04 Nov 2010 Simba flavour winner announced
Simba has announced the winner of its innovative “What’s Your Lekker Flavour?” competition: Aletta Crofton’s Walkie Talkie Chicken. Her flavour beat hopeful flavour finalists Masala Steak Gatsby, Snoek & Atchar and Vetkoek & Polony, and making her R200 000 richer. In addition to this cash prize, Aletta will also receive 1% from the sales of her winning flavour, which could translate into up to R500 000 per year for as long as her flavour is on sale.
Aletta’s flavour has been on sale since June this year and clearly South Africans love it as much as she does. When asked what she will be spending her prize money on, its evident that Aletta has put some serious thought into how the money could change her life: “I will probably invest it until I am over the shock of winning! I put a little bit of effort into entering the competition and received so much more in return. Simba treated me like royalty, made me famous and rewarded me very liberally. This competition gave ordinary South Africans the opportunity to share their innovative ideas with the rest of the country.”
Carla De Quintal, Simba marketing director, is overjoyed at the response that this competition received from beginning to end. “It has been such fun to be a part of this! From sifting through over 187 000 entries that reflected diverse South African tastes, to the difficult task of narrowing the entries down to the top four flavours, meeting the finalists and then the overwhelming response from voting consumers. Each of the finalists has brought a unique flavour to the competition but there can only be one winner and we look forward to marketing Alettas Walkie Talkie Chicken flavour in future.”
Aletta has described her experience as a finalist as unbelievable: “Starring in my own TV commercial was the experience of a lifetime. I made many new acquaintances with people who recognised me from my chip packet and advert. It was wonderful to see how supportive people are – even strangers were offering to vote for my flavour.”
Her inspiration for the flavour came from a photograph her brother took of a little girl enjoying a chicken potjie in the Eastern Cape: “It caught my eye because she looked so happy and was sitting with a ‘walkie’ (chicken foot) in one hand and ‘talkie’ (chicken head) in the other,” she says.
Creating a new flavour is a complicated process. Research and development director for Simba, Fru Nche, said creating a new flavour normally took the company up to four months: “For this competition we had a quarter of the time required. The finalists had submitted their ideas using drawings, photographs and descriptions – and the team had just weeks to create the flavours.”
The choice of the winner was based on sales (60%) and the remaining 40% came from public votes. A staggering 15-million packets of chips were sold during the final phase of the competition.