Jewish community needs to break through the clutter

JULIE LEIBOWITZ

The late legendary physicist Stephen Hawking’s TED talk on YouTube, Questioning the Universe, dealt with weighty issues like: how did the universe come into being, where did we come from, and are we alone? It attracted about six million views.

This might seem like good numbers, says Mike Abel, the founder and Chief Executive of M&C Saatchi Abel, but Popstar Miley Cyrus’s video Wrecking Ball, garnered 961 million views, and the video Gangnam Style exceeded two billion views. A recent video just giving details about where to watch a boxing match between “vloggers” KSI and Logan Paul – never mind the actual fight – garnered more than two million views.

It shows that the consumption of media has changed. “People aren’t interested in the important stuff,” says Abel, who is this year’s Absa Jewish Achiever Business Award winner, and recently spoke to the Cape Jewish Board of Deputies about media trends. “They want their information presented in an entertaining, fun way.”

The immediate reaction may be to write off youthful and/or digital audiences for any meaningful content, but comedian Sasha Baron Cohen’s work manages to convey complex social messages using disruptive tactics and viral marketing. His latest series, Who is America?, which premiered on Showtime in July, has drawn a following on social media in spite of – or maybe because of – the fact that it is satirical, funny, sophisticated, and controversial.

Cohen uses various personas – including the now legendary macho Israeli “Mossad agent” Col. Erran Morad – to ambush politicians and high profile interviewees into revealing their (often right-wing) political and social beliefs. So successful has the show been, a 10-minute preview on Showtime’s YouTube channel garnered more than 10 million views.

These figures are revealing for what they tell us about what grabs our attention and emotions – particularly those under 30 – and what keeps that attention.

Abel spoke to the Cape Jewish Board of Deputies at the launch of its #NoPlaceForHate campaign in early August, which calls for active citizenship in the Jewish community to combat hatred and intolerance – in any shape or form.

His message was succinct. Historically, South African Jewish organisations have adopted a defensive position in the public domain, writing “static” press releases, and using statements like “strongly condemn”, whereas perhaps we could find more creative ways to educate the public about the overwhelming positive contribution made by the Jewish community.

Referring to the ongoing campaign by the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement in South Africa to discredit Jews and Israel, he said, “The forces against us are organised and well-funded. We need to land our message in a way that achieves its purpose, but doesn’t give them more ammunition. Defensive press releases don’t capture the imagination. More of the same won’t change anything.”

Stressing that the world of digital storytelling, and co-creation has opened up a whole new opportunity, he said we must learn to use the element of surprise, ambush marketing, and getting our opponents “before their immune system is up”.

Guerrilla marketing thrives on originality and creativity, and often uses the viewers of content to disseminate the content. It’s a tactic favoured by advertisers, but it has only recently become current among advocacy groups.

The Cape Board’s #NoPlaceForHate campaign is unusual not just because of the hashtag, which immediately puts it in the social-media sphere, but because it is a campaign and a message that is designed to be partnered with and co-created by audiences inside and outside the Jewish community.

“It is a universal message, and an intergenerational call to action,” says Vivienne Anstey, the Vice-Chair of the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies. “Normally, we speak to the converted. Now we want to go to our friends and foes. We are hoping 14-year-olds, for example, will come out with a stronger message through their personal pledges. We want to trigger ideas and creativity, and get endorsement from other organisations who deal with hate, such as the South African Human Rights Commission. It is a catalyst we hope will go viral.”

Abel gives examples of innovative and disruptive cause marketing. A few years ago, eccentric Brazilian billionaire, Count Chiquinho Scarpa, posted on Facebook that he intended to bury his $500 000 (R7 million) Bentley in his backyard when he was finished with it. His announcement raised the ire of Brazilians, and got a lot of media attention. But, on the day of the burial, it was announced that the stunt was a way of bringing Brazil and the world’s attention to the wastage of healthy organs. “I didn’t bury my car, but everyone thought it absurd when I said I would,” Scarpa said. “What’s absurd is burying your organs, which can save many lives. Nothing is more valuable. Be a donor and tell your family.”

A campaign by a German supermarket to combat xenophobia last year is another example of these tactics. The supermarket removed all products not made in Germany from its shelves to illustrate the value of diversity. The stunt, which went viral on digital media, carried the message: “On sale today: much less variety.”

Social advocacy is not lost on business, which has been blurring the lines between advocacy and marketing for some time. “Purpose-led” marketing is a tactic adopted by almost every big corporate. Take Unilever’s “Making sustainable living commonplace”, Standard Bank’s “Africa is our home, we drive her growth”, or Coke’s “Inspiring moments of optimism and happiness”. These “touchy feely” messages don’t actually address the products or services being sold, but they speak to the so-called “millennial generation” (people born close to 2000), and are great for sharing on social media.

“Human nature hasn’t changed,” Abel says. “We still want love and affirmation. But we are a far more sceptical audience” – add to this busy and distracted, and you get the idea. If we want to be “woke”, perhaps we need to wake up to new ways of marketing our cause.