Every year Eskort, South Africa’s favourite pork producer, launches a Spring campaign to announce braai (barbecue) season. But this past braai season coincided with the Rugby World Cup.

Eskort wanted in on that action but sadly couldn’t afford to be a sponsor, even though Eskort’s delicious products would be sizzling over a fire throughout the World Cup.

So Eskort decided to outplay everyone. They developed a product innovation called

‘The SpringBOX’ - A cooler box for the Spring, made for carrying Eskort braai products.

To launch this exciting product innovation we placed an intentionally misspelt billboard at O.R. Tambo International Airport reading ‘Go Springbox’ on the day the national team was set to leave for the World Cup.

Conversation around the intentionally misspelt billboard exploded across various channels. But the billboard was only the beginning of what would be one of South Africa’s most highly successful campaigns of 2023

The creative idea was to launch a product innovation known as the Eskort ‘SpringBOX”. A cooler box made for carrying Eskort meat during the Spring braai season. The name was also a clever twist on the name of the South African National Rugby Team, the “Springboks”, of which we were not an official sponsor. The name sounded phonetically identical to the national team’s name, and that was our loophole. Fortunately, the team colours matched Eskort brand colours, so we took things a step further by using those colours in our collateral. We even created a logo that closely resembled the national team logo. Then we created campaign assets that would continuously up the ante as the campaign grew until we reached the end. We had to manage all that while knowingly heading into a lawsuit, so we had to be smart, fast and 3 steps ahead to pull it off.

Capitalizing on national pride and the fervor surrounding the South African National Rugby Team, the Springboks, the PR strategy tapped into the country's passion for rugby and braais (barbecues) during the Spring season.

The key messaging revolved around the Eskort 'SpringBOX' campaign cleverly aligning with the spirit of the nation while showcasing Eskort's innovative product, demonstrating creativity and relevance.

South African consumers who are rugby enthusiasts, particularly those engaged in braai culture during the Spring season, as well as media outlets,and influencers were our primary target.

Utilizing our strategically placed billboard at the airport as a launchpad, we knew the campaign would spark widespread curiosity and conversation. Then we would Leverage social media to generate organic buzz and dominate online conversations. Giving us a clear path to substantial earned media coverage.

We wanted to launch this idea by catching the country off-guard, gaining traction organically and leveraging that to increase sales for our client. So we thought of a seemingly misspelt billboard. We placed it at the airport on the day the national team was leaving for the Rugby World Cup. Meaning the team, media and fans would literally drive under the billboard on their way into the airport. Some confused people posted it online and we leveraged that with a few influencers to fan the flames and got people talking about it. It hit number 1 on the trends list within hours of going up and sparked mass debates. Then we revealed the hoax with a TVC we also dropped online and a series of curated content that blew everyone’s minds. The reaction to the Springbox was monumental and they sold out within a week all over the country.

The results for this campaign were far beyond our expectations. Given the nature of the campaign being extremely tactical, and time-sensitive due to the legal grey area we were venturing into, we had meticulously planned a seamless execution.

Raising brand awareness was our absolute main goal and our client wanted to see braai (Barbecue) product sales grow. Targets which we surpassed.

We reached over 45 million South Africans though social media. Received over 8000 pieces of UGC over 20 million engagements on our content.

A major milestone for us was outperforming official Springboks sponsor brands by managing to trend number 1 on X which no sponsor brand managed to do throughout the entire Rugby World Cup.

The overwhelming response from the public was a key indicator in the impact of the campaign on the brands awareness and perception.

Plus, the Springbox sold out everywhere and became a sought-after collector’s item.