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Which Sandwich Represents South Africa Best?

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Modern Marketing
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Which Sandwich Represents South Africa Best?

SASKO is asking South Africa to decide which sandwiches deserve a place on the national table. The bakery brand has launched a nationwide search to find the 12 Official Sandwiches of South Africa, giving South Africans the opportunity to nominate the sandwiches they believe best represent the country’s diverse food culture.

From the Kota, born out of Soweto’s quarter-loaf culture, and the Gatsby, a Cape Town favourite made for sharing, to the Bunny Chow, a Durban original with a strong claim to sandwich fame, South Africa has no shortage of iconic combinations.

Other popular choices include the Braaibroodjie, Boerie Roll, Chicken Mayo, Bacon, Egg and Cheese, Dagwood, Chip Sandwich and Vetkoek, but the final 12 will be shaped by the people of South Africa.

In a bread category often driven by everyday habits, convenience and value, SASKO is giving consumers the opportunity to have their say and help create a list that celebrates the sandwiches South Africans know, love and make in their own homes.

‘A sandwich is one of the most personal things in a South African home. Two people can open the same loaf and end up with two completely different stories,’ said Mbalenhle Sithole, Marketing Manager at SASKO Bakeries.

‘We have been in South African kitchens for close to a century, and we have learned that we do not get to decide what South Africa eats. South Africa does. That is why we are asking people to tell us which sandwiches deserve to make the cut.’

How To Enter:

Taking part is simple. South Africans can:
– Buy any SASKO loaf, buns or rolls.
– Scan the QR code on the pack.
– Enter the last four digits of the barcode.
– Submit their favourite sandwich by text or voice note.
– Share a photo or video of their sandwich on social media, tag @sasko_sa and use #12OfficialSandwichesOfSA for more chances to win.

Every valid entry unlocks an instant reward and qualifies participants for the weekly and grand prize cash draws. The competition ends on 31 October.

Full terms and conditions are available on the company’s website.

SASKO
www.sasko.co.za

When The Advertising Brief Becomes The Competition

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Modern Marketing
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When the Advertising Brief Becomes The Competition
Cleopatra Simelane

According to Cleopatra Simelane, Founder and Executive Producer, Cleopatra’s Content Goldmine (CCG), for years the advertising process has largely happened behind closed doors.

A brand develops a brief. An agency develops the creative response. Creators may then be brought in to produce content around the campaign. But what happens if we open that process up? What if the brief itself became the competition?

Think Shark Tank or MasterChef, But for Content Creators

Instead of simply asking creators to promote a product, a brand gives creators a real marketing objective. Creators then compete to create the best advert in response to the same brief. The audience gets to watch the creative process unfold.

They discover the creators. They see different interpretations of the same brief. They engage, debate, vote for their favourites and ultimately become part of the competition. For brands, the opportunity goes beyond influencer content.

One brief can generate multiple creative interpretations, creator participation, audience conversation and a pool of creator-generated content, while the competition itself becomes the entertainment. That distinction matters as brands increasingly look for ways to generate more content while maintaining creative variety and audience attention.

Creators are already producing content at enormous scale. The opportunity for brands is not simply to ask them to post. It is to give them something worth creating. A strong brief can become more than an instruction. It can become a story. It can become a competition. And it can become a reason for an audience to participate.

CCG has tested the model through six pilot episodes, generating more than 99,200+ organic views and 5,296+ organic engagements, with more than 1.6 million+ combined organic reach from three finalist creators. The pilots were produced without paid media. The bigger question, however, is what this model could mean for the relationship between brands, creators and audiences.

Traditional influencer marketing often follows a relatively straightforward path: Brand → Creator → Content

Platforms such as CCG introduces another layer: Brand Brief → Creator Competition → Multiple Adverts → Audience Participation → Show

The creator is no longer simply a distribution channel. The creator becomes a competitor. The audience is no longer simply consuming the finished campaign. They become part of the experience. And the brand brief is no longer something that only a handful of people see internally.

It becomes the starting point for entertainment, creativity and participation. Perhaps the next evolution of creator marketing isn’t about finding one creator to represent a brand. Perhaps it’s about giving an entire community of creators a reason to compete for it.

