This year was extraordinary for so many reasons. Since March, our heads have not stopped spinning for many of us. For brands, 2020 was a year when many were forced to rediscover if they had a purpose, what that purpose is, and how they plan to anchor their place in the world and keep their promise.
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When Pat on Brand’s founder, Pat Mahlangu, first decided to start this passion project, he had no idea that it would gain as much traction as it has over the past 4 years.
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It’s that time of the year when we take a peak at the year ahead and of course reflect on the year that it was.
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The 23rd Annual BASA Awards have teamed up with Hollard to once again shine a light on continued partnerships between business and arts in seven categories.
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The last Pat On Brands Dialogue for the year, was an intimate yet powerful one. We gathered at the hallowed halls of the Pat On Brands headquarters, at Tshimologong Precinct, in Braamfontein Johannesburg. This past Thursday, 5 November 2020. All COVID-19 protocol was observed.
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On Wednesday, 6 November Pat on Brands (POB) held its season finale of the Pat on Brands Dialogues under the theme Marketing in 2020 starring Alistair Mokoena, Gugu Nkabinde and Nontokozo Madonsela. The dialogues were hosted at Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein.
The Pat on Brands Dialogues is a series of events that encourage a conversation between seasoned marketers and the younger generation of marketers. The dialogues start with the seasoned marketers aka storytellers sharing their stories about their journey in the industry followed by the audience asking pertinent questions on the theme. The MD of Pat on Brands – Thokozani Pat Mahlangu then facilitates the dialogues. Storytelling is at the center of the dialogues as it is the most powerful way of transferring knowledge and wisdom.
As we are approaching the end of 2019, it is appropriate to reflect on the year 2019 was and most importantly look forward to what 2020 holds for marketing. The storytellers shared powerful insights on some of the marketing trends that will emerge in 2020. Purposeful Marketing and Influencer Marketing were at the center of discussion.
“Brands need to do more than chasing the bottom line. They need to play an active role in addressing some of the social ills that our country is facing, and they need to do so without treating it as “CSI projects” said Alistair Mokoena, Ogilvy South Africa CEO. Mokoena also encouraged the young marketers and entrepreneurs to do work that fills them with purpose, to live a life in service of something greater than themselves.
One of the most important questions that were asked in the evening was whether influencer marketing will still have a place in 2020. In response to this question Gugu Nkabinde CEO and Founder of Gugu Intimates posed a question “who influences who?”. Marketers need to look beyond vanity metrics i.e likes, comments, followers, etc and dig deep insights. Nkabinde gave examples of influencer campaigns including the one where she ran a campaign with an influencer with over 200k followers. She gave the influencer a voucher code to share with her followers and that influencer only managed to sell two items.
The objectives need to be clear for influencer marketing. If the objective is to drive perhaps the influencer with the highest number of followers is the ideal choice versus the one with a smaller following.
Nontokozo Madonsela Group CMO at Momentum and Metropolitan Holdings made a call to the young marketers to be resourceful and have an entrepreneurial mindset. She said, “there’s always food in the fridge” adding that marketers need to use what they have at their disposal and budget should never be a constraint to producing great work.