What is your brand worth to you?

The world is changing.

Marketing messages and the companies behind them are now the target for communities digitally empowered to spread stories of poor service and lame promotional communication. Your brand is being held hostage by the very people you thought were your loyal customers and they want your blood.

Your only hope – is to exceed their expectations. To create a brand fantasy reality that accelerates positive word-of-mouth.

Put that digital strategy to good use, understand how you can maximise your marketing return on investment and ultimately save your brand. The new world order is here. Free your brand on the 26th and 27th of October and discover the future of marketing at BRAND HOOLIGANS 2010.

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I studied architecture at Tukkies over the course of 6 rather haphazard years. Starting in the late 70’s in the void between ‘international’ style , and post modernism. By 2nd year my design work was regularly criticized as being ‘Mickey mouse’ film sets rather than buildings. By the end of 3rd it was clear that I wasn’t going to get much further there.

BH: WHO DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO WIN THE FIFA SOCCER WORLD CUP IN SOUTH AFRICA?

Who do I think is going to win? Spain. Who do I want to win? Portugal. Who would be great to win? South Africa.

BH: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR LIFE?

My freedom and my family.

BH: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR CREATIVE INSPIRATION FROM?

Observing the world around us.

BH: HOW DID YOU SELL YOURSELF IN THE EARLY DAYS?

When you really believe in what you’re doing and have a strong vision of what you’re trying to achieve, the passion sells itself.

BH: WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU EVER HAD?

I’ve never taken a bad job (not that I have had many). Some definitely weren’t exciting, but I learned a little from each one.

BH: WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT?

My biggest challenge was to focus. You overcome that by failing at what you don’t focus on.

BH: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY?

It just seemed natural. The big companies are feeding us crap and I don’t think its right.

BH: EVER FEEL LIKE DOING SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?

All the time!

BH: EVERYONE HAS A DREAM, DOW DID YOU TURN YOURS INTO REALITY?

The dream for me is chasing the dream.

BH: WHAT DREAMS DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT YOU’RE BUSY CHASING?

I want to race vintage cars.

BH: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN NOT WORKING?

Thinking about work.

BH: WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5 FAVOURITE BRANDS?

Apple. Whole Foods. Patagonia. Tom’s Shoes. Greenpeace.

BH: IF YOU WERE MAGICALLY TRANSPORTED BACK TO BEING 10 YEARS OLD AGAIN – WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

would chill out a little, and save myself a few grey hairs. It’s all a game and as soon as I realised that, I was much happier.

BH: YOU’RE WALKING INTO A SUPERMARKET DESIGNED BY RUI ESTEVES. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE, HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL? WHAT’S THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?

I have seen the top of the mountain, and it is Globus in Zurich. http://www.globus.ch/de/delicatessa/produzenten-produkte/index.html

BH: IF YOU WERE THE CEO OF SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS- WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

I would make it my mission to privatize the airline and make it accountable to its customers and shareholders. What a national disgrace they are. I refuse to fly with SAA.

BH: DID YOU EVER DOUBT YOURSELF, AND IF SO – WHAT KEPT YOU GOING?

I second guess myself all the time… but I try to see my vision through until it gains momentum. Seeing people enjoy my product(s) motivates me.

BH: WHAT POSTER DID YOU HAVE ABOVE YOUR BED IN HIGH SCHOOL?

I had a poster of Eddie Vedder.

BH: FOR THOSE PEOPLE JUST STARTING OUT, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?

Work hard. Don’t give up. Do the opposite. Have a vision. Stick to your vision.

SHORTER CLIPS

DID YOU KNOW FROM THE START YOU HAD AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND

The final year design lecturer told me that I wasn’t going to get a degree if I didn’t buy a suit, which said a lot about the time and place. I also had a blank when it came to building technology – visualizing how materials come together. Moved over to Wits which in theory was a good move, but didn’t work out. Physics and computer science were way beyond me! So I ended up a university drop-out working as a draftsman and later graphic designer for ‘Vernootskap Jan van Wijk – architects’ for 5 years.

