Honouring the Legends
Decimal: Honouring the Legends
Everything in life is derived from a legend: the story of a person that is handed down from generation to generation, and respected by all that follow.For maths it was John Nash,, Blaise Pascal, Pythagoras and Isaac Newton. Scientists talk about Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Archimedes and Albert Einstein. Artists find their inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
But who were some of the biggest game-changers in Advertising, and what did they do?
1. David Mackenzie Ogilvy: Born on 23 June 1911, Ogilvy was a Gaelic-speaking Highlander. He started his writing career by selling AGA cooking stoves door-to-door. Because of his success in this, his employers asked him to write an instruction manual on how to sell the stoves. Thirty years later, Fortune Magazine editors called it the greatest sales manual ever written.
After showing the manual to a London-based Advertising Agency, Mather & Crowther, Ogilvy was employed as an Account Executive.
In 1949, Ogilvy started Ogilvy, Benson and Mather on the principle: the function of advertising is to sell, and successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer.
10 years later, Ogilvy had built one of the biggest Advertising Agencies in the world and was dubbed “The father of advertising”. In 1962 Times Magazine crowned him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry”. His advertising principles were based on research, actual results for clients (rather than seeking creative recognition), professional discipline and establishing “the Big Idea”. Principles that are still applied to advertising today.
2. William (Bill) Bernbach: Bernbach was born in America on 3 August 1911. Growing up in the Bronx, Bernbach worked hard to get his degree in English, with additional subjects in business administration, philosophy and music. In 1933 he was given the opportunity to run the Schenley Distillers mailroom, which lead to writing his first advert for Schenley’s Cream Whiskey. The advert reached the right people and Bernbach was moved to the advertising department.
In 1940, Bernbach started working as a Copywriter for the William Weintraub Agency, followed by a position at Grey Advertising where he was promoted to Creative Director in 1947.
Frustrated with the predictability of the agency’s work, Bernbach wrote the following letter:
“There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this sort or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there’s one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.”
By 1949, he teamed up with Ned Doyle and Mac Dane to start DDB, where he served as the creative engine of the agency. DDB grew to become the 11th largest agency in America by 1976.
However, Bernbach’s contribution to advertising wasn’t just commercial. Noted for his devotion to creativity and off-beat themes, characterised by simplicity, Bernbach has made a lasting impact on the creative structure and principles used in advertising agencies today.
Historians have also credited him with being a major driving force in the Creative Revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s. In 1969, Bernbach was named “The Top Ad Agency Executive”.
3. Leo Burnett: Leo Burnett was born on 21 October 1891 and started his career running a dry-goods store with his father. He opted to study for a degree in Journalism and finally graduated in 1914. Hi first job was as a reported for the Journal Star in Illinois.
In 1917 Burnett made his first of many moves to Detroit in order to become the in-house editor for Cadillac Clearing House. He was later promoted to Art Director. Burnett was offered his first position in an advertising agency, McKee, after he had moved to Indianapolis. He said of the founder “He gave me my first feel of what I have come to regard as the "warm sell" as contrasted to the "hard sell" and "soft sell."
In 1935 Burnett founded the Leo Burnett Company and created world famous campaigns, such as Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna, etc. He also garnered relationships with multinational clients, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
Known for his use of corny language, Burnett used a dramatic realism and soft sell approach in order to build brand equity, rather than sell products. He believed in finding the inherent drama of products and presenting it in a warm, emotional way.
This lead to Burnett being named, by Time Magazine in 1999, as one of 100 most influential people, and creating a very different approach to advertising.
Taking the influence of each of these legends into consideration, Decimal aims to learn from their contribution to successful advertising today. By researching, thinking out the bos, or just taking a more emotional stance. Decimal hits the ball out the ballpark to sit with the Giants of Advertising. We turn our good into better, and our better into best.
Creativity at the Core
Creativity.
More than just drawing pretty pictures and being clever with words, a creative mind has the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships and create new ideas, forms, methods and interpretations. It is about being original, progressive and using your imagination to create a message that entice consumers to buy your product.
