Zintle Botha joins our team of media specialists as a Media Planner and Strategist. Previous experience was gained at Media24, The Jupiter Drawing Room in Johannesburg and Nota Bena.

Boomtown also brought on board two new Client Service professionals consisting of Lauren McNish who takes on the role of Account Executive and Lwando Marambana, who just completed his Marketing Diploma, as Junior Account Executive on the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Account.

“One of our industry’s most iconic personalities, David Ogilvy, once said, “The company with the best people wins.” Boomtown will continue to develop and grow our pool of international award-winning talent going into 2013, with many exciting prospects lined up” said Managing Director, Wayne Harrison.

The new appointments include: (from left to tight): Zintle Botha, Lwando Marambana and Lauren McNish

In the 1800s Joseph Joubert the French moralist said “Ask the young…they know everything.” Well if they know everything, how do we tell them new things about our brands?

We’ve done Three separate research surveys into the 18-25 year old market on behalf of brands that the agency manages. All extremely insightful and all showing the challenges associated with youth marketing.  

1. Youth voice their opinion more easily than any other age group. This means that they make and break brands by speaking out…crowd-sourcing, driven by the youth, is a new global phenomenon and it is dramatically changing people’s purchasing behaviour. If you are able to tap into this group, and they believe your brand is truly understanding of their needs and is able to provide products and services that give expression to their status needs, then they can make your brand.

Conversely the youth are able to break brands. In our research for an inner city education institution we found that the students were well on their way to breaking the brand. It had not demonstrated an understanding of the shifts that had occurred in this target audience and the amount of negative sentiment doing its rounds on social media was astounding. Fortunately with strategic adjustments to communication as well as practical changes, we were able to make the necessary changes to create long term success.

2. Youth need brands to increase their status appeal…brands MUST increase the status equity of this target audience. The youth can cultivate a sense of ‘snobbishness’, but this could be subverted where they rebel against the mainstream brands to promote their image of being ‘unique’ or going against the grain – some fashion brands have mastered this. It’s important to understand the various cultures within the youth culture to know exactly who you are targeting. This is probably the trickiest part of youth marketing, with cultures ranging from the Emo to Trendy to Clubber, each with their own set of rules to what constitutes cool. If your brand starts representing the culture of the specific youth market you are trying to tap into, the brand will become a leader in the culture. One of the biggest mistakes to make is to believe that the 18-25’s can all be painted with the same brush.

3. Youth are into life-sharing in a big way. Whether you are tapping into the holy grails of youth-vertising (fashion and music) or creating your own campaigns, brands that play in this arena will need to understand how important life-sharing is to this market. Because the youth rely so heavily on peer advice and recommendation they need to be able to ‘like’, ‘follow’ and ‘Digg’ your brand, if you don’t offer them the option of sharing their brand preferences and integrating it into their everyday communication and life sharing through multiple social media channels, you’ve lost the accessibility of your brand to the youth. Furthermore their image or status is communicated through life sharing, whether it be liking a page on Facebook or retweeting a quirky saying from Twitter, life-sharing is what connects point 1 (their opinions) with point 2 (their status appeal). But beware; youth life-sharing is an effective tool in both making and breaking your brand.

When it comes to youth marketing, the fact that they know everything is one thing, but the fact that they say everything is even more important. Through our experience in youth marketing and the insight gained through our three youth surveys, we have learnt how important it is to understand every complex inch of this target market and to communicate accordingly. The youth is putting more and more emphasis on being heard rather than being told.

“It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook-up world”, sang the Kinks in the 70s. They may not have been referring to the state of flux in global marketing but it certainly is apt in this context.

Only 10 years ago some of today’s most commonly used marketing tools simply did not exist: Facebook, online portals like News24, Twitter, mobile marketing…the list goes on.

In several 1^st world countries online ad-spend has superseded traditional spend. In simple terms that means that marketers and their strategic advertising partners are seeing greater value in moving their campaigns into the digital realm. Ok, so that’s not exactly bleeding edge news but when one considers that today most marketers are changing the way they advertise completely, from telling to connecting consumers in conversations, the extent of the change is enormous. In the past we spoke of impact, now we speak of engagement.