Another year was spent in Joburg working at the Junction night club, after which, mildly disillusioned with Joburg, I moved down to Cape Town. With blind luck, I ended up getting a job with Ulrich Binedell and Associates. Ulrich, a brilliant artist, was one of the early set builders in Cape Town. He main focus was sets for fashion shows, and exhibition stands, but did quite a number of commercials sets as well. It was here that I learned the practical side of design theory – how to join materials – building technology unlocked.

After 5 years with Ulrich I started off on my own, doing whatever came along, from textured wall painting to art department on commercials. Ended up building small sets and props. It was at this point that I was asked to draw sets for a film, and is pretty much what I have been doing ever since.

Concept drawing for 13BA

BH: WHO DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO WIN THE FIFA SOCCER WORLD CUP IN SOUTH AFRICA?

I really don’t care. Just looking forward to it being over, so that everyone can focus on more important issues in the country.

BH: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR LIFE?

Having a job I can be passionate about.

BH: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE ARCHITECTURE/ART DIRECTION?

I was always looking at houses and buildings. I remember spending a lot of time on a building site behind the house when I was 8. So architecture was where I was going to end up. Set design grew out of that.

BH: WHAT MOTIVATES YOU IN A ARCHITECTURAL SENSE

Logic.

BH: AS AN ART DIRECTOR, WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR CREATIVE INSPIRATION FROM?

You first need to look at the job of an art director. The Art director takes a concept from production designer, and turn it into something real. Ones input depends on the production designer, and this varies from job to job. I guess one’s ability as a designer also plays a part.

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I am very bad at self promotion, and still don’t sell myself well. Nowadays I rely on my C.V and portfolio. Everyone in the film industry checks out your IMDB page so it’s important to make sure that’s correct.

BH: WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU EVER HAD?

I can’t really think that I had jobs that I didn’t enjoy. There were a few commercials that I could have skipped, but I never did work in a fish factory in Iceland. When I look back at the diverse jobs I have done, they all lead me to where I am now… so there was a plan, I just didn’t know it at the time.

BH: WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT?

Politics and paperwork, don’t do either well. I haven’t really overcome this, I tend to ignore both, and hope they go away.

BH: THE FILM INDUSTRY HAS A REPUTATION FOR BEING CUT-THROAT. ANY LIFE LESSONS YOU PICKED UP ALONG THE WAY?

When negotiating a contract, stick to your rate. Once you have made the deal, live with it.

BH: EVER FEEL LIKE DOING SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?

I can’t think that I would find something that’s as much fun. I would like to work on more buildings, and interiors….. but the nature of film work makes that quite difficult. Each film is a commitment. One can easily find yourself 1000kms from home for 6 months at a time – working a 10 hour a day , 6 days a week…..this doesn’t leave much time or space for branching out.

BH: EVERYONE HAS A DREAM, DOW DID YOU TURN YOURS INTO REALITY?

It may sound weird, but I actually just walked backwards into it.

BH: WHAT DREAMS DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT YOU’RE BUSY CHASING?

Obviously I would like to design a film, rather than just design the sets. This is more difficult because a part of the job is political, and as I have said, that’s not my forte. It is however, an idea that is out there. Outside career, the main goal is a 70’s ranch style bungalow with a tropical garden and a pool, in Durban. I have been stuck in colonial buildings with deco furniture for far too long. I have come to the conclusion that in terms of film design, art deco is a crutch.

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Not much. After an ‘away ‘ film, one really wants to sit at home and do nothing. The autobiography of JRR Tolkien is amazingly dull. I always find that a comforting thought.

BH: IF YOU WERE MAGICALLY TRANSPORTED BACK TO BEING 10 YEARS OLD AGAIN – WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

I would have bought the NAD amplifier and AR speakers that I wanted to get in 1979. I saw a set at a market the other day, and 30 years later it’s just as stylish.

BH: YOU’RE WALKING INTO A BANK DESIGNED BY JONATHAN HELY HUTCHINSON. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE, HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL? WHAT’S THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?

