From Witblits to Vuvuzelas Launched at Chillibush – Where Else?

February 8th, 2010 by Amanda

The launch of Dale Hefer’s From Witblits to Vuvuzelas at her Chillibush offices off Jan Smuts road in Johannesburg was superbly professional yet comfortably relaxed. The offices blend the old and the new in an architecturally innovative building, with metallic frames and wooden floors structuring an eye-pleasing mix of solid wood furniture and the latest ad-agency technological bling.

Guests were welcomed with champagne, orange juice and mini metal buckets filled with a colourful arrangement of chillies, along with press packs. Hefer greeted each guest personally, trailed by a friendly Yorkshire Terrier and Rottweiler – who are as at home in the stylish offices as are the employees, (several of whom were still at their desks!).

From Witblits to Vuvuzelas is about marketing in South Africa, filled with stories based on Hefer’s experiences growing the Chillibush group of companies from a rented garage in Parkhurst in 1998 to the multi-million rand business with 40 employees that it is today. She was introduced by the Chillibush chairman Victor Dlamini who called guest’s to the table by with a mighty blow of a handy vuvuzela. Dlamini, who wrote the book’s foreword, said, “The vuvuzela: you either love it or hate it but you can’t ignore it – much like the lady next to me! This book is just what the marketing world needs.”

Hefer’s humourous use of personal anecdotes became apparent as she described her first day in advertising when she donned her 80’s “cutting edge kit” complete with blue knickerbockers, plastic black Lady Di shoes and three studs in her left ear and found herself in the boardroom with the big boss as her creative director put forward his pitch. After moments of tense silence the big boss sprang out of his chair. Hefer said, “He thrusts his pelvis forwards, grabs his crotch, ‘It just has no fucking balls,’ he yells. I immediately know that I am in the right industry and I have just learnt my first lesson in effective communication.”

Hefer spoke about how the marketing world has, “become very theoretical – we use words we don’t need. Marketing has become up its own bottom with all those dreaded ‘P’s’ popping up all over the place.” She continued, “The downfall is advertisers sitting in their ivory towers thinking they know their target market without really exploring it.”

Hefer wanted to call the book, “But What about the Bleks” – the title of her second chapter, inspired by an black marketing company executive who regularly asked this question in a whisper. Hefer seeks to dispel the myth of the separation of black and white markets, and says “bollocks” to terms like “Black Diamonds”. “The emerging market has already emerged, there is a main market and we have to be very careful about how we navigate these waters,” she said.

Read the book for much, much more – the light mixed with the serious, the sacred mixed with the profane… and downright hilarious!

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