What is the leverage point to get real ROI from your marketing plans? Let me share with you 3 of the most crucial aspects for effective communications:

The first is integration which refers to the dovetailing of several key marketing communications channels to absorb the customer into the brand conversation. Not just dovetailing, but real strategic overlapping of messages to ensure that the campaign is customer-visible. We’ve heard endless ramblings about clutter, but the truth is that this year is worse than last, and next year will be worse than this year…you get the picture. Already one of the fast growing customer trends is ‘enoughism’, switching off and returning to only the most important messaging. It seems that as soon as the world has learned to take in 10 messages at once, it’s also realizing that this is not sustainable and certain segments are returning to the basics.

The second secret is absorption, the ability to engage the customer to the point of being absorbed into the marketing campaign. If this happens successfully your campaign reaches the holy grail status and goes viral. We have to know our customers so well that we understand what is important to them. We facilitate better brand experiences for them. We help them to reach their goals through our campaigns. These may be experience goals, status goals, health, knowledge or entertainment goals. If the brand can meet these goals on some level your campaign will experience absorption.

The third is authenticity, which is becoming the absolute foundation to successful advertising. Authenticity is a deal-breaker for customers, especially the advertising-jaded youth. There is an extremely low tolerance for inauthentic messaging and advertisers that try to shove ideas down the option-rich throats of customers. Gone are the days when advertisers can make ridiculously bold, often arrogant claims about their products.

I will borrow a slogan of one of the world’s top advertising agencies to sign off, advertising is ‘Truth, well told”. Tomorrow’s marketer will have to be smarter, quicker, more creative and have more integrity to grow powerful brands.

A while ago a client told me about the fly fishing trip he took his son and his friend, both aged nine, on.  My client, like any keen fly-fisherman come dad, started with an impromptu introduction of fly-making. Thereafter the fishing could commence.  Despite enormous enthusiasm patience started to run thin after an hour with no bites and the boys started their own games.  A few hours and still no bites, my client decided to investigate. He found the boys engulfed in playing fly-fishing on his iPhone. Upon arriving home empty-handed his wife asked whether they had caught anything. The child, in innocence, exclaimed “Yes! Look mom, a trout!”  and pointed at the digital fish flapping on the screen.

This is just one example of how the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ worlds are merging more each day. So what does this mean to us as marketers in the incredibly fast-paced consumer society that we find ourselves in? It has been proven that children are able to distinguish between brands from the age of sixteen months and that by the age of three 85% of toddlers have asked for a specific brand either by name or by a distinguishing factor e.g. the one with the red top or the one with the cow on. From there these youngsters are introduced to digital media and are encouraged to interact, learn and play in the digital sphere. It should therefore come as no surprise that the child consumer of today is able to form judgements of brands first virtually and thereafter physically.

Mattel does a brilliant job of this on their Monster High Facebook page. Despite their products (monster inspired Barbie-like dolls) being very tangible, real world toys, the company values the knowledge that their target market demands virtual integration. The Facebook page also allows fans to infiltrate the Facebook wall with real world content such as photos of their dolls in home-made outfits, pictures that they drew and up and coming Monster High play dates in their area. But seeing as the virtual playpen might be discovered before the actual product is bought, Mattel ensures that consumers enjoy the brand without having to own a doll in the real world. They do this through allowing users to “monsterfy” themselves by creating their own Monster High avatar on their Facebook page.

This virtual to real world strategy is turned upstream by actively promoting their digital presence on all Monster High Packaging. A dolls diary sold along with every doll ends teasingly abrupt and refers the young reader to the website for more juicy gossip thereby once again merging real world enjoyment with an online experience. This two way street approach earns Mattel sky high kudos, evident in their 508,904 Facebook likes, in a market that other marketers are skittish to target.

Whilst real world product experience continues to be proof of a solid brand, the new child consumer places equal if not more importance on the brand’s virtual performance. The test for youth marketers will therefore lie not only in their ability to integrate the real world, virtually but also to integrate the virtual into the real world. Only then will a digital trout inspire actual fly fishing and the great outdoors be tagged on Facebook.

This will be Boomtown’s third award over the past ten days proving that they are both competitive in an international sphere such as America and Europe as well as being recognized locally.

“November has been a fantastic month for us being recognized both locally and internationally for our work, we’re hoping this is just the beginning for great things to come in 2013,” said Creative Director Andrew MacKenzie.

The Always On campaign has already claimed two Gold Assegai awards in the craft and media 3D categories as well as the Inkosi Award, the most prestigious award at the 2011 Assegai Awards and was a finalist at the Cannes Lions. The aim of the campaign was to launch Aggreko’s power solutions to a niche target market in South Africa. The creative team at Boomtown conceptualised a unique three dimensional direct marketing piece in the form of a simple black box which continues to turn itself on when the user tries to turn it off. The campaign yielded a phenomenal response rate of 57% in terms of lead generation for Aggreko.

