Julius Baumann
4 July 2008
Johannesburg — SOUTH African Tourism and internal news network CNN have teamed up to create a three-year user-driven multimedia advertising campaign that aims to attract visitors to SA ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
The R44,4m campaign forms part of a global campaign that South African Tourism has embarked on with CNN, as well as with BBC World, National Geographic and Eurosport. The total cost of the campaign is R200m.
The "My South Africa" campaign, which will be run through TV and print adverts, encourages viewers worldwide to submit photographs, stories and images that sum up their experiences of SA via the www.mysouthafrica.tv website.
"South African Tourism has noted that consumers are increasingly using the online arena for information-gathering purposes and is taking advantage of this trend," Didi Moyle, chief operating officer at South African Tourism, said yesterday. "There is a move towards user-generated content which is considered more credible than other sources. This campaign aims to harness the power of online marketing to drive arrivals to SA.
"Our ambition is to welcome 10-million visitors to SA in 2010, and we are well on track to reach this , having received a record 9,09-million arrivals in 2007."
The campaign kicks off this month and will run until the end of the Soccer World Cup in July 2010, when the world's eyes will be focused on the country.
CNN's dedicated in-house creative production unit, Turner Commercial Productions will produce a series of call-to-action TV spots, the first featuring ambassador and singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, to drive viewers to the website. This will be followed by a series of 30-second adverts created from the online submissions which will run on CNN International and CNNInternational.com from September.
The campaign will also be promoted via a viral push to blog sites and chat rooms, as well as social networking sites Facebook and Flickr.
The TV adverts are expected to be seen by about 220-million viewers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. South African Tourism expects 7-million page impressions on the mysouthafrica.tv website.
"This campaign taps into the trend towards sharing experiences and sees the audience truly become part of the marketing mix, by creating the advertising themselves. It's a breakthrough campaign where South African Tourism can draw on CNN's expertise in creating completely flexible, bespoke brand concepts to reach the right audience for their business. We're thrilled to have South African Tourism on board for this campaign," said Rani Raad, senior vice-president of advertising sales at CNN International.
South African Tourism has a long-standing relationship with the CNN network.
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