The Work of Society

Press Release: King James boosts social media team with key hires

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:26:57 +0200

Society, the social media and content marketing division of King James, has expanded with a number of recent hires. Anna-mart Fourie, previously a copywriter with Saatchi & Saatchi At Play has been appointed as Head of Content, and Sifiso Mazibuko, previously Facebook Innovations Manager at Habari will now lead social media strategy.

The hires reflect the growing success of social media and digital marketing as part of the King James Group’s integrated offering. Award winning campaigns for the likes of Johnnie Walker, Santam, kulula.com and Steri Stumpie have all incorporated strong social media strategies at their heart over the past year.

“When King James decided to establish a social media company we felt strongly that there was a missed opportunity in South Africa to get social content and campaigns to the same level of strategic and creative excellence as other marketing disciplines. The new additions to the team are just part of an ongoing effort to bring genuine experience and proven talent to what is often seen as the wild west of communications,” said Dan Pinch, Founder and Creative Director of Society.

Society has grown from a start-up of three people to ten social media specialists in the last year and is one of the fastest growing parts of the King James Group. Current clients include Johnnie Walker Africa and South Africa; J&B West Africa; Bell’s Whisky; Europcar; Steri Stumpie; kulula.com and Santam amongst others.

Society has boosted its team substantially over the last few...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:06:22 +0200

Society has boosted its team substantially over the last few weeks. Here is a quick run down of all of our news:

At the end of last year we were joined by Head of Content Anna-mart Fourie, who has been responsible for much of the new content across most accounts;
On our Community Management team we have been joined by a new manager Shakira Connolly; we’ve also taken on 2 Red & Yellow graduates in Junior Community Manager roles
Rachael du Plessis has been promoted to Account Director as of last Friday;
We have also been joined in the last week by a new Strategist, Sifiso Mazibuko, he joins us from his role as Facebook’s main representative in South Africa and brings some great insight and perspective into what makes local social media campaigns work (or not)
We have also brought on a dedicated designer to the team

This brings our team to 10 people and allows us to specialise further in our three core areas of business: creative content; community management and strategy.

(The photo was taken at our recent Geek Retreat at Matjiesfontein).

We we’re involved in the social media elements of this...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:55:42 +0200

We we’re involved in the social media elements of this campaign for Santam last Halloween.

Case study for our recent 1 Bottle, Bottle Store campaign for...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:53:39 +0200

Case study for our recent 1 Bottle, Bottle Store campaign for Johnnie Walker South Africa. An integrated campaign involving a number of agencies within the King James Group.

Steri Stumpie turns 50,000 fans on Facebook

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:44:46 +0200

To celebrate Steri Stumpie passing the 50,000 fans milestone on Facebook we turned some of our favourite posts from fans into cupcakes. To make it even more awesome we baked the cakes with Steri Stumpie instead of milk. The cupcakes were delivered to the fans that sent us the posts and other friends of the brand. The team may have had one or two as well…

Road Tripper - a Facebook app for Europcar

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:43:00 +0200

We’ve just launched a new Facebook app for Europcar South Africa in partnership with our sister agency Punk. The app is designed to help travellers find cool places to visit along the roads of South Africa and to share their own suggestions. We’ll also be using it to pull content to share across their social media channels.

You’ll find the Road Tripper app here.

To save Santam’s clients from “nasty surprises” during Halloween...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:19:00 +0200

To save Santam’s clients from “nasty surprises” during Halloween we teamed up with King James to launch a once-off service. During the evening’s horror movies the team live tweeted spoilers to the frights using a #scarybits hashtag. As part of the evening’s content we also spoofed some paranormal activity in Santam’s head office. For more read this

We invited some of fans, blogger friends and a few random...

