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Excella

Excella Masterbrand Easter

A national Easter media campaign across nine channels, built to keep Excella on the table at the biggest family meal of the year.

Client
Excella
Flight
March to June 2026
Audience
LSM 4 to 7 households
Channels
Nine, from TV to retail media
Disciplines
Media Buying, Influencer Marketing, Integrated Campaign

The case

The challenge

Launch the Excella Masterbrand with a tactical Easter campaign that drives purchase while building the brand itself: protect Excella's place as the number one brand in cooking oil, and grow its share in rice and mayonnaise.

The insight

Easter in South Africa is a table, not a weekend: the Sunday lunch, the family gathering, the last braai before winter. So the plan was built around those meal moments, and around where and when the shopping actually happens: near Boxer, Shoprite and Spar, around payday.

The idea

One plan, nine channels, each with a job. Television and radio built mass reach in the shows and stations LSM 4 to 7 households already choose. Out of home, print and in-app media kept Excella present where people decide what to cook. Geo-targeted display and retail media closed the distance to the shelf, and food creators put the range into real recipes.

The execution

Every one of these was handled in-house, on the same brief.

01

Media strategy and channel planning

02

TV brand integration in Uzalo, Skeem Saam and Inimba

03

Radio sponsorship, live reads and outside broadcast

04

Out of home across six provinces

05

Geo-targeted display and in-app media

06

Retail media on Shoprite's Meta pages

07

Print recipe inserts

08

Food creator partnerships

09

Post-campaign analysis

What it delivered

Out of home impactsFrom 41 sites across six provinces.
70.9M
TV reachAgainst 22.7% planned, with ratings ahead of plan in both flights.
24.4%
Retail media click-throughThree times the 0.81% category benchmark on Shoprite's Meta pages.
2.47%
Retail media impressionsReaching 735,904 shoppers in a retail environment.
1.02M
Store visitsAttributed to geo-targeted display, delivered exactly to plan.
5,553
In-app completion rate367,663 completed views from 373,826 Moya app impressions.
98%

Media delivery as reported in our post-campaign analysis, July 2026. Client sales figures are not ours to publish.

Channel by channel

Television

Inside the shows people don't miss

30 March to 17 May

Through Whisper Media, Excella was written into the world of Uzalo, Skeem Saam and Inimba: on billboards inside the scene, in prime time, across SABC 1, SABC 2 and Mzansi Magic. The buy over-delivered on both reach and ratings, with SABC 1 the strongest channel and Skeem Saam the most efficient show.

TVRs, April to MayAgainst 37.65 planned
39.89
ReachAgainst 22.7% planned
24.4%
Prime-time spots
24
An Excella billboard placed inside a scene from Uzalo
In-programme placement, Uzalo

Radio

Ukhozi FM, then the whole network

April to May

A three-week sponsorship of Ukhozi FM, with live reads, sponsorship mentions, social posts and a Saturday outside broadcast, gave Excella mass reach in a KwaZulu-Natal music and lifestyle environment. Generics on four African-language stations then carried frequency well past Easter.

  • Ukhozi FM
  • Umhlobo Wenene
  • Thobela FM
  • Phalaphala FM
African-language stations
4
Sponsorship and outside broadcast
3 weeks

Out of home

Where the shopping happens

Large-format statics, digital screens and wall murals at taxi ranks, city districts and residential areas, across KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, the Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West: mass awareness held for the whole Easter period.

Sites
41
Impacts
70.9M
Provinces
6

Display and app

Close to the shelf

March to June

AMA's Tap2Map and Tap2Web display targeted shoppers near Boxer and Shoprite stores in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal, and the Moya app reached LSM 4 to 7 weekly shoppers near Boxer, Shoprite and Spar with static and video ads that felt native to the app. Holding budget for the Easter peak brought the cost per thousand down sharply.

Display impressionsDelivered to plan
909K
Store visits
5,553
Moya completion rate
98%

Retail media

On Shoprite's own pages

10 to 26 April

With Rainmaker and True Commerce, Excella ran native Instagram and Facebook ads on Shoprite's Meta pages, in front of shoppers already planning their Easter basket. Engagement beat the category on every measure: a 2.47% click-through against a 0.81% benchmark, at R1.47 a click against the category's R1.53.

Impressions
1.02M
Reach
735,904
Click-through against benchmark
+204%

Print

Recipes in the paper

April

Weekly recipe inserts in The Citizen across the four Easter weeks showed what the range can do in a real kitchen, and a two-day high-impact run in KwaZulu-Natal's Rising Sun put Excella in front of the region at the peak of the holiday.

Citizen circulationAcross four weekly inserts
70,841
Recipe inserts
4

Creators

Food creators, real recipes

April to May

The Funny Chef and Mmule Setati cooked with the range on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: wild mushroom rice, a braai rice salad, pistachio rolls. The Funny Chef's comedy landed hardest on Facebook; Mmule's recipes earned the most shares on TikTok.

Creator video views
698K
Food creators
2
Platforms
3

From the campaign

An Excella placement written into a city scene in Inimba
In-programme placement, Inimba

For the next flight

01

Meal moments beat product shots

The Sunday-lunch banner earned the highest click-through in the display set, at 0.81%. Family ritual is the creative territory to build on.

02

Timing compounds

Payday boosting lifted Tap2Map, and holding Moya budget for the Easter peak drove costs down sharply. The calendar is a media lever, not a constraint.

03

Buy the shows, not the slots

Uzalo and Skeem Saam on SABC 1 delivered the best reach, ratings and cost per point. The next flight weights budget there.

04

Match the voice to the platform

The Funny Chef performed far better on Facebook than on Instagram, while Mmule earned more shares on TikTok. Budget should follow where each creator lands.

05

There is a second audience

Shoppers aged 18 to 24 and 55 to 64 showed the highest click-through, at 0.77%. They are worth their own tailored messaging next time.

Every flight we run feeds the next one. Yours included.

More work.

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