When Rob van Vuuren checked his X account a few weeks ago, he was tagged in a conversation about South African performers and, “who would make a great, local Gollum’. Based on several responses, it turns out it was me”.
Of course, his interest was piqued…
Fast forward to Friday and the launch of the OneCart clip, viral of course, featuring Van Vuuren (after sold-out runs across South Africa and London, and winning the Gold Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival 2023) as an online shopping ex-Hobbit, struggling to choose his most “precious” items to purchase.
Watch the hilarious performance here:
Thalissa Pillay, head of growth at OneCart.co.za says, OneCart’s unique value proposition is that it allows customers to order items from several of its retail partners at the same time, have this selection picked by one of its personal shoppers, and then have this curated order delivered within 60 minutes.
“We wanted to communicate this unique selling proposition in a disruptive way, and asked ourselves what character from popular culture would be the most interesting to juxtapose with a mobile shopping experience?”
The answer was clear. With over 90 000 views and climbing, Van Vuuren’s transformation into this character for OneCart was completed before he jets off to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the end of next month.
Pillay said, “Our mission is to be South Africa’s premier on-demand marketplace, offering an entire virtual mall experience without ever having to leave the couch. With over a dozen retail partners and thousands of personal shoppers across the country, we believe that we’re able to offer something unique and remarkable to South Africans, nationwide.”
