Brief: Design Absa’s sponsorship for the Design Indaba 2012. Objective: To associate Absa with creativity and to ultimately achieve awareness among Absa’s sponsorship at the Design Indaba 2012.
Reseach:
Interviews and questionnaires were completed at Woodstock Industrial Centre, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, University of Cape Town (Michaelis School of Fine Arts) and Cape Quarter Mall in Greenpoint. The research was documented to use as evidence for key findings and arguments.
Brand Equity audit on the Absa brand in partnership with the Design Indaba:
Awareness
Absa have high brand awareness, but awareness of the Indaba and Absaʼs partnership is low. Primary research showed that respondents did not connect the two.
Perceived Quality
Primary research showed that the perceived quality is negative in terms of customer service and services offered by Absa. The perceived quality as to why they are sponsoring the Design Indaba is also negative. There is confusion as to why Absa is sponsoring the Design Indaba, as people do not know that Absa supports arts and culture in South Africa.
Brand Associations
Research showed that the brand association connected to Absa was that of a bank. There were a few mentions of corporate or sport. It showed that people do not associate the arts and creative industry to the brand.
Absa has leadership skills, although they are not the market leaders in the banking industry. The bank sponsors leading events and sport teams in the country. People might like to support Absa for the fact that they sponsor Bafana Bafana for example. A person that banks with Absa might also like to be associated with a brand that sponsors events (sport and culture) that mean something for South Africa and are positive for the country, where it might be contributing to the GDP or just improving towards a positive image of the country.
Brand Loyalty
Loyalty is seen as the heart of the brand and Absa has shown loyalty by improving services to ultimately make the customer experience easier. Innovation Group is a client of Absa and they play a key role in improving Absaʼs services, which not only helps Absa to save money, but also improve customer experience and service. Absa currently owns a loyal customer base of different segments in the South African market of over 12 million people. While these people do bank with the brand, they may not have positive feelings towards the brand. Primary research showed that there are still negative feelings about the brand. In conclusion, according to primary research, the intangible brand equity (how people feel, act and think towards the brand) is low.
The attitude towards the Absa brand needs to be positively uplifted. In South Africa, with respect to tangible equity such as market share, price and profitability, the brand equity is high, but within the context of the Design Indaba partnership it is rather low, as only 22% of respondents knew that Absa is sponsoring the Design Indaba.
Insight: Creative minds perceive Absa as just another bank. They do not associate Absa with design or creativity. It was found irrelevant for Absa to sponsor the Design Indaba under its current mother brand that, for example, also appears on the jerseys of the Springbok rugby team.
Absa sponsors mainly to categories; sport (teams & events) and Design & Art (creative cultural fest and Design Indaba etc.) This model describes what the Absa and the two categories have in common.
Absa: Partnerships
Spoert: Teramwork
Design & Art: Collaboration
Idea: Create a subbrand; Absa Collectic.
Collectic: 1.) A new style of design embracing your own style and combining it with more than one other style. 2.) Design without the conventional and traditional rules proposed. (Urban dictionary)
Absa is the co-driver and Collectic is the main-driver for the subbrand.
Purpose: To link Absa with the creative and design fields, to extend Absaʼs vision of creating a better future through working together.
Essence: Supporting creativity
Message
Absa Collecticʼs support enables the opportunity for creative to develop their ideas.
Concept: Challenging passionate designers to be original.
This campaign will launch on Facebook, Absa Collectic page, and a website.
There is a guide on the facebook site displaying how to go if you have a create idea or solution towards a problem.
The main key contact point with this proposed contact plan is the Absa Collectic website. This website will form the base of the brand and campaign. The website will be launched under the name Absa Collectic and will form another ʻcreative platformʼ for designers. The function of the website:
· A social network platform for creatives
·A detailed message board aimed at encouraging conversation and relationships between creatives
· A personalised profile with published blog and gallery options for easy display of portfolio work
· The website has a "Patron" facet where creatives who need funding for a particular project can submit their proposal and can receive donations from the community and Absa
· The website will hold a competition that runs for a period of time and Absa will sponsor the winners
· The website will also have a function that when a creative reaches a certain percentage of their goal, Absa will then sponsor the rest
Screenshot of the website’s homepage:
Alternative brand contact point:
The sticker is intended to irritate creatives, as one can see the cliché font and layout of the sticker.
At the Design Indaba Absa Collectic give a conference bag away and it will contain a moleskine and pen with the following challenging copy on it:
A selection of people whom have entered on the Absa Collectic website will get the change to exhibit their work at the Absa Collectic stall at the Design Indaba 2012.
Healthy brand audit on Absa’s mother brand:
· Does the brand have a particular and meaningful purpose? Yes, clear purpose that supports their brand identity in that it is all about bringing prosperity through partnerships
· Is the brand purpose served in all that the brand does?
Yes, through partnerships with other corporates and brands, they strive to better South African’s lives. They also highlight that they work with clients to create prosperity.
· Does the brand have a distinctive identity?
Yes, in ways they are the only bank that highlights their togetherness, but in other ways, no, they are seen as just another bank. They do not own their ‘togetherness’ yet.
· Is the brand an engaging, authentic and coherent communicator?
Yes, engaging and authentic, coherent not so much
· Does the brand add value to the lives of people?
Yes, innovations, relationships and events they sponsor
· Does the brand build sustainable relationships by never taking more than it gives?
Yes, in the form of sponsorships, it gives back to the community, but primary research shows that people do not relate Absa to good service in serving clients
· Does the brand and the business that underpins it demonstrate that profit is not the driver but a consequence of all of the above?
Yes, profit not the only driver, gives back to community.
Rationale for Absa Collectic:
The brief required an increase in Absa’s brand awareness as a sponsor of Design Indaba, in demonstrating its support and relevance to the design industry by positioning themselves as a proudly South African organisation contributing towards this growing community.We felt the best way to create more awareness around Absa sponsoring the Design Indaba was to create a sub brand; a creative extension called Absa Collectic. As the link between passionate designers and Absa, Absa Collectic wants to boost the creative industry by encouraging originality and enabling passionate designers to reach their potential by funding their proposed ideas.
Contributing composers:
Jenette Jurgens, Segun Ajayi, Dean Norman, Jodi Smith, MW van der Walt, Ljubljana Albertyn, Brittney Cannon and Vida Schiff
