In a matter of weeks, more than 3 500 entries poured in, driven by a passion for grilling a good piece of meat on an open fire, and with a little help from a 360-campaign conceptualised by the Cape-Town based agency, OFyt.

The Ultimate Braai Master an ‘extreme cuisine’ reality TV series and the latest concept from Cooked in Africa’s branded entertainment model, will see 16 pairs of South Africans go head-to-head to claim the title of best BBQ cook in the land. OFyt, which stands for Old Friends, Young Talent and brings together veteran ad hands and talented interns, had to immediately get to work so the campaign could be unleashed on a tight deadline and budget in March.

“It’s definitely a powerful awareness and positioning tool for effective advertising, and it’s going to be used more and more in the future,” says OFyt creative head Jono Shubitz.

The brief required a strong call to entry via a multitude of media channels, driving prospective entrants to the UBM website. The online entry portal then invited consumers to sell themselves and their skills in their quest to becoming South Africa’s braai champion.

“It’s difficult to identify anything that is closer to South Africans’ collective sense of ‘home’ than the culture of the braai. This was the first real campaign our young interns got to work on and they threw themselves into it with big energy, doing voice overs for the radio spots and playing extras in the TV ad with series presenter Justin Bonello. It’s this energy and passion that OFyt is hoping to keep stoking in our agency and the industry,” added Shubitz.

Through the use of television, print (Sunday Times and Food Times), radio (5fm and Metro FM), as well as Facebook and Twitter, the call-to-entry campaign ran nationally. Three radio ads featured amusing scenarios played out in fictional Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Sandton households, and highlighted the notion that there’s much more needed to win the title than just slapping a chop or some wors on a braai. In each, the household braai master is asked, “What’s on the braai?”, only to answer with list of mouth-watering dishes to trigger entrants’ imaginations and give them a taste of the culinary expertise Bonello will be expecting from contestants.

TV also uses a variety of situations with Bonello asking prospective contestants if they had what it takes to be South Africa’s ultimate braai master. Once consumers had signed up on the UBM website, they were encouraged to upload audition tapes to Braai TV, a specially set up YouTube channel.

“The creativity and humour of the online audition tapes are fantastic,” says Shubitz. “Some teams are so passionate that they’ve set up their own Facebook and Twitter accounts to rally support from their friends and family. It’s going to be tough to choose just 16 teams to take part in the show.”

The first episode of The Ultimate Braai Master will air in September.