Cheryl Hunter (shelflife at marklives.com)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging, design and food launches:
- Cape Town cover for Nespresso
- Castle Milk Stout is brand of the year
- A treasure trove in the Sunday Times
Cape Town graces Nespresso cover
Africa debuted on the 24th cover of Nespresso magazine this month with Cape Town — the first African city featured and showcased as a melting pot of arts, coffee culture and design, and tagged as one of the most picturesque places in the world. MarkLives asked Pierre Debayle, market director of Nespresso Middle East, Africa and Caribbean, to tell us more about Nespresso’s unique story.
Tell us more about Nespresso magazine and its origins.
Pierre Debayle: In 2004 Hans Joachim Richter, the head of corporate cof Nespresso, wanted to create a consumer magazine that went beyond the product, and offered some reading for pleasure — about gastronomy, iconic people and design.
That is where we decided we must make our Club Members an active part of this magazine. Back then we had famous actors and actresses on the cover; the magazine was not built around a city — this concept only came after the 12th edition.
Initially the magazine started small. Today, however, the magazine is distributed worldwide in around 60 countries, printed in six languages with almost 2m copies printed. The readers are mainly our Club Members: affluent people who travel and are well-connected.
Why a magazine?
PD: Nespresso is not only about the coffee. Of course coffee is at the heart of Nespresso, it’s the essence of the brand; however, if you think about the variety of our machines and accessories and the wide range of services, you will understand that aesthetics, pleasure, lifestyle and gastronomy all play an important role for the brand and thus for our Club Members.
Moreover, the coffee industry is really a fascinating world. You can discover a lot about coffee production, the different aromatic profiles, countries of origins, the way our farmers produce coffee today while keeping sustainability as a core focus. All these elements are great subject matter to tell a story — it allows us to entertain and educate simultaneously.
What has the mag done right that has resulted in this massive growth?
PD: Sustainability is very important for Nespresso and to this end we recently launched the online version of the magazine, which has a dedicated app that people can download.
With this we are not increasing the number of printed copies, but we are making more content available; this includes video content, which obviously cannot be part of the printed version. It also makes the discovery of the city and the iconic personalities more realistic and enjoyable.
At Nespresso, since inception, we have made a conscious choice to provide a synopsis and handle the entire value chain of coffee. At present we are in the field working closely together with the farmers through our AAA Sustainability Program through to our Boutiques and relationship centers where our coffee specialists are engaging with the Club Members. This dimension has created a real curiosity on how we do things with our Club Members and more widely with society. It is also a great opportunity to share the lifestyle of our Club Members in each edition, and discover their highlights about their city.
For Cape Town, five Capetonians are guiding us through the city — their city — and giving a different perspective of the City as seen through each person. This is why publishing our Nespresso magazine is important as it explains what we are doing and most importantly how we are doing things.
Why Cape Town?
PD: While it’s true that there are numerous iconic cities on the African continent, Cape Town was still a very obvious choice: Cape Town was the design capital of the world in 2014, its wine culture is world-famous, gastronomy is booming, [and] it is a real melting point of East, West, North and South.
We also shouldn’t forget that South Africa is a fast-growing market in our region. We have a great base of energetic, exciting, fascinating Club Members, who were happy to be part of this great project and made the content really colourful with their personal recommendations.
Being responsible for the Middle East, Africa and Caribbean, I really hope that in the near future we will be able to present our Club Members some other cities on the continent, too.
Thoughts about Cape Town?
PD: Cape Town is a unique place in many aspects. First I recently discovered that the mountains around the Cape are actually one of the oldest places on the planet, in geological terms. Then with its position at the extreme south of the continent — Cape Town has [a] particular light and atmosphere, as if we were at the beginning of the world.
Today, I feel that Cape Town as a city has managed to grow, in diversity, in embracing the new reality of this rainbow country of South Africa. Cape Town shows dynamism in design, wine and gastronomy — even in movie production — it has an air of California and San Francisco.
At the same time, the rhythm of the city is not as hectic as in the big cities, and can even have a very conservative look. This contrast I think is what is fascinates me the most.
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Savouring the moment
Castle Milk Stout has won the MD’s Award for Brand of the Year for extraordinary achievement in marketing at the 2015 South African Breweries (SAB) Marketing, Sales and Distribution conference, thanks to its 12% growth.
Castle Milk Stout (CMS) was also handed the Mercatus Award for the consistency of the brand and the value Castle Milk Stout adds to SAB at the recent Africa Conference.
The Boomtown marketing team has worked with the brand’s marketing team for five years, successfully taking it from a declining brand consumed by the traditionalist, grey market, to a thriving brand growing year-on-year.
Growth has been experienced in the rural, urban and 20 plus markets, with growth peaking at 12%. The 30-something market has especially picked up on new products, including the CMS Ultra Smooth and its CMS Chocolate Infused.
According to Boomtown, it’s the brand-led campaigns and below-the-line activities, that have engaged consumers at the point-of-purchase, which have created this success.
As the title suggests, this is the Managing Director’s award, and it’s Mauricio Leyva who makes the final decision. In his view, any brand that wins must be growing, be in good health and have all key brand attributes heading in the right direction for momentum for further growth. If all of these are in place, then he looks at strategy and the capability development.
Comments Glen Meier, director at Boomtown, “This is a proud moment to savour for us, having passionately partnered with the CMS brand team for the past five years. This to us is one of the highest accolades, to see a client grow year on year through consistent effective marketing.”
Treasure Island Times
The Sunday Times, together with DStv and Africa Stay, has launched a treasure-hunt-styled competition, with winners traveling to Zanzibar to compete for and collect their booty.
Thirty adventurers and their partners have the chance to win a seven-day trip to the scenic isle of Zanzibar to compete in various activities for their share of R750 000 worth of prizes. The winning team will ultimately receive a key to a treasure chest containing the prizes.
Running until 18 October, entry opportunities will be revealed every second week in the Sunday Times.
www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/competitions
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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