Opposite the Gautrain station on the Oxford Road thoroughfare, the iconic Rosebank Link building features a unique collaboration between Paragon Architects, Redefine Properties (the building owners) and Primary Colours.
The Rosebank Link has a dramatic full-colour LED video screen that has been custom-designed and engineered to be an integral part of the building’s fabric, and to contribute to the edifice’s striking appearance. This ‘smart lighting’ has a total length of 226 metres and stretches across 15 floors of the building.
Not only is Primary Colour’s Rosebank screen one of the largest LED screens in South Africa, it is also the country’s largest operational example of a strip screen display. The building’s exterior lights – which, like the screen content, can be controlled and manipulated remotely, are not made of individual lights but are in fact narrow strips of video screen.
Primary Colours directors Ashendra Singh and Grant Neill explained, ’Using this new DigiLED technology, we’ve been able to create an exceptionally flat screen that offers maximum viewing angles to both pedestrians and drivers using this major city artery. With no off-angle colour shift, this new screen offers advertisers a unique way to tell their stories in the most impactful way possible.’
With HD 720 resolution and the ability to display 16 million colours, the complete screen measures 18 metres wide and 7 metres high (1728 pixels wide x 745 pixels high). Geometric-pattern cladding was used to underline the fact that the screen is an authentic part of the building’s fabric.
While the screen itself represents cutting edge technology, it is arguably the building’s strip lighting (attached to the Rosebank Link via watertight perforations in the building façade) that is the most exciting aspect of this project. Most impressive when viewed at night, the ribbons of coloured video displays are designed to reflect from the building’s edges, giving a more harmonious ‘wash’ effect.
SPARK Media announced its digital advertising partnership with Private Property. Advertisers can access audiences that are primed to engage with products and services that relate to the buying or selling of homes.
‘In our continued efforts to connect advertisers with relevant audiences, we partnered with Private Property to bring a unique opportunity to our agency and brand partners,’ said Marc du Plessis, Joint CEO of Spark Media. ‘While it may not be intuitive to think of a property portal as a prime audience for anything but homes and property financing, users on the site are however primed to engage with many other categories, such as home appliances, furniture, schools, tech for the home and many more.’
‘We pride ourselves on tactical solutions for both advertisers and customers,’ concluded du Plessis. ‘Pairing one of South Africa’s top property platforms with our interest-based and location targeting capabilities gives advertisers a comprehensive advertising solution.’
Samsung’s new 65” panels comprise of ultra-narrow bezels for digital signage applications with its bezel measuring only 3.7mm.
Yang Oh-seung, head of LCD marketing at Samsung Display said, ‘Although UHD products for digital signage have been introduced in other segments, Samsung’s new UHD displays with their 3.7mm, ultra-narrow bezel is the first in the video wall segment and are expected to transform advertising and information messaging in large format signage. Four 65” electronic display panels, featuring 8.3 million pixels, will comprise the most impressive 2 × 2 video wall on the market today.’
One of the key video wall segments to benefit from Samsung Display’s cutting-edge advancement is the 46” 3×3 full HD installation, which now accounts for the largest number of commercial installations. With this transformation to 2 x 2 65” UHD panels, customers will be able to provide consumers with a greater sense of immersion, while materially improving the uniformity of colour and quality of images. They will also gain significant installation cost savings since only four braces will be required for 65” panels, rather than the nine braces for 3 x 3 set-ups with 46” panels.
Halls took to the streets of Johannesburg to drive awareness of its ‘Own the Moment’ campaign, promoting the online competition and social engagement, and encouraging Google searches.
Halls achieved this by partnering with Street Network, which saw the roll-out of an innovative creative execution across eight bus shelters in Johannesburg, targeting daily commuters and with a specific focus on millennials ‘on the go’.
The partnership with Street Network allowed Halls to stretch its creative muscles and select strategically-located shelters that talked to the target market and provided the perfect canvas on which to communicate a compelling message. The ‘Own the Moment’ campaign encouraged people from across the country to share their ‘happy moments’ via the Halls website for the chance to win R250,000, and these moments were brought to life across the city with the help of creative studio Mrs & Mr Luke, who were engaged by Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town on behalf of Halls SA.
