TO REMAIN AHEAD OF YOUR GAME, BE SURE TO STAY ABREAST OF THE TOP MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2015.

As self professed digital sangoma I decided to throw the bones to see what the future holds for marketing trends in 2015. Admittedly these predictions are also supported by information from those in the know and a number of trusteds in the digital marketing sphere. It would therefore be wise to consider the following when planning your digital marketing activities for the year that lies ahead.

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The year of HUMAN for digital marketers

‘Human’ marketing is on the rise and will continue to do so in 2015. People do their research, they are informed and educated. So forget about corporate-speak type of messaging and same old, same old, boring campaigns. Instead, we’ll begin to see more marketers incorporate human-speak into their messaging – videos, pictures, humour, and genuine humanity!

Non-Fiction Storytelling

Few elements of communication can move and inspire people like stories can. Companies should continue to leverage storytelling to get their messages across. As long as the stories that are told can be backed up by true brand values, contain strong differentiators and real solutions that meet their market’s needs. If not, it will simply be entertainment that does not convert into engagement.

Mobile Friendly Websites (Responsive Web Design)

Lately people are more inclined to browse on their mobile devices than on traditional computers. Especially when they have extra time available in between, waiting in queues, waiting for meetings to start, or waiting on their kids. If you cannot easily browse a website on your mobile device, you are highly unlikely to come back to it. You and your website developers should think like a website user at all times. Google will also penalize you if your website is not mobile friendly.

Universities will start offering digital marketing qualifications

With the ever increasing need for staff with digital skills, universities will start offering digital specific qualifications. University of Cape Town has already started offering Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing courses. The rest of the higher education institutions will no doubt soon follow suit. IAB has been championing this for a while.

Digital commz will form an integral part of business strategy

Digital marketing will start taking its rightful place as part of an organisation’s overall, integrated business and communication strategy. Digital agencies will play a key role in helping organisations to not just use digital media for demand creation, but to also leverage it as one of the most powerful tools to ensure and end to end customer journey that will engage and retain customers effectively.

Google will start indexing more tweets, hashtags, and profiles from Twitter

We will start seeing more of Twitter feeds on the Google search results. Twitter has renewed its focus on SEO. We’re going to see the social network enter the top 10 “big domains” in Mozcast. Businesses should therefore keep tweeting. Cleverly.

Increase in paid amplification

Creating great content that the audience can relate to on human terms; and distributing it better using paid media as part of the process. A recent Forrester report stated that organic interaction on Facebook brand posts has shrunken to just 0.073%. Simply put, companies should use a combination of owned media (social media) and paid for media (advertisements) to gain earned media exposure (free media placements) to make the most of their marketing budget.

Content will be more important than ever

More than half of consumer’s time online is spent engaging with custom content. For this reason, Google is a huge fan of custom content and is more likely to rank a company higher on the search engines for it. This means, constant upload of fresh, new and quality content that are of value to readers and that other sites are also very likely to refer to.

Videos attract attention like no other

During the last few years, the use of videos for marketing purposes has been steadily growing. Videos are able to convey a message powerfully, much easier and much quicker than what text or images can do on its own. Research also shows that people are more likely to watch a video than to read content online. This trend, more commonly known as animated video explainers, is most likely to continue into 2015 and beyond, because if its high success rate in reaching target audiences.

More women feature in digital

Kershnee Pillay is MD at JWT, Josephine Buys IAB South Africa country manager, Karen Ballenden is MD at Metropolitan Republic, and so the list goes on. We’re going to see more and more women in key digital marketing positions.

Video Explainers have the ability to capture and inform viewers about your business. This is done in a number of ways using animated illustrations as well as video footage and typography, however before you start with the visuals you should have a killer script ready to guide you through the process. These are a few tips on creating a good script for your video.

1. Keep it Short.

The average viewer starts to lose interest after 2 minutes so make sure that the information you provide is interesting and relevant. This means don’t go into too much detail about your services, just mention the basic outlines and provide the viewer with a link to your website should they need to learn more about your business.

