The Lead Creative - Zahira Kharsany on digital trends and social media strategies

Zahira Kharsany on digital trends and social media strategies

10/01/20 • 45 min

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have accelerated the adoption of social media and digital usage, both in South Africa and the rest of the world. Digital strategist at Gorilla Creative Media, Zahira Kharsany joins us on this episode to discuss some of her observations on how brands and individuals have been using digital platforms.
The increased adoption of e-commerce and online shopping, notes Zahira, is one of the areas that most people are turning to. She also says brands have found smart ways to help alleviate the pressure on consumers, which has taken the lead across social media and digital platforms. Online shopping outlets that allow people to make purchases and pay on delivery have seen increased sales from users who were once less likely to shop online.
This has opened up more possibilities for e-commerce brands and shoppers in South Africa. “Rural communities have taken to WhatsApp significantly with group buying and the stokvel model showed growth during the pandemic.” - Zahira Kharsany On the subject of influencers and digital content creators, Zahira has noticed that more brands are letting content creators take the lead on the creative aspect of content creation.
Some include their communities in the curation process of idea generation.
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Previous Episode

Colin Makhubela on effective client-agency partnerships

The best client and agency partnerships lead to the most inspired brand communication work, which also helps brands to win the hearts and minds of more consumers. This is what award-winning work that shows the greatest ROI is made of, along with strong customer insights. But what goes into making these relationships work?
Award-winning Executive Creative Director of Pacinamix, Colin Makhubela joins us on this episode of The Lead Creative to draw from some of his own experiences, where he unpacks what led to some of the brand and agency partnerships that he was part of. He shares observations and findings from working with brands like Nike, Nedbank, DStv, First National Bank, Lucozade, and many others.
Talking about some of his current work with McDonald’s South Africa, he says they created a more inclusive process that brings agencies and the brand closer. This inclusion, he adds, is working well for McDonald’s, where it is helping to shape communication in a way that enables the brand to entrench itself in the local market.
This, while competing with popular fast food brands such as KFC, Nando’s, Chicken Licken, and others. “Data in isolation is not the whole picture, it’s a habit. People are not habits. People can change their habits on any given day if their motivations, needs and wants change.” — Colin Makhubela Makhubela also addresses the significance of utilizing customer data wisely to inform strategy, rather than taking the data to be insight.

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Next Episode

Jay Sebesho unpacks authenticity in brand communication

Authenticity in brand communication and advertising comes up a lot. We unpack what it means in this episode of The Lead Creative podcast with Josephine ‘Jay’ Sebesho, Managing Director and Founder of Janong, a Creative and Digital Agency. Jay joins us in this episode to share how they at Janongview and include authenticity in their work.
The Coca-Cola “Share a Coke” campaign comes in our conversation was one of the most authentic consumer and insights-driven communications of recent times. The culture of sharing was on the rise at the time of this campaign, both social media and across other platforms. “This is an example of how brands can plug into a change in the culture and show that they understand their customers,” said Jay.
Jay points to representation as one of the measurables in knowing whether a brand or a piece of communication is authentic. If the work represents the customer or target audience closely and builds a relationship that is more than just transactional, then it is moving towards authenticity.“It all starts with purpose. Articulating your brand purpose in communication is important and adds to the authenticity, that cannot be copied.” — Josephine ‘Jay’ Sebesho
Brands should strive to be authentic in both their connections with customers and their communication because it increases relevance. Jay thinks MTN with its Ayoba campaign shows this relevance and how a brand can fit into the local vocabulary in a way that says: “I see and understand you.”
“Authentic brand connections are about creating an emotional the connection between the brand and consumer, it’s this positive link.” — Josephine ‘Jay’ Sebesho
This episode has thoughts, strategies, and ideas on being a more authentic and connected brand.
The Lead Creative Podcast is available on:

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Audio editing and production by: Maishe Rakgoale
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