Joe Public helps Ocean Basket sell 76 000 fish in one day

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Joe Public recently created a simple and effective campaign which helped South Africa's favourite chain of seafood restaurants sell 76 000 portions of their signature dish, "feesh & chips", in one day.

Monday, 16 August 2010 was Ocean Basket's 15th birthday. To celebrate it, they decided to sell their signature dish, "feesh & chips", at the same price it was in 1995 when Ocean Basket first opened its doors. For only R9.99 customers could once again enjoy a generous portion of fish and chips and on this special day 76 000 consumers made use of the once-in-a-lifetime offer.

Joe Public produced one television ad and one newspaper ad which were flighted one day before the promotion. Says Nikki Gibbons, Media Planner at Joe Public, "The strategy was to achieve high impact and therefore we focussed all the media spend on one day only. The TV ad was flighted 80 times on Sunday and the newspaper ad ran in the Sunday Times."

This simple media strategy, a great offer and a typically tongue in cheek creative execution, all played their respective part in achieving success for the brand. Every one of Ocean Basket's 133 outlets were packed to full capacity from 11am that morning until after 9pm at night. Not a single empty seat could be found and, armed with R10 notes and healthy appetites, people queued around the block for a table at their local Ocean Basket restaurant.

According to Brendan Mc Ghee, one of the outlets was so busy that customers spilled over to the restaurants next door. "They sat around our competitors' tables while our waiters served them plates of R9.99 Ocean Basket feesh & chips. Our neighbours got some value from this by serving our customers drinks," says Brendan.

Melissa Kelly, Account Director at Joe Public, mentions that the campaign also managed to create a buzz on social networks. "Both Twitter and Facebook saw consumers spreading the word about this unbelievable deal - some people even tweeted that they had gone to three different Ocean Basket stores for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

"The celebration was a great success, bringing back a sense of excitement and adventure to Ocean Basket. It was also a fantastic way of thanking our customers for all their support," says Manny Nichas, the CEO of Ocean Basket. "Here's to 100 more years of South Africa's favourite seafood."

About Joe Public

Joe Public is an independently owned, Johannesburg-based advertising and design agency with a deep-rooted love for South Africa. We are an agency for people, by people and it is this philosophy that inspires us to win the hearts and minds of the South African public in everything we do. For more information about Joe Public, go to our website at www.joepublic.co.za.