Problem: Cape Town is experiencing the worst drought in over a century. And with 80% of water being used in bathrooms, people were urged to drastically cut down their shower time to two minutes. But what they needed was a way to time their showers.

Insight: We all sing in the shower, whether we’d like to admit it or not.

Solution: We created the first ever 2minuteshowersongs album. We challenged 10 of South Africa's biggest music artists to re-work their most popular tracks into exactly 2-minutes. Locals and visitors could then press play, shower and sing along. Knowing that when the song ends so should their showers.

Our artists went back into studio to re-write, re-orchestrate and re-record their biggest sing-along tracks to two-minute versions and released the first ever 2minuteshowersongs album. And every morning as Cape Town was jumping in the shower, our artists performed their songs on major TV and radio shows. The songs were also made available for free streaming and download on a specially created website and were released on every major music platform.

Perfectly timed ahead of our peak tourist season when millions of visitors would put further strain on our water supply, our fully integrated six-week campaign was rolled out through national and international media relations, tactical paid media targeted digital spend and strategic partnerships with Airbnb and City Sightseeing.

Our artists became Cape Town’s heroes, as daily water usage began to drop. While Sanlam was praised for being the driving force behind the much-needed behaviour change.

The response was immediate. Locals started singing along, and within 24 hours, the tourist industry and international community did too, with our 2-Minute Shower Songs spreading across the globe. During the campaign period, we shifted the narrative and rallied locals and visitors to play an active role in reducing their water consumption.

Measurement highlights included -

Media outputs:

• 240 million impressions

• 95% top tier media exposure

• 100% key message penetration

• 100% positive sentiment

• Earned media ROI 310%

Target audience outcomes:

• 3.4 million positive engagements

• 1.6 million video views

• 22 694 unique website visits

• 3.24 minutes spent on site per session (average)

Business outcomes:

• Sanlam applauded by the Mayor of Cape Town for being one of the first corporates to answer the call for the private sector to get behind the fight against Day Zero

• Day Zero overcome completely