New jingle for Wonga.com

The jingle is the first radio advertisement released by the company to make use of local South African talent - both in using the original song and the original artists to record the jingle.

Finding the song

Kevin Hurwitz, CEO of Wonga.com SA, says the challenge was finding a song and artist (or group) that not only appealed to multiple generations, but was distinctly South African. "The original song, which was launched in 1990, was one of the first commercial tunes to cross the racial divide and appeal to all demographics. The match made perfect sense because of the song's rich pop-culture heritage and the company's South African roots."

Over and above repackaging their 90s hit as a catchy radio jingle, Marc and Alex Rantseli (MarcAlex) were also actively involved in adapting the words to the original tune, so that it made lyrical and musical sense.

"The lyrics for the jingle tie in nicely with the original song because of the nature of the group's service offering, which is convenient and fast in nature," says Marc Rantseli.

Alex Rantseli says there is nothing uncomfortable or contrived about the lyrical adaption, as it stays true to the original melody and pays homage to local South African music. "This was a pivotal deciding factor before embarking on this collaboration to ensure brand scrutiny. We are honoured to have been selected as the first local band to team up with the group."

Radio crucial to marketing strategy

Hurwitz says that radio remains a crucial element for Wonga's marketing strategy in South Africa, performing efficiently in terms of return on investment, "Consumers are inundated with many advertisements across all media platforms every day and because of this, it was vital to select a song that would resonate with South Africans across a broad demographic, as well as fit in with the various broadcasting genres of the different radio stations in the country."

He says despite its seemingly simplistic nature, the creation of a radio campaign, in keeping with the global formula of using popular songs as jingles, isn't immune to challenges. "Identifying a song that can be adapted to communicate the brand messaging of a particular campaign can prove to be quite challenging. Added to that, the average song is around four minutes, but radio advertisements are only 30 seconds in length. This requires significant condensing without removing key brand messages and a call to action, in order to be effective."

"Our key objective was to ensure that consumers would be singing along to the jingle all day. Experience from past campaigns has taught us that South Africans love to sing along to feel-good, memorable songs or tunes. So, due to its title being aptly descriptive of our service and its catchy nature, the song was the perfect fit.

"To date, our jingles have been a significant driving force behind our local launch and have continued to strengthen our brand awareness among consumers. We are excited about Quick, Quick and feel that it is a more than worthy successor to our Baywatch and Mr Wonga (Mr Sandman) jingles which have been extremely successful to date. Plus we are proud that it has a uniquely South African flavour," concludes Hurwitz.