The BCom Honours (Marketing Management) students were given their final client challenge briefing for the semester in the Marketing of Services module on 7 October 2020. Mireille Umuhoza, Chief Operating Officer at Afri Ride, enthusiastically told the students about this company which she has had a role in creating, managing and expanding.

Afri Ride is a ridesharing service that “connects the entire African transport ecosystem on a single, safe and convenient platform”. Afri Ride has private and public transport options, and users can ‘offer a seat’, ‘find a seat’, ‘offer a car’ or ‘borrow a car’. There is also a unique ‘women only’ ride-sharing option. Furthermore, the Afri Ride mobile application offers a communication platform and a mobile wallet (Mbira Chat and Afri Wallet) to facilitate communication and payments between Afri Ride users.

Umuhoza gave an insightful presentation filled with the necessary information the students would need for their client challenge. The students were tasked to design an innovative and actionable below-the-line (BTL) marketing campaign to create awareness on the benefits and safety features of the Afri Ride ridesharing service and mobile application.

At first the students were hesitant about how to approach the BTL campaign, as they were under the impression that such a campaign entailed more traditional forms of marketing activities, for example flyers and direct mail. However, the students soon realised that an abundance of digital and non-digital BTL marketing tools are available and creatively and enthusiastically set to work on their campaigns.

The two weeks of preparation flew by and the honours students virtually presented their campaigns to the Afri Ride panel and their lecturer on 21 October 2020. Afri Ride was impressed with the fun and vibey presentations and gave insightful feedback that will stay with the students and aid in their future careers.

Team ‘Street Sweepers’ presenting their campaign to the client. Top to bottom: Tayla Human, Courtney Locke, Abdul Mahomed, and Daniela Schutte

Choosing the winning teams was a tough decision, as all teams had snippets of wonderful suggestions and creative ideas. The winning teams chosen by Afri Ride were:

Winners: Driven Creative: Mashudu Makofane (team leader), Beatrix van Niekerk, Carla Vos and Tumelo Ntsie

Second place: Ride Along: Melissa O'Donovan (team leader), Ashley Mamhunze, Eltricia Swart and Russell Kampani

Third place: Marketing Maestro’s: Melissa Da Gama (team leader), Elria Kruger, Nicole Pattichides and Oshai Moodliar

Team ‘Marketing Maestro’s’ (third place) presenting their campaign to the client.

Team ‘Ride Reps’ presenting their campaign to the client. Top to bottom: Christian Boere, Kayla Strydom, Tayla Jonker and Natalie Sithole.

Team ‘Driven Creative’ (winners). Top row: Carla Vos and Beatrix van Niekerk. Bottom row: Tumelo Ntsie and Mashudu Makofane.

The honours students commented that this assignment was rather challenging, since they had to consider less mainstream marketing methods for their campaigns. Nonetheless, the honours students experienced the assignment as extremely valuable, and were grateful that they were stretched to be more creative.

Team Swift Lift found particular value in identifying the appropriate platforms that both adhere to the BTL requirement and could be appealing to the identified target market. The team found that team work and communication were another value-add which contributed to the successful delivery of the campaign. They also commented that being exposed to real-life clients in need of real-life solutions is a rewarding aspect of the BCom Honours (Marketing Management) programme, and they really enjoyed their journey with Afri Ride.

A quote from one of the student teams: “Although this task was different and challenging, we enjoyed participating in something new and diverse, as we are always up for the challenge. Working with Afri Ride was great, as their feedback was valuable and fair. We hope Afri Ride will use some of our ideas in their future campaigns.”