Durban Tourism CEO Philip Sithole, with eThekwini deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala, Nadine Higgie, international sales and marketing director at National Geographic, and eThekwini city manager Sbu Sithole.
Durban Tourism’s ambitious multimillion-rand international marketing campaign with global television network National Geographic went live on Friday with the first digital component – a one-minute vignette or advert of eThekwini – shown on the global pay channel to millions of viewers.
More than 200 tourism industry leaders, marketers, city officials and media watched a special preview of the vignette, produced by National Geographic, at the launch at Suncoast CineCentre.
Nadine Heggie, the sales and marketing director of National Geographic based in London, flew into Durban to speak at the preview.
“This is an exciting partnership for us with the cities of Durban and Cape Town… If I could use one word to describe our channel it would be ‘curiosity’. We are a global brand from the US, to the EU and Asia and offer a variety of media platforms where these cities will be showcased as part of a three-year partnership,” she said.
“We have almost 400 million viewers worldwide. Over this two- to three-year partnership with the cities of Durban and Cape Town, our viewers will be able to re-evaluate these exciting cities as emerging global cities to watch out for.”
National Geographic’s crew filmed the vignette, which shows sights and sounds of the city from the beachfront to Zulu culture and the Indian markets to Moses Mabhida Stadium in April and May.
“We came up with the concept of the sounds of Durban to share the spirit and personality of the city. We are planning to shoot another vignette to be shown in key markets in Europe, the US, Asia and Africa,” Heggie said.
“It will reach 188 million viewers in the selected regions. These vignettes will be shown 2 600 times during prime and day time. As part of the partnership, an hour-long documentary each for Durban and Cape Town is being made and set to be broadcast in 2013.”
Durban Tourism CEO Philip Sithole said: “It has taken us more than a year to get to this point and a lot of hard work has gone behind the scenes. This is just the start with other exciting elements set to be revealed from digital marketing to print and online. This partnership represents a R24-million investment over three years.”
City manager Sbu Sithole supported the initiative, especially in light of the fact Durban was “under-marketed” by SA Tourism.
* The Durban vignette will be posted on National Geographic’s website soon. However, it has already been posted on Youtube – www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBEjGUk2qTU
