On their website it reads (paraphrasing):

Would you like:

• To not bear the risk of having to carry cash around
• A safe, convenient and affordable way of receiving money from your employer or relatives
• The convenience of being able to pay for goods or service by card
• To own a card that is valid for a limited period of time, but can be renewed

Firstly, crime has been with us since 6 April 1652 and we have found ways to deal with it legally and otherwise. So playing on people’s fears of getting robbed was used in the early 90s to force employers to force employees to open bank accounts. That way banks could get their hands on the money poor people work their behinds off for. And this was done without consulting the very people who would be affected by it. Now the banks have come with another clever scheme to get some more money out of poor people. The Prepaid Debit Card.

Here’s why I think it’s just dumb.

Just think about this for a moment. You have to take your CASH. Go to a bank and deposit this CASH. This CASH goes into a Prepaid Debit Card account. You then take your Prepaid Debit Card and buy goods and services with this Prepaid Debit Card instead of the CASH you had in the first place. Here already you could have saved yourself a trip to the bank and you might have already passed a few of the stores you buy from on your way to the bank. Now if you’re at risk of getting robbed, doesn’t it mean that you can get robbed on your way to the bank to deposit your CASH already?

Then they say you have the convenience of not having to queue. When last did an ABSA executive shop at Shoprite or Mr. Price. Let’s face it again. This card is aimed at people that shop at these stores. No high flyer in business is gonna take R10 000, deposit that into a Prepaid Debit Card account just so he can go to Game or Makro to buy a fridge with his Prepaid Debit Card. That’s completely absurd. So we agree the target market here is poor people – right? Having said that, when it comes to cost there is the cost of depositing the money. Then there is the cost of transacting via Saswitch or whichever networks are used when you swipe your card at Pick ‘n Pay or Shoprite. These are the things they don’t tell you. ABSA claims there’s only one fee for deposits, but we all know that the free lunch is a myth.

The, the chutzpah, they say that with your Prepaid Debit Card you have unlimited “ATM withdrawals”. Why would anyone want to take CASH, deposit it into an account only to withdraw it again. So not only are they targeting poor people. They are convinced that poor people are idiots too.

I’ll say no more on the matter. From where i stand this is yet another perfectly marketed and executed programme to suck yet more money from already poor South Africans in a bid to enrich investors, shareholders and executives. Shame on you ABSA. Today Tomorrow Together my behind.

I have been let down by Amazon when I ordered 8 books on 2010 and only received 2, with no apology or explanation. Just a refund 4 months later. I have also been let down by Pick ‘n Pay in 2008 when I went to buy prepaid ADSL vouchers and the cashier told me – with a straight face – that they don’t sell Axxess vouchers. But today’s experience takes the cake and the party.

I was due to fly to Johannesburg in August to visit the Sign Africa exhibition and to meet a prospective business partner and a prospective client. So because of this I have been keeping tabs on the Velvet Sky website since early in July after I have been hearing radio ads claiming that the relatively new airline has tickets from Durban to Johannesburg available for as low as R200. After about 2 weeks of checking daily I gave up. They had no R200 tickets available. Long story short, I never went to Jozi due to business in Durban intensifying. But I was still disappointed that what I heard on radio and what I found on their website was not the same thing.

So this morning I logged what you see in the above image on the Velvet Sky Facebook Page – located at http://on.fb.me/pBn8hU and to my amazement not even 3 minutes later the post was “hidden” (yes you can hide posts you don’t want seen on your page if you’re the administrator of the page). They bloody took my post – a genuine concern I raised in the interest of people like myself that fly at least once a month – and removed it from where it cannot be seen by “the public”, despite the fact that they willingly chose to position themselves on this public digital playground called Facebook. My enquiry read as follows:

“I wanted to fly to Jozi from Durban on 24 August 2011 and I had a look at your prices in July 2011 already. There were no R200 tickets available (even closer to the date), yet your ads on Hindvani FM said “Fly from Durban to Johannesburg for as little as R200″. Explain?”

I could not believe what I saw. So the first question that popped up in my head was: “Why the dickens does Velvet Sky play in the social media space if they cannot hang with criticism and having their dirty laundry aired in public?”. Somebody over at the airline need to sign up for The Social Media Starter Pack.. cos they’re clearly clueless.

