Candice Hellens

Cadbury wanted to connect with a new audience, in a digital world dominated by YouTube. 

We selected some of the most popular, joy-filled YouTube clips and created prerolls showing what really sparked these world-famous moments. Each 5-second execution was crafted to look identical to the video it preceded: from wardrobe to framing and resolution.

Fun Fact: We shot everything on a smartphone. 

Awards: Cannes Lions Gold in Use of Online Film, Cannes Lions Shortlist in Food and Drinks, Cannes Lions Shortlist in Content Placement, Adweek’s 15 Best Commercials of 2017 (as picked be the Cannes Lions film jury), Wood D&AD Pencil in Use of Online Advertising, One Show Merit, Second Place at Creative Circle Ad of the Year, Bronze Campaign Loerie, Best of Ogilvy Inductee, Creative Pool Gold.

The KFC Family Bucket is KFC’s flagship product and sharing has always been at the heart of its reason for being. Currently, the product predominately targets families in the middle-end of the South African market. Amongst this audience, smartphone penetration is growing rapidly. We wanted to reach this new generation of South African families; introducing them to the specialness of shared dinner, in a modern way. That said, because South Africa is still very much an emerging market, we needed to keep the innovation simple. 

To promote the KFC Family Bucket, we combined the heritage of African storytelling with packaging design that linked to built-in mobile technology.

We designed bespoke bucket sleeves that directed customers to a mobile app, where they could unlock original suppertime stories. When placed face-down on the table, the phone’s proximity sensor automated the selected audio story, bringing the bucket to life with sound, light and vibration. As audio played, the stories were animated by light projections that filtered through the illustrated and laser cut sleeves. Creating an interactive storytelling experience people could enjoy, while sharing a meal. 

We wrote and recorded 3 original audio stories (but I think I wrote about 50 drafts), developing 3 illustrated and laser cut bucket sleeves to complement each story. Laser cutting and illustration was carefully considered to achieve the best illumination and projected light effect. 

Awards: Wood D&AD Pencil in Experiential, One Show Bronze Pencil in Innovation in Branded Entertainment, One Show Merit in Mobile Applications, One Show Merit in Use of Mobile Technology, Creative Pool Gold, Integrated 3rd Place in Creative Circle Ad of the Year, Gold Global MMA Smarties, Silver Global MMA Smarties, Whipped Cream Gold, Gold Loerie, Silver Loerie, Campaign Silver Loerie, Campaign Bronze Loerie, Bronze Loerie, Gold Bookmarks Pixel in Innovative Use of Media, Silver Pixel in Mobile Campaign , Silver Bookmarks Pixel in Digital Installations & Activations, Silver Bookmarks Craft Pixel in Marketing Copywriting, Silver Craft Pixel in Use of Sound, Bronze Bookmarks Craft Pixel in Software, Coding & Tech Innovation, Gold Assagai, Silver Assagai, Bronze Assagai, Integrated 3rd in Creative Circle Ad of the Month.

I mean who doesn’t love a makeover?

The agency was tasked to evolve the Glade brand globally. They wanted to break free from category clichés and reposition themselves as timelier, more modern, premium and speak to a younger audience. Get folks to see them as more than just a crusty toilet spray for old ladies.

The truth is that Glade really does have amazing fragrances, that are each consciously crafted by highly credentialed master perfumers. They are also constantly innovating forms and have some of the most rigorous safety standards in the industry. Their products are world-class, but people think of them as dated and full of bad ingredients. Our job was to change this. To make them a consideration again, with a fresh brand narrative and new aesthetic. Something compelling that tied all their comms together neatly, complemented by a stylish and cohesive look.

And so the fully integrated “Own the Air” campaign was born. A radical brand revamp that elevated the communication across the board and made Glade relevant again. An invitation to take control of your environment, and use scent as a superpower to express your mood.

