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Nando's and Sunday Times partner to #rightmyname on Human Rights Day

By Juanita Pienaar

20 Mar 2018

Earlier this month Nando's announced that the brand had partnered exclusively with Sunday Times to promote its recent #rightmyname campaign.

Nando's and Sunday Times partner to #rightmyname on Human Rights Day

According to Nando’s, this campaign aims to correct the exclusion of South African names that are reflected as errors by spellcheck by tomorrow, 21 March on Human Rights Day.

Doug Place, chief marketing officer at Nando’s explains in a press release sent to Bizcommunity:

At Nando’s, we’ve always loved celebrating South Africa’s diversity. So, when we noticed that after more than 30 years, spellcheck still highlights Nando’s as a mistake, it got us thinking. What about other names in South Africa? Names like Nokuthula, Elodie, Darawees and Tebatso. Why are their names highlighted as mistakes too? Not cool.

The campaign has received massive attention in way of shares on social media platforms and now in print form, it’s set to generate even more hype. However, recently it has also received flak when readers noticed that articles in the Sunday Times (the edition with the Nando’s ad) also had red lines appear in the news articles themselves and not just in the advertisements. This immediately sparked debate around how far advertising should infringe on editorial space.

Sunday Times’s Bongani Siqoko told The Media Online that “the value of their [Nando’s] campaign was enhanced by the fact that we maintained our editorial integrity.” He believes that the campaign was simply a great execution of lateral thinking and he says, of course, it was going to create debate.

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In the meantime, Su-lise Tessendorf-Louw, GM of brand and strategy at Nando’s and Reardon Sanderson, GM of group sales and marketing at Tiso Blackstar Group, spoke to me about how the concept of the campaign was conceived, why the partnership between Nando’s and Sunday Times works, and what the response from the public has been thus far...

Su-lise Tessendorf-Louw, GM of brand and strategy at Nando’s and Reardon Sanderson, GM of group sales and marketing at Tiso Blackstar Group.

How did you come up with the concept for this ad?

Tessendorf-Louw: The campaign is about giving each South African a right to have their name acknowledged. Instead of a traditional advert, we wanted to illustrate what happens when names appear digitally and, to do this through something we read regularly, yet has names manually corrected before it is made public. In using a serious platform like a newspaper, the importance of our names not being a mistake would resonate with South Africans.

What message are you trying to convey through the #rightmyname campaign and how does it tie into Nando's and Sunday Times' brands?

Tessendorf-Louw: Nando’s has always celebrated South Africa’s diversity and joining or, if necessary, amplifying the conversations that we are having. #rightmyname says that your name is not a mistake. It’s simply unacceptable that, in a country as diverse as SA, spellcheck fails to acknowledge our names.

Sanderson: “From the Sunday Times perspective, the campaign carries a message with the real intent to action positive change, and create a unifying, inclusive sentiment amongst South Africans, which we were happy to support and take to our readers.”

This ad also did well on social media and received massive shares. Why did you decide on a print ad to take the message further? And why with the Sunday Times? Why does this partnership work?

Tessendorf-Louw: Well-executed press adverts have the power to connect you to a broader audience. A strong message, combined with fresh creative work, will make an impact on social media as this is where people share things that interest them and have conversations that they believe are important.

Sanderson: It’s also important to remember that the Sunday Times has an audience of more than two million readers, so campaigns that are executed on this print platform have wide reach into the relevant target market. Nando’s also did not want to interfere with the editorial integrity of the Sunday Times… in fact, it’s the editorial integrity that keeps our readers loyal and engaged.

What has the feedback been like thus far? And are people, in fact, registering their names on the site?

Tessendorf-Louw: The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ve received over 37,951 names already! People “get” the campaign and appreciate that someone is doing something about that angry red line under our names. New names are being added every day and we’ll be taking names long after Human Rights Day.

I’m joining @NandosSA and adding my name to the list. I’m done with with the squiggly red lines: Just because my name is different, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Spell check bout to put some respek on my name. You in? #RightMyName �� pic.twitter.com/r3mK9q6aLj
— Thandolwethu Tsekiso (@ThandoTsekiso) March 16, 2018

How does it work? How will Nando's be able to add the names to the spellcheck dictionary?

Tessendorf-Louw: Consumers can visit rightmyname.co.za and add their name. On Human Rights Day, 21 March 2018, we’ll be releasing the list as a download on the website. South Africans will then be able to download the file and update their spellcheck dictionary using an instructional video as a guide.

For updates on this and more from Nando’s, visit the Nando’s website or follow them on the following social media platforms: Facebook | Twitter. You can also visit the Sunday Times website here and follow the newspaper on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.