Towards the end of 2024 the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA), hosted the South African Effie Awards. An innovative approach earned SAB’s (AB InBev) Brutal Fruit brand two silver awards in the Experiential Marketing and Timely Opportunity categories as well as two bronze awards.
Ramona Kayembe, draftLine director for AB InBev Africa, spoke exclusively to Bizcommunity on Brutal Fruit’s Sheebeen campaign (Image by Bizcommunity)
Ramona Kayembe, draftLine director for AB InBev Africa, spoke exclusively to Danette Breitenbach, marketing, and media editor of Bizcommunity after the awards about the brand’s success and why effectiveness is so important to the brand.
At the time of the conversation Kayembe was the head of brand for Brutal Fruit for AB InBev and the interview centred around the success the brand’s Brutal Fruit Spritzer’s SheBeen: South Africa’s First-Ever Women-Only Bar campaign.
Kayembe outlines the campaign which is a pioneering initiative that created a safe and stylish space specifically for women.
“The Shebeen campaign was a campaign that created a woman-only pop-up bar in Soweto in August 2023 during Women’s Month.”
The campaign resonated with women and Kayembe says they have an overwhelming response from women.
“But there was also an overwhelming response from men as well to say why did we exclude them? Why are we creating an only women-only bar? And who is going to pay for the bills?”
She says these spaces are there for women to show their impendence and strength and a place where they can thrive.
“While this space celebrates femininity and self-expression, it addresses the importance of safety and inclusivity for women in social settings,” says Kayembe.
Internal awards and creative scale
She adds this aligns with the SAB’s broader goal of using creativity to deliver meaningful impact. In the interview, she explains the company’s creative effectiveness programme and how it works.
“The programme is what has been driving our marketing over the past seven to eight years.”
She also emphasises that they do not only celebrate creative work, but they also celebrate the effectiveness of their campaigns.
“We also have our internal awards and own creative scale which we use to assess our work. All of these are building blocks to improve the quality of our creativity and our advertising as a whole.”
She adds that the brands in the stable strive each year to improve on the year before and deliver campaigns that are not only beautiful and great to look at, but impactful as well.
True to brand
Putting this in context, she explains that campaigns like the SheBeen campaign, while it was successful and everyone had a fun time and it looked beautiful, address a serious social issue in our country, gender-based violence (GBV).
“We are trying to address this issue in a way that still stays true to the brand.
The brand is about belonging, and it is about always having women’s needs and women’s desires at the forefront. “Our brand is about connecting and creating these beautiful, elegant spaces for women.”
Kayembe adds that while the campaign was created as a pop-up, this ethos runs through every single brand experience that they have.
“Our current experiential events are frequented predominantly by women, and we ensure that we create a space where they still feel liberated and free and that they’re able to be and do whatever they want.”
Also, as part of SAB’s responsible trading programme they tier outlets based on specific criteria, so women know if that shebeen is a safe space.
“The rating of the shebeen lets women know that the space has been vetted for them,” she explains in the interview.