PS. JUST AN OBSERVATION AFTER I HAD A CLOSER LOOK AT THE VELVET SKY FACEBOOK PAGE. NOT A SINGLE CONVERSATION. JUST A WHOLE LOT OF SHOUTING ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. THEY RESPOND TO NOBODY.

You see social media is THEEEE most dynamic and evolutionary of all media channels and platforms. Whatever is hip today may evolve tomorrow through the introduction of a plugin or a complementary application, rendering what you learnt today futile. And so there will always be new applications introduced. Just today I started using Twylah – a new application that creates branded pages with your tweets. Just this past Friday I had no idea Twylah existed. Such is the nature of social media dear friends.

So where was I again..? Oh yeah. On Monday 29 August 2011 we will be launching The Social Media Starter Pack. This is an interactive online course in the basics and the fundamentals of Social Media. We will start right at the beginning, l-o-o-o-n-g before you follow the first person on Twitter or make your first Facebook friend (for those fortunate enough to still have their individuality intact). We’ll start in the “Garden of Eden” of Social Media, and systematically take students through the foundations, laying your first few bricks for the walls, building and fortifying and eventually the roof, i.e how they all work together as one massive brand catalyst. What’s great about the course is that it will be facilitated using the very platforms we will teach you about. There are no physical classes or timetables that you have to adhere to. You learn at your own pace and have access to your facilitator at all times – via the social networks we will teach you about. So in essence this is a course about social media that you will learn using social media. The course is 6 months long, of which 3 months will be spent learning how the tools work and the remainder actually applying what you learnt in real world branding, marketing or promotion. There will be no tests and assignments – as you know it, however you will be scored on the Google CV you manage to put together over the duration of the course having used nothing but what you learnt in the course.

We have already signed up individuals that were close enough to the agency to know about the course. We’ve also just signed up the entire staff component of a small import/export company too.. and guess what? They’ve all paid their deposits already. So we believe there is a hunger for this information and know-how out there. We aim to sign up 50 people a week in month 1 and a further 400 by month 2. We’ll also be doing free talks and free one-day workshops on The Social Media Starter Pack, but these will merely serve as introductions to the actual course.

So if you feel you can benefit from what our agency’s about to launch, get cracking right now and make contact with us by clicking HERE.

I had forgotten that incident until earlier this year when South Africa held local government elections and the ideologues came out to play. So we got to hear all the decade old political drivel that was instrumental in our ruling party’s failure to transform itself from a revolutionary movement into a well-run political party in a democratic political dispensation. (wow did you catch all that? I can be a politician hey?) Anyway.. the one thing that really hit me hard is when I read in the Sunday Times (the only publication I find worthy of my money these days) that the ANC agenda for liberation was for that of the Black people in general (Indians, Africans and Coloureds) and for Africans in particular. I felt betrayed. Simply because even though I was never caught, locked up and tortured by what we called the “SBs” in the 80s, I would have gone through that gladly – knowing that I’m doing it so ALL THE PEOPLE in this country can be free (yes white people as privileged as they were.. were also in bondage but that’s a topic for another blogpost). Not Africans in particular.

Which brings me to the nagging question I can’t find an answer to. What is African really? I’m from the Southern tip of South Africa – Africa if you will. History teaches me that the people that spawned me were traversing the mountains, coastlines, fields and plains of this country eons before there were even such a thing as Xhosas, Zulus, Pedis and Sothos. So despite the interracial procreation, from where I stand most Coloured people are the offspring of the Autshumaos of yesteryear. Does that not make Coloured people African? And what if I was Nigerian when thetaxi driver posed his question? Am I not still African? (as opposed to “from Afrika)

So with me being the offspring of a union between a woman whose forefathers inhabited the South since before 1652 (first recorded history) and a man from the Congo.. what am I? What is my ethnicity? And in the genepool of all South Africans.. What is my brand?

The Volvo content management person was kind enough to respond to me in real-time by saying: “Hi Arthur. We are communicating with bloggers at a later stage of the campaign. The idea behind this campaign was to get the best of SA’s design talent to actually design and create accessories for Volvo, therefore we lent them the cars so that they could experience them and brainstorm ideas properly. ?Could you please email us your contact details to volvocarssouthafrica@gmail.com and our marketing & PR team will happily give you more background information about the initiative.”