We said goodbye to antiquated visual tropes and dusty language and gave the brand some swagger. We developed a strong bank of hero assets, that allowed us to to make the content as modular as possible. This was so regions could quickly and easily build assets and tailor them to their markets. As lead agency, I helped head up the brand from a global POV and oversaw everything globally. Everything from ongoing ideation and design, rolling out the brand look and feel across the through-the-line comms, film production, 3D product rendering, paid and organic social, website information design and copy, brand activations, fragrance and product naming, creative innovation and beyond. On top of creative directing the project, I was extremely hands on in the process, rewriting the entire Glade website myself and doing a lot of the ideation and writing for key assets.

It was a mammoth task, that took 3 busy years to create and fully roll out across the world. The campaign is truly enormous and continues to grow year upon year. All in all, it launched with 700+ modular deliverables for all 5 global markets to localize. To date over 60 unique fragrance expressions have been conceptualized and crafted. What is represented here is just a small smattering of examples, from some of the different parts of the communication funnel.

In terms of results, this campaign has been doing very well for the client. Streamlining their comms process, creating much-needed synergy and driving massive efficiencies across their global regions.

In addition, the campaign’s performance was measured by a third party researcher - scoring well in ‘shifting brand perceptions’, ‘comprehension’ and ‘likability’. Sales results are confidential, but it has certainly improved conversion.

Glade® is still seen as a mass brand with expected fragrances. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Glade® creates world-class fragrances that are crafted by internationally recognized master perfumers, it’s just that nobody knows the level of expertise that goes into them. Much like perfume design, each fragrance profile is carefully blended and layered with top, middle and bottom notes. Creating scents that are delicately balanced to compliment and not overpower. Glade® wanted to let people know about the special craft that goes into their fragrances and flip their perception of being just another traditional air care brand on its head.

We developed a family of key visuals that bring to life the delicately balanced elements that make up Glade® fragrances. These were developed to be able to flex across media, from paid social to eccom, retail and ATL comms.

NOTE ON ART DIRECTION

Each execution was delicately balanced with the utmost care and consideration for the scent cues that make up the fragrance, as well as the seasonal feeling each fragrance inspires. Hours of craft went into each iteration, directly mirroring the attention to detail and craftsmanship that goes into the fragrances themselves.

To bring to life the idea of “delicately balanced fragrances”, we created topsy turvy sculptures carefully built from the scent cues used to create them. We used bold and bright colors to appeal to a new, younger audience and each ingredient was chosen to follow this modern monochromic theme.

We looked at different and exciting ways to show ingredients, playfully placing each element on top of each other to create energetic compositions that defy gravity and ignite your imagination. We blended hard and soft, organic, and inorganic elements to create texture and dynamism. Natural light was used to create very soft and subtle shadows and highlights.

TACTICAL POSTS + INFLUENCER DROP

On September 21st 2021, we were casually scrolling the gram and then BAM! THE Britney Spears posted about one of her favorite new fragrances and it just so happened to be Glade® Hawaiian Breeze. This was totally organic and not paid for, the client didn’t even know about it until we flagged it.

This was our moment to flex our tactical muscles. We mobilized the troops to hit her one more time with a variety of product forms featuring the 💣 fragrance.

We acted with agility, commenting on the post from Glade’s Insta account and tweeting a thanks to @brit. We quickly followed up with designing and developing a customized influencer drop at a very fast pace. We collaborated with high-end package designers and seeded the drop with her team.

Looking for a budget-friendly way to build The Johannesburg Zoo’s online presence, we decided to hire from within and hand over all their social media management to ‘someone’ who knew the zoo inside out. The job was given to BG the Badger, the Johannesburg Zoo’s much-loved resident Honey badger and official JHB Zoo mascot.

BG’s high-tech badger enclosure was rigged with wireless infrared motion sensors, which were divided into six zones. The animal-friendly sensors talked to a server that held a database of hundreds of pre-written BG tweets. As BG moved from zone to zone, the motion sensors picked up on his location and automatically triggered tweets from his Twitter account, in real-time. The built-from-scratch coding ensured that all the tweets were relevant to what BG was doing at that moment e.g. if BG is at the front section of his enclosure he will trigger people-related tweets, when he is near the sides he will trigger neighbour-related tweets and so on.

