SABC TV revamps licence campaign

"Previous SABC TV Licence campaigns have had a 'serious' approach that often gets caught in the clutter of other commercials," says Executive Creative Director, Theo Ferreira, "we decided to do a complete 180 degree turn... and make the public sit up and take notice."

The creative team as led by Creative Group Head, Lapeace Kakaza, decided that humour would be the best medium for the serious message behind the campaign.

"The concept was to play with the idea of really bad, low-quality TV based on the premise that not paying your TV licence seriously jeopardises the quality of programming we see on our screens," claims Kakaza.

Each of the six television commercials portrays a different genre of local television - education, news, sport and local content - but in a way that clearly illustrates how bad television can be if there is insufficient funding available.

"SABC TV Licences is currently perceived as being a giant faceless corporate," says Festus Masekwameng, copywriter, Hunt Lascaris, "our aim was to use the campaign to inject some life and personality into the SABC TV Licence brand."

Trevor Clarence from Terraplain, proved to be integral to the success of the campaign, as choice of director, says Ferreira. Clarence, best known for his direction of 'Crazy Monkey' on MTV, provided the unconventional humour behind the campaign.

"Basically, it boils down to good citizenship," says Mike Rubenstein, Marketing Manager, SABC TV Licences. "It gives children in rural areas the opportunity to watch quality educational programmes. It also enables news bulletins in all 11 official languages and programming that reflects the cultural diversity of our country."

While it continues to build on the 'It's the right thing to do' tag line, it will also effectively engage with the viewer on a humorous level, says Rubenstein.