EXCLUSIVE: Digitas Liquorice's Ntokozo Nhlanhla - What does SA need to convert in the digital space

Ntokozo Nhlanhla, ECD Digitas Liquorice and Loeries digital craft jury member 2024 (Image supplied)

Technology has been a big disruptor in the digital space with all creatives in a frenzy to showcase their innovation by using the latest trending tools and applications like AI.

The latest trends emerging from creative award ceremonies around the globe highlight how technology, data, and culture have collided to create transformative work.

The result: the creative industry is reimagining digital storytelling, innovation and audience engagement.

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Technical prowess

Digital is driven by functionality the question that always comes up “Does it work?” this is due to the technical manoeuvring that is sometimes required to achieve these experiences.

Technical prowess makes it easy to get wooed by features and latest tools.

However, the Loeries' drive for creative excellence made me view tech as a decorative function. It’s not good enough to just use tech without having a fresh perspective.

Disruptive digital

Some of the work from the Middle East really upped the ante with disruptive work that challenged the category.

Work like the New President from Impact BBDO showed how creative use of tech can create an alternate universe where you can rewrite the rules and connect people in unimaginable ways.

The execution was anchored by a great idea that grew legs and expanded to multiple touchpoints, but it kept a single-minded.

Multimedia complexity

By nature, digital work produces multi-platform and multi-media that is componentised for different campaign/platform objectives. Most of the executions that performed well had scale and the use of tech had to be effective/purposeful not just functional.

This is what made some well-crafted work like the Woolworths Farming for the future outperformed by category-bending work like The disappearing font from Leo Burnett Dubai.

3 intersections in disruptive work

The work that converted emphasised that there’s more to digital than slick platforms, the latest tech and viral influencer campaigns. It’s about the connected experience and setting new benchmarks in digital-first and community-first environments.

Three intersections seem apparent in disruptive work that are undeniable like poison gas to category.

1. Communities: How does the community contribute to the work and keep a high level of craft required? UGC and crowd-sourced games like Roblox are different to high-engineered experiences that rally the community to shape the work.

2. Connectivity: How does the experience connect to the rest of the brand’s ecosystem? How does a YOUser travel across the universe of the idea/concept?

3. Client: The context of innovative craft based on the brand’s current benchmark for innovation.

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Building the category

With new emerging technologies there’s a new lens to creative innovation in a POC-first digital universe that may steer us away from only celebrating the simplicity of the idea.

South African work seemingly has hit the threshold of the form-follows-function philosophy of product design. The innovation is a light hack of the category rather than hacking technology to drive unexpected experiences.

The cry would be that the budget required for experimenting is dwindling and impacting the digital work to safe spaces and really stick to our strengths hence SA’s big winners were expected in radio and film by the usual suspects.

As the industry evolves, I always reflect on the time when the internet was the new threat to the industry and wonder about the jury rooms that the Droga5 Still free went through and wonder how divisive that work was, complete poison gas.

That is what is required in our local work to break through globally.

The majority that only made finalists was really creative, however, the executions were not innovative for 2024 as technically astounding as they were.

Ultimately, the work that got awarded this year was truly effective, setting new benchmarks and raising the bar for digital creativity.

The message from the Loeries this year is clear: this is tough, so are you.

As we move forward, ensuring the balance of creativity and execution will be key to breaking new ground.