It may be the month of love but we're revving our engines for all things design-centric this week, with Dave Nemeth providing feedback from Ambiente 2017, currently taking place in Frankfurt. He's noticed fine attention to detail as well as age-old traditions of manufacturing. First up on the local news front: DHS Media has obtained the publishing rights to BBC Top Gear Magazine South Africa. It's set to offer local readers both serious and light-hearted variety online and in print, including a new fantasy garage coming your way this March. Still driving our #DesignMonth focus, Pasqua Heard finds out from Net#work BBDO's ECD Brad Reilly about their recent work with Sinister Studio to create wonder with virtual reality, specifically for Mercedes' global #LookUp campaign. They successfully created an immersive experience by demonstrating what it feels like to sit in the new C-Class Cabriolet from a child's perspective. Reilly confirms this is the best-performing VR/360° video in South Africa to date, with over 1m YouTube views and 600K Facebook views - click here to see it and find out more. You can also find out more about the BBC global brand's strong footprint in South Africa, as well as the impact of their recent local award wins (hello Loeries, Pendorings and Promax BDAs), and plans to expand across the continent in the coming months in my interview with BBC Worldwide Africa's vice-president and general manager Joel Churcher. They've clearly added just the right amount of African spice to their winning British recipe in tailoring communications to the different languages of your target audience. Lots to learn from and incorporate into your business design thinking this month; get reading!
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