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Grey Africa reflects on its award-winning campaigns over the past year

Over the past year, Grey Africa has been committed to creating inspiring and innovative campaigns and has been recognised by the industry through multiple accolades and awards. Here are just three of the campaigns that the agency is proud of.

1. Gillette Gogo Nozizwe

Grey Africa and Gillette created a film that tells the story of Gogo Nozizwe, who raised her grandson, Akhona, on her own. The film was launched on Women’s Day in South Africa and it paid tribute to the many other South African women like Gogo Nozizwe, who are raising a new generation of men. In the film, Gogo Nozizwe talks about how, when Akhona started to turn into a young man, it became difficult for her as she didn’t have the answers to all his questions. He needed a father figure to help him through the moments where she could not.

Gillette’s “Gogo Nozizwe” campaign was acknowledged by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his Women’s Day Speech. It also won accolades at Pendorings (winning Gold and several craft awards), and Cannes and earned first place in the film category at the Creative Circle Ad of the Year Awards. When the film was launched on social media and outdoor on Women's Day in South Africa, the campaign hashtags trended, and it received 1.8 million engagements within 24 hours.

“The campaign gathered 96% positive sentiment from consumers, helping to establish Gillette in the minds and hearts of South Africans. We saw a lot of positive trends in Gillette’s business results after the campaign and it definitely played a significant role in the turnaround,” says Fran Luckin, Chief Creative Officer at Grey Africa.

2. Savanna Decolonise Autocorrect

This campaign was the first ever solution to the problem of not being able to type in your home language on your mobile phone. As we know, autocorrect only recognises one of SA’s 11 official languages, which means South Africans are faced with a daily battle of autocorrect changing many of the words they type in their messages.

Taking on this challenge, Savanna Cider’s solve was simple – because autocorrect doesn’t change words saved in your phone’s contact list, Savanna created contact files for 10 of our 11 official languages (the other being English) and populated the surname and notes fields with the 500 most-used words in each language. Savanna then made the files available for users to download on their website and save on their phones. Doing this effectively “taught” our phones those languages and set people free to text in their mother tongue.

“There were 1000 downloads in the first four days after the launch and the campaign was also selected as the AdAge Editor’s Pick in 2019,” says Steph van Niekerk, Creative Director at Grey and Liquid, WPP’s bespoke agency solution for Distell.

3. #SavannaVirtualComedyBar

Grey Africa launched the #SavannaVirtualComedyBar during the Covid-19 lockdown to support comedians and help cheer up the nation. The campaign consisted of two elements – the weekly Bar Nights and bi-weekly Comedy Specials – which ran from April until July. The weekly Bar Night events, which were hosted on Zoom, featured two talented comics and an equally talented comedic host. The first Weekly Bar Night featured well known comedians David Kau and Nik Rabinowitz, with Coconut Kelz as the host.

The Comedy Specials were run every two weeks for 12 weeks and had nine different comics and their host comedic barman. The line-up of comics included Chris Forrest, Angel Campey and Lindy Johnson. The specials were hosted on Savanna’s social media channels, including Instagram Live, Facebook Live and YouTube Live, and provided a full 90 minutes of entertainment.

“The campaign proved very popular with South Africans, reaching over 25 million views online. It offered aspiring comics a platform to showcase their talent and ensured more established comedians didn’t get rusty during lockdown,” says Van Niekerk. “Importantly, the #SavannaVirtualComedyBar also gave financial support to these comedians to keep them going during a time when they couldn’t otherwise earn a living. We were also recognised by the Creative Circle for this campaign, winning first place in the Digital Interactive Award category.”

Paul Jackson, CEO of Grey Africa, is excited by the work that he and his team have conceptualised and executed over the past year. “Our goal is to be the most progressive and creative agency network in Africa, and the recognitions that we have received are an indication that we’re on the right track.”

“We are proud to bring our experience and expertise in strategic and creative thinking to help SA brands really engage with their target audiences,” concludes Jackson.

26 Oct 2020 12:05

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