For this project, I had to write over 700 tweets. I learnt a hullava lot about animal facts and spent many evenings and weekends roaming the zoo. All my hard word really paid off and my silly badger banter was even acknowledged by the judges at Cannes, getting shortlisted in the Cyber Copy category.

Fun Fact: I got to cradle a Honey badger like a baby. BG was pretty tame… for a Honey badger.  

Awards: WEBBY Honoree, AdReview Campaign Award, One Show Interactive Merit, Cannes Shortlist Cyber Copy, Cannes Shortlist Social Platforms, Cannes Shortlist / Cyber Community Building, FWA Site of the Day, Gold Bookmarks Pixel / Brand Content, Gold Bookmarks Pixel / Brand Content, Shortlist Loerie / Digital Writing Craft, Silver Loerie / Digital Social Media, Bronze Loerie / Media Innovation, Loeries Craft Certificate / Best Use of Technology, Second in Ad of the Month / Digital Campaign

This campaign was the sequel to the much-loved MTN ‘Duck Egg’ campaign, which was released in 2014. Based on fact, the commercial shows us the wonder of amateur radio operation and earth-to-space communication. At the time, there were more than 1.5 million licensed amateur radio operators talking to other radio operators all over the globe, as well as communicating with those in space.

As much as the world is embracing the positive impact technology is having on learning, there are those who worry that modern children are missing out on the kind of adventures their parents had while growing up without technology. The commercial gave a fresh perspective to the positive role technology can play in our children’s lives.

Filmed in South Africa, the campaign went live in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia. The commercial was part of a large-scale global MTN campaign developed for MetropolitanRepublic WPP, which also included supporting digital, experiential, outdoor, print and retail elements.

It was really great that this campaign reached so many people across the great African continent. Access to knowledge is critical in enabling growth and having an opportunity to show people the power data-enabled smart devices and tablets can have was really exciting.

Awards: Creative Circle Third in Ad of the Month / TV, Shortlist Loerie / TV Craft Performance, Shortlist Loerie / Original Music and Sound Design, Shortlist Loerie / Editing

This little ad made a big impact. The spot was produced as a simple, emotive brand spot to highlight MTN’s network benefits to the emerging South African market.

Owing to its success in this market, the campaign was extended and flighted throughout Africa. It had great BMS and RECALL scores and resulted in a global campaign extension in the next marketing quarter.

Awards: Shortlist Loerie / TV, Shortlist Loerie / Original Score

In 2012, FNB’s incredible product innovation resulted in them becoming a category leader in the world of banking. They were even voted the World’s Most Innovative Bank at the 2012 BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards. To this end, they needed a switch campaign that would solidify them as a leader in the minds of consumers, not just banking geeks.

We created a campaign that was both emotive and functional, a bridge between brand and retail. It was very successful and even resulted in one of the country’s foremost cartoonists doing a spoof about FNB’s marketing + innovation vs. their competitors.

This spot was created to let people know that Cox literally has Gigablast speeds everywhere, from log cabins to dog cabins and everything in between.

The spot was one of Cox's top testing TV ads ever made.

These spots were created to show all the fun and amazing possibilities, when families install Cox’s fastest Internet speeds ever.

The social content pieces of this campaign were two of the best performing OLVs in driving ROAS (return on ad spend), in the history of the business.

An oversized self-mailer and scratch-off poster, that gives baseball fans access to the full season schedule.

MLB Extra Innings sports package from Cox Communications, allowed you to watch every single baseball game from the comfort of your home all season.

To get fans excited about just how many games they could actually watch, we created an oversized self-mailer that doubled as a keepsake poster. The poster is printed in scratch-off ink and features every stadium in the league. When you scratch-off the ink of a stadium, a QR code is revealed underneath. Scan the QR code and you’re directed straight to your team’s full schedule.

