South Africa is one of the most diverse places in the world. Our adverts traditionally haven’t been. This campaign is relevant for entertainment because it took one of South Africa’s most iconic and memorable catchphrases and flipped it to boldly represent and entertain a more diverse, modern South Africa.
Nestle Cremora is one of South Africa’s best loved coffee creamers – it’s always has been since it’s iconic ad in the 80’s where it’s catchphrase “It’s not inside, it’s on top” has become a part of the national vocabulary. The problem was that we hadn’t used the catchphrase in years, but people were still using it. Our brief was to differentiate the brand and gain a new, youthful market by being more distinctive. Our objectives where to differentiate through emotion, breaking through the intrinsic boundaries and build long-term emotional resonance with a broader market.
The campaign is relevant for the category because we entertained through authentically representing diversity and inclusion.
Our youth market makes up 2/3rds of our total consumers. We found out that the ONE thing they love most is inclusion – thus, their purpose became ours. Let’s put that into perspective:
2/3 of consumers also care about racism, LGBTQI+ and gender issues.
88% of consumers agree brands don’t do a good job of representing people like themselves or their communities.
15% of the world population has some form of disability but only 1% of ads feature someone with a disability.
“It’s not inside, it’s on top” is arguably the most memorable and definitive line in SA marketing history. Incredibly, people born after the ad STILL use the phrase… every day. Our youth are more demanding for brands to be more inclusive.
Many brands add their voices to the chorus of vanilla virtue signaling, but seldom move past being fair-weather allies. It was time for a brand first. To give people the opportunity to talk about what was important to them. So, we committed entirely to give voices to the excluded and their inside stories. We took our strongest brand asset that people have been saying for 40 years…and flipped it to “It’s not on top, it’s inside”.
We put ourselves out there and subverted one of SA’s most iconic catchphrases to tell a new story of every type of diverse inclusivity.
We launched with a burst campaign – showcasing our highly produced content pieces with inclusion heroes on our social media channels
These are the incredible stories of the everyday people who helped us create a campaign that positively reflects the South Africa of today. These are conversations of challenges, triumphs and intimate perspectives around authentic inclusion and what it means. Interviews and content delivered on a genuine contribution to the inclusion conversation.
We put ourselves out there and subverted one of SA’s most iconic catchphrases to tell a new story of every type of diverse inclusivity. And it worked, we increased market share with:
4.3 million video views
56.5 million impressions
Emotion – JOY 73%
But more important than these brand results, were the meaningful conversations South Africans were having about diversity and inclusion.
3% Facebook engagement rate
Mentions – 15.53k
Engagements – 729 908k
* remember we’re a small country at the tip of Africa with only 60 Million people
And at the end of the day, we won hearts and minds. Authentic inclusivity became a part of real conversations.
Although South Africa is one of the most diverse places in the world, South African advertising usually only represents what makes marketers and shareholders comfortable. That means only going so far in representing the people of South Africa. Even though brands talk about being inclusive, authentic representation is not something they ever fully embrace.
The rainbow nation loved our authentic message of diversity.
By broadening our arms and embracing the joys of inclusion with an extended guestlist of every pantone in the Rainbow Nation, every age, shape, height, walk-of-life, subculture and every L,G,B,T,Q, and I, we aimed to create a culture of inclusivity that values and respects people regardless of who they are. Because it’s a plus when everyone has a place at our coffee table.
Showing that it’s not on top, it’s inside, that really counts.
