On The Pulse.
On The Pulse
We are so excited to share that #ImbokodoStan got a facelift. If you have been with us for a while you know about Imbokodo Stan – a series of conversations with women in the community, influencers, medical professionals, and everything in between.
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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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In a world bristling with technology and an abundance of information, how does one build a successful career as a content creator?
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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.
The inaugural Pat on Brands (POB) Dialogues were hosted at the Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontien on the 6th of June 2019. The dialogues are intended to provide a platform for various experienced people to share their branding and marketing stories with young professionals and entrepreneurs.
The POB Dialogues does not have speakers but storytellers who have journeyed through the ever evolving marketing landscape. Storytelling is one of the oldest and trusted forms of passing on knowledge and information. The theme for the first dialogue was “The Journey of Branding”.
The POB dialogue started on a high note featuring two highly experienced branding storytellers. Musa Kalenga who is the Chief Future Officer of the Brave Group and CEO of Bridge Labs and Thabang Ramogase who is the newly appointed CMO of LIberty were the storytellers whilst Thokozani Mahlangu (Founder and Director of PatonBrands) facilitated the stories.
Notably, the two storytellers represented two generations of brand managers, each with a unique story to tell. As different as the stories were, the lessons from their stories were similar. Firstly, both of the story tellers had no intentions of working in marketing and yet they have grown to become industry leaders. For example Musa wanted to be an actuary whilst Thabang wanted to be a medical doctor when first enrolled in university. This speaks to the non-linearity of life and how one can be good in anything they commit to. Secondly the two story tellers have always been up for a challenge and that has led to their continual growth. They have worked with different local and international brands and have successfully executed brilliant campaigns.
As the dialogue progressed, the conversations got deeper and dealt with the evolution of the consumer, decolonization, diversity and the changing social culture. In all this, the main message was that brands should continually be readapted to match the target consumer at that particular time. The comfort zone is the devil and brands need to anticipate the future and shift towards it
The POB Dialogues is also a networking platform, after the storytelling the attendees got a chance to interact among themselves and with the storytellers of the day. Like any great gathering, this was done over some light snacks and drinks. Netflorist sponsored awesome gifts for the storytellers
A huge Pat on the POB Dialogues partners:
The next POB Dialogues will be on 1 August 2019. Follow @PatonBrands on social media for further details.