Good idea, poor communications - 13 Feb 2012

By Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)

So the hoo-hah of the weekend was the announcement on Friday afternoon that the South African Reserve Bank governor would announcing something of "national importance" on Saturday afternoon, together with the president and the minister of finance. And, oh boy, did the speculation and rumours fly and the markets react! In the end, it turned out to be more a case of historical importance or significance: redesigning our note currency for improved security and honouring Madiba at the same time by including his face on the one side. Stephen Grootes discusses how a good idea communicated badly can be very costly.

To add my two cents, I was busy monitoring Twitter to find out what the fuss was all about, and noticed how people were getting upset about the alleged removal of the rhino and the other big four from our money. Much, much later in the afternoon I found the Moneyweb link with the official statements for the announcement, and discovered that "the reverse side of each denomination will have an image of one of the big five". Why was this not also highlighted in the announcement, to avoid the easily predicted, negative sentiment that resulted, and why wasn't someone from government checking Twitter to see the public and the media's reactions and respond appropriately when things started going pear-shaped?

From a brand perspective, whether we are truly honouring Madiba or just riding on his coattails is a whole other debate...

In terms of other news, congrats to Joe Public on winning the Jet account (and for also opening up Joe Public Amsterdam), JWT Johannesburg taking the Avis digital account for SA, and FoxP2, King James, Prima Plus and trigger/isobar for Cell C; the Argus/Rasool brown-envelope scandal is also back in the news (Daily Maverick, Journalism.co.za); and SA's creative industry has been challenged by the organisers of the global Portfolio Night regarding mentoring the next generation.

On a sad note, Bizcommunity.com extends our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of editor, columnist and journalist Linda Stafford, who passed away early this morning.

Travel well
Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)
Managing editor

PPS The latest Ornico Ad Showcase features TV ads for Nokia Lumia, Coca-Cola, Old Mutual, Santam and Cadbury, and radio ads for MWeb, Old Mutual, Mediclinic.