SA Tourism, CNN partner on UGC brand campaign

The three-year partnership launches this month and enables the tourism body to capture the zeitgeist of shared multimedia experiences through a multimedia brand campaign, ‘My South Africa', driven via bespoke website www.mysouthafrica.tv. The campaign will also be executed on air and in print.

2010

The campaign runs until the end of 2010, spanning the months of June and July, when all eyes will be on South Africa as it hosts the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This deal builds on SA Tourism's successful six-year advertising relationship with CNN International.

Comments Rani R Raad, SVP, ad sales, CNN International, “This campaign taps into the trend towards sharing experiences and sees the audience truly become part of the marketing mix, by creating the advertising themselves. It's a breakthrough campaign where South Africa Tourism can draw on CNN's expertise in creating completely flexible, bespoke brand concepts to reach the right audience for their business. We're thrilled to have South Africa Tourism on board for this campaign.”

“Need to be cutting edge”

“In a globally competitive environment, we need to be cutting edge in our marketing,” says Roshene Singh, chief marketing officer at SA Tourism. “It is our ambition to welcome 10 million visitors to South Africa in 2010, and we are well on track to reach this target, having received a record 9.09 million visitors in 2007.

“Our decision to embark on this campaign with CNN is informed by our determination both to differentiate South Africa from competitor destinations and to entrench our excellent arrivals growth. The campaign is a component of a broader global drive that is engineered for quantum growth in awareness about South Africa. We are very, very serious about global competitiveness and about South Africa becoming one of the world's most preferred leisure destinations.”

CNN Ad Sales' dedicated in-house creative production unit, Turner Commercial Productions (TCP), will produce a series of ‘call-to-action' television spots, the first featuring South Africa Ambassador and acclaimed music artist Yvonne Chaka Chaka, to drive viewers to the website.

Series of advertorial vignettes

A series of TCP-created scrapbook style advertorial vignettes showcasing the best submissions will air to 220 million homes and hotel rooms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The advertorial vignettes will be SA Tourism branded and will reach audiences globally via the www.mysouthafrica.tv.

As well as the competition mechanism, the online destination will host a picture gallery where visitors can rate each other's entries and sign up for a monthly newsletter and quarterly virtual magazine. A SA Tourism banner campaign will run across the website. Print advertising will comprise a run of ad placements in CNN Traveller magazine, connecting with discerning travellers across the globe.

The ‘My South Africa' brand campaign will also be promoted via a viral push to blog sites and chat rooms, as well as social networking sites Facebook and Flickr (see www.flickr.com/photos/south-african-tourism/). The web elements were produced by London-based consultancy Brand 42.

SA Tourism is part of CNN's extensive roster of travel and tourism clients. As part of its commitment to providing the most sophisticated expertise to the industry, last year CNN International Ad Sales launched the Tourism Advertising Solutions & Knowledge (TASK) Group to provide consultative services on the development of strategic tourism advertising campaigns.