The campaign is centred on six major elements relating to its dairy products - quality, hygiene, freshness, seal-fresh packaging, carefully selected producers (raw milk suppliers) and the secret ingredient, "love."
The animated television advertisement conceptualized by agency Joe Public for the Way Better branding and marketing campaign, has already won awards and nominations internationally and is said to stand a strong chance of winning local awards later this year.
According to Pepe Marais, Joe Public's creative director and Jody Calvert, the agency's media director, outdoor activation via billboards provides ideal extension and support for the TVCs and the dedicated website.
"Through our outdoor activation, we want to bring some of the characters to life from the Milky Way, which is the essence of the Way Better television commercial," said Marais, adding that this would maximize the impact and 'feeling' associated with the brand.
Explaining the billboard activation methodology, Calvert said, "We have chosen to go with smaller and more signs on roads such as William Nicol Drive in northern Johannesburg, enabling us to introduce two to three characters at a time to our audience."
There are currently seven characters - such as the Twirling Tinas (who beat the cream), Trodder (an elephant who stamps out butter bricks), Tubby (who makes cheese) and Clover Dover (who gives the kiss of quality to Clover products) - but more characters have been created and will be introduced later this year to enable the story to extend itself.
"All of the characters are original concepts and we see them having a life-span of at least five years as a central part of the branding message," said Marais, stressing that mothers and children are the core target market of the brand and product messaging.
The character billboards follows on the first set, which was done in June 2011 when the campaign was launched. The rare kind of signage on the initial billboards was a first for South Africa as these were handmade, sparkling billboards decorated with sequins. Conceptualized by Joe Public, the billboards were much more costly than erecting a regular billboard but, when weighed up against the high impact the billboards would have, it was an easy decision for Clover's brand manager, Sherian King to make.
As King explains, "Dairy products are naturally associated with childhood as well as the fantasy and imagination that go along with it. The imaginary characters developed for the TV commercial and now being used in other activations; represent the dedication and expertise of our staff in producing and distributing top quality dairy products for consumers throughout South Africa.