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:55:00 +0200

We invited some of fans, blogger friends and a few random strangers to test the new Steri Stumpie Vanilla flavour. All we told them was to meet us at a particular park bench at a specific time. This is how we proved that Vanilla is a bit more interesting than you might think…

Earned Media course at Red & Yellow

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 09:33:29 +0200

Society recently ran a three day course at Red & Yellow on Earned Media, both in it’s social media form and through PR (thanks to some contributions from our friends in Atmosphere). The course culminated in a live project in which the students had to encourage Capetonians to make more use of their city.

We were pretty inspired by some of the responses: a movement to get people to go into the sea in Speedos; a discount for cyclists in local shops and getting local entrepreneurs to talk about why people should move from joburg work in the city, stand out as some of the highlights. Special mention has to go to Team Speedo who got their project onto DJ Fresh’s show. Looking forward to next year already!

Johnnie Walker Platinum Label launch

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:39:00 +0200

In collaboration with King James RSVP and Punk we recently launched the new Johnnie Walker Platinum Label blend with a 1 bottle, Liquor Store in Melrose Arch. The store was mirrored with an online version on Facebook and a microsite. The purpose for both was to tell the story of the blend and allow consumers bid for the very first Collector’s Edition bottle to enter the country.

Our role was to engage consumers via the brands Facebook page and a supporting social media ad campaign. The activity to date has substantially grown the brands community (a rise of 16,000+ fans) and engaged 25,000+ people (through comments, likes and shares). There was also 1359 bids (way beyond expectations). The bids are still being verified but it does look like a substantial amount of money has been raised for South Africans Against Drunk Driving.

We picked up a Bronze for Direct Marketing at our first Loerie...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:45:37 +0200

We picked up a Bronze for Direct Marketing at our first Loerie Awards. Weirdly enough it was for a piece of offline activity targeting bloggers / influencers to tell them about the launch of the new 1 litre Steri Stumpie. A big part of our philosophy is you have to do things in the real world to create things to talk about online so very happy this piece of work picked up something.

We’re currently working on a project for Capitec Bank with...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:56:00 +0300

We’re currently working on a project for Capitec Bank with our sister agency Atmosphere. Building on the success of last year’s Swapping Mall we’re launching a SwapShop at Rocking the Daisies. To promote we’ll be running pre-swaps online as well as livetweeting during the event. Follow the campaign on Twitter for more.

Head of content (Social Media)

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:00:00 +0300

Cape Town based.

About the role

We are looking for an excellent writer that thinks beyond just words and understands the kind of content people want to get from brands. The role involves helping to build compelling social media content strategies and ensuring high quality multimedia content is produced for a number of channels (but primarily social media such as Facebook and Twitter).

You will be responsible for a small team within the agency as well as working with a number of writers, designers and multi-media producers in King James and external to the agency. A large part of the role, at least initially, will involve copywriting for a number of brands so a background in advertising copywriting or online journalism will be advantageous.

As the position is within a rapidly growing start-up we expect both the platforms we work on and the type of work we do to evolve at speed. The successful candidate will need to be able to keep up with developments in social media without losing sight of what motivates and influences real people.

About Society

We have also established strong creative credentials with the winning of two silver bookmarks for social media. The agency has a start-up approach but with the resources and environment of one of the most respected advertising agencies in South Africa.

There is a lot of room to grow as the agency and industry develops!

Requirements

• Minimum four years’ experience in either a marketing agency environment (PR/Digital or Advertising) or online media outlet

• Portfolio of copy / online content to be provided

• Excellent knowledge of social media platforms (primarily Facebook, Twitter)

Personal Skills/Attributes

• Strong administration skills

• Eye for detail and deadline driven

• Ability to multitask across a number of brands

• Remain calm (and good humoured) under pressure

• Excellent writing and proofreading skills

• Good presentation skills and confidence in front of a crowd

• Drive to keep learning and regular reading around social media

• Team management skills

Remuneration: Depends on experience

Own transport required.

Please send your C.V. or LinkedIn profile to dan@theworkofsociety.com

Should you not receive a response within 3 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.