‘We wanted to take the digital realm and bring it into the physical space, and the Out-of-Home (OOH) medium was perfect for this,’ said Tyrone Beck, Creative Director at Saatch & Saatchi Cape Town. ‘Also, what we found that, as a result of the hype around the OOH pieces, the campaign developed its own ecosystem. Our target audience was driven to our social channels and then onto the microsite either by seeing them physically or via the artists’ posts on their social pages.’
Halls wanted to work with local artists to create a series of public works of art in Johannesburg, as part of the broader campaign to ‘Own the Moment’.
Mrs & Mr Luke were given a ‘moment’ as the inspiration behind each bus shelter, which they then needed to interpret in their own styles. These moments took on themes such as: ‘Waking up at 5 to fulfil my dreams’, ‘Forgot my bus ticket’, ‘Moved to the City of Gold’ and ‘Making time to make things happen’. Mrs & Mr Luke were given free rein to re-imagine each bus shelter, with the purpose of creating an all-encompassing experience, inside and outside.
This involved wrapping the bus shelters in bright, solid colours, which immediately created interest from regular commuters and passers-by. One shelter was even designed by artist Isabeau Joubert using a ‘yarn-bomb’, which is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre, rather than paint or chalk. This street furniture campaign was effective in reaching over 850,000 people and delivering 5.5 million impacts with an average frequency of 7 (ROAD2015/16/17C).
Jonathan Everest, Head of Sales for Street Network said, ‘This platform allowed for creative expression in a way that no other medium would have been able to. Commuter shelters also allow for flexibility in terms of the size of a campaign, from directional branding on a single commuter shelter through to creating an outdoor art installation on a limited number of sites. The location also plays a vital role, and as such the opportunities for street furniture are endless, limited only by the imagination and ability of the creative to deliver an effective message.’
In partnering with Street Network, Halls SA and Saatchi & Saatchi displayed how an effective and well thought out street furniture campaign can elevate a brand and captivate commuters in targeted high-traffic locations, using a unique creative execution and enhancing and complementing activities on social media and mobile.
LG Hausys used HI-MACS’ acrylic solid surface in architectural project the Zaryadie Concert Hall in Russia. There are several themes in the architecture of the concert hall, but they are not divided. Although they are arranged in space with a certain sequence, they are actually intertwined.
The hall has been dubbed as a ‘generator’ that receives plastic energy from music in its core: streams are generated around, like electricity on a coil of copper wire, or like the magnetism of a large celestial body. On the border of the hall energy does not disappear, it splashes in the foyer with white protuberances of stair railing and balconies, whose asymmetrical fluid movement is emphasised by light lines and randomly scattered dots of lamps, somewhat similar to stars. The grid of measured rhythm of the vertical walls of the hall and the façade, stitched with curves of balconies and railings, is connected with them as closely as rhythm in music is associated with melody.
When creating the interior, much attention was paid to the finishing material, which in addition to aesthetic properties, had to satisfy several requirements that take into account the social nature of the space, such as fire and wear resistance, ease of maintenance and further operation. The architects chose the HI-MACS composite material for cladding the surfaces of balconies and staircases. The total surface area created with HI-MACS is about 6000sqm. This non-porous material is easy to clean, wash and remove scratches by polishing. There are bar counters of two cafes on the balcony of the second tier and countertops in the toilet rooms made by HI-MACS.
One of the main requirements for the material is the ability to create seamless surfaces of a large area, including curvilinear ones. Due to its special properties, HI-MACS is often used to create objects designed using parametric modelling. The continuity of the lines of extensive parapets of balconies and stair railings flowing into each other, the graphics of the slats hiding the ventilation system and the finishing of thin columns of the second tier are the result of accurate modelling and flawless production. In addition to curvilinear fences, a grooved finishing of the cashier’s office area was created using 3D moulding, continuing the theme of the wooden ribbed surface of adjacent wardrobe walls.
The translucency of HI-MACS has become another determining factor when choosing material for foyer interiors: light plays an important role in the foyer space, creating a vertical rhythm in the interior, where the horizontal dominates. In the afternoon, shadows on windows and columns draw shadows on the snow-white planes. And in the evening, the surfaces are enlivened with light lines on the balconies and illuminated stepped ceilings. Different colours of LEDs mounted in the design, and the use of dimmers allow a variation in the lighting effects.
