South Africa’s DSTV wanted run a campaign to attract new subscribers before the 2012 Olympic Games.

Specifically, the company was looking for high-income adults who did not have HD PVR decoders. The target market included:

• New subscribers.
  
  
• Current premium subscribers not using the standard decoder.
  
  
• Sports lovers.

DSTV approached Ads24, the leading seller of South African newspapers to national advertisers and media agencies, and tasked the news media company with developing a workable, innovative layout for the DSTV HD PVR Olympics campaign.

The campaign was to run in newspaper titles from June 20 to August 5, 2012. Ads24 was asked to push the boundaries of creative execution in the form of innovative layout and execution of the ads.

DSTV’s objective was to sell HD PVR decoders and Walka/Drifter (the mobile DSTV devices) to new and existing subscribers. The company wanted to run ads that would be incorporated into the copy of the articles. 

Using copy and images that made the ads appear to be part of the editorial within the newspaper, the campaign featured five different story topics: “HD Makes Everything Else Look Like Black and White,” “Uninterrupted Action,” “Record the Records,” “It’s a Clean Sweep,” and “Aim Higher with PVR.”

The articles on the page were printed in black and white. The ads really stood out, as they were the only colour on the page.

The campaign ran in the print titles viz., City Press, Rapport, Beeld, Die Burger, and Sake24. The outcome was both innovative and memorable, and DSTV reported a noticeable increase in units sold in response to this campaign – the advertising objectives were achieved.

Ads24 are constantly trying to find new and attention-grabbing ways of presenting ads in our newspapers. In working with DSTV, Ads24 came up with a workable solution that met the client’s needs and wants while maintaining editorial integrity. 

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