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We're always finding new ways to inspire brands, marketers and agencies to connect with customers. Browse through our news articles to see what we've been up to lately.

Emotional connection is key when engaging women consumers

August 20 2024 By FoneWorx women, brand engagement

Are you meaningfully connecting with South Africa's women consumers? Before you say yes, read that again and consider that the most important word in that sentence is 'meaningfully'. Women consumers hold significant potential for retail brands. MAPS research conducted last year showed that women in South Africa accounted for 40% of the national income and were responsible for 58% of the daily purchases in their households. The research showed tha...

Looking for this season's top engagement strategies? A few spring to mind...

September 01 2023 By FoneWorx

It's fresh and bright, and a little bit zesty. No, we're not talking about poolside margaritas at your Heritage Day braai (although we can do that too), we're talking about spring, of course! It's not only out in nature that new growth is all around at this time of year, spring traditionally heralds a slow but steady increase in sales too, as consumers once again start venturing outdoors and back into stores. In South Africa, as the weather warms...

Slow winter sales? Turn up the heat with these seasonal engagement hacks

July 12 2023 By FoneWorx gamification, contests, competitions

It's a fact, winter is slow season. Sales are sluggish, shoppers stay at home, and consumer engagement is all-round a little frosty. But tuning into the energy of winter, and using the season to your advantage, can increase customer engagement and as a result, brand awareness, loyalty and sales. For example, less feet through the door because of poor weather means more time on consumers' hands while they're at home, in a receptive state. Turn thi...

How to market to Gen Z this Youth Month

June 16 2023 By FoneWorx

The youth has always been a force to be reckoned with: pester power among the younger kiddies is alive and well, while teens and young adults command a significant chunk of the consumer market in both spend and influence. Youth marketing is big business, and in a country like South Africa where nearly half of the population is younger than 24, it's ripe with potential. But how do you ensure your marketing efforts have drip and are a Big W with ...

5 ways to use QR codes in your next campaign

May 15 2023 By FoneWorx

Fact: 11 million households scanned at least 1 QR code in 2020 in the US up from 9.76 million QR code scans in 2018*. Fact: The QR code global market size is expected to reach US$1268.1 million by 2026*. Fact: FoneWorx has seen QR code call to actions in SA triple in the last year. QR codes have moved well beyond their original purpose as information labels to track parts on a vehicle assembly line to become essential components of customer engag...

Easter eggs - the customer engagement tool that delivers sweet results!

April 04 2023 By FoneWorx easter eggs, competitions, website, gamification, video ads, social media, chatbots

It's the month of egg hunts and indulging in far too much chocolate, but did you know that in marketing, an Easter egg is something entirely different (although it does promise equally sweet returns)? Creatively speaking, Easter eggs are inside jokes, hidden messages or secret features embedded within advertising touchpoints that consumers might, or might not, randomly stumble upon. Easter eggs - so named because you have to hunt for them - are n...

The best platforms to use for omnichannel competitions

February 07 2023 By FoneWorx omnichannel, mobile, ussd, whatsapp, facebook messenger, chatbots, competitions, web, apps, games

Contests and competitions are one of the easiest and most effective ways to connect with customers. But gone are the days of cutting out competition entry forms from newspapers and magazines and mailing them off; today there are a plethora of channels marketers can use to encourage consumer participation in competitions and ultimately, high-impact engagement. The two primary competition platforms are on-pack and online. Your marketing objective w...

2023's top customer engagement strategies

January 13 2023 By FoneWorx customer engagement, competitions, contests, social media

If the new year has got you all fired up wanting to adopt hot new strategies for reaching and keeping your customers, look no further. We've rounded up the must-have customer engagement strategies for 2023. Personalise the customer experience As much as 80% of consumers* are more likely to purchase what's on offer when brands personalise their experience. Personalisation not only boosts customer satisfaction, but makes brands more memorable and b...