But many people ask what creativity has to do with advertising. Surely advertising should just tell the consumer about the benefits, the price and where to get the product? Surely that is the only reason why consumers decide to buy what they end up buying?
“Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising. Creative advertising is more memorable, longer lasting, works with less media spending, and builds a fan community…faster.” Steven Vogel, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather in Germany
Research has shown that creative messages do draw more attention to brands, and also build more positive attitudes. Unfortunately, this research has produced no firm evidence and does not provide actual information related to sales revenues.
Drawing on research in communications psychology, Werner Reinartz (Professor of Marketing) and Peter Saffert (Doctor of Econo-Mathematics) created a 70-month survey that measured the perceived creativity of various consumer goods along five dimensions.
The basic conclusions were as follows:
- Creativity makes advertising much more (four times more!) effective than non-creative advertising, but only if your time scale for reporting is six months or longer.
- If your time scale for reporting is under six months you will see no benefit: creativity does not drive effectiveness in the short term.
- The time-dependent link between creativity and effectiveness applied to all major sectors; no evidence was found that some, or any, categories were exempted.
- Creativity confers a particularly strong beneficial effect on price sensitivity, allowing brands to price harden even though no-one stated this was their intention.
These findings thus confirmed the conventional idea that creativity in advertising is important. In fact, with careful consideration of cultural preferences and different demographic information, companies can dramatically improve their ad spend, maximising profits.
“ We also found that certain dimensions of creativity are more effective than others in influencing purchasing behavior—and that many companies focus on the wrong dimensions in their campaigns.” notes Reinartz.
Decimal Agency believes in the power of creativity and centres it around every project we take on. By having an unbiased perception of a brand and its position in the market, we can apply the talents of a complete, talented creative team to come up with a campaign that will maximise the efficiency of your ad spend.
We apply the following fundamental elements to our projects in order to achieve the greatest creativity:
Originality: Decimal Agency creates original ad campaigns that are different to mainstream ideas and concepts. We develop unique visual, verbal or written messages that surprise and interest the consumer. An example is Mimmo’s “A Pizza Happiness” campaign.
Flexibility: Decimal Agency has the ability to apply a particular product or campaign idea to a variety of uses or media, thus reaching more people in different ways that all have the same messaging. This includes Print, In-store, Outdoor, promotional, POS, Social Media, Radio, Television, Digital and guerilla advertising. Being a TTL (through the line) agency, this is one of our strongest points. See our Soviet Summer 2014 campaign.
Elaboration: Turning good into great - as per Decimal Agency’s motto, we take simple messages and turn it into interesting, exciting, relevant campaigns that consumers want to experience. We achieved this with Soviet’s “Old Clothing” charity campaign.
Synthesis: Decimal takes objects that are seemingly unrelated to your product and brand, and turns it into a “brand story” that links the two in order to make it more interesting and relevant, without losing the brand’s identity and message. An excellent example of this Defy’s “Turning a mountain into a molehill” campaign.
Artistic Value: With a team of extremely creative designers, a genius art director and a quirky copywriter, and many more, Decimal Agency has all the tools it needs to add artistic value to all your consumer communication, whether it is through visual artistry or the written word. Our ODDS video is one of the projects that combined all our artistic talents to produce an exceptional result.
We know the best creative advertising doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to come up with the best ideas, plan, execute and get the best results from them. But at the end of the day, it is worth the time and effort, and the profits prove it.
So why is it of imperative importance for South African companies, big and small, Retail, B2B or even Direct Selling, to start branding their businesses?
With the technological advancements of today, especially in communications technology, people are empowered to be more informed, connected, united and interactive. Consumers are demanding accountability and transparency from the companies they support, and are forcing these companies to answer fundamental questions: What business are you in? Why do you exist? Why should I choose you, when there are so many others to choose from?
