by Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) Today we’re looking at how creatives from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria perceive the mischievous South African TVC from Dairymaid and House of Brave, “Delicious Double Creamy Country Fresh”, which was a MarkLives Ad of the Week in September 2016.
Attributes and associations
As an icebreaker, we asked our panel of creative, advertising and marketing professionals to give three attributes and word associations that come to mind when watching this TVC. This is what they had to say:
“Delicious”, “irresistible” and “indulge” are normally words that are associated with chocolate brands. For Country Fresh, this shouldn’t be a problem, as those are words that are strongly associated with cravings that need to be satisfied. The possible learning here is that brands may potentially leverage associations and attributes from other categories (although ice cream and chocolate may occupy a very similar space). Clearly, in this ad, it is working.
Our Pan-African panel, however, also felt that the story was “cheeky” and “witty” but not in a good way, associating it with “deceit” and “greed”. These words are specifically focused when looking at good old-fashioned family values — which is very important across Africa. What are we trying to teach our kids?
Despite this, the TVC leaves a person filled with positive emotions — encouraging trial, as it reminds you of your love of ice cream and creates a sense of desire for it. For some panellists, it left them in a state of nostalgia, reminding them of their mothers’ cooking and spending time with them on mother’s day. Those who had siblings were immediately taken back to when they experienced the “boisterous joy of playing with my sibling”. Using children in an advert (done properly) seems to work very well.
Technical perspective
From a technical perspective, the professional panel felt that the background scenery/setting, as well as depicting a modern, young mum, was done very well. The emotional benefit of the brand is portrayed brilliantly. The child’s body language and expressions put the audience in suspense — some great directing! Our panel noticed the care that was taken to leave a consistent trail of “double”: double girls (twins), double scoop, double round…”double made me do it”. One professional takes it even further, and elaborates that the secondary messaging is “the product that inspires intelligence/ingenuity/creativity”.
The acting is extremely effective as the target audience of both kids and adults can relate to this story, keeping in mind that it’s parents who make the purchase but children who may influence them.
As for improvements, our professional panel feels that the story is so strong, with the brand taking a back seat, that there is risk that the product name may become lost. This, in turn, could create average recall rates, as consumers might not link the brand to this awesome story. Even though a big success in the story is the use of twins, this could also be emphasised with some further reinforcement in copywriting or art direction, as it is not that clear initially.
Another area for consideration is the portrayal of the mother. Despite the brilliant portrayal of an urban mother, she lacks in relatability of how a “typical” African mother would be.
The tagline in the end may also be confusing as it’s not very clear: Is the little girl saying “double made me do it” or “the devil made me do it”? Once again, this may be a problem for many African consumers, as you wouldn’t want your child to be driven by the devil.
Another minor technical adjustment is that the kids having school clothes on in this context may also create confusion; for many, a good mother would make their children take their school clothes off before playing, and perhaps even make them clean up (shower).
Creative gauge
Overall, the professionals in Kenya rated this ad stronger, compared to their Nigerian and Ghanaian counterparts, while the latter gave the ad the lowest scores. The panel felt that the casting/characters was the strongest element measured, while authenticity and relatability were the weakest.
Our panel recommends that this ad needs to work a little more on the script and depiction of the mother to be more “African” (in the sense of her reaction and her being illustrated as an African mother; it’s more about the script and how the mother’s values are depicted, not her attire or art-direction elements) as this will make it more authentic and relatable, where currently she seems to be too nonchalant (not showing true “African mother” values) to be relatable and authentic. However, looking at the bigger picture and the target market, this ad is still very effective and will resonate with the chosen demographics — it will also not alienate a male audience wanting to indulge in delicious ice cream!
Next steps
All in all, this would be an enjoyable ad across Africa, and our panel members recommend only slight modifications:
Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) is a burger fanatic, wine connoisseur and eSports enthusiast (yes, a fancy term for playing computer games). He is also co-founder of delvv.io, heading up research, operations, product and culture. delvv.io provides creative expert feedback anywhere in Africa, in order to rock marketing ROI. Remon contributes the new monthly “Taking Flight” column, which provides Pan-African feedback on South African ads for other markets, to MarkLives.com.
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