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In the Limelight with Brad Page from Neo@Ogilvy

BradPagePicOriginal Article Posted by Dash of Lime

In the Limelight this week we have Brad Page, Senior Digital Strategist at Neo@Ogilvy Cape Town, who talks to Dash of Lime about the most rewarding part of his job and shares one thing most people don’t know about him…

What is your job title and what does this entail?

I work as a Senior Digital Strategist in the Cape Town office of Neo@Ogilvy South Africa.

Neo@Ogilvy is Ogilvy & Mather’s global digital media agency and performance marketing network. My role encompasses strategic planning, project management, leadership and keeping a finger on the pulse of digital innovation on the web.

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Loads of things, the list runs long, but once I hit the books for my tertiary education, it became clearer to me that I’d fulfil the role of CMO at Manchester United Football Club.

Why did you choose digital?

I was lucky to land in the butter, fresh out of a BCom Marketing Management degree, with an entry level position at a digital media agency office located in Cape Town, servicing foreign based clients.

What role do you think “digital content” plays in a media strategy?

Creation (DCC), as part of the digital production process, followed by syndication (DCS) (or in plain English: information available for download/ distribution across the web) has been the bread and butter of smart web publishing properties for years. More recently, with an increasing amount of consumer and corporate brands entering this arena, as content creators, they need to determine the best way to present their digital content to consumers. As an integrated cog of a media strategy, its role is vital in the two-way dialogue which the web facilitates. More recently, consumer brands are becoming more comfortable with this, and have accepted the challenge to fully integrate it into their media strategy. IBM @smarterplanet, British Airways @British_Airways and Nike Football @nikefootball are notable success stories. It must be noted though, that it is not for every brand.

What excites you about the digital marketing and advertising industry?

Living in a developing market, we find digital marketing in its infancy stage, we’ve barely scratched the surface. We have world-class talent and world-class creative minds. Complement this with an approaching tipping point between digital marketing demand and supply, and there is not much more motivation needed to be excited about the local digital marketing and advertising industry.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Working in a team filled with bright young minds, and within a Neo@Ogilvy global network which functions as an extended team, with a shared vision, allowing us to see the benchmark, is rewarding. Translating business problems into digital marketing strategies, and watching these strategies develop into business results, by simply connecting the dots, is satisfying.

What is your favourite website in the Dash of Lime portfolio, and why?

Computicket. As a retailing service of Shoprite Holdings Ltd it was an inspiring early adopter of e-tailing in SA and is a success story.

Do you have any advice for advertisers considering investing in online marketing?

Simply put…

Do:

Plenty of research to understand the discipline.

Partner with online marketing experts.

Avoid ‘bright shiny object syndrome’.

Do Not…

Approach it in the same way as offline marketing. In reality, there are plenty of resources available online for SME’s, to assist them in making online marketing decisions.

The snippet of advice? Set out with the goal of creating: data driven online marketing decisions.

What is the one thing most people don’t know about you?

I have an identical twin brother who lives in London and is working at Vodafone UK.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Self-entitlement.

If we were to check your PVR/DVD library, what would we find?

PVRed: mostly CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Bloomberg’s TechStars and Game Changers, CNBC Africa’s Invest Africa and Entrepreneurial Edge, BBC’s Click, SuperSport’s Barclays Premier League and episodes from the Travel Channel…

What’s your superpower?

*insert witty, funny and somewhat narcissistic answer here*

If you could send a short letter to your sixteen-year-old self, what would it say?

“Teach yourself  computer programming (coding), and become a developer, and I’m not talking about a property developer!”

Just kidding…

I would tell my sixteen-year-old self to continue acting like my sixteen-year-old self.

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Neo@Ogilvy: Christmas Specials

It’s a time of giving!

The festive season is a time of giving and with that in mind, this month we’ve decided to put together a list of fantastic Neo@Ogilvy special advertising packages which will really allow you to stretch whatever’s left of this year’s marketing budget. Check out these great special offers!

Neo@Ogilvy

Adverts

Why try digital?

  • It’s fast and effective!
  • Put your brand exactly where your customers already are
  • Completely measurable and scalable
  • Targeted and accurate
  • Easily optimised to maximise results
  • Campaign reports provide tracking and valuable insights

Whether you want to build brand awareness, make more sales or drive targeted traffic for a special promotion – digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your customers where they’re already spending their time.

We’re able to structure bespoke campaigns which deliver results based on your unique objectives. We are also able to provide solutions to match virtually any budget. With our phenomenal value-adds, you’ll definitely get so much more.

Give us a call or send us an email to find out more about these and other great offers.

Offers are for a limited time only.  Please speak to us about offer validity. T&Cs apply.

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Neo@Ogilvy: Global Summit

neo_ogilvyNeo 

This week Neo@Ogilvy (Ogilvy’s digital media agency division), hosted a global Ogilvy@Neo summit to discuss the future of digital media as well as to share insights and best practices amongst the Neo@Ogilvy group. Attended by nine managing directors from across Neo’s 39 offices worldwide, the discussion was lead by global CEO, Nasreen Madhany and hosted by Mia Scholtz, Neo@Ogilvy’s Cape Town Managing Director.

As one of the world’s leading digital and direct media agency, the group made a number of key predictions that pointed towards global trends which are, and have been emerging in the South African market. The talks outlined the projected global market spend for online advertising for 2014, predicted as US$96.8-billion, as well the specific trends related to this.

“Locally, we’ve seen a 30 percent year-on-year increase historically and this is expected to continue. This is a reflection of the increased interest from South African companies in digital marketing, something that has grown significantly over the past four years,” says Scholtz who, for this reason, emphasised the importance of the Neo group’s information sharing policies — a practice which is integral to its worldwide success.

The following digital marketing trends were predicted:

  • The mobile evolution:

    Despite the penetration of mobile phones into the South Africa market and the increasing use of smartphones, the impact of empowering billions of people with real-time connected devices is in its infancy in the country.

    On the horizon for 2011 and beyond is the rapid enterprise adoption of tablets for productivity — this is evident in the number of different manufacturers producing tablets and speaks to the adoption of an “always on” consumer mentality. The convergence of social, local and mobile digital channels — the South African market will continue to feel an increased push for the use and adoption of applications such as Foursquare as fostered by campaign rewards programmes and the increased use of near field communication(NFC) which allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and connections with a touch.

    In addition to this is the increasing use of digital video in the mobile context. The medium has the power to spread campaign elements virally and will command more attention in digital strategies.

  • Rise of the digital analyst:

    With the push toward the use of more content on multiple channels, it is predicted that employers will be pressed to turn to digital analysts who source, monitor and interpret analytics to ensure the optimum use of mediums for each campaign. This is something that is not yet been seen as a recognised position in local media agencies.

  • Integration: a deeper conversation:

    While there is much talk about integration throughout agencies and from offline to online, the philosophy needs a deeper focus within digital. Current and future digital strategies can no longer rest on the performance of an individual digital channel such as web, mobile, search or social but rather, best performance lies in the use of inter-relationships between these channels with a strong search strategy at the core of every digital campaign.

“While we recognise these and other trends, Neo’s advantage in the digital category, however, stems from our ‘always new’ rather than ‘innovation approach’ meaning that while Neo will always be an early adopter, we will continue to be channel neutral and use the best channel to meet our client’s business goals,” says Madhany.

Via: Original article from Memeburn.com