Ubiquitous Mobile phones – useful for criminals too

I attended a course on Mobile Marketing at UCT’s Graduate School of Business at the end of July. Getting on top of mobile technologies and tools is a must globally – but more so in South Africa (and Africa generally), where traditional internet penetration (~12% in SA) pales in comparison to mobile penetration (>80%).

We got a great overview of the different tools, and how cell phones are being used by marketers and people in their target markets, and I have got a couple of exciting new ideas for our purposes.

However, I read a post on the DA’s crime blog, Eye on Crime, which gives a rather chilling account of how cell phones are being used by burglars to scope potential targets.

Unfortunately, it isn’t only law-abiding citizens who benefit from new technology.

Eskom’s Meatball Sundae

I can’t help but feel that Eskom’s new online initiative, PoweringSouthAfrica.co.za, is a bit of a Meatball Sundae. When I read about it in a three-full-page ad in the Sunday Times last week, I thought it sounded like quite a good idea (the extravagance of the advert notwithstanding); and the site itself is not bad, although I think it needs a bit more participation by Eskom itself (they invite visitors to “Join the Discussion“, but don’t seem to engage in those discussions themselves – at least not explicitly).

But here’s the thing: When, on Tuesday, I wanted to check out the site, without the Sunday Times in front of me and not remembering the URL, I couldn’t find it. Eskom haven’t even linked to it from their main website, let alone invest in any online marketing or PR, it seems. I subsequently heard their radio advert on KFM, so they got through to me eventually.

Never under-estimate the power of humour in marketing

Never under-estimate the power of humour in marketing. Last week, I started receiving Eskom jokes and cartoons by email. It happens like clockwork, doesn’t it.

After consulting with one of our spokespersons, I decided to include a “Lighter side of load shedding” on our new blog. I created a Humour category, and posted a couple of humorous pics on Friday.

When you’re your own worst marketing nightmare

I’ve read a couple of posts recently about bad experiences with service and customer relations. Seth Godin wrote about a company that did some waterproofing for him, did a good job on the waterproofing, but left his basement in a complete mess.

His story had a good final outcome, though; because they called afterwards to ask him if he was happy with the work, and sent a team back to clean up their mess. They turned a bad last interaction into a good one.

Groups, Pages and Politicians – marketing the DA on Facebook

I’ve been playing around with the new developments in Facebook (you can read about them here). I set up a ‘Democratic Alliance’ page. First problem with Facebook (clearly due to the US focus on the personality rather than the party): ‘Political Party’ isn’t an option in the organisation types when you create your page. I had to select ‘Non-profit’ as the closest description…

What’s in a name?

This was going to be in my first post, but thought it was going to get a bit long, so let’s break it up rather.

Why Ant’s World? Well, there are a couple of reasons: firstly – and obviously – it’s short for Anthony, and it’s what my friends call me. (I had to add ‘SA’ behind it because someone got there before me – hardly surprising.)

Secondly, I don’t have a marketing or a politics background. I’m actually a zoologist by training. I did a B.Sc. (Honours) in Zoology at UCT, went to work as a research assistant and project manager on a collaborative research programme between University of the Western Cape and the then-Sea Fisheries Research Institute (now the research division of Marine and Coastal Management), and did most of a Masters before getting too distracted by a job in politics.

Another reason – related to the zoology connection – is that there are some wonderful analogies one can draw from nature about what we do…