Ice Cream Ninjas, a Cape Town-based small business, has been named the winner of First National Bank's (FNB's) Best Business Supplier Social Media Competition, winning a radio advertising campaign to the value of R100 000.
The competition was opened for entries in March by FNB Business Banking, and called for small businesses to upload one-minute video clips promoting their business on YouTube.
FNB's online community of Facebook and Twitter users then voted for the videos to determine the finalists, who were then judged by a panel from FNB Business Banking.
“The competition was a social media experiment - we were analysing how our customers interacted and responded on social media platforms and what benefits we can derive from these interactions in order to serve them better,” says FNB Business Banking CEO Kirsty Davis.
Ice Cream Ninjas is only a few months old, and owner Anton Fester says a radio campaign will go a long way in growing the business's customer base and brand awareness.
Reaching new audiences
“As a small business, there is not always a huge budget for marketing, and when I found out about FNB's social media competition, I knew that by winning the radio campaign, I would be able to reach a whole new audience,” says Fester.
“We are very excited about marketing our business via a radio campaign.”
The first Ice Cream Ninjas kiosk was opened on 1 December 2010, in the Tyger Valley Shopping Centre, Cape Town. Fester was inspired by a concept he had seen in New York, and decided to give it a South African flavour.
The Ice Cream Ninjas take a somewhat different approach to scooping ice cream, and combine a number of different ingredients and textures on a slab, while demonstrating some fancy handwork.
“Our short-term goal is to open another shop by November 2011 at the Canal Walk Shopping Centre and eventually see the brand develop into a national franchise,” adds Fester.
“Marketing is one of the important pillars of any small business and as such, we are very excited that the radio campaign will assist Ice Cream Ninjas to grow their brand in order to increase their customer base,” concludes Davis.
The Ice Cream Ninjas video can be seen here on YouTube.
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