Advertising & Marketing

I had coffee with the real Cell C CEO, Lars Reichelt, last Monday. Our meeting went on longer than I had originally expected and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nothing has changed in my assessment of the Cell C campaign but, paradoxically, what was articulated to me about the Cell C strategy makes sense. The strategy was solid, the execution, less so. Has there been a slip between the cup and the lip? Let’s review Cell C's goals for the new campaign. The ...

Cloud computing is one of those buzz phrases that you may think means nothing to you as a marketer. In reality, the cloud can help you to leverage marketing automation technology at a low cost, roll it out quickly and start experiencing its benefits within weeks. In a world where marketing automation software is no longer simply a "nice to have", cloud computing is fast becoming the key differentiator. Cloud computing can be loosely defined as a technical architecture where ...

Tippex has barreled into the viral media fray with an impeccably executed YouTube campaign, titled “NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!”, created by Parisian agency Buzzman. The video creates an interactive choice at the end where you decide what the hunter should do to the bear. Your choice then redirects you to their campaign microsite, and you can interact even further. The campaign message is "Help me rewrite this story” and you can type in how you want the hunter to ...

Traditional forms of advertising like TV, radio and print have pushed often irrelevant and unwanted messages out to consumers of media for over five decades -- and been paid a fortune to do so. This ineffective "spray and pray" format of advertising assumes that one in a certain number of people will buy a product or service and that if the message is disseminated far and wide enough, it will eventually lead to sufficient procurement of that product or service. Before the ...

YouTube continues to grow at an astonishing pace, with 24 hours of video uploaded every single minute. As an acquisition and branding channel, placing ads on YouTube has become a simple, yet sophisticated way of reaching potential customers. With a global audience now exceeding 400 million people and a massive diversity of available content, it’s important for marketers to know how to place ads on videos which are relevant to your brand. Google recently released a Beta version of their Video ...

Have you received an e-mail over the last few months asking you to write a "message in a skottel"? Or encouraging you to ruin someone else’s photo via "photobombing"? If so, then you are aware of the J&B Start a Party campaign, an innovative marketing campaign that has harnessed the power of social media to excellent effect. The campaign runs as a competition where people can win prizes by uploading pictures of themselves and their friends out on the town and ...

Alex Hunter is an independent digital ninja, brand consultant and angel investor who built a grassroots marketing campaign for Virgin America before heading out on his own. He shares his insights on getting large brands online, paywalls and what the future of online advertising might look like. MB: Should online publishers be looking at more innovative ways of generating revenue online? AH: There are so many digital options available; from wap sites and apps, to websites, to Facebook pages, to viral ...

There has already been reams written about the new Cell C campaign, including a whole raft of my own thoughts on the campaign. I wanted to step back and pull it all together after the ad campaign that launched and to look at what lessons can be learned from this whole saga. If you’ve missed it all, then let me recap. South Africa's third mobile network operator, Cell C, embarked on a new marketing campaign by creating a fairytale story about ...

Facebook have made their advertising platform exceptionally easy to use. All you need is 135 characters of text (around 35 words), an image and a good idea of what kind of person you want to target (categories like age and gender). But, though the basics may be easy, getting truly excellent yields from your ads (ie more clicks for less money) requires a mixture of art and science and presupposes both careful planning and sustained attention. Here are five battle-proven tips for ...

On the 28th of July, comedian Trevor Noah posted a skit that poked fun at South African cellphone companies on YouTube.  In spite of relatively few views, Cell C took the opportunity to run a full page letter of apology in the Sunday Times of August 1, 2010. I believe that doing so was a masterstroke and I applaud Cell C for its response. This is why: 1. Responding shows you are listening and that you care. Whether this was by accident or ...