Cleopatra’s Content Goldmine is a multi-platform digital media show with presence across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

Cleopatra’s Content Goldmine
+27 82 446 3141
cleopatra.simelane@gmail.com

Creativity Works All The Time

By
Modern Marketing
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Creativity Works All The Time
Bu Sohyeon Bang, Machine.

Bu Sohyeon Bang, Senior Conceptual Art Director at Machine, writes that creativity has never respected office hours. Some of my best ideas have arrived at the most inconvenient times. Very rarely do they arrive neatly between nine and five, exactly when the brief asks them to.

At Cannes Lions, conversations with creatives from around the world reinforced something I had already begun to feel: creativity does not begin with the brief. It begins with everything we notice before it.

It starts with how we live, what we pay attention to and how curious we are about the world around us. A brief can give our thinking direction, but it cannot give us a point of view. That comes from our experiences, the people we meet, the cultures we encounter and the things we remember.

That is why I believe creativity is a mindset, not just a job title. You do not suddenly become creative because you work in a creative department. To me, creativity is about noticing things differently: being curious about details others overlook, asking why people behave the way they do and connecting things that do not obviously belong together.

My perspective has been shaped by living between cultures. I am Korean, but I have built my life and creative career in South Africa. That has made me more aware of how differently people communicate, joke, celebrate and connect.

What feels normal to one person may feel completely unfamiliar to someone else. That difference forces you to question your assumptions and reminds you that there is rarely only one way to see something. Cannes made this even clearer. Being surrounded by people from different countries and cultures showed me how differently the same idea could be understood depending on someone’s background or lived experience.

Inside the judging rooms, I saw work interpreted through different cultural lenses. In talks and smaller conversations, I heard creatives explain where their ideas came from. Often, the starting point was not advertising. It was a local behaviour, a family ritual, a cultural tension, technology or something happening in their community.

Exposure gives you more ways to understand a problem. The more perspectives you encounter, the less likely you are to settle for the obvious answer. You become more aware of your blind spots and more open to unfamiliar ideas.

Another Cannes takeaway was how simple some of the best ideas were. They were not always built on complicated technology or many moving parts. Often, they began with something human: a behaviour, habit, tension or truth that people immediately recognised but had not seen framed in that way before.

That changed how I think about inspiration. Creative inspiration is your world. It is your people, the little conversations you have, the places you go and the things you notice when you are not trying to solve a brief. It can come from something a friend says, a family habit, a stranger in a queue or even a Reel on Instagram. It can come from fashion, food, music, sport, design or a joke in a group chat.

The brief may ask the question, but your life gives you the material to answer it. Curiosity helps you collect that material.

For young creatives, the answer is not to wait for inspiration to strike. You have to build a life that gives ideas more opportunities to find you, then be proactive enough to keep what you find.

Whenever I see something interesting, I archive it. I have a folder where I save anything that could spark something later: a campaign, an image, an unusual product, a social post, a problem, a line someone said or something completely random. I may not know why it matters when I save it. Months later, it can suddenly connect with a brief in a way I never expected.

Creativity works all the time, (sometimes even in your dreams). That does not mean you should always be working. Switching off, resting and making space for life are important. But the part of your brain that notices, questions and connects things should stay awake.

Pay attention. Save what interests you. Write down the strange thought. Follow the unexpected reference. Speak to people outside your usual world. Try things without needing them to become work.

Cannes showed me the level of thinking and craft that can take an idea onto a global stage. I would love to return one day with work of my own and, hopefully, a Lion to show for it, but that journey will not begin with the award entry, or even with the brief. It will begin much earlier, in the life I continue to live outside the office.

MACHINE
www.thisismachine.co.za

Good Things Guy Announces 11 Year Anniversary

By
Modern Marketing
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Good Things Guy Announces 11 Year Anniversary
Brent Lindeque, Good Things Guy.

Founded by Brent Lindeque in 2015 with a mission to change the conversation around South Africa by shining a spotlight on the country’s everyday heroes, inspiring people and remarkable acts of kindness, Good Things Guy has grown into a trusted digital publication dedicated to telling the stories that often go untold.

