred the lines between fiction and reality when each week’s
story concluded mysteriously by playing out on the streets of Joburg,
Durban and Cape Town.
We did a massive 3D chalk art piece in Nelson Mandela Square, published cryptic ads in the national dailies, put Twister mats in 26 different Woolworths stores, gave away hundreds of flowers, blew
millions of soap bubbles at crowds of people at lunchtime in St
George’s Mall and caused mayhem and gridlock with a huge guerrilla
garden just below UCT on Cape Town’s M3 highway.
In addition to the public project we executed for Woolies,
we continued to produce a number of closed urban reality games for
clients.
Be it ringing public telephones surrounded by drug dealers on
a busy Long Street, geo-tagged
Google maps that can only be accessed by solving cryptic puzzles online
or GPS co-ordinates that are found on a QR code hidden under a bottle
of wine at Steenberg wine estate – we had teams of up to 200 people running around Cape Town like lunatics.
Thanks to all our ‘reality gaming’ clients this year: Dimension Data, UCT Graduate School of Business, Turqle Trading, Target Projects, Coffeebeans Routes and The Creative Cluster.
Many thanks also to Nokia, Red Bull, Jack Black beer, Felix Unite, Coffeeright, Biblioteq,
Wellness Warehouse, Daddy Long Legs and The Grand Daddy Hotel for all
their product support and making the various projects come alive.
Ideas are a dime a dozen and what we quickly learnt this year is that
the theory and concept of ‘reality marketing’ is one thing, but the
true art of its success is in the execution, production detail and
crisis planning for each event.
Through trial and error over many
projects we’ve built up a world-class crew [who now know the
ins-and-outs of very sophisticated mobile technology as well as the
numbers of practically ever public phone in the South Peninsula] who
we’re very proud of.
So when Adidas International come knocking on our
door wanting a super kind ARG for the build up to the 2010 World Cup, we’ll be ready.
On the marketing consulting side, when presented with the challenge of
creating an innovative platform for the marketing of parasols and
umbrellas for Cape Town-based Tradewinds,
we created an experiential outdoor showroom [complete with 9 themed
areas, product 'Super Trump' cards and two brand new Aston Martins as
props] in the gardens of the Mount Nelson hotel.
No PowerPoint, small
talk and cheesy snacks here. The result from a very limited budget was
the signing up of a couple of key new clients for the manufacturer and
a profitable marketing exercise all round.
Other clients this year
included Standard Bank, Woolworths, Turqle Trading and Cape Town
Partnership.
In addition to our website we’ve contributed marketing opinion to The
Times newspaper, the Journal of Marketing and on the weekly Ad Feature on Cape
Talk radio with Aden Thomas. We’ve also been lucky enough to be
featured in The Star and Mango Airline’s Juice magazine.
So what’s on the cards for 2009?
2009 will be a tough year for every business, but in every challenge -
lies opportunity.
Marketing is obviously a vital part of business and
that shouldn’t stop just because the economic cycle is on a downward
trend.
According to us, in 2009 the 5 keys to marketing success will be:
-
Basics – if the marketing tools you have
selected [including the actual message] as part of your communication
strategy don’t effectively communicate the answers to the questions of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘why should I buy from you’ then
rather choose something else that does. Likewise, if your product isn’t
brilliant, now would be the time to stop lying to people about what it
should be and rather spend your time and money on making it better, so
that your existing client base can sell it for you when they rave about
it
-
Hype – beware of the hype surrounding
new and social media tools. All these amazing new things are just tools which
you can use – not the holy grail. If you’re selling Maybachs to Saudi Arabian Sheiks then having a Facebook
page will not mean anything. The key is seamless integration of
relevant new media and traditional media tools to achieve maximum reach
and penetration. Different markets prefer using different media – one
size doesn’t fit all.
-
Focus – Spray and
pray ‘push strategies’ are not effective anymore. Focus on a core group of
evangelists and overwhelm them with love. Respectful ‘pull
communication strategies’ will come into their own in 2009. It’s all
about creating a platform which attracts a community which you can then
bring in-store.
