At Flow, we don’t do work to win awards – we’re focused on delivering positive business and communications outcomes for our clients. So when a prestigious accolade does come along, it’s especially sweet.
One of our favourite (and longest-standing) clients, Hollard Insure, recently walked away with a Marketing Achievement Award for Hollard Highway Heroes, an initiative that not only promotes the Hollard business and brand, it actually transforms lives and makes South Africa’s roads safer for every one of us. These awards are decided on by marketers themselves, making this recognition particularly rewarding.
Hollard Highway Heroes is a brilliant competition for truck drivers, run by Hollard Trucking, one of Hollard Insure’s Centres of Excellence. Every year, thousands of truckers enter the competition in the hopes of winning life-changing cash prizes (the grand prize in 2019, when Highway Heroes was last held, was R100 000).
But to do that, they have to prove that they are indeed the best. They’re monitored using tracking devices for an extended period, against strict parameters such as speeding, harsh braking and whether or not they take regular rest breaks. And competition is fierce: over 3 200 drivers entered Hollard Highway Heroes in 2019, vying for that grand prize and the title of Highway Hero.
Flow has been a part of the Hollard Highway Heroes team since 2017, primarily supporting the competition with all manner of written content – including press releases, advertising copy, social media content, speeches, scripts and more – and public relations.
“There are so many aspects of Highway Heroes that make it a fantastic campaign to work on,” says writer Willem Steenkamp. “For starters, it makes winners out of everyone: the drivers, their employers, Hollard and every road user, because thousands of trucks are being driven carefully every day. Fewer accidents mean fewer losses and safer roads.
“The competition is also a perfect example of Hollard’s #BetterFutures business purpose in action: that everything the company does, and how it does it, must create and secure better futures for more people. With Highway Heroes, Hollard’s certainly walking its talk.
“But what I love most is that Highway Heroes spotlights truck drivers for the unsung heroes they really are: good, solid people who do a dangerous job, who work long hours and are often away from home and hearth for weeks at a time, and without whom our economy would quickly grind to a halt. That’s truly special.”
It was therefore especially exciting when Hollard Highway Heroes recently won a 2021 Marketing Achievement Award in the Excellence in Brand Marketing B2B category, pipping such heavyweight brands as Discovery and Nando’s to the prize.
Adel Kriel, head of marketing for Hollard Insure, says, “We are super-thrilled to receive this award. Winning such an award is all about the partnership between marketing and business, having a clear business objective and developing a robust marketing plan to support this.
“Our marketer Sara Wright’s passion for Highway Heroes, and her hard work, have paid off. This campaign is all about creating better futures for our highway heroes – truck drivers – and it speaks clearly to our company’s #BetterFutures business purpose.”
Sara attributes this success to the Highway Heroes team, saying, “It has been a privilege and an honour to be part of this wonderful campaign, and to work with such a passionate and dedicated team. This is truly a campaign that is close to all our hearts!”
Highway Heroes campaign manager Elka du Piesanie says, “I am so very proud to be part of this journey and it goes to show that hard work pays off in the end. Highway Heroes is a campaign with absolute ‘heart’ and its authenticity cannot be underestimated.
“I wholeheartedly believe in the brand and the fact that it truly creates better futures for all.”