Over the past 11 years, the platform has published an extraordinary 30,000+ stories, documenting everything from community initiatives and acts of bravery to business innovation, environmental conservation, sport, entertainment and lifestyle. Of those, nearly 10,000 stories have celebrated ordinary South Africans whose compassion, resilience and generosity have made an extraordinary impact in their communities.

At a time when news cycles are often dominated by negativity, Good Things Guy has demonstrated that there is a significant audience seeking stories that inspire hope, celebrate progress and remind South Africans of the good happening around them every day.

The platform’s reach and influence have continued to grow beyond its website through its popular podcast, which first launched in 2014, making it South Africa’s longest-running good news podcast. Since evolving into a video-first format in 2025, the podcast has experienced remarkable growth, publishing 75 episodes, including 35 episodes in 2026 alone.

In just the first eight months of 2026, the podcast has attracted more than seven million streams across all platforms, with YouTube and Facebook emerging as its strongest-performing channels. The most-streamed episode to date, featuring the remarkable story of Baby Eden, has generated more than 650,000 views, while the Good Things Guy YouTube channel has grown to over 90,000 subscribers, rapidly approaching the coveted 100,000 milestone.

Goodthingsguy.com has also produced some of South Africa’s most widely shared feel-good content. Its most-read article of all time, offering a heartfelt explanation about Father Christmas for children, has attracted more than 570,000 readers, highlighting the enduring appetite for meaningful, family-focused storytelling.

For Lindeque, however, the true measure of success has never been the numbers. ‘When I started Good Things Guy, I simply wanted to prove that good news mattered. Eleven years later, what I’m most proud of isn’t the number of stories we’ve published or the millions of podcast streams, it’s the incredible South Africans we’ve had the privilege of meeting along the way. Every conversation, every story and every act of kindness reminds us that there’s so much more good happening around us than we often realise.’

Lindeque said the continued growth of the platform demonstrates that audiences are actively seeking authentic, uplifting stories that celebrate the very best of South Africa.

‘We’ve always believed that positive journalism has an important role to play alongside traditional news. People don’t want to ignore the challenges facing our country, but they also want to celebrate the people who are solving problems, building communities and creating hope. Those are the stories that deserve to be told.’

The podcast has become an extension of that philosophy, creating space for deeper conversations with South Africans who are making a meaningful difference across business, sport, entertainment, conservation, education and community development.

‘Podcasting has been part of my journey for more than a decade, but this new chapter has been extraordinary. We’ve had the privilege of sitting down with some of the country’s most inspiring people and sharing their stories with audiences across South Africa and the world. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who listens, watches and shares our content, and to BetterBond for continuing to support these conversations. It genuinely feels like we’re only just getting started.’

As Good Things Guy celebrates its 11th anniversary, its mission remains unchanged: to find, tell and amplify the stories that remind South Africans what is possible when people choose kindness, resilience and community. In an increasingly crowded digital media landscape, Good Things Guy continues to prove that positive storytelling is far more than a niche.

Tyler Vivier, Editor of Good Things Guy, says the milestone is a reflection not only of the platform’s longevity, but of the thousands of inspiring South Africans whose stories have helped redefine the country’s narrative.

‘Celebrating 11 years and nearly 30,000 stories is an incredible milestone for Good Things Guy and for every journalist who has helped shape the platform over the years. Behind each story is an opportunity to uplift, inspire and remind South Africans of the good happening all around them. It’s been a privilege to work alongside such a passionate editorial team, sharing stories that build hope and celebrate the very best of our country. Here’s to the next 30,000 good things.’

As the platform enters its second decade, Good Things Guy is committed to continuing its mission of celebrating the remarkable people, businesses and organisations shaping a brighter future for South Africa – one good story at a time.

GOOD THINGS GUY
goodthingsguy.com

New Report Illustrates South African Consumer Behaviour

By
Modern Marketing
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New Report Illustrates South African Consumer Behaviour
Zak Haeri, NielsenIQ South Africa.

South African FMCG consumers are increasingly switching between premium and value products depending on category, occasion, household economics and perceived value.

New global research from NielsenIQ (NIQ) shows that FMCG consumers are moving between these mindsets, depending on what they are buying, what they need and what they believe they are getting in return. The findings come from NIQ’s latest global report, A Tale of Two Consumers: The Polarised Mindsets Reshaping Global Consumption.

