Vernacular advertising comes into its own

For me, it begs the question; “Where are we going wrong”? In a country of 11 official languages and boasting the kind of cultural diversity you'd only expect to find on the Starship Enterprise, the fact that we haven't won anything in one of the many vernacular languages is a little…um…odd. But we've got to start somewhere, right? Right. And I firmly believe that the New Voice category at Loeries is a damn good place.

Oh ja, I'm Kamogelo Sesing. I'm a copywriter at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris. No wait, lets try that again. My name is Kamogelo Sesing. I'm a manic depressive copywriter from Hunts and I love the Gummi Bears. Man, that feels good. I've always wanted to say something like that on a public platform. Oh yeah, I also won the Gold Loerie in the inaugural New Voice radio category…and I actually do love the Gummi Bears.

But my shortcomings aren't the focus of this article. This piece is simply about new thinking and the impact of the New Voice category.

A sign of progress

I initially had such a different opening idea for this article. Firstly, the headline was going to be something catchy, maybe even controversial. Then I was going to proceed to take you down memory lane and talk about how bad advertising for the black community has been historically.

But then I stopped to think about the significance of the category for which I'd been awarded the Gold Loerie - the New Voice category and I realized at this point that the category isn't about a new era in ‘black advertising'. It's not a “Hey, finally we have ours” for the black creative…

This category is a sign of the progression of advertising. It's the shiny beacon highlighting how the industry is embracing and acknowledging new ways of thinking. Embracing new ways of providing relevant solutions for our various clients' business problems.

A big part of creating relevant brand communication is not just about what you're saying, it's about how you say it and language is key in this regard.

Translations aren't enough anymore. And thank heavens for that. Brands, especially those targeting the black market, need to connect with consumers on a ‘Real level', using appropriate insights. Then it's a matter of packaging - how you say what you're saying, depending on who you're talking to. Without that, you're just wasting your time.

Don't just talk, engage

I believe that it's the difference between talking at your audience and actually engaging them in a ‘Brand conversation'. For a long time advertising was a one-way street. We told the consumer something and hoped that they would react in a positive way - and for a while it worked. But we're now faced with great challenges because audiences have gotten smarter, more aware.

With the rise of social networking platforms, consumers suddenly have the ability to create and propagate their own messages. With greater access to the Internet, consumers have more information with which to empower themselves in order to make more informed purchasing decisions.

And now with the advent of technologies like PVR, they have an even greater power - to choose whether or not to absorb brand messages. With new obstacle, we must seek to find new ways to talk to our audiences and smarter ways to solve business problems.

Speaking to the target audience

Ads are generally an intrusion in one's life, so I believe the approach to creating work should be as simple as what audiences want to see, don't be the interruption. And one of the ways to achieve this is by packaging our messages in a way our audiences just might want to engage with - Honda's live TV ad, Cadbury's Gorilla, etc.

This was the same thought process we engaged in when thinking about the Doom radio spots. We wanted to create something people would want to hear over and over again. Something that speaks to them. We made it relevant by writing in a way that leveraged off the insight of how people talk about death in the townships, especially when the cause of death is a feared disease, then we wrapped it all up in a humorous way by taking those conversations out of their usual context and putting them in a cockroach's world. All helping us communicate Doom's brand promise of ‘Fast. Deadly. Doom.'

Tap in, tune in

There are many insights in this country that we can tap into to help us create relevant and memorable advertisements that not only solve our clients' business problems but deliver in the creative stakes. Insights that maybe we've become desensitized to but the world is probably waiting to lap up and I believe it's high time we took bigger advantage of that.

Basically, the New Voice category was a giant leap forward for the industry and I think the Loerie committee should be commended for this. Maybe this just might be where the first Cannes Lion vernacular radio spot will come from in a few years. But over and above the obvious creative benefits, this category, from a relevance and effectiveness point of view, is a godsend in a time where budgets are tight and advertising is being called upon to become more accountable as a business solution.