When it comes to viral stickiness, weddings and proposals are huge online. Uniting and dividing us all. In the wake of the Royal Wedding in 2018, we decided to plug into this mega trend and used Vodacom’s ad spend to sponsor a real-life proposal. A proposal that everyone in the country could help plan, with the assistance of social media polls on Facebook and Instagram Stories.

We drove everyone to our polls through live OOH integrated with social media, we created a gamified instant experience that cleverly linked 8 canvasses together to create an interactive social media game and developed beautiful and engaging snackable social content.

People could weigh in on everythaaaaaang, from the winning couple, to the ring, food, cake, flowers and so on. Finally, the actual proposal was shared on Facebook and Instagram Live.

The campaign was a resounding success. Who knew an engagement was all we needed to get people engaged.

6.4 million engagements

Beat industry benchmarks by 84%

221% return on ad spend

Shoo wee, this is a technical one.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) wanted to educate and inspire advertising and marketing decision-makers with a dazzling creative display of what digital can achieve. They wanted to position themselves as thought-leaders in understanding effective digital advertising and the digital audience.

‘The Pulse’ was a 3D heart-shaped rendering of the main topics that South African web users were interested in. It scanned the content on IAB publisher sites, cross-referenced it with Twitter and determined the overall sentiment and popularity of the topic. The more dots there were and the faster it beat, the more popular the topic. The darker the dots, the more negative the story. Each dot represented an article or a tweet and clicking on a dot revealed its source. Visitors to the site could zoom in and rotate the heart, as well as select other topics of interest.  

This dynamic tool symbolically lived at the heart of the IAB website. It was an information hub where marketers and creatives would come face-to-face with the collective consciousness of South Africa’s online community. For the first time giving them access to a tangible manifestation of their digital audience and for the first time giving them a tool that helped them to better understand this digital audience.

The microsite was supported by a banner campaign on the publisher sites, PR and social content. Our initial vision for the aesthetic is represented upfront in the creative mix and the final dev work last. Owing to time and budget constraints, the actual dev was a lot less beautiful than we would have liked. That said, the functionality was amazing and lots of lessons were learnt. 

For parents potty training little boys, the struggle is real. Keeping them on track and on target takes up so much of your time and you spend a LOT of that time cleaning up messes. It’s a tough job and parents need all the help they can get. Luckily the Scrubbing Bubbles Grime Fighter is just as tough. It fights filth fast, so parents can focus on getting right back to fighting with their tiny man person for 30 mins about why he needs to put his pants back on. Amongst other precarious potty-training things.

We wanted to have fun with the rich and relatable topic of potty training in a medium that would allow us to explore real scenarios, without being too vivid. For a sensitive subject like potty training messes, audio was the best and only way to go. It’s something that you want to hear and not see.

This spot was shortlisted in the Radio Mercury Awards, being 1 of 100+/- commercials that represent some of the best audio work being done in the USA and internationally.

Youth Day 2017 marked the 41st anniversary of the Soweto uprisings, the historical day in June 1976 when black South African students rose up and demanded their right to a better education.

At the time, Vodacom was getting a lot of heat owing to high data costs and customer service issues. They wanted to use this tactical opportunity as a way to shift negative brand sentiment on social media, as well as showcase their commitment to the youth.

We created a series of tactical online content for Youth Week, using emotive slam poetry to land the idea that; with access to knowledge through technology, you can make your dreams a reality. That with the greatest access to information in history, “This is your Time”.

We launched the #TIYT campaign with a flagship commercial that introduced the big idea. This was supported by an online video series that showcased the inspiring words of 5, young South African poets. The poets wrote and performed original works that spoke to the power of knowledge and what June 16th meant to them in 2017. The empowering body of writing had a huge impact in the market, cutting through Youth Day clutter and sparking widespread positive conversation on social media.

Awards: Craft Bronze in Marketing Copywriting, MarkLives Ad of the Week, Bookmarks

In South Africa the government is pretty corrupt. Serving the people is the last thing on their minds. Fat cat MPs travel everywhere in luxury motor cavalcades at high speed. Their reckless behavior has cost the public millions and in some cases their lives. Even the press is scared of them. But we weren't.

