As Africa and the Middle East’s premier award that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the advertising and brand communication industry, winning a Loerie is the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region. The Loeries, a proudly not-for-profit company, promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of fresh thinking, innovative ideas and outstanding execution.
Wesgro, the Official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape proudly took home three awards at the final ceremony in Cape Town on Friday night.
Ensuring the marketing of the province remains best in class – the Agency was lauded for its work across digital, social media and technology, with the following awards in the bag:
- For Digital Crafts - Use of Technology - A Craft Certificate: “Climb Table Mountain” – Play Before You Stay in Roblox – built in the Metaverse environment
- For Digital Social Media – a Silver Loerie Award for the Neverending Tourist Campaign Germany, Netherlands, UK, USA
- For Digital - Applications, Games & Interactive tools - A Bronze Loerie Award for the innovative “Climb Table Mountain” – Play Before You Stay in Roblox – the first Metaverse iteration by a destination marketing organization
Wesgro is the world’s first destination marketing organisation to partner with Roblox, a global online gaming platform that utilises the metaverse environment - recreating the Western Cape’s iconic Table Mountain online, as a game for children to explore. This ties to an insight from Expedia, that 87% of parents give children a say in family holiday planning. Armed with this insight, the marketing team set out to leverage the proven influence of the youth market to encourage ‘try before they buy’ – and fall in love with the Mother City and its biodiversity virtually. Understanding the audience, the team built with integrity, layering the game with educational tools to teach the youth audience about the biodiversity on the mountain.
Wesgro’s “Climb Table Mountain” game has proved immensely popular with youth audiences across South Africa – achieving 10 minutes for the average user – 10 x the Roblox average.
Watch the case study here! -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iTL8LCUhGU
The gaming experience has garnered over 32 million impressions, almost 400 00 views and close to 134 000 clicks. Average game time indicates that audiences are staying longer on the game than the Roblox average – this is likely due to the custom avatar building that makes for a fun and compelling gaming experience. The eco-themed game is just the start of building the Western Cape in the Metaverse, with the goal to empower the youth market to learn about the Cape’s biodiversity and encourage their friends to ‘join me in Cape Town and the Western Cape’. The team is working on the Cape Karoo iteration and will also launch to an already game-savvy audience in the US in the next six months.
Key influencers have been trialling the “Climb Table Mountain” experience – including AKA and DJ Zinhle’s daughter, Kairo Forbes, and well known tech YouTuber and Twitch Streamer, Grant Hinds.
The Neverending Tourist Campaign has been in the works for the last three years – culminating in a series that has moved the hearts of the province’s key tourism source markets, and locals alike. Using the voices of expats in the Western Cape that came to visit and never left, the digital campaign is geared to keep the destination top of the travel consideration list, demonstrating how the region is the perfect place to “Get in a Good Space” - with a whopping 2.3 million views on one video on YouTube alone – the results have far surpassed expectations.
Watch one of the campaign videos here.
The Agency, alongside King James - part of Accenture Song - continues to drive talkability by innovating through its marketing of Cape Town and the Western Cape. With multiple marketing awards over the last few years, it aims to compete with global best in class to ensure that the province remains competitive and recognised as a leader in creativity that drives results.
The Loerie Awards are another feather in the Agency’s cap.