MIKESTOPFORTH

In a recent Direct Message exchange with Casey Monteiro (@Casey_ek_se) on Twitter, he referred to the social media presence of a prominent brand as “lipstick on a pig”. The brand he was referring to was FNB – the bank I’ve just switched my main account to based almost entirely on the advocacy of my peers [...]

I mentioned in a recent post that people love to complain. We are far quicker to pick up on the mistakes of brands and incidences of bad service than we are to compliment and laud when brands exceed expectations. This is human nature. As a direct result my clients typically freak out when presented with [...]

There is much being said about how brands should engage with customers in social media. Words like “authenticity”, “transparency”, “immediacy”, “personability” and others are bandied about as we as consultants, together with our clients, figure out the rules of content and community online. This is a good thing. Brands tend to forget that platforms like [...]

As Cerebra expands its client base with big brands including the likes of Vodacom, Samsung and Toyota, we’re learning valuable lessons about what works when it comes to engaging customers on Twitter. No two brands are exactly the same. Every brand has a different message, culture, strategy and even audience. There’s no arguing that Twitter [...]

I love smart ideas. I love smart business ideas even more. I get turned on by clever twists in business models, innovative approaches to management and fancy ways to turn a profit. That said, today I was blown away by a business that has taken arguably the simplest idea and found ways to deliver it [...]

Update – Woolies DM’d me on Twitter with the following response to this post: interesting read, the decision wasn’t purely made because of our SM channels. And it wasn’t leaked to News24. thanks Yesterday Twitter and Facebook were pumping with debate around a News24 story which reported that Woolworths “(had) taken a business decision to no [...]

I’m speaking at the Strategic Media, Branding and Public Relations seminar hosted by ASM Communications and Training Solutions, alongside an impressive array of guests including IBM’s Nicholas Maweni, Nokia’s Tania Steenkamp, Fearless Executive MD Terry Behan, television presenter Freek Robinson, broadcaster Adrian Steed, journalist Louise Marsland, entrepreneur Greg Mason and more this coming Wednesday. The [...]

When is it ok to turn a customer – a customer willing to spend significant amounts of money that is – away? A bigger question; when is it RIGHT to turn a willing customer away? I am a golfer. Well, not really. I am a guy who owns golf clubs, who tries relentlessly to play [...]

In the hope that they will one day evolve into something of substance, I have recently been scribbling down notes on some of the ideas I have around marketing, advertising and communication in general. Bear in mind I share these thoughts purely in my capacity as a consumer – I am no marketing, branding or [...]

I recently upgraded from a much-loved Audi A4 1.8T to my all-time dream car, a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG. It’s not that I didn’t like the Audi, on the contrary on many levels it’s an easier, more comfortable car than the C63 – it has more headroom on the driver’s side, a softer ride and in [...]

One of the more interesting people (and public speakers) I met at SXSW earlier this year was a chap by the name of Lane Becker (website and Twitter). Lane is one of the co-founders of Get Satisfaction – there’s plenty cool info on what Get Satisfaction does here. His presentation included a reference to a [...]

Earlier this year I wrote about how impressed I was with the RAMP foundation and their efforts regarding the 2009 Net Prophet conference. Considering that, and how blown away I was with the second annual Bookmark Awards evening held last night at Movida in Jozi, it’s clear that digital in South Africa is definitely growing [...]

Last night marked the 44th iteration of the 27dinner social networking movement, held at FTV in Village Walk. With the dinners reaching unparalleled popularity (numbers peaking at 170+ on the attendance list at 27dinner.com), it is becoming increasingly challenging to organise and execute an event that now has some pretty high expectations around it in [...]

Philips (and their PR company) are awesome. The consumer electronics brand has really rallied behind online advocates – fans of the brand – engaging them in innovative and exciting ways to promote positive brand sentiment. I have been invited to events ranging from an ‘iron-off’ (which I was pretty darn good at) to last night’s [...]

Over the past three years I have spent a great deal of time presenting to schools, church groups, NGO’s, government and more on the subjects of social and mobile media. Public speaking is a wonderful privilege and a fine art. I am not nearly the speaker I could be, but I have some thoughts I’d [...]

Matthew Dawes is organising Mobile Web Africa 2009 on the 13 and 14 October at the Michelangelo, and has kindly offered a range of freebies and discounts for me to promote to you, the cream of South Africa’s technology crop! I will certainly be making an effort to attend – the speaker line-up and agenda [...]

I recently raved about the NetProphet conference I was privileged enough to be invited to speak at, and now the video is up for your perusal, comments and random abuse :) I realise, watching this, that I have a dangerously dry sense of humour that may not always serve my best interests… hmmm. Oh well, [...]

In July 2008 UK-based retailer Aldi launched a campaign with the tagline “Don’t change your lifestyle, change your supermarket”. Sweet. Here’s a vid of one of the campaign ads: At the same time last year, here in sunny SA, ex-creative director of BBDO Cape Town, Andrew Brand, and founding partner of Berry Bush, Lewin de [...]

I’ve really enjoyed opportunities over the last few weeks to connect more regularly with the local Young & Rubicam team and their Wunderman cousins about social media and it’s impact on local markets and individual consumers. I’ve also been invited to a few book launches and more recently, to meet with Simon Silverster, EVP Head [...]

I had hoped to blog a lot more about my experience at SXSW Interactive this year but barely had time to breathe, let alone document all that happened in Austin. I will say this though, it lived up to (high) expectations and more – I’ll definitely be going back next year. Since getting back life [...]