Nando’s, a casual dining restaurant chain, has built their brand on provocative social and political satire. They love to tackle taboo issues in a tongue and cheek way and add a bit of spice wherever they can. In this instance they wanted to fire up a conversation about the state of the South African nation, whilst simultaneously advertising their world-famous peri-peri chicken offering.

Our campaign reached over a 3rd of the SA Public, it was the 2nd most watched Global YouTube Video in SA in August 2013, and the most watched Local YouTube Video in August 2013. It also amassed over 19 665 737 million views in 2014 and those numbers have been steadily climbing since. This piece of work is iconic in the South African market and political upheavals often result in a recirculation of the work.

Awards: Shortlist Loeries 2015 / Internet Video, First in Ad of the Month / Television

A DRTV brief isn’t always the sexiest job to work on, but we made it cool. The piece worked out really nicely creatively and also happened to be a top performer for the business.

Know our Food was transparency programme that was being run by McDonald’s at a global level. The programme was aimed at answering customer's questions about where their food comes from, what is in it and how it is prepared. Quirk Digital Agency adopted and adapted this global strategy, introducing a local tone and aesthetic. This was then pulled fully through-the-line, which was slightly different from the global comm strat.

The campaign lived everywhere, from social and web to traditional ATL, in-store and on packaging. With the help my CD team and super smart SEO specialists, I crafted the shit out of the copy and that was a HUGE learning for me. My art director and I also assisted in in creative project management and rollout of the campaign.

Awards: Silver Bookmarks Pixel / Organic Search Marketing, Bronze Assegai Seo / PPC

To align with Vodafone’s 2017 global repositioning campaign, Vodacom wanted to develop content that would connect with consumers and get them excited about their vision for a tech-enabled future. They wanted to make their brand purpose clear and give people a reason to believe that the future is exciting with Vodacom. 

The campaign was very successful and the social engagement was really high, Vodacom's most engaging social campaign of 2017. 

During the busiest time in the South African marketing calendar, Vodacom wanted to create a breakthrough campaign that would drive MyVodacom app downloads, decrease customer sim-swapping and increase retail sales.

Play Every Day was a simple mobile game that lived inside the app, as well as in USSD. The game encouraged people to interact with the brand EVERY SINGLE DAY, rewarding only Vodacom customers with 1 FREE chance at winning a mystery prize every day and allowing anyone to purchase additional plays.

We had a strong platform, but needed to stand out. So, while our competitors were using the usual babes in bathing suits to push their promotions, we did something different and chose a group of gorgeous, tech-savvy grannies.

These #instagrannies brought the campaign to life at every consumer touch point, incorporating TV, radio, print, activation, retail and online. They owned the season, showcasing how fun and easy the app was to use, testing out prize wins on a live nationwide radio road show that synced to social, taking over the Vodacom Instagram channel, sharing selfies and driving their iconic red drop-top convertible countrywide while driving loads of online engagement.

Awards: Kantar Millward Brown Best Liked Campaign, Voted Best Campaign in the Vodafone Network, Vodacom CEO Award, Next Generation Award for Best Integrated Marketing Campaign, Next Generation Award for Most Innovative Digital Campaign, Bronze Bookmarks Pixel in CRM, Loyalty Programs & Gamification, MarkLives Ad of the Week.

This brand commercial tells the story of a beloved small-town pastor, who has been asked to marry a couple at a destination wedding being held on remote mountainside. Pastor Abey is a really good guy with a bad habit of being late for things. We follow him on his humorous journey as he tries to make it to the wedding on time, all the while using his Vodacom-enabled smartphone to stay in touch along the way and, ultimately, to save the big day.

This Network commercial was much loved by the south African public, winning Kantar Millward Brown’s Best Liked Ad of 2015.