The Creative Team includes: (from left to right) front: Louw Sevenster, Designer; Wayne Harrison, Managing Director. Back: Andrew MacKenzie, Creative Director; Gary Welsh, Copywriter; Sam Hewitson, Business Unit Manager; Senzo Xulu, Art Director.

So what happens if a brand dissapoints?

A question concerning brand forgiveness comes to mind: What does it take for a brand to be forgiven? And what action can be taken during the lifespan of a brand to ensure that when a disappointing moment of truth strikes the consumer loyalty to the brand does not dwindle. I have long believed that brands are like people and that our relationships with brands can be compared to human relationships. It has been proven that emotional connections between brands and consumers outweigh rational thinking when buying decisions are made. I have been guilty of this in my own life. My love for designer handbags have influenced repeat purchases in the face of broken zips, disintegrated straps, torn stitching and all-round bad quality. In the same vein my husband’s obsession with a specific car brand was not shaken when from day one and after many service inspections his car’s back door has rattled annoyingly, turning family journeys into silent, white-knuckled drives.

Lovemarks.com goes as far as to say that love is the “future beyond brands.” Built on the premise that brands have become more integrated in our lives than ever before and that a person’s personality can be defined by the brands they support, Lovemarks.com provides a platform upon which brand lovers can communicate their love for particular brands and share their experiences with like-minded consumers. What is the difference between a brand and a Lovemark one might ask? The site answers this by saying that when one discontinues a brand a consumer will find a replacement but when one takes a Lovemark away consumers will protest its absence.

In a society where messages are no longer pushed through traditional channels onto a mass audience but rather spread like wildfires through key opinion holders via blogs, socialmediaand other viral channels it has become imperative for brands to influence followers’ loyalty and love to such an extent that brand advocates are nurtured.  Lovemarks.com is a single website in a sea of sharing sites dedicated to the appraisal of much loved brands. Pepsi is listed in the top 200 most loved brands on the site and comments labelled “The good times shared” and “My day begins and ends with a sip” adorn the soft drink’s wall. These comments are in stark contrast to that of Paciencia Salem, one of the 349 bottle cap holders’; “Even if I die here, my ghost will come and fight Pepsi. It is their mistake. Not our mistake. And now they won’t pay. That’s why we are fighting.”

Brands live beyond products

I find it fascinating that despite almost causing a civil war in 1992; with a fragmentation grenade that bounced off a Pepsi truck killing a school teacher and- a five-year-old child and wounding six other civilians, Pepsi remains at the top of both the most-valued and most-loved brand listings in 2011. Yet, I am no stranger to the power of this love and I often find myself shyly returning home from a shopping trip with yet another gleaming handbag, the quality issue forgiven and forgotten in light of its gorgeous glow and the way it fits under my arm like we were always meant-to-be.

Growing a brand into a Lovemark is therefore not always reliant upon the product delivery but more often fuelled by the way it makes the consumer feel. The ritual of peeling off the cellophane, the smell as you walk into the building, the recognition by one’s peers or the recognisable symbol that defines your individualistic style are just some of the experiential additions that marketers are able to manipulate to add to the overall experience that turns a questionable product into an intrinsic part of a person’s life.  

But know this: consumers are not fools in love and although a well-loved brand might be forgiven its failures in light of its ability to charm emotions, there comes a point where disappointment sours the relationship. The emotional side of the brain, albeit the prime decision maker, gets shoved aside after continuous disappointing moments of truth and the once loved brand is replaced with a practical value-for-money brand. The brand advocate turned non-supporter is more bitter and resentful than a heartbroken ex-lover and uses viralmediato sell their sob story on.

How to say “sorry”

The safest route to the consumer’s heart is never having to ask for forgiveness. However as insurance against such an eventuality; firstly ensure that your product plays to your target markets’ emotions. Let them feel it, let it speak their language, let it pop up in their favourite spaces and encourage their participation, let it inspire them and make them feel good about themselves; secondly it should never let them down, and when it does ensure that the apology is felt as genuinely as the brand’s appeal and that the compensation is perceived as fair.

