By Kerryn Le Cordeur
On Thursday, 12 August, Vodacom Color, the youth-specific brand and cellular offering from Vodacom, held a campus activation at the University of Johannesburg. This was the fourth such activation to take place, with the University of Cape Town; Stellenbosch University; and the University of the Witwatersrand already getting in on the action, and Durban being next in line.
The concept of the activation is a unique one – an oversized ‘human vending machine’ set up at campus hotspots. Ziggy from Nota Bene, the media strategy agency that conceptualised the campaign, explained that students who switch to a prepaid Color product receive a token to insert into the ‘vending machine’. After inserting the token, students can see the ‘human’ inside the vending machine cycling to music for 30 seconds, which turns a wheel inside the machine that randomly produces a prize for the waiting student.
The prizes are just up a student’s alley – ranging from fragrances; designer jeans; backpacks; and caps, to gaming consoles; cell phones; and iPods.
Moshe from Nota Bene added that the idea behind the concept is to illustrate that you ‘get more with Color’. He added that as Color is a youth-specific brand, the marketing campaign is targeted at the student market, and therefore campus activations are ideal.
The concept of a ‘human vending machine’ is a first in South Africa, and on an international scale, the only other campaign that has been carried out on a similar scale is the Coke Happiness vending machine, where people placed money into a vending machine to receive prizes, rather than beverages.
Thulani from Vodacom said that attendance at the various brand activations around the country has been good. He feels that the key success of the campaign lies in generating excitement around the new brand, and the fact that because the idea of ‘getting more’ is being demonstrated in a unique way, the campaign is going viral, with videos being posted on YouTube, and students mentioning the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
For a taste of this unique brand activation, click
here to view the Vodacom Color ‘human vending machine’ at the University of Cape Town campus.