In February of this year 2011 I was fortunate enough to score an invite to the Durban launch of the Audi A1 on behalf of Durbantainment, where brand ambassadors Shashi Naidoo and Siya Ngwekazi represented the Audi A1 brand. The two of them, in addition to a few others, were each given an Audi A1 to drive for an undisclosed period. During this period I believe the idea is for them to be seen driving these cars, arriving at glitzy events and leaving hot spots in their Audi A1 vehicles. Below is a video clip that was shot by Durbantainment Marketing Director Eugene Mhlongo at the Audi A1 launch in February 2011. Notice how the “brand ambassadors” say absolutely squat about the car.

So after these two experiences I realise.. I should be a brand ambassador. The only reason they get these cars are because they are seen in a lot of places that the brand message is directed at. Well, I go to a whole lotta places too, like church, the library, bookstores, clients’ offices, tender briefings, client pitches, coffee shop lunches, consultations, the bank, shopping malls, movie theatres and church crusades. That’s a lot of places for one person to go and be seen at. Which brand wouldn’t benefit by being associated with me in all these places? Isn’t that after all the only reason why celebs are given cars to drive? It’s not like they amplify the brand ethos in any way. It’s not like the brand equity increases because a celeb drives the car. I am yet to see someone famous talk about roadholding, fuel efficiency, shock absorption, ergonomics etc when they drive a sponsored car. It’s all about being seen in lots of places.

I want to be a brand ambassador.

I’d like to point out at this juncture that my saving of R20 per week over a period of 3 years was not a result of anything the bank did. That was all me. Having grown up so poor that at one point I only had one pair of shoes which I wore to school and church ONLY (had to go barefeet after school everyday, the whole day on Saturday and two thirds of every Sunday), I wasn’t going to let that happen to me ever again.

It’s now May 2011 and as I look back at my tenure as a client of United and later ABSA over a period of 18 years, I cannot think of one occasion on which I was invited into a consultant’s office during the 3 years that I saved R20 per week (that’s just over 3K) or ever after that to ask me if I’d be interested in any of their other savings and investment instruments. I even held unit trusts for a few months, but had to cash out to buy second year university text books. Banking got a lot more sophisticated over the years, and monitoring clients’ transacting habits, trends and patterns are so much easier these days with the technologies in place. It would be the easiest thing in the world to have a look at who saves most frequently, who deposits more than they withdraw, who’s addicted to the ATM, who transacts over the counter all the time etc. and offer these people better ways to bank so they benefit from the services the bank offers. No, they’d much rather jump at the opportunity to offer you an overdraft, a loan, revolving credit and every other instrument that the bank can use to suck you dry.

In 2004 I owed Standard Bank just over R1000 because I was dumb enough to borrow money from a company named Leona Finance in Durban who somehow cloned my debit card and could transact on my account, which they did – racking up that R1000 in bank charges I ended up owing Standard Bank. I paid the bank that money and when I applied to open a CC account I was declined because of that R1000 I owed and paid. I mean how difficult would it have been to see that I paid the bank back what I owed, putting me in the “good books” once again. Now we have Capitec Bank, that offers better banking services. Their ATMs in Durban have the longest queues you’ve ever seen at any ATM. And as great as that is, they too don’t really encourage saving or provide better education on saving, investment etc.

The only conclusion I can draw is that the best way to save is the old fashioned way – under the mattress. Even back when banks did not encourage saving, they tried to some extent to project themselves as institutions that facilitate saving or provide a safe haven for your savings. These days nothing in their branding says anything about WE WANT YOU TO SAVE MONEY. Nope. It’s all about punting different types of accounts with different types of fees attached to each one. Looking back to when I was a factory worker, there was never a problem with getting your money in a payslip. Banks fought tooth and nail to get weekly wages of the working class (the poor of this country) paid into bank accounts s they can get their hands on some of that money as well, and still they have never encouraged this category of client to do the very thing we think banks exist to facilitate – SAVING.

