Taste of the Royal Wedding with Sasko Flour to South Africans: Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town's innovative activation

Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town and its PR affiliate Tin Can, created an innovative activation campaign for the Sasko Flour brand, which was showcased at the V&A Waterfront on the day of the royal wedding, attracting onlookers to get a taste of the royal wedding and "share in the goodness' of the most talked about event of 2011.

South Africans were invited to have their cake and eat it on the day of the Royal Wedding with a showcase of Cake Couture dresses designed by some of SA's most promising fashion designers, which were baked with Sasko Flour by the country's best known chefs and worn by models.

The event combined every bride-to-be's two biggest wedding obsessions: the cake and the dress and the three couture dresses were put on display for people to view and then eat.

Sammy-Jane Thom, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town, says that Sasko Flour believes in "sharing the goodness', which is why you'll find it in almost every kitchen in South Africa. "While this is the case for the middle to lower income groups, for the upper LSM's we had our work cut out for us and we needed an event that would spark interest in young, urban women," she adds.

Thom says that based on the target market insights something visible that was in the public eye was needed in the form of a strong newsworthy idea.

"We created this platform to take a less traditional approach and based the activation on the universal insight that young urban women have a great love for fashion and food. Combining these two primary ingredients we cooked up the dream recipe of ' Cake Couture."

Thom continues, "The campaign aimed at building affinity within the upper LSM's needed to demonstrate the products baking skills in a way that would WOW them. We saw the royal wedding as an opportune moment to implement this campaign. Everything was handpicked for this activation to ensure that the quality and standard was continued throughout the campaign."

The Cake Couture campaign, involved life-size, edible designer dresses. Keeping in line with Sasko Flour's positioning of "sharing the goodness,' we enlisted the talent of three up-and-coming SA designers and paired them with top pastry chefs to design three jaw-dropping (not to mention lip-smacking) creations, exhibited by three top models.

Choosing the home of SA's longest fashion wing and over 60 restaurants at the V&A Waterfront was the perfect venue to showcase the dresses. "We used the platform of the most talked about event to launch the Cake Couture campaign ' The Royal Wedding," says Thom. "The public were invited to enjoy a slice from their favourite dress as well as sign a special commemorative card, which will be sent to the Royal couple, with love from South Africa."

Alongside the actual event-taking place, people viewing the dresses had the opportunity to win some great prizes through the Cake Couture Facebook (Cake Couture) and Twitter Page (@SAcakeCOUTURE)

Thom continues, "The campaign was testament to how an activation, PR and social media come together to create something spectacular. The collaboration between fashion designers and chefs, allowed this campaign to address the brief directly."

Credits:

Creative Director: Sammy-Jane Thom

Copywriter: Kyle Cockeran

PR Agency: Tin Can PR

PR Account Executive: Monde Mtsi

Campaign project manager/PR Account Director / Strategist: Kisha van Vuuren