Wimpy Loves Summer

In today's economic climate, feeling the pinch is nothing new and with the global cut back in mind Wimpy, wanted to shake things up with their December promotion. They wanted promotional innovation that didn't sacrifice yields for the group or buying power for the consumer.

With no above the line support and no -special offer- draw we knew the in-store POS had to be as dynamic and engaging as possible. In addition to standard BTL tools, we looked into alternative media to achieve a fully integrated campaign, without the luxury of ATL support.

The Wimpy♥Summer campaign was a multi-faceted, mixed media campaign that aimed to define the quintessential summer moment for Wimpy customers. To be engaging, across the board, with the cosmopolitan demographic that the Wimpy brand draws we devised a segmented, localised approach to a national promotion.

We decided on 6 pre-determined market segments; Cape, beachfront, low-veld, urban, Midlands and Free State; and designed in-store POS depicting a summer experience unique to each locale. Each POS segment was then rolled out across all Wimpy trading formats (old-look, new-look, Drive Thru, Roadhouse, Halaal, etc.) all together a total of 44 artwork formats across the 6 segments.

A dynamic new website with state-of-the-art features was launched in conjunction with the campaign on 9 December 2011.

The website features the latest technology including impressive parallax effect plug-ins, flash games, the latest Google maps-integrated, geo-located restaurant locator with comprehensive search functions and the ability to showcase store-specific promotions for over 500 restaurants in South Africa and Africa.

In addition to the localised national campaign elements we developed local store campaign support material. McEwan designed artwork for Wimpy♥Canal Walk, Wimpy♥Margate, Wimpy♥Malelane Wimpy♥Sandton City, Wimpy♥Howick, Wimpy♥Ficksburg, etc. on posters, banners, loyalty cards, leaflets and just about any other in-store and outdoor touchpoint you can imagine. This artwork was made available to franchisees wishing to drive additional awareness of the campaign.

The "You" that you leave behind.

We live in a time of ever expanding and changing technologies, we live our lives through machines; email has replaced post, social networking sites are replacing face-to-face relationships and online advertising is fast overtaking traditional media spaces.

Despite this, there is something about holding a well-designed, aesthetically pleasing corporate brochure in your hands. It holds the heart, soul and essence of a company in its pages, pictures and colours and give substance to an, otherwise, abstract concept.

The most important aspect of designing a corporate brochure is firstly to intrinsically understand the client and secondly to understand their audience. Knowing and understanding the companies values determines the tone of the design.

Although it is important to keep the corporate identity in mind, corporate brochures are an opportunity to have fun with the brand; not only an opportunity to showcase not only the client's offering but also to let the brand's personality shine through.

Hi, my name is...

In order to fully appreciate the value of a wholly developed corporate identity and brand essence, go without one for a year, then try and define your brand for a potential client. Without a clearly defined identity your brand is just another faceless drone in the crowd.

When developing a corporate identity for a brand it is imperative that we first define the brand essence. The essence of your brand is what sets it apart from its competitors; its personality, its "humanity".

Once we've introduced ourselves to your brand we create an identity that is a visual translation of the brand essence, across all elements of the corporate identity.

The identity of your brand is like its fingerprint; and like you, your brand's fingerprint needs to be as unique as your brand is.

What's in the box?

They say, "don't judge a book by it's cover," but let's be honest, who doesn't? Unless you're looking for a particular title, the only reason you'll pick a book up is because the cover caught your eye. The same is true of all products and it is with that idea, top of mind, that we embark on packaging.

Innovative packaging designs are always cropping up on international trends websites as "new" or "improved" but often the best packaging is that which is tried and tested. You wouldn't want a car that looked like a fish but you would want a car with a nice, shiny coat of metallic paint. As such, we believe that the creative application of the packaging is sometimes more important than the packaging itself. We also believe that packaging requirements are unique and strive to create packaging solutions tailored to the requirements of the client.

Regardless of whether you have brand-spanking-new, innovative packing applications or a simple box, your solution will have completely unique requirements and as such all packaging designs and applications are tailored to suit the requirements of the client and the product.

The evolution of print

Even though print ads have been around since the 18th century they are still one of the most effective and widely used forms of advertising in our arsenal. The medium has evolved with the times but it is up to the creative agencies to constantly embrace this evolution.

It is no longer enough to just have a double page spread in a glossy magazine, your print ads need to be a part of a fully integrated campaign. Consumers want to be able to interact with your brand in various mediums and your print ads have to communicate your brand's identity and personality clearly and cleverly in order to stand out from the clutter.

As specialists in this medium, you can be assured that we will strategically develop the best print ad for your brand; one that will represent your brand in a way that resonates with your target market long after they have closed their magazine or newspaper.

