[Music]
you stick around make it worth your
while
what what are we on what you keep tell
maybe because I'm so versatile smile
profile I see always take me back better
here Oh child from the Hudson River to
there now I wrote a marathon to the very
last mile if you battle me I will
profile people always say my son is well
you've got God you've got God if it's up
to me I'm a raffle father if you want a
better not intern now come to her in a
few check master hip-hop thank you very
much
[Applause]
today we can be talking about and fluent
some marketing so when I was at
university social media hadn't kicked
off yet that was only about 12 14 16
years ago social media hadn't exploited
and for me wrote is fascinating I
learned about traditional comms and the
best way to influence people was to talk
from one to man all right I want you to
buy into my message I talk one-to-one
that's a very interesting min boot I'd
love to
I'd love to learn more you know but if
you want it if you want to expand your
message further you have to talk from
one to many and how do you do that in my
day that's how quickly the internet
wields nowadays I had a day in my day we
used to talk about talking from one to
one and then one influencer was a
journalist and that journalists used to
be able to speak to many they would
write columns they would present radio
shows they would talk on TV and that's
how you would convince people that your
message was the most powerful message
today like Scott Kalitta - influencer
marketing is a six billion dollar
industry the world is crazy nowadays
most of the time we don't even know
we're being sold to social media is
serving as political messages we've seen
what's happened in international markets
when is politics and when these
different candidates vying for your
attention you're getting sold messages
constantly whether you know it or not
Facebook Instagram Twitter someone is
forcing a message down your throat even
in your own group of friends and circle
there is someone on Instagram posing
like this
some of you may even be pulling this
very face today
behind that TEDx poster yes give
yourselves a round of applause if you
did that at a TEDx poster you sir you
wiggling your eyebrows I see you I see
you and your ducked out but what's
fascinating is that we take it to the
next level and we look at the way that
influencer marketing is a reason why
it's a six billion dollar industry and
that's because of people like Kylie
Jenner whether you love the Kardashians
whether you watch that reality show
disclaimer I don't but the reality is is
that someone like Kylie is posting this
players with the truck seat look at that
two million searches for this tracksuit
because she wore it and that is the
reason why she is one of the most
influential people or she was of 2018
because anything that these people post
online results in commercial success
this is a 21st birthday dress she wore
this pink dress and was in the following
48 hours ma'am I can see you absolutely
your mind is burned you're shocked a
hundred and seven percent increase in
searches for the searched pink dresses
after she wore this to her 21st we want
to be like them we want to dress like
them I think I'd look pretty spectacular
in that pink dress yeah I mean I've just
shaved my legs for some cycling actually
I think I think that would be an
absolute treat but I like to do things
differently what if we consider someone
with zero followers what if we think
about someone who has absolutely no
grand-scale
influence and for me I've been working
with influences been working with
journalists I've been working with all
kinds of people that broadcast a message
for commercial success over the last 15
years and what's interesting is the
people with the smaller bases of
followers and fans and Friends they
actually are much more valuable to micro
audiences because you may believe it or
not but you're part of this 92% 92% of
consumers believe
people more in their circle why because
we're more trusting the world has become
inauthentic we know that anytime someone
is posing with a ring or with a pair of
sunglasses that there's a very good
chance they're being paid for it there's
a very good chance that there's some
kind of commercial transaction that's
happening behind the scenes there's all
kinds of legalities and rules and and
regulations that say that when you're
posting something that has a commercial
transaction associated with it that you
should put hashtag sponsored on it or
hashtag ad but we know that not enough
of that is happening so in the old days
when you saw David Beckham wearing a
pair of Calvin Klein's on a billboard
you'd know that David was getting paid
in money not in Calvin Klein's
sweet sweet cotton Firebird under way
but nowadays there's been a blurring in
this whole world between what is being
paid for to communicate to us and what
people authentically buy into I have a
tail meat haba he's my best friend
that's why I get to put him on a slide
because that's what best friends do they
get to tease each other and put
themselves in slides and blow them up
theater sighs I've been trying
aim lessly for years to try and help
hubber
to lose some weight you finish school
you stop playing rugby start eating a
lot of carbs you go to London you do
your traditional work experience gap you
eat a lot more carbs you get what's
known as the Heathrow injection we all
heard of that as soon as you enter the
gates and you go through customs at
Heathrow you gain in size and you get
the Heathrow injection and this is by no
means a fat shame discussion today
he's my base mates and I don't want him
to die of some kind of heart attack
issue it's not very serious guys father
makes it he's still alive so anyway so
hobo doesn't know I get approached by a
brand and they want to prove to South
Africa that they're the most authentic
health and wellness brand in the country
okay they've had issues in the past
where people have thought that they were
a bodybuilder buff
I don't only the buff area is that oats
hang out in Pretoria maybe it's Brooklyn
are they buffer I don't know but in
Joburg it's four ways so this brand had
this problem that it was a four ways
brand and all the boots that were going
to believe the bums they were using and
ingesting so you know for you don't
believe the bums you've been there
cross-eyed at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday
night it's not a great place to be so
they had a problem that they were
bodyboard the product so we wanted to
show that the average Joe and Jane they
should be subscribing to this brand and
they should be using it to help with
their training efforts and basic things
like glutamine st. magnesium's and all
this good stuff that can actually aid in
your training so I picked up the phone
to hover one day and I said hover listen
