In-flight Video for airlines flying into Bangkok

I wasn't involved in the edit (or the scary VO). The ad could easily lose 45". This was a job for the Thai government. I came up with a creative strap line and re-wrote the narrative script. The idea behind the line was that it's not only about your holiday memories, but also how people in the countries you visit remember you. But let's be real. Seeing this on the plane isn't going to sway any child sex offender winging his way to Thailand. What it will do is alert the masses to the fact that this is a real problem in Thailand, and not to turn a blind eye. Bangkok is a trafficking and exploitation hub, especially of children from Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. And now, the exploitation is filmed and it gets traded and shared on the deep web. There is a great NGO called Ecpat International working to raise awareness of the sexual exploitation of children. One of their campaigns was working with hotel staff to raise awareness eg. If they see a guest bring young children to their rooms, many condoms in the wastebasket, video equipment being carted in. It makes me sick just to think about it, but I guess that's the point. People need to think about it. 

Some Afrikaans Print ads for BMW Motorrad (BMW Motorbikes)

As Creative Director at FCB, I had the opportunity to work on great brands, also in Afrikaans (the second most widely spoken of South Africa's 11 national languages) These online banners and magazine ads are pretty old-school and I don't regard them as conceptually groundbreaking, but they work beautifully in Afrikaans. It's a compelling business argument as well, because Afrikaans speakers account for the largest portion of BMW Motorrad sales in South Africa, especially the GS dual-purpose bike. (GS stands for the German "Gelande Strasse", basically meaning country and town). We took road signs in the South African landscape and married them with well-known Afrikaans songs to push the fact that you can listen to your favorite songs via the blue-tooth kit in your BMW helmet, which speaks to the communication system of the bike. The pay-off line encourages you to "make the road your playlist".

"Jy was beautiful in Beaufort-Wes" by Gert Vlok Nel

"My Stellenbosch se nonnatjie roep my" by Anton Goosen

"Montaguuuuu" deur David Kramer

Apple Sale

Digicape is a Premium Apple Reseller. They briefed us to come up with a concept for a sale. We used this key visual on all sale elements. In Afrikaans, if you buy something "for an apple and an onion", it means you got it at a great price. The retail category is normally devoid of any concept or craft. So this execution won two Silver Pendorings (a South African Afrikaans Ad Show) one in the Original Afrikaans Category and one in the Retail Category. The line translates as: Up to 30% discount on Apple products from 8-30 August.

Creative Strategy: Capitec #AskWhy

This is a case study for Creative Strategy: We got the Capitec Bank account because they regard themselves as a "Retail Bank" and 99c is a retail agency. Capitec Bank are knows for their no-nonsense functionality and low fees. But asides from this, they're non-traditionalists. They ask questions of the South African banking industry. Questions like: "Why do banks think it's ok to close at 3.30pm". And this is where it gets interesting because I bet you didn't know this: South African banks close at 3.30pm so they can start processing all the paper slips and forms you fill in, again and again and again. So at 3.30 they chase you out and they start capturing the data in the back office so their employees can leave at 5pm. Capitec uses a real-time digital system without paperwork. So they're faster and cheaper and stay open longer. Another thing that sets them apart is the interest they offer (a minimum of 4.25% on balance in transaction account - this isn't replicated by any other bank) and their simplicity and transparency. Read more about it in Butch Rice's article

All research pointed to the very obvious: "People hate wasting time banking".
No sh*t. So we believed they are ready to ask some questions: 
"Why do you close your door in my face at 3.30pm?"
"Why do you charge me high banking fees?"
"Why do I have to fill in the same forms over and over?"
"Why do I have to write my name when you can just use a biometric fingerprint reader?"

Because they are always questioning the banking status quo, it was a small step to a strategic positioning to AskWhy of the way we bank. 

It lent itself to very simple, very clear, communication:

If you can't bank after 3.30pm, #AskWhy
If you can't bank on Sunday, #AskWhy
If you don't get interest on the money in your transaction account, #AskWhy.

The creative that was eventually produced isn't worth sharing, so I'm not going to.

But I still think the creative strategy I came up with was solid.

Words for a Shop that sells words

Because I'm a reader, I wrote four long-copy ads about reading. We asked an illustrator to do it on spec, and he crafted this beautiful illustration. Beautiful but impossible to read as a narrative. This idea finally got made by my brave colleagues at Saatchi for their brave client Wordsworth Books and was awarded a Silver Eagle at the Eagles Print Awards in 2011. This is the original copy.

The Special Shelf

All books are different
. One tells you “Hey, I'm Fried Chicken”. So you binge, ignoring bloodshot eyes like the cancer warning on a cigarette pack.
 Another asks for exquisite care. These are the books which change you. And with the last word sealed by back cover, you weigh this wood-thing in your hands, the thoughts still alive inside you
, knowing to keep this one from garage sale, storage or charity shop. This one is for The Special Shelf. And as the book ages, 
the insights once so shockingly new
 mellows in your head, makes friends with your established thoughts.
 When you open it years later
 you find them settled, integrated with the regulars, the characters unpacked. 
And it feels like visiting the house you grew up in. 

Opening a book is like starting a relationship

You enter prepared to invest time, effort, and a certain fidelity. In return you want some kind of enrichment. “Happiness” even?  One of two things happen. 1) Page 50 rolls around and you find yourself estranged by sentences like irritating statements by a partner. You long for other words like other bodies. You give it the old favorite “It's not you, it's me” and you're over and out. But it's ok because at least you gave it your best shot. OR you hit "True Love" or as close to it as you will get. As you become more engaged, with every page it just gets better. Love exists, the chick-flicks were right! With every word the book turns itself to gold right there in your hands. You ask yourself how is it possible you didn't meet before, all those lonely nights you had to endure. And then you say “It doesn't matter because I have you now, like the vow says, to have and to hold.”

A little flash

Sometimes while reading, your attention escapes the page like a canary flying the coop. But you're still fluttering over the words, landing here and there. And then it happens. Pop! Through the eye and into the brain for a delicious synaptic explosion like a chocolate fudge ice-cream headache: A shiny new neural pathway forged in a brain scuffed by television: A combination of words put together just so. You marvel at the fact that you’ve spent 38 years on this earth and consumed a couple of million word combo's. But never this one. THIIIIIISSSS OOOOONE. Nothing less than a sentence-sized revelation. And you are grateful to the creator. And the world is new, for a minute or two. And you carry on, believing there will be more flares in the darkness.

The lender's dilemma

Own a good book and live on a knife edge: You want to force all your friends to read it. You want to clamp their heads in a vice and prop their eyelids open and sneak around with the eye drops and say. "Read that sentence. THAT SENTENCE! BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP!" And then one day, the request hits the fan: “So, that book you're always talking about, I'd love to read it ...” Dot dot freaking dot. You smile, but in your head you're doing a frantic credential check of this scumbag posing as your friend for the past 15 years. Somehow you always knew it would come to this. You shouldn't have snitched. But then you find yourself lying with a scary sincerity. “Someone else has it right now but I'd be happy to lie lie and lie some more.” You find that at some point you committed to these pages bound by glue to protect it from the jam-fingers, spine-benders and smudgers who call themselves family and friends.