Advertising News South Africa

Branding at large

Recent campaigns include Barclay's mall promotion by Primall Media, Biblioteq's funky window design by Am I Collective, Wideopen's hoarding for Honda, The Letter Corporation's washroom display for Samsung and Publicis Johannesburg's animated television ad for Cadbury.

Branding at large

Barclay's recent brief to Primall Media for its credit card campaign required that the communication be innovative and out-the-box. Using combinations of clean, striking graphics and strategic placements, the campaign aimed to dominate areas in selected shopping malls – highlighted on lift doors, hanging banners, and displayed in brilliant format on Primall Media's unique Glass Wall.

“Using mall advertising allowed us to contextualise the advertising. Consumers in retail spaces willingly receive communication regarding credit cards and other retail special offers. The campaign was designed to capitalise on a consumer's ‘buying frame' mindset when visiting malls,” says Danielle Haggiyannes, account manager for Primall Media.

Designing windows

2007 Loerie Award winners Biblioteq, a creative bookshop, and Am I Collective, a design/illustration agency, recently came together to create a funky and fun collaboration for a temporary window design that serves as an eye-catching canvas and a competition teaser.

The window consists of a series of circular motifs layered to create a brightly-coloured fantasy landscape in the bookshop's Kloof Street window. This is the first in an ongoing series of guest window-designers who will be using the bookshop window to express themselves.

Inspired by the design and the extension of this concept into a recent collaboration with Visi (spring edition), Biblioteq has also been running a sticker design competition for the public.

Biblioteq's agency FoxP2 won two Bronzes at the Loeries – one for the Biblioteq logo and one for the shop interior.

Winning big

The Honda Civic 1.8-VTEC VX I recently beat seven other finalists and endured rigorous testing to scoop the Car of the Year 2007 award. In order to boost the brand's ‘talkability factor', Honda splashed out with a giant construction hoarding to compliment the national awareness campaign which included print, television, publicity, outdoor as well as below-the-line activities.

A fundamental element to the outdoor adspend was a 25-metre long wrap along Sandton Drive in Johannesburg. The site was specifically selected to meet the target market of the brand; men between the ages of 35 and 54 in LSM 8 –10. Creative work was by DDB South Africa, with media planning by OMD. The Wideopen Platform site boundary hoarding will be up till mid September 2007.

Little space required

In contrast, using the payoff line “This is all the space we need to advertise the power of the new Samsung U700”, Samsung emphasised the sleekness of it new U700 cellphone through The Letter Corporation's indoor network of male and female washrooms in specific venues nationwide. The creative execution demonstrates the power of the phone while highlighting its most prominent feature – the ultra thin design.

“The U700 is a combination of style and power, a must-have accessory for the fashion conscious consumer,” says Lee Curtis, TLC's national sales manager. “We selected nightlife and cinema venues to promote the phone as these were identified as key areas to engage an affluent, up market demographic.”

Winter magic

Cadbury's “Where the Magic Begins…” winter promotion is a 360 communication campaign including TV, radio and amazing in-store theatre. The television commercial, conceptualised by Publicis Johannesburg, is Cadbury Dairy Milk's first foray into the world of animation.

“We wanted to convey the magic of Cadbury World, and this was best done through animation as it allowed us to create a fantastical world where each slab of Cadbury's Dairy Milk is made,” explains Publicis' senior art director Chris Lesser.

The commercial opens on a traditional wishing well, through which viewers are transported to the wonderful world of Cadbury where chocolate rain falls from the sky into wide rivers of thick indulgent chocolate. A rich assortment of fanciful robots work together, mixing in the finest fruit and nuts, and a little bit of magic, to create a slab of this iconic chocolate.

The promotion is supported by an SMS competition to win a trip to Cadbury World in the UK, using Cadbury wishing well display units carrying specially-marked packs.

About Simone Puterman

Simone Puterman (@SimoneAtLarge) is currently editor-at-large at Marklives.com and deputy chair of the Sanef online editors subcommittee. After majoring in psychology and linguistics at Rhodes University, and then completing her honours in psychology, she has been in the world of B2B publishing since 1997, with 7.5 year stints at both WriteStuff Publishing and Bizcommunity.com (March 2006-August 2013). Email her at moc.sevilkram@enomis.
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