Multilingual advertising campaign for financial services sector

"Given Investment Solutions' commitment to transformation in South Africa and the Financial Services Charter, we believe it is appropriate and necessary to approach it in our advertising as well, and address South Africans in their own language," says Steven Braudo, managing director of Investment Solutions.

The new Investment Solutions advertising campaign was launched this week in Sotho, English and Zulu (the most widely spoken language) in South Africa. The theme concept of the advertising campaign is that of 'certainty and consistency' which is exemplified in all the advertisements forming part of the campaign.

The advertisements aim to convey a message through graphic illustrations that certainties in life that we can be sure of, such as 'the other queue always moves faster', 'the sun will shine on the last day of your holiday', 'Ntho entle mmuhi', meaning it's a beautiful thing and a reaction to seeing something beautiful and 'Lemini iyeza nakuwe', meaning one day it will come to you or you can be sure of some things in life.

Braudo said from an investment perspective, Investment Solutions' objective is to communicate that in the investment arena there are also certainties in life. "One proven certainty is that the Investment Solutions' multi-manager approach does generate consistent, above-average risk adjusted returns, even in a volatile market environment, by using a unique strategy, which creatively and tactically combines the optimal skills of many asset managers."

Les Broude, creative director at ChilliBush, the appointed advertising company responsible for the design of the campaign, said that it was designed with an educated and intelligent audience in mind. "It's key objective is to further educate its readers in terms of the multi-manager investment concept and how it provides secure investments, consistence outcomes and delivers superior returns by using messages that are portrayed simplistically yet effectively," Broude said.

"In addition to revolutionising advertising in the financial services sector with the inclusion of African languages, it also breaks the mould from a conceptual and visual point-of-view in that it uses typography to sell a benefit as a design tool.

"Although the advertisements are simple and clear, we were cognisant that since everyone can benefit from the Investment Solutions' solution, the concept had to live across all audiences while keeping the message smart, yet understandable; clever but conservative and powerful and memorable. While using a humorous, dramatic and authoritative tone with wide-appeal," said Broude.

"Akin to the volatile and dynamic investment and market environment, the advertising campaign is readily adaptable while retaining the key messages of consistency and certainty," he said.

The campaign is also flexible in that it has been developed to work through-the-line, that is, across different types of media such as print, radio, slides, internet.