The appointment Koketso Masisi as its first Executive Creative Director (ECD), reflects both Masisi’s creative leadership and Retroviral’s transformation over the past four years from a specialist social media agency into one of South Africa’s leading independent integrated creative businesses.
This marks a significant milestone in the agency’s evolution and signalling its continued investment in creativity that drives earned attention, cultural relevance and commercial impact.
Joining Retroviral as Head of Design, Masisi quickly became one of the architects behind the agency’s creative evolution. She has helped build a multidisciplinary creative studio, developed an integrated creative offering and played a defining role in shaping work that has consistently blurred the lines between public relations, advertising, social, digital and culture.
During her tenure, Retroviral has cemented its reputation as one of Africa’s most recognised independent agencies, earning accolades including Ad Age International Small Agency of the Year (Silver), SABRE Africa Consultancy of the Year, and both MarkLives and AdFocus Small Agency of the Year in 2025.
‘Koketso’s promotion represents far more than a new title,’ said Mike Sharman, founder and chief creative officer of Retroviral. ‘It represents the next chapter of our agency. We’ve always believed creativity shouldn’t sit inside channels. It should solve business problems, create culