The goatfather travels in style

"Creative execution is key in any campaign and I have to admit that the Goatfather Fairview cab is certainly turning heads," says Graffiti director John Rice.

"Graffiti offers a wealth of branding and transport advertising opportunities in the fast moving media sector. We handle all branding, advertising and sponsorship opportunities on Smart cars, student cars, trailers, trucks and busses. All formats offer a compelling and powerful media proposition for effective advertising, with innovative and eye-catching opportunities for advertisers.

Fairview's Goats do Roam range - currently the top selling South African brand in the US - is a product line that employs quirky and cheeky brand positioning to stay at the cusp of a developing market trend.

Inspiration for the range and its packaging came from the iconic Fairview goats and kick-started a theme that captured consumers before the animal trend really took off. Recent research by market analysts AC Nielsen has shown that animal-branded wines are double as attractive to American wine consumers.

Since SACAB launched the London cabs in South Africa a year ago, the taxi media partnership has seen companies such as First National Bank, The Famous Grouse, British Airways and Ericsson taking advantage of this upper LSM hook. London Cabs are being located at international airports, hotels and shopping centres and the feedback from the market has been extremely positive.

"These cabs are new, unique and offer a very powerful branding opportunity. At present, there are 35 000 branded cabs in and around London proving the success, acceptance and demand for the media," says Craig Robinson, director of SACAB.

"In addition, our South African clients have the option to reserve the cabs for client entertainment, corporate functions and special events. Currently these vehicles are extremely busy servicing the major airports, hotels, business and shopping centres and the novelty value of seeing a London taxi on South African streets will give an undeniable impact to any promotional message."

Worldwide trends

Continues Robinson, "Although South African media spend is still predominantly focused on above-the-line activities in print, television and radio, worldwide trends show that more advertising budget is moving below-the-line into the alternative media category such as mobile media. There is no doubt that local media planners are starting to move in this direction and are looking for innovative and creative ways of getting their message across.

"The branding success of these vehicles is proven by the fact that almost 70% of London's fleet of London cabs are permanently branded and that it is the only city in the world where the vehicle instead of the colour carries the brand," concludes Rice.