Do not be fooled. There is no such thing as a savings account. It doesn’t matter what the branding or the positioning statement says. Your bank is lying to you.

One of the first things I became aware of at a young age and remember clearly was that the National Party deliberately built nicer houses with inside toilets and running water in the Coloured community I grew up in than in the predominantly Xhosa inhabited township right next to ours – Gugulethu. They also built better equipped schools in our neighbourhoods. Two things that resulted from this is that people of Xhosa origin would migrate to Coloured townships, undergo a complete cultural metamorphosis, start speaking Afrikaans (the real Afrikaans not the nonsense they teach you in textbooks) and raise their kids as Coloureds. The other is that Xhosa people who could afford it sent their kids to schools in Coloured townships. I only learnt late in life that our education was extremely inferior to that our counterparts of European origin received, but it was so much better in quality than that taught in the “black schools” of my day. In their quest to give their kids better opportunities than they had, I salute those parents that did that.

Fast forward to 30 March 2011. I live in a cultural melting pot with a strong Indian bias, and down the road from a school that I’m sure was built for the predominantly Coloured community of Sydenham here in Durban. However when that last bell rings at the end of each day, pouring from those gates every afternoon are these little laughing, smiling, joking, frolicking and sometimes fighting young Zulu kids. 90% of them head for the nearest bus stop, and 10% walk to their homes, which is normally the nearest informal settlement. I look at this on the days that I find myself close enough to witness this collective out of whom will come our future leaders, and cannot help wondering EXACTLY WHAT THE HELL THE ANC HAS DONE ABOUT EDUCATION IN BLACK TOWNSHIPS FOR THE LAST 16 YEARS IT HAS BEEN IN POWER?

I cannot but conclude that townships inhabited by people of Zulu origin do not have schools of a good enough quality education for people to send their kids to the school around the corner from their home. One particular scene that almost had me in tears about two or three years ago was watching a youngster probably aged 7 or 8 years old get on the bus. He had a flimsy t-shirt on with the school’s logo on it, but the t-shirt was 2 or 3 sizes too big. He had school shoes on that you could clearly see was too big for him. And it was a rainy day so he’s been waiting for the bus in the drizzle at a bus stop with no shelter. Yet despite this, he had around his neck a pouch that contained his clipcard to ride the bus to Ntuzuma from Sydenham. It was abundantly clear that his parents took chances with their child’s appearance and even his health, but they refused to gamble with the quality of education their child received.

And after being through several elections wherein we loyally voted for the ANC to improve our quality of life, I ask myself over and over again: “Why do kids still have to travel to far away neighbourhoods to get decent schooling when there are schools in their communities? Is it a perception thing? Are the schools too full? The solutions are not complicated either. If there are not enough schools, build more. If the standard is low, upgrade. If it’s the inculcated perception of parent, an “open day” or a few of those should help. I just can’t shake the feeling that nothing has really been done about this.

But worst of all.. I don’t see these youngsters remembering the ANC for anything like their parents do and even people just a little later than my generation. The ANC is failing the future of this country – TODAY.

Yesterday afternoon I was on my way from a client meeting in Kwa Dabeka, en-route to the Hilton Hotel in Durban to negotiate having our agency’s monthly business networking event – SCHMooZ 2.0 – held there, I suddenly felt very hungry. And being hungry in Durban has two great positives:

• your options of where to eat is huge and wide; and
• you don’t need to break the bank to get a good filling meal.

So I strolled over to Hungry Hut on Durban’s fleamarket walkway. I have been buying food from this sidewalk stall since 2001 and I can honestly say that they have the best chicken tikka burgers in town. (not the best chicken tikka meals – just burgers). As I get there I notice that the lady who used to run the take-away has now abdicated and her son has taken over. “Great”, I thought to myself. I have seen her son grow up next to her in that take-away since I first started buying from them in 2001. At least someone that understands the business’s dynamics and the brand is now in charge. However, unlike his mom he just kicks back in the background and doesn’t watch what his people are doing.

