After two decades formulating a highly successful working relationship with Independent Newspapers KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), advertising communications’ agency, FCB Durban, is taking it a step further after winning the national advertising contract for Independent Media Group. This follows a number of impactful campaigns conceptualised and executed by FCB Durban, including the most recent ‘Racism Stops with Me’ initiative.
 
“In light of a number of race-related incidents nationally, Independent Media decided to launch this awareness initiative as a unifying medium,” explained FCB Durban chairman, Clive McMurray. “We got involved with the cause by developing the campaign to really drive the message home.” The campaign, which was launched in all Independent Media Group titles during Racism Week in March, included a four-page wrap with a call to action challenging everyone to take the ‘stop racism’ pledge. This was then leveraged through social media with great success. 
 
“During our time with Independent Newspapers, we have continued to come up with a number of activations that have kept the various newspapers fresh, relevant and visible,” explained McMurray. “This is evident in the province’s subscriber rate, which is the highest countrywide.” Some of these activations include the ‘The Mercury Wine Week’; ‘Making Tracks in KZN’ and ‘The Mercury Get a Head Start’.
 
“The Mercury Wine Week was a flagship event for the paper where we tried to show that everyone, not only wine connoisseurs, would benefit from attending, and it has proved to be highly successful,” said McMurray. Evolving from the ‘Where in KZN?’ campaign, Making Tracks in KZN used augmented reality and new media to drive interest in places featured in the newspaper.
 
And, to ensure all the early risers got their news fix, FCB Durban launched’ The Mercury Get a Head Start’ activation where promoters advertised news headlines at airports, the beachfront and other destinations frequented by those who start the day early. FCB Durban was also behind the launch of Independent’s most successful title, Isolezwe.
 
“We took a different look at the Zulu market,” explained McMurray. “We showed that the readers are different from the anticipated stereotypes. We then followed the trade campaign with a consumer campaign that focused on how the newspaper could go places the consumer couldn’t, bringing them the news as if they were there. This proved highly successful, helping make the brand it is today.”
 
McMurray and his team are aware of the challenges facing print media, however, they will be tackling these by growing the IOL online portal while ensuring the newspapers continue to deliver excellent content with more insight than is available online. He said they also have a number of milestone events planned including a campaign coinciding with the Cape Times 140th birthday as well as the next phase of the ‘Racism Stops with Me’ campaign.
 
Commenting on the awarding of the national contract to FCB Durban, Lutfia Vayej, Group Executive of Marketing and Communication for The Independent Group, said: “We are very excited to expand our working relationship with FCB Durban. Time and again they have proven that they understand our brands, our advertisers' needs and they know what our readers want.  And they've delivered. We're looking forward to working with the team as we reposition our content platforms throughout the country.”