For me, great. I am always very comfortable in spaces I design, they are always balanced. It will have elements that say it’s a bank, and to most people will experience it as a familiar space, without having to think too much about it. Most people don’t want to be confronted by “architecture”. For the few that do look around, there’s a large amount of humor in the design, I think that’s important.

BH: IF YOU WERE THE CEO OF SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS- WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

Declare independence from the state and work towards being a profit driven organization.

BH: DID YOU EVER DOUBT YOURSELF, AND IF SO – WHAT KEPT YOU GOING?

Often. More times that I would happily admit. I kept going by leaving the really big decisions to my board of directors who are made up of God, The Virgin Mary and 12 carefully selected saints. They look after bringing in the business and helping me with strategy, I just worked my arse off. Seriously, I am not kidding.

BH: WHAT POSTER DID YOU HAVE ABOVE YOUR BED IN HIGH SCHOOL?

There were 2, Joanna Lumney as Purdey and Tutankhamen.

BH: FOR THOSE PEOPLE JUST STARTING OUT, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?

Listen to people around you, you are part of the team. Find out how people want to do things rather than prescribing how things should be done. Being independently wealthy wouldn’t hurt.

His resume is far to long and impressive to replicate here, but as one of South Africa’s marketing ‘elder statesmen’ he’s headed up big agencies and signed off annual marketing strategy documents for brands like BMW all before he eats breakfast in the morning. On weekends he shoots the breeze with Jeremy Sampson and John Farquhar and remembers the days when marketers were bold, fearless, cunning and spents whole afternoons at boozy lunches with a clients.

He’s a living legend, he’s Chris Moerdyk.

BH: WHO DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO WIN THE FIFA SOCCER WORLD CUP IN SOUTH AFRICA?

Well, I am 25%  Irish and would have bet my house they would win but now I am just hoping France won’t because of the hand ball that cheated Ireland out of a place in the final final and  in spite of my son in law being French.  I am also 25% Scots but they aren’t in the picture either. My remaining 50% is Dutch but they refused me a passport during the apartheid years, so to hell with them. I am backing Bafana Bafana simply because if they don‘t win I will not be all that disappointed because I am used to them not winning. But, if they win, I will celebrate my arse off – not with champagne but a mixture of Jameson’s, Glenmorangie and big chunks of cheese.

BH:  WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR LIFE?

That I am a geriatric old fart who believes that he is still 35 and still gets asked to do lots of work and is interviewed by highly respected websites that don’t mind him saying things like Arse and big tits.

BH: WHAT MOTIVATES YOU IN A MARKETING SENSE?

The appalling lack of marketing skills in this country due to successive brain drains that caused round about R50billion a year to be wasted on bad marketing every year.  I am a marketing purist desperately keen to work my arse off trying to get that figure down to at least R49,99billion.

BH: HOW DID YOU SELL YOURSELF IN THE EARLY DAYS?

The early days. Chris Moerdyk, John Hunt and Reg Lascaris at the 1989 Christmas Party

With great difficulty. Nobody took young people seriously.  I used to offer to do the really crappy marketing work for very little money. It was really tough going and then one of my mentors suggested I start promoting myself by buying the biggest Mercedes available.  That’s when things took off.  I think South Africa is still like that. If you look successful people want you to make them successful too.  Now, all these years later I still use this as an excuse to buy myself a really nice car.

BH: WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU EVER HAD?

Being given the advertising account for the New Republic Party in the middle 1970’s.  A big mistake taking that on because it had no chance of achieving anything no matter how well I did my job. It was a brand in which I had no faith and no  interest. In second place was handling the SAA account in the late 1960’s. All ad copy had to be approved by a committee of 18 people of which nine didn’t like the other nine so there was never consensus. In addition to which the SAA boss at the time cheated at golf.

BH: WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT?

