The Challenge
Give every guest at South Africa's most prestigious jewellery design awards a keepsake worthy of the red carpet.
The PlatAfrica Jewellery Design Awards celebrates the country's finest platinum jewellery designers in front of an audience of designers, media, and industry leaders — and the 17th Annual edition needed an experience on the red carpet that matched the prestige of the evening. A simple printed photo wasn't going to cut it; the brief called for something that felt genuinely premium — a keepsake guests would be proud to keep, and excited to share.
Social Wiiv was tasked with turning a single red-carpet photograph into a personalised piece of magazine-quality content — captured professionally, branded consistently, and delivered both as a physical premium print and a shareable digital file, all without slowing down the flow of guests arriving for the ceremony.
— Capture guests in DSLR quality against a custom printed red carpet wall banner
— Give every guest a personalised magazine cover, not just a printed photo
— Print premium A4 keepsakes on-site, packaged in a branded folder
— Deliver a shareable digital version via SMS and email for social media
— Keep the evening's social conversation alive with a live, moderated Tweet Wall
"PlatAfrica is about celebrating design excellence — the red carpet experience needed to feel just as considered and premium as the jewellery on stage."
— PlatAfrica Event Team
The Solution
A photographer-led red carpet, composited onto a personalised magazine cover, printed in A4 and delivered to every guest's phone.
Social Wiiv deployed a magazine-style photobooth activation across the red carpet stations at the 17th Annual PlatAfrica Jewellery Design Awards. A professional photographer captured each guest in DSLR quality against a custom printed wall banner, with photos sent through to a custom branded, illuminated Perspex touchscreen plinth where guests selected their favourite shot, registered their details, and saw their image instantly composited into a personalised magazine cover — complete with their own name and surname on the front.
Capture Photo with Photographer — Custom Printed Red Carpet Wall Banner
1. The Red Carpet, Reimagined as a Photo Studio
A custom printed wall banner stood in as the red carpet backdrop, branded for the 17th Annual PlatAfrica Jewellery Design Awards. Multiple photo stations along the banner kept guests moving smoothly into the venue, while a professional photographer operated a Digital SLR camera to capture every guest in studio-quality light — the foundation for a cover image that needed to hold up against a real magazine.
Red Carpet Photo Stations
Custom printed wall banner stations along the red carpet, each staffed by a photographer with a Digital SLR camera — capturing every guest in professional, magazine-grade quality as they arrived for the awards evening.
The Magazine Cover Plinth
A custom branded, illuminated Perspex touchscreen plinth stationed nearby — receiving each guest's DSLR photo, guiding them through selection and registration, and revealing their personalised magazine cover on screen.
Select Your Photo on the Touchscreen Plinth
2. A Branded, Illuminated Touchscreen Plinth
Once captured, each guest's photo was sent through to a custom branded touchscreen plinth built in lit Perspex — a striking, premium-feeling object that matched the calibre of the PlatAfrica brand. On screen, guests browsed their shots, selected their favourite, and entered their name, surname, and contact details to kick off the compositing process.
Custom Branded, Lit Perspex Build — The plinth itself was a branded physical object — illuminated Perspex construction that stood out on the red carpet and reinforced the premium feel of the activation before guests even touched the screen.
Photo Selection on Touchscreen — Guests browsed through their DSLR shots directly on the plinth's touchscreen and selected the one they wanted composited into their personalised magazine cover.
Name & Surname Capture — A simple registration step on the touchscreen captured each guest's name, surname, and contact details — the exact information needed to personalise their magazine cover and route their print and digital delivery.
Receive Your Photo via SMS/Email — View & Share to Social Media
3. Personalised Magazine Cover, Delivered Straight to Their Phone
Behind the scenes, each guest's selected photo was automatically composited into the branded PlatAfrica magazine cover design — masthead, layout, and cover lines all in place — with the guest's own name and surname printed on the cover as the headline. The finished cover was then sent straight to the guest's phone via SMS and email, ready to view and share directly to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in a single tap, right there on the red carpet.
Receive Your Printed Magazine Cover — A4 Premium Print in a Custom Folder
4. A Premium A4 Print, Ready to Take Home
While the digital cover was already on its way to their phone, the same personalised magazine cover was printed on-site in premium A4 and inserted into a custom designed printed folder — giving every guest a physical keepsake to match the digital one, branded consistently with the 17th Annual PlatAfrica Jewellery Design Awards.
Cover-to-Keepsake Flow
1
Pose on the Red Carpet
Photographer captures each guest in DSLR quality against the custom printed wall banner at one of the red carpet photo stations.
2
Select Your Cover Shot
Photo arrives at the branded, illuminated Perspex touchscreen plinth — guest browses and taps to select their favourite shot.
3
Register Name & Details
Guest enters their Name, Surname, and contact details on the touchscreen — the data that drives their personalised cover and delivery.
4
Magazine Cover Compositing
Photo and name & surname are automatically composited into the branded magazine cover design in seconds.
5
Instant SMS & Email Delivery
A digital copy of the personalised cover is sent straight to the guest's phone via SMS and email, ready to share to social media.
6
A4 Print in a Custom Folder
The cover is printed on-site in premium A4 and inserted into a custom designed printed folder for the guest to take home.
Tweet Screen — Live Moderated Tweets Displayed Throughout the Awards Evening
5. A Live, Moderated Tweet Wall
Alongside the photobooth, guests were encouraged to tweet about the evening using the event hashtag. Every tweet passed through moderation before being displayed live on the Tweet Screen at the venue — keeping the social conversation visible and active throughout the awards ceremony, while ensuring only appropriate, on-brand content reached the big screen.
Live Tweet Display — Guest tweets appeared live on the Tweet Screen at the venue, giving the evening a visible, real-time social pulse alongside the red carpet activation.
Full Moderation — Every tweet was moderated before display, ensuring only relevant, appropriate content reached the Tweet Screen in front of guests, sponsors, and media.
The Results
Every guest left the 17th Annual PlatAfrica Awards with a personalised magazine cover — printed, packaged, and already shared.
The magazine-style photobooth activation gave the PlatAfrica red carpet a genuinely premium touchpoint, in keeping with the prestige of South Africa's top jewellery design awards. Guests moved smoothly from photographer to plinth to a finished, personalised magazine cover — walking away with an A4 premium print in a custom folder, a digital copy already on their phone, and their tweets live on the big screen.
A4
Premium printed keepsake for every guest, in a custom folder
2
Delivery channels — instant SMS and email to every guest
100%
Personalised — every cover carried the guest's own name
Live
Moderated Tweet Wall running throughout the evening
The activation's design turned a single red-carpet photo opportunity into a layered keepsake moment: a professional DSLR photo, composited onto a personalised magazine cover bearing the guest's own name, printed in premium A4 and packaged in a custom folder — with a digital copy already shared via SMS and email before they'd even reached their table. The live, moderated Tweet Wall kept that same energy visible on screen throughout the ceremony.
"Seeing your own name on a magazine cover changes how a photo feels — it's not just a souvenir of the night, it's something guests were genuinely proud to take home."
— PlatAfrica Event Team