Building on NIQ’s generational spending research in collaboration with World Data Lab, the report finds that the same consumers are moving between ‘upgrade’ and ‘price-constrained’ purchasing mindsets, carefully choosing when it is worthwhile to pay a premium and when it makes sense to trade down to save money. The result is a market in which the traditional ‘average’ consumer is becoming a less useful target.

Key Findings Include:

– Affluent consumers spent $35.9 trillion globally in 2025, surpassing spending by the much larger core consumer population, who spent $31.6 trillion.
– Across all age groups, consumers are increasingly alternating between premium and value-seeking behaviours, depending on category, occasion and need state.
– This shift is creating a ‘barbell effect’, with demand concentrating at premium and value tiers while the middle market comes under increasing pressure.
– While middle-market growth is flat in mature Western markets, this segment still offers significant volume opportunities in emerging markets such as South Africa.
– Rising incomes create volume opportunities for FMCG brands in South Africa, while the expanding affluent populations in the metros create new potential to tap into premium markets.
– South African FMCG brands are successfully leveraging promotions to preserve market share, even as value customers become more price-sensitive.

A Three-Way Split In The South African Consumer Landscape

The global research shows how an affluent consumer may trade down to ‘good enough’ alternatives when a premium product offers no extra benefit. A mass-market consumer may trade up when quality, performance, trust, relevance or convenience justify the additional cost.

‘In South Africa, this dynamic is playing out against a particularly complex consumer backdrop,’ said Zak Haeri, Managing Director, NIQ South Africa.

‘There is a large group of consumers for whom affordability remains a daily consideration, with promotions, rewards, bulk buying and lower-priced brands helping them manage household budgets,’ said Haeri. ‘ At the same time, more affluent consumers retain spending power and are prepared to upgrade when quality, convenience, relevance or other benefits justify the additional cost.’

Between these two groups is an emerging mass market that remains an important source of potential volume growth. This means there is a new group of consumers able to participate more fully in FMCG categories, creating opportunities for brands that can deliver accessible products at the right price points. Yet the landscape cannot be reduced to a simple divide between premium, middle-market and value shoppers.

‘The same South African shopper can trade down to a cheaper product in one category, buy a premium product in another and switch between brands in others according to promotions, pack sizes and perceived value,’ said Haeri. ‘Consumers are not choosing to be a premium, middle-market or value shopper. They are making decisions about where their money delivers the greatest return.’

Promotions Are Training Shoppers To Scrutinise price

In South Africa, a growing proportion of FMCG goods are sold on discounts and specials. Across major South African FMCG product supergroups, 64% recorded year-on-year increases in both regular and promotional price elasticity.

The result is that shoppers are becoming more accustomed to promotional prices and more sensitive to both regular and promotional price changes. This creates a paradox for manufacturers and retailers: promotions can defend volume and help brands compete on price, but repeated discounting can condition shoppers to wait for the next deal and make profitable pricing harder.

‘This dynamic shows that FMCG brands in South Africa are responding creatively and effectively to price-sensitivity among value and mass-market consumers,’ said Haeri.

‘However, leading brands need to ensure they use promotions to fulfil strategic purposes such as recruitment, trial, retention or stock-up rather than allowing them to become the default response to weak product differentiation.’

Private Label: A South African Divergence

Private label provides an interesting South African counter example to a broader global trend towards value-seeking. The global report identifies private label as an increasingly credible ‘good-enough’ substitute for some middle-market products. In South Africa, however, recent NIQ data suggests that value-seeking consumer behaviour does not automatically translate into private-label growth.

For the first half of 2026, private label sales were R53.5 billion, growing 1.9% year-over-year and accounting for 17.5% of sales value. Independent brands generated R253 billion in sales in the first half of 2026, growing 7.9% and accounting for 82.5% of sales value. Private label lost market share over the period. This indicates that independent brands leveraged promotions and their presence in traditional trade channels to protect market share.

‘Consumers seem less inclined to switch to a private brand if an independent brand is available at an attractive promotional price,’ said Haeri. ‘Channel choice is an important part of the equation. Price-sensitive consumers are shopping more with independent and informal retailers, where they can purchase national brands in smaller packs or make more frequent top-up purchases.’

