In an unusual move for a company mainly focused on moving the economy, Barloworld Transport is showcasing the lesser seen – or documented – side of South Africa’s roads on Instagram in a novel collaboration with some of the country’s top Instagrammers.
The account, @barloworldtransport, is publishing images of the vast and varied landscapes drivers pass through while travelling across South Africa and beyond its borders. These are images seen through the eyes of their long-haul drivers, and snapped by the Instagrammers.
Rosa McLaren, Barloworld Transport marketing manager, said the idea behind this initiative was, “to tell a story, through visuals as well as words” from the perspective of the people who spend much of their lives on the road.
“They have a unique view of our country. We want this to be inspirational and conversational, to let the viewers feel and understand the beauty of the country that our drivers get to see every day.
“We hope to touch our followers in some way and inspire them to travel, explore and experience our country and to empathise with the many truck drivers who move the economy, and whose daily life is defined by these very roads.”
Barloworld Transport teamed up with digitial agency, Hello Square, to bring the vision to life by creating an account that looks at transport in a different way.
Wayne Manning, CEO of Hello Square, said, “We see trucks on the road every day, but most of us forget about the drivers who keep the wheels turning. The people who spend their days feasting on the beauty of South Africa’s roads and endless horizons. For this campaign we wanted to visually showcase our country through the eyes of the drivers – and what better platform to achieve this than Instagram?
“We are very excited to share their year-long story, so that we can celebrate the Barloworld Transport drivers, encourage empathy and a shared view of the road and rich beauty of South Africa.”
The Barloworld Transport Instagram account will highlight what their drivers see on the road and capture what mostly goes unnoticed and unseen. It also aims to put faces to what can sometimes be forgotten by other road users: the human beings behind the steering wheels of those massive trucks and tankers on the road.
Follow Barloworld Transport at: @barloworldtransport and use the hashtag #ViewFromTheRoad to share your perspective of South Africa’s roads.
