"Open Africa is an incredibly inspiring organisation and their groundbreaking work is improving the lives of people throughout the continent," says Nicky Steel, Yellowwood General Manager. "We were privileged to partner with them and lend our brand expertise to a cause that is altering the African tourism landscape for the betterment of rural communities."
Yellowwood assisted in enhancing Open Africa's much-loved footprint icon to make it more distinguishable from the many brands who have copied it. The icon is now more modern, and it encapsulates the organisation's new by-line: 'life enriching journeys', to reflect its core purpose - connecting routes to markets through journeys that are life enriching for travellers, communities, businesses and for the environment. Open Africa's attractive new brand look is complemented by its revamped website which includes a blog, social media features, streamlined navigation and a new section on sponsor opportunities. The design, content and tone of the website were closely guided by the Yellowwood creative team.
"We are thrilled with the result, and commend Yellowwood Future Architects who expertly helped with the thinking and then generously translated it into design pro bono," says Noel de Villiers, Chief Executive of Open Africa.
Open Africa's goal is to create off the beaten track, self-drive routes that cluster travel attractions in an area for travellers to explore (including accommodation, tour guides and meetings with local artisans). These routes are marketed through an innovative travel portal (www.openafrica.org) and other marketing devices. It was from this pioneering concept that Yellowwood derived the powerful by-line, 'life enriching journeys.' And it is a phrase that is truly being transformed into reality...
So far, 59 Routes have been developed in six countries, with 2425 participant businesses that employ 30 000 people. 80% of the results have been in South Africa, where two-thirds of the beneficiaries are previously disadvantaged. For every job created in tourism there is scope for at least 1, 2 more local jobs in the feedback chain.
Linking African Tourism to Personal Discovery
Given the success of Yellowwood's branding partnership with Open Africa, the creative agency will continue to work with Open Africa on their groundbreaking new Genome Project. Since its inception in 1995, Open Africa has been highlighting Africa as the birthplace of humankind and reinforcing the 'come home' theme as a marketing platform for Africa. In fact, the organisation's footprint logo emanated from this theme. Since then, more conclusive evidence that Africa was the birthplace of humankind has emerged. The latest evidence is the dramatic announcement a few months ago of a new fossil find by Lee Berger in Maropeng in 2008. Berger led a team that unearthed two specimens of Australopithecus sediba at the Malapa Caves.
Concurrently, massive strides have been made in decoding DNA - enabling the ancestry of individuals to be traced. Open Africa is developing an initiative where peoples' DNA analysis can be linked to the area of their origins in Africa, and which encourages people to come home to Africa to explore their area of origin. The initiative is still under development.
"The Genome Project initiative could potentially revolutionise African tourism, while at the same time satisfying the natural curiosity that we all have about our origins," says Steel. "It will excite tremendous interest in Africa, and Yellowwood is looking forward to being involved in what may become one of South Africa's most pioneering marketing initiatives."
