Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s pick of new product, packaging and design launches this week:
- Shift Joe Public makes waves in uncharted territory for SAMSA
- Kor launches in South Africa with filtered water on the go
- the new logo of IAB South Africa — formerly the DMMA
- Milpark Garden Court upgrades, and
- how to have a happy ending on Valentine’s Day, even if you’re single!
Making waves in uncharted territory
Advertising agencies don’t only make their money off glamorous TVCs — a lot of their bread and butter is work such as designing annual reports. But, of course, this is Joe Public, which is leaving most of the industry trailing in its wake these days, so any annual report it does is bound to leap out.
Shift Joe Public was briefed to create an annual report that would position the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) as a global maritime authority, with influence across southern Africa and the continent.
SAMSA’s objective is to lead and champion South Africa’s maritime interests. Its mission is to develop and position the country as an international maritime centre while ensuring maritime safety, health and environmental protection.
SAMSA aims to make waves in uncharted territory as the “gateway to the world’s seas”, calling itself the “wave makers of growth”. There are also some nifty graphics and a fold out map.
And that’s it for the maritime metaphors, I promise.
Still waters run deep
We all know we’re supposed to feel guilty for harming the environment by continuing to buy and drink out of plastic water bottles. Kor Water hopes to change that bad habit with its plastic water bottles with built-in filters.
Just launched in South Africa, Kor Water has a range of high quality, reusable water filtration bottles made from BPA-free EastmanTritan, intended to lessen the impact on the environment.
The brand, Kor Nava, is centred on “sustainable, personal hydration”, with an underlying mission to make clean water easily available, challenging a bottled water market that creates mountains of eco-unfriendly waste.
The key to the product range is a filter made from coconut shells converted into activated carbon, creating a purification system that is supposed to be natural, safer and renewable. The filter lasts about three months, or 40 gallons of water — equal to about 300 half-litre bottles… That’s a lot of plastic that doesn’t end up on a rubbish heap!
It was a successful Kickstarter project in 2013 and 1% of all sales go to Kor’s Thirst for Giving Initiative, which was established to raise awareness around global water issues.
Apart from that impressive product descriptor, the bottles are designer-cool in appearance and should find a market among hipsters anyway, even with a price tag of R200, as stars such as David Beckham, Robert Downey Jr, David Duchovny and Hillary Duff have all been spotted with a bottle in hand.
Don’t all gushrush out at once.
DMMA rebrands to IAB
In case you missed it, the Digital Media and Marketing Association (DMMA) of South Africa has rebranded to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) South Africa. This is its new logo to reflect the name change, designed by Mustard Marketing.
Founded in 1996 in New York City, the IAB comprises more than 600 leading media and technology companies responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. Its global representation includes countries such as China, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, France, etc — and now SA.
The IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend, globally. It aims to educate marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising.
In SA, IAB will continue to “provide members with a platform through which they can engage, interact and address digital issues of common interest, thereby stimulating learning and commerce within the South African digital space”.
IAB SA currently represents over 96 local online publishers and over 93 creative, media and digital agencies, accounting for more than 16 million local unique browsers and 440 million page impressions.
Milpark makeover
City loft living was the inspiration for the fresh look Tsogo Sun’s Garden Court Milpark hotel in Johannesburg, following an extensive refurbishment and upgrade of facilities.
The new design takes the surrounding environment of city loft living into consideration and expresses “a contemporary aesthetic with strong geometric forms and bold patterns”.
The massive rejuvenation project included the refurbishment of all the bedrooms, the lobby, the lounge and the corridors, and the addition of two new conference venues and a new fitness centre.
Brand-new room types have been introduced, including ‘Executive’ rooms offering a small open-plan lounge and kitchenette with semi self-catering facilities.
The three new conference facilities have seating for up to 140 people, and existing meeting rooms have been upgraded.
Get lucky
Aaccording to the Huffington Post, for sale on Amazon this month is a new product that guarantees satisfaction (pun intended): the Wake-Up Vibe alarm clock vibrator that promises to wake you up with “morning orgasms”. I Kid You Not.
It comes (pun intended) in three fashionable colours and will wake you up with a vibrating crescendo that builds into a climax (pun intended).
Unfortunately, there is already one negative review posted that complains that the guaranteed vibrations were rather flaccid… Okay, I’ll stop now.
Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Louise has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 19 of her more-than-25-year career as a former editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing, as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper and is the publishing editor of industry trendwatching portal, TRENDAFRiCA, for consumer insight, research and trends in Africa.
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