We felt the best way to raise awareness about heart disease was to make people experience the realties of heart disease first hand through someone they’ve gotten to know and love. Enter Wally, our chosen candidate, a person who hadn’t made the best health choices in life and now was faced with a heart condition. Viewers across the country were brought closer to Wally through a popular TV talk show. South Africa got to know his family and learn about his bad lifestyle choices and to top it all, one week after getting to know our guy on a personal level we made history by broadcasting his open-heart surgery, live for the SA public, so that they could see for themselves that heart disease is a serious matter with serious consequences. During the entire rollout of this campaign Flora margarine was there throughout, delivering their message of ‘Change your life. Love your heart’ on TV ads, tactical placements as well as a strong presence on all ‘Wally’ media executions.

This was a campaign that ran nationwide across all media. In just 1 week ‘Meet Wally’s Heart’ received 48 000 web hits, 42 separate blog discussions, 58 newspaper articles, mention by 20 DJs on 6 different national radio stations and a 158% increase in viewership in the time slot that Wally’s operation aired. In total R75 million of free publicity was generated with 5 million South Africans being exposed to the severity of heart disease as well as the Flora’s message of ‘Change your life. Love your heart.’