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SA tourism campaign promotes ‘can do’ spirit

Brand South Africa has launched a new TV ad featuring home-grown stars and citizens to promote the country’s ability to find new ways of doing things.

Driven by the tagline, ‘Inspiring New Ways’, the 60-second ad features Baby Jake Matlala, musician Toya Delazy, comedian Trevor Noah, international musician Trevor Rabin and a host of the country’s most influential people from sport to technology.

The ‘can do’ spirit of  the country is highlighted by the ad detailing negatives in the first half and then turning those into successes in the second. It has been filmed around South Africa and Los Angeles with the latter location used to showcase some of South Africa’s talent that has made it big internationally.

The ad was created by Publicis and produced by Catapult.

“The mix of characters in the commercial was chosen from a long, long list. While some of the people we wanted to include were not available, we were extraordinarily fortunate to get some of the people who star in the final product,” says Publicis executive creative director Matthew Barnes.

Brand South Africa’s previous slogan for the country was “Alive With Possibility” and sees its new campaign as a natural progression of this.

“Through this television commercial we want to get across the message that ‘Inspiring New Ways’ is an over-arching country position for South Africa relating to everything we do and that we are including our people, our culture and heritage, tourism, exports, governance and investment and immigration,” says Brand South Africa chief executive Miller Matola. “We are no longer an adolescent nation and this progression needs to be reflected in our brand identity and positioning.”

David Hing, London