Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging, design and food launches:
- Oreo Playtime extended
- Shopper marketing with Nature’s Garden, and
- The even thinner smartphone
The quirky cookie rocks Rosebank further
Comments Grant van Niekerk, category leader: biscuits and beverages at Mondelez SA, “The café was more popular than we expected, with an estimate of 20 000 visitors in a month and more than 80 000 OREO dishes served (around four per customer), with long queues of guests waiting outside the store on a daily basis.”
Fans visiting the cafe in May will have a chance to create their own Oreo Cookie Creations with mini photoshoot sets and other fun activities. New OREO inspired treats will also grace the ‘Cookie Conveyer’, so returning fans will enjoy fresh delights.
Adds Van Niekerk: “We can now bring our fans a little more fun and a little more play over the next two weeks. We’ve been overwhelmed by the support and positive reaction from our fans and thank everyone for their amazing engagement and comments thus far.”
Retail wars — no garden party
Nature’s Garden is one of South Africa’s largest suppliers of frozen vegetables and chips, and recently wanted to increase market share across retailers. According to Rob van Rooyen, House of Brave executive director (strategy), the Johannesburg-based agency used shopper marketing to better understand how and when people shopped, and the definitive result was a decision to engage the competition on shelf and in store.
The bulk of the campaign centred on ‘road-blocking’, explains Van Rooyen: “We bought out all media types across the various elements allowed for in stores and effectively roadblocked the freezer sections for a year.”
In isolation, this may not have been effective, but the messaging was specifically designed to embrace the user experience: “We made sure we understood what the user was looking for in store and eased the introduction for first-time users by removing any risk — we guaranteed the promise of taste or your money back,” he adds.
In addition, a new pricing strategy allowed the product to be positioned just below the category leader, which to shoppers meant the same quality at a great price — and the perception started to pay off.
The campaign resulted in huge growth, according to House of Brave, with one of the larger chain stores seeing a 24% increase in sales.
Disclaimer: House of Brave is a client of Cheryl Hunter.
The skinniest model in SA
Measuring just 5.1mm, the Mobicel Air is one of the slimmest smartphones in the world and is now available in SA….
The Air is an undeniably attractive phone. It’s incredibly light, weighing only 97 grams. While consumers are looking for bigger screen devices, they also want them to be compact to fit easily into pockets, so slim is great. But that makes one wonder what features were dropped to achieve this skinny appeal.
According to Mobicel CEO Ridhwan Khan, there were no compromises: “We wouldn’t compromise on anything. Everything we do is about delivering an amazing user experience, and the Air is no exception. It’s fast, it’s feature-rich, and it’s affordable.”
The Mobicel Air is powered by the 1.7GHz octa-core processor, operated by Android 4.4 KitKat, and offers an 8MP rear autofocus camera with touch focus, Gesture Shot and self-timer options, as well as real-time filters and an image editor. There’s also a full HD video recorder and a 5MP front camera for today’s selfie-hungry generation.
Commenting on the retail price of R3 499, Khan says: “It’s a slick looking device with a phenomenal user experience. It’s everything you’d expect from a smartphone… and it’s affordable. It’s a winner.”
The Mobicel Air comes in white and black and is currently available at Cell C and Foschini stores, as well as from Mobicel’s online store on www.mobicell.co.za.
Shelf Life is MarkLives.com’s weekly column covering new product, packaging, design and food launches. Notify us of yours at shelflife at marklives dot com. Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Cheryl Hunter (@cherylhunter) has written for the South African media, marketing and advertising industries for more than 15 years. A former editor of M&M in Independent Newspapers and contributor to Bizcommunity, AdFocus, AdReview and the Ad Annual, she has also produced for various television networks and currently consults on communication strategy and media liaison.
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