I rolled up on the take-away and 3 guys are manning the grill.. for 1 customer that ordered 2 boerewors rolls. On the other side two guys are serving one customer each. So while I wait, the owner acknowledges my presence and greets me politely. I am next to be served. As the one guy finishes off with his customer he starts taking the order from a young school girl that just appeared somewhere behind me. I think: “OK he must be assuming I am served already”, and I continue waiting my “turn”, thinking maybe at some point one of the 3 guys at the grill will get enough sense to realise that I represent income to the business and help me get something in my stomach. The other guy then finishes with his customers and almost immediately starts asking someone who is still approaching the take-away what he would like to eat. Whoah! I’m here playa. Right in front of you. I shook my head, walked away and 15 minutes later was tearing the frame out of a steak schwarma from Alladin inside The Workshop.

So the question that keeps popping up in my head is whether that would have been allowed to happen when the old lady still ran the take-away? Does the old lady’s son know and understand that despite them selling the best chicken tikka burgers in town, a simple mishap like this one could cost them a customer.. and as time goes another, and another etc.. His mother spent years building that business. She (and I’m assuming here) must jumped through some hoops to firstly get the best meat supplier, then the right supplier of spices and other condiments, and of course negotiate good prices so they could continue buying at good prices to make good profits. Then she named her business Hungry Hut and had the brilliant idea to distribute fliers to office buildings in the Durban CBD and even a delivery service to selected office buildings. With all of that she had to make sure that her product stays top-notch despite that it’s from a take-away operating from a canopy by the side of the road.

Now, 10 – 15 years later, after all that work has been invested into building a brand (remember my opening paragraph above), along comes one or two lazy or completely uncommitted staff members and mess it up. Not fair. But it happens. So watch out who you employ and whether their vision for your business is in alignment with yours.

They might just make you lose customers. Slowly.

I just came across these two videos via Facebook wall post and I find it greatly entertaining. It’s comparative advertising at its very best. Blackberry takes a potshot at Apple, and Apple makes comeback that speaks volume in just a few words.

First watch this video..

Now watch this one..

What do you think. Leave a comment below.

Would George Clooney be just as good an actor if he never won a single award for his movie roles?

I have just read a post written by Herman Manson of Marklives.com on BizCommunity about the waning influence of ad award shows. I cannot help but agree with Herman and even go one step further. All award shows. “Yes Arthur, but we get billings based on our status as an award-winning agency”, I hear someone whine from a corner somewhere. “Mazaltov”, I say, “but isn’t the objective of advertising to translate into sales rather than awards?” To which my imaginary whiner retreats back into her shell. Now the big debate that should be had is whether marketing, advertising, branding (or whatever you call it) should revolve around people getting a pat on the back being told how creative and witty and linguistically astute they are and get a bird statue for the office or whether it should be single-mindedly focused on how much money the agency’s creativity made back for the client company after the ad was made. Don’t get me wrong compadres. I love a good pat on the back, and I get mine on time.. but it’s almost always from the same people that pay me for the work I do for them and not my industry peers. In fact I’ve had some guy I met once – Justin McCall – actually ask me what it is that I do, to which I responded that I’m a web designer to keep things simple. It’s not in anybody’s best interest for me to try and explain the words “brand evangelist”. Not knowing what I do is a lot less hazardous than actually knowing.

I digress… where was I? Oh yeah.. pats on the back. You my friend, patting me on the back telling what a good “spreader of the word” I am will not make me a better “spreader of the word”. My enablement and empowerment to be what I am comes from inside me. Like that, it is my belief that an ad agency will be just as creative, witty, insightful, smart, classy, catchy, attention-grabbing and “addy” (for lack of a better adjective) without winning an award as it would be winning it. Awards in no way add to an agency’s core. Admen and women will probably argue with me on that point ad nauseum, but that will be only because of ad-culture inculcation and for no other reason. So do you really need to win an award to be an upper echelon Creative Director. Hell to the NO !!! But what you do need is to make sure your customer moves units once the ad flights. Off at a tangent again.. I’m reminded of a certain chocolate ad that premiered on Maggs on Media in which an ostrich jumps out of a plane in flight. I failed to make the connection between an ostrich skydiver (or his logo’ed parachute) and chocolate, so while we’re here maybe someone can enlighten me.

So when it comes to winning awards for my work or my customer selling product.. I choose my customer above all else. It is he that pays my salary after all – isn’t it?