Social networking for social responsibility

We recently launched a social media project with a social responsibility twist; the nino's restaurant group's social media presence, Social Bean, was designed with the sole purpose of giving back to community upliftment projects and underprivileged communities in Africa and South Africa. How it works is simple; 30c from every cup of nino's coffee sold is placed in Trust to be given back to community initiatives.

The first Story we are showcasing is that of Bente Luther-Medoch, a German-born subsistence coffee farmer in Tanzania who has revolutionised the techniques used in the area. Bente's story is updated every few weeks to ensure content is relevant, up-to-date and engaging to fans.

The design process began with a redesign of the nino's coffee cups. Drawing on the vibrant colours synonymous with equatorial Africa, the unique illustrated design tells the story of Social Bean; from the hands that work the lands and the hands that roast the beans, to the hands that brew your favourite blend and to the hands Social Bean will be giving back to.

Our dedicated social media department worked tirelessly to ensure a dynamic experience is offered to fans; we look to promote not only initial fan engagement, but on-going interaction with the page.

Supported by in-store elements such as the completely redesigned menus, info brochures, table talkers, cup tags, waiter t-shirts and, of course, the cups, the Facebook page serves as the primary content carrier. In addition to the in-store and social media elements, we redesigned the nino's website to follow the unique look and feel and to carry the message of Social Bean.

For ten months to a year Social Bean will follow the story of Bente and her neighbours, sharing with the public the coffee process as experienced by smallholding coffee farmers in central Africa.

Bente's story is expected to culminate with a Facebook competition in which fans can win a trip to Tanzania to meet Bente and experience what life is like for a subsistence coffee farmer in sub-Saharan Africa

Initiating a conversation

When it comes to social media we always hear the same question, "Why should my company be on social media?" and our answer is always the same, "You're already there, just not in an official capacity." People are already talking about your brand, product and employees; whether they're talking about a positive experience they had with your sales staff or complaining about the quality of your product and, whether or not you are aware of it, the truth is, your company is on social media.

There are more than 800 million active users on Facebook and the average user has 130 friends and is a fan of 80 pages. That's a lot of potential eyes seeing posts about your brand and a lot of online competition to battle. Can you really afford to not have control of your online presence? Can you afford not to have a professionally designed, maintained and managed social media presence? Can you afford not to strategically integrate social media into your campaigns?

Our dedicated department will help you engage your socially aware consumers. We will strategically develop, design, implement and manage all of your social media needs, from basic page setups to fully integrated digital campaigns. Through our unique service agreements with highly reputable US based app developers, favoured by Facebook, we are able to offer a level of interactivity that, until now, has been unheard of in South Africa. In this whirlwind of ever-evolving technology we cut through the clutter and provide a space for your brand to have a meaningful relationship with consumers online.

Get hooked up and online

A website is an extension of your brand, regardless of whether you sell coffee, cement or exclusive travel packages, people will look for an online version of your brand-experience on your website and it is critical that your digital presence provides this.

In order to ensure maximum impact, when designing a website we first immerse ourselves in the brand in order to gain an understanding of what customers and potential customers want and expect from the brand. The experience is then custom-built, layer by layer, to ensure maximum exposure for the brand and enjoyment for the user.

When looking to enter the digital space or to enhance your customers' digital experience of your brand you need look no further. Whether you are looking for bespoke solutions or an adaptation and enhancement of an existing idea, we pride ourselves in creating digital solutions unique to our clients. We offer a full-service digital component for any brand; from website maintenance and updates to development of bespoke modules to suit your brand requirements. We offer a variety of hosting packages as well as maintenance retainer packages.

Because we're AWESOME like that!

Our passion is conceptualising, designing and implementing well thought out, concept-driven advertising, branding and communications strategies. We get emotional about pretty things and even more emotional about things that should've been pretty but aren't.

An idea is one of the most difficult things to cultivate. Every day billions of infantile ideas, tiny little "idealets" are crushed under the wheels of conformity, beaten into submission with the whip of compliance. But in 1988 a young designer with big dreams got the idea in his head that he wanted to be his own boss. Tired of slogging away for the man with his letrasets and airbrush he ventured out on his own and began cultivating his fledgeling idea. Today, that idea has grown into a full-service, through-the-line agency; a fully integrated ideas company.

A typically South African cosmopolitan bunch of riffraff now power the ideas machine, with our fearless leaders at the helm steering us towards a creative utopia where ideas flow like the Storms River in the rainy season.

So, if you're looking for something pretty and something that's also pretty awesome, you've come to the right place. Whatever you're looking for, we do it all because we're awesome like that.