In the case of Pepsico Inc. versus the people of thePhilippinesI cannot help wondering how the brand ranking of Pepsi worldwide compares to its ranking in thePhilippinesand where Pepsi would’ve ranked but for the bottle cap blunder. Ultimately I believe that had the brand in light of the disaster humbly asked for forgiveness and announced the opening of a charity organisation to alleviate poverty in the Philippines and the donation of $10million (the same value as the 20 pesos  per bottle cap insult) to this charity, the overall damage could have been controlled and Pepsi could’ve come out on top as the “good guys that made a genuine mistake.” Lucky for Pepsico Inc. the Pepsi brand had long before the slip-up crawled into the hearts of their consumers worldwide and manifested itself as a Lovemark. And in love even the biggest marketing mistake the world has ever seen can be forgiven and be completely forgotten in a short 19 years.

Being a well-loved brand comes with many perks, these include sales growth, a rise in brand awareness and brand equity in turn, the rejection of competitive offers and a figurative “Get out of jail free” card.  Continuous efforts to secure emotive connections between the brand and the consumer will therefore not only sway short term results but also serve to insure brand forgiveness in the face of disappointment.

written by: Estee Cockcroft, Snr. Account Manager, Boomtown

It is common knowledge that with an open economy such as South Africa’s, the challenge for brands to succeed is even greater. In the space of less than 10 years there has been a plethora of international brands making their way to our shores shaking up the already competitive environment. This is not bad news, at least not for the consumer anyway. So it is critical to understand the power of brand differentiation, relevance and resonance with the market as a strategic priority in order to standout from the constantly growing crowd of brands.

The analogy of a beauty contest with brand exposure is fairly simplistic. However, as they say, the devil lies in the detail. Consider the panel of judges as your consumers (target market) and the audience as influencers or the crowd. The relationship and dynamics between the judges and the crowd is always a complex power struggle. 

The judges want their decisions to gain legitimacy whilst each member of the crowd carries a flag for their favorite contestant. So as the night progresses, a trend develops, loyalties are either lost or gained, flag barriers run out of steam and so on. So how to we keep our brands in the running for the crown? There are a few things that you can learn from beauty contests and apply to your brand.

1. The first walk in

It is often quoted that people make a judgment call in under a minute of the encounter. So where is your brand’s first encounter with the market and is it making a good first impression? We call these brand touch points. The touch points or metrics could be signage, reception, point of sale, an ad campaign, social media, the digital environment or the sales force’s knowledge and presentation. Assess the consistency of your message across these as well as your brand’s unique selling proposition and values. Is your message consistent, coherent and compelling?

2. The outfits

The contestants make wardrobe changes throughout the pageant, from casual to swimwear and finally formal wear. How does your brand stretch in different environments whilst remaining true? You might be servicing local and international markets, high and low income groups or different psychographic profiles. Most brands do this by adopting different brand architecture, be it a sub brand culture or a branded or monolithic brand approach. The level to which there’s potential overlap determines the level of risk or leverage. In the end no matter which outfit is put on, the intent is to enhance and improve the chances of winning with each category and eventually winning the crown, or in a brand’s case, market share. Has your brand got a clear architecture?

3. The intelligence

How in touch are you with the world consumers live in today. What conversations are taking place about your brand and the probing never relents. As the judges probe, they’re looking to gain a deeper understanding of your offering, your corporate citizenship, and your trustworthiness. These are all touchy feely aspects that brands often neglect. With the advent of social media  consumers have taken back the power of brands; they cause and control the flow of information. Are you listening to the conversations taking place about your brands? Most importantly, are you participating positively?

4. Making the first cut

How are you positioned relative to your competitors? Is your brand perceived in the correct segment? Before the curtain falls, there is a short list, the top five. Often the difference between the five contestants isn’t that great. Their ability to win has been established. This relates to attributes such as product quality, warranties, location etc. The difference comes from the intangibles, service quality, social responsibility, green principles and environmental consciousness. Most brands consider these aspects as publicity stunts in the process undermining the intelligence of the consumers. How does your brand fare?

5. Judges decision

Never undermine the power of the crowd. The judges keep watch of the audience all the time. The loudest cheer or applause can swing the vote. Remember the judges’ credibility and social acceptance is a key factor. Who are your cheerleaders, are they loud enough on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, 4Square, Pintrest etc. The intention is to have other people carry your cause and in order to do that, it needs to find resonance and connect with them. The advantages are great, you don’t have to spend as much money on expensive advertising campaigns or paid for PR activities. Who is championing your cause?