5 brand benefits of running consumer competitions

December 05 2022 By FoneWorx customer engagement, competitions, digital marketing, sms, whatsapp, ussd

It's a fact, consumer competitions work. On average, 34% of participants become customers after entering a competition, while 33% of participants are open to receiving future communications from that brand. Social media has become the go-to platform for promotions and contests, with brands hosting competitions on Instagram growing their followers 70% faster than those that don't. People are also 8x more likely to enter a competition using their m...

Black Friday brand benefits: more than just a sales frenzy

November 25 2022 By FoneWorx black friday, competitions, mobile, loyalty programmes, channel incentives

Black Friday is regarded as one of the largest and busiest shopping days in the world, with brands recognising it for its significant sales potential and opportunity to capitalise on the 'official start' of the festive shopping season among consumers. Naturally this offers up several sales-oriented benefits for brands, such as the opportunity to reach lagging sales targets, and clear old stock to make way for new products aimed at Christmas shopp...

5 reasons why your brand needs gamification

October 18 2022 By FoneWorx customer engagement, online games, gamification, spin to win, spin 'n win, pick a box, scratch 'n win, scratch and win

Do you still have an old, static website? Or maybe you're still using outdated competition mechanics, where customers need to try find your promo packs on 'noisy' store shelves to stand in line to win a prize? While these platforms are still relevant, the way marketers are using them has changed dramatically. Customer engagement is the order of the day, with websites and product packs now doubling up as powerful consumer touchpoints that go beyon...

Channel incentive programmes are more critical than ever before

September 13 2022 By FoneWorx customer engagement, rewards, channel incentives

Here's how to maximise their potential The proliferation of channel incentive programmes has increased significantly in recent years, as brands look to cut through market clutter and noise to boost their sales, increase their brand awareness and cultivate more relevant consumer relationships. There's no denying the importance of such programmes: global market research company, Forrester, says as much as 73% of all world trade happens through a ch...

Customer engagement best practice: VinoVeritas by CTP mobile app

August 23 2022 By FoneWorx

When the organiser of the Veritas Awards, South Africa's top wine competition, wanted to extend the reach of the competition by making Veritas award-winning wines and brandies available for purchase online, it turned to FoneWorx for assistance. For the past 30 years that the SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) has hosted the awards, Veritas has been synonymous with showcasing and rewarding outstanding wines and brandies. It has consistentl...

Customer engagement: the only way to boost brands (and revenue) post pandemic

June 28 2022 By FoneWorx customer engagement, chatbots, web app, sms, facebook messenger, whatsapp, mobile, web, competitions

Omnichannel engagement; individualised customer experiences that prioritise privacy; and conversational commerce strategies that connect brands to customers are listed by Forbes as some of the top customer experiences that agile, successful brands should be embracing as they navigate 2022. All these trends have one thing in common - they use the vehicle of customer engagement to elevate the customer experience. This is critical in our post-pandem...

Customer engagement best practice with Carling Black Label Champion Cup

June 28 2022 By FoneWorx ussd, facebook messenger, carling black label cup, mobile, web, competition, customer engagement

How do you get South Africans to vote 3.2 million times in a promotion that simultaneously drives brand awareness, loyalty and product sales? With a highly targeted campaign that remains firmly fixed on engaging and rewarding customers through an integrated mix of mobile, online and Facebook mechanisms, that's how. In 2021, Carling Black Label tasked FoneWorx with building on the momentum of the brand's longstanding Champion Cup competition and e...

Want better staff performance? You need an incentive programme

June 28 2022 By FoneWorx

Organisations with higher than average levels of employee engagement realise as much as 27%* higher profits, 50% higher sales, 50% higher customer loyalty levels, and 38% above-average productivity. In the same way that consumer engagement builds customer relationships and loyalty through positive customer experiences, so employee engagement does the identical thing at staff level. The result is a motivated workforce and strong company culture, w...