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Marketing Interview South Africa

Heating up the local marketing perspective - literally

The only scientific thing about marketing is the measurement aspect, say some. Not so, says Atomic Marketing, with their new, highly scientific activation for Vanish, using thermal-activated cameras previously limited to the mining realm. MD Nuno Lopes tells us more...

When a product undergoes a significant change, it's only natural for that update to be communicated to consumers. Sadly, communication that actually makes an impact is few and far between. That's where Atomic Marketing comes in. They've been breaking boundaries for years, as the first agency to bring 3D TV to South Africa with LG in 2010.

Nuno Lopes
Nuno Lopes

Now, with Vanish stain remover relaunching to the local market with a product that heats up due to a chemical reaction when removing stains, the Atomic Marketing team had found their USP and were off. They decided to visually show consumers the heat-up feature of the stain-removal process by using thermal-activated cameras, only ever used in the mining field - until now. Lopes explains how science meets marketing...

Bizcommunity 1. Firstly, science SHOULD form the basis of marketing, should it not?

Lopes: Always. Today more than ever, campaigns and strategies need to be quantified to measure success and to justify the spend.

Bizcommunity 2. Atomic Marketing... scientific marketing activation - coincidence?

Lopes: Unfortunately, I would love to say this was of genius design, alas, I cannot. We needed to create an engagement with consumers in a way that was easy to understand and digest.

So, when in Rome... we looked to the world of science and engineering to help, hence using the thermal camera.

Bizcommunity 3. If thermal cameras have only been used in mining before, how did you realise you could use it for marketing activations, too?

Lopes: Nadine Rodrigues, our head activation architect, has her Masters in Physiology and spent time studying the heat properties of elephants in Norway, where she was trained using thermal technology. It was this training that gave her the idea for this engagement to best illustrate Vanish's new game-changing USP.

Bizcommunity 4. Super interesting. Tell us a little more about the Vanish heat-activated product and how the thermal cameras will show the heat-activated Vanish in action - breaking all the science boundaries with this, it seems...

Lopes: The new Vanish product has heat producing properties that, when mixed with water, heat up to 40 degrees C. Vanish also has oxygen particles. So the heat together with the oxygen helps lift off the stain particles, getting to amazing stain removal first time.

The thermal camera detects thermal radiation that is emitted off an object. The higher the temperature, the higher the infrared radiation emitted, hence we can measure (and visually see) the amount of heat emitted by an object.

We can now show the consumer the benefits of the heat produced by Vanish with a thermal camera. This infrared camera also has a temperature scale which is categorised into different colours, hence when we see blue on the screen we can see that the area is 'cold', and vice versa; when the screen is red, we can see that the area is 'hot'. This is the best tool to see how hot the vanish product is.

Bizcommunity 5. When exactly is the activation rolling out in malls and retail stores?

Lopes: During the course of September 2015 we will be rolling out into Pick n Pay and Checkers stores. We are currently finalising the malls for our roadshow.

Bizcommunity 6. What's the expected outcome/audience response?

Lopes: Not many people have seen or even heard of a thermal camera before, so we do expect a "wow" response followed by an "Ah...".

We also believe that crowds draw crowds and hope that the thermal camera activation will encourage and drive believability, which some activations fail to do.

Finally, for the first time we want them to personally and actively see how the detergent works, practically, without the use of animation.

For more information, visit the Atomic Marketing website and Twitter stream.

About Leigh Andrews

Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
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