Stimulii cuts a deal with House of Diehl

Style Wars® is a style showdown, where designers battle it out live on stage to create new fashion in less than five minutes. The inventors of style battling, House of Diehl, will be coming to SA Fashion Week from New York City to stage the competition for Tropika@Play, an extension of the Tropika brand.

“Tropika is ripe for brand extension," says Asheen Dayal, Tropika brand manager. “What could be more Tropika than a range of beach-to club wear which will be produced by the ultimate winner of Style Wars®?” Currently Tropika owns 76% of the market share, with 100% brand awareness.

Brand new high fashion will be created in minutes as the designers battle it out MC style for the coveted prize of R50 000, a textile course in London, an all expenses paid trip to New York and Paris Fashion Weeks, where they will have the opportunity to mingle with some of the world's hottest designers and the ultimate prize of debuting their Tropika@Play range at SA Fashion Week 2009.

“Style Wars is a brilliant platform for South African designers and the Tropika@Play label,” says co-founder of Stimulii, Samantha Moon. “The beach-to-club wear Tropika@Play range is a welcome addition to the already established Tropika brand.”

“The longevity of this campaign is enormous,” says Grazyna Koscielska, Moon's partner. “Tropika@Play clothing will eventually become available in retail stores across the country.”

Style Wars®, follows in the footsteps of Stimulii's highly successful and publicised Tropika Island of Treasure competition, which took place in Mauritius earlier this year - 10 lucky consumers were teamed up with 10 local celebrities to win a R1-million prize, which was split between the celeb and doting fan. Pint-sized actress Pam Andrews and Durban based Owen Madondo each walked home with half a bar.

Much hype was recently created around world-class photographer David LaChapelle's Spread the Love images that he took with 10 of South Africa's most iconic women for Clover SA. The campaign, which was secured by Stimulii, is one of their biggest accomplishment's to date - LaChapelle, who is best known for his Diesel and Got Milk images, has declined many opportunities to visit SA - it was only after he met with Stimulii's dynamic duo that he finally agreed to work here.

Stimulii prides itself on conceptualising fully integrated brand philosophies from a global perspective. The development and roll-out of campaigns takes on various forms including strategy-based product placement, entertainment property licensing and celebrity endorsement.