Craig Wallis, Business Unit Manager at The MediaShop.
We are all aware of the fact that we get bombarded with hundreds of advertisements every day courtesy of our exposure to numerous media. Just this morning I was on Pinterest reading a post on, ‘How to trim your dog’s nails’. (Yup, a real first world issue). Scrolling through it, I was amazed at the number of ads that literally ‘infested’ the article.
I counted 16 ads that were in the 834 word article, which was three A4 pages long (yes, I checked – I copied the article to Word and came up with those stats). If I used this blog as an example, it means that you would have been exposed to two full adverts by the time you get to the end of this sentence. To me, this is clutter of the highest order.
Little wonder that I gloss over mobile ads every day of my life. I had to have a giggle at the re-targeting I got from an online retailer recently. I bought a heart rate monitor (thanks Discovery Miles!) and lo and behold the same retailer peppered me over the next few days with heart rate monitor ads. Were they hoping that I would buy a second one as I have two wrists? What a waste of ad spend.
Having spoken about the advertising clutter that I encounter, I need to highlight two gems that captivated me. And I mean that literally. I always rant (and lament) about how many advertisers just do not get creative right for Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) screens.
Every morning on the school run, I drive past a large roadside digital screen. As I am invariably stationary at the traffic light, I have time to critique the ads that are being flighted. I must admit that it is not often that I am impressed by the quality of the creative.
But then it happened: I was amazed (and totally captivated) by a Woolworths ad on this screen. They were promoting their rotisserie chickens. Why was I captivated by it? Firstly, the videography was exceptional. The HD visuals of the roast chicken just oozed succulence. Barely had my cereal gone ‘snap, crackle, and pop’ in my gut and here I was ready to eat some clearly delicious chicken.
The second thing that Woolies got right, is that while the chicken visuals and messaging were playing, they permanently had their ‘W’ logo as well as ‘Woolworths’ in the top corners of the screen. So few advertisers do not utilise this essential awareness tactic on their DOOH ads. If I have a two-second glance up at the screen whilst driving past, I immediately know that I can buy that chicken at Woolies. So, in two seconds Woolies would have pulled the ultimate ‘advertising job’ on me. Kudos. Check their OOH ad here:
My other venue where I do my best to ‘skip this ad’, is my go-to source of entertainment, namely YouTube. I go to great lengths to ensure that my remote’s cursor is over the ‘Skip Ad’ button so that I can do just that. I am mostly very successful in only being exposed to the ad for a few seconds before my next Jonathan Pie/Trevor Noah/John Oliver episode captures my attention.
I was on YouTube a couple of nights ago, and then it happened…I was immediately taken by the content in the pre-roll for a Pratley’s ad. Just like Woolies did, they piqued my interest in a flash with their content and visuals. I was fascinated by their new product called Frogz Eggz. This name, in relation to Pratley’s (Putty) jarred with me, so I was immediately interested in finding out the connection. They also showed the unique properties of the ‘eggs,’ and this too had me riveted to the screen.
What a fascinating DIY product. I watched the whole ad very willingly as I was really being educated. And, imagine to my surprise, the very next ad served to me was a different Frogz Eggz ad which showed me another practical use for this product. (FYI it is a hand mouldable plastic product). I watched three of their ads.
I even went on to their website to learn more about this interesting product. I was not disappointed with their website either. Lots of info and tips were easily accessible. I will definitely be buying some Eggz on my next trip to Builders Warehouse. I guarantee you that very soon it will solve a few DIY issues around my home.
Check it out:
So, just as I have become rather jaded with digital ads, I discovered two gems (at last). The motto of the story is that if you want to get someone’s attention in this day and age, then you have to make sure that your ad is relevant, creative, intriguing, entertaining and informative. If not, then it is meaningless, and will not break through the clutter.
Marilyn Houston, new creative services manager at Grey JHB.
Grey Africa appointed Marilyn Houston as the creative services manager of the Johannesburg branch.
With over 20 years of experience in the advertising arena, Houston will play a role in managing, evolving and adapting Grey’s project management and production capabilities. Houston’s experience ranges locally and internationally, managing internal operations including traffic, studio, art buying, production, producers and project management.
Paul Jackson, chief executive officer at Grey Africa said, ‘Houston’s experience will play a vital role in assuring Grey continues to deliver famously effective work. We’re excited to have her as part of the Grey family.’
Street Network and Vodacom partnered to drive awareness of the mobile service provider’s fibre offering in Cape Town.
The campaign follows a best-in-class application of Out-of-Home and bus shelter creative, using the Vodacom brand CI and a simple message in the form of a thought-provoking question: ‘Wouldn’t it be better to be home-streaming your favourite shows?’
Site selection for the campaign was focused on strategically-located bus shelters along busy commuter routes, with a total reach of over 900,000 consumers monthly, resulting in impacts of 9.1 million thanks to an average frequency of 10 (ROAD2015/2016/2017C).
Jonathan Everest, Head of Sales at Street Network said, ‘Bus shelters are positioned to catch the attention of consumers on their daily commute, within targeted areas identified by the brand. Bus shelter advertising is a high-frequency media platform that drives both consumer recall and engagement. Our bus shelter solution amplified and extended the reach of the campaign with high levels of recall, particularly for residents considering the switch to fibre.’
Vodacom has embarked on an awareness campaign that sees it rolling out a thought-provoking execution across a number of strategically-located bus shelters along popular routes in the Mother City, targeting commuting Capetonians as they make their way to and from work, shopping and leisure activities.

The South African data landscape is undergoing significant change. The Department of Telecommunications & Postal Services presented its ‘SA Connect’ progress report to Parliament earlier this year, and in it highlighted how much progress had been made in fibre and cellular coverage roll-out across the country.
Based on data provided by the FTTX Council, the report found that the number of houses passed by fibre had grown from 439,000 in 2017 to 933,000 by March 2018 – equivalent to 112% year-on-year growth. Additionally, the number of houses connected to fibre grew from 89,000 in 2016/17 to 280,000 in 2017/18.
According to Future Market Insights’ research publication titled ‘Fibre to the Home Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027)’, the global fibre to the home market is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4%.
WOW Media unveiled four new 111.48sqm (1200 square feet) two-sided 20” x 60” digital billboards in Los Angeles, expanding local opportunities for immersive brand awareness.
The signs offer premium exposure to millions of commuters and travellers using the nearby Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). These are also the only digital signs reaching freeway traffic to the highly sought-after communities of West Los Angeles including Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
Scott Krantz, Founder and CEO, WOW Media said, ’These billboards are truly a game-changer in the Los Angeles media market. Their massive size and high-definition, LED technology gives brands the ability to deliver innovative, customisable content to consumers – and their unique positioning along the nation’s busiest freeway enables each campaign to reach millions of consumers 24/7 as motorists travel to and from LAX into West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley.’
These new signs join WOW Media’s existing network of eight full-motion billboards, all situated on key traffic arteries adjacent to LAX. As the region’s only digital billboard network, campaigns can be synced across boards for maximum exposure and impact.
Huda Beauty approached SignStix partner Smart AV to create a truly immersive digital space for its first ever flagship store in Selfridges, London.
In line with the brand’s vision to create a captivating, stand-out space for beauty shoppers, the store incorporates an attention-grabbing backdrop of LED screens – a truly immersive display – showcasing inspirational behind-the-scenes content and product videos.
Smart AV supplied a high-resolution LED display set in a staggered formation to achieve a unique 3D experience, which is powered by a single high-power media player. Using SignStix’s cloud-based platform, Huda Beauty can quickly and easily upload new videos, create playlists and takeover store campaigns in real-time. The store also features a number of digital mirrors and mid-floor tables, which display various on-brand messages and video content at specified intervals throughout the day.
Bringing elements of Huda Beauty’s online Instagram presence in-store, the experiential retail space provides an inspirational shopping destination for beauty lovers, while giving Huda Beauty complete control of all in-store digital content and campaigns.
Ryan Walker, Managing Director at Smart AV said, ‘The brand had amazing plans to create an entire backdrop made of LED walls. They wanted to stand-out and attract the attention of shoppers, so it was important that the AV added to a spectacular and dynamic space. The idea behind the staggered LED walls was to invite shoppers into the space and then immerse them in the incredible content, all of which is managed centrally from the SignStix platform. The overall formation delivers a very unique experience for shoppers that we are extremely proud of.’
