Business of Design Autumn 2015: What you missed

The second rendition of Business of Design Cape Town took place on 20 and 21 May 2015, with attendees invited to step away from their daily creative hustle and instead look at sharpening their business skills. I attended the first day and did exactly that.

Trevyn McGowan, founder and director of Southern Guild and Source, explained that the autumn edition of Business of Design is designed to change the way you think about your business in just two days by highlighting the intrinsic obstacles and basic errors that hamper growth in creative industries. There is pounding interest in the growth of work from South Africa and the rest of the continent, so it's time to take things forward and face up to what you most have to change about your business to spring leap it into the future.

What will I find if I Google you? Do it, fix it, attract new business

McGowan then introduced Cathy O'Clery, creative director of Platform Creative Agency, who presented 'What will I find if I Google you'. The audience was surprised to find she had done exactly that, googled the business websites of all this year's attendees and offered advice on how to make their websites more appealing. It's all about telling your individual story in a way that gets you noticed. Much like a fashion designer may want to restyle you, she looks at your website and branding and does the same thing. It's usually a lack of compelling visual content, and a simple readjustment means you're able to start channelling your business into new markets. O'Clery says to ask yourself who is looking at your website, who you want to look at it, what you want them to know, and if you're communicating that properly. If not, do something about it, as you have full control of that information. O'Clery adds that we need to step it up as the rest of the world is tapping into Africa, so strike now, while the iron is hot. Don't panic: If you have a clear strategy in mind, it's easier to identify that you're missing a whole chunk of the market you are targeting. Her final words of advice were that a striking image will get you noticed, remembered and talked about. If you're not clued up on the latest design trends, simply type 'styling' into Pinterest, and you'll have days' worth of images to draw inspiration from

Communication for today, sure to change tomorrow

Next was Chris Rawlinson of Ogilvy on how to communicate today. The basic rule of advertising is that no one really cares about it anymore, he said. So in order to be successful, you have to do something special to be noticed - think Miley Cyrus, he joked - but you also need to add value by making people's lives easier. That's because consumers used to be like dogs, eager to listen to any message you had to share, now they are like cats, aloof and looking for something really special to pull them in. If you're wondering which platforms to communicate with them on, it's a good idea to have an idea of the South African social media landscape, which shows WhatsApp at 17 million users closely followed by Facebook at 16 million, Google+ at 8 million and Instagram with the fastest growth in the past year at 4 million users. But don't treat social channels like paid channels - it's not here for a hard sell, it's social. Here's a great example of doing so effectively:

Rawlinson then shared tips he's learned along the way. Firstly, your company should be your greatest marketing asset, so rather spend time and cash on that than on advertising. As an example of this he spoke of some restaurants picking up on the fact that consumers love taking photos of their food - so much so that they now offer Instagram-friendly plates. Note that Twitter and Facebook are the new tools of the revolution, but in today's time-short economy, the majority of people who share links on Twitter don't actually read the article before they share it. Rawlinson said this points to the importance of a punchy headline, as 90% of what we learn every hour we will forget. There's just so much information, we must put it across in a memorable way, much like Buzzfeed's headlines which make use of today's snappy short-form communication. It's no longer a world of mass audiences, now it's a world of mass niches. If you can get a small group of people on your side you can start a movement, The following Instagram hack video for the Interlingua Mexico language school was an interesting way of using the platform to help with a common pain point, see below:

Rawlinson ended with the advice that a brand isn't made, it is built up over time. You'll do well to abide by Alvin Toffler's warning that the illiterates of the 21st century will be those who don't know how to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Pitching your story the right way to generate publicity

Zanele Kumalo of TPP's talk was another highlight from me, about making the media work for you. She is now content editor at TPP and has had a fruitful career in the local publishing industry, so is well positioned to give advice on how to get the media to help publicise your design business. Kumalo said it's all about telling a good story and not falling down the content/publicity rabbit hole. If there is no story or simpatico behind what you've designed it won't go far. This is a lesson Kumalo learned before her publishing career even began, while having her work critiqued at Rhodes University some twenty years ago.

