Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging and design launches:
- The refresh of Primedia Broadcasting’s identity — brand story of the week
- Tea for two as Chaplon Tea launches in South Africa
- Hills ensures cat lovers will purr, and
- Levi’s invests in youthful entrepreneurs
Primedia Broadcasting unveils new branding
Spring Day heralded a new brand identity for Primedia Broadcasting, including all five of its commercial brands: 947 (formerly 94.7 Highveld Stereo), 702 (702 Talk Radio), KFM (94.5 KFM), CapeTalk (567 CapeTalk) and EWN (Eyewitness News) plus anonymous tip-off service, Crime Line.
“The new logos have been designed to better reflect the brand positioning of the stations and EWN as they are now, and where they are going,” says Primedia Broadcasting CEO, Terry Volkwyn.
The brand refresh is aimed at distilling the core values of each media platform, following upon research by Yellowwood Brand Architects, and showcasing what each brand stands for.
The new logos all encapsulate the spirit of the brands and their audiences, reflecting the strategic move that the broadcaster made a number of years ago to move beyond terrestrial radio into multi-platform content creation.
“We identified the synergy between radio and digital a while back and have seen the potential, as well as the results, that our converged campaigns deliver,” says Volkwyn.
EWN, KFM and 947 have already launched their new looks, incorporating listener promotions of varying craziness. Cape Talk, 702 and Crime Line will be launching theirs later this month.
Teatime, anyone?
‘I’m a little teapot, short and stout…’ I like coffee, but I love tea and it is always exciting when something new launches into the market, such as international sustainable tea brand, Chaplon Tea.
The quality tea varieties are all produced using sustainable and natural principles, sourced from sustainable plantations in Sri Lanka, the former Ceylon where tea has been cultivated since 1875.
The brand was founded in 2003 by Jais Lauritsen and has its own tea plantations, and all Chaplon tea leaves are grown without the use of fertiliser and chemicals.
The brand’s flavours include:
- Full Moon, a sweet blend of green and herbal teas, that can be drunk hot or iced
- Ceylon Single Estate Uva, Chaplon’s top quality black tea named after the tea-growing province in Sri Lanka
- Earl Grey, with bergamot oil from Italy
- Quince, which is produced from leaves harvested in spring along with quince oil, and
- A specially crafted Christmas blend has also been created for the festive season and will be available in South Africa from November 2014.
Additional flavours such as Mint and Mountain Flower will be launched in SA in 2015.
Chaplon Tea South Africa spokesperson, Nora Frey, says that in order to achieve the highest quality tea, Chaplon leaves are cultivated according to Japanese principles: “Our main focus is on quality, rather than quantity and, although this method of production yields less crops, it results in a much better flavour. This also means we may only be able to release a limited amount of tea each season.”
Chaplon Teas will be available for purchase in selected shops and on Chaplon’s website.
And if you want to see how a brand should dominate social media and SEO to the point that Lonely Planet recommends its tea house in Sri Lanka, google Chaplon Tea!
Yay, more cat clutter!
Hills certainly knows how to appeal to dotty cat lovers like me with limited-edition, designer kitty-chow tins featuring delightful art. The tins have been made exclusively for a Hill’s promotion and will be available (while stocks last) at participating vets from this week.
From 1 September 2014, vets have been giving away the collectable cat caddies with selected purchases of Hill’s Science Plan Feline. Fans that purchase a bag (1.5kg or larger) of any Hill’s Science Plan Feline may choose from a selection of four differently designed storage tins. They are valued at R85 and are large enough to hold 2kg of food.
During September, Hill’s is also hosting a fun Facebook photo contest on all the crazy places that cats like to sleep at or in, on www.hillspet.co.za/Facebook and there are more #hillskittytin prizes and food to be won.
The Levi life
There are certain brands that just know their audience and how to integrate with real life to achieve their brand objectives. Levi’s is one of them, hosting its first Pioneer Nation festival aimed at entrepreneurial creative youth in the Braamfontein precinct in Jozi on 25 September.
Levi’s bills Pioneer Nation as being “all about young people passionately pursuing originality with an understanding of how to convert that to income. Pioneer Nation celebrates productivity, encourages dogged self-confidence and promotes economic independence and sustainability above all else”.
There are 15-minute, personalised TED-style presentations — insightful backstories delivered by young artisans and entrepreneurs from a wide spread of social strata and industries.
Then there is a ‘Speedmentoring module’, which offers participants a chance for five-minute one-on-one sessions with a high profile panel of entrepreneurial experts.
The 16-hour experiential festival, which is an evolution of the brand’s global Live in Levi’s campaign, will end with a “multifaceted culturally-infused series of parties”. There will even be a movie.
When the music stops, there’s resource hub PioneerNation.biz for connecting young entrepreneurs.
Shelf Life is a weekly column by Louise Marsland 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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