Global ad contest to promote Brand SA

Dubbed Get Wildly Creative about SA, the project calls on current and aspiring creative professionals, digital media buffs, locals and South Africans living abroad, and anyone with heart and soul stirred by SA and its continent to come up with inventive ways to produce a fresh and evocative message.

The message aims at promoting SA as a top tourism destination - now and beyond the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Simon Barber, US country manager and IMC spokesperson, told Bizcommunity.com on Saturday, 27 February 2010, “Our motive is to get people all over the world excited and thinking creatively about Brand SA.

“We are supplying a creative brief, asking people to research and think about our brand and then create ads in one or more formats to promote it.”

Barber however stressed that this competition is not intended as a substitute for the work of top-flight creative agencies that the IMC uses or their executions in support of its existing brand strategy.

We will continue to use these agencies, he insisted.

Contestants will produce ‘great content'

Asked what the organisers are hoping to get out of this first-ever global ad competition, which is set to get creative people edgy and dig deep into their intelligent minds, he said: “A number of things: inspiration, great ideas, buzz and excitement.

“Insight into how the world sees our brand. All can make a vital contribution to our work moving forward.

“Contestants will produce a lot of great content which will get the global market thinking about SA in new ways, and to which we can link and which we can embed in our own sites, and some of the best of which we hope will go viral.”

The ad contest is being hosted on social media site www.Zooppa.com, a digital outlet Microsoft uses to generate people-inspired viral advertising.

Barber explained: “This is the first time, as far as we are aware, that a country has used social media and a competition of this kind to ask the world to help it market itself. This is a fascinating story in its own right, so we hope it will attract substantial media interest which in turn will help amplify the message of what our contestants will be creating.

“If, along the way we discover bright new talent and launch some careers, that will be terrific, too.”

Multiple channels to spark interest

It is believed that the IMC, CMO Council and its new Geo Branding Centre will use viral communications, online conversations, blog postings and cyber chatter to talk up interest and participation in this innovative country initiative targeted at the world's 1.7 billion internet users.

Barber said: “One more point. Every cutting edge organisation in the world today understands that however brilliant and talented its own team is, someone somewhere outside the organisation has a better idea.

“What social media and the internet do is enable an organisation to tap into vast pools of creativity and wisdom far beyond its own walls and so dramatically increase the chances of its discovering the better idea.”

However, one wonders exactly how much the IMC is forking out to sponsor such a daring competition. Besides, will they do it again?

Barber said diplomatically: “In terms of budget, IMC's contribution is considerably less than the cost of a single full-page ad in the front section of The Washington Post. However, we expect the return on investment will be incomparably higher.

“At this point I really have no way of knowing whether we'll do it again. What I can say is that the IMC will constantly be looking for new and exciting ways of using social media to promote Brand SA, and thereby make a real contribution to improving the lives and opportunities of everyone in this country.”

Furthermore, he said it makes sense to run this competition in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup because the World Cup is focusing global attention on South Africa.

“And that is likely to increase interest in the contest and help inspire people to enter. But our hope is that the inspiration, insight and great entries generated by the contest will continue to resonate and have a positive impact long after the close of play in July.

The competition goes lives tonight, US Pacific time, on http://zooppa.com. Download the brief: Brand SA's guidelines for creatives.

Visit the Get Wildly Creative About South Africa user-generated advertising contest on the Zooppa crowdsourcing platform

For more, go to www.brandsouthafrica.com, www.imc.org.za and www.cmocouncil.org.

Updated Monday, 1 March 2010, at 12.20pm