Responsible Marketing in an authentic way

Challenge

Alcohol abuse is a serious issue in South Africa and is deeply rooted in all our social occasions. The abuse of alcohol can have damaging and severe consequences to a person and society.

Between 7.5% and 31.5% of South Africans have an alcohol problem or are at risk of developing one (source: The Demand for Alcohol In South Africa).

The client wanted to target South African alcoholic beverage consumers (pre-mixed/cider/seltzer category), 25-34.

They also knew that audiences perceive messaging about drinking responsibly as a tick box exercise, so the challenge was to find an authentic way of communicating this.

Inspiration

Human Truth: People follow individuals whom they admire and are inspired by. To best communicate our creative concept, we had to scrutinize the type of individual we would partner with to bring this message to life authentically.

We weren’t looking for a paid influencer, we were looking for a brand ambassador whose alignment with the brand would be believable.

Nomzamo Mbatha ticked all the boxes for us: As South Africa's sweetheart, young and old South Africans are inspired by her story. Nomzamo is a real person with real challenges. The beauty of Nomzamo is that she does not shy away from her “humanness” and you see that in the content she posts. She is real, true, and authentic - flaws and all. This is why her followers adore her.

We identified Nomzamo as our ambassador for the brand and this campaign because her values and personality matched our intent.

Idea

We created a series of online videos, expressed in the most South African way possible. We posed a provocative call to action for Topo Chico Hard Seltzer consumers: check yourself before you make the wrong choice – Uz’Bheke.

In the first video, Keys Please, we spoke about not drinking and driving. Where our alter-ego demands the car keys before our hero heads out for a girl’s night. Only to find out she’s already made the right choice and called an Uber. In the second video, Food First, we reminded people to have a snack before sipping.

These two video pieces (30s cut and 6s teaser) were flighted on both brand channels and Nomzamo Mbatha's platforms. Earning a slew of positive reactions to an inherently responsible message.

Content was further supplemented with hygiene content pulling key quotes from the hero videos to extend the life of each piece in a fun and engaging way