Gary Leih on the changing role of digital

Leih is now the co-founder of OFyt, he started his career at Ogilvy SA and worked his way up the ladder and eventually became the group managing director of Ogilvy SA. Along the way he also co-founded the White House (rated one of the hottest shops in SA in the '80s) the company was eventually acquired by DDB, and Public Image in Australia, this was then acquired by TBWA. Recently Leih was the CEO of Ogilvy UK, he was also president of the European Advertising Association.

He says one must remember that when we speak digital in a South African context it is fairly new, however in the UK and America these concepts have grown and evolved tremendously over quite some time. For example, London has the highest number of online transactions in the world, even more than America. South Africa has yet to reach the full potential of digital within the advertising and marketing industry. Many people think that digital is becoming the all mighty, but Leih says this isn't true, the idea will always be the all mighty and digital is just another platform that we use to make this idea a reality.

Mobile marketing the next big step

Within a South African context, mobile marketing is going to be the next big thing. Yes, Leih says, we have it on a certain scale already, but there is far more than can be done to satisfy both client and consumer with regards to mobile marketing. However, it is important to remember that no mobile application is going to go anywhere unless that application is rooted within a brand.

Leih shows us that agencies and media have split up and thus there has been a divorce between magic and logic, but this cannot work. And soon in the future we will be seeing a re-emerge of media and agencies, there will be a major place for media strategists within advertising agencies. So that is definitely something to watch out for and of which we should be aware.

But even though we are moving within a new digital era that could take South African agencies to great places, the real issues remains in the fact that consumers are becoming annoyed with the status quo. They are not happy with big businesses that they believe are taking advantage of their power and with social media connecting all these consumers - word travels fast.

Leih says If we consider debt throughout the world, we as marketers, want consumers to purchase certain products regardless of whether or not they can afford them. Thankfully, however, in South Africa consumers have been protected by exchange control. Yet this doesn't leave us completely unharmed as we are still trading with foreign countries that are falling deeper and deeper into debt.

Bigger issues to worry about right now

Moving back to digital, Leih says that it is huge in Europe and America, but in South Africa we have bigger issues at hand to be worrying about. For example, 970 000 people in South Africa have a degree, but are unemployed. There is a major problem when your country has an educated unemployed. There is also a huge move towards being environmentally aware and once again, although a major issue overseas, here in South Africa we are thinking more about the people of the country at the moment. But this isn't to say that this isn't something important for the industry to consider. Consumers are beginning to make many purchase decisions based on what that product does to the environment.

So although Leih didn't really tell us exactly where digital will be in the future, he did tell us how to handle it, work with it, work around it and keep the important things in mind. Yes digital is important, but in South Africa it is still merely a platform and not the end all or be all.

As a closing note Leih reminded us that we need to start putting something back as an industry - and not to move to Europe anytime soon.