Cherryflava

If you care about public transport in the city of Cape Town – here’s your chance to make a contribution

Posted on 17. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Nice bus

If you believe that Cape Town deserves a properly working public transport network and have a few ideas of how the city can make it financially and logistically viable, then speak up. We have a few strong ideas regarding promoting, pricing and access to the MyCiti bus network that we’re going to be sending the powers that be – and you can too.

Here is the proposed business plan – that you can study in more detail.

Comments must be posted to Mike Marsden, Executive Director: Transport, Roads and Major Projects, City of Cape Town, P O Box 298, Cape Town 8000, or faxed to 021 400 5697 or e-mailed to beverley.ball@capetown.gov.za by no later than Tuesday 31 August 2010.

Here’s your chance to get involved and make Cape Town an even better city.

more

[...and thanks to Smart About What for the info]

Amstel Lager – hot or not?

Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

On more than one occasion this weekend – we overheard conversations that went something like this:

Guy 1: ‘Hey man – what beer do you want? Amstel or something else?’

Guy 2: ‘Nah – f*&k Amstel. Since they left us I’ve turned to Marzen Gold / Peroni / Windhoek / Heineken and Amstel tastes like sh*t these days in anycase’

Perhaps if we’d heard the comment once we would have assumed it to be an individual point of view, but in two very separate occasions the feelings against the Amstel brand were strongly negative and made loudly enough to almost have been regarded at a public announcement.

Not being regular Amstel drinkers the taste change of the beverage has gone completely over our heads, but the tangible change in attitude towards a brand that at one time was almost as endearing to the South African public as Mrs Balls and a Toyota Hi lux bakkie is interesting. Personally our feeling towards Amstel Lager is neutral. It seems like a nice enough beverage to drink on occasion. So we were never a candidate for a love / hate kinda feeling towards it now.

Our take on it is -  that like cigarettes and rugby teams, your choice in beer brand defines your personal social tribe [obviously taste has a bit to do with it too]. If the brand that formed the glue or social fabric of that tribe turns its back on those people [even for a very short time] – it’s a long hard road back [if ever] to winning them over again. They’ve moved on and had World Cups and braais and Tri-nations disappointments with Mr. Windhoek and Mr. Heineken.

It’s telling how people see brands as friends, while business folk see brands as money – and all too often, friends and money don’t mix to well. It’ll be intriguing to see if  the sentiment changes over time.

Bicycle film festival trailer vs Top Gear’s latest Bugatti Veyron review

Posted on 11. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

If there’s one thing we wish Cape Town had less of, it’s cars. And it would be nice if we were also part of the global bicycle film festival.

Now in its tenth year the festival is held in 37 cities worldwide. 300,000 people are expected to attend this year.

Oh well – until then…we’ll just have to save up to get our mitts on the world’s best car instead.

Tough choice.

Weird alien-looking stickers all over Cape Town

Posted on 10. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Pole stickers

It surely has nothing to do with Cell C, but we are curious to know why we’re noticing these strange war-head stickers on randon bits of street furniture. This one on the corner of Main and Campground Road we spotted this morning.

A closer look

Nando’s Canada….that’s all we have to say as far as a headline goes

Posted on 06. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Makes sense

Firstly – they have Nando’s in Canada? You learn something everyday. Thing is, the brand positioning in Canada seems to be a bit more ‘advanced’ than what it is here. At least that’s what these pics lead up to believe.

This lady's taking a lickin' for that chicken

Chicken that's NSFW

In exchange for a slappin’ from one or two of the Chicken Vixens and as part of Vancouver’s Pride celebration – you’d get a voucher for a quarter Nando’s chicken. Feeling hungry now.

More here

via

The BenRaich Distillery: Nicely done

Posted on 06. Aug, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

A small parting gift

We attend a number of launches, events, tastings and things like that that you’d most probably label as branded experiences for want of a better term.

The ones that truly stand out are few and far between. Generally the devil is in the detail of the experience and that’s the thing that’s most often completely overlooked. Our head of production was recently invited to a small intimate BenRaich whisky tasting at the Bascule Bar in the V&A Waterfront. Since then all he can talk about was that there were only 15 people invited and his limited release [only 150 produced] 1988 single malt that he was granted as a special parting gift. He’s also sure to mention to everyone that walks into the office that there are only 6 bottles of this stuff in the country and he’s got one of them.

