There has been no scarcity of realizing the results of Covid-19 on South Africa. It appears in all places you flip, there’s an occasion of latest numbers, new processes, new restrictions. Perhaps then, it’s time we put extra focus into how the pandemic has modified the best way we stay and work.Glenn Gillis, CEO of Sea MonsterWe sat down with Glenn Gillis, CEO of Sea Monster, to learn how the advertising and marketing panorama has modified in South Africa, how Sea Monster is adapting, and recommendation transferring ahead for all entrepreneurs. Pursuing the dreamSea Monster was born from ardour. Seeing the flexibility of younger creatives to work and form the content material narrative and giving them the platform to take action is the true birthplace of the corporate. From this, there was a realisation that they might take this talent from the leisure trade and apply it to normal company communications studying. “We had been captivated with unlocking studying capabilities in firms, but additionally their audiences,” mentioned Gillis. According to Gillis, manufacturers are about tales you inform with the product. “We use our abilities in animation to do this in a approach that cuts throughout cultures and literacy ranges,” he mentioned. It’s all about visible storytelling and it brings a contemporary perspective to how folks see and work together with advertising and marketing. Lighthouse and innovationFor years, Sea Monster has aimed to show the worth of video games and animations as a advertising and marketing instrument. They’ve already developed these belongings for quite a few manufacturers to share their story in an enticing and enjoyable approach, however one among Sea Monsters’ targets is to increase this concept.Lighthouse is their latest reply. Lighthouse is a platform which relies on the idea that folks be taught higher by interplay. Optimised for low earnings international locations and contexts, Lighthouse runs as a web-based digital engagement platform. The world large net has given us an array of potentialities for interplay – you might have minigames, competitions, quizzes, and so on., however up to now they’ve all wanted to operate by an software. “Web has received the attractive benefit that you simply don’t have to obtain,” defined Gillis. “Essentially, manufacturers come on board, they wish to run a marketing campaign, and so they can rapidly pull down an entire lot of those functionalities round learn how to interact prospects, after which reward them.”The advertising and marketing area could be difficult to interact with while you want one thing executed rapidly. Lighthouse was born from the concept all people ought to have the ability to entry high quality advertising and marketing methods which are versatile and interactive. “If what you are able to do is unlock the motivation that folks need to wish to interact in one thing, then the character of that relationship is essentially completely different,” mentioned Gillis. “That’s a very highly effective concept that underpins Lighthouse.”The second thought which speaks to what Lighthouse is attempting to attain is instilling the idea that folks can affect their very own actuality. “It feels like a noble dream, doesn’t it?” requested Gillis. “In our little approach, Lighthouse is saying, ‘Listen, for those who’re good at that recreation, we’re going to reward you.’ So there’s this noble concept that underpins it, however it’s a really sensible factor, as a result of I do wish to reward the one who engages with my model. And now we’ve received the info and we’ve received the platform that enables for that to occur.”The not-so-new normalA world occasion just like the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly adjustments, and has modified, the best way we work and stay our day by day lives. Sea Monster has primarily been a distant working firm from the beginning, and when Covid hit, they tried to be extra courageous about their selections. Gillis expressed that there are alternatives now the place as an alternative of spending cash to fly folks out to occasions that host a few hundred of company, it can save you by internet hosting an internet presentation which homes 200,000 company. Even although there have been important challenges to face, there are moments of change we are able to take constructive benefit of. “We are, each day, placing a message on the market that there’s hope, that there’s this capacity to commerce our approach out of the state of affairs,” mentioned Gillis. “We’re not going to do that by doing issues that now not work, or not backing alternatives, not backing South Africa. It’s a name to corporates in all places: make the decision, make the choice, let’s get going. Sea Monster was one among three winners of the U.S.-Africa Tech Challenge, for his or her modern strategy of utilizing video games and animation to fight Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation.
sitting down with Glenn Gillis
