In today’s competitive marketing landscape, standing out requires more than just creativity – it demands bold ideas, risk-taking, and a deep connection with local culture. Melon Mobile, a fresh disruptor in South Africa’s mobile telecommunications sector, embodies this approach perfectly. We had the privilege of chatting with John Withers and Theo Egbers, the creative minds on Melon Mobile’s innovative campaigns, to uncover the secrets behind their marketing magic. Here’s what we learned!
Rooted in Local Culture
Melon Mobile’s strategy goes beyond flashy ads – it taps into the heart of South African humour and cultural nuances. According to Theo, ensuring cultural resonance was key: “We wanted something our audience would not only understand but find genuinely amusing and engaging.” This focus on local relevance has helped Melon Mobile build a genuine connection with its audience, making their campaigns more memorable and impactful.
Local is lekker
Targeting the right brands was another game-changer. The team chose South African companies and high-profile influencers known for their humour and strong social media presence. This approach amplified their reach and added authenticity to the campaign. As John highlighted: “We focused on those with a strong online following and a proven sense of humour.” This win-win approach not only increased visibility but also allowed collaborators to build on projects in tandem with Melon Mobile’s buzz.
Billboards in a Digital World?
In a time when digital advertising dominates, Melon Mobile’s decision to invest in billboards might seem surprising. But it was a strategic move. As John explained: “Billboards provide mass exposure and significant visibility.” These billboards didn’t just stand alone – they became part of the digital conversation, turning real-world exposure into shareable social media content. By blending traditional outdoor advertising with digital platforms, the campaign achieved a seamless, wide-reaching impact.
Innovation Through Collaboration
Melon Mobile’s creative process is anything but conventional. Unlike traditional agencies with multiple approval layers, the team fosters an open and flexible brainstorming environment. Theo compared it to the dynamic culture of Nando’s, where ideas flow freely: “Our CEO is open to new ideas, fostering an environment that encourages innovation.” This supportive atmosphere not only benefits the brand but also empowers the creative team to think outside the box.
Lessons in teamwork and authenticity
John and Theo emphasised that the campaign’s success hinged on teamwork and staying true to the brand identity. Aligning every team member with a common goal ensured consistency and impact. Their experience also highlighted the power of collaboration over competition—partnering with like-minded brands creates unique opportunities for growth.
Bold, local, and collaborative
Melon Mobile’s campaign is a masterclass in modern marketing. It shows that with creativity, cultural resonance, and a collaborative spirit, even a disruptor with a smaller budget can make waves. Their approach is a reminder that marketing success isn’t just about big budgets – it’s about bold ideas and staying true to your identity.
As Melon Mobile continues to push boundaries, we can’t wait to see what’s next. For more insights, keep an eye on their journey through their website and social media channels. And, of course, stay tuned to InnoStation for more behind-the-scenes stories!
Episode description
Join us as we dive into the creative and disruptive campaign strategies of Melon Mobile, South Africa’s digital telecom trailblazer. From humorous partnerships to bold billboard ads, here’s how they are shaking up the market.
- High-profile partnerships with sports figures and online personalities to boost reach.
- Focus on smashing traditional mobile industry practices with customer-centred service.
- Creative strategies born from a small team, free from the traditional boardroom vetting process.
- Insights on balancing brand identity with innovative campaigns on a limited budget.
- Successful and amusing billboard campaign integrating traditional and digital media.
Listen to the episode
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Theo
Transcript
Kami 00:00:04 – 00:00:37
You’ve just tuned into InnoStation, where the latest and hottest topics are always on air. I’m your host, Kami, and each episode we’ll be serving up fun chats, fire insights, with some special guest appearances, of course. Now, I am super excited about today’s guests. I’ve got John and Theo from Melon Mobile, which is Africa’s first truly digital telecommunications company, joining us. They’re here to give us the inside scoop on their recent billboard campaign that shook South Africa this past August. John, Theo, welcome to InnoStation.
John Withers 00:00:37 – 00:00:37
Hi, Kami.
Theo Egbers 00:00:38 – 00:00:39
Thanks, Kamo.
Kami 00:00:39 – 00:00:39
How are you both doing?
Theo Egbers 00:00:40 – 00:00:42
Happy to be here.
Kami 00:00:42 – 00:00:44
Happy to have you.
John Withers 00:00:44 – 00:00:45
I’m doing great, thank you.
Kami 00:00:45 – 00:00:57
So I think let’s start off by giving the audience a chance to get to know you both. John will start with you. I want to know who you are and what fuels you’re in a fire.
John Withers 00:00:57 – 00:01:37
Okay, cool. Well, yeah, I’m John. I am an executive creative director at Melon Mobile. And yeah, I’m about 40 years old, married, and have two children. What fuels my fire is this business that we work on. Wake up every day to try to get this amazing service out into the hearts and minds of people because, yeah, I really think it’s unique and a lot better in terms of the networks currently people have to deal with.
Kami 00:01:37 – 00:01:37
Yeah.
John Withers 00:01:37 – 00:01:41
So that’s it. That’s the fire.
Kami 00:01:41 – 00:01:46
Super cool. Let’s move on to you. Tell us who you are and what fuels your inner fire.
Theo Egbers 00:01:46 – 00:02:08
Yeah. Similar to John, I’m also one of the men in creatives. John and I kind of run the men and creative team, whatever goes out to men, and John and I run it. I’m also married, two kids. Mine are much younger than John, so I’m just in the start of having kids, 6 and 3. So I guess I’m very busy with them. They kind of fuel my fire. I play a lot of sports.
