When it comes to being boxed into disciplines or integrated marketing comms' lanes, Mike Sharman CCO and founder of Retroviral will vehemently rage against the machine. Outspoken, and unashamedly obsessed with making sh@# go viral, this is what he had to say about Retroviral's role in the earned media landscape.
Chief creative officer of Retroviral, which has made more brands ‘go viral, globally’ than any other agency in Africa. You will have seen his work for Checkers Sixty60, Kreepy Krauly, Castle Lager, and Showmax to name a few.
He has developed campaigns that have been classified as 'truly viral' (The Sixty60 Swindler, My Kreepy Teacher, Nando's Last Dictator Standing)
Mike was a top 40 under 40 South African in 2023 and named a Mail & Guardian top 200 young (under 35) South Africans in 2013.
Tell us about your PR company.
No disrespect but we are not a PR company. Retroviral is a creative agency that leverages earned media as a north star for whether or not an idea is remarkable.
If your idea is powerful enough to be featured on primetime news, you're onto a winner.
It took us 10 years to become an overnight success when My Kreepy Teacher - the parody of the lockdown phenomenon My Octopus Teacher - went globally viral. For a decade we had been eating our own dogfood and making at least one brand famous, internationally per year, with a mix of content, influencer and PR stickiness.
In 2010, when we launched, there were limited self-serve media platforms - you couldn't boost content on Facebook or run Google ads' solutions with YouTube - so we had to sweat quality creative and the most influential tactic to communicate from one to one to many was PR.
PR is the dark arts of integrated marketing communications that most 'traditional' agencies don't understand the science or the formulas. The simplicity within the complexity for us is: 'in order to make your campaign newsworthy, you have to make it worthy of the news!'
What does working in the PR sector mean to you?
Some of the smartest and most creative people in the world work in PR, but the PR industry isn't very good at PR, itself. That's the reason why hardly any PR agencies are ever credited for ideation as the lead on most Cannes or Loeries PR category winning entries. PR also missed a trick on 'owning social media'. The sector was too slow in sticking its hand up to control one of a brand's most important originators of narrative / rhetoric.
What do you love most about the PR industry?
The people - teammates, the media (journos), the OG influencers and content creators - the energy, and the thrill of your brands being personified as news headlines. Google hunting down coverage is a drug!
What excites you about corporate communications in Africa?
Hmm. I'd counter that with what improvements are required in this space. I think we need to take ourselves a LOT less seriously. We're living in the age of meme-able, stitchable TikToks. We should be leaning in. We're not saving lives, at most we're saving MP4s.
How does your PR organisation shape business, governance, or society?
When family whatsapp groups are popping and your content is literally a part of local culture. When your friends, who are teachers say: 'have you SEEN this ad?' or when you get something that you've made that says 'forwarded many times' - that's a thrill.
Look, there are some very serious narrative structure developers, who are affecting policy, driving societal change and encouraging people to offset their carbon emissions. I have nothing but respect for them. I personally love entertainment. I want to entertain an audience - via comedy, drama or a legitimate purpose (not the find your 'why' kind of purpose) - and if we can do that with a brand partnership and key messaging, my creative cup overfloweth.
How important are platforms like Bizcommunity for your media presence?
Bizcomm, Marklives and the media online are industry platforms that I have nothing but respect for. We need a healthy industry press to celebrate and call people out on their BS. We operate in an ego-fuelled environment and the media plays a critical role in keeping us humble
What is your company’s greatest achievement to date?
We've made more brands 'go viral', globally than any other agency in Africa. We have many campaign highlights in our 15 years - from Nando's, Sixty60, Castle Lager Granboks, Showmax, to our most recent Black Crown Afrobeatanicals. We love what we do. No, we are obsessed.
