As part of National Savings Month, we recruited two of South Africa’s biggest and blingest celebrities, whose social media presence is the very epitome of conspicuous spending. We asked multi-platinum rapper Cassper Nyovest and actress Pearl Thusi to twist their VIP lifestyles from conspicuous spending to conspicuous saving.

From 1 July, their social feeds suddenly switched from their usual VIP lifestyle to each celebrity doing smart and frugal things to save money. The response was immediate, their millions of followers and he media erupted with speculation on their financial status.

Pearl appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan, in a hessian sack. The article inside spoke of how down-to-earth this hard-working single mother was, debunking many of the myths of celebrity lifestyle.

Cassper wrote a hit track, “Mr Madumane (Big $pendah)”, whose message was all about the pitfalls of living beyond your means. A “big-budget” music video was produced, but instead of all the usual pimping bling everything was either recycled or re-purposed from cheap or second-hand stuff. The music video launched online and drove users to the Sanlam Conspicuous Savers webpage.

A documentary was made, chronicling their journey, which was launched at a high-profile music video media

100 Million+ Impressions

1 Million+ Page Engagements

1 Million+ Video Views

The campaign confronted one of South Africa’s biggest problems:

Our addiction to conspicuous spending;

Fueled by celebrity lifestyles on social media.

Except this time those very celebrities helped to educate everyone about the importance of spending less, and saving more.

South Africa has one of the worst savings cultures in the world - particularly among younger people. This not only limits Sanlam’s growth but also threatens the whole economy.

Research told us that one of the biggest threats to a healthy savings culture is conspicuous spending. In the social media era things are getting even worse with a growing culture of displaying excessive spending and luxury brands.

Our strategy was to use two prominent celebrities who were driving bad spending habits, to send a positive message about savings through their social channels. Young South Africans wouldn’t normally be influenced by a message from a financial services brand but they will follow the behaviour of their idols (online and off).

South Africans are drowning in debt, largely fueled by the easy access to credit and an addiction to conspicuous spending. The reality is that few can afford the glamorous celebrity lifestyles that every newspaper, magazine and social feed throws in their face. So they get into a personal debt spiral that threatens to derail our faltering economy.