Property Talk

Author: Andreas Wassenaar
Date: 2014-05-30

Every now and again something extra-ordinary happens that inspires and encourages and entire town or city. This happened to Ballito last week with the release of the "Happy Ballito" video - a local version of the Happy song by Pharrell Williams. The official version was released on YouTube on 21 Nov 2013 and has over 259 million views and over 1,6 million likes.

The song was written and produced by Pharrell Williams and released by Columbia Records, which is a division of Sony Music. The song peaked at number one in the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and 19 other countries. It is also recognizable from the soundtrack of the movie Despicable Me 2.

People all around the word were inspired to make their own version, which they posted on YouTube. From New York, L.A., London, Rio and every place in between local versions were posted on-line. Slovakia has a version set on a snow capped mountain-top with bikini clad models dancing and singing, which may explain the over 3 million views they received.

The six Iranians from Tehran who produced their version made headline news when they were arrested because of it. My wife, Jane Wassenaar, picked up on the on-line success of this song, and after seeing the excellent version by Cape Town suggested that we make a local Ballito version.

As Seeff Dolphin Coast we got moving. Our larger than life Sales & Marketing Director, Tim Johnson, hooked up with Karl Worner from I love Ballito, and together with Tim Hay of Hellmot Productions and Julie Robert of Sugar Dance put together a world class production with the amazing support of the super special people of Ballito.

The first public screening of the final version was last Tuesday night at the Seeff National Convention held at Arabella, where we challenged the other 200 Seeff offices around the country to make their own version. The next day we launched the video to around 100 invited guests who attended our function at La Piazza at The Well in Ballito. It was released on YouTube the same evening and has already attracted over 17,000 views.

Within a day we had received calls from Mr Price wanting to use it in their promotion of the Mr Price Pro this year, and Sony Music Africa who tweeted it to their followers. East Coast Radio picked up on it and gave it a mention. If you are running a business and still wondering if social media is important as a way to communicate then you are asking the wrong question.

The social media platforms have revolutionized the way we all communicate and have truly made the world a small, inter-connected village. There are two things you have to get right in any business, of any size and across any industry, if you are going to remain relevant and profitable. Marketing and Innovation, the rest are details. I believe that with the release of the Happy Ballito video we have achieved both.

It was a great privilege for Seeff Dolphin Coast to walk away with the top two National Seeff Awards within our division for Marketer of the Year and Licensee of the Year. Our aim is that the Happy Ballito video will make people proud of where they live as well as inspire and motivate others to migrate here - and possibly purchase a property in the area from us while at it.

For further information and an interactive analysis of this article follow my blog: andreaswassenaar.blogspot.com.

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