Moerdyk's wish list for 2007

Frankly though, it will take more than a hope and a prayer to convince advertisers that the time to advertise more is when things slow down.

Honey trap

And still, on matters marketing, it is my guess that the interim board of the interim Marketing Association that was born this year out of the grubby ashes of the ill-fated MFSA, will hope that sensible, clear headed marketers will be elected to run the new body when it holds its first AGM on March 5. That they won't fall into the same honey trap as the MFSA and put all their energy into trying to make money out of awards and events instead of concentrating on improving the reputation of the marketing profession which right now is nestling somewhere below the level of the bottom of a pig trough.

Newspapers will be hoping like crazy for at least another year of good times after having had such a bad run of things up until only a few years ago. They'll be hoping that the consumers' shunning of Governor Mboweni's warnings and rate increases won't just be a festive season phenomenon but something that will at least last well into 2007. It'll really be a terrible blow if things sink back into the doldrums of a few years ago when only three or four newspapers in this country showed a profit.

Moolmanisation

And on the subject of newspapers, the worker bees at Johncom will be wishing that 2007 will bring and end to the constant speculation about who will eventually own them. And they'll be especially wishing that if Moolmanisation is to take place, it will take place quickly and will not cost too many of them their jobs in what will surely be a cost cutting consequence of this takeover.

And the boys and girls at BDFM will also hope that if one of the first consequences for them of Moolmanisation is a breakaway from part owners, Pearsons, that at least this will be with the least amount of blood letting. It remains a mystery today what possessed the powers that be back then to give away half of the FM and Business Day to Pearsons. Turned out to be the most expensive lifting rights deal ever done.

Magazines will be hoping that the rush to bring new titles to the SA market will slow down from its current frenetic pace and that the equally mad rush to shut magazines down will also stop because it's giving the industry a bad name.

Product placement

TV networks will be hoping for some sort of miracle one imagines, to slow down in 2007 the rate at which viewers are ignoring ad breaks. Maybe that miracle lies in product placement but it might well also lie in brand sponsored content which seems to be the latest global fad.

Everyone at the SABC will be wishing like crazy for some semblance of pragmatism by those at the top to perhaps pay more attention to things like editorial integrity in the news department and less to spending buckets of hard-earned revenue getting the CEO's picture on the front page of Leadership Magazine. They're probably all hoping, incidentally, that their Leadership lark won't win them the title of most costly and pointless PR exercise in the history of mankind.

Ad agencies will be hoping like crazy to find themselves in 2007. Most of them are still experiencing severe identity crises with a few still doggedly sticking to the traditional ad agency image of unashamed revenue generation from production markups and media commissions. While others try all sorts of other ruses to get clients to treat them as anything but ad agencies and as part of the client's team for the price of a whopping fee and the promise not to markup production costs or take media commissions or kickbacks.

Beyond self

And the independent media buying houses will wish that they will continue to prosper and those who run them will undoubtedly wish that in 2007, their young white media planning staff will realise at last that there are radio stations other than the ones they personally listen to.

And the out of home industry will undoubtedly be wishing that someone, somewhere will miraculously find a square metre of urban pavement that is not already home to an ubiquitous billboard.

I was completely stumped when it came to what the Advertising Standards Authority would wish for in 2007. I would like to think that it would be to stick exclusively to policing misleading advertising and clamping down on it as well as they always have done. But, I imagine that their wish will be to continue making judgement calls on the emotive issue of sensitivity and just barrel along as they have done for the past few years banning advertisements right, left and centre on complaints from a tiny handful of consumers who find them offensive. And by doing so, killing off South Africa's ad agency creativity and innovation.

Expressing opinions

And finally, my wish is for the South African consumer to become a lot less apathetic and to respond more vigorously to sloppy service and bad product quality. But, to respond a lot less vigorously to their fellow citizens who simply want to express an opinion.

Maybe 2007 will start to see South Africans understanding the concept of freedom of expression and will see them get out of the habit of killing people who have opposing political views or who nick their parking places.