The best digital marketing campaigns of 2019

Every year, the best of the best in the advertising, design, PR and marketing industries are honoured at the Loeries Awards. The media landscape is changing thanks to the advent of digital marketing and the fourth industrial revolution. This was highlighted by Fahmeeda Cassim Surtee, CEO of DStv Media Sales, in an article published in the Citizen.

“The media landscape has changed. The way we view what we view and how we access content is also constantly evolving. It’s important that the advertising industry evolves at the same pace. We are invested in the Loeries because of this.

“We want to help support and grow an industry where creativity is nurtured, where good work is recognised, where talent is rewarded and where innovative ideas are amplified.” 

This year, the winners of the Grand Prix prizes were even better than previous years. Two entries, which won prizes in the digital marketing space, are worth mentioning: Nando’s and City Lodge.

• Nando’s: ‘Afro-tising’

Nando’s campaign is a departure from its trademark approach of satirising current political trends, and makes the statement that “Africanacity”, a term coined by Mortimer Harvey for Absa CIB’s campaign, is “a unique way South Africans have of getting things done” and something we should be proud of.

The advert starts by throwing out the stylised clichés that have come to be associated with African youth and used when advertising wants to appear trendy and culturally relevant – purple smoke bombs; gritty images of street fashion, oiled-up, muscley black men and more – otherwise known as “Afro-tising”.

As the voice-over comments on how this supposedly edgy aesthetic is all starting to look the same, the scene cuts to downtown Joburg, where an average-looking, middle-aged black man is walking into a Nando’s. He orders Nando’s because that’s what he knows and trusts. The message is that there is so much more flavour to South Africa than what we are being fed.

“With this campaign,” says Lisa Schneider, managing director of the Digital School of Marketing, “viewers are reminded about the pride that they should be feeling about being South African and, as such, they are drawn to a uniquely South African brand”.

• City Lodge Hotel Group: ‘The Real Cost of Being Zulu’

The winner in the internet and radio category was City Lodge’s campaign entitled: “The Real Cost of Being Zulu”.

“In this campaign,” says Schneider, “the winner was in the story that was told. There were very little bells and whistles in this campaign but what sold it was that the story that was portrayed was one that listeners could relate to and engage with it”.

“We had a superb number of relatable and interesting advertising campaigns that were put out this year. We are positive that 2020 will put out an equal amount of memorable campaigns,” she says.

The Digital School of Marketing is SA’s preferred provider of accredited online digital marketing courses. To find out more about its online digital marketing courses, visit the website on www.digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za, call on 086-142-8710 or e-mail info@digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za.

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This article was paid for by the Digital School of Marketing.