Theo Egbers 00:02:08 – 00:02:31
I’m very competitive when it comes to sports. Soccer, golf, whatever I can get my hands on. I can play hockey. I love playing. And y’all like John. You know, John and I met 17 years ago, maybe longer, and we’ve been a team since then. So we kind of have a similar feel of doing creative work that’s just fun and out there and something that people haven’t seen before. So I guess from a creative point of view, I’m the same as John as well.
Kami 00:02:31 – 00:02:35
Yeah. Okay, cool. That’s awesome. Working with friends, that’s fun.
Theo Egbers 00:02:35 – 00:02:36
Yeah, exactly.
Kami 00:02:37 – 00:02:47
So let’s dive a little bit into the story of Melon Mobile. Tell us how the company got Started and how long you’ve been in the game.
John Withers 00:02:47 – 00:02:52
Awesome.
Theo Egbers 00:02:52 – 00:02:52
Okay.
John Withers 00:02:52 – 00:03:48
I think, well, Mellon’s launched to the public about last year April. Me and Theo had started on it about a year prior to that with an old colleague we used to work with, called Calvin who is now the CEO. He used to be at MTN running their supersonic fiber division as this. And yeah, after working with him, he gave us a call and said, you know, I’m looking to break out with something new and something different in the mobile space. And yeah, we started helping him on this idea of how it looks from a brand perspective. What’s its tone right before it actually got an investor. So you know, we, we kind of, yeah, just helped kind of map it out. What is the app going to look like, things like that.
John Withers 00:03:48 – 00:04:29
And then yeah, about six months. There’s about a six month quiet period. We got a call back from him to say, listen, I’m giving this my all, quit my job. You guys are keen to join Melon Mobile and really launch this thing. We’ve got investors. So yeah, we jumped on board, gladly jumped aboard, quit what we were doing and built it really from nothing into a small business. It is now growing. But yeah, so it’s officially just under two years that Millen Mobile has been around.
Kami 00:04:29 – 00:04:31
Oh great.
Theo Egbers 00:04:31 – 00:05:39
I think from why we got involved was we’re really interested as a creative point of view to help form a company, start a company branded from the bottom, start from the bottom, build it with Calvin and his team of tech geniuses and really get this off the ground from a creative point of view. It was really cool to be the start of a brand and how does the brand build? What can we take? Learnings from overseas. We looked at other brands. Melon is the un-telco Telco. So we’re trying to do things differently. So everything from how the app is built to how it helps customers, keeping customers at centre and then from branding, how do we do stuff differently? How do we do things that people haven’t seen and that stand out, Especially on a kind of startup budget when you don’t have big tech budgets to make big brand ads and beautiful Christmas ad, you know, how do we do things differently that they really stand out and make the brand known to South Africans with a limited budget. So all that kind of excitement, that melting pot of everything and being involved with everything from a creative point of view really interested us.
Kami 00:05:39 – 00:05:58
Yeah, no, I love that and I think that’s one of those very rare opportunities is being there as part of the creative process for a very new brand. I think a lot of creatives come in when a brand is already existing and we try to shake it out. So. So it’s very rare to get the opportunity to start from the ground with a brand and grow it. That’s super cool.
Theo Egbers 00:05:58 – 00:05:58
Exactly, yeah.
Kami 00:05:59 – 00:06:21
Now, in August, Melon Mobile went live with a super cool campaign where you took some of South Africa’s biggest billboards by storm. This takeover campaign was so innovative and creative and it certainly did get a lot of tongues wagging. Can you tell us a bit about the thought process behind what went into creating this campaign, John?
John Withers 00:06:21 – 00:07:49
Yeah, sure. I think to go back, you know, we, as a, as a new brand, just before the campaign, you know, there’s a few things you have to establish in terms of, you know, brand awareness is one of them. But more importantly, as a new mobile provider, the biggest one is trust and credibility. So, you know, the team had come up with this idea and it’s the first in the market from a telco perspective to go. What if we let everyone try Melon Mobile for free for two weeks and let them test it out? They’ll get five gigs, they’ll get unlimited calls and, you know, they can go through the whole journey, they can sign up and they can really start using it, start using the network, see the quality, they can start using the support systems, they can top up and add air time. And after the two weeks you go, well, you know, is this the mobile network for me? You’re more highly likely to go, yes than having never tried it before. So an incredible kind of first to market offer of this free trial for telco. And with that in mind came the idea of going, this is a free trial for every single person in South Africa. You know, everybody tries and they like something.
John Withers 00:07:49 – 00:09:21
Some kind of interesting insight for us, which was, what if we asked the whole country to put us to the test? And in those specific words, it’s, it’s really, we’re at a stage in our business where we go, you know, for a year and a bit, we’re still tweaking products, making things work. Have we got our support systems right? But it just so happened to coincide when that campaign or that idea of free trial aligned with where we were as a business to go. We’re proud we back ourselves, we had a stage where we want to go, you know, try us, test us, put us to the test. In that statement comes a little bit of confidence to go. We back ourselves to ask the whole country to put us to the test. And it really, it also at the same time can go, let’s hope we’ve done enough because we’re asking South Africans to review us to actually come a risk of going, well, you know, you guys weren’t that good or something like that. So in itself, the idea of a free trial and asking the whole country to put us to the test is bold. And I think, you know, Theo can then go, you know, tell you a little bit about the idea of how do we, you know, we then went, but how do we ask the whole country to put us to the test?
Kami 00:09:21 – 00:09:43
Yeah. And I think, Theo, this actually is a great segue into my question for you is why a billboard campaign? I mean we’re in an age where a lot of things, the digital, are very much like the go to these days when it comes to marketing and things like that. So why a billboard campaign? And how did this then translate into the digital side of things as well?