-
Privacy – Seth Godin
termed it Permission Marketing, but in 2009 it’s going to be worth its
weight in gold. Don’t spam the masses, engage with a select ‘cream of
the crop’ in a respectful way. Aimless traditional interruptive advertising is dated and annoying, people are getting irritated with you trying to force them to listen.
-
Small business – It still amazes us how un-engaged
many organisations are. You may think that throwing money at
marketing will make up for the fact that you don’t respond to e-mails
and couldn’t be bothered with really getting to know your customers,
but it doesn’t. Kill the answering machine and get onto the shop floor.
At Cherryflava we’ll continue to develop and produce innovative
marketing tools and strategies that make real, measurable business
sense for our clients in 2009.
We predict that the genre of ‘reality
marketing’ will continue to grow in popularity in South Africa and
we’ll be right in the trenches with our experience, systems and team to
help our clients take maximum advantage of that.
Further however, we see a great opportunity in the field of ‘branded
digital entertainment and content’ as a sustainable ‘pull marketing’
tool for the future.
Writing an engaging blog or producing a professional video podcast is
an art that we have been practising and perfecting since 2004 – so
we’re well poised to offer this unique service to clients in
collaboration with a world-class content management system developed by
a team, which we’ve been working with for a couple of months now.
As a business, we certainly regard ourselves as marketing innovators. We regard creativity as a tool along with all the
other cutting-edge elements that we have a passion for understanding an
seeing how they can add value to a campaign.
In all the work that we do
we start with the objective of either growing sales, changing
perceptions or maximising profitability for the companies we work with.
Much was learned in 2008 and overall, we’ll give ourselves a C+
aggregate for the year. That may seem like we have much to improve on
for 2009, but we’re perfectionists and know where we went wrong and
have already tightened the bolts where needed.
We’re going to take a little break from the office and the blog for a
couple of weeks and will be back 12 January 2009.
See you all of the
flip side of New Year.
Have a good one and thanks so much for
supporting Cherryflava in ’08.
More animals go missing in the Cape
Posted on 19. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Some sick wino has kidnapped a local wine estate’s mascot and is hold the poor beast as a ranson for some free wine and a bit of paparazzi love.
We got notified of the disaster via a hand delivered bottle of wine with a necktag indicating that possible culprits can be reported to www.themissingzebra.co.za
Naturally we’ve notified the SPCA and reloaded a few rounds of ammunition for the company Holland and Holland .300 just in case we see the critter roaming around Claremont with some life left in him.
First clues as to the location of the striped one will be out 12 January.
Knowing that it’s a marketing campaign for Perdeberg does take a bit of the mystery and romance out of the hunt for us, but it’ll interesting to see where this one goes all the same.
Previously: Cape Union Mart plays ‘hide the reindeer’ – Cherryflava
Mmmmmm…Yumchum Ass going for just R9.99
Posted on 18. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Damn – we gotta get down to the nearest PnP and pick up a packa Yumchum Ass. Whatever it is, it’s going for just R9.99 for 6. That means one Yumchum Ass for everyday of the week and a bit of a breather on Sundays.
[thanks to Justin for letting us know and spotting this fine Ass promotion]
Cape Union Mart plays ‘hide the reindeer’
Posted on 17. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
As a company having produced a number of ‘alternate reality games’ ourselves for clients – we like the latest festive season promotion that outdoor retailer Cape Union Mart have got going at the moment.
Together with Garmin [the guys that make those GPS devices] they’re
running a promotion called the Inflatable Reindeer Competition and have hidden 12 inflatable beasts, which you can find thanks to co-ordinates published on their website and a GPS.
If you are the first person to find the inflatable reindeer, collect it and inflate it. You then SMS your name and ID number, together with the unique reindeer code the Cape Union Mart. This SMS gets you of a Cape Union Mart gift voucher to the value of R5000.
It’s a fun idea that certainly adds to the Christmas spirit even if inflatable reindeer are not an indigenous part of the South African ecological setup.
More: Cape Union Mart
Love Jozi: The Coloured Range
Posted on 16. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Any shade you can think of…from Mlungu to Darkie in one colour swatch.
[thanks Gregor]
The 2008 Oxford word of the year is…
Posted on 15. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
…,well in the American Oxford dictionary at least – The 2008 Word of the Year is hypermiling.
Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes.
“Hypermiling” or “to hypermile”
is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving
adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than
aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.
Countries other than America [we simply call it driving efficiently] have been ‘hypermiling’ since cars were invented, but it’s good to have the US finally on board.
More:
Oxford University Press blog
Merriam-Webster’s words of the year
2010: Benni left his t-shirt in Greenmarket Square
Posted on 12. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
Hein Koen sent us this pic of a giant bit of laundry that’s been hung out to dry in Cape Town’s Greenmarket Square.
As Hein says; ‘Seems like 2010 is giving
someone a nipple stand….’ Nipple stand indeed – as well as a solid ‘muffin top’. Let’s just hope that this is some kind of unofficial guerrilla stunt rather than something more official from organisors hoping to drum up a bit of excitement.
Looks like a bunch of Stellenbosch students have mistakingly chosen a building in Cape Town for a ‘vensters’ performance. Shocking.
Hopefully officials get it taken down before anybody else seems it and tells somebody overseas. [shudder]
Previously: World Cup 2010 ‘billboards’ starting to appear – Cherryflava
Bizarre: Turn in your gun for a camera
Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
There has always been a bit of a rumour that the intense cold in Canada makes the people that live there a little odd.
Yet another case study in marketing psychosis is a recently completed campaign, which took place in Toronto; called Pixels for Pistols.
Anyone who turned in a firearm they didn’t need or want received a
Nikon digital camera in exchange. Rifles or firearms earned a Nikon
Coolpix P-60. An assault rifle or pistol earned a Nikon Coolpix S-52.
Along with the cameras, each person also received photography lessons.
Makes us wonder what you would get if you brought in your private stash of AK-47s or your prized nickel-plated Desert Eagle .50mm with filed down clip and extended magazine accessory.
The program aimed to reduce the number of legitimately owned guns which
represent 30 percent of gun-related crimes in Toronto. As of December 4
when the campaign ended, 1,400 guns were collected in exchange for
Nikon cameras. [via]
Nikons for guns, that’s almost as bad as a Harley free when you buy a Hummer.
Don’t expect a similar stunt here in South Africa, there wouldn’t be enough cameras to go around and a nice shiny Nikon can easily be sold to buy even more guns with the proceeds.
That’s it…we’re canceling that snowboarding trip to to Whistler BC.
Website: Pixels for pistols
Best South African ad of 2008
Posted on 10. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
It’s not an easy choice.
My number 2 ad of 2008 is emotionally our favourite, but because strictly speaking it was produced by a predominantly non-South African outfit…it falls back slightly to the runner up spot.
It’s still lump-in-your-throat stuff and the shot at 0:25 is probably the best of the year. [video link]
But our number 1 South African TVC of 2008…goes to VW Golf GTi ‘Dreams’…
The Marilyn Manson ‘Sweet dreams’ cover backing track, the telling of a story without using words, the grading the seamless transitions. It’s 60 seconds of class and as we head boldly into an economic downturn its not likely you’re going to see another car ad like it for some time.
Our No. 3 is the Vodacom ‘African dictator’ ad.
No. 4 the Steers Split screen eye detector ad.
No. 5 a tie between the Audi Gymnasts TV ad and latecomer Nando’s Evita Bezuidenhout A & C ad
Video gaming trends
Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry.
We’ll state right up front that we do not own a PS3. In fact, we’re still trying to clear the last stage of ‘Black’ on the PS2 on the ‘easy’ level. So hard-core gamers we are not, but happy to clobber an opponent with a vitual RPG we are.
It’s insightful therefore to get some insight as to where video gaming is heading as an industry, which in this country at least, is still labeled as something that is done by delinquent children who don’t play outside in the sun enough and eat too many boiled sweets and smoke hash.
We were surprised that the average age of gamers in the US…is 32.
The local video game landscape seems to fly pretty much under the radar. An indepth analysis like this would be very interesting, but unlikely to exist.
The local video game landscape seems to fly pretty much under the radar. An indepth analysis like this would be very interesting, but unlikely to exist.[via Advertising Pawn]
