Filmer.tv and Senses collaborate to create KFC South Africa's Mother's Day ad

What’s more, since its launch on Saturday morning, 8 May 2021, the advert has witnessed over 1.1 million views and over 3 million impressions across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Says Mo Matli, director, cinematographer and editor at Senses: “Our vision is to be at the forefront of showcasing South Africa from a relatable, graceful, and heart-warming perspective and this advert offered us the perfect opportunity to do just this. The ad set out to celebrate South Africa’s diverse culture of multiple mother figures – from grannies to sisters and even the lady down the road that you buy your lunch from.”

“We've enjoyed the journey, and seeing our vision come to life as beautifully as it has. The reception it has received has been overwhelming.”

This film was based on the cultural collective that South Africans have many mother figures in their lives and the narrative was developed around a young man living in the city, far from his own mother yet takes the time to show appreciation to the women who support him and ‘always choose him’, by gifting them something special - a KFC bucket!

“Having been in SA for 50 years, we have always aimed to truly drive the spirit of youth development at many levels – be it on the cricket field, through our Add Hope programme, or even internally through our bursary programme for our team member’s children,” says Suhayl Limbada, marketing director at KFC South Africa.

“And so, we are extremely excited about this additional avenue to our marketing approach and efforts. This advert has not only performed extremely well and hit home for South African audiences, more importantly, it has given this amazing group of young, talented, energetic young South African creatives an opportunity to shine with a global brand.”

Senses is a South African content creation team made up of copywriter, Mandla Phakathi, voice over artist and soon-to-be director, Bonko Khoza and Mo Matli who - after meeting a few years ago through a learnership programme – started collaborating on different passion projects and decided to come together to launch their own short films.

The first one created in 2020 titled “To whom it may concern” is a tale of an aspiring fitness trainer in search of a fitness bursary. The team work strongly together to share ideas, collectively decide on insight to work from and work hard at bringing the story to life.

“Coming from a long career in the advertising and film industry, exposed to the wealth of filmmaking talent across South Africa, we knew that only a small percentage of this talent is landing on the radars of big brands. This model was outdated and with so much talent out there we felt our industry needed access to a community of creators who understand the tastes, nuances, and styles of the audience that brands want to speak to. This campaign brought this to life and was truly a rewarding experience to see a young filmmaking team, who never would have had the chance to land on KFC’s radar before, win the job and execute a film that the public are responding so well to,” says Peri vp, chief creative at Filmer.tv.

“Filmer.tv and KFC South Africa have both been highly supportive throughout the project. It's been a learning curve that's stretched our creativity and our ability to independently execute brand briefs and we are truly excited about the journey that this has set us on,” says Matli.

Concludes Limbada: “This is just the start of the type of content we will be creating, and the impact we are hoping to make in young entrepreneurs’ lives, so watch this space…”