We’ve had an exciting year of work here at Flow.
Hours of sweat, pure determination and hard work have translated into some amazing websites being launched, exciting PR initiatives being activated, beautiful design work, clean code and copy, and happy clients all round.
We also scooped six awards at New Generation Social and Digital Media Awards, which included excellence in content marketing for South African Tourism and best digital designer.
Working for one of our biggest clients, South African Tourism, has seen Flowstars from all divisions work hand-in-hand to ensure quality work is produced.
Work for South African Tourism included continuing to redevelop SA Specialist, and online learning portal to help the travel trade learn more about South Africa and sell it better as a destination; rewriting and updating about 4 000 articles across the SAT website, simplifying the navigation of the site, and redoing the home page to feature feeds from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram in a lazy-loading format that entices users to click through to the rich content behind.
Says developer Ati Tshikalange about Flow’s work with South African Tourism: “We’ve had an exciting year with the revamp of SA Specialist (which included the launch of the Experiences course) and the infographic generator [a visually rich stats engine that gives South African Tourism real-time data on those who have registered for and graduated from the programme].”
Flow has also built a campaign site showcasing tourism attractions associated with Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi-inspired tourist attractions website that encourages tourists to follow in the South African footsteps of the father of passive resistance.
The Goodbye Malaria initiative has seen Cassidy Parker discover the wonders of Mozambique: “The opportunity to travel to Mozambique with Goodbye Malaria was one of the most enlightening and humbling experiences of my year. The people who I met who were working towards eradicating malaria – one home at a time – were nothing short of inspirational, and the passion with which they infused their work was wonderfully contagious,” she says.
For designer George Xafis, new websites such as Streamlight and Rhulani Safari Lodge have also presented great opportunities to travel. “These websites have been challenging and wonderful at the same time. Roshni and I had a wonderful opportunity to spend a weekend at Rhulani, after the client was impressed with the design of the website.”
Promoting the Daredevil Run saw Flowstars and Hollardites take over six major radio stations one November morning. Says PR’s Shaun Demmer about their challenges: “What better way to start the morning than with a 6am gathering of Flowstars and Hollardites at the Hollard head office, as we prepared to disperse in three teams, each with men in purple Speedos and goodie bags for selected breakfast show radio DJs.
“Each team had one mission: make your way in peak-hour traffic to three different stations, get upstairs, into the studio, and spread the word of the Daredevil Run – on air, if possible!”
Flow PR also had a busy year with Nando’s campaigns, including one for their new concept store in Blackheath, Johannesburg.
“We used an anonymous Gmail account, sending journalists and influencers content about four-letter words. The main campaign was titled: What is the four-letter word in Blackheath? with the reveal being the word heat,” says PR’s Karabo Sitto.
“It was a really fun campaign because of the anonymity, making the reveal a real surprise, and keeping Nando’s campaigns innovative and fresh.”
On the publishing front, we have just completed one of our biggest annual jobs for St Mary’s: its magazine. The work this year has been challenging for Flowstars Willem Steenkamp, Gaynore Adams and Roz Caboz, but also rewarding.
“The St Mary’s School annual magazine is a large-scale and complex project, requiring strong design and editing skills. The 2014 edition has turned out beautifully, and the feedback is that it may be the best one yet – which really is the greatest compliment,” says Willem.
Another big job on Flow’s calendar is the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. Flowstars put their best foot forward and produced some inspiring work for the 12th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, held in the Cape Town City Hall this year and delivered by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on the theme, “Building social cohesion through active citizenship”.
Says Willem about covering the event: “I confess to being jittery about being put in charge of it for the first time. But my fantastic, highly experienced team, including Andrea, Lynnette, Tara, Roy and Riefkah, handled it with aplomb, and it was a pleasure leading them. I certainly look forward to next year’s lecture!”
Our work for the Nelson Mandela Foundation also included the revamp of its two main web portals, www.nelsonmandela.org and www.mandeladay.com – both significant undertakings that saw integrated Flow project teams of designers, content specialists and developers working in close collaboration with the foundation’s amazing staff.
The Table Mountain Cableway website also received an impressive revamp. The new site is now responsive, scaling elegantly to any device, and with interesting new content such as a series of Throwback Thursday blogs to mark the Cableway’s 85-year milestone reached in 2014. There was an impressive spike in web traffic to the site in the few weeks after the launch of the new site which in turn earned the cableway loads of publicity.
“I’m feeling proud of our achievement in showcasing this popular and beautiful attraction, in a slick and modern website,” says project manager Leanne Pohlmann.
“The information architecture was carefully considered in the design phase to ensure that the most important and relevant information is easy to access.”
Of course, we can go on and on about our highlights for 2014, but the truth is that we have enjoyed a busy and fruitful year with our clients, and we are grateful to be able to reflect on the great year that has been.
To see our portfolio, click here; you can also check out our client offerings here.