'Wongies' retired by payday lender

24 October 2014 - 02:38 By TJ Strydom
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JERKED: Popular advertisements featuring 'The Wongies', as the elderly Felicia, Noelene and Frans are known, are being pulled by short-term lender Wonga, which believes its market has 'grown up'
JERKED: Popular advertisements featuring 'The Wongies', as the elderly Felicia, Noelene and Frans are known, are being pulled by short-term lender Wonga, which believes its market has 'grown up'

Unsecured lending is not the easiest thing to sell in South Africa.

Dogged by the tag "loan sharks" and often accused of preying on the poor and the elderly, unsecured lenders have had a tough time in the media, especially since African Bank was placed under curatorship in September.

But payday lender Wonga.com has had such a good response to its latest batch of adverts that it is rolling out more next month, its head of marketing, Taryn Schmidt, said.

The lender entered the local market with three computer-generated characters just over two years ago. "The Wongies", as the elderly Felicia, Noelene and Frans became known, soon became familiar faces.

Wonga.com said it had granted more than a million loans in South Africa since 2012.

"It was hugely successful in establishing them in the market," said Ahmed Tilly, creative director of Black River FC, the agency doing the new ads.

"But we saw the opportunity to start with something fresh."

The new ads have a more middle-class feel to them. Gone are the grannies who can suddenly buy what their hearts desire with easy loans.

One new storyline goes: Guy sits in fancy restaurant, waits for girlfriend, keen to propose, drops ring in a champagne glass, girlfriend marches in, downs the glass in one go.

"The decision was driven by a desire to add more emotion to the ads, by using real people and real situations," said Schmidt.

"The adverts are themed around quirky real-life situations that a broad spectrum of society can relate to, and where they might have needed to access cash quickly."

The payday lender has operations in several countries and uses similar computer-generated image characters in other markets.

South Africa was first to move away from the adverts using the characters.

"We felt that our customers have over the years grown to understand the concept of short-term lending," said Schmidt.

At the time Wonga launched, she said, it was a relatively new concept.

"We believed it was time for a fresh creative treatment that reflected a more grown-up approach."

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