Where is the South African Post Office brand headed?

In the last few years SAPO's business landscape has been changing. The post office's turnaround is rising steadily with emphasis on performance, innovation, efficiency and customer focus. Interestingly, the only thing that has not changed is recreating the love affair between the post office and the South African public.

"Repositioning SAPO as an office for the people of South Africa is essential - the need to explode the myth that the relevance of the post office in the new world economy has diminished," says Zeona Motshabi, Managing Director of Lobedu Leo Burnett.

Globally people are talking about speed, flexibility and pricing, hence the scintillating love affair with the Internet and other communication channels that make reaching every corner of the globe effortlessly.

"SAPO is technologically advanced backed by the building of a performance driven organisation and innovative services. However, the success story of SAPO is still eclipsed by the lost love affair with the public."

There is so much more than meets the eye, and Lobedu Leo Burnett is adamant that the success story of SAPO will soon come to the fore of the public.

"There are many publics in South Africa and it is our responsibility to reach out and harness them and ensure the appeal of the post office reaches them in a relevant manner, " she added.

Ray Mkhize, SAPO; Executive Commercial Enterprise, said that Lobedu Leo Burnett were the obvious choice because of the professionalism they demonstrated and the understanding of the post office business.

"We had a variety of contenders that were truly impressive and it made the selection of the agency to handle the corporate brand a very difficult task. Our final choice included three advertising agencies with Lobedu Leo Burnett as the lead agency," said Mkhize

"We believe that Lobedu Leo Burnett will develop a compelling brand of what SAPO stands for and communicate correct messages aimed at attracting customers and driving our revenues up, he added. "It's crucial to resuscitate the romance between the post office and the general public, and we're positive that Lobedu Leo Burnett is able to develop and create the vision we aspire for."

Lobedu Leo Burnett, formerly Sonnenberg Murphy Leo Burnett (SMLB), is the advertising agency in the Lobedu Communication Group (LCG). LCG came out of an empowerment deal between Lobedu Investment and Leo Burnett Worldwide.