Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging and design launches:
- Bigger, bolder branding for commuter TV
- Heads up – milk stout in a can
- Pebble power, and a
- DJ suite in a box
Transit.TV on the move
Provantage Media Group’s TRANSIT.TV has rebranded with a bigger, bolder image and a new tagline, “We are the people of TRANSIT.TV”, in line with the culture, the energy and the vibe of its audience.
“In the one year that it has been flighting, Transit.TV has made an enormous impact nationally with numerous brands, including those in the pharmaceutical, FMCG, retail and fast food arenas,” asserts Jean Coetzee, GM media sales at Provantage.
Transit.TV flights nationally in taxis, taxi stations and train stations and claims to have established itself as a key player in the local broadcasting and out-of-home media scene. In 2014, the network will be rolling out to more key commuter nodes and will reach well over 7 million economically active commuters monthly.
“The new image and content for Transit.TV is fresh, energetic, vibrant and inherently South African. Furthermore, if we consider that this audience is highly mobile and made up of economically active household decision-makers, the channel represents a marketer’s dream out of home platform,” adds Coetzee.
The channel content has been created, sourced and packaged to appeal to commuters and features a variety of slots including news, weather, sports, entertainment and short-form films. In line with providing clients with a 360 degree approach to marketing, a research tool called Transit Track has been created in collaboration with Millward Brown. The research also shows that most commuters shop within a 15-minute walk of a taxi rank or drop-off zone, so the power to influence shopping behaviour with Transit.TV should be high.
Castle in a can
Castle’s Milk Stout is now available as nitrogenated draught in a can, even coming with instructions on how to pour at home to create the right creamy foam top (the way you are supposed to enjoy it).
According to Castle, the Castle Milk Stout Ultra Smooth has been created to give “a sensory effect and a special theatrical moment during pouring”. It is described as having a tight and creamy foam and a smooth sensation, due to the balance of nitrogen and CO2 gases.
Drinking a nitro-charged beer in the comfort of your own home is not something which just happened — but the result of product development to recreate the high pressure which beer on tap has. “Understanding gas dynamics was our greatest learning,” comments Frieda Dehrmann, consumer science and sensory manager for SAB.
She says it’s vital that oxygen be eliminated from any process developed as this could cause flavours to deteriorate. “The presence of dissolved nitrogen allows smaller bubbles to be formed, and this is what increases the creaminess of the head.”
There you have it — just remember to “pour hard”.
Pebble power
Absa’s new card payment device, the Absa Payment Pebble, was the subject of an out-of-home (OOH) promotion recently, where PMG’s ProActive team took over beaches in Durban. The creative and engaging activation included sandcastle competitions, mobile billboards, free product on the beach and branded rickshaws to get the branded messaging across.
Often an activation is a consumer’s first direct interaction with a brand. OOH touts itself as “an effective means of reaching a specific audience in an environment that is familiar to them and would be more receptive to branding”.
The Absa Payment Pebble campaign incorporated a variety of touchpoints to promote the product to the desired target audience, thus reaching consumers on a more personal level and building positive relationships between them and the brand. This also created positive word of mouth, further promoting the brand and growing consumer loyalty.
Philips makes music
Philips has launched a DJ suite for aspirant DJs in collaboration with international DJ Armin van Buuren. Basically, you can mix like a DJ, play from any device and share tunes with the new Philips M1X-DJ Sound System.
“At Philips, we’re obsessed with sound, and in Armin van Buuren we have collaborated with a global icon who shares that passion,” explains Wiebo Vaartjes, CEO of Philips Lifestyle Entertainment. “With Armin’s unique insights we have worked together to take ideas from the drawing board to the final product, delivering innovations that enable more people to share their passion for great music.”
You can be epic, too.
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. Until its cancellation, she edited the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper. She is currently the publishing editor of industry trendwatching portal, TRENDAFRiCA, for consumer insight, research and trends in Africa.
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