The competition attracts entries from place marketing boards, mayoral teams, tourism promotion agencies, foreign direct investors (FDIs), and economic development boards, as well as the communication consultancies who are working with them.

Competing in the Best Expression of Place Identity Through Design category, the Brand South Africa/FCB Africa team will be competing against Interbrand (which entered Courmayeur), Eindhoven 365 (which entered Eindhoven), Visit Jackson (for Jackson), and Binsfled-Vidalegloesener (for Luxembourg).

Brand South Africa's general manager for marketing, Sithembile Ntombela, says the campaign achieving finalist status was conceptualised and rolled out to deliver one core message.
"South Africa is an attractive, viable, world-class investment destination for investors, traders and tourists. And it’s open for business," says Ntombela. 

"The political and economic instability of the past decade had negatively impacted on investment in developing economies," she adds. "This, coupled with perceived instability in the country, the herd behaviour of investors, and the low familiarity with South Africa as an investment destination, increased the risk that South Africa could lose its competitive edge in Africa. In addition, our 'nation brand' – as expressed by Brand South Africa – could be impacted negatively." 

"Combatting this was the challenge posed to FCB Africa’s strategic and creative teams. The resultant campaign demonstrated South Africa’s foreign investment environment, key attractiveness features, and the extent to which the policy environment provides protection for investment," she says.

The strategy developed by FCB Africa, in partnership with Brand South Africa, was informed by key themes in the National Development Plan 2030 and leveraged its 2000-year history of business, juxtaposing this with that of other developing countries.

"We anchored our creative strategy and execution of the campaign in a heritage site, Mapungubwe, which is an ancient African civilisation where evidence is found of trade with India and other countries in pre-colonial history," adds general manager at FCB Africa, with oversight of the Brand South Africa account, Mariaan van Kaam.

"With this truly African context as its base, the 360-degree campaign then showcased contemporary South Africa, its economic and socio-cultural diversity, and the fact that the country offers major opportunities for FDI growth, as well as links to the pan-African market," says van Kaam.

Key international forums targeted by the campaign included the DAVOS meeting in January and the World Economic Forum on Africa hosted in Durban, South Africa, in May.

"The campaign has proven itself to be robust, resilient, inspiring, multi-faceted, and able to stand its ground against competitor nation brands. It has already delivered impressive results,” adds van Kaam. "For example, the 2017 EY Africa Attractiveness Survey finds that South Africa attracts the bulk of FDI, and is the most attractive investment destination in Africa, with 20.6% of FDI to Africa coming to the South African market." 

"Furthermore, Reptrak (Reputation House) found that South Africa’s Overall Nation Brand Reputation Index in 2017 moved up four places from its 2016 ranking, while the country’s perception among the G8 has improved year-on-year, scoring 55.1 in 2017 compared to 49.2 in 2016," says van Kaam.

“These and other improvements in South Africa’s standing as an investment, business, and tourist destination have made all the work and effort worthwhile. However, we’re also delighted with Brand South Africa’s finalist status as it affirms the partnership’s world-class status," concludes Ntombela.

Winners of the 2017 City Nation Place Awards will be announced the City Nation Place Global Forum, which will take place in London on Thursday, 9 November and is the annual meeting place for senior executives responsible for building, developing, and communicating place brands around the world.

Cape Town, entered by Cape Town Tourism, is a finalist in the Best Citizen Engagement category.

For more information, visit www.fcb.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.