In 2014, the Internet trend of ‘neknominations’ spread like wild fire and quickly evolved from frivolously nominating others to down some form of alcohol to nominating to do good. After a string of South Africans engaged with the trend, they began to nominate corporates.

New World Imagination and Rag Star Media accepted a neknomination and decided to feed 90 children with Nando’s meals. They then went on to neknominate Nando’s to perform a random act of kindness. 

The brief was to deliver a concept for a Nando’s neknomination that answered to doing good in an interesting and engaging way, without coming across as gratuitous or insensitive. We had three days to pull something together.

Sithandiwe, a disabled daycare centre in Alex Township, was a cause that was super worthy of help. Nando’s committed to completely revamping their kitchen and dining area, which is their area of expertise. 

The initiative was incredibly successful for the brand and received widespread positive coverage. Best of all, Sithandiwe received many donations as a result of the PR. Over and above the revamped kitchen, they received a VW Kombi, physical therapy and training for the care-givers, orthopedic chairs and beds, a top-loader washing machine and tons of cash contributions.

We changed the lives of some special people, which is pretty frikkin’ awesome.

This was my first big writing job as a junior copywriter and took an enormous amount of effort. There were many late nights and lots of ugly shower-crying . It was a brave undertaking and a hard client sell, but well worth the experience.

Honda wanted a print campaign that showcased all the Honda Jazz’s features to a female audience. Traditionally women don’t really read car specs, but they do enjoy curling up with a magazine and a good story. We created a series of 8 short stories that developed a personality for each of the 8 Jazz colours. Car benefits were weaved into the stories, showing that the Honda Jazz is perfectly suited to every kind of women and her lifestyle.

The stories were featured in a range of women’s magazines. Each one crafted in content and tone to match specific publications.

Awards: Campaign Gold Pendoring / Writing Craft, Campaign Silver Pendoring / Print Campaign, Campaign Bronze Loerie / Print Campaign, Creative Circle First in Ad of the Month / Print Campaign

Over a period of 10 years the FNB brand had become stale and diluted. By 2009, consumers felt like they were not living up to their payoff line “How can we help you?” The brief was to bring FNB’s brand philosophy to life, by showing a clear demonstration of the bank’s involvement in customer’s lives.

We injected new meaning into the bank's communication, by showing real situations where various banking products and services helped real people. We selected real bankers and sent them on expeditions to meet and spend time with actual FNB clients. No actors or scripts were used and everything was shot doccie-style.

This authentic approach was pulled through-the-line. The campaign resonated well with the public and really helped solidify FNB as a human bank, committed to the promise of helpfulness and service.

NOTE: Apologies. These edits are kinda old and crusty :) We have all learnt a lot about making better case studies over time. That said, they do a good job of showing the big idea and scale of the campaign work. 

Awards: Gold Midas Television / Electronic Banking (PayPal), Silver Midas / Television Campaign / Banking, Midas Finalist / Electronic Banking TV

This radio campaign was a blast to write and produce. It was a super simple brief to land MTN's positioning line ‘Welcome to the New World’ and aimed to drive search and Internet exploration.

FNB launched a cut-through radio campaign at the end of 2012 and start of 2013. It was so well-known and liked, that people started using the ‘get beeped’ language in everyday conversation.

Netflorist, a flower and gifting delivery service, decided to leverage this popular culture and we created this cheeky, tactical Valentine’s Day spot for them. 

NOTE: The first two spots are for contextual reference and the last spot is the tactical spot we recorded. 

We all know global adaptions can go very wrong, but this small spot did some things right. It was beloved by the country and scored extremely well in LIKING, NOTING, RECALL and BMS. It was in Kantar Millward Brown’s the Top 5 Most Liked Ads of 2013, as voted by the South African public.

Now for some retro realness.

This was the first piece of work I ever made and my first Loeries campaign finalist. A lot of love went into the craft of it and I got to work with some amazing thinkers and creators.  Not a fan of the type treatment anymore, but hey :)

Awards: 4 Shortlists Loeries / Print Campaign