“Your brand isn’t just a logo and a quick tagline. Your brand is the way customers experience you. A good brand doesn’t just happen; it’s a well thought out strategic plan.” says Raffaele Mc Creadie, Managing Director of Decimal Agency.
A global marketing leadership study, Marketing2020, found that leading brands go beyond the functional product benefits and deliver on a higher order reason for being, thus creating the highest valued growth brands in the world.
“Put simply, the brands that care more about who they are, and what they stand for, do better. The most successful branding is built on a strong feeling, a feeling you and your staff can commit to and can deliver on.” comments Mc Creadie.
Branding promotes the following key indicators for businesses:
- Branding promotes recognition
- Your brand helps set you apart from the competition
- Your brand tells people about your business DNA
- Your brand provides your staff with motivation
- A strong brand gets recommended
- A strong brand tells people exactly what they’re going to get
- Your brand represents you, and its promise
- Your brand helps you stay focused and get clarity on your goals
- Your brand helps you connect emotionally with your brand
- A strong brand provides your business with value
Defining your brand can be a long road in discovering the core of your business: it takes time, effort and patience.To save yourself the energy, consider employing a branding agency that believes in leading brands, not just managing them.
“Brand leadership is based on the premise that brand building not only creates brand equity, but it is also necessary for institutional success.” notes Idris Mootee, Author of 60 Minute Brand Strategist.
Decimal Agency, a dynamic, sophisticated Branding Agency in Johannesburg, believes in this approach. Not only do they believe in it, they follow this doctrine down to the last detail.
With the expertise and tools to move your brand in the right direction, this agency also takes on branding tasks with passion, energy and creative spark. Their services include: digital, design, promotional, copywriting and online strategies and implementation to help your brand soar.
5 Interesting Facts About Advertising
5 Interesting Facts About Advertising
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
South Africa’s online advertising industry is worth R319 000 000, and still growing.1. Most watches displayed in advertisements are set to 10:10 because the hands of the watch frame the watch brand name and they make a smiling face
2. TV commercials during Super Bowl XLV in 2011 are estimated to have cost $3 million for a 30-second spot
3. The very first U.S. paid advertisement was a 1704 ad in the Boston News Letterwhich advertised an estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island
4. Many researchers argue that advertising is the most powerful art form on Earth.
5. Though the commercial “1984,” which launched the Apple Macintosh computer, ran just one time on American television, during the Super Bowl, it has had a lasting impact on advertising. Directed by Ridley Scott, the commercial was the first example of “event marketing,” or when a promotion deserves as much coverage as the product itself
RandomFacts. (2011, June 10). 55 Interesting Facts About Advertising [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://facts.randomhistory.com/interesting-facts-about-advertising.html
Strictly Speaking Advertising
Strictly Speaking Advertising
Whether you love it or hate it, advertising makes up a very large part of our lives. So much so that it has become one of the biggest influences in consumer behaviour, as well as being one of the biggest methods of communication in the world.
Here is what other people have to say about advertising:
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Mark Twain
“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.”
David Ogilvy
“The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human. It deals with human needs, wants, dreams and hopes. Its 'product' cannot be turned out on an assembly line.”
Leo Burnett
“Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.”
Jef I. Richards
“News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”
Lord Northcliffe
Loeries: The Bird That Catches the Worms
Loeries: The Bird That Catches the Worms
Sunday, 16 August 2015, Durban ICC: The Advertising Industry waits in baited breath as the winners of the 37th Annual Loerie Awards are announced. From 2 944 entries, 1 020 finalists were selected, and only 2 won the coveted Grand Prix Awards.
This year, for the first time, winners from across Africa and the Middle East region were announced together in each category. This year also meant two new categories were added to the list of winners: Music Video and Service Design.
"The Service Design category is a new one, but a very relevant one given the increasing demand for brands to create meaningful engagement with their customers," said Gareth Leck, Loeries Jury Chairman for the service design category.