Theo Egbers 00:09:43 – 00:10:15
Look, I think we’re looking at different ways of getting our name out there. Like John was saying, we wanted to build some reputation people didn’t know about us. So how do we get our name out there the best way possible. And you know, what’s the top of the funnel? Awareness. And how do you get that in the best way possible? In the biggest way possible. And I guess we thought billboards were one way. We originally thought this to radio and billboards at the same time. Yeah, because you thought that would give us mass exposure Bubbles especially, you know, people driving on the roads now, now that lockdown’s long gone and people are going back to work.
Theo Egbers 00:10:15 – 00:10:47
Remote working is not so much done anymore. Yeah, there’s a lot of a hybrid of remote working and working from the office. So more people are on the roads now. And just to get our name out there, what’s going to make the biggest impact? We did try TV when we first started and we didn’t really get the impact on TV that we thought we would get. And we just, let’s do something different. Let’s do, let’s do something like billboards and radio. We lost the radio through negotiations. We just couldn’t get the timing right and the right stations and the right DJs in those stations, we just couldn’t get that right.
Theo Egbers 00:10:47 – 00:11:18
But we found that billboards gave us a nice big platform. No, I’m not talking about the side of the billboards, I’m just talking about a big awareness drive around Johannesburg and Cape Town specifically where touch gets a lot of eyeballs on our brand. With an interesting Message and interesting concept and a call to action. That’s great. You know, get your free trial. Get your own free trial. So, yeah, so billboards just became an opportunity and outdoor became an opportunity for us to really be seen by thousands of eyeballs every day. Yeah, it’s proven that way.
Theo Egbers 00:11:18 – 00:12:03
I think the results have proven that, you know, billboards and outdoors did work well for us. That’s not to say we’re not going to go into other fields afterwards or other media spaces afterwards, and we’re negotiating with media buyers and things like that at the moment. But I think boards have done really well for us as a, as a. And then linked to our digital. So whatever you saw on our, on our outdoor, it was mirrored by what you saw on our digital platforms. So there was a continuity between the two. So if you’re asked to take the free trial on a billboard, you were fed from a social media and paid media point of view was, you know, take out a free trial or have you seen our billboards take out a free trial? So the messaging itself was very consistent and people, people really liked that, the consistency in the messaging. So, yeah, I hope that answers the question.
John Withers 00:12:03 – 00:13:34
Yeah. And I think for the, you know, we are very, very intentional about our outdoor approach. So I think the whole idea behind it was going, you know, if we’re asking the whole country to put us to the test, to the test, there’s a lot of people and brands that are advertising out there, you know, and they’ve already got established names as personalities within themselves or as a business. And we thought to grab enough attention, what if we boldly invited some of these people to put us to the test? So you’re a musician or you’re a standup comedian or you own an airline. You know, we thought, okay, cool. Well, let’s, let’s, let’s make, make, make a thought of these bold invitations where we invite them in a space that is their own, but, you know, we suddenly turn it into ours in a very disruptive kind of fashion of placing giant invitational stickers to put us to the test. So, yeah, we looked at brands and people that would be able to take a joke. And then I think behind that reasoning was a real, very clear, strategic thought of going outdoors.
John Withers 00:13:34 – 00:13:52
Only seen, let’s just say one outdoor billboard can be seen up to about 40 to 60,000 people driving past it every month. And how do you, how do you get more eyeballs on a billboard is that you create something that creates a conversation.
Kami 00:13:52 – 00:13:52
Right.
John Withers 00:13:53 – 00:14:43
And that’s where it can lead to online and digital. So if it creates enough conversation, if it’s. If it’s bold enough or creative enough, you know, it’s. It becomes shareable and worthy of sharing. And suddenly, instead of just 50,000 people seeing your billboard, if it’s. If it’s crazy enough, you know, you can get 2 million people to see that piece of execution, so highly strategic, to get enough awareness. And it’s just, you know, it’s very intentional to do that, to go, how do you get more eyeballs on a billboard than the people driving past it? And I think, you know, that’s something we’ve done before, and we know it works, so we just went, you know, let’s try it differently here. With the same intentions. Yeah.
Kami 00:14:43 – 00:15:27
And I think most South Africans have never seen anything like this before. So I personally thought this was like, super, super cool. And I mean, we saw this billboard takeover on some really, really big billboards. You guys really went for some big names as well. You included the likes of Rassie and Faf, and you integrated their billboards into this campaign as well. And we know that with bold moves, especially in marketing campaigns, you do run the risk of forgetting backlash, especially if it’s something that is disruptive. Like this campaign was. Were you prepared for this and was there anything in particular that you needed to consider in terms of, like, how you were going to execute this?
Theo Egbers 00:15:27 – 00:16:18
From my side, I think we, like John said, we purposely chose brands that could take a bit of fun from us or a bit of cheek from us. Yeah, some of them were. We’ve worked with them before, and we know them. They can take a joke and, you know, they’re not gonna come back and shout at us or anything like that. When it comes to backlash from the audience, we didn’t get it. We didn’t get too much. Too much backlash. You know, most people online loved the idea that it was very cheeky. They thought, how could I? “How could you do that?” But in a fun way. You know, we had one or two keyboard warriors that, especially when it came to, like, our Springboks and our coach, you know, they’re very protective over those kinds of people, especially Rassie. How could you take over Rassie’s billboard? He’s a national treasure. Things like that. One or two. But generally, on the whole, it was very well received by everyone in social media.
Theo Egbers 00:16:18 – 00:16:41
The keyboard warriors didn’t take too much convincing to get them onto our side. And generally people just thought it was a really great concept. And typical South African humour like this pokes fun at each other. Let’s do something that’s fun and engaging. It wasn’t harmful in any way. It didn’t harm the brands in any way. So generally, I’m pretty excited and saw the fun in the concept and not the harm of the concept.
