Andy Rice
He has written a column for AdVantage magazine for many years, and contributes regularly to other marketing and advertising publications. He was Chairman of the 2004 Apex Awards for advertising effectiveness, Chairman of the 2004 Loeries Direct judging panel, has judged the PRISM awards for public relations excellence, as well as the Financial Mail's AdFocus agency ranking programme in 2004 and 2005.
Recognised as one of South Africa's best known brand consultants, Andy has worked extensively on the evolution of branding strategy as a recognised business discipline in South Africa.
Educated in England, he graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in History and Economics longer ago than he cares to recall. Andy then set off overland through Africa on an extended career-avoidance exercise, only to end up soon after arriving in Johannesburg in what was to become his career for the next 30 years – marketing and advertising.
He was strategic planning director of Ogilvy and Mather in Johannesburg prior to co-founding his own brand architecture company in 1997. His company has grown to become a renowned independent strategic consultancy in South Africa, with a client list that includes many blue chip multinational and South African organisations such as Coca-Cola, SABMiller, Nedbank, Unilever, Edcon, HTH, Engen, Revlon, Impala Platinum, Distell, Sanlam, Exclusive Books and Bridgestone-Firestone. The company now has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
He has written a column for AdVantage magazine for many years, and contributes regularly to other marketing and advertising publications. He was Chairman of the 2004 Apex Awards for advertising effectiveness, Chairman of the 2004 Loeries Direct judging panel, has judged the PRISM awards for public relations excellence, as well as the Financial Mail's AdFocus agency ranking programme in 2004 and 2005.
Recognised as one of South Africa's best known brand consultants, Andy has worked extensively on the evolution of branding strategy as a recognised business discipline in South Africa.
Educated in England, he graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in History and Economics longer ago than he cares to recall. Andy then set off overland through Africa on an extended career-avoidance exercise, only to end up soon after arriving in Johannesburg in what was to become his career for the next 30 years – marketing and advertising.
He was strategic planning director of Ogilvy and Mather in Johannesburg prior to co-founding his own brand architecture company in 1997. His company has grown to become a renowned independent strategic consultancy in South Africa, with a client list that includes many blue chip multinational and South African organisations such as Coca-Cola, SABMiller, Nedbank, Unilever, Edcon, HTH, Engen, Revlon, Impala Platinum, Distell, Sanlam, Exclusive Books and Bridgestone-Firestone. The company now has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The Death of Advertising?
Gone are the days when we had a simple media mix of TV, radio, print and outdoor to choose between. Now we face a massively fragmented media landscape and a greatly empowered consumer, all driven by the explosive growth of digital/social media. Is this the end of advertising as we knew it? What guidelines can we follow to help us chart a strategically sensible course through this volatile environment?
Survival of the Fittest
How brands need to evolve to stay relevant to consumers. Building a better mousetrap isn't enough any longer to ensure that people beat a path to your door. Brands need to be more than just transaction enablers, they need to play a wider role in the community that exists beyond their business category. This takes brand managers out of their feature-driven comfort zone of USPs and functional attributes, and into the more slippery and intangible world of concepts such as...
Why is an insight like a refrigerator?
Well, you'll have to experience this presentation to find out! But if every marketing and communications professional kept the importance of true insights uppermost in their minds, they probably wouldn't have to worry about the answer to that question. This presentation includes a number of insight-based brand communications case studies to illustrate this critical area.
Who's the traitor in our brand camp?
Marketers need to realise that we are all in service industries now, even those companies that have a traditional manufacturing base. Because today it's the service behind the product that differentiates, not the product itself. And this means that everyone is a brand ambassador, everyone is in marketing. This presentation explains the vital importance of internal brand alignment, wherein all members of staff understand the brand proposition, and live up to it in all their...
