Wimpy Print WIMPY BRAILLE BURGER by Metropolitan Republic Johannesburg

WIMPY BRAILLE BURGER
The Print Ad titled WIMPY BRAILLE BURGER was done by Metropolitan Republic Johannesburg advertising agency for subbrand: BRAILLE MENU (brand: Wimpy) in South Africa. It was released in Jun 2012.

Wimpy: WIMPY BRAILLE BURGER

Media
Released
June 2012
Posted
June 2012
Industry
Executive Creative Director
Photographer
Creative Director
Art Director
Copywriter
Art Director
Photographer

Awards:

One Show 2012
One ShowExperiential Advertising / Events and CompetitionsMerit
FAB Awards 2012
DirectSavoury FoodsFAB Award
Cannes Lions 2012
PR LionsRetail and E-commerce, including RestaurantsGold
PR LionsBest Use of Live Events and/or StuntsSilver
The Loeries Awards 2012
MiscellaneousDirect Mail - Dimensional MailGold
MiscellaneousMedia Innovation - Single MediumSilver

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Sectors & Services
Category: Retail and E-commerce, including Restaurants
Advertiser: WIMPY
Product/Service: BRAILLE MENU
Agency: METROPOLITANREPUBLIC Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Advertiser WIMPY
Product BRAILLE MENU
Entrant METROPOLITANREPUBLIC Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Type of Entry: Sectors & Services
Category: Retail and E-commerce, including Restaurants
Title: WIMPY BRAILLE BURGER
Advertiser/Client: WIMPY
Product/Service: BRAILLE MENU
Entrant Company: METROPOLITANREPUBLIC Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
DM/Advertising Agency: METROPOLITANREPUBLIC Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Executive Creative Officer: Paul Warner (Metropolitanrepublic)
Creative Director: Wesley Phelan (Metropolitanrepublic)
Copywriter: Keith Manning (Metropolitanrepublic)
Art Director: Dale Mullany (Metropolitanrepublic)
Producer: Simone Bosman (Metropolitanrepublic)
Director: Will Collinson (Black Envelope Films)
Photographer: Mike Lewis Nick Van Reenen (Mike Lewis Photography)
Retoucher: Darren Bell (Metropolitanrepublic)
Executive Creative Director: Peter Khoury (Metropolitanrepublic)
Describe the campaign/entry
Wimpy wanted to let visually-impaired people know that they offered braille menus in all of their restaurants.
To spread the word, we built braille burgers that blind people could actually read.
With the help of skilled chefs we took sesame seeds and meticulously placed them on burger buns so that the seeds formed braille.
We then delivered the Braille Burgers to 3 of South Africa’s biggest blind institutions. These 3 companies have access to most of the 1 200,000 visually-impaired people living in South Africa. The visually-impaired staff of these companies loved the Braille Burgers so much that it motivated them to pass on the message about the braille menus to their massive network of visually-impaired people, through their newsletters and screen-reader emails. The Wimpy Braille Burger project has rapidly moved through the global market and achieved a massive amount of public support.
Describe the brief from the client
It is very difficult for visually-impaired people to live in a world built for sighted people. That is why Wimpy prints braille menus. The objective was to get the 1,200,000 visually-impaired people of South Africa to enjoy a full dinning experience by letting them know that Wimpy offers braille menus in all of their restaurants; upload the video in order to fuel an online wildfire, attract media and build awareness around the challenges of living in a world built for sighted people; increase brand affinity amongst all South Africans and especially in the blind community.

Results

By building just 15 braille burgers our message was passed on to over 800,000 visuall- impaired South Africans informing them that Wimpy has braille menus in all of restaurants.
In doing this not only did we increase our footfall amongst the visually-impaired we also built up our brand affinity amongst all South Africans.
The campaign was written and spoken about in over 100 local newspapers, websites and radio stations. From there the international media picked up on it and spread it all over the world.
We received over 2m dollars' worth of free media for a campaign that only cost $302. Which means our return on investment covered our total cost 6,000 times over.

Creative Execution

Traditional media would not help us reach many of the visually-impaired people living in South Africa. It would also be a waste of money. So we spoke to the people who have access to most of the 1,200,000 visually-impaired people of South Africa, Blind SA, Louis Braille House and Braille Services. The blind staff at these 3 companies are in daily contact with South Africa's visually-impaired. They keep in contact through braille newsletters and screen reader emails. This was the most relevant and effective way to spread the news of our service.


Out of the 53,000,000 people living in South Africa, 1,200,000 of them are visually-impaired. Wimpy wanted to let every visually-impaired South African know that there is now a seat for them at the table.


Careful research and planning was crucial because of our limited budget. We brought in braille experts and did many tests to try and figure out the best possible way to build the braille burgers. We created this simple direct mailer and delivered it to the key people, Blind SA, Louis Braille Home and Braille Services. They have access to most of South Africa’s visually-impaired. They keep in contact with the visually-impaired by using the amazing screen reader email software. This software enables visually-impaired people to communicate via email. When a blind person receives an email, this program reads the email out for them. We also needed to attract social media to help bring exposure to what Wimpy was doing for the blind community. Social networks and blogs have become indispensable tools because of their high reach, affordability and efficiency, making them the perfect medium to convey our message.