 

2. Put your message in the first 30 seconds.

Try to simplify your message so it’s easy for the viewer to understand and make sure it’s in the first 30 seconds of your video. You should state the problem and then how your business can fix the issue in this time. This will allow the viewer to pay attention to your message during the rest of the video.

 

3. Speak directly to the viewer.

It is important that the viewer sees you in a friendly and comfortable light, so don’t be afraid to speak directly to the viewer using personal words like “you” or “your”. Show them how you can help them reach their goals. They need to be able to trust you when handling their company name.

 

4. Establish the tone of your video.

it is very important to have a tone in your video as it will help direct the video to the emotions of the audience. When choosing your tone, you need to picture your customer and understand how he/she is going to react to your video and your message. Decide which tone would be best for your message and then move on to the next step.

 

5. Tell as short story.

Most animated explainers start off by presenting the problem (Lesedi is bored), they then introduce the solution (Lesedi downloads a new android game) and explain how their solution can help (have hours of fun with our new game…etc.) and then they throw in a call to action (download now on the play store)

Based on the above example,you video script structure should  always consist of four acts: a beginning (what), a middle (how), a conclusion (why) and a call-to-action (do). The “what” is the problem of your target audience that your product /service can solve and its the ain reason why a viewer chooses to click on your video.

The “how” explains the solution to the problem and should be explained as simply and directly as possible, so the audience grabs it instantly. The “why”tells your viewer why they should choose your company above another. This is where you can brag about your product’s features, benfits, etc. And lastly,your call-to-action is how you get the viewer to either purchase your product or find out more about it.

Use good visuals to show how your product helped other people .You can do this by using an animated character as the person experiencing the problem in the video and how your product or service helped them. The audience can relate to someone experiencing the same issues as them rather than a bunch of statistics and information, so use this as an advantage in your script.

 

6. Use humour wisely

A great way to get viewers to keep watching your video is by using humour, however it needs to be timed well and must not be distracting to the audience. It is acceptable to add humour in the script but it might be more effective with the use of visuals and sound. Use it sparingly.

 

7. Pace yourself

Keep your wording between 125 and 150 words per minute. The viewer needs time to take in the information and absorb what you are saying. Keeping the same pace throughout your video goes  hand in hand with your tone. Don’t jump between different speeds as the user can quickly become distracted and overwhelmed.

The script is the base and foundation of your video, so spend time on it because it will pay off in the final video.

Need video animation services? – Get A Video Animation

 

Imagine a bunch of adolescent men on a night out, generally a similar product offering visually: the over-gelled hair style, the branded shirt, jeans, supposedly cool shoes and all claiming to be the next best thing to attract any susceptible female. Some points of difference no doubt, maybe one fella chooses to market himself with the latest sunglasses, indoors…but that, is a debate for another time I suppose.

How copy can help your brand:

These adolescent men with the same product offering, how do they differ themselves? What truly allows for them to stand out in a crowd where everyone is much of a muchness? It’s in the way that they communicate themselves, the power of their words; ultimately aligned to their brand personality. For instance, one fella, let us call him Darryl, could offer the greatest selection of draw cards to woo any female consumer. Not only does Darryl have the looks and charm; he has firmly entrenched values that respect women. Darryl has a future in mind, with that someone special: walking on the beach holding hands, the ultimate cheese but a major draw card to his target audience.

Sadly though, this important message and core essence of Darryl is somehow lost when he speaks with a slurred and awkward incomprehensible tone that sends the ladies running for the door. “Darryl is a jerk” they murmur, “best you stay away, he doesn’t understand women”. A far cry from the genuine Darryl brand. His poor communication has resulted in him losing out on gaining a valuable following. Perhaps that is the Darryl brand personality, but it most certainly will not bode well for any future female success.

Copy is the unsung hero!

Copy is a powerful tool yet it remains underestimated and underused. It possesses the ability to effectively connect on a deep and emotional level with your consumer; when sometimes your visual stimulation is insufficient or becomes mundane.

Let’s look at smartphones today:

  • Generally, a similar product offering, your Samsung and iPhone for instance.
  • The difference lies in how they communicate their products, copy is vital here where visual imagery is overused and mundane.

Copy is the cherry on top!