Yes - it's signed by the blender

As for the rest of the evening – they apparently tasted a Classic Speyside 12 and 16 year old as well as a Wood Finished Madeira 15 year old that we can’t get any word out of him as to its taste because his eyes just glaze over at the mention of its name and he makes quiet sucking sounds with his lips. Perhaps we should check the dosage of his daily Xanax consumption now that we think about it.

The point is that successful branded events are not like buying a full-page ad in the Sunday Times. They’re personal, require a professional, knowledgeable host [thanks Bernard Gutman]and a parting gift that’s thought out and special.

Just as a Friday afternoon joke – we may just crack open the thing and mix it with a splash of Coca Cola and a boerie while he steps out. Think the resulting video shot on his return would be viral gold on YouTube.

Movie choice for the weekend: Inception

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

While we’re on the topic of all things fantasy reality, seeing the movie Inception is probably a good idea and for that reason will be a prescribed outing for the Cherryflava team this weekend.

This is the pinnacle of where movies are right now.

BRAND HOOLIGANS is back – and this time it’s all experiential

Posted on 28. Jul, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Experiential branding is the hot topic in global marketing circles and if the trend forecasters are to be believed, it’s the way of the future as people turn their backs on more traditional approaches.

But creating a remarkable experiential brand campaign is tricky. Done right it’s the most powerful catalyst for creating massive amounts of positive word of mouth for a brand. So this year, we’ve gathered together a line up of internationally acclaimed speakers and presenters that will, for 2-days, offer a complete crash-course in the elusive art of constructing a fantasy brand experience.

It feels a little sad for us to be calling this year’s event a marketing conference knowing what kind of images those two words generally represent in people’s minds. Truth be told we’re going to delving deep into the psyche of what drives our desire to form a community around brands we love. In true BRAND HOOLIGANS style we have a few paradigm shifting tricks up our sleeve to complete a fully-rounded, educational, 2-days of experiential marketing strategy that’ll arm you to create and execute this thinking for your own brands.

Our presenters this year include:

• Lauren Beukes
• Prof Tim Noakes
• The Black Heart Gang
• Justin Fiske
• Rod Suskin
• Braam Malherbe
• Jack Parow
• Liam Lynch

Your conference ticket will also give you exclusive membership to our new book club. For the next year we’ll keep the inspiration flowing with a series of books and videos, that continues the thinking of BRAND HOOLIGANS, sent to you free of charge.

For the details and ticket bookings – head over to our new BRAND HOOLIGANS site.

Cherryflava has been nominated for a Men’s Health award

Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Yeah – we were as dumbfounded as you to received word that we cracked the nod to be included with Nic Haralambous and Yusaf Abramjee as one of the three nominees for the Game Changer category in this year’s Men’s Health Best Men 2010 awards.

It’s obviously a huge honour and we feel rather bashful about the whole thing, but in the interests of democracy and the preservation of free speech and freedom of association please head over there and make your mark next to your candidate of choice.

While you’re at it, perhaps consider giving Mr Brad Armitage [from our other office at Brewers & Union] your vote in the Trendsetter category We think that validation is well-deserved.

Canton: It’s like drinking the red pill

Posted on 01. Jun, 2010 by Jonathan Cherry.

Nectar of the gods

Rui Esteves from Brewers & Union is a sneaky chap. He just knew the words “this stuff is a guaranteed panty-dropper” would catch our undivided attention.

From the ribbed, frosted-glass bottle to the hardcover recipe book that comes with it – every single minute detail of this drink as been thought about by its crafter. To put it plainly – it’s a ginger-flavoured liqueur that’s light, yet packs an upfront fruity, ginger tone that wouldn’t be out of place on the set of Eyes Wide Shut. It’s sweet, yet smoky. It dances on your tongue in a satin-laced robe while wearing stilettos and armed with a silver-plated under-over shotgun.

But that description is like calling a Bugatti Veyron a sportscar.

If you drink it on the rocks, or poured into a glass of Champagne you can never go back to the reality that you perceived your life to be before it passed your lips. Panty-dropper? Damn right!

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