Defined as “The conceptual planning and organising of people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve the quality and interaction between the service provider and the consumer,”service design is shedding light on the truest form of advertising today. Even if you’ve created an award-winning campaign that astounds the world, if your face-to-face communication (such as an out-of-date website, rude cashiers or untrained centre staff) is not up to scratch, your brand is going to pick up a nasty reputation.
Gareth Leck, Joe Public CEO and Andrew Human, Loeries CEO, explained that this first time category is all about the points where you interact with the consumer, where things tend to fall apart fall apart in the real-world despite great campaigns that win awards for effectivity and reach. If your brand's staff don't fulfil that promise those customers are likely gone.
The following agencies walked away with recognition in this area this year:
Prize
|
Brand
|
Product
|
Campaign
|
Agency
|
Gold
|
Unilever
|
Lifebuoy
|
Handle on Hygiene
|
Geometry Global Dubai
|
Silver
|
Volkswagen South Africa
|
Volkswagen Up!
|
The Uber Test Ride
|
Ogilvy & Mather CTN
|
Bronze
|
Unilever
|
Joko
|
Vaya Via Joko
|
Joe Public Ignite
|
Bronze
|
The Safety Lab
|
Giva
|
Digital Giving Platform
|
Y&R South Africa
|
Bronze
|
Unilever
|
Whatsfordinner
|
Instant Inspiration
|
Liquorice
|
The rise of music television channels and online platforms such as YouTube means that music is becoming more interactive than ever before. These days, developing a hit song means having an equally successful music video, and developing a successful brand means having a talented video producer on hand.
Music video production has seen spectacular growth in the last year. Both creativity and quality has skyrocketed, and this new category awards exceptional work and talent in this field of the industry. The Music Video category was sponsored by Songstruct.
“In recognition of this fact, the Loeries - Africa and the Middle East’s premier creative industry awards - have created a dedicated category for music videos. The organisers are calling on music video producers from all over Africa and the Middle East to enter their music videos from the past year before the deadline of 31 May 2015,” notes Music Africa on their website.
The diamond in the crown of creativity, however, was the KFC SoundBite campaign. A concept that introduces the urban youth to unsigned local artists, the SoundBite campaign comprised of in-store “bone technology”allowing KFC customers to listen t local sounds by placing their elbows on the audio tables. Directional sound speakers are distributed through the store to give customers sitting in booths the ability to customise their music experience by choosing from a vast selection of DMX content via their cellphones. USB charging stations are conveniently situated at tables and screens are used as an interactive point of sale to stream daily specials and content.
Following KFC’s brilliance is Loto Libanais “Black Cats”campaign, another Grand Prix winner.The media campaign effectively encourages people in Lebanon to play the local lottery by making them feel luckier. By sending all black cats in Lebanon away; black cats are considered bad luck; people will have increased luck, thus increasing their chances of winning.
With these, and many other winners in mind, Decimal draws inspiration from the most innovative, creative advertising trends to produce effective, impactful campaigns. We not only look at the creativity, but also how it impacts your business and maximises your profits. It’s not always about winning awards, but when it is, we win big.
Better Advertising, Better Business
Better Advertising, Better Business
“Surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Then leave them to go get on with it.” David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather.
Wikipedia.org describes an advertsing agency as being a service-based business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising and promotional activities for its clients.
This seems like a simple, uncomplicated activity that any company can do for itself. So why bother paying an agency to sell your product?
Advertising, one of the tools of marketing that communicates to your customers on various levels, is a specialised field that is more complicated than what it seems to be.
“Advertising has become such a specific and exclusive field that it has its own mechanics of operations, its own experts to seek advice from and its own distinct significance not just in the arena of marketing but also in the entire dimension of branding the product.” says Mehreen Misbah, a popular blogger blurtit.com
An advertising agency not only offers experienced specialists in the field of customer communication, they are also able to give you an outsider’s perspective on your brand, and compile a comprehensive strategy that is best for your business.
Hiring a creative advertising agency, especially an advertising agency like Decimal, opens up new opportunities you might not have been aware of.
