Creativity not in recession

Fri, 03 Jul 2009

With the world reeling from the effects of the global economic meltdown, Draftfcb South Africa Group CEO John Dixon believes that while times are tough for ad agencies, they are not insurmountable.

“Everyone in the ad industry is affected but I don’t think the situation is quite as bad as the press makes out. We’ve found that it’s become a case of doing more work for less money,” said Dixon at a press briefing at Draftfcb Johannesburg on 2 July.

Recently appointed group executive creative director Brett Morris added: “Ad agencies are lucky because there is never a recession in creativity. Tough economic times like these make creatives work harder.”

Dixon made the point that 2009 was the first year that clients were really taking new media seriously. “People have been talking about new media for ages but only now are they using it in force. This year we’ve been given very big projects involving mobisites, etc.”

Commenting on his recent appointment, Morris said he’d previously worked at Draftfcb Johannesburg before leaving to join Nando’s, and thereafter starting his own agency. “So I asked myself – what is the best way to start an agency? The answer is to form a network of amazing partnerships. So I spoke to John Dixon and realised that Draftfcb had all of that already. It’s awesome to be back and to have access to a group as diverse and multi-faceted as Draftfcb.”

Dixon and Morris presented a show reel of their most recent work to the press. Much of the focus was on Vodacom’s Player 23 campaign. Said Morris: “This campaign was based on the premise of bringing the fan closer to the game [rugby] – by making the fan part of the game. So the supporter as Player 23 is part of the team. We’ve had hundreds of downloads of the Player 23 viral clips on the mobisite."

Dixon noted that the first part of the campaign, which was geared at the Super 14 competition, featured a white fan only – the stereotypical braai-ing, beer swilling white rugby fan. In the second part of the campaign, which was geared at the British and Irish Lions Tour, a coloured fan, Elton, was introduced.

The new Vodacom campaign, Single Ladies, consists of a man dancing like a woman in a lot of different Cape Town locations. “Vodacom talks to the ordinary middle class, both black and white. We’re very lucky as our clients generally ask us not to do the whole ‘rainbow nation’ thing as that would lead to generic, vanilla type ads. So we’re grateful to be asked to speak to specific groups,” said Dixon.

Draftfcb’s Experiential division was asked to refresh the Lotto brand and to give it a unique property. Said Morris: “Executive creative director Marthinus Duckitt worked with the creators of the popular Madame & Eve cartoon – Stephen Francis and Rico. They came up with the “Find Eve” campaign – Eve disappears because she’s won the Lotto and moved to Mauritius.”

Another challenging campaign for this division was Rose’s Lime Juice – changing its very traditional branding and launching three new flavours. The team came up with a website campaign where visitors can mix their own music track by moving Rose’s brand images around.

The Lexus Live Drive radio campaign comprised four live crossings to Ashley Dowds test-driving the new Lexus in Cape Town. Draftfcb will repeat the campaign in Johannesburg as well.

A lot of Draftfcb’s work has humour in it. Says Morris: “Some categories, like food and beverages, lend themselves to humour. It’s a great tool and when you get it right it can be spectacular. But when you get it wrong it’s disastrous.”

Dixon noted that a very profitable part of the business for Draftfcb was its Origin Design Centre which does work for very big properties – hotels, restaurants, etc. “Until the recession we did a lot of work in Dubai. But as Dubai has been really hard hit by the economic meltdown, our work for this division will now come from more conventional sources.”

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