A winning formula is one that takes all these points into consideration, is aware of the changing crowd and is able to adapt its strategy accordingly while holding on to its fundamental values. The problem is that as with a beauty contest once you have the crown you need to live up to the expectations of those who rooted for you. Has your brand prepped enough to take and own the crown? 

written by: Luvuyo Bangazi, Client Service Director, Boomtown

Employees, like consumers, are bombarded all day by information. Brands are a way by which we identify our priorities. Consumer brands help us simplify our lives and streamline our selection-making while internal brands enable us to prioritize our most precious resource: time.

A few points to note before I continue:

• Brand is a sum of identity, image and aspiration.
• Identity is what the brand stands for.
• Image is what the brand represents.
• Aspiration is how the brand makes us feel.

These principles hold true for both external and internal brands. Identity represents the culture and values of your organization. Image is akin to the vision and mission of your organization. Aspiration stands for what your organization will do.

Internal brand building is a linking of the organization’s culture and values to an individual’s values in ways that enable both the individual and organization to achieve their goals. Leaders can, and should, link their leadership communication to the internal branding process as a means of binding their goals to organizational outcomes.

Here are some things to keep in mind when building your internal brand.

The starting point for any brand is what the organization stands for. Its mission and vision, backed by culture and values, are what the brand means to employees. Any deviation from mission and culture will strike a false note.

This diagram shows the various elements that link into brand building, 7 components, of which internal branding plays a vital role.

Make leadership the brand driver

The brand needs your senior management support in order to survive. It’s as simple as walking the talk. Leaders need to link their goals to organizational goals, a powerful way to do this is through branding. When leaders are in synch with the organization, they have a better chance of getting results. At the same time, a leader pushing change can use brand to drive the transformation by finding the impetus and support for the initiative inside the culture.

Nurture the brand through communication

A brand without communication is like an unlabeled can on a shelf by itself, you don’t know what it is, and you really don’t care. Any communication tool, from a broadcast email, to an inclusive staff meeting should reinforce the brand. Choosing whichmediaand when depends upon the message, the heavier the brand message, the moremediayou will need. To keep it fresh and vital, email and banners might do the trick. Again, keep the communications consistent with the brand identity, image and aspirations.

Align internal operations practices with external brand messages

From the president and CEO to the customer service representatives or maintenance staff, every employee must understand, articulate and implement the brand consistently. They must be brand ambassadors in everything they do.

This diagram shows the importance of creating strong internal employee brand beliefs first, then, strong internal employee brand actions, this directly translates into potential profit mechanisms for institutions.

Measure and monitor customer experiences

In essence, we don’t know what we don’t know. That’s why measurement and customer feedback is critical to managing your brand. By implementing measures for feedback, as well as establishing internal checks and balances, you can ensure that you deliver on your brand promise and close any potential gaps that could erode the trust and loyalty of your customers. In the case of internal branding or internal communication the employee becomes the customer.

Motivate your employees to build and monitor the brand

Plain and simple, if your employees have a vested interest in the brand process, they are far more likely to uphold the company’s values and brand. They must understand the importance of their role and be motivated to act with the brand in mind at all times. Publicly recognizing employees for brand drive actions or solutions is one way to begin to build into the culture of your organization.

Inject a sense of fun into the brand

Who says life inside an organization has to be dull and boring? Inject a sense of fun into the brand. Link the brand to activities in the organization that are of a less formal nature, for example, corporate outings, off site activities, after hours bowling or cricket leagues. Your branding can be as simple as displaying your corporate logo on a banner, or putting your logo on hats. After all, part of brand building is merchandising. In this way, your brand becomes a unifier and reinforces your organizational culture.

Grow the brand

Organizations either grow or they die. The same applies to brands. The brand must be inclusive and by that, it must embrace new initiatives that arise with regularity, think brand extensions. For example, if manufacturing rolls out a quality initiative, the team would be well served by linking the quality to the company wide brand. In doing so, they add credibility as well as awareness. Next is a clip to highlight, in a fun way, the importance of tying in a strong brand story, you will be amazed at what you can get away with if you do!

