[Orchids & Onions] Sanlam makes music with Hotstix Mabuse ad

For the strategists and creatives in ad agencies, as well as the brand managers at financial institutions, the challenge is to stand out from the herd.

And that is not easy, given that, because the sector often has huge budgets, some of the most eye-catching work is being done there.

To win someone over, to the point that they will trust you with their money, a financial brand has to inspire confidence that they know what they are doing. Sanlam - which rebranded itself a while ago with the clever definition of themselves as "wealthsmiths" - has taken a number of angles in its recent ad campaigns... and some have been memorable.

© Igor Sokolov – 123RF.com

I have previously given the company an Orchid for its TV commercial which uses the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman Rumble in the Jungle fight to showcase the idea of canny strategy winning the day in both the boxing ring and in the investing arena.

The latest ad is different, but also works.

It features well-known local musician Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse, simply sitting at his upright piano, talking, knocking out notes and singing in an "unplugged" fashion.

He's a good choice because, now that he's getting on in years, he is a symbol for longevity with the target market for the ad - mature people who are looking to maximise their investments before they retire.

Also, he is a perfect "crossover" character, appealing to a broad demographic and race spectrum.

And, he is really great in front of the camera.

He starts off by saying that there are just 12 notes in the official music scale.

"These are just six of them. Everybody has the same notes available to them. Anyone can pick any of them and play them in any order. With any feel they choose." Then he starts slowly putting the notes together so we recognise what is probably his signature hit tune, Burn Out.

"Sometimes," he says, "six notes are all you need..."

As he sings, the tagline comes up on screen: "It's not what you have, it's what you do with it."

It perfectly sums up what people want to know about a company they are entrusting with their money - but at the same time, it works as a nice piece of simple entertainment.

Orchids to Sanlam and Hotstix.

We seem to be endlessly informed that the world is going digital and that you won't be able to sell anything unless you have a presence in cyberspace.

I am not convinced that is the case - call me back in five years' time and we'll chat about whether Twitter and Facebook are still around, for example - but I do know that, if you have a website, or you use a website for marketing leads, then you better make very sure that your human software, which will help close the deal, is up to the task.

Sadly, in this country at the moment, that is not the case.

Two personal examples from this week show me that many companies fail to understand that the cheapest form of marketing is good customer service and that any website needs to have a good human ready to follow up for sales.

I have been helping a friend and her son look for a car. So I went on one of the websites which advertise cars. I found one I thought was interesting at Hyundai Edenvale.

So I filled in the form on the site, asking that someone contact me. I had low expectations, so you could have floored me with a feather when, about 20 minutes later, I got a call from Kerwin at Hyundai head office. Amazing. He was polite and enthusiastic.

I was already pondering an Orchid for on-the-ball customer service. He asked whether I had been contacted by the dealership. I said no and he noted that, leaving me with the not unreasonable expectation that someone would call me.

No one did. As I write this, no one has.

The next day, diligent Kerwin called me again, asking if I had been contacted by the dealership. He seemed surprised and a little miffed that I had not been called, going on to explain that perhaps the car I was interested in had been sold. Altogether he called three times...well done to him.

But the reality is that, whether the car was sold or not, Hyundai Edenvale missed out on an opportunity.

If the car had been sold, someone should have called me and told me that, using the opportunity to find out exactly what I was looking for and what my budget was. They could then have steered me in the direction of another, similarly priced, model on the floor.

Failing that, they could have kept my contact details and called me the second they had a similar vehicle in stock. I was a customer who already had half a foot in the door and might have considered something else. In marketing terms, this is a low-cost client acquisition.

So, for lost opportunities and failing to maximise the power of the internet, Hyundai Edenvale gets an Onion. But Hyundai head office also gets one for not applying a bit of shoe leather to some backsides... this damages your brand, people.

Another lot who make a joke of having an internet presence are, I'm afraid, our competitors in the Times Media Group. Now before I get accused of doing my paymasters' bidding, let me explain.

I renewed my subscription to the Sunday Times this week and then went on the website to try to take advantage of the "Times Plus" reader loyalty offer for subscribers.

I filled in all my details on the site, agreed to the terms and conditions and hit "send".

I was informed that the information had been captured and I would get an e-mail with my account activation instructions. The site also said that if the e-mail did not arrive, I should check my e-mail spam box, because some filters might not let it through.

I duly did all of this when the e-mail did not arrive. Nothing in the spam box and no e-mail (and still not three days later as I write this).

There was a note on the site that if the e-mail did not arrive I should contact "subscriber support".

I duly clicked on the link and fired off an e-mail. Surprise, surprise... the e-mail address, which is behind the subscriber support link, does not exist!

I kid you not.

How it is that no one checks the site - and that no one changes addresses when customer support people either move or leave the company?

Clearly this is a case of bad cyber marketing, even worse customer support. I cannot be the only person to whom this has happened, either.

A fat Onion to the Sunday Times and TimesLive.

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