Brand South Africa Launches 20 Years Of Freedom Media Campaign

 On Thursday April 24th, Brand South Africa launched its 20 Years of Freedom campaign at an event hosted for the media and stakeholders at its offices in Houghton, Johannesburg. The event was a semi formal affair with Maps Maponyane as the only famous face in attendance. 

Head Of Strategic Marketing Communications for Brand South Africa, Wendy Tlou welcomed the guests and explained, at length, the motivation behind the campaign. She told those in attendance that after 20 years we need to take stock of our achievements, and say, despite the challenges that we are facing, that we have lots to be proud of. 

The 60 and 30-second advertisement is due to launch on domestic television next week, while the radio advertisement is currently being aired on a number of radio stations nationally. The print component will run in a number of newspapers across the country. 

"The objective of the campaign is to develop some brand love. The primary objective to make South Africans feel proud, while the secondary objective is to make us confident in ourselves and to talk about ourselves as South Africans." said Wendy Tlou

Tlou says it's a good story that they want to tell and that they are adding on to it by saying that there is a reason to celebrate the achievements of the past. 

"Our manta is that in 1994 a new South Africa was born and that marked the beginning of a journey of trials and challenges, but also significant strides. The campaign says cheers to us, but the journey does not end here - but we must use the momentum created to drive forward the ambitions of our country."

In addition to the 20 Years of Freedom campaign, Brand South Africa also launched Play Your Part, a local campaign encouraging South Africans to contribute towards a better nation. 

I was, however, intrigued by a somewhat minute engagement of the Youth in this campaign. For starters, the speakers were at pains to inform us that the campaign will have a big digital component thus engaging South Africans who use social media, yet no hashtag was mention during the entire event, which meant Tweeting about the information relayed was limited. 

I was also concerned about the engagement of the youth in these campaign given that they are the demographic in our country that is most disgruntled and disillusioned by the promises of our democracy. 

I posed the question to Wendy Tlou about that matter and she explained that Brand South Africa is not there to activate programmes for the youth but would instead support initiatives that already exist. She eluded that the establishment would be best effective if it supported South Africans who  are proactive and want to play a part in moving our country and its image in the positive direction. 

As a Young South African, I was impressed by the initiative. Any programme that seeks to improve the lives of our people by encouraging them to take responsibility for their future and the future of this country has my support. 

"Despite challenge from other areas, South Africa must maintain its position as the gateway to Africa" concluded  Tlou

The campaign also have a 13-part, 48-minute reality television show that will be broadcast on SABC 2 from 15 June at 9pm. The show will be hosted by Kabelo Mabalane. 

For more information visit www.playyourpart.co.za.

To join the call to action, engage with the campaign on various social networks and you can say what you doing to make a difference.