Kami 00:16:41 – 00:17:20
And I think that’s the thing that I like about this campaign, is there is a very South African undertone to it. Right. It’s a very South African campaign. Something about it just felt very. This is a thing that you would see happen at home, and I get it immediately when I see it. I want to know, how did you decide who you wanted to work with? I know you. You chose brands that you knew could take a joke, but what was the process of elimination for that? Was it based on the location of their billboards or did some of the advertising sort of inspire alignment for this campaign? Do you see brands and think, oh, we like your vibe? We could vibe really well?
John Withers 00:17:20 – 00:18:18
Yeah, I think. I think it was a mixture of a whole bunch of those things. I think it was, you know, when we took over the brands, billboards, it was definitely about, you know, are these likeable brands? Are they, you know, do they themselves have. Have a following that could make a joke like this? That could be a part of it. And that was quite easy. I mean, we could have gone for many other brands like Nando’s or things like that. I guess it was just about timing and who we could work with to make this happen when it comes to the people, I think we had very strategically chosen people that could, again with the thought of going, how do we get more reach beyond billboards, people that have their own influence online.
John Withers 00:18:18 – 00:19:21
So, you know, the likes of a Springbok or a Springbok coach are followed by hundreds of thousands of people. So if you could disrupt their billboard, the chances of them posting about it or sharing their content to their audience, suddenly your reach goes a lot wider. So very strategic in who we chose. You know, if we had to have gone for, like, a radio station or a presenter like Anele and the club, the intention would be, let’s take over their billboard with the cunning idea of going, they’ll talk about it on radio to millions of people. So you’ve got to kind of go, let’s choose people that can make the message or the conversation grow bigger. And then, I think, looking at people very carefully in that regard, and there was a little bit of luck.
John Withers 00:19:21 – 00:20:26
So I think chatting to the likes of Faf, we had a brief conversation with him as a person of interest to say, okay, cool, well he’s got a lot of influence and is super well known. He’s quite a character on his own. We thought let’s just chat to him. And it just so happened that he was launching his own swimwear line which coincided to the T with when this campaign goes out. And I think something super unique about this campaign was that a) the partners and the people that were involved just to align those things for that to happen, but for brands and people’s personal own brands to align where they’re at a place of going. I’ve built the swimwear business, it’s about to launch. I can’t afford outdoor, I can’t afford giant billboards and us going, well we need something out of this and you need something out of it as well.
John Withers 00:20:26 – 00:21:02
So really strategically going and with a bit of luck going, this could benefit both of us. And I mean it doesn’t. That in itself was just something we didn’t expect to happen. But it just shows you what partnership or what this kind of advertising can do can. It’s not like it’s not one sided, it can bring the awareness of the brand that you’re taking over as well. So one for both people or parties involved.
Kami 00:21:02 – 00:21:12
So Theo, a lot of people would say that this campaign shows Melon Mobile as a bit of a disruptor in the market. Do you agree with this and why?
Theo Egbers 00:21:12 – 00:21:57
Yeah, I totally agree with it. I think I spoke about it right at the beginning of this podcast and when we first set out, Calvin, when he first started briefing us and we asked him what is this company going to be called and what’s the meaning behind the company? He wants to go out and disrupt. He wants to go out and change how people are using mobile phones in South Africa. So everything from how customers are treated by call centers to how they build their plans and the idea of having long term contracts, that sucks. You know, let’s not do long term contracts. So everything from the product has been about disruption. So the brand obviously flows from that kind of idea of being a disruptor. So we intentionally go out there to try, look at different ways of disrupting.
Theo Egbers 00:21:57 – 00:22:53
Obviously you have to do the basics, get the basics right. So people have to know about the brand, people have to know about what the brand stands for. Then people have to know about the product, the pricing, all that kind of stuff, all the basic levels have to be taken care of. But then when you, when you get a bit of budget and you get the freedom from the board to say let’s do something exciting, at least you know you can go out there and do something exciting. So from a creative point of view, we want to disrupt whether that’s through saying something cheeky in a once off social media post or whether it’s doing something tactical like the billboards or even whether it’s thinking about how a summer promo happens or how a switch campaign happens. Everything we do from when we start to brainstorm is around how we do things that other brands haven’t thought about doing or how we disrupt how marketing and branding has been done in our sector and even without outside of our sector. Like you’ve seen the naked billboards, you know.
Kami 00:22:53 – 00:22:54
Yeah.
Theo Egbers 00:22:55 – 00:23:21
What they’re doing in their field is disruptive and then the app itself is disruptive. So we are similar in that vein in terms of how we want to do advertising. We want to stand out by being. We don’t have the biggest budgets, we don’t have the biggest footprints in the country yet. We’re growing every day. But how do we take the budget that we’ve got, how do we take print that we’ve got, the partners that we’ve got and the media spaces we have and how do you disrupt them and make them a bit different?
Kami 00:23:21 – 00:23:40
Yeah, and I think that’s one of the most effective things when it comes to advertising and sort of marketing as well is making sure that the brand, everything that you’re doing on that end is true to what the brand is and who the brand is and aligning that with your offering as well. So that everything is one big holistic picture and it makes sense.
Theo Egbers 00:23:40 – 00:23:43
Yeah, that’s our DNA basically.
Kami 00:23:43 – 00:23:44
Yeah.
John Withers 00:23:44 – 00:23:49
Sometimes kind of like forced to do it as well, you know, like.
Kami 00:23:49 – 00:23:49
Yeah.
