[Behind the Selfie] with... Boitumelo Tlhoaele

This is me and up-and-coming SA band, Sol Gems, performing behind me at the Johannesburg Sofar Sounds gig – the first one of 2016. Sofar Sounds uses an innovative concept to curate secret, intimate gigs in living rooms around the world, offering artists and music fans the unique opportunity to perform and experience intimate gigs in packed living rooms regularly. As a passionate music lover I can truly say that there’s no experience like this! If you enjoy music – do your ears a favour and go to a Sofar Sounds gig in your city.

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Tlhoaele: I live in Corlett Gardens – in the East of Johannesburg and crucially 15 minutes from the CBD – my favourite part of Johannesburg. Being a born and bred Johannesburger means I have a strong connection to the city and what makes it tick – the hustle, the bustle, its nightlife and its people.

2. What’s your claim to fame?

Tlhoaele: I can lick the tip of my elbow with my tongue. My biology teacher (who was one of my favourite teachers – don’t get me wrong) told the class that it was physiologically impossible for humans to lick their elbows. So I proved her wrong right then and there. I’ve been proving people wrong ever since.

3. Describe your career so far.

Tlhoaele: I’ve been at Blowtorch for 10 years now. I started off as a junior copywriter straight out of varsity and have been moving steadily up the ranks since then, soaking up everything I could about the advertising and marketing business along the way.

I’ve been creative strategic executive for the past three years and I was officially appointed a director at the end of last year, which was a great way to cap off a great year and an amazing 10-year ride. I’ve enjoyed my journey to this point and can’t wait for what’s to come.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Tlhoaele: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens… I’m a firm believer in having a laugh at every opportunity one gets, surrounded by your favourite people in the whole world. My most favourite person being my wife, followed closely in joint second by our family and closest friends. So one of my favourite things to do is to poke fun at everything and everyone, including myself. But my most favourite thing to do is doing something I’ve never done before, going where I’ve never been before and tasting things I’ve never tasted before.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Tlhoaele: I love that I get to learn about and experience a different industry with every client that I interact with, in the process of coming up with best way to market and advertise them. And I enjoy the challenge of immersing myself deep into the client’s business in order to understand it as intimately as they do. When I was a kid watching Quantum Leap, I always wished I could experience what Dr Sam Beckett did when he leaped through space-time to temporarily take the place of another person to change historical events. The marketing and advertising industry is the closest you can get to that, I think.

6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.

Tlhoaele: The only thing that’s constant in my day is emails and phone calls – other than that there’s no such thing as an average day. Your day can start off with you sitting in a status meeting measuring the effectiveness of a campaign we’ve just learnt, followed by sitting on a set shooting a TV commercial then going back to the office to finish off a marketing strategy or brainstorm creative concepts and executions.

7. What are the tools of your trade?

Tlhoaele: On the strategy and planning side we use AMPS and LSM research to segment the market and gain the insights that inform our creative executions and mediums. On the media side, RAMS and TAMS give us an indication as to how the radio and television mediums are doing from a performance and effectiveness point of view. The internet as a marketing medium is constantly changing – by the day, in fact – and keeping a tab on the latest media consumption trends and research tools on that front is pretty much a full-time job, everyone in the office shares this load. We report back to each other on what’s happening here on weekly basis. We also keep track of the latest insights and research from research leaders such as Nielsen and TNS, amongst others. And of course, the trusty old inquisitive mind. Never leave home without it.

8. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Tlhoaele: Everyone who’s making an emotional connection and having a conversation with the consumer. Contrary to popular belief, the small or big everyday decisions we all make to buy things we may or may not need are completely irrational and based on emotion, not on facts, figures or prices.

9. What are you working on right now?

Tlhoaele: A new campaign for one of our clients. Part of it is launching a game-changing new product that’s sure to turn the category on its head. We can’t wait to see how it does. Watch this space. More than that, I cannot say.

10. Tell us some of the buzzwords floating around in your industry at the moment, and some of the catchphrases you utter yourself.

Tlhoaele:

• Recession-proof
• Disruption
• The internet of things
• LMFAO
• Sell the sizzle not the steak

11. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Tlhoaele: There’s no particular place or time that they happen. They are just triggered by something that I see, experience, read or hear. More often than not it’s when I’m reading something. I read a lot. About everything. Mostly in the bathroom.

12. What’s your secret talent/party trick?

Tlhoaele: I like chilli and the hot and spicy food made from it. The hotter, the better. Most of my friends know this about me, so whenever we’re in a restaurant or party where hot food is on the menu, I am dared to eat the chilli used to make it, raw and on its own. Right then and there. I am yet to disappoint.

13. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Tlhoaele: I’m a technophile, definitely. Though I still prefer books to eBooks. I prefer to look at them on the bookshelf – not on a list on my iPad. Because every time I see them on the bookshelf I’m reminded of what I was feeling at the time I read them. It’s the same feeling you get when you encounter an old familiar smell.

14. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Tlhoaele: Lots of rude pictures, videos and memes sent by my mates via WhatsApp that have lodged themselves deeply into my camera roll amongst the really great photos I have taken on my travels. They always seem to show up when my wife, mother or sister are scrolling through the really great pictures. That reminds me, I should really get around to deleting them.

15. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Tlhoaele: If you’re currently in the industry and you’re meant to be doing this or some form of it for the rest of your life, you’ll know it. This industry gives you no in-between feeling. If this is the case for you; stick with it, work hard and keep an open and inquisitive mind. For this you will be rewarded. If you don’t feel strongly that you were meant for this, then run. Run away and never look back. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

You can read more about Tlhoaele by clicking here, and interact with him through the following social media accounts:
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews