The Southern Comfort creative exchange programme, based on a successful international campaign in Germany, invited South African creatives to design a striking interpretation of the Southern Comfort brand and its provenance - New Orleans. The winner of the competition received R12000 and had their design used on a limited edition range of Southern Comfort merchandise, as well as coverage in a local design magazine. There were further cash prizes for second and third place.
Domino launched the campaign on 6 June, initiating a Facebook advertising campaign to drive fans to a 'Create & Win' TAB on the Southern Comfort South Africa Facebook page. By the time entries closed on 15 July, over 100 design entries had been submitted and the number of page 'Likes' had increased by 20%.
Seven judges, made up of various SA design fundis, had the difficult task of whittling down the entries to the top five, from which the public were asked to vote for their favourite, and stand the chance to win the limited edition hoodie emblazoned with the winning design. Domino created an engaging voting app which required users to 'Like' the Southern Comfort South Africa Facebook page before being able to vote.
Voting took place via the app from 1 August to 7 August with the five finalist designs receiving a total of 823 votes. The winner was Benedikt Sebastian, 2nd place went to Tsepo Makate, and due to a tie, 3rd place went to both Byron Graper and Clinton Campbell.
"We recognise Facebook as an extremely powerful platform which allows us to speak directly with our consumers in a fun and engaging manner," said Gwen Ridsdale, Southern Comfort Marketing Manager South Africa. "Our Facebook content strategy includes our plan to plot and measure the delivery of our content to recruit new fans and engage with existing fans. It also outlines our communication style which is geared to building strong, long-lasting relationships with our fans."
