Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging, design and food launches:
- Hallmark House is transforming into designer mixed-use space in Maboneng
- Lipton launches a new combination iced tea flavour
- Protea Fire & Ice! Menlyn opens, and
- the rebrand of Orlando Stadium is underway
Hallmark House R200m redesign
The landmark Hallmark House, described as an “iconic post-modernist building”, is being transformed into a R200 million luxury residential tower, hotel and retail space which is meant to add to the expanding regeneration of the Maboneng Precinct in the Johannesburg East central business district.
What makes this development distinctive is that it is being repurposed and redesigned by David Adjaye OBE, the principal architect and world-renowned Tanzanian-born British architect responsible for the recently designed US$360 million Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington DC. He describes himself as passionate about Africa and urban regeneration.
The 66-metre-high modular structure was originally designed by Greg Cohen in the early 1970s to house a growing diamond-polishing industry. Flexible and modular in structure, it was versatile enough to house light-industrial, showroom and office spaces.
Landmark tenants will include the expansion of Cape Town’s The Grand Café with the launch of The Grand Café Roof Top Bar on the top floor of the building, alongside Smack! Microbrewery and The Bioscope outdoor cinema.
The development, by Propertuity, is underpinned by solid security and a high-speed-technology infrastructure, offering 24-hour security staff, an in-house concierge, a biometric fingerprint system, a CCTV-camera system, high-speed internet and wifi.
According to Adjaye, Johannesburg’s Eastern CBD regeneration is perfectly in line with what is happening around the world, and points at Hackney in London’s East End and New York’s Meatpacking District as examples.
The glass-panelled tower is scheduled for completion in May 2016 and residential sales opened mid-March this year, with apartments priced from R495 000 for a studio of 35m2.. There are also two-bedroom options of 300m2 with terraces.
Social media: @propertuitySA @AdjayeAssoc
Green tea with a Lipton twist
A major FMCG product trend in recent years has been the addition of healthier benefits to products. Lipton Ice Tea has just launched its first combination flavour, the new Green Ice Tea Pear & Peach flavoured variant.
According to Neo Phiri, marketing manager of Lipton Ice Tea, the iced tea market is experiencing rapid growth both globally and locally. The new variant is intended to refresh and uplift.
The launch is being supported by an integrated marketing campaign, including in-store activations, a radio campaign, and PR.
“We will also put a major focus on offering sampling of the new flavour combination nationwide over the next three months in order to get consumers to try the naturally refreshing flavour combination,” adds Phiri.
Social media: @LiptonIceTeaSA
Protea Hotels heat up Menlyn Park
After a three-year design and construction project, the designer Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Menlyn Park has opened its doors with reports of superior design and artistic elements. There’s a 17m Chesterfield couch in the lounge, an Olympic-length lap pool, stairwell graffiti, light features and other trendy indoor/outdoor spaces.
Plan 1 is the branding and design agency behind this.
“With [each] Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! property the Protea Hotels group opens, we have pushed the envelope on style and have set trends. Pretoria is no different,” says Mark Satterfield, Marriott International business leader in South Africa.
The new hotel is situated next to the Menlyn Park shopping mall and close to the N1 highway. It is designed for the “millennial traveller” and visitor. The social areas is meant to flow easily from dining to indoor lounging and then to outdoor lounging in the outdoor living room, where social pods with their own individual fireplaces are spaced around the Olympic-length swimming pool. There is free unlimited wifi, across multiple devices.
The signature decadent milkshakes and gourmet burgers are on the menu, too, plus food-and-drink pairing events. But what should set the hotel apart is that it is said to have one of the largest and most flexible conferencing facilities in an on-trend design environment.
The ground floor can accommodate up to 350 delegates and the first floor up to 250 delegates. Each of the large spaces, filled with natural Highveld light from floor-to-ceiling windows, may also be divided in half to provide to discrete, soundproof conference rooms. On the first floor, the conference offering is further enhanced by two conference suites which consist of a boardroom each with an en-suite lounge. These may be used for breakaway groups or for smaller meetings, either together or as stand-alone venues.
Rebranding Orlando Stadium
Southern Africa building-materials manufacturer, Lafarge South Africa, recently concluded a sponsorship deal with Stadium Management South Africa (SMSA) for the exclusive naming rights to the famous Orlando Stadium in the heart of Soweto. It will be known as “Lafarge Orlando Stadium” from May 2015.
The rebrand is currently underway and the transformation of the stadium will be revealed next month at the unveiling of the new branding.
First built in 1959, Orlando Stadium has a rich and proud history associated with soccer, entertainment and the surrounding community’s involvement in the political struggle for recognition. Demolished in 2008 and rebuilt at a cost of R280 million, the new 35 000 capacity stadium featured in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Lafarge SA is the local presence of the international Lafarge Group. The latter’s brand baseline “Building better cities” is founded upon the global trend to urbanisation and reflects Lafarge’s commitment to help create cities that are desirable, sustainable environments for all people.
“Everywhere you look in South Africa, you see the reality of urbanisation,” says Ken MacLean, Lafarge South Africa’s country CEO. “The rural village of today will be the city of tomorrow. Informal settlements, villages, towns and existing cities are growing rapidly and must become viable, sustainable communities. Communities that need decent housing, hospitals, schools and offices, together with the associated infrastructure to connect and service cities, such as roads, airports, water and power utilities.
Comments Lafarge SA’s country marketing manager, Alta Theron, “The exciting branding project with Orlando Stadium will emphasise that we have always been, and always will be, very much a part of the South African community.”
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.
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