September 12, 2011. With a glamorous launch event in Johannesburg featuring national celebrities like Derek Watts of Carte Blanche fame, 5FM deejays Gareth Cliff and DJ Fresh, plus John Walland of Radio Jacaranda, the Hot Ballito campaign aims to consolidate the marketing of the North Coast town and take it to another level.
The celebs (at the fab ZAR club, nogal) may have had a national profile but the message was of local significance: Come to beautiful Ballito and the KZN North Coast, this is the place to be.
Ballito’s growth in recent years has been well above the national average, and tourism, along with ICT, motoring, manufacturing and agroprocessing hubs have been identified as growth industries. The rather considerable bonus of the development of the King Shaka International Airport and Dube TradePort have certainly acted as powerful stimulants, driving interest and investment in the area.
Chatting to The Ridge magazine, Trenley Tilbrook, the CEO of the Ilembe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, gave a little insight into the origins, the marketing plan and the thought processes behind the Hot Ballito campaign.
“The campaign is being driven by myself and the hard-working tourism committee of the iLembe Chamber of Commerce. We’re aiming to promote the North Coast of KZN as THE tourism and investment destination of choice. We’re starting with the tourism element. While we’re leveraging off the name Ballito, the campaign is broader than that and we’re promoting the north coast.”
Tourism the key
I asked Trenley to comment further on what clusters or nodes the Ilembe Chamber was looking at to drive development and lure much-needed capital to the region. “There are some big tourism plans in the pipeline (I sense a watch this space moment here). People come here as holidaymakers, notice the growth and then decide to move here and start a business. The main sector we’re focused on is property. As more and more people move here to live, industries are then established, such as contractors, professionals, designers and retailers, who move here or commute to supply expertise and labour for these developments. From there it’s a snowball effect as many other industries and sectors come into play.”
For Ballito’s tourism roleplayers this focused campaign, complete with user friendly and content rich website, is great news. Grant Pringle, Managing Director of the five star Hotel Izulu commented: “The Hot Ballito campaign aims to rapidly increase awareness of Ballito as both an international and domestic tourism destination. It also aims at unifying some of the big annual events with the smaller players in the area, increasing the overall benefit for all.
“We have some huge things happening and some new ones in the pipeline. The area has three of the four golf courses hosting the World Amateur Golf Championships on its doorstep, as well as one of the biggest New Year’s Eve parties in the country. Tourism stands to benefit, which is great news, as tourism is the sector that benefits most other sectors.”
And where did Hot Ballito come from? Apparently Ballito means “Little ball” in Italian, thus the campaign’s fiery red “o” in the word Hot. “We want to position the town as the hottest place to be,” says Tilbrook. “In 2000 Ballito had one shopping centre and about 3000 beds available for visitors. Today there are four shopping centres and 7000 bed nights, while the population is exploding.”
The Mr Price Pro, Matric Rage, Ballito Prawn and Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras Extravaganza, new exclusive developments and shopping malls launching, excellent schooling. Right now, Ballito’s future looks red-hot. – Garth Johnstone
For more info: http://hotballito.safindit.co.za/