Journey Leather – a proudly South African business owned and operated by sisters Bianca and Nina – creates and distributes personalised, stylish leather goods, such as handbags, gifts, and travel accessories. MotionAds partnered with Hollard’s Big Ads for Small Business campaign and branded 10 delivery bikes with Journey’s livery and set them loose in Stellenbosch. We caught up with the Journey Leather duo to find out more.
Who is Journey Leather?
Journey Leather is 100% local. “We are based in Cape Town and the business began as a small passion project in 2016,” say the sisters. “When we started out, we both had our own careers, and Journey was something we did in our free time.”
They took the leap and started running Journey full-time after getting consistent positive feedback from customers and seeing the real potential. “We are very proud of our products and the skills of our factory team,” continue the sisters, “and love the way that personalising an item can start out as a gift, and turn it into an heirloom that is treasured forever.”
As a Small Business in South Africa, What Challenges Have You Faced, and How Are You Overcoming Them?
The fact that Journey Leather is purely an eCommerce store has its challenges. “We work with a highly tactile medium that shoppers typically like to touch, feel and smell before they purchase.”
However, with their strong focus on marketing and “surprise and delight”, the sisters successfully maintain an authentic, “raw” shopping experience with the product, even through a digital screen. “We want our customers to get products delivered to them that are even better in real life than what they expected from an online purchase.”
They also make use of local markets in the Western Cape. This allows their target audience to experience the real product, while also driving traffic with high user intent to the website.
How Has Hollard's Big Ads for Small Business Initiative Helped You?
"The entire Hollard experience has been unbelievable for us! Just being a contender was amazing but making the final cut has been a huge boost to our confidence and business.”
The sisters feel that Hollard’s marketing team has not only understood their brand, they’ve also used innovative ways to reach new audiences, such as localised OOH advertising and delivery bike branding.
What Has Your Experience with MotionAds Been Like?
MotionAds branded 10 bikes in the Stellenbosch area with Journey Leather’s branding. The strength of the MotionAds branded bikes is in our ability to reach a hyper-localised target audience.
Jon, Elan and the team spent two days in Stellenbosch, wrapping the bikes in beautiful bespoke branding, educating the drivers on the campaign, and then releasing them in specific targeted neighbourhoods.
Say the Journey sisters, “The MotionAds team has been a pleasure to deal with from the get-go. Seeing the bikes and meeting the drivers was something really special and we are very proud to see our brand on the streets! It's really beyond our wildest dreams that any of this is happening at all. We saw a bike with our branding at a KFC in Stellenbosch which was quite surreal. Thank you MotionAds for this wonderful opportunity!”
What Does The Future Look Like for Journey Leather?
“We would love to expand our range and continue making classic styles that can be enjoyed and loved for a lifetime,” concludes the sisters. “Our products are and always will be our babies and our passion.”
Post-Campaign Catch-up
We caught up with the Journey Leather team after the campaign concluded, to hear their closing thoughts. "The billboard was great," agree the sisters. "It was on a quite busy stretch of highway though, which meant that the bikes were probably far more visible in terms of people being able to stop and look at them, and really see the ad content when driving. The same with stationary street pole ads - the fact that the bikes move around means that they are seen by various different groups and is a little more eye-catching than traditional media, I would think."
The sisters also felt that a cohesive approach of both digital and OOH advertising was highly effective, especially as the bikes had their tags on them, allowing for immediate online activation.
Not only did the bikes create brand and product awareness, the sisters felt that it legitimised their brand among the locals.
The impact on sales was fantastic. "Of the total sales within the area, 56% of them were placed during the months of the campaign, which is incredible."
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