Every
now and again something extra-ordinary happens that inspires and encourages and
entire town or city. This happened to Ballito last week with the release of the
“Happy Ballito” video – a local version of the Happy song by Pharrell Williams.
The official version was released on YouTube on 21 Nov 2013 and has over 259
million views and over 1,6 million likes. The song was written and produced by
Pharrell Williams and released by Columbia Records, which is a division of Sony
Music. The song peaked at number one in the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, New
Zealand and 19 other countries. It is also recognizable from the soundtrack of
the movie Despicable Me 2. People all around the word were inspired to make
their own version, which they posted on YouTube. From New York, L.A., London,
Rio and every place in between local versions were posted on-line. Slovakia has
a version set on a snow capped mountain-top with bikini clad models dancing and
singing, which may explain the over 3 million views they received. The six
Iranians from Tehran who produced their version made headline news when they
were arrested because of it.
My wife, Jane Wassenaar, picked up on the on-line
success of this song, and after seeing the excellent version by Cape Town
suggested that we make a local Ballito version. As Seeff Dolphin Coast we got
moving. Our larger than life Sales & Marketing Director, Tim Johnson,
hooked up with Karl Worner from I love Ballito, and together with Tim Hay of
Hellmot Productions and Julie Robert of Sugar Dance put together a world class
production with the amazing support of the super special people of Ballito. The
first public screening of the final version was last Tuesday night at the Seeff
National Convention held at Arabella, where we challenged the other 200 Seeff
offices around the country to make their own version. The next day we launched
the video to around 100 invited guests who attended our function at La Piazza
at The Well in Ballito. It was released on YouTube the same evening and has
already attracted over 17,000 views.
Within a day we had received calls from Mr
Price wanting to use it in their promotion of the Mr Price Pro this year, and
Sony Music Africa who tweeted it to their followers. East Coast Radio picked up
on it and gave it a mention. If you are running a business and still wondering
if social media is important as a way to communicate then you are asking the
wrong question. The social media platforms have revolutionized the way we all
communicate and have truly made the world a small, inter-connected village.
There are two things you have to get right in any business, of any size and
across any industry, if you are going to remain relevant and profitable.
Marketing and Innovation, the rest are details. I believe that with the release
of the Happy Ballito video we have achieved both. It was a great privilege for
Seeff Dolphin Coast to walk away with the top two National Seeff Awards within
our division for Marketer of the Year and Licensee of the Year. Our aim is that
the Happy Ballito video will make people proud of where they live as well as
inspire and motivate others to migrate here – and possibly purchase a property
in the area from us while at it.
Published in The Bugle, 28 May 2014, Author: Andreas Wassenaar
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