Tag Archives: Carol Avenant

New City of Cape Town logo: Yellowwood agency creative spin lacks credibility!

Feb 27, 2014

The Brand Strategy Consultancy Yellowwood, part of the KIng James Group and TBWA\Worldwide, is back-pedaling and presenting an implausible creative spin in the justification for its severely disliked new logo for the City of Cape Town.

David Blyth, Group Managing Director of Yellowwood, explains the elements of the logo design, for which work commenced in the agency on 6 January and on which 140 hours was spent. Interesting is to read the website, which informs that the focus of Yellowwood is to ‘build valuable brands for ambitious businesses‘, hardly a description of the City of Cape Town! From its list of services offered, it sounds more like a brand development consultancy than an ad agency, which is how the local media have described it. One can be pretty certain that Yellowwood did not write the strategy, and that it was presented with an ‘academic’ document which had to be translated into a logo!

The Yellowwood website states that the consultancy links its client businesses to their brands via marketing strategy, brand strategy, research insights (which appear to be lacking, no Capetonians having been interviewed for the strategy input nor about the appeal of the logo), data analytics, and strategic design solutions. In its Design section, which appears to be a lesser service, being last on its list of services, it states that its designs are based on ‘strategic insight’. Clearly the logo is a failure as Yellowwood was not involved in the strategy! Other public sector clients are the Western Cape government (via Carol Avenant, who worked there previously and now works for the City of Cape Town’s Integrated Strategic Communications and Branding department) and Iziko Museums.

Yellowwood’s justification for its logo design is as follows, as reported in the Cape Argus: Continue reading →

City of Cape Town defends criticism of its new ‘Opportunity City’ logo!

Feb 25, 2014

On Saturday we revealed the City of Cape Town’s dreadful new logo, which spread virally, apparently made public in the wrong colours, intended by the designers to be in the colours of the South African flag! The new pay-off line, to replace the current slogan of ‘The City that works for you‘, is ‘Making Progress Possible. Together‘, positioning Cape Town as the Opportunity City!

Due to the criticism the City has received about the logo design itself, and also to the perceived cost and the greater benefit that the monies could have been put to (the City claims the cost is only R313720, which is what it paid ad agency King James, and of course does not reflect the implementation cost of many millions, which it estimates at exceeding R 7 million as per its statement below!), it issued an elaborate statement yesterday, and hosted a media conference. Interesting is that the City media spokesperson Priya Reddy said that no public participation process has been followed, it not being required legally! It is thus clear that the City will steamroll the rebranding, and will not take cognisance of the public uproar about the rebranding, described as looking like a gear cog, a Rotary logo, or a police badge!

The statement is seven pages long, and comes across as very defensive and overly verbose and technical in justifying the design. The rebranding of the City appears to have been at the core of a dispute within the City of Cape Town, its Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate headed by Anton Groenewald and falling under Councillor Grant Pascoe, having been subject to a forensic investigation, which included having the computers of Pascoe and Groenewald as well as other staff removed in November to check the irregular City rebranding tender allocation. At that stage the Cape Argus reported that the multi million Rand rebranding tender was in danger of being cancelled, which would have been contrary to the City’s supply chain management policy!

The rebranding process appears to have been led by Carol Avenant, of the City’s Integrated Strategic Communications and Branding department, who once worked for the Western Cape government, and was at the centre of a row allegedly relating to an advertising contract awarded by the province to the TBWA/Hunt Lascaris group. She left Yellowwood, the King James agency in the same group, when she moved to the City of Cape Town, which may indicate a conflict of interest in itself!

In the Cape Argus yesterday the City spokesperson said they would implement the logo with Continue reading →

Will City of Cape Town Tourism Directorate forensic investigation affect Cape Town Tourism, World Design Capital 2014, and Marketing of Cape Town?

Nov 4, 2013

A week ago we picked up an article in the Cape Argus that intimated tender irregularities in the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events and Marketing Directorate, headed up by Executive Director Anton Groenewald, reporting to Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing. Now action appears to have been taken, with a follow up report about a forensic investigation and the removal of laptops used by staff in the Directorate, including Councillor Pascoe’s computer!

The original article was difficult to follow, and we have re-read it, to summarise the report as follows: A three year multi-million Rand contract for branding for Cape Town (no logo has been created for brand Cape Town by Groenewald’s Directorate yet, as far as we know, and certainly has not been revealed for comment to date) was at risk of being cancelled, just as it was to be awarded. The proposed cancellation was denied by the City of Cape Town, even though the Cape Argus has documentation confirming the proposed cancellation. The branding was to be used at events, the City of Cape Town’s Finance department spokesperson Priya Reddy said. She also denied that cancelling the tender would be contrary to the host city agreement for the Chan soccer tournament in January, which includes a R6 million marketing commitment. The cancellation of the tender would be contrary to the City of Cape Town’s supply chain management policy.