I most certainly am not disregarding the power and effect that visual stimulation holds. The imagery that can be generated today boggles my mind endlessly, and it most certainly can paint a fascinating picture that will engage consumers. However, sometimes the copy becomes lost or a second thought when executing a solution to client. Copy offers a safety net, a tool that can ensure that the entire brand identity is effectively communicated, no loopholes, no questions asked.

Reasons why bad copy can kill your brand

  • It destroys trust. The copy you use has a massive impact on developing a relationship and building trust with prospective clients.
  • Bad copy doesn’t make people take action. Copy that is vague or ambiguous leaves the reader without clear instruction of what to do next, when the whole purpose of copywriting is to get them to take action!
  • Bad copy doesn’t tell your story. You’re going to have a hard time getting emotional buy-in from your readers if your copy is cold and factual.
  • Bad copy doesn’t keep your reader engaged. It’s a fact. Mediocre copywriting isn’t enganging and doesn’t compel your reader to keep reading to the end of your content.
  • Bad copy isn’t reader-focused. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when writing copy is by talking about how great they are and not focusing on their intended audience.

Luckily, BWD Advertising (BWD) offers all these services to guarantee that the ultimate solution is created to solve any client problem. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t be a darryl

For more information or assistance with copywriting, feel free to contact BWD on 011-321 0193 or email: info@bwdavertising.co.za

What is corporate stationery you ask?

When describing what corporate stationery is, you have to go back to the core of where the purpose of this topic was founded. Saying this, you would therefore need an identity before you decide to create the rest.

A corporate identity refers to probably the most important part of a brand. It is the character that your target forms a relationship with and is essentially also the way in which your brand is recognised by people.

Corporate stationery is then the mediums that you used to convey the message of your brand identity. For example: business cards, letterheads, envelopes.

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Now for the good stuff – printed corporate stationery in relation to print media

In the times of technology and cyber-space, it is difficult to think that printed business cards, letterheads, envelopes or general stationery could possibly survive above the movement of the economy and technological times. It is thought that every aspect of our daily lives is “going digital”. This, however, can be argued.

In current times, a theme that is very evident in media is what we would call “Martini Media”- whereby the media is able to “pick and choose” the information that gets broadcasted and of course choose what isn’t. This can very easily be related to the human race in that technology has arrived at a point where people can choose the information that they want to consume or send the rest into the dreaded trash can which eventually vanishes into cyberspace. Therefore, communicating your brand through the use of technology has not yet come to a point whereby it is totally effective.

We can argue: is printed corporate stationery dead?

Well, quite frankly, not yet.

Tech Talk: Future of Print Media in a Digital Age

*Video

So, it woulld seem as much as modern society has tried to migrate into the digtal world, some things will always need a physical touch!

Benefits of corporate stationery:

  • It projects your company’s imagine,tellingcustomers and potential clients that you are professional and legitimate – i.e. it establishes trust.
  • It helps with networking – think about exchanging business cards when meeting a client for thr forst time. it’s a way for them to remember you and pass your information onto others!
  • It’s a great marketing tool – you can brand different types of stationery and office related items to keep your company’s name out there consistently, in a non- intrusive manner.
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Tech Talk: Future of Print Media in a Digital Age

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Every corporate company is jumping on the bandwagon and creating their own Animated explainer video, however not all of them are successful, because they tend to overlook some of the most important steps in the creation of a good animated explainer.

Before we show you just how you can make your anumated explainer video, let’s recap exactly why your business needs one:

  • Increased Convertion Rate. More often than not,having an explainer video on your company’s landing page can help to increase the conversion from that page. It has been found that almost a third of viewers will click on the video, and almost half will continue watching it till the end. And the best part of all? studies show that a whopping 85% of people are more likely to buy a product after they have watched an explainer video!
  • Improve Google Ranking. Google rank websites containing videos higher than those containing just text and images – as it tends to scare customers away.

 

1. Determine what exactly you want to explain to your audience

What is the most important service that you wish to offer to your customers?

You need to understand how people see your brand and what pops into their heads when they see your company name. A good way of doing this is sending out questionnaires to various groups of people asking them certain questions.

