WATCH: Creative Southerners steal the show
Mother's Day advert viewed by 1.1 million.
Three young enthusiastic and budding creatives made Mother’s Day a great day with the advert they entered for the KFC pitch.
The launch of the KFC SA Mother’s Day advert on May 8 helped them make a name for themselves as it received over 1.1 million views and over 3 million impressions across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The three young South African creatives are copywriter Mandla Phakathi from the south of Joburg, voice-over artist and soon-to-be director Bonko Khoza also from Joburg South and Mo Matli who lives in Braamfontein.
Matli, who is a director, cinematographer and editor at Senses, said, “Our vision is to be at the forefront of showcasing South Africa from a relatable, graceful, and heartwarming perspective and this advert offered us the perfect opportunity to do just this. The ad set out to celebrate South Africa’s diverse cultures of multiple mother figures, from grannies to sisters and even the lady down the road that you buy your lunch from.”
This film was based on the cultural collective that South Africans have many mother figures in their lives and the narrative was developed around a young man living in the city, far from his own mother yet takes the time to show appreciation to the women who support him and ‘always choose him’, by gifting them something special – a KFC bucket.
“We’ve enjoyed the journey and seeing our vision come to life as beautifully as it has was a wonderful experience. The reception it has received has been overwhelming.”
Suhayl Limbada, marketing director at KFC South Africa, said, “Having been in SA for 50 years, we have always aimed to drive the spirit of youth development at many levels, be it on the cricket field, through our Add Hope programme or even internally through our bursary programme for our team member’s children.
“And so we are extremely excited about this additional avenue to our marketing approach and efforts. This advert has not only performed extremely well, but also it hit home for South African audiences. More importantly, it has allowed this amazing group of young, talented, energetic young South African creatives to shine with a global brand.”
The three met a few years ago through a learnership programme and started collaborating on different passion projects and decided to come together to launch their own short films.
The first one created in 2020 titled To whom it may concern is a tale of an aspiring fitness trainer in search of a fitness bursary. The team works together to share ideas, collectively decide on insight to work from and work hard at bringing the story to life.
“Filmer.tv and KFC South Africa have both been highly supportive throughout the project. It’s been a learning curve that’s stretched our creativity and our ability to independently execute brand briefs and we are excited at the journey that this has set us on,” said Matli.
“Coming from a long career in the advertising and film industry and exposed to the wealth of filmmaking talent across South Africa, we knew that only a small percentage of this talent is landing on the radars of big brands,” said Peri vP, chief creative at Filmer.tv.
“This model was outdated and with so much talent out there we felt our industry needed access to a community of creators who understand the tastes, nuances and styles of the audience that brands want to speak to.
“This campaign brought this to life and was truly a rewarding experience to see a young filmmaking team, who never would have had the chance to land on KFC’s radar before, win the job and execute a film that the public is responding so well to,” said Peri.
Limbada said, “This is just the start of the type of content we will be creating and the impact we are hoping to make in young entrepreneurs’ lives, so watch this space.”