Some Of The Key Takeaways For South African FMCG Manufacturers And Retailers Are:

– The middle-market product is no longer a safe default. Every product must establish itself as a premium worth paying for, a smart value choice, an accessible mass-market proposition or a trusted staple worth keeping in the basket.
– South Africa’s emerging mass market remains an important volume opportunity, but manufacturers must balance this opportunity with premiumisation at the upper end and increasingly sophisticated value-seeking strategies at the lower end.
– Promotions and channel choice are becoming central to FMCG strategy. Brands need to understand not only what consumers are willing to pay, but where, when and in what format they are prepared to buy.
– The recent performance of private label demonstrates that value-seeking does not automatically mean private-label substitution. Independent brands that use promotions effectively can remain competitive, particularly where shoppers value trusted brands but need a more compelling price.
– Pack architecture needs to work harder in a polarised market. Pricing, pack sizes, promotions and channels must work together to make products relevant to consumers at different points of the value spectrum.

NIELSEN
https://www.nielsen.com

Halo Strengthens Senior Leadership Team

By
Modern Marketing
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Halo Strengthens Senior Leadership Team

Halo has strengthened its senior leadership team across Johannesburg and Cape Town as the independent agency enters its next phase of growth, bringing together expertise across creative, strategy, design and client leadership, with a shared focus on creating work that delivers both cultural impact and commercial results.

The leadership team comprises Founder and Chief Creative Officer Dean Oelschig, Managing Director Amber Mackeurtan, Design Director Ashraf Majiet, Client Services Director Lungi Ngobese, Head of Strategy Rayhaan Mehtar, and Executive Creative Directors Coenie Grebe in Johannesburg and Alex Goldberg in Cape Town.

Together, they reinforce Halo’s commitment to building an agency where independence is the point, not just the model, giving talented people the freedom to make ambitious work, while remaining relentlessly focused on the effectiveness of that work for clients.

Between them, the team brings decades of experience across some of the industry’s most respected agencies and brands, with accolades spanning Cannes Lions, The One Show, D&AD, Loeries and the Effie Awards. That depth of expertise underpins Halo’s ambition for its next chapter: to create work that people notice, remember and talk about, and that ultimately moves the needle for the businesses behind the brands.

For Oelschig, deepening Halo’s senior ranks is as much about clarity as it is ambition. ‘As we look ahead, our focus is all about the work, but we know that to do that, you have to have the right leadership and environment to attract and retain the best talent in every single position across the agency,’ he said.

Mackeurtan is focused on building an agency where culture, creativity and commercial outcomes are held to the same standard. ‘Talent only takes you so far,’ she said. ‘Culture, and creating an environment where talented people can do their best work, and where clients feel like true partners, that’s when you produce incredible and effective work.’

The Right People, Not The Most People

A thread running through Halo’s recent growth is patience. The agency has been deliberate about who is part of it and why.

‘We have always believed the right talent is worth waiting for,’ said Oelschig. ‘Bringing in leaders like Ashraf, Ray and Lungi was never about filling roles. They are highly regarded in our industry and each have a long-standing relationship with someone in our agency, so we knew the culture fit was perfect and their personal ambitions are aligned to the agency’s.’

That philosophy also shaped the recent appointment of Goldberg, who joined Halo’s Cape Town office as Executive Creative Director after a career spanning London to Lagos.

Speaking about the move, Goldberg said the environment around talented people matters just as much as the talent itself, ‘There are a lot of talented people in this industry. What makes the difference is the environment around them. When the structure, the culture and the client mix is right, everyone becomes the best version of themselves.’

With a leadership team built for ambition, Halo is focused on what’s next: work that is creatively ambitious and commercially effective, spoken about by regular people, and built to last.

‘We’re still deeply committed to South Africa as a creative hub and want to prove our ability on a global scale,’ said Oelschig. ‘We are building an agency that talented people want to be part of, that clients trust, and that consistently delivers work that we’re all proud of, work that earns attention, creates impact and delivers results.’

HALO ADVERTISING
https://www.brandhalo.co.za

BetterBond Announces Brand Refresh

By
Modern Marketing
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BetterBond Announces Brand Refresh

BetterBond has launched its refreshed brand, bringing more than 25 years of home loan expertise and personalised support into a new chapter, centred around one simple idea: A Better Way to your Dream Home.