  • How would you describe “your company name” in a few lines?
  • Do you understand what services “your company” offers?
  • Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve your experience at “your company?

 

2. Writing a Script

When writing your script, it is important that you follow a structure.

You need to state the problem first and then introduce your company and your product as a solution to this problem.

Don’t be afraid to promote your solution in an almost “bragging” way.

Show the viewer proof on how your company has helped other people by bringing up a couple of reviews or posts from social networks. This will help them trust you.

The next step is your “call to action”, try to make it short and easy to understand.

 

3. Voice over

Make sure that your voice over is completed first before your animation. It’s much easier to animate according to the voice over rather than animating first and editing the sound to fit the animation.

 

4. Find a good animator 

A good animator should be hard working, trustworthy and creative. He should be able to understand your business and what you are trying to portray in your explainer. He will then create a storyboard so you can have a preview of how the video is going to look.

He will be able to trim your script and make it work according to the tone and feeling you have chosen for your video. He will even help choose the best soundtrack and effects to give an impact to your message.

 

5. Publishing your explainer and observing your video analytics

 Once your video is completed and you’re done posting it, you need to analyse how it performs on the net and how people react to it. The information acquired from this is very useful as it will help you edit or change certain aspects of your video or help prepare for the next video you wish to create.

For more information or assistance with animated explainer videos, feel free to contact BWD Advertising (BWD) on 011-321 0193 or email: info@bwdavertising.co.za.

Unless you’ve been vacationing under a rock for the last few years, I’m sure you have had the displeasure of suffering trough “lil’Wayne’s” hair-raising voice. Years of cough syrup and misplaced auto-tune have resulted in the man sounding like a strangled cat, not that I’ve ever strangled a cat but that’s beside the point. The reality of the matter is that something as simple as the pitch of his voice can put people off of his music, never bothering to take into consideration the lyrics or the message. The same kind of logic applies to a brands logo design. The tone of a persons voice is a part of the overall impression, we give to other people, whereas Wayne’s tone may repel some people, the wrong font can completely repel people away from an otherwise exceptional corporate logo. The right font can say the right or wrong thing about your brand, so it’s imperative that you understand what your type is saying about you.

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Serif And San Serif

For the most part fonts are split into two overall categories, Serif fonts and Sans Serif fonts. So the next time your designer friends bring it up you needn’t be intimidated by the design jargon, because distinguishing between the two is rather easy. Serif fonts are fonts, which feature a horizontal stroke at the end of certain characters, and by contrast, Sans Serif fonts do not. Serif fonts tend to give off an “official”, If you want your logo to look more authoritative and “matter of fact” try give it the serif font treatment, if should help with that. On the flip side Sans Serif fonts tend to be a lot more common, as they account for the dominant share of the worlds body copy (I mean even this Blog is Sans Serif).

Weight

For every type of type there is a weight, much like we Homo sapiens, fonts come in a bunch of different shape and sizes. From bold, regular and light all the way down to thin and hairline. In general the higher the font weight the more forceful the message, but keep in mind that a little subtly goes a very long way.

Script

Script typography is designed mimic the look and feel of hand written text or cursive, this results in very fluid/effeminate characters, which flow into each other. Scrip fonts don’t work very well for general body copy or small sized text, but if you are trying to create a brand logo oozing with youthful exuberance and soft feminine lines, then script font will defiantly do the trick.

Novelty

Now if “lil’ Waynes” voice were indeed a typeface, it would,-without a shadow of a doubt-be a novelty font. Unlike the other categories in this article, novelty fonts don’t share any specific characteristics. The term “Novelty font” is more of and umbrella term for all those eccentric fonts you see popping up all over the place. Whether you are trying to show off a little bit of your playful side or even if you are just plain coo coo for Coco Pops, Novelty fonts will help you flex your own uniqueness. Be sure to tread carefully thou because the wrong use of novelty fonts can result in disaster…just ask a designer about comic sans, its surely the devils work.

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Hi Peter,

You can get to know the who’s who on our country’s online scene, by taking a look at the ‘Memeburn Guide to the SA digital agency landscape.’ BWD was recently profiled as an emerging digital agency to take note of in this guide. Click here to read the article.

