54 FINWEEK 16 JULY 2009

THE ADVERTISING WORLD has “hit the reset button on every-thing we do,” says DDB chairman Bob Scarpelli, using online jar-gon for the structural shifts taking place in marketing communica-tions. “We’ve started afresh on everything. None of the old cate-gories apply any more. There’s an increasing fuzziness of definition. The way advertising is going we could end up with a single award for the best idea.”

But everything is still judged

in categories at awards shows such as Cannes. “So you don’t get a sense of the totality. Two years ago TV commercials were seen as something different from Internet and mobile. Today, we’re working at least four screens. We won an Emmy for a TV commercial only ever seen on the Internet.”

Scarpelli, the creative head, and president/CEO Chuck Brymer, are the force behind DDB Worldwide, the world’s most suc-cessful award-winning agency in

recent years. As two of the best thinkers in world advertising they make a formidable team. They talked to Finweek in Cannes.

Under Scarpelli’s creative leadership, DDB has won almost every advertising award there is. In 32 years at DDB he’s cre-ated some of the world’s most talked-about and awarded crea-tive work, including Budweiser’s “Whassup” campaign.

But consumer motivation has changed in ways that are difficult

StingS Seeing iS believingSAMSUNG HAS VIRTUALLY taken ownership of FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World” supplement this year, thanks to smart media creativity by Starcom. In one example the agency booked the inside front cover and showed a Samsung LED TV

with a die-cut screen, so read-ers saw the model’s body on the underlying page as if it were on the screen. The visual is captioned: “Seeing is believ-ing” – facing on the reverse page: “The Samsung LED TV has revolutionised the way we look at colour: Experience Real Life-Like Images.”

At A looSe end?BEEN RETRENCHED, down-sized or, frankly, sacked? The AAA School of Advertising will let former ACA-member staff attend lectures in Joburg free of charge. n

tonyk@finweek.co.za

DDB WORLDWIDE has bought a majority stake in DDB South Afri-ca from the former Jupiter Drawing Room Partners. The SA agency, a non-equity affiliate of the Omnicom-owned global network, was named Agency of the Year at the AdReview Awards in April.

Then known as Framptons International, it became a DDB asso-ciate in 1998. The Jupiter Drawing Room acquired a 53% stake two years ago but after selling 49% of its own equity to WPP, an Omnicom rival, it had to sever the link.

Currently managed and part-owned by CEO Glen Lomas and MD Emmet O’Hanlon, the agency has quadrupled in size over four years and won a rare Cannes Grand Prix for Energizer last year. Cli-ents include Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and Knorr.

The global network, the world’s largest, is also acknowl-edged as probably the world’s top creative agency over the last five to 10 years.

Patrick Ehringer, regional Middle East/Africa president, says the agency will serve as a regional hub. “We’re count-ing on DDB SA to make its creativity resonate across the con-tinent under the exceptional leadership of Lomas, O’Hanlon and CEO Gareth Lessing.”

DDB chairman Bob Scarpelli says the management team had raised the agency’s creative ranking in less than three years and “firmly established the agency within our network. It’s now a major part of DDB Worldwide”. n

global agency inveStS in Sa

aDveRtiSing&MaRKeting

global tRenDS

Hit the reset button!…and start swarming, as ad industry starts over

TONY KOENDERMAN

PATRICK EHRINGER Counts on quality.

16 JULY 2009 FINWEEK 55

IT WAS AN INSPIRED decision. In the dark days of apartheid, cricket supremo Ali Bacher – recognising the need to develop a love of cricket in South Afri-ca’s black community – asked Bakers Biscuits to sponsor “mini cricket” in the townships. Bakers jumped at the idea, setting in motion a programme that’s been enjoyed by 2,5m primary school-children countrywide for 26 years, spawning such talents as Mark Boucher, JP Duminy, Makhaya Ntini and Justin Ontong. “Without it, I would have been out stealing cars,” says Ntini.

It’s also done an enormous amount for the Bakers brand, though Snack-works category director Heather Part-ner is quick to emphasise it wasn’t treated as a marketing tool. “It was never intended as a CSI project,” she says. “We never quantified it. We don’t do it to sell more biscuits. It’s part of our DNA. Our challenge now is how to make it bigger and better, more current and now-focused.”

The programme is no longer limited to underprivileged communities but operates across the socio-economic spec-trum, from St Stithians to the poorest rural Govern-ment schools. “In many areas it’s the only sport they play,” says Partner. “They have nothing else. Bakers Mini Cricket has become as iconic as our biscuits.”

However, she agrees there’s a “tremendous feel-ing of goodwill towards the brand. Bakers has 97% spontaneous awareness, though it doesn’t give us a logo on a TV screen.”

The programme has also expanded in other ways. There’s a cricket coach training academy whose 30 000 graduates include current Protea coach Mickey Arthur and Vincent Barnes. There’s also a schools road show, a feeding scheme and a new initiative – Bakers Bis-cuits for Charity.

Both boys and girls participate and, says Partner, “they just love it. They learn to play cricket in a fun

environment. It’s not run on a competitive basis, so there’s no winner.

“It promotes leadership, sports mastery, cama-raderie, good health. We don’t apologise for our products but we promote a healthy balance. We don’t want them watching TV and stuffing biscuits into their mouths.”

The programme has been copied in England, New Zealand and Australia. “It works because it’s well structured, with a specific programme, rules and guidelines and has the continuity of a single sponsor. And we don’t just write cheques – we’re physically involved. We provide the kit, scoring mechanisms – everything.

At a cost of R8m to R10m/year,” says Partner, “it’s money well spent.” n

SPonSoRSHiP

Cricket, tea and biscuits

LEARNING the skill of running between the wickets.

vIsIT ouR wEbsITE foR dAILy uPdATEs, AGENCy RANKINGs ANd moRE AThttp://www.fin24.com/AdReview/Default.aspx

to fathom, says Brymer, who outlined his “swarm theory” of consumer activation in a recent book, The Nature of Marketing.

Thanks to the Internet, Brymer says, human beings act like swarms of ants or bees. A colony of a million will form complex and efficient super high-ways, prompted by a mysterious collective intelligence to flock to resources or flee from danger.

Humans, who once socialised in small groups and watched TV for product information, are becoming a human swarm linked by digital social networks, fol-lowing similar behavioural rules. Like their insect counterparts, highly connected human swarms move with lightning speed and flock to the same brands. Seeking best value, they check consumer ratings online or tap into favour-ite blogs and social networks, sharing information with per-haps 200 people a day. Marketing will never be the same again.

So no surprise that DDB is investing heavily in new tech-nologies. “But integration of old and new channels is crucial. Look how important TV was to achieve reach and impact for the Obama presidential campaign and convey the heroic nature of the product. A two-minute TV commercial was the campaign highlight.”

Technology has a long reach, notes Scarpelli. “The mobile phone will become the prima-ry medium of communication and online access in the emerg-ing world. In South Africa, as in India, slow broadband con-nections stimulate the advance-ment of mobile technologies. The world is opening up, borders coming down. There’s no stop-ping it.” n

wAyNE PARNELL with a Bakers schoolchild.