The Ref “REF-ival” Roadshow Report

Brad de Waal
Oct 18, 2019
4 min read

There are very few things in life that can prepare you for the stress that is setting up and actually successfully (for the most part) executing a roadshow that involves multiple cities in a very tight timeframe.

When I started out with the brand I had the idea that once we had the right clients we would take REF on the road to spread the love. I didn’t know who was going to be part of it or how I would do it but it was an idea nonetheless.

As these things go when you put good thing out into the universe, they always come back and I was very lucky when one cold day in Parkhurst I walked into the Mix Colab to greet my friends Ashleigh, Lindsay and the rest of the team where I cheekily asked her if she wanted to join the team as an educator. We were looking for someone who was flexible but who still worked within the salon because it would always keep us at the pulse of where we wanted to take the brand.

I knew Ashleigh would be the perfect fit so I was very happy that after a month or two, she finally officially joined the team and we set the wheels in motion to embark on our grand adventure.

We had three days to do three cities because of Ashleigh’s time frame and needing to be back in the salon. So we decided on the towns that had taken on REF and now had our cities: Durban, PE and Cape Town. With the help of Kelly Marcus, our Marketing Manager and our GM Andrea Gavriel, we laid out the foundations of what would be one epic REF-ival Roadshow (which is what we called it).

I was the ideas guy, Ashleigh our creative talent, Andrea and Kelly helping on the operations side because planning is something that isn’t strong in my wheelhouse of skills.

So the dates were set, we would leave on Sunday the 6th of October and the roadshow would end on Wednesday the 9th of October.

We would arrive in Durban first and work our way down the coastline. Now this might sound easy but the amount of preparation that is involved in something like this is something that definitely had me more than just a little stressed out. Luckily I honestly have the best team in the industry and we worked tirelessly to ensure that we had thought of everything we could.

Luckily for us all of our amazing TPO’s, Craig Banfield in Durban, Cindy Kickhofel in PE and William Grimes in Cape Town were there to get clients invited, arrange the venues and catering and organize the models and without any of them we would’ve never been able to make it happen so I want to give them a special mention and thank them from the whole REF Stockholm SA team. Also a huge thank-you to Johnno and Sam from Babylon Hair and Fabio and Corinne from Shag High Voltage for the amazing venues in Durban and PE as well.

We had an incredible time in each city, having many mishaps along the way as well as some good laughs, some stressful times but all in all I think we can honestly say that the REF Roadshow was a huge success. Check out our pics and video to catch all the behind the scenes action.

Ashleigh Doveton was an awesome travel partner and did some incredible work that inspired hairdressers around the country so I want to give you a personal thank you for keeping me sane and keeping the laughs rolling. I said to you years ago that we would work together one day and we finally did.

To the team at Twincare thank you for helping us make it happen and to Stav Dimitriadis, our big boss for giving us the go ahead and for believing in us and of course to Andrea, Kelly and Michelle and everyone else behind the scenes in arranging everything, you guys are amazing.

One thing is for sure, I definitely couldn’t be a rockstar travelling from place to place like that. It was incredible fun though and the response we got was better than we could’ve ever anticipated so all in all the REF-ival roadshow was a massive success and we got to do what we love in inspiring hairdressers around the country with a brand that we believe is just going to go from strength to strength. Natural beauty is our passion and at the core of what we believe so thank you to South Africa for embracing this amazing vegan brand and we hope to see you in a salon and city soon.

Lots of Love,

Kevin Tabilo

National Sales Manager REF Stockholm