Believing in myself. At school my interests were rugby, cricket, tennis, swimming, convent girls and rock n roll parties. The academic side wasn’t my forte and as I only just scraped through matric,  my parents told me not to even think of going to university. And the problem with South Africa, still today,  is that unless you are an academic at school you are considered a dummy. Fortunately, I was mentored early on by Colin Adcock (the Lindsay Smithers and subsequently Toyota MD) who also only just got a matric.  He showed me that having a university degree wasn’t necessary if you had big enough balls. Part of his mentoring process was to kick me in the balls so often that they became big out of sheer self-defence.

BH:  AS A MARKETER, WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR CREATIVE INSPIRATION FROM?

A haven’t the foggiest idea.

BH: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE MARKETING?

After 14 years in the advertising business I discovered that the ad game was just one small part of marketing. Its a bit like being on earth and never having bothered to look up at the sky and discover that you are actually part of a galaxy. It was also hugely challenging given that skills shortage I was talking about. I remember the days when marketing to most people meant flogging potatoes at the market on Saturday mornings. Come to thinking it, nothing has changed.

BH: EVER FEEL LIKE DOING SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?

In the early days I wanted to be a forensic scientist, official explorer for National Geographic, train driver, pilot, beachcomber and game ranger. Specially a game ranger. But right now, I wouldn’t swop for anything.

BH: EVERYONE HAS A DREAM, DOW DID YOU TURN YOURS INTO REALITY?

I always dreamed of being able to just be an advisor. Of not having to implement stuff  like advertising, research and PR. My dream come true basically by working my arse off. I reckon that’s how most people make their dreams come true. Look at any satisfied, happy people and you will notice they are largely  arseless.

BH: WHAT DREAMS DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT YOU’RE BUSY CHASING?

To continue to be healthy enough to keep doing what I am doing now and that is working hard but not exactly knocking myself out to the extent that I can take a lot of holidays and spend time with six grandchildren who, when they are all together, usually results in another arse-off scenario for me.

BH: WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5 FAVOURITE BRANDS?

Land Rover, British Airways,  Holland America Line,  City of Cape Town, Lindt.  And coming up soon,  Joule- SA’s new electric car.

BH: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT WORKING?

Walk up hills to keep fit, travel as much as possible, ride my Harley Davidson and read books by the dozen.

BH: IF YOU WERE MAGICALLY TRANSPORTED BACK TO BEING 10 YEARS OLD AGAIN – WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

Easy- I would not wait until I was 16 to start being interested in girls.  What a waste of six years. Girls are far more interesting than Meccano sets, Superman comics and playing Red Rover Cross Over.

BH: YOU’RE WALKING INTO A SUPERMARKET DESIGNED BY CHRIS MOERDYK. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE, HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL? WHAT’S THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?

Basically, exactly like Pick n Pay.  (Raymond Ackerman was also a mentor of mine) The first thing I would feel is, “hey I can trust these people..” because they would all be seen to be working their arses off trying to make me enjoy the experience. And the experience would be my expectations being exceeded. Sounds like a dream. It isn’t. Its possible.

BH: IF YOU WERE THE CEO OF SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS- WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

First of all fire the person who is in charge of customer service training  mainly because whoever that person is they haven’t done a solid days work in years.  After that I would change just about everything, especially those current holier than thou attitudes and sulky expressions.

BH: DID YOU EVER DOUBT YOURSELF, AND IF SO – WHAT KEPT YOU GOING?

Often. More times that I would happily admit. I kept going by leaving the really big decisions to my board of directors who are made up of God, The Virgin Mary and 12 carefully selected saints. They look after bringing in the business and helping me with strategy, I just worked my arse off.  Seriously, I am not kidding.

BH: WHAT POSTER DID YOU HAVE ABOVE YOUR BED IN HIGH SCHOOL?

I had three posters actually. One was of Natalie Wood in West Side Story, the other was a Jaguar XK150 and the third was of Springbok Cricketer Ken Funston not because I particularly thought of him as my all time sporting hero but because he lived down the road and let me bowl to him now and then. But, mostly because he had a seriously cool niece who I was trying to impress by any means.

BH: FOR THOSE PEOPLE JUST STARTING OUT, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?

Dream your dreams, aim high and don’t be discouraged. Remember that failure is an intrinsic part of being successful. And work your arse off.