Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging, design and food launches:
- Wall media builds into Africa
- Castle Lite brought to life by Moving Tactics
- Salon Media straightens out ghd, and
- Jupiter Cape Town and Design Indaba urge change
Another ‘brick’ in the wall
Township wall media specialists, Keys Communications, are heading into Africa with its model which pays locals for wall space to advertise brands on major arterials. The new headquarters will be in Zimbabwe.
Its model has a pivotal social responsibility component, providing members of poorer communities with revenue opportunities for the use of township walls as an advertising platform. Brands in turn, have the opportunity to improve the socio-economic conditions of township residents by providing them with an income.
“This is our ABCD model of township outdoor media, which we are now introducing into the rest of Africa,” explains Anisa Kale, owner of Keys Communications. “The ABCD [Assets Based Community Development] Model, which uses existing township resources of people, knowledge and structures, creates mutual benefits between the advertiser and target market to foster community affinity and loyalty to brands.”
“Zimbabwe and similar countries in Africa are an ideal environment for township wall media, where like South Africa, there is always an ever increasing consumer market.”
The agency to date has worked with brands such as Supersport, Nedbank, Wimpy, Department of Water Affairs, Strepsils, Coca Cola SA (Powerplay Energy Drink), Guinness Draught Beer, Eskom and so on.
Digital moves for Castle
Moving Tactics Digital Impact is the most recent addition to the Moving Tactics stable. This division specialises in short-term, rental and campaign-based digital activation solutions and focuses upon concept development and implementation using touch, projection and holographic technology.
Castle Lite’s “The Republic of Extra Cold” VIP event on Stanley Island in Plettenberg Bay, at the end of 2014, saw the integration of digital elements into interactive challenge categories at the party which was sprinkled with local celebrities, DJs and performers.
The Castle Lite party involved many of the above digital tactics, including water projections to entertain the crowd; games; access control using guests’ own body temperature; video interaction; and so on.
- Access control: guests gained access to the event via the ‘Passport Control’ element by which they had to place their hands on a glass touchpad Android tablet. Once their fingerprints were scanned, a welcome message appeared and they officially gained access.
- Vital statistics: to determine if they were ‘Extra Cold’ enough to join the party, guests were asked to place their fingers on an on-screen ‘button’ on Android tablets, for a brief period to have their temperature measured.
- Catch a cold: the application encouraged guests to win points by catching simulated snowflakes in a Castle Lite beer bucket. The gaming mechanics involved a simple left and right swiping of the finger on a glass surface onto which imagery had been projected.
- Resolve to be cold: two video booths were used to capture guests’ individual video recorded resolutions for 2015 via interactive touch screens.
- Collect-a-case: guests tested their ability to stop scrolling at a specific time by having the scroller land on a case of Castle Lite. Points were scored for correct strikes and lost for misses.
The art of Salon Media
Bespoke artwork has been created by Primedia Unlimited’s in-salon advertising business, Salon Media, to increase brand awareness of ghd products within selected hair salons in South Africa. Mirror stickers and decals in varying sizes have been used as the advertising platform of choice.
“The artwork differs from salon to salon to maximise the aesthetics and spaces each venue has to offer,” says Kylie Henry, internal sales manager at Salon Media. “The ghd-affiliated salons are each sporting updated creative and the feedback from customers has been extremely positive.
“Our salon owners and ghd worked hand in hand to customise artwork and get the best benefits out of each project.”
#MakeChange
Design Indaba this year has called on people to promote change in the hope that simple actions will lead to creative solutions to daily problems in South African society. The campaign call to action, conceptualised by The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town, is #MakeChange.
The Design Indaba Conference takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), 25-27 February 2015.
For more on this campaign:
Shelf Life is a weekly column by Louise Marsland. 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 over 20 years as a former editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing, as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She also 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; a regular industry columnist and speaker; a consultant on content strategy; and contributing editor to Fast Company South Africa magazine, which has just launched in South Africa.
— MarkLives.com is a proud Media Supporter of Design Indaba 2015. Get our round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every Monday and Thursday. Sign up here!