Industry implications of Jupiter's juicy Burger King win

Obviously, more goes into the communication for a global brand finding its feet on local shores than simply promoting what helps it sell across the globe. You also need to pay attention to the local market – and micro-markets – and those consumers’ specific needs, hopes, dreams and emotions. Without tapping into that you’ll probably still get product off the fast-moving shelf, but not necessarily build a strong brand connection in an often fickle consumer market.

Kevan Aspoas

Kevan Aspoas, CEO of The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town, shares exclusive insight into the agency’s ‘Goldilocks’ new account win with specific focus on what it means both for the agency and the local advertising industry as a whole, especially as we step ever closer to the dreaded recession...

1. What’s the overall impact of the Burger King account win on Jupiter?

Aspoas: We’re thrilled with it as it’s an account well suited to our agency. It’s a nice-size piece of business, neither so large as to be overwhelming nor too small for us not being able to do what we really want with it. It’s perfectly balanced for us to apply our minds to it and get it to grow – because while Burger King is an internationally respected brand, it’s only been in South Africa for a short time, yet already has a sound footing with the branches it has opened in Cape Town, Durban and especially Gauteng. We want to accelerate this growth and luckily we already have lots of experience to apply to the brand, such as with the Woolworth’s account which we managed for eight years until they took their advertising in-house. Woolworths is now an established brand known for producing fantastic food shots in its communications. That’s just one aspect we’ll carry through to our relationship with Burger King.

As a retail brand, Burger King will be judged by its growth and how many feet it gets through the door. As an agency, we truly get this specific retail industry pressure. It’s a subtle area not many agencies understand. To grow Burger King as a challenger brand, we’ll look to our other retail success case studies of taking brands from nothing to something to outmanoeuvre and emulate – like Hyundai, which was ranked 28th car brand when we first landed the account and is now third passenger car brand.

It helps that Burger King is already seen in a positive light locally by consumers, who independently vote it tops for best burger in the country. This challenger brand advantage is an excellent starting point.

2. Explain the importance of creating an emotional connection with today’s screen-distracted audience.

Aspoas: It’s all about finding the emotional connection that’s best for your brand. We’ll establish what ignites the brand for consumers, then each message around the brand must push that. In our Hyundai work, the emotional connection was all about establishing a sense of pride and confidence in consumers who own the vehicle – so much so that now they even ask for it when renting a car while on vacation. Once we’ve identified that emotional trigger for Burger King, we’ll be able to build the rationale around it.

3. What does it take to ‘localise’ a global brand like Burger King to SA consumers?

Aspoas: What’s important with this client is that it’s not a South African brand, but it’s popular with the South African market so needs a specific South African appeal. Burger King has adjusted its menu for the South African palate. Our job now is to tailor Burger King South Africa’s communications around this, and to further localise the brand not just to South Africans but to appeal to local communities in the country.

4. Let us in on your agency strategy for 2016.

Aspoas: This year, our focus is on our present client base and their sales/market share. Many business owners lose sight of the fact that you can gain market share easier in a recession than during a booming economic period. Those who are smart and work hard now can come out of these tough times with a pleasing amount of growth.

So, while we’ve had a number of account wins recently, like Foschini, we’re not going to be chasing business – we’ve been there and seen that the bigger accounts tend to distract and eventually own you. It puts the agency into a ‘factory’ mindset, and the last thing we want to do is start churning out sub-par work. Instead, we’re focused on producing innovative, high-quality work set to surprise consumers, even if it’s seen globally. If we achieve 15% to 19% growth this year, we’ll be happy.

5. Talk us through where there’s room for improvement in the local ad industry, and where you think we shine.

Aspoas: Sadly, it’s only really our radio work in South Africa that’s getting international accolades, and that’s because the rest of the world has already moved on from radio and isn’t really competing on that platform. When it comes to future-focused work like digital, we’re not yet doing well. We need to ask ourselves what world-class work truly looks like and start creating that work locally, instead of dumbing down global trends for our market.

Also keep in mind that the industry’s facing a bit of a crisis: everything we’ve built up will challenge soon, much as media platforms have completely changed in the past few years to meet the needs of today’s digital consumer. Business in general is in for a shake-up no matter the industry. Just look at how tech-first models like Uber and the rise of self-driving cars are revolutionising the automotive industry at a global scale. That level of disruption is lurking everywhere.

As a result, in the next five years I predict the downfall of industry award shows – instead, people will value the recognition of their peers more than the awards economy we’re currently pandering to. That, coupled with the recession, and the fact that we’re not hiring enough youth, not hiring enough black talent, not properly training anyone in digital skills at schools and illogically keeping the focus on traditional thinking and methods means everything’s due for a drastic shake-up.

Seems The Jupiter Drawing Room’s one of few agency’s ready to batten down the hatches and successfully weather the economic storm. Click through to their press office and Twitter feed for more.