The majority of South Africans abandon their desks and screens for the long summer holidays. Savanna Cider, a predominantly social and digital brand, needed a brand-building presence out in the real world.

Savanna, South Africa's most loved cider known for its crisp, witty perspective on the ironies of South African life, wanted us to develop an integrated OOH-based campaign that leveraged rich cultural nuances and insights to create an activation that would generate earned media. And in a way that is true to the brand's signature dry wit.

#TWIRRASHADEPROJECT: Made from 100% South African Shade. An Abundant Natural Resource.

The Insight:

In South Africa, clap backs are a currency making it one of the shadiest nations on earth. But, while there is an abundance of shade on Twitter, there’s not enough real shade on the actual streets to protect us from the hot, African sun. Savanna, South Africa’s most loved cider, noticed the irony and decided to do something about it.

The Answer:

Introducing #TwirraShadeProject, turning Twitter shade into real shade, one carefully constructed tree at a time. First, we stalked Twitter for the spiciest South African shade then worked with a leading industrial design firm to design unique #TwirraShadeProject trees. The leaves were made from shadiest tweets on twitter and the trees were placed in the hottest parts of the country (plus right outside of the homes of our hottest and shadiest celebrities) - setting Twitter ablaze.

Over the years, Savanna has earned a special place in South Africans’ hearts — both for our crisp, dry cider and the crisp wit that our adverts are now know for. A tenet of our strategy is making people laugh by offering up a crisp and witty perspective on life and social norms. It’s so core to who we are that our purpose is to uplift the nation through humour. And our nation is a shady one — on Twitter, at least. Our feeds are filled with shady comments that quickly become threads and memes with more entertainment value than anything you’ll find on Netflix. As a continuation of our creative platform, Siyavanna South Africa (loosely translated as We Get You, South Africa), we wanted to acknowledge this cultural phenomenon while building a brand presence in the real world when lockdown restrictions started lifting.

Our carefully constructed #TwirraShadeProject trees were strategically placed in ‘hot’ spots, where crowds of holidaymakers would appreciate relief from the African sun.

With a limited media budget, we couldn’t rely on our physical trees alone. We crafted a social media campaign that would deliver sufficient reach to create awareness of both the website and our trees, coupled with clear engagement objectives to ensure the message was amplified.

Curated content prompted interaction from those exposed to our #TwirraShadeProject trees both physically and on social platforms. Influencers were whitelisted, leveraging their clout and followers to

gain additional reach and quality engagement. Unique ad formats built frequency and increased the likelihood of lift in Awareness.

Partnering with Blue Robot, we invited the Twitter community to receive updates on #TwirraShadeProject, which saw thousands of opt-ins.

The common sentiment was “What a good idea” with immediate positive feedback. Overall, we reached over 5.7 million people.

HASHTAG IMPRESSIONS 9,864,113,97

ENGAGEMENT RATE 8.84%

COMBINED PR VALUE 12 271 686,79 USD

ROI 111:1

The campaign entrenched Savanna's crisp witty perspective across channels and received immediate positive feedback. Overall, we reached over 5.7 million people.