We’ve been talking to people here, there and everywhere, announcing our animated explainer video services from the rooftops. As a result, we proudly landed an international telecoms company named T-Systems. An animated explainer video enables you to capture your audience and get the message across second to none. Take a look here at some of the cool work we’ve done for T-Systems.

T-Systems_screenshot

CTA

To make sure we’re ready to meet our clients’ growing demands, we’ve also beefed our capacity by getting another video animator on board. Meet Shivesh Boodhram, who boasts a mega impressive portfolio with 2D and 3D animations.

We have hired 2 interns to give them on-the-job experience. Demi Van Breda is a brand strategist from Vega. Jade Duncan is a talented graphics designer that I met at the Loeries Student Portfolio day earlier this year in Cape Town.

On the website design front, one of our greatest highlights was doing no less than five separate websites for different divisions of the Phenomenal Group. Check out what we’ve done for them here.

On the 19th of November 2014, from 14:30 to 15:30; I’ll be sharing some of my own experiences as an entrepreneur at the Global Entrepreneurship Week Festival that is set to take place at the Maboneng Precinct (Open Collaborative Space.) You’re invited.

You have one more chance to bank on our free photo shoot offer, as our studio will be available for this purpose only one more time this year. Make your booking for the last Tuesday of November.

Things get hectic this time of the year as the holidays are drawing near. So feel free to take a break and pop in for a cup of coffee with me. Maybe we can deliberate on building a life that we don’t need a vacation from…

Bongani Gosa
Creative Director (Breeze Website Designers)
email: bongani@bwd.co.za
phone: 011 321-0193

 

 

As Human Beings we are hard-wired to detect motion. People would much rather watch a video on something rather than reading through pages of information.

It is the reason why companies like Youtube are so successful. It’s the reason why most  people will rather watch the movie than read the book. People love to be amazed and impressed by visual stimulation.

1.Good Explainer Videos use Motion to Inform and to Entertain

With so many different Animated explainers popping up you’ve probably asked yourself, what separates a “good” explainer video from an “okay” one?

Well, the proper use of motion graphics and timing, combined with a

WHO, WHAT and WHY formula will do just that. You need to introduce and tell us about your business in less than a minute. You need to tell the audience …

1.Who you are

2.What you do

3.Why they should use your product

The power of a good explainer will awaken one of our most primal instincts and that is to detect motion. If it is done in an entertaining way the viewer is more than likely to watch your video to the end.

2. Good Explainer Videos can Evoke or Provoke an Emotion

Try to capture your audience on an emotional level. Your video should appeal to their feelings in one way or another. It might be a good idea to create a main character and build your story around your character’s life by incorporating their problems and how your business or product helped them. Good explainers give the impression of a mini short film.

Humor is always a very good example of this. If you can make people laugh then you already have their attention. Don’t be afraid to use Humor as a tactic but do so sparingly as too much humor can have a negative effect on your message.

3. Good Explainer Videos combine Live Action with Animation

Its always good to combine your animations with nice clean footage, something along the lines of an interview of an employee sitting in a comfortable surrounding and promoting your product in a friendly tone, this gives that personal touch of human interaction.

Bare in mind that your overall style should be incorporated in the name and graphic overlays which will be on screen while your footage is playing.

4. Good Explainer Videos influence You to Buy or Use a Product or Service

If your video is about a particular product that you’re offering your audience then you should depict it a way that persuades them but still allows them to trust you. People might not have needed your product but after seeing your presentation they might just impulse-buy it.

 

Try to have that warm human connection when promoting your product. This enforces that trust you created so far with your video.

5. Good Explainer Videos let People Know You Exist

A good explainer video is basically a full time employee who is constantly advertising your company. If it is easily accessible on the popular social media platforms and people are able to view it then this will give your video maximum exposure through sharing and posting.

 

 

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Even though black and white photography started a long time ago, it’s never been outdated; it grabs the audience’s attention, it is theatrical, and it adds drama and vibrance to the photograph. Why is it that popular till today?

