Emulating the opportunism shown by Simon Leviev of The Tinder Swindler fame, South African retailers have latched onto the popularity of the Netflix documentary to bolster their brand exposure, earning them praise from advertising gurus.
The documentary investigates the experiences of women who lost everything after they were conned by Leviev, who they met on the dating app Tinder.
Leviev lived a lavish lifestyle that the women said was funded by their hard-earned money, loans they took out for him and credit cards. He convinced them he was a high-profile player in the diamond industry and could not stay in the same place for too long because “enemies are after me”.
With South Africans firmly hooked on the show, retailers Checkers and Clicks jumped on the bandwagon.
Checkers' Sixty60 app has a theme dedicated to it, grouping products under lines from the show. Clicks has incorporated it into its cashback social media campaign.
“After watching The Tinder Swindler on Netflix, the Checkers Sixty60 team were inspired to create a Sixty60 ‘shopping mission’ — conveniently grouped products that make it faster to shop — inspired by the documentary,” said Shoprite Media.
“The public’s response has been overwhelming — especially on Twitter and TikTok. Feedback has been positive — especially among customers who've watched The Tinder Swindler and understand shopping missions like ... ‘Swindle the Swindler’ — inspired by one of Simon’s victims who washes, irons and sells his luxury clothing to recoup the money she lost.”
Simon Leviev breaks his silence and speaks out against his enemies @Sixty60_Tweets @CheckersSA #TinderSwindler pic.twitter.com/glMGSVrJQK
— Glen Biderman-Pam (@GlenBidermanPam) February 11, 2022
The Sixty60 “Don't get swindled” shopping mission has various sub-missions inspired by important moments in the documentary.
“Peter hurt?", for example, is inspired by Leviev’s bodyguard getting beaten up; the sub- mission includes products such as sticking plasters, antiseptics and wound creams.
“Billionaires' Club” is inspired by a nightclub scene — Leviev enjoyed partying and spoiling his friends by buying them champagne.
“The Sixty60 app experienced a 20% increase in traffic on February 9 — the day that the 'Don’t get swindled' shopping mission was created. It was created in the morning and trended on social media by midday,” said Shoprite Media.
Following the popularity of the initial “Don’t get swindled” campaign, Sixty60 collaborated with Mike Sharman from Retroviral Digital Communication and comedian/actor Glen Biderman-Pam to create a Leviev spoof video, which has had more than 2.8-million views on TikTok.
Clicks created a fictitious WhatsApp conversation between Leviev and itself in which the retailer reveals that there's R160m in unspent cashbacks and reminds its customers to use theirs.
It's a piece of brilliance in how they hustled to make it happen and a very strong tie-back to the products, which is not easy to get right, particularly when you trying to be opportunistic in the way they were
— Luca Gallarelli, group CEO of TBWA/SA
Luca Gallarelli, group CEO of advertising and marketing company TBWA/SA, praised both retailers.
“Both [social media campaigns] are good for very different reasons.
“The Checkers one is brilliant. When it comes to hopping on conversations emerging on social media that are based on an event, whatever it may be, it is always a fine balancing act in terms of the timing.
“If you do it too early, it goes over people's heads. If you do it too late, the conversation has moved on. Getting it right is challenging.”
Gallarelli said the team managed to do it very quickly, identifying an opportunity for Checkers through the Sixty60 app and pulling together a piece of video content that “really brought to life this character that we kind of love to hate”.
“It's a piece of brilliance in how they hustled to make it happen and a very strong tieback to the products, which is not easy to get right, particularly when you are trying to be opportunistic in the way they were.
“The Clicks one was a really neat way of landing this cashback benefit.
“Often the issue with this is that there isn't always this awareness that there is an unclaimed opportunity or money that people can leverage.
“This tied really neatly into the opportunistic nature of Simon and landed it really well,” said Gallarelli.
Creative consultant Ahmed Tilly said there was an overlap between consumers who use such apps as Sixty60 and the Netflix audience.
“While it may be a niche market, it’s still very relevant.
“Being clever and tactical demonstrates that a brand is current and this is hugely beneficial, especially for market leaders or those fighting for more share of voice.
“Even if only a small percentage of South Africa got the joke, they are still customers. And the brand wins the daily war in standing out from its competitors,” said Tilly.
