OOH News South Africa

Big wrap at Bara for TopTV

To advertise TopTV, launched in competition to DStv during April 2010, Posterscope SA wrapped the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, Gauteng, with a multi-coloured billboard to grab consumer attention. The station offers a more affordable service to the general public, particularly LSMs 5-8.

Carni Wilkens, MD of Posterscope, which currently manages a large share of South Africa's Out of Home spend says, "Some may ask what we were thinking when we suggested wrapping the Chris Hani hospital - but if you consider that the facility serves approximately 3.5 million Soweto residents, receives 2000 inpatients per day, employs 5000 staff and has grounds that span 0.70 square kms in the heart of Soweto - this is the best outdoor medium in the area to target our tasked LSM in one swoop."

The PVC mesh billboard, which spans 27 x 45 metres, covers three sides of the building and stretches up to the full 10 stories of the building's height - it took 28 working hours to erect. Its colourful design is difficult to miss.

"The bold and eye-catching creative produced by Network BBDO assisted in grabbing attention and communicating the client's launch message to consumers", adds Wilkens.

Countrywide campaign

"To ensure that we created sufficient awareness across the country outdoor billboards of various dimensions and design were positioned in all cities countrywide, at major highways, commuter nodes, taxi ranks, within townships and city centres," he adds.

Secondary towns were also considered, including Kimberley, Port Elizabeth and Richards Bay - towns that aren't usually budgeted for in launches of this nature. Other larger impact sites used by Posterscope for the campaign include the Soshanguve hoarding and a substantial wall sign within Pretoria's CBD.

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