Thembisile Sehloho was appointed as the new chief marketing officer (CMO) in early April, meaning he has literally had his feet under his desk for over a month.
Lead image LR: Thembisile Sehloho, CMO, South African Tourism Board
Africa’s Travel Indaba has B&T Editor-in-Chief David Hovenden in his only interview in Australia to discuss the work being done on South African Tourism’s upcoming new global campaign.
Thembisile brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic branding and marketing to his new role, further strengthening the organization’s marketing capabilities.
Sembisile joins South African Tourism from Tiger Brands, where he served as Marketing Director and played a central role in shaping and redefining South Africa’s most loved household brand.
She also worked on AVI’s Bakers and Willards brands. With a proven track record of driving market share and growth through innovative brand strategies, Thembisile’s expertise will help improve South African Tourism’s marketing efforts.
Thembisile started his career in finance at Unilever and joined Tiger Brands early in his career, from there he moved to AVI and then back to Tiger Brands. She has an outstanding academic background, including her MBA in Leadership and Innovation from the University of Edinburgh and her BCom in Accounting from the University of Johannesburg.
Sembisile said data showed that when looking at South Africa as a brand, one of the key gaps to drive conversion was being memorable.
“We went on a journey with an advertising agency.” [independent South African agency Joe Public] Let’s explore how to improve brand recall. As marketers, we evoke memories through emotional advertising, but with that said, brand advertising can be highly emotional, but it needs to be accentuated by deliverables that work well. ” she said.
“As marketers we sell dreams, but of course domestic tourism products have to live up to the realities we have.”
This means that South African Tourism will need to consult extensively with private sector partners to help develop the campaign.
“because [tour operators] They must also believe that it will help transform their facility. ”
Where they arrive as a group is centered around children.
“We want people to experience how our country is through the eyes of children. In that, it’s really about the innocence of children, the joy that children have. Children When you first see a wave, it’s pure, unadulterated joy. That’s the memory we want people to take away from this campaign, and that’s what we’re building on.” said Thembisile.
“That’s really the big idea. We want you to experience this country through the eyes of a child with no misconceptions and with a pure heart. We want people to go home feeling uplifted and having memories.” We want everyone to experience it. ”
South African Tourism showcased a short film as part of ATI, which was more of a mood board than a finished product, but the final product is a 360 with outdoor, video and digital all playing key roles. It will be a one-time campaign, she said.
However, don’t expect this campaign to start anytime soon. South Africa is due to vote in a national election on May 29th, which means the start of the election will be postponed until September at the earliest.
And while this campaign aims to solve South Africa’s memory problem, improving air access to South Africa remains an important aspect of promoting tourism. He recognized the need for greater connectivity and highlighted recent developments in airline operations, such as the resumption of direct flights to Australia by South African Airways (SAA) in April. SAA currently operates three flights per week between Perth and Johannesburg. The only direct flight between Australia and South Africa is with Qantas, which operates between Sydney and Johannesburg six times a week.
And, of course, another major barrier to increasing South Africa’s tourist numbers to pre-COVID-19 levels is the question of safety perception.
Ms Thembisile said that to resolve this issue, she and South Africa as a whole needed to make South Africa not only safe for tourists, but also safe for South Africans.
“We’re not going to shy away from the fact that South Africa has a security issue. We’re not going to shy away from that, but we’re working very closely with our stakeholders.
“This is not something that tourism hubs can control, but it is an important responsibility for our industry to operate in. I think South Africa’s mission is really about the safety of its people, not just the safety of its tourists.”
