Many a successful career began with a humble internship. It’s a great way to dip your toes into an industry you might make a career out of, or, if you’re set on a career, it’s a great way to kickstart your CV.
Not not all internships are created equal. Some are glorified coffee delivery positions. This is not only detrimental to the intern, but also to the company in question. What better way to tap into youth culture, creative ideas, and social media trends, than by tapping into the interns’ knowledge?
This is precisely what the Thebe Tourism Group did, with their concession at Cape Point. With conversations being dominated by water saving initiatives at Cape Point, an idea evolved to “bring on the rain”, and the Rain Dance Challenge was created. The interns then took this idea and ran with the idea with full force.
The idea behind the campaign was to make people aware of the current water restrictions and promote it in a fun way, involving the community and staff at Cape Point in a video for social media.
The interns created a soundtrack with the help of Cape Audio College.
One of Thebe Tourism’s interns, Junaid Omar helped drive the project. He enlisted one of his dance mentors, Denzy Carolissen, to choreograph a special routine combining some rain dance history with modern, fun and innovative moves - which were all relatively easy for the Cape Point staff to learn. Rehearsals took place, and the staff were ready for shoot day.
More than simply raising awareness around saving water in a fun, accessible way, this campaign proves what can happen if you harness the power of interns. Thebe Tourism Group’s Marketing Manager, Judiet Barnes, believes that empowering the youth of today in tourism will lead to growth in the sector in the future.
“Tourism has the potential of driving our economy: as tourism demand grows and products develop, more jobs are being created and, as a result, opportunities for the youth are increasing in all tourism touch points. If we get more youth to see tourism as an exponentially growing industry, it could solve many tourism employment challenges we face as a country.” said Barnes.
For intern Junaid Omar, it gave him a chance to see how his skills can be used in a work environment.
“Being involved on this project has been a great learning experience. I had to keep the objective of the water saving message top of mind, while using creative skills and coordinating with many different people on many different messages,” he said.
But the campaign doesn’t end here. Cape Point has challenged other tourism companies and establishments to put together their own rain dance or water saving videos.