South Africa is a country rich in culture and heritage. However, as western influence increases, young South Africans are losing touch with their culture. Castle Milk Stout is a brand that honours culture and inspires its consumers to embrace their heritage. Castle Milk Stout wanted to remind young South Africans that culture is something that lives inside all of us. Culture is the heartbeat of our nation. We wanted to remind our country that as long as their hearts beat, their culture will never die.

We began by scanning and recording the heartbeat of African cultural icon, musical artist, and clan praise (a traditional cultural practice where one uses a song or poem to recite, honour and remember your lineage and your ancestors) singer Madala Kunene. This heartbeat became the beat and the base of a song and a core design element on a one-of-a-kind vinyl. The recorded heartbeat was given to young, rising, producer and singer Muzi. Muzi then created a hit song titled, Ko Mama, which was built from the ground up using Madala Kunene’s heartbeat as the basis and the base of the track. The song was then preserved forever on a limited edition vinyl. A vinyl that also carried the heartbeat through every inch of its design. Reminding a nation that along as their hearts beat, their culture will never die.

A Computerised Tomography (CT) scan of Madala's heart was stylised and converted into the key graphic on all our design elements, The heart became the core from which our entire design was built right from the packaging to the vinyl artwork. As the vinyl started spinning images of Madala's heart came to life and started beating to the rhythm of the music and his actual heartbeat. Inspired by the way sound beats are represented, African patterns made up of vertical spaced lines were used to design the pattern on the vinyl so that when the vinyl was spinning we created the illusion of movement. The vinyl was illustrated and designed in segments, almost like stop-frame animation with the end goal being that of movement.

250 limited edition vinyl records and their packaging were produced as a promotional item for our campaign. With a unit cost of roughly USD160.00 per unit, these were distributed for free to key influences to amplify our campaigns message. The vinyl was a part of the larger Clan Beat campaign. A campaign that saw brand equity increase by 39%, achieved 27 million rand worth of earned media and resulted in a volume growth of 17%.