The BetterBond people know and trust remain the same. What has changed is how the brand brings its experience, expertise and customer promise to life, with a refreshed identity and a sharper focus on making the home loan journey simpler, more human and more relevant.

‘For more than 25 years, we’ve helped South Africans get closer to the place they’ve always dreamed of: home,’ said Stephan Potgieter, CEO of BetterHome Group Mortgage Origination and BetterBond.

‘Our refreshed brand is about bringing that experience and expertise to life in a way that is simpler, more human and more relevant to the people we help every day. There is a better way to navigate the home loan journey, and we want more South Africans to know it.’

A Better Way Starts With Knowing The Banks

No two homebuyers are the same, and neither are the ways banks assess home loan applications. Since 2000, BetterBond has built long-standing relationships with South Africa’s leading banks and developed a deep understanding of their lending criteria and how they assess different customer circumstances.

BetterBond uses this expertise to identify the banks best suited to each customer, submit one application to multiple lenders and negotiate on their behalf to help secure a better offer. One application. Multiple banks. Real savings.

The difference is tangible: BetterBond’s average customer saving is 0.65%, demonstrating the potential impact of expert negotiation and access to multiple lenders over the life of a home loan.

And the support doesn’t stop there. BetterBond combines technology, home loan expertise and one-on-one guidance to help customers understand their options and navigate the application process from start to finish.

The Colour Is The Journey

The refreshed brand introduces a new visual expression through a colourful journey line, representing everything that happens between the starting point and the destination. Because buying a home is rarely a straight line.

There are decisions, emotions, challenges and milestones along the way, and BetterBond is there to help customers navigate them. The transition from blue to red, with all the colour in between, represents that journey to a dream home.

‘For BetterBond, the journey line is more than a visual element,’ explained Colette Van Dyk, BetterHome Group and BetterBond’s Chief Marketing Officer. ‘It captures the role the brand plays in helping customers navigate everything in between, providing guidance, expertise and support from the first step towards a home loan to the moment they get the keys to their new home. The colour is the journey. And BetterBond is there for all of it.’

At the heart of the refreshed brand is the belief that a home loan is not the destination. The life that happens afterwards is. A home represents freedom, security, achievement and a foundation for the future. That is why the refreshed brand is built around a simple progression: A Better Way. Better Support. Better Results. A Better Life.

‘The home loan is an important part of the journey, but it’s not what people are ultimately working towards,’ added Potgieter. ‘They’re working towards a home, a future and a life that feels like theirs. That’s what makes our role so meaningful, and that’s what we want this refreshed brand to capture.’

A Brand Built For What Is Next

The refresh positions BetterBond to build on its role as South Africa’s home loan experts while making its proposition clearer to a new generation of homebuyers, particularly first-time buyers.

By bringing together its banking relationships, knowledge of lender criteria, experienced home loan specialists and technology, BetterBond aims to make the process feel less daunting and give customers the expertise, choice and support they need from the outset.

‘A Better Way to your Dream Home is more than a campaign line,’ concluded Van Dyk. ‘It is the idea connecting BetterBond’s brand, customer experience and communications, and a promise to keep making the journey to homeownership better. Because getting to your dream home matters. And how you get there should feel better.’

IRVINE PARTNERS
www.irvinepartners.co.za

VML Interns Graduate To Full-Time Staff Members

By
Modern Marketing
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VML Interns Graduate To Full-Time Staff Members

VML South Africa’s latest cohort of interns has graduated and joined the agency as fully fledged staff members after completing a year-long internship with the agency. They share advice for others aspiring to such a career.

‘Each intern was placed in a department related to their field of study/interest for hands-on exposure to meaningful work in a supportive learning environment,’ said Khumo du Toit, Learning and Development Manager at VML South Africa.

Paired with manager mentors, the interns were there to work as much as to learn. The reward for success: an opportunity to join the agency as permanent members of staff. ‘Our aim was to ensure they felt fully integrated into the teams as early as possible,’ said du Toit. ‘Permanent placement was not a given. Offers were earned through merit and are a testament to the interns’ hard work and dedication throughout the programme.’

