Pioneering mindful advertising with Inverroche Gin

Inverroche, the distiller of exceptional craft gins infused with indigenous fynbos that is sustainably harvested from the Cape floral kingdom around its distillery in Stilbaai, celebrates its close connection to nature in everything it does.

Aligned with this connection and its commitment to doing business mindfully, Inverroche’s latest groundbreaking campaign is using a unique series of billboards to showcase its products. These pioneering billboards, which are situated in four strategic locations in Johannesburg and Pretoria, feature a living cloak of lush spekboom. Each house around 1,000 plants potted in recycled, UV-resistant containers, making them easy to handle, maintain and redistribute once the billboards are taken down.

These spekboom plants are supported on custom-manufactured steel grids fitted with gutters to collect rainwater that is stored in Jo-Jo tanks and used to irrigate the plants. The water is then distributed using a solar-powered continuous-flow plumbing system, which was developed in partnership with Epic Outdoor. Each billboard is individually constructed to ensure optimal use of natural resources.

The hero natural resource, spekboom (Portulacaria Afra), is endemic to South Africa and one of nature’s most efficient carbon absorbers. Along with this well-known benefit, spekboom is also hardy, waterwise and easy to propagate. Individual plants can grow to a height of two to three meters within four years – and live for up to 200 years, which is why the plant is being cultivated to support projects like the Spekboom Net Zero (SNZ) in the Eastern Cape to restore overgrazed farmland.

Abundant to South Africa, just as the fynbos Inverroche’s gins are infused with, the use of spekboom on the billboards, perfectly aligns to Inverroche’s brand promise, which is to respectfully work with the natural environment; to build an emotional connection with its audiences; and to actively contribute to sustainable socio-economic development.

Like Inverroche’s previous campaigns, using live spekboom on billboards is not only innovative and adventurous, it demonstrates the brand’s commitment to working with nature and local communities to create a business that is successful in the deepest sense of the word. It is also a way to raise awareness of how the choices all of us make, both in business and our private lives, can help rather than harm the environment.

The billboards, which were established in early November, are situated at Sandton Close in Sandton, OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, the Mall of Africa in Midrand and Parkview Mall in Pretoria. Each element of these billboards has been carefully sourced and a second life planned to ensure a cyclical outcome that is aligned with the Inverroche brand promise.

The thousands of plants needed to create these landmark installations were sourced from the Owl Rescue Centre in North West, adding yet another beneficial dimension to the initiative. The centre’s spekboom project was started by eight-year-old Rebecca Murray – daughter of its founders, Brendan and Danelle Murray – when she found out how beneficial the plants are for the environment. It is now also used to raise funds for the centre.

When the billboards are taken down in the New Year, the plants will be donated to Water for the Future, a community project formed to rejuvenate the only perennial river in Johannesburg, the Jukskei. Not only is this innovative NPO restoring the upper reaches of the river, which was badly polluted five years ago, it is also mobilising local communities through skills training, employment, volunteering and art.

Block by block, it is steadily developing a seven-kilometre-long green corridor that meanders through several of the city’s eastern suburbs, creating a valuable ecological refuge for many species of birds, fish, frogs and insects, contributing to the area’s social identity, and promoting economic activity. The spekboom plants will be planted along the river, where they will continue their great work of capturing carbon for many years to come.

Not only will the spekboom be part of a cyclical journey, so too will the canvas used on the billboards, which will be donated to Shwe, a skills development and empowerment project for women. All of Shwe’s products are made from upcycled billboards and manufacturing cut-offs. Its mission is to create jobs and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.

Inverroche’s spekboom billboards have been designed not only to promote the brand’s exclusive range of craft gins but, to remind everyone of how interconnected people are with nature. They are also intended to support a circular economy in which all resources are wisely – and thoroughly – used.