John Withers 00:23:49 – 00:23:49
If you don’t have the big budget like, you know, you really are, you know, we’ve got a pure intentions of disrupting and being a challenger brand but when it comes to budget it kind of goes well, you know, what can you do with this that you know, how do you get the most eyeballs without spending that much? So you are sometimes forced into a space of going. We have to do it differently just because we don’t have the money to just do it traditionally.
Kami 00:24:18 – 00:24:19
Yeah.
John Withers 00:24:19 – 00:24:29
You know, and that’s being in that situation is great for creatives. It forces you to kind of think of things differently.
Kami 00:24:29 – 00:24:40
Yeah, but those are the business people that are going to cut creative budgets because apparently great ideas come from limited budgets.
Theo Egbers 00:24:40 – 00:25:27
Yeah. I was just going to add. One of the nicest things about where we are right now is that, you know, there’s not this. You don’t decide a campaign through a boardroom, they are decided by the creatives that are internal and by the team. That’s our little Melon team, so from speaking to the CEO, the founder CEO, to our head of growth, to even just the people that we work with every day and saying, what do you think about this idea? And they brought us. And for a very long time, John and I, when we’re in mainstream advertising, which we still love doing, you know, you often had to go present a big idea to 20 people like the financial director and the head of PR, and every one of those people had an opinion on how to go.
Theo Egbers 00:25:27 – 00:25:56
And the idea just gets more and more whittled down from being this exciting idea to being let’s just do a plain billboard with a straight line. That’s the beauty about where we are now is there’s six or seven people. You present it, they give their opinion and you take it in or you counter it and the idea comes out of that and the small team kind of makes it a lot more. The idea a lot more effective, you know, and yeah, I really appreciate that about, appreciate that about where we are in a business, as a business.
John Withers 00:25:56 – 00:27:20
I think it’s. To add to that. I think it really does start at the top. So our CEO is just super, you know, open to ideas. He’s got so many ideas himself. I think it’s creating a culture where ideas can live. You know, it’s to test them, have the, have the balls to try something different. But really an environment that encourages different thinking starts from beyond where we get a brief, which is great. And I think, you know, Melon’s got a great internal culture of being very open to ideas and almost just encouraging different thinking. It starts with each individual within the business. Like, our CEO is just an ad marketing genius himself. So the boundaries in that regard. But it does help. I mean, the founder of Nando’s was like that. I think about Chicken Lickin, they just pushed. They were the ones driving the messaging and how they showed up. It wasn’t the agency, you know.
Kami 00:27:20 – 00:27:33
Yeah. And I think that that goes a long way for creatives. Knowing that, like the person, that has, quote unquote, the final say is also like in line with sort of trying new things, open to new ideas. That really goes a long way.
Theo Egbers 00:27:33 – 00:27:33
Exactly.
Kami 00:27:34 – 00:27:44
I want to know, Theo, what is one learning that you would say creatively you’ve taken away from this campaign?
Theo Egbers 00:27:44 – 00:28:18
Yoh, one learning I’ve taken away from this campaign is, you know, having good brand partnerships and friends, other brands that are friends, you know, sticking true. I mean, maybe I’m giving more now, but like sticking true to who we are as a brand. We’re a South African brand. We’re a young South African brand. So we aligned with young South African brands and South African brands that we know could take a joke and things like that. So I think it’s just about taking the idea and really flexing it the best way you can, but also confidence to go out there and say, this is the idea. We’re not going to water it down. We’re going to have fun doing it.
Kami 00:28:18 – 00:28:19
Right.
Theo Egbers 00:28:19 – 00:28:38
If you want to join us, you’re in. If you don’t want to join us, we’re also okay with that. But let’s just go out there and do something that we all want to do and everyone working together to get that one. The one thing done. I think that was key, learning for me. Like just teamwork and making sure everyone is aligned with one goal and put into it and then just go for it. Yeah, that was my one learning. Yeah.
Kami 00:28:38 – 00:28:40
Yeah. John, what would you say your one learning was?
John Withers 00:28:40 – 00:28:50
Yeah, very similar to Theo’s. I think that, you know, you can only. It’s the cliche thing of, you know, you can only go as far on your own.
Kami 00:28:50 – 00:28:51
Yeah.
John Withers 00:28:52 – 00:29:12
And just, I mean, I’ve never really worked like this where you have to work with multiple people, partners, brands. And like Theo says, I think once you are open protective of ideas or we think like we’re just going to do this once you start going, what happens if we all work together?
Kami 00:29:12 – 00:29:12
Right.
John Withers 00:29:13 – 00:29:34
You know, how can we create an idea that benefits both of people, both parties, and really go, for me, it kind of made me look at partnerships completely differently and going, you know, us as South African brands, if we just club together, we could do really unique, different things.
Kami 00:29:34 – 00:29:34
Yeah.
John Withers 00:29:35 – 00:30:22
And that, that benefits both of us. At the end of the day, you know, if you’ve got a small South African brand that’s creating swimwear, you know, to a slightly more established brand that can potentially help it out. You know, brands working together and people working together can, you know, we can just help each other, really. So, yeah. Likes of Veldskin shoes to South African air, like our own airlines. I think we all live in the same country. We have the same kind of humour. At times we’ve times got very similar markets and I think. Yeah, just that power of partnership is incredible learning for me after this, I was like, wow, you know.
Kami 00:30:22 – 00:30:43
Yeah. And I read a thing earlier last week that speaks to that, right. And the person was saying the quickest way to grow and to get to the top is really collaboration. It’s not competition. If you’re able to come together, band together in service of one goal and it’s mutually beneficial, that’s how you can fast track your growth. Yeah.
