Cannes campaign highlights Location Gauteng

A campaign by the Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) and the Commercial Producers Association (CPA), to market the capacity of the Gauteng film industry at this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, was intended to put Location Gauteng firmly on the international advertising industry's map.

Show reels, labelled Best of Gauteng, South Africa, and showcasing the cream of commercials produced in the province recently as well as prime Gauteng locations, were distributed with copies of the 2006 Loerie Awards Annual books to the hotel rooms of a targeted group of top creatives attending the premier annual gathering of the world's advertising, creative, direct marketing, interactive, film, radio, media and marketing communities.

The reels were compiled from submissions by CPA members to represent the best work they have produced in Gauteng recently.

“There certainly was a strong South African, and particularly Gauteng, voice at this year's event”, said GFC marketing manager, Puisano Phatoli.

Added impact

According to Phatoli, the exceptionally successful performance of the Gauteng advertising industry – which scooped a record number of accolades including a Grand Prix and several Golden Lions – gave the marketing campaign enormous added impact.

“It was truly a case of ‘walking, as well as talking' the talk,” she said.

In addition to the individualised hotel drops, the GFC also distributed the reels at various industry functions and parties during the week.

“With up to 9000 industry stakeholder from 75 countries meeting here to share and explore fresh concepts and new ideas, we had the perfect platform to capitalise on the adventurous nature of the creative spirits of the ad industry. Our aim was to demonstrate the extent to which Location Gauteng is still one of the advertising world's relatively under-discovered destinations – a destination that combines the excitement of a new African frontier with all the technical savvy, sophistication and infrastructure of Europe or America. This was underscored magnificently by the many success achieved by Gauteng-based entrants this year.”

The direct marketing strategy was supported with a print advertising campaign in publications that were distributed during the event, including Cannes Lions Daily, Screen Africa and The Callsheet.