For the former interns, becoming permanent confirms the value they’ve added to the agency. Account Executive and former intern Kamogelo More compares an internship to the role an oxpecker plays, sitting on an elephant’s back. ‘It really looks like small work that the bird is doing, but it brings harmony and balance to the ecosystem,’ she observed, adding that interns should recognise the important roles they play and take them seriously.

‘Even when you are learning, you are still a professional. So don’t see yourself as a learner only, see yourself as a professional who is at a junior level.’

Paying It Forward

As this cohort swaps their email signatures from ‘intern’ to permanent job titles, applications for the next intake have already opened. And the class of 2025-2026 has some advice to share with new recruits.

Stay Curious and Keep Learning

An internship is an opportunity to learn from seasoned professionals, and the graduates stress the importance of not letting that opportunity go to waste. ‘Be like a curious child in school,’ said Junior Art Director Luyanda Shabalala. ‘Ask questions, listen to understand, be active and always believe that you belong in the room, because you do.’

‘The most important piece of advice I can give any intern is ask as many questions as you need to,’ agreed Operations Administrator Noxolo Manzini. ‘It doesn’t matter if you need something to be repeated to you 20 times before you get it right; it is so much better to ask and do the right thing than to be scared to ask and do the wrong thing. You are an intern for a reason; you are not supposed to know it all.’

Take Initiative

That can mean looking for opportunities to be of service and proactively volunteering ideas, but it also means seeking out people to learn from and striking up conversations. ‘In advertising, there is so much to learn from different departments, whether it is creative, strategy, media or production,’ said Account Executive Phenyo Ranta. ‘Even a quick chat with a colleague from another department can help you understand the work better and see the bigger picture.’

Don’t Let Self-Doubt Hold You Back

It can be daunting walking into an agency job for the first time. Junior Data Analyst Kgaogelo Phooko recalls struggling with imposter syndrome in the beginning. ‘I felt like everyone else knew what they were doing except me. Because of that, I sometimes held myself back,’ she said.

But she learned that ‘growth doesn’t happen by waiting for opportunities to come to you; you have to go looking for them.’ Kgaogelo started asking questions, job shadowing colleagues and showing interest in different projects. ‘Now I am in charge of monthly and weekly reports and doing presentations. I can finally see my contributions to the team, and I feel like I belong.’

It helps to remember that people are rooting for you, says Junior Copywriter Anthony Maboee. ‘The biggest lesson I have learnt from the internship was that everyone wants to see you win and grow.’

Learn To Manage Yourself, Not Just Your Work

An internship teaches you more than the skills you need to do your job, as the graduates soon learnt. For Junior Copywriter Sihle Delport-Wetselaar, that meant learning to be patient with herself. ‘I thought that after the first six months or so I was meant to know exactly what I was doing and stand on my own,’ she said. ‘It’s okay to still be figuring out how things work in the business, and with different clients and colleagues.’

Meanwhile, Account Executive Gcina Ndweni learnt that staying silent when you’re struggling helps no one. ‘When I first started, I had this deep need to prove myself,’ he recalls. ‘I took on every single task that came my way because I never wanted to be the person holding the team back. But the truth is, I was taking on too much. I over-promised, struggled to prioritise, and sometimes couldn’t deliver on time.’

Gcina’s mentor gave him a piece of sound advice. ‘She taught me that asking for help does not mean you can’t do the work and that if you speak up early, the team can solve problems while they are still small, before they turn into fires. Her guidance changed everything for me.’

Junior Art Director Fumani Rikhotso learnt the importance of time management and emotional regulation. ‘It’s easy for the hustle and bustle of life to make you lose track of deadlines,’ he said. ‘It is also important to understand that feedback and work stress can be better managed if one keeps a cool head and doesn’t take anything to heart.’

Not every internship ends with a job offer. But being teachable and willing to work on yourself, learning as much as you can, and making a good impression can set you up for the rest of your career.

