Category: Photography
Advertiser: 8.TA
Product/Service: MOBILE NETWORK
Agency: McCANN ERICKSON SOUTH AFRICA
Type Of Ad: Newspaper
Date of First Appearance: Aug 23 2010
Entrant Company: McCANN ERICKSON SOUTH AFRICA, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Executive Creative Director: Vanessa Pearson
Copywriter: Tim Beckerling
Art Director: Sean Harrison/Yvonne Hall/Sarita Immelman
Photographer: Michael Poliza
Illustrator: Rob Frew
Art Buyer: Kirsten Zietsman
Account Supervisor: Hester Robb
Planner: Bruce Williamson
English Translation of Main Headlines
An unbranded, un-named, logo-less, teaser newspaper campaign appeared in the mainstream South African press in late 2010, in order to generate intrigue, hype and expectation for the pending launch of South Africa's new cellular network called 8.ta, pronounced 'aytah'.
Powered by telecoms giant Telkom, 8.ta is the derivative of the slang township greeting 'heita' which means hello.
Clues to the brand's eventual identity were a pink dot in every execution and the word 'heita' which caught South Africans how to pronounce the brand's name. The teaser resulted in viral wildfire in a quest to discover the brand's identity. The brand, 8.ta, exists to make cellular communication accessible to large numbers of poorer South Africans.