ABOUT

On 26 March 2020, South Africa went into a severe Level 5 Lockdown. With alcohol banned and bars closed, thousands of gigs were cancelled, leaving the country’s comedians deprived of an income. We sympathised. After all, we’ve been supporting comedians for 25 years and we weren’t allowed to earn an income either. The Savanna Virtual Comedy Bar started as a live YouTube show, where comedians would perform stand-up comedy as well as impromptu relevant discussions against our virtual backgrounds. Comedians called in via Zoom to the show to appear live, following that the combined feed was broadcast on YouTube. It caught the eye of Comedy Central and they not only wanted to flight #SavannaVirtualComedyBar on their channel, they wanted to produce it for us. This is a world-first partnership between a brand and the global authority on comedy, Comedy Central. The result of the partnership is 2 season fully-fledged TV show spectacular: Comedy Central Live @ the Savanna Virtual Comedy Bar, which flights on our owned channels and Channel 122 on DStv. The current season is also flighting on Comedy Central on Compact Open view.

Savanna Cider is South Africa’s biggest and most-loved cider, and has a 25-year history of supporting comedy. It is a brand born and raised here and its platform #Siyavanna South Africa, means ‘we get you, we see you, we’re in the same Whatsapp group.’ The brand is well known for its humorous advertising and is always in need of fresh ideas that keep it relevant while building on its quirky and unapologetic brand character that made it one of South Africa’s most loved and iconic brands. The best way to tell the market ‘we get you’ is to laugh together, often at ourselves. This speaks directly to Savanna’s core target market, black males and females, 18 to 35.

9m invested in comedy
800 hours of comedy filmed
1,7M combined PR average
35:1 ROI
1,664,604 Viewers
Over 90 comedians employed

What’s more, we’ve allowed a nation to laugh through the most uncertain of times.