The VML Internship Graduates Of 2025-2026 Are:

Anthony Maboee – Junior Copywriter
Fumani Rikhotso – Junior Art Director
Gcina Ndweni – Account Executive
Hailey Sookoo – Account Executive
Kamogelo More – Account Executive
Kgaogelo Phooko – Junior Data Analyst
Luyanda Shabalala – Junior Art Director
Noxolo Manzini – Operations Administrator
Phenyo Ranta – Account Executive
Refiloe Sehloho – Junior Motion Designer
Sihle Delport-Wetselaar – Junior Copywriter
Tokollo Manamela – Junior Traffic Manager

VML SOUTH AFRICA
https://www.vml.com/south-africa

What Is The Differentiator For Financial Brands?

By
Modern Marketing
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What Is The Differentiator For Financial Brands?
Darren Morris, Lucky Hustle.

According to Darren Morris, CEO of Lucky Hustle, traditional financial services brands are not short of advantages. They have scale, trust, data, distribution, licences and decades of institutional knowledge.

Most fintech challengers would happily trade their hoodies for even half of that infrastructure. And yet, when many established banks, insurers and investment businesses communicate, those advantages disappear beneath a thick layer of category sameness.

The language is cautious and the imagery is polished. The promise is usually some variation of a better future. I see that not as a creativity problem in the narrow sense. It is a relevance problem.

People do not experience money as a financial-services category. They experience it as the difference between saying yes and saying ‘not this month’. It is rent, school fees, ambition, status, anxiety, freedom and family. It is profoundly emotional, yet the industry often speaks about it as if everyone is sitting at home waiting to discuss wealth solutions.

New-age creativity starts by closing that gap. It is not youth slang pasted onto a product ad, a dance challenge approved by legal or a bank trying to behave like a fintech. It is creativity built around how people actually live, decide, participate and move through culture.

For traditional financial brands, that shift creates four opportunities. First, turn complexity into something people can use. Financial products are complicated because money is complicated. But complexity inside the business should not become confusion outside it. The creative task is not simply to make the explanation shorter. It is to make the value tangible. Show what changes in a person’s life, what becomes possible and why the product matters now. Clarity is the proof of sophistication.

Second, stop treating culture as media placement. Culture is not something a brand reaches by buying space near it. It is a living system of language, humour, rituals, tensions and communities. A financial brand becomes relevant when it understands those systems well enough to contribute something useful, entertaining or empowering. That requires local intelligence, not demographic shorthand. A twenty-three-year-old side-hustler in Soweto and a twenty-three-year-old graduate in Stellenbosch may look identical on a dashboard. Creatively, they may live in different worlds.

Third, use regulation as a creative constraint rather than a creative excuse. Financial services must communicate responsibly. That is not negotiable. But responsible does not have to mean forgettable. Some of the sharpest ideas emerge when the boundaries are clear. The job is to bring strategists, creatives, legal teams and product owners together earlier, so compliance does not arrive at the end to remove the pulse from the work. Creativity is not what happens after the rules. It is how a brand finds possibility within them.

It is a challenge we are particularly excited to take on following Lucky Hustle’s recent appointment by a leading financial services brand. The opportunity is not to make the brand behave off-brand. The goal is to bring fresh creative energy to a category where trust, clarity and responsibility matter, without accepting that any of them require the work to be boring.

Fourth, use technology to increase imagination, not industrialise sameness. AI can accelerate research, generate options, adapt executions and help teams learn faster. It can raise the floor for execution. It cannot manufacture a point of view. Human judgement, cultural intelligence and brave decisions still determine the ceiling. If every financial brand uses the same tools, trained on the same internet, efficiency will not be the differentiator. Taste will be.

This is where established brands can beat the challengers at their own game. They do not need to discard their heritage. They need to make it usable. Trust can become confidence to experiment. Data can produce better experiences, not merely better targeting. Distribution can turn a campaign into a service. Scale can help a powerful idea change behaviour, not just accumulate impressions.

The measure of modern creativity is not whether people call the work innovative. It is whether they notice, understand, remember and act. Did it make a difficult product easier to choose? Did it bring new customers into the category? Did it deepen usage, build loyalty or move the business forward?

Creativity is not a decorative layer applied to financial services once the serious work is complete. It is one of growth’s engines. Traditional financial brands already have the machinery. New-age creativity and thinking give them somewhere more interesting to go.

LUCKY HUSTLE
https://luckyhustle.co.za

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