The chiaroscuro contrast of black and white is intertwined with a certain nostalgia, it reminds us of the beginning and evolvement of photography and television too, but in reality, the contrast is visually attractive by bringing out the value of shapes and forms of different subject effectively. Black and white colours can give a picture strong meaning.

To understand what I mean, one should take or view black and white photography of the following subjects:

  • Winter landscape
  • Portrait
  • Urban landscape
  • Picture in Raw format and JPEG
  • Night photography

Personally I like winter and urban photography the most. That contrast is at the same time poetic and historic. It brings out all the different textures – even the ones that you hardly notice.

My recommendations to take good black and white pictures are simple:

  • Shoot RAW + JPEG. The best monochrome (black and white) conversions are made by editing raw files which have the full colour information, but if you shoot raw and JPEG files simultaneously and set the camera to its monochrome Picture Style / Picture Control / Film Simulation mode, you can get an indication of how the image will look in black and white.
  • Look for contrast, shape and texture. The complimentary and opposing colours that bring a colour image to life are all reduced to black and white or shades of grey in a monochrome image and you have to look for tonal contrast to make a shot stand out.
  • Try long exposure. Long exposure shots can work really well in black and white photography, especially where there’s moving water or clouds.
  • Use filters. Graduated neutral density (AKA ND grad) and polarising filters are just as useful in monochrome photography as they are in colour. In fact, because they manipulate image contrast it could even be argued that they are more useful.
  • Take control. Although coloured filters can still be used to manipulate contrast when shooting digital black and white images, it’s a better idea to save this work until the processing stage.
  • Dodge and burn. This is a technique that comes from the traditional darkroom and is usually used to burn in or darken highlights and hold back (brighten) shadows.

Now you know a few small tricks to take good black and white photographs! Enjoy!

For more information on professional photography or an obligation-free consultation, feel free to call BWD Advertising (BWD) on (011) 321 0193 or email info@bwdadvertising.co.za.

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We call bubblegum “Chappies”, our soft drinks, Cokes, we don’t even search for anything anymore…we Google it. These brands have risen to a level of popularity whereby they become bywords for the products and services they provide.

 

 

pull

When we meet someone new, within the first few seconds, we instinctively formulate assumptions about who he or she is, what he or she does, their personality, and so on. These assumptions are based on nothing but visual communication, this universal facet of human interaction holds true for the brands we interact with as well. Just as we analyze people’s hair, clothes and polka-dot socks; a brand’s corporate identity speaks volumes about the brand itself. A brand’s corporate identity is far more than a mere collection of colours, fonts and a logo. A brand’s corporate identity is in fact a promise, a promise to your audience. Communicating the brand’s attributes, beliefs and overall personality. The Googles and Coca Cola’s of this world understand that about their brands.

 

Brand Promise

A lot of time, money and design go into ensuring that when you pick up a Coke anywhere in the world, you do so with the promise of quality and refreshment. The red and white colour pallet and iconic logo go beyond distinguishing the brand apart for the competition it also gives the audience a sense of the Coca Cola Company’s personality. Design professionals go to great lengths in creating exquisite corporate identities, which perfectly encapsulate a brand’s identity; every minute detail and design decision is carefully calculated, scrutinized and passed through a filter of expertise, talent and experience in the field of visual communication.

 

Consistency

The paramount importance of a brands corporate identity emphasizes the need for consistency in adhering to the brand’s identity guidelines. Once design professionals have meticulously executed a brand’s identity, it runs the risk of counting for nothing if implemented incorrectly.

Confusion is costly

Consider for a moment, that you visit a doctor, and you are diagnosed with a particular ailment, the next day you go back and you are diagnosed with a different ailment. The symptoms are the same but the diagnosis is wildly different, would this not cause you to lose confidence with your doctor? The same basic idea is applicable to the relationship between a brand and its audience. If a brands presence is not consistent across all platforms it results in doubt and confutation from your audience. If a brand uses a different hue of red in their stationary and their digital material or has varying types of fonts for their logo, the brands stands very little chance of establishing itself as a trusted/recognizable entity in its industry. It all boils down to the simple truth that people will not trust a brand if they do not understand what said brand stands for, what it believes and what it promises…Its Identity!

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