Brand management is an ongoing process that must be adopted by your entire organization. The key to ensuring you deliver on your brand promise is to empower your employees to be brand ambassadors. The link between your company and your customers can become a powerful and lasting connection, the benefits in doing so are quite clear.

written by: Andrew “Mac” Mackenzie, Creative Director, Boomtown

For years Castle Milk Stout was known as an old man’s beer, and the brand was neglected from a marketing communication perspective. As a consequence of that the brand took on a life of its own amongst consumers and Castle Milk Stout became the enclave of migrant labourers in SA, who were steeped in rural traditions, and also became the symbol of masculinity due to it being a strong beer. Castle Milk Stout’s corporate identity eventually revolved around the black bull – a symbol of wisdom, strength and  community.

CHALLENGE

A decision was eventually taken by SAB to have some marketing focus on Castle Milk Stout as it was seen as a strategic alcoholic brand within their portfolio of brands. They needed people’s perceptions about the brand to change, as there was a valid concern regarding the growth of the brand. This was largely due to the fact that for a long period the brands growth was stagnant. As a result, Castle Milk Stout had seen no growth and was not able to attract new consumers. In order to achieve sustainable growth Castle Milk Stout needed to appeal to a younger, trendier audience and talk to them in their language. Aside from that, it also needed to educate all the consumers new and old about this category of beers.

STRATEGY

The strategy was based on a key learning from insights that, because of the fast paced lifestyle that most people lead there was no time to pause and connect with close friends and appreciate things of value.

Boomtown Strategic Brand Agency needed to develop an occasion for drinking Castle Milk Stout with a new positioning that was grounded in the notion that people need to slow down to appreciate the things in life of real value, and that Castle Milk Stout will be the alcoholic beverage that provides the pause to connect and unwind. A new manifesto and a brand ladder were drawn up, from which a new strap line “There is a Journey in Every Moment” was conceptualized. This was also followed by a ritual to help facilitate drinking the brand, “Pour Pause Sip Enjoy”. Based on this platform, Castle Milk Stout associated itself to an Unwind occasion, where people take time to enjoy things of great meaning in their lives and they pause to connect with close friends.

RESULT

Boomtown, together with the brand team of the above-the-line Agency, Metropolitan Republic, implemented a new strategic brand positioning through-the line, which positions the product in a more premium manner and connects with the aspirations of the new high-flyer target market.

Integral in the brand development, Boomtown’s responsibilities on the Castle Milk Stout brand include below-the-line design of all marketing material, activating the brand in outlets, running national sales promotions and out-of-outlet experiential events to launch the new brand intrinsic and extrinsic.

The McDonalds on Port Elizabeth beachfront had gone through a big revamp and would be relaunched on 13 April 2012 with a new deck area overlooking the sea and the first ever McCafe in Port Elizabeth. Boomtown was called in to work on the launch event as well as the teaser campaign leading up to the launch.

CHALLENGE

Increase sales by attracting a new audience with McCafé’s product offering of cakes and coffees and get previous clients to revisit McDonalds for all the old favourites but in a new, fresh-look restaurant.

STRATEGY

We started off by thinking about the type of language used in coffee shop gatherings and noticed how people in the Port Elizabeth region use slang, a mixture of Afrikaans and English as well as various colloquialisms to express themselves. We therefore created a largely copy-driven campaign with lines such as “Wat cake jy?” and “We’ve bean busy” to announce McCafé’s arrival. The mediums included: vouchers (handed out prior to the campaign inside empty cups so users could get their cups filled with their purchase of any McDonalds items), lamppost advertising, radio advertising, billboards and an open door PR campaign where journalists were taken through the McDonalds restaurant and shown the premises for top to bottom.

On the launch day we arranged for Algoa FM to do an open broadcast from the premises of the new McDonalds. Lauren and Wayne from the Fastlane presented their show live and did an on air interview with Belinda McKenna from McDonalds head office. They created a fantastic vibe within the restaurant and not only spoke about it on the day but also bragged about the delicious food we had sent them daily the week preceding the launch. There was also a highly successful activation event on the launch day were a promoter encouraged customers to pose with a giant replica of the McCafé coffee take away cup. These posers stood the chance of winning a month’s free coffee from McCafé.

RESULT

The campaign was highly successful in increasing the beachfront McDonald’s sales. On the launch day-13 April the restaurants sales was up by 40% when compared to that of 2011. This increased to 72% on the Saturday, 40% on the Monday and 35% on the Tuesday. Whist we are aware of the direct sales results the franchise enjoyed over the weekend, we are positive that this is not all and that the restaurant has also gained awareness and positive association in the mind of the target market. We plan on increasing this top of mind awareness by implementing more promotional activity in the future.