I'm pitching you as my guinea pig okay
for the example of today's lesson he's
going to be the guinea pig because
habo had never run five kilometres he'd
never even posted to Instagram he had
zero followers so I pitched over to this
client and I said listen I have the
absolute antithesis of an influencer his
name is James hopper Hobson he's never
around five kilometers
he's never posted to Instagram and he
has zero followers and if you have the
ability to impact this man's life he's
effectively the foil for South Africa's
health issues and if you can change his
life you can change countless other
people's lives so the conversation kind
of went a little something like this
hi mr. Kline cervezas crackled hubber
he's never run a 5-kilometer but we're
gonna do something absolutely audacious
we're gonna get him not only just to God
and do a little Parker on a Sunday or
Saturday we are going to get him to do a
half ironman cool it's like magic look
under my sleeve we're gonna get him to
do a half ironman for those of you
anyone who doesn't know what a half
ironman is okay but for the sake of the
video I'm just gonna tell you a half
ironman
is a 1.9 kilometer swim
it's a 90 kilometer cycle and it's a 21
kilometer 1/2 marathon run one after
each other in the same day I know that's
while there people talk about be hags
big hairy audacious goal this was
definitely one of those okay and we had
10 months to go from starting hobo to
get him to walk and to just start doing
the basics right he was paired with a
coach he was paired with a nutritionist
and obviously this brand that we worked
with became the support system to help
him to get through the aches and pains
all the natural stuff if he was stuff
magnesium glutamine helped him get
through all the different regimens so we
weren't fast tracking with some kind of
injection to help him lose but he wasn't
on any testosterone or weird steroids
like that this is all the jet and harbor
started out one step at a time walking
was his Everest thank you for catching
that joke from previous that's what they
call a callback in the industry when you
say something that references something
price
that's the callback of the day so
walking was hubba Everest and every day
one step at a time riding on his indoor
trainer going for walks slowly building
up to a drug getting on that bike
swimming those links in the pool and he
did thousands and thousands and
thousands of kilometres in each
discipline except for running because
it'll be ridiculous I mean we basically
send him down to Cape Town you didn't
run thousands of kilometres but he rode
thousands of kilometres and he swam
these teams of kilometres one race at a
time I'm ash over there nine four seven
and we just kept ticking ticking ticking
away until eventually at the start of
June 2019 this very year Harbor went out
and he looked at that large horizon of
surf in front of him there swimming in
the ocean people there's like you get
sharks a people get eaten not on this
day but you know generally you guys
shouldn't just go swimming in an ocean
and when you
we seen a flat distance of 900 meters to
a kilometer when you look at those boys
in the distance very tiny little boys
and he went out there and he swam and
after the swim he got out and he was
just like the little engine that could
got into the black the black transition
at an Ironman is long enough but to make
you feel like you actually have done a
race by the time you actually get onto
your bike and start it out of this
kilometre long transition clipped his
cleats in there's a live app tracking
where people are what they're doing
it runs what I'm doing it with him you
know like what kind of a good friend
would I be if I didn't do it with him I
mean I can't just put him in that
position finish the transition to
cycling look at the coach where's
hubba-wha denies getting a little bit
tighter don't know if he's gonna make it
God not make it I mean my job is
dependent on that it's a little bit
awkward if he fails we've been doing
fortnightly Facebook videos documenting
his Truman show of how he's been
training
get off the bike starts that long long
long run but for the sake of Hobart was
an absolute terrible walk it's midday in
Durban the middle of what a winter but
the Sun is beating down sweating
everywhere this is my reliving the
experience all over again it's half
lighter a good nothing on that Sun keeps
going I'm starting to run out of time
because it's actually a cut off at half
Iron Men he's got 8 hours and 15 minutes
to complete this whole triathlon on the
day 7 City eight hours it's getting
hairy now he's dead he was a Geordie and
he's got the strange Newcastle accent
like a that lazy bastard ain't gonna
make it you know every movie you've got
some pessimists oh no it's not gonna
make it there as hoppers dad
and at 8 hours 15 minutes 23 seconds he
did it rather applause to hover
[Applause]
absolute grumpy see look at that smile
on his face and it's an authentic story
he didn't magically transform overnight
he went ten months through this journey
and these are kind of the key stats that
happened he lost eighty kilograms in
weight look at that first image versus
way ended up seven million South
Africans were reached on this journey
five hundred thousand views of hoboes
content eight thousand plus engagement a
thousand shares two million rounds worth
of PR generated of Wabo story and the
best part about this we had a campaign
hashtag and I could participate in their
own stories and we had over 600 South
Africans start the own journey people as
simple as starting a park run someone
wanting to run a personal based at
comrades we were able to use our average
James his name's James Hopson see what I
did they use him as our foil for South
Africa's health issues and the biggest
catch about working with a Kardashian or
did Regina do you know that Kylie Jenner
charges you 1 million dollars for one
Instagram post call there's a hell of a
lot cheaper than that we didn't even we
didn't even have a million dollars for
the entire year for the entire campaign
but in ten months this story changed his
life and it changed 600 other people's
lives it also helped the brand to grow
by double-digit growth your Anya and
there it is an action you don't always
need influence sometimes you need an
fluence so when we're going to be
looking at our news feeds but yeah like
Instagram feed sir for the very first
time is gonna blow your mind
double tap for a heart that's all you
need to know right now in all of these
instances where is the authenticity
because if we're not careful and we
blink
we might get served an ad and we don't
even know we're consuming advertising so
it's one marketer to a room of concern
don't trust the internet all the time
thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]