WeBuyCars’ win at the YouTube Works Awards South Africa 2025 shows the power of consistency that South Africa’s premier vehicle trading platform has used to stand out in a competitive market for eyeballs and attention.

The popular “Rev-Jou-Jeep” video, a satirical take on the Afrikaner refugees who recently started relocating to the US, has garnered over 333 000 views on YouTube alone and millions more across other social media platforms. The video saw WeBuyCars taking home top honours at the recent Google-hosted awards in the creative visionary category.

This is the latest in a flurry of viral hits that WeBuyCars has used to stay top of mind across South Africa, tapping into topical and pop culture issues. Chief marketing officer Rikus Blomerus said: “The approach has not always been as formalised as one would think.

“Bennie, Bouwer and the team sometimes come up with an idea and if it’s something relevant and people are talking about it … or it’s just something that’s purely funny and we can make a great piece of content around it … then our responsibility is to see how we can fit it into the marketing message that we want to relay to the public.”

Bennie Fourie and Bouwer Bosch are the duo behind Freckle, the ad agency driving many of WeBuyCars’ iconic advertising campaigns. Even then, Fourie is adamant that the focus of good advertising is not winning awards. “If you want to try and win awards for commercials, your head is in the wrong place,” he said.

As Blomerus put it: “We’re not trying to win awards, we’re trying to win the hearts of consumers in the motor industry.”

Top of mind

To stay top of mind in 2025, Blomerus and his team have been hard at work each day, making sure that every Rand spent in marketing is made back plenty in car sales. With so much noise in the world, the company has focused much of its attention on digital advertising, but never forgetting that traditional channels like print, radio, television and billboards still drive huge volumes of business in South Africa.

Fourie explained that their campaigns often balance humour with sensitive topics, as seen in the “Rev-Jou-Jeep” ad, which tackled the refugee topic in a light-hearted manner. “From the beginning, we’ve stayed on top of whatever is happening in the country. If the fuel prices go up, then we do something on that,” he said.

The WeBuyCars’ campaign following the big fuel price increases as Covid restrictions lifted, thus pushing demand back up for petrol and diesel, has garnered over 4.5 million views on YouTube alone. “When the election comes up, we do something on the election. With this thing around the refugee status, it was massive,” Fourie explained.

“We try to take the sharp edge or hot topics that people get angry about and make light of it so we can all laugh with each other about how silly some of these things are.”

That said, not all the campaigns are necessarily political. “We love making commercials that are fun and funny,” said Fourie, noting their new campaign called “Dof&Savvy”.

“It’s just two characters, one is smart, one is not, and they’re neighbours. It’s a fun interaction between the two characters, which is lovely.”

According to Fourie, this is an example of a campaign focused more on hard messaging, “but the other half of the business is standing ready to jump on anything that is relevant”.

Blomerus said this has been an effective strategy behind their successful advertisements. Even as the company touches on sensitive topics, it has been able to strike a balance, avoiding negative backlash and resonating well with consumers.

He also admitted that the path to virality is not always straightforward. Despite having a constant stream of content to feed their digital and traditional channels, some content only gains a buzz sometime after release.

For instance, the “Rev-Jou-Jeep” ad did not initially appear to standout, Rikus said. It only gained popularity about a month after its release, particularly after being reposted as a short on YouTube. Fourie said the ad’s resurgence happened when it became widely shared among friends. “We have an ‘always on’ sort of campaign when it comes to content,” said Blomerus.

“We’re always open to generating nice content pieces with Freckle’s assistance. On a daily basis, we do more informal, day-to-day content where we often utilise social media. They assist us with the more formal content – not only what goes onto YouTube and goes viral, but also what we put out on TV where we have more customer testimonials, hard selling or hard buying messaging.”

The WeBuyCars’ approach is plain and simple, he said. “We have to produce large volumes of content and as the ideas come up, we roll with them.”