Of course, Decimal offers you more benefits than just a creative insight:
- Specialised Experience: With a team of experts in different fields of communication, including Social Media, Graphic Design, Animation / Video Editing and Copywriting, you can be sure that you are getting the best in-depth service for your business.
- Time Efficiency: If you don’t have an internal advertising department, and you find that developing an advertising strategy takes up valuable time that you could be spending on product development or financial planning, then hiring Decimal Agency could save you time and give your ad campaigns the attention it needs to succeed. We also work to strict deadlines, making sure you get the quality results you want in the time you need.
- Cost-effective: It may seem like the initial cost of hiring an advertising agency is a big expense, but Decimal has relationships with many media houses, printers and social media services. This means we get better rates, better dates and you get a faster service. Your advertising is also more effective, increasing your sales and profit.
- Effective Branding: Developing a brand can be complicated and energy-consuming. Decimal offers a full-service, including powerful branding, including logos, print advertising, web development, social media and promotional activities. We make sure that your business reaches the right audience and builds up a positive reputation in the market.
To get the most out of your advertising, call Decimal Agency today. We’ll make sure you get the benefits your business deserves.
Welcome to the Bigger Picture
Welcome to the Bigger Picture
You know all those motivational quotes that flood your Facebook account? Yeah, those puppies hugging teddybears, the woman staring out at the beach, the athlete running towards the finish line…? Do you have any idea what an impact these have on you?
In medical terms, Wikipedia.org describes this visual memory as:
“The relationship between perceptual processing and the encoding, storage and retrieval of the resulting neural representations. Visual memory occurs over a broad time range spanning from eye movements to years in order to visually navigate to a previously visited location. Visual memory is a form of memory which preserves some characteristics of our senses pertaining to visual experience. We are able to place in memory visual information which resembles objects, places, animals or people in a mental image. The experience of visual memory is also referred to as the mind's eye through which we can retrieve from our memory a mental image of original objects, places, animals or people.”
Our senses have a big impact on how we feel, who we are and what we do. And sight is probably the sensory tool we use the most. Our mind reacts very differently to visual stimuli than it does to other forms of communication. In fact, as much as 93% of communication is nonverbal.
Even though you might not appreciate the visual onslaught you get on Facebook, it actually does affect you. Humans have an innate fondness for different images, and each image represents an emotional or physical experience we have attached to it.
People generally think in pictures. It is the first form of recognition we experience as children, even before we can speak.Dr. Lynell Burmark, Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Centre for Professional Development says:
"...unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory where we can only retain about 7 bits of information (plus or minus 2). This is why, by the way, that we have 7-digit phone numbers. Images, on the other hand, go directly into long-term memory where they are indelibly etched."
But what does this have to do with advertising, and Social Media in particular?
When it comes to developing Social Media campaigns that deliver results, nothing is better than visual content. The number of YouTube and Instagram users in South Africa has increased by 53% and 65% respectively. Pintrest, a social curation website for sharing and categorising images found online, is now South Africa’s favourite Social Media platform.
“We’re seeing the beginning of the visual revolution in online usage in South Africa,”says Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of technology market researchers World Wide Worx.
“The global rise of video is now making itself felt here. Once the cost of mobile data comes down for the emerging smartphone market, video will become a dominant medium, strongly supported by other visual media.”
While visual use in Social Media is becoming a big factor in South Africa, it is important to remember that it isn’t a one-size-fits-all exercise. There is clearly a trend towards using visual content, but agencies need to tailor this according to their target market t make it effective.
Decimal Agency recommends consistent research and testing in order to get the right formula. The trends are constantly changing, making it imperative to know what your audience likes to look at. Daily interaction and content is a must as it engages your audience and leaves no space for being left behind.
This is also the method that Decimal Agency employs in its Social Media strategies. Since the addition of our Social Media Manager, the interaction of our clients has increased by approx. 30%. This is excluding the increase in paid-for media.
If you’re looking to make most of your Social Media content, call Decimal Agency. We not only get the Bigger Picture, we use it to get your Business Bigger.
