In 2013, the Cape Town-based advertising agency King James beat competitors
from all around the world to take the top spot in the Midas Award rankings.
These awards are specifically designed to recognise excellence in advertising for
the financial industry. Screen Africa asked the agency’s Group Chief Executive,
Alistair King, to share his views on this highly specialised advertising field and
the two campaigns with which King James won the award.
The financial services category is notorious in our industry for being a difficult
category to operate in and so the work that comes out of it is often not very
provocative. However, our experience with Allan Gray over the past 11 years,
and subsequently with Santam over the last three; has been very different. Both
clients are very respectful of the creative process and the value we bring to their
business and that is an amazing place to start out from. Both clients have
witnessed how powerful advertising can change their business and drive their
numbers, and when that happens it’s like watching a light go on. They start to
demand more and more from us and that is the kind of position we want to be
in. A hungry client is what makes great advertising.
What has been a massive contributor to our relationship with Santam in
particular is our integrated structure and the kind of advertising that leads to.
We not only do their advertising, we do their design, their digital development
and their social media, and that very definitely changes the kind of solutions we
come up with. Once you have a good idea, you have lots of places for you to
build and enrich it and that is why we’ve got the structure we have. Driving an
idea across a number of platforms is ultimately what gives a campaign real depth
and volume.
I’ve often thought that advertising in the insurance sector in particular is quite
cheap and tacky. In their attempt to offer you cheaper premiums and more
rewards, their communication has lost its style and dignity and they always
seem to be yapping at you with a better offer. As an insurance customer you’re
always left asking: “How can you offer me a discount when you don’t even know
me or my circumstances? What’s the catch?’ It hardly evokes trust in a sector
and we felt we could change that with Santam.
We also decided to stay away from the category cliche: “Shit happens. Make
sure you’re with XYZ Insurance.’ It all seems a little predictable and a little
puerile given the importance of the service they deliver. We simply suggested
that, as the market leader, Santam should behave like a leader, and the client
agreed with that. It was a key decision that led to the kind of elegant work we
have done with them. If a Santam ad doesn’t make you think or make you
realise something, it’s not really doing its job.
Regarding Allan Gray, I think we also made some key decisions that set the tone
for the kind of work we do for them. Instead of making lofty claims about making
you money, we chose to talk about the company and the kind of things it
believes in. At the time, it was a radical departure for advertising in the sector
and I think it was very successful in placing Allan Gray firmly into consumers’
hearts, and not just their immediate consumers but also future consumers.
I heard an anecdote about six years back: teenage boys in Johannesburg had
started to describe girls who showed potential as an “Allan Gray’. The implication
was simple – give her time, she’ll be hot later. I’ve always thought that to
become part of teenage lexicon is a hell of a tribute to the advertising, and I
believe the saying is still strong in schools around the country. That’s the power
of a single ad and making another ad as powerful as that one remains the
ongoing challenge. It’s a challenge we relish greatly.
I’ve heard many people say King James’s advertising is very emotional in nature.
I can say that we don’t purposely set out to imbue our advertising with emotion,
but I think it might just be who we are as people. We always look for ideas that
are provocative and meaningful and that might translate into ads that pack a bit
of an emotional punch. It’s certainly not our formula though. We always look to
make a unique, meaningful observation about the categories we work in, and as
long as it moves you, intellectually or emotionally, to find out more about our
client, we think we’ve done our job well.
Most advertising simply washes over consumers. Getting them to notice you is
half the challenge. Making them feel something is the other half.’