Theo Egbers 00:30:43 – 00:30:46
This is almost like a prime example of that, you know?
Kami 00:30:46 – 00:30:46
Right.
Theo Egbers 00:30:46 – 00:30:49
Yes, I agree with what you’re saying. Yeah.
Kami 00:30:49 – 00:31:01
Yeah. Now, I have one last question for you both. I want to know how much fun you had curating this campaign, like, personally, just how much fun was it pulling this together?
Theo Egbers 00:31:01 – 00:31:12
Well, John had to do some work with Faffies and he was wearing those swimming costumes so he might have been more fun than me, but yeah.
Kami 00:31:12 – 00:31:16
Okay. So things got super fun.
Theo Egbers 00:31:16 – 00:31:16
Yeah.
John Withers 00:31:16 – 00:31:41
I think retouching a pair of speedos is not super fun, but you know what I think? I mean, the whole campaign was just really exciting from the time we first presented it to creating it. You know, some hard deadlines, some real technical issues that we had to factor in.
Kami 00:31:41 – 00:31:42
Yeah.
John Withers 00:31:42 – 00:32:09
But we got over each shift and like you said, I think. I mean, it was just. It was just real. I think the idea helped a lot. I think it, you know, it’s an easy idea to tell people when in the production process, and people just adopted and adapted and moved with it and moved forward. It wasn’t like we had to fight hard, you know?
Kami 00:32:09 – 00:32:09
Yeah.
John Withers 00:32:09 – 00:32:34
The media owners to our brand partners, to the people. I think it just shows you if the idea is simple enough or people just get it. It made the whole process a lot smoother. Therefore, it was quite like it was easy and fun. I think if we had to fight with people and push this where they didn’t want it to go, it would have been a challenge.
Theo Egbers 00:32:34 – 00:33:24
But it’s when you’re in the thing that’s stressful, you’re worried, is there a spelling mistake on the billboard. Have we made the stickers that we’re sticking on the billboards too small? Will people resonate with this when it goes live? We have spent money on it, we’re not spending money. So right. Those lives aren’t going to get the awareness we wanted to get. Is it going to get the reach? Is it going to lift the bottom line? Are we going to see growth in the business? So you stressed about all those things when you’re in it, but when you take a step back afterwards and you look at and say, hey, it was actually quite fun going to the billboard and help and watching the guys climb up the billboards and stick those stickers on, which were massive stickers, it was actually fun being out there. It was fun. On the day of the launch, a whole group on WhatsApp going like, we live, guys, let’s watch this. Now, let’s go on social media and listen and see what people are saying.
Theo Egbers 00:33:24 – 00:33:52
So you can take a step back and you say, you know, it’s stressful while you’re doing it. And as a creative, if you want to do really well and you want to as a brand, you want to do really well, but you take a step back, like I said, and you just look out and you say, geez, it was actually so much fun doing it. Speaking to the other brands, the meetings we had with them, the calls we had when our stickers went up to say, you’ve put your stickers on, all of that kind of stuff was just. So, yeah, just fun when you get out of it and look afterwards, you know?
Kami 00:33:52 – 00:34:08
Right. And I think it comes back to what you also mentioned earlier, Theo, about being able to carry the initial idea and not being shot down until it’s all watered down. I think being able to have the idea and just run with that same idea and see it to fruition is also pretty cool. So well done to you guys.
Theo Egbers 00:34:08 – 00:34:10
Thank you.
Kami 00:34:10 – 00:34:28
Now, before I let you go, I want to play a round of how hot takes with you. How it works is I’m just gonna answer, I’m just gonna ask you random rapid fire questions and then you’re just gonna answer with hot or not. And then if there’s something interesting we want to go into, then we’ll just get a little deeper into that. But are you guys down?
John Withers 00:34:28 – 00:34:29
Cool. Sure.
Theo Egbers 00:34:29 – 00:34:29
Yah, let’s try it.
Kami 00:34:30 – 00:34:36
Awesome. How do you both feel about wingsuit flying?
Theo Egbers 00:34:36 – 00:34:39
Hot and not.
John Withers 00:34:39 – 00:34:41
Yeah, hot and not.
Theo Egbers 00:34:41 – 00:34:45
I like people doing it. I like seeing people do it, but there’s no way.
John Withers 00:34:45 – 00:34:51
Exactly. It looks so cool. I’ll never do it though.
Kami 00:34:51 – 00:34:56
And how do you feel about collecting vinyl records?
Theo Egbers 00:34:56 – 00:34:57
I’ve got.
Kami 00:34:57 – 00:34:59
Have you?
Theo Egbers 00:34:59 – 00:35:01
Yeah, I’ve got like.
Kami 00:35:01 – 00:35:04
Oh, you’ve got a whole stack of them. Love that.
Theo Egbers 00:35:04 – 00:35:19
I’ve got a few, but I’m a rocker so I’ve got like all the rock ones, like Paul Simon, Guns and Roses stuff. I don’t have like the latest Taylor Swift, just cool rock and roll vinyls. Yeah.
Kami 00:35:19 – 00:35:29
But I think those are the cool vinyls because I know this trend cropped back up where everyone was trying to collect vinyls and I was in my grandfather’s cabinet trying to like steal some of his vinyl so I can be cool. So those are cool.
Theo Egbers 00:35:29 – 00:35:35
You must keep those ones. I also went raided my moms and uncles and things like that and there’s some classics there.
Kami 00:35:35 – 00:35:37
Yeah, yeah. That’s super cool.
Theo Egbers 00:35:37 – 00:35:38
So I think it’s hot.
Kami 00:35:38 – 00:35:41
Yeah. Cool. John, what do you think?
