This is your country: SA Tourism promotes local travel with inspiring TV ad

Produced by Ola! Films, the TVC brief from FCB Johannesburg looked to market travel for black people to traverse South Africa the way they would like to, enjoying activities with their friends and exploring places they wouldn’t ordinarily feel comfortable to.

For film-maker and photography, Justice Mukheli – now Ola! Films director – this was a breakthrough opportunity: "Working on the South African Tourism domestic TVC was an amazing experience. The opportunity to create an advert that gives confidence to our people to travel this country their own way spoke to me on so many levels."

With three producers, Mukheli and Mfundo Mkhize to assist with capturing additional footage, Ola! Films director Olivia Leitch said that they were able to shoot in five of the nine provinces over ten days, coupled with vast distances and long hours spent on the road.

From the Union Building in Pretoria to Krugersdorp, the team filmed quad biking, zip lining, bungee jumping, cave diving, sandboarding, game driving and skydiving to demonstrate the wealth of tourism activities on offer locally.

"This is a very collaborative company where there is loads of cross-pollination between teams and everyone pulls together to make things happen," says Leitch.

FCB creative tea Khanyi Mpumlwana and Vusi Khoza agree: "For us, the most important thing was working with a director who understood the subtexts and nuances related to the people we were talking to and bringing them to life in a fresh and engaging way.”