The public give John Vlismas beef in the WebAfrica Twitter Roast
Roasts, once a thing for Sunday lunch, now an opportunity to take someone down in a very public platform. Look at Justin Bieber, he became a ‘darling’after he took part in a roast. In fact, 35-year-old women started buying his albums publicly and used the #belieber hashtag on their Tinder profiles! Everybody loves to watch a good roast, and if you think your tongue is sharp, you probably took part in the #WebafricaRoast with John Vlismas in May.
To further emphasise Webafrica’sFasterFastFibre, The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town conceptualised the idea of a Twitter roast where those brave enough in the Twittersphere could take on Vlismas when the market leader in Fibre Internet gave him their account for a day.
The concept behind it: the public was challenged to take on Vlismas to a public roast and see who had the fastest comebacks.
Vlismas was ‘burned’.
Kate Royce, Creative Director at Jupiter CT, explains: “We needed to create communication that would make Webafrica’s fast fibre top of mind, and get people talking about the brand.South Africa likes social media. A lot. So, the obvious thing was to do something that would divert our nation’s’ attention away from the #WhateverTheHeckIsTrendingThatDay and make them see Webafrica’s fibre as the fastest of them all.
“We created #WebafricaRoast. A competition that rewarded the burniest burn with a year’s supply of fasterfast fibre from Webafrica.We kicked things off by promoting the roast on social media, and challenged those brave enough to sharpen their sharp tongues in preparation for the big event.Then we gave John free reign over the Webafrica account for a day…”
Brave? You betcha!
A campaign like this can go ‘south’ quickly, so we were armed with response GIFs featuringWebafrica’s trusty brand mascot just in case anyone dealt a really low blow.
And they did.
Tim Wyatt-Gunning, CEO of Webafrica says: “It was a ballsy move, but then we’re a ballsy company. The day played out better than we had hoped. It was unexpected, much like the Skipping ad we’ve just produced with Jupiter CT. The #WebafricaRoast felt like a natural progression for us, and working with John – who is a true professional – was a pleasure. We laughed a lot. Sometimes it was a nervous laugh, but we were interested in seeing where it went, and John and the greater Twittersphere did not disappoint.”
Even other comedians threw some shade in Vlismas’s direction, and subsequently created conversation around Webafrica and taking ownership of the fast Fibre category.
The #WebafricaRoast trended at #6 on the day and Webafrica saw a 32% increase in Twitter followers who have remained followers, and 1 397.7% increase in engagement. Oh, and Vlismas’s profile on Wikipedia has since been updated to include his work with Webafrica.
