During Q3 2024, I was brought on by Rapt Creative Agency to pitch on Discovery Medical Scheme’s Smart Plan portfolio. Paired up with my longtime preferred Senior AD/CD freelance partner, Candice McLeroth, we won the pitch and were brought back on to roll the campaign out, in time for the December festive season. I’m very excited to have worked with the good people at Rapt on such a prestigious brand, and to have made work that’s yielded excellent, measurable results for the Client.
TVCs
Of the six TVC/video scripts that ultimately saw airtime, four came directly from my and Candice’s pitch content, which was really gratifying. Two more were later added (one of them with the help of Rapt’s Zamazwide Nxumalo), and shot with the excellent Gordon Lindsay directing.
TVC: “Don’t You Dare Put That Up Your Nose”
TVC: “Sleepy in the Sun”
TVC: “No, You Go First!”
TVC: “Not as Fit as I Used to Be”
TVC: “Braaimaster Burns”
TVC: “Summer Thunderstorms”*
A Full End-to-end TTL Rollout
The campaign involved numerous formats and elements; including extensive radio and OOH. As well as social, programmatic, and tactical digital. Here are just a few examples among dozens of executions that made up the final campaign.
Out of Home
TV Stings & Tactical Digital (Youtube & Spotify)
We created targeted pre-roll and audio (“radio”) ad content across Youtube and Spotify, with messaging tailored to speak to both the video or musical genre content being cued, and certain benefits offered within Discovery’s Smart portfolio of medical plans. As well as a series of TV stings aired alongside relevant content. Here are a few examples that I was able to gather:
Moving the Needle
This was a tricky campaign to balance, in terms of guardrails and moving parts. The Medical Scheme category is highly regulated in general, with Discovery having their own extensive mandatories and best practices in place as well.
The Smart Portfolio of health plans is both very targeted (in that it caters to a specific and well-defined market segment) and also very broad (in that there are numerous plans within the portfolio, each with its own range of benefits). Then, there was Vitality to work in as well, all under one cohesive campaign.
But most important of all, was measurable results. The campaign was summer-themed, because it coincides with the time of year when consumers are allowed to Switch between medical schemes. In short, we needed to see tangible results during a highly scrutinised, measurable phase of the year for Discovery.
I’ve been told (“informally” at this stage) that this campaign is one of Discovery’s most effective ever, to date. I’ll update this post with more details on that when I get them, but for now I’m just very pleased to hear that the work Candice and I did with the Rapt Team has made a positive business impact.
Thanks to the Team at Rapt for bringing us on for this one, and to all at Discovery for entrusting us with the work. And special thanks to Rapt’s James Cloete and Jordan Major, who were very hands-on, supportive and collaborative in getting this all over the line.
Core Campaign Team:
Senior Conceptual / CD Team: Gord Laws (CD/Copy) & Candice McLeroth (CD/Art Direction)
CCO: James Cloete
Head of Strategy / client liaison: Jordan Major
ECDs: Chris Fouche and Tanya De Jongh
Translations and additional copywriting: Zamazwide Nxumalo
With support and input from all at Rapt Creative Agency.