Currently, only about 1% of South African consumers shop online. Takealot.com, South Africa’s leading online retailer, wanted to make online shopping the norm among young black consumers.
To do this, we asked the satirical character of Lesego Thlabi, Coconut Kelz, to unpack the inner workings of Takealot.com for all South Africans. Kelz, known to be a white woman trapped in a black woman’s body, is notorious for her aversion to hard work or struggle, along with her love for complaining. She was a perfect fit to highlight the ease and reliability that comes with Takealot.com’s platform and service.
By using her unique character, we made an essentially boring and informative how-to guide, enjoyable and memorable, ultimately gaining more shoppers through the honesty of the commercial. We made sure that the humour resonated with a variety of audiences: from the kugals in Sandton, to the vegans in Cape Town, and also to the users of woke, black Twitter.
The end result was a much-loved video with over 600 000 views on Youtube and an organic reach of over 600 000 on Facebook since its release on 20 August, managing to turn online fans into online shoppers.