One of the best ways to generate effective publicity is by remembering that the media is in the business of sharing great content and getting advertisers to buy into that. So think of their email inboxes, packed to the brim with people wanting coverage. To stand out from the crowd you need a clear message, clean, meaning it's free of spelling mistakes, and no shouting in capital letters. That's a good way to at least get your email opened. After that it's about telling a good story that makes people think and feel something. Remember why you went into design and make sure that comes across in the piece you are pitching, by packing it with personal nuggets. Answer the reader's question of 'what's in it for me?'. Answer that and you'll have the media's attention. It's also a good idea to keep your message short and sweet, and make sure the overall email is less than 2MB in size, with images at 300dpi quality.

© Dmitriy Shironosov – 123RF.com

The media works with smaller teams in smaller spaces, with less time to create content ourselves. That means you need to provide as much information as possible; become your own storyteller. Then once you have a great feature from one publication, it's much easier to spread your story elsewhere. Also keep in mind that media is in the business of making people want things and desire purchases. On the converse of this, designers are in the business of making things people want. That said, consumers now have the loudest voice, they tell us what we should be doing and how we should be saying it. So if your message is not being heard, you might be saying it in the wrong places or repeating a tired message that we've heard before. You need to learn to embrace all the platforms out there and not just the niche publications, but do your research as nothing annoys an editor more than being pitched a story that would never fit in to that publication.

Broaden your base by approaching bloggers and influencers too, as even traditional publishers use them for ideas. If you're struggling with how to put your message across, try let the audience know there is a person behind the brand. To do so, talk in first person, always be available and engage in a meaningful, timely way. Kumalo also mentioned the importance of working the room, as networking is an important way for the media to hunt down new stories and talent. Lastly, Kumalo said to keep up to date as there are differences between print and online: For example, deadlines in print are often months or seasons in advance, whereas digital platforms tend to publish daily, with weekly newsletters. Use a timely aspect by weaving popular culture into your pitch to make it more likely to be picked up. Kumalo ended with the words that print is just as important as digital, you need to learn how to play with both.

Why the why? Unlock the answer to be the best for your business

My final favourite presentation of the day was Rich Simmonds' extended session on business vision and why it's important. He kicked things off by saying that in his first book on relationships, he lied by saying the average person needs five hugs a day to be normal - it's actually 11, which started a few minutes of randomly hugging our fellow attendees across the room.

Simmonds then went the meta-thinking route, stating that we all think, but asking whether we think about what we think about when we think. We're so conditioned to giving people the answer that we're not conditioned to ask questions in return, which could lead to a different version of the truth from a perspective you didn't consider.

Simmonds asks whether we communicate kindly with people or are instead too concerned with being right and proving others wrong. He also got us thinking by saying if someone else taught you how to do your particular task, are you really that creative? This was a highly interactive session, focused on Simmonds' belief that the teacher always learns from the student. "For an aeroplane to be truly effective, it needs to reach 280kph on the ground to take off. If you only reach 250kph you're just moving around the airport really fast, scaring people."

He added that social media teaches us that we are very important, because it's not about you, but without you, it wouldn't be there. Think of that arrogant promise we all made when we joined Twitter, in telling people 'follow me, I'll be interesting.' Instead, people will buy you, your product or service if they sense your desire is to help them rather than just to sell them something. The best way to do so is to identify a common problem and solve it, and make sure you're doing something different to your competitors. It's not always about being creative. All you need to do is listen to other people's needs and understand what they want, because "EQ is the new superpower." Simmonds left us with the question "Who is your imaginary friend", referring to the person you have in mind when you're communicating to on social media. Rather have one person in mind and tailor your communications to them than by using a number of different styles that don't come across as authentic.

All this and more, and that was just half of the conference. Autumn 2015 Business of Design hits Johannesburg this week, with the next edition of Business of Design scheduled for Spring 2015 - watch their Twitter feed or visit the website for details.