John Withers 00:35:41 – 00:35:44
I also agree, I mean I don’t personally collect vinyl.
Kami 00:35:44 – 00:35:45
Yeah.
John Withers 00:35:45 – 00:35:51
Back in the day I used to when I like listened to like house music and collected whatever.
Kami 00:35:51 – 00:35:52
Yeah.
John Withers 00:35:52 – 00:35:57
Those kind of tracks. But yeah, I think it’s all cool.
Kami 00:35:57 – 00:36:05
Cool. And how do you both feel about motorbike trips across the country?
John Withers 00:36:05 – 00:36:05
That is hot
Theo Egbers 00:36:05 – 00:36:15
Not. I’ve never been on a motorbike. I’ve been on the back of one when I was a youngster, but I’ve never been on one side. I wouldn’t know.
Kami 00:36:15 – 00:36:18
Okay. And John, you said it’s hot. Have you been?
John Withers 00:36:18 – 00:36:27
I haven’t, but it’s on my bucket list of things to do to get one of those. Like I think they’re like there’s on off road bikes and just go on.
Kami 00:36:27 – 00:36:27
Yeah.
John Withers 00:36:27 – 00:36:31
Excursion around Africa.
Kami 00:36:31 – 00:36:35
Around Africa!
John Withers 00:36:35 – 00:36:37
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
Theo Egbers 00:36:37 – 00:36:42
He hasn’t actually got enough leave to do that yet. So, you know, he can go like that –
John Withers 00:36:42 – 00:36:44
At the moment I can go as far as Rivonia.
Theo Egbers 00:36:44 – 00:36:51
Yeah. And then you have to come on for a meeting at 5.
Kami 00:36:51 – 00:36:56
Yikes. How do you both feel about pineapple on pizza?
Theo Egbers 00:36:56 – 00:36:56
Not.
Kami 00:36:57 – 00:37:00
I feel like you answered that too quickly.
Theo Egbers 00:37:00 – 00:37:12
Age old question. I’m not a fruit in meals. Kind of like I don’t put fruit into curries and things like that. I just don’t mix it. I know like people have very strong feelings about it, but I just don’t like it.
Kami 00:37:12 – 00:37:14
Oh, John.
John Withers 00:37:14 – 00:37:24
I’m in the middle. I don’t think it’s hot. Well, I don’t think it’s not. I will eat it. It’s good. It’s not bad. It’s whatever. But yeah, pineapple.
John Withers 00:37:24 – 00:37:29
That’s where it stops, though. Hey, like no bananas on there.
Theo Egbers 00:37:29 – 00:37:32
And would you put melon on a pizza, John?
John Withers 00:37:32 – 00:37:35
Yeah, that’s where it stops.
Kami 00:37:35 – 00:37:40
You know, there are melon pizzas, though, aren’t there?
Theo Egbers 00:37:40 – 00:37:44
The Italians will be going crazy, but there must be.
Kami 00:37:44 – 00:37:50
And how do you both feel about extreme hot sauce challenges?
Theo Egbers 00:37:50 – 00:38:12
About seven years ago, I had this thought of making my own hot wing sauce for chicken wings, and so I tested them on John. I’d like, make the chicken wing sauce and then I’d say, John, you taste it and see what you think. But I never got too spicy because I can’t handle spice. But I would take up a chicken wing challenge, I think, hot sauce challenge. I think I would try it. I don’t like hot, hot, hot things, but I would try.
Theo Egbers 00:38:12 – 00:38:14
So I’d say hot. Yeah.
Kami 00:38:14 – 00:38:18
Okay. And John, you kind of did it with Theo’s sauce.
John Withers 00:38:18 – 00:38:29
With Theo. I think we both love hot sauce, as long as it’s not too hot. So, yeah, I think when it starts getting into those, like, Carolina reaper territories.
Kami 00:38:29 – 00:38:29
Yeah.
John Withers 00:38:29 – 00:38:40
Where you cry and things are coming out your nose. That’s where I’ll pull out the competition. But for the whole time, I’d probably before. That would be fine.
Kami 00:38:40 – 00:38:44
Cool. And how do you both feel about cave tours?
Theo Egbers 00:38:44 – 00:38:56
Wow, I haven’t thought about cave tours for a long time, but we used to go on them at school. I’m fine with them. I might be more claustrophobic now, but when I was younger, I loved them. Yeah. You saying cave tours, like, as in going into a cave?
Kami 00:38:56 – 00:38:58
Yeah, like going into caves.
Theo Egbers 00:38:58 – 00:39:00
Oh, yeah, I do that. Yeah. Hot. Yeah, that’d be awesome. Yeah.
Kami 00:39:00 – 00:39:10
Oh, I think I’ve only been to one of those. It was at the cradle of humankind, and the whole time I was terrified. Never again. I was like, no, thank you.
Theo Egbers 00:39:10 – 00:39:16
There’s somewhere you have to, like, kind of crawl through a rock space that’s like a manhole size and.
Kami 00:39:16 – 00:39:16
Yeah.
Theo Egbers 00:39:16 – 00:39:28
Into another chamber and things like that, though. I mean, those. I think I get a bit scared of getting stuck because I’m a lot bigger than I used to be. But yeah, there’s lots. There all over South Africa, there are Sudwala Caves. Yeah, I definitely do it. Yeah.
John Withers 00:39:28 – 00:39:35
Yeah. Same, I think, you know, as long as they don’t come to those small little things that you have to crawl through.
Kami 00:39:35 – 00:39:36
Yeah.
John Withers 00:39:36 – 00:39:42
Okay. Like, I need at least a 3 metre bubble around me and then I’m okay.
Kami 00:39:42 – 00:39:43
Fair enough.
Theo Egbers 00:39:43 – 00:39:44
How about you?
Kami 00:39:44 – 00:39:57
How about me? I did that one tour in school at the Cradle of humankind and never again. I just. I don’t know. I feel like the day I go, the whole thing will come down with water.
Theo Egbers 00:39:57 – 00:39:58
After millions of years. That’s the day.
Kami 00:39:58 – 00:40:09
Exactly. And the day I go, it’ll just come down. And how do you both feel about cooking with friends?
John Withers 00:40:09 – 00:40:26
That’s a no for me. I’m not really good at cooking in general, so I think to just show my level of terrible cooking to my friends would be embarrassing because you’d never live it down. Yeah, it would just be like, what are you doing? Just stop.
Theo Egbers 00:40:26 – 00:40:27
Put –
John Withers 00:40:27 – 00:40:31
Put down the spatula. Just stop it. Like enough now.
Theo Egbers 00:40:31 – 00:40:33
If you’re talking about a braai, then I guess that’s okay.
John Withers 00:40:33 – 00:40:34
Yeah, maybe a braai then.
Theo Egbers 00:40:34 – 00:40:46
Me and kitchens, like slicing things and making pastas and things. Like. No, it’s not. I’m just not. I’m not a chef. I can braai but a chef… Nah.
Kami 00:40:46 – 00:40:53
Okay. And how do you first feel about reading biographies of influential people?
John Withers 00:40:53 – 00:41:09
I think that. Yeah, I love those. Like, personally, like, super interested in biographies. I don’t get to read that much anymore, but I think, yeah, I think those are super cool.
Theo Egbers 00:41:09 – 00:41:25
Yeah, I mean, I’ve read Rassie’s book, which was brilliant. I’ve read. You know, I started reading Elon Musk’s book, but it wasn’t as exciting because I guess he’s maybe a bit disassociated with us. He’s like, further away. He’s not really South African anymore. But I also like reading books about startups.
Theo Egbers 00:41:25 – 00:41:43
You know, the Nike story and Amazon story. Those books really appeal to me because you can see the results of where they are and how they are. And that is really interesting. So, yeah, again, like, John, when I have time, I’ll read it or audiobook at sometimes. But now. Yeah, but yeah, I do. I do like reading them now. Hot.
Kami 00:41:43 – 00:41:49
Cool. How do you both feel about mint chocolate?
Theo Egbers 00:41:49 – 00:41:55
Hot, I like. It must be in the aero. So it must be like together with aero.
Kami 00:41:55 – 00:41:58
Yeah. You like the aero one with the bubbles?
Theo Egbers 00:41:58 – 00:42:13
Yeah, I like the aero. One of the bubbles. Yeah. You remember those ones you used to get? I don’t know if you had them, but they were called late night mints or something. They were like, your parents bought them and they had them when they had guests over and then you had to go try to steal them. They were called after mints or something after.
Kami 00:42:13 – 00:42:16
Oh, yes. This was it. Endearmints, after mints.
Theo Egbers 00:42:16 – 00:42:29
It was like a chocolate, Dark chocolate with mint in it. And then it was in like a little plastic, a little paper wrapper. So anyway, those are also brilliant. And now I can afford them. So now I buy them. And my son has them.
Kami 00:42:29 – 00:42:30
Oh, my goodness.
Theo Egbers 00:42:30 – 00:42:33
Long answer, short, yes.
John Withers 00:42:33 – 00:42:35
It’s not from me. Thank you.
Kami 00:42:35 – 00:42:37
Really? Why?
John Withers 00:42:37 – 00:42:56
I don’t know. Unless it’s that like the peppermint crisp, whatever that thing. Peppermint crisp, that’s okay. But the crunchy minty bits. But yeah, the rest of it’s just. Yeah, that’s the pineapple pizza of chocolate.
Kami 00:42:56 – 00:43:01
How do you both feel about the Godfather movie?
John Withers 00:43:01 – 00:43:10
Hot. I love them. But I watched them so long ago. I can remember just little scenes now.
Kami 00:43:10 – 00:43:11
Yeah.
John Withers 00:43:11 – 00:43:16
Like to think about trying to rewatch them and then they’re like hours long.
Kami 00:43:16 – 00:43:16
Right.
John Withers 00:43:17 – 00:43:23
Why would you take the whole weekend and just get through it right back then?
Theo Egbers 00:43:23 – 00:43:28
Yeah, I enjoyed them, but It’s not my favourite genre, but I did enjoy them.
Kami 00:43:28 – 00:43:50
Cool, cool, cool, cool. Well, guys, that is the end of the episode. Thank you both so much for joining us. Just as a final little tidbit for anybody that’s looking to follow the brand, follow what you’ve got going on next. Maybe check out some of your offerings as well. Plug your socials and also your websites.
Theo Egbers 00:43:50 – 00:44:19
Well, you can find us on melonmobile.co.za if you want to go to the website. And that’s where you can also get your free trial, which you can sign up for a free trial. If you don’t want a free trial, just go onto our app, which is available on the Google and Apple stores. Go and look for Melon Mobile and then, yeah, search for Melon mobile on Meta Channels and TikTok and Melon Mobile ZA generally on all three of them or four of them. You’ll find us there. So that’s pretty much where we’re at.
Kami 00:44:19 – 00:44:27
Awesome, awesome, awesome. So we will make sure to plug all of those in the description box as well. So check it out. But yeah, thank you guys so much for joining us today.
Theo Egbers 00:44:27 – 00:44:27
Amazing. That was super fun.
John Withers 00:44:27 – 00:44:27
Thanks Kamo!