Account Manager (Social Marketing)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 08:07:00 +0300

About the role

We’re looking for a talented Account Manager to join our fast growing social marketing agency. The role includes taking responsibility for a portfolio of consumer brands and managing a small team to deliver both social media management and some exciting, boundary pushing campaigns and programmes.

We need someone to help develop social marketing strategies; persuade clients that they are worth doing and ensure they are beautifully executed. As part of the team at King James you will also be expected to manage integration with other disciplines and help educate both internally and externally on the possibilities of social marketing.

Things change rapidly in our environment so the successful candidate will need to have a passion for following new developments and peering under the hood of social networks to understand how they work.

About Society

We are the social marketing division of King James (Agency of the year 2012). Our aim is to build communities and conversations for brands online, offline and the spaces in-between. In our first year we have worked on some of the country’s best known brands including kulula.com, Johnnie Walker, Santam, Steri Stumpie, J&B West Africa, Europcar and Capitec amongst others. We have also established strong creative credentials with the winning of two silver bookmarks for social media. The agency has a start-up mentality but with the resources and environment of one of the most respected advertising agencies in South Africa. There is a lot of room to grow as the agency and industry develops!

Requirements

• Minimum three years’ experience in a marketing agency environment (PR/Digital or Advertising)

• At least a years’ experience as an account manager (or primary client contact)

• Excellent knowledge of social media platforms (primarily Facebook, Twitter)

Personal Skills/Attributes

• Strong administration skills

• Eye for detail and deadline driven

• Ability to multitask across a number of accounts

• Remain calm (and good humoured) under pressure

• Excellent writing skills

• Excellent presentation skills and confidence in front of a crowd

• Drive to keep learning and regular reading around social media

• Budget management

Remuneration: Depends on experience

Please send your C.V. or LinkedIn profile to dan@theworkofsociety.com

Should you not receive a response within 3 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.

Our tenth birthday campaign for kulula.com.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:42:00 +0300

Our tenth birthday campaign for kulula.com.

A case study of our Art from Mess project for Plascon.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:41:00 +0300

A case study of our Art from Mess project for Plascon.

This is a project we worked on for kulula.com alongside a number...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:39:00 +0300

This is a project we worked on for kulula.com alongside a number of other King James Group companies. The original brief was to throw a VIP launch party for the new Boeing 737 800. This is what we did instead…

The Society team, as well as being involved in the concept, provided live social media coverage throughout the day (at least while the plane was on the ground).

PR 2.0 and storytelling for fashion brands

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:49:00 +0300

Pr 2.0 and realtime marketing in fashion from Dan Pinch

Slides from Dan’s recent presentation at the Fashion Path to Purchase conference in Jo’burg.

This is how we promoted the launch of the new 1 litre Steri...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:55:00 +0300

This is how we promoted the launch of the new 1 litre Steri Stumpie. A number of bloggers and friends of the brand were contacted and invited to an “exclusive” launch party. And then we turned up with this giant shipping crate…

To celebrate the launch of our new CI (put together by our...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:40:00 +0300

To celebrate the launch of our new CI (put together by our neighbours in King James RSVP) we’re running an ongoing little project pulling together collections from various communities. Our first one is snooping the clothes collections of Capetonians.

COLLECTION No.1: WARDROBES

Jess Gliddon, 30 years old

1. Favourite item
The striped top I’m wearing – it’s got a unique style while being super comfortable, and is really versatile - you can wear it off the shoulder, in the centre… and it’s got a funky trendy style to it. it’s flattering too.

2. Never worn item
Alberta Ferretti heels – I bought the shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai, on sale. In Dubai, everyone seems to have a pair of designer heels, and my friend had been twisting my arm for awhile that I needed to join this club. They’re stunning but perilous to walk in.

3. Oldest item
My Mum’s dressing gown – she wore it when she was pregnant with me, it’s this fabulous Bianca Jagger style number