It might have been the rabbit. When a year is as strange as 2011, one can only blame the mad hatter tendencies of a fury beast with one drooping ear. During the year of said rabbit, our democracy took two steps back with the POIB, South Africans were cheated by a whistleblower (we’re referring to Bryce Lawrence) and a Benoni princess cried on her wedding day in Monaco. Strange indeed.
However, the world also gathered around the telly for two of the year’s most watched spectacles – the Royal Wedding and the Rugby World Cup (the Royal Wedding being the Rugby World Cup final for chicks, as one marketing mogul described it). And with great events come great viral campaigns. Remember the T-Mobile Royal Wedding video that was based this viral wedding video? Social media magic. Vodacom’s RWC campaign by Riverstone Films also went viral to gain support for our boys in the green and gold. Unfortunately, we got Bryced.
Nevertheless, in the spirit of making ‘best of’ lists, here’s our very subjective list of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of 2011
The Good
- We said it before, and we’ll say it again. We are in love with Yuppiechef and the way they operate. They recently launched a very cool publication that is send out with every delivery. Marketing and branding at its best.
- The ‘Moer hulle Bokke’ ad for kykNET by tbsp///beyond the line (just because nobody expected it)
- Nando’s quirky and on-the-spot response to current affairs as well as their interpretation of African politics (uhem, yes, we’re referring to that ad). And of course, loads of fun was had in the Medios office with their Kota Bun campaign.
www.dailybun.co.za
- We would also like to take this opportunity to applaud the Mr Delivery “Fire the Chef” social media campaign by M&C Saatchi Abel. Unfortunately, the Loeries beat us to it. The team behind this genius piece of work received the first gold Loerie award for a PR Communications Campaign at the 2011 Loerie Awards.
- @helenzille and her sense of humour on Twitter. And also @DeepFriedMan who made #askhelenzille go viral.
- Infographics coming into their own.
The Bad
- The ASA’s ruling against the Axe Angles ad. We are still a bit sour about it.
- The Shoe City fiasco concerning a dead cat and retail therapy – we see the connection, but we are pretty sure South Africans will be offended (see The Bad #1)
- The singing hippo and Steve from FNB. Repetition repetition repetition is not necessarily a good thing.
- Blackberry bumbling their way through the social media universe. Conflicting statements + a CEO that isn’t PR savvy = disaster
The Ugly
- The Durex Twitter campaign. A prime example of how a social media endeavour can go seriously wrong. And no, in this case any publicity isn’t good publicity. Sies man!
- The Protection of Information Bill.
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