history

Our creative journey has been through high-end events, product launches, brand activation, corporate video, Industrial Theatre and digital media. Running through all of it has been a commitment to storytelling as the key engagement tool.
When Paul Stuiver took over as CEO at PPC, and was looking to galvanise his team around the prospect of an aggressive African expansion plan, he asked us to tell the story of that journey in an inspirational video.
A cutting edge engineering and construction masterpiece. An immovable delivery date. A team of 5000 ‘players’ who had never worked together before – a soccer metaphor to help pull it all together. Unplugged handled the metaphor creation, the project ID, induction, team building, recognition and game plan communication.
Cell C made a bold decision one summer. They canned their above the line budget and opted only for live activations. Activations that would get people talking. In three weeks Unplugged staged 1237 events. In the process over 1 million direct response cards were given out and millions more were reached. Jeremy Maggs voted it the best of the summer campaigns and a Loerie award followed for brand activation.
When Vodacom’s iconic founding CEO handed over the baton, Unplugged produced the roadshow. It was going to be emotional but we also wanted it to be light. So it was that all the advertising characters that had been the face of Vodacom in the Alan Knott-Craig era found themselves in reception one day. Crafted by Unplugged’s favoured comedy writer Steve Francis, it was a sitcom of note.
The brief : ‘Create a 3 day platform for a discussion on global leadership between our CEO and our 170 Top International Executives. Any European city, program up to you’. The event was executed in Barcelona, took the form of a roving discussion through the private palaces & non tourist gems. The pre-conference ice-breaker involved a pitch by Barcelona’s best guides in an Unplugged inspired ‘non-tourist trap tour’. Conductors of the Orchestra are what CEO’s are. Legendary speaker and conductor of the Boston philharmonic, Benjamin Zander, conducted the first ‘discussion’ on the stage of the Palais de la Musica.
The Challenge : launch the ‘Touareg 4 x 4’ to people jaded by car launches. The Solution : a hand written invitation, 8 Anthropologists from the Sorbonne, intimate rooms at Melrose Arch, a suprise reveal in the street, a high speed chauffeur driven night drive through a deserted city, a ‘’What would you like to do tonight?’’ after party and a ‘4 x 4 Experience’ the next day. The reward : the Loerie for ‘Best Car Launch of the Year’.
The Bombela Operating Company (BOC) Induction covers not only HSE but also creates a powerful platform for the concept of people as a brand. A core part of their Induction being to engage new members on the brand personality of the organisation they will be driving.
This programme has been developed to promote effective SHEQ communication and leadership skills in both the workplace and the community.
Rick ans Sue Melvill brought Industrial Theatre to South Africa . Industrial Theatre is a core Unplugged offering.
The end goal of a creative campaign platform is a unifying and powerful brand identity around all SHEQ engagement initiatives.