THE ALBUM THAT GOT PEOPLE SINGING TO SAVE A CITYProblem: South Africa’s tourism capital was experiencing the worst drought in over a century. With dam levels at less than 20% usable water heading into summer and peak tourist season, Cape Town was set to become the first major city in the world to run out of water if residents and visitors didn’t reduce their water usage to the required 87 liters per person daily limit. Yet, despite the urgency of the crisis, behaviour wasn’t changing. And panic was starting to set in as the public felt dis-empowered and lacked any real understanding of what they could practically do to make a difference. At a time when we most needed the public to rally together in the fight against Day Zero (the day when our taps run dry), the news agenda was creating the opposite effect.Insight: We all sing in the shower. (Whether we’d like to admit it or not.)Solution: That’s why we challenged 10 of SA's best musicians to re-write, re-orchestrate and re-work their biggest sing-along tracks into two-minute versions and released the first ever 2-Minute Shower Songs album. Capetonians could then press play, shower and sing along. Knowing that when the song ends so should their showers.Our campaign was perfectly timed ahead of our peak tourist season when millions of visitors would put further strain on our water supply, our fully integrated six-week campaign was rolled out through national and international media relations, tactical paid media, targeted digital spend and strategic partnerships with Airbnb and City Sightseeing.Our artists became Cape Town’s heroes, as daily water usage began to drop. While Sanlam was praised for being the driving force behind the much needed behaviour change.
Philosophy
2 minutes or less is the recommended shower time during the Cape’s water crisis. That’s why we asked Mi Casa, GoodLuck, the Springbok Nude Girls, Kwesta, Francois van Coke, Rouge, Youngsta, Fifi Cooper, Desmond and the Tutus and Jimmy Nevis to go back into the studio to create 2-minute versions of their top tracks so you can listen to them in the shower. Just turn up the volume, and turn on the tap. But remember, when the song ends, so should your shower. Keep your showers to 2 minutes or less and help save water one song at a time.