Time to get creative about raising standards in the creative industry

South Africa’s meagre clutch of awards at the 2024 Cannes Festival of Creativity – a platform where our agencies have previously had a good showing – was a wake-up call for the creative industry: the glory days are over according to Luca Gallarelli and Carl Willoughby, industry representatives on the ACA’s Creativity and Effectiveness tribe.

No longer punching above our weight relative to the size of our industry when compared to other countries, the creative sector is waking up to a sobering reality that our best work is just not good enough internationally.

The dipping of standards is glaringly obvious this year.

At Cannes, South Africa ranked 26th, in a stark contrast to past successes. In 2000, the country held sixth place; in 2006, it reached fourth; and in 2013, South African agencies brought home 33 medals.

Months later, at the Loeries, the South African industry got the loud message that our best work, or the work submitted to the awards, wasn’t good enough. We were simply outclassed by the Middle East.

What’s happened?

Partly to blame are the brain drain, reduced budgets, juniorisation, and market size, but what is clear is that the work produced locally just isn’t reaching the heady heights it once did and we should all sit up and take note.

It’s not for a lack of talent or insights: it’s that the standard of our ideas that lives in execution simply isn’t where it should be. Only a handful of agencies and marketers still care about reaching for a global standard of excellence and pushing for the very best creativity. Because getting there is hard.

But while some of our local work and burgeoning local voice may be celebrated here, it is not pushing the industry forward on a global stage and advertising standards are dropping. This leads to the creative industry being disrespected, and marketers, who pay advertisers for their service, underrating the work. A cheapened industry has profound ramifications: it cannot attract or pay talent, nor can it do great work. This is tantamount to a death spiral that we desperately need to shake out of.

Thirty years ago, with the advent of democracy, South Africa’s creative sector had a challenger brand mentality. Agencies wanted to drive standards and be on the global map. They were ambitious: they cared about being taken seriously. With much to prove internationally, the freedom to express itself, strong economic backing, and distinctive stories to work with, our unique insights allowed us to stand out above our global counterparts. Agencies understood that the process was hard, but they embraced it by bringing their best people and their best game, delivering consistently excellent work. When they took that work to international competitions, a bigger spread of agencies won across more categories.

Today, our focus is not on excellence that drives business results. Most of our work is pedestrian and disposable, with only pockets of brilliance.

The business case

To compete internationally at Cannes, D&AD, and the One Show, the work needs to be packaged flawlessly, at a high standard. It takes an immense amount of effort from the agency and client to align around an ambition, to galvanise around the idea, to believe in it, and to push it to be the best it can be.

It’s no coincidence that the most successful and iconic pieces of work created by South African agencies in modern times helped drive the sustainability of their brands and business results.

The very best creative work will deliver the best results for clients. Winning on an international stage has a disproportionate impact in terms of its impact in markets, not only on sales metrics, but on brand metrics and customer loyalty.

Here are some notable examples:

1. Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign, which featured humorous commercials comparing a cool, relaxed Mac to a stiff, uptight PC, promoting the Mac as the better choice for younger, more creative users. Apple’s sales surged by 39% in the first year after launching the campaign, and it is credited with cementing Apple’s position as a culturally iconic brand. The campaign also positioned Apple as a leader in the technology market.

2. Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, a quirky ad starring Isaiah Mustafa, aiming to reposition Old Spice from an “old-fashioned” brand to one that appeals to a younger generation. With over 62 million views on YouTube, the campaign led to a 107% increase in sales within a month of its launch. The campaign led to significant increases in brand engagement, particularly on social media, where the brand interacted with fans and created personalised video responses.

3. Always’ “Like a Girl”, aimed at empowering girls and changing negative stereotypes associated with the phrase “like a girl”. It included a powerful video that went viral and inspired millions. The campaign increased brand sentiment by 200%, generated over 90 million views on YouTube, and strengthened Always’ brand loyalty, particularly among younger audiences.

4. Nike’s “Just Do It”: Since the launch of the slogan “Just Do It” in the late 1980s, Nike has continuously used this tagline to inspire action, perseverance, and achievement. The campaign features a mix of everyday athletes and high-profile endorsements from sports icons. This campaign helped Nike go from a niche sports brand to a global athletic powerhouse. In the decade following its launch, Nike’s sales grew from $800m to $9.2bn. The slogan is now one of the most recognised in the world, solidifying Nike’s brand identity.

5. Joburg Ballet’s “Breaking Ballet” campaign, which is shaped by real-time data mined from social media and artistically reinterpreted as a new ballet. The series has responded to a range of topics, from social issues like gun control, LGBTQI rights in Africa, women abuse and the Cape Town drought, to sport, to blockbuster films like Black Panther. By feeding highly relevant stories into trending conversations, the campaign had 24 million media impressions, a 91% engagement rate, a 39% increase in social media followers, and a 560% return on investment in earned media. Ticket sales for Joburg Ballet are at an all-time high and climbing.
   

While great ideas do value to the bottom line, creativity comes with a level of risk. It requires everyone to push beyond their comfort zones, whether it’s their own comfort levels or managing key stakeholders. Creativity needs a level of risk to be distinctive.

Perhaps South African creatives have just become tired, risk-averse, or we simply don’t know what it takes to make great work.

What can be done

Whether it was first said by John Perkins, Zig Ziglar, or even Einstein, the message remains timeless: recognising there’s a problem is the first step toward solving it.

South Africa has always rallied together to find a common enemy. This time, we’re fighting a drop in standards. Industry stakeholders need to have honest conversations about what has happened and how we’re going to fix it, then develop an actionable plan that both agency and client teams can own through aligning creativity and effectiveness agendas.

By working together to increase the value of what we do, we can charge accordingly. If we don’t, if the general standard of our work remains poor, we can’t do that, which turns into a negative cycle because all the real value that sits in what we offer to our clients is excellence and creativity as it relates fundamentally to brand communications.

South African creativity can reclaim its place amongst the very best in the world. Talent, alignment and having a plan alone is not enough. It takes appetite, energy, and for the creative industry to get creative.