East Coast Radio's groundbreaking campaign a first for SA

Jonathan Lumley

East Coast Radio put together a six month on-air campaign involving 213 unique ads. Each ad flights just once and each features a TAFTA resident making a heartfelt plea. Masterfully crafted, hard-hitting and impactful, the ads all begin with a sombre message from the residents: ""This may be the only time you hear from me."

"It's an amazing case study and it's so important that radio sometimes steps out of its own comfort zone and stretches to deliver something new," says Jonathan Lumley, Head of Promotions at East Coast radio. "This campaign is unprecedented in its concept and execution. It's fantastic that radio still proves to be innovative and unique while still delivering on the client's objectives. The amount of background work that goes into the recording of every single advert is intense and time-consuming. A far simpler creative would be to just "rotate" say five voices, but here we have an opportunity to push a boundary in simple generic advertising by delivering on a creative concept in just a tangible way."

TAFTA CEO, Margie Smith, says they chose to shift the balance of advertising power from print to radio in order to cast the net wider. "East Coast Radio is the number one radio station in KZN and reaches the widest and most diverse audience." While still in the infancy stage of its six month rollout, Smith says the campaign is already hitting the mark with the initial response from listeners being "really positive."

"We love the innovative concept and we are confident that this campaign will prove hugely successful especially as we move into the festive season which is usually one of generous giving," Smith adds.

The TAFTA campaign kicked off in June 2015 and will wrap up at the end of November. Recording and producing 213 unique ads was a first too for East Coast Radio producer, Brutas Maseko. "It was definitely a challenge but it all boiled down good planning. There was a bit of trepidation involved when recording the residents as they were not professional voice over artists. But their enthusiasm overruled that! We spent six days at TAFTA recording more than 60 residents with the help of flash microphones. Even though I've listened to the ads dozens of times, they always move me when I hear them onair, which made the whole production process worthwhile."