Avatar Co-Founder and Group Managing Director Veli Ngubane chats to Publicis Africa Managing Director, Odette Van Der Haar. Tune in here: https://www.instagram.com/sacreatives/?hl=en ...
Leading advertising, brand and communications group, Joe Public United, has announced that 60% of the company has been acquired by black shareholders. This deal is a significant milestone in local advertising and marketing industry, as it results in Joe Public United now becoming the largest majority black-owned, independent agency group in South Africa. The deal not only benefits staff, but perfectly positions the group to achieve a long-held ambition of becoming the country’s number one communications group. The transaction sees three senior agency executives Khuthala Gala Holten, Xolisa Dyeshana and Mpume Ngobese acquiring 26% through a newly created company, Ikamva Lakusasa,...
Avatar Co-Founder and COO Veli Ngubane chats to Duma Collective founder, Sibu Mabena, about her journey in entrepreneurship and how she strives for greatness as a female in the advertising industry. [vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIoFCXPj_Xo&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop"]...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plxK0ZghgOA&feature=youtu.be Ahmed Tilly (SA Advertising Maverick and Creative Advisor), Ahmed Tilly talks about women in advertising and the slow pace transformation in advertising. Tilly challenges white men in advertising to move the conversation forward. He posits that it makes no sense for only black people to talk about transformation. Ahmed Tilly, his career officially kicked off in 1996 as a junior copywriter when he joined Lindsay Smithers FCB. He spent a couple of years at the agency before doing a stint at Publicist. In 1999 he joined The Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town. 5 years later he returned to Johannesburg to start-up...
Zibusiso Mkhwanazi (born 10 June 1983, Soweto, South Africa) is Group CEO of M&N Brands and co-founder of Avatar, South Africa's largest black owned and managed advertising agency. Join Zibusiso Mkhwanazi tonight at 6pm on IG Talk, as he’ll be in conversation with Yolisa Pasipanodya, the MD of Meropa Communications. They’ll be chatting about her challenges, learnings and successes that she faces and her view on black prominent women in the industry. Tune in here: https://bit.ly/2YfOxCh #UnitedInCreativity IG: @sacreatives IG: @zibusisom...
Following a rigorous and detailed selection process with proposals considered from 16 short-listed companies across the delivery pillars required, South African Tourism (SA Tourism) is pleased to announce that we have appointed a suite of marketing and communications agencies in response to the RFP162/19 the organisation issued in June 2019. In line with South African Tourism’s commitment to the empowerment of small businesses, each of the agencies has subcontracted 30% of their scope and billing to a small black owned business. For the duration of the contract, South African Tourism will ensure that the subcontractors provide valuable input into the...
The Interactive Advertising Bureau of South Africa (IAB SA) has appointed of Veli Ngubane as its new transformation council head. Ngubane is the founding partner and group MD of Avatar Agency Group. Ngubane has served on the transformation council for the last year and takes over leadership from Avani Singh, Alt Advisory director and co-founder, who joins the IAB executive board. The council’s mandate is to lead the debate and monitor the progress of the interactive advertising industry regarding the challenges and opportunities related to transformation. Says Ngubane, “I’m honoured to be given this task to lead the transformation council at a...
by Zibusiso Mkhwanazi (@Zibusiso) Last week, I read Jarred Cinman’s 2020 trends piece here on MarkLives, #BigQ2020: The future is here, and I would like to expand on his views, which I fully agree with. What a difficult year 2019 was for what seems to have been a majority of ad agencies in South Africa. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut SA’s GDP growth prospects for 2020, from 1.1% to 0.8%. This in turn means that, when there’s little growth, marketing budgets are in the front of the chopping queue. This isn’t good news for SA agencies: our industry will...
The digital marketing and communications sector is driven by the ever-changing technologies in this era of the digital economy. Thus it is safe to assume, even without the stats, that there is a gap between the digital marketing skills and available opportunities. Some background According to African Development Bank, Africa’s economic growth rates for 2019 and 2020 were projected at 4% and 4.1% respectively. This is on the back of sustained growth for several years now. However, the continent is plagued by jobless economic growth. Opportunities and challenges The digital marketing and communications sector holds promise for employment opportunities for Africa, given that this...
by MarkLives (@marklives) Is adland embracing an African narrative? Are South African advertising agencies and brands embracing an authentically African narrative and aesthetic or do they continue to imitate American and European work? What can agencies, and brands, do to shift the paradigm towards embracing a unique creative identity that speaks to our African roots? Next in our panel to tackle this question is Avatar‘s Veli Ngubane. Veli Ngubane Veli Ngubane (@TheNduna) entered the world of advertising with a passion after completing his BSocSci (law, politics, and economics) at UCT and a post-graduate marketing diploma at Red & Yellow, where he’s currently advisory board chairman....