The inside story of the Cape Town iceberg

The Liqui-Fruit iceberg has been one of the most successful viral campaigns of 2010, moving effortlessly from YouTube to Twitter and Facebook and into the blogosphere.

The campaign began late on Sunday evening, so it seems only fitting to end the week with some insights from people who created the campaign.

Karen Veysey, Liqui-Fruit Brand Manager, and Charmaine Bluett, Senior Account Manager at Liquorice, sent this letter to Memeburn, which we thought we’d share with you. This is what they wrote:

“Speculation has been building all week about reported sightings of icebergs off the Cape Coast. Video footage on YouTube, reports on local radio stations, coverage on SABC news and furious commentary on the blogosphere have added to the speculation.

Finally, on Wednesday, Liqui-Fruit, South Africa’s favourite fruit juice brand announced that it was the originator of the campaign, which was designed to announce the beginning of its Summer Melt Down promotion.

Liqui-Fruit’s digital marketing agency Liquorice created the idea of a mysterious iceberg that would capture the imagination and interest of South Africans – and it really seems to have done that.

The response we have had to the iceberg has been phenomenal. We had expected to create interest and discussion during the week, but the speed it happened at amazed us!

The first ‘Clifton iceberg’ video was put live on YouTube late on Sunday evening. The idea was to keep the video unbranded, to keep the public guessing. Simultaneously an email containing pictures of the iceberg was released. The mail kept in line with the amateur look and feel of the videos and hyped up public interest regarding the ‘iceberg’. The email was also instrumental in driving traffic to the YouTube videos.

“Breaking through the clutter of everyday promotions is not easy, so it was important that all pictures and video created looked authentic and appeared to have been taken by amateur eyewitnesses” said Brian Carter of Liquorice.

Blogger Bearthryllz picked up on the YouTube video early on Monday morning after the ‘Camps Bay iceberg’, the second video in the ‘Iceberg trilogy’ went live on YouTube.

Bearthryllz added some interesting speculations to the debate… was this Leo’s iceberg or the filming of Titanic the sequel? Soon after this bloggers 10&5, Bangers and Nash and Memeburn hopped in on the scoop. This sparked a debate on Twitter with tweeters trying to guess which brand was responsible.

Many guessed alcoholic brands, due the bold nature of the stunt.

An unlikely turn in the events came when an NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinson was quoted as saying that an alcohol advert was being shot at Clifton, fuelling rumours that it was a liquor brand. That was when Hunter’s took the gap and ‘hijacked’ the iceberg. A rather brash move, which gave more coverage than could have been expected (thanks).

So why an iceberg off the Cape Coast? Well Liqui-Fruit Summer Meltdown is coming to town! Pieces of the iceberg are going to be “taken” to various locations around South Africa, and South Africans will be able to have their photo taken in front of the famous iceberg holding a pack of their favourite Liqui-Fruit!

Photos will then be uploaded on to the Liqui-Fruit website, and will be entered into competition where 10 lucky people will be chosen to compete for R50 000 at the Summer Meltdown Grande Finale @ Eden on the Bay in Cape Town, on 8th January 2011.

It has been great to have had fun, and to have added some fantasy and refreshment to many South African’s lives this week.”

So there you have it. A week in the life of the Cape Town iceberg.

But wait, there’s more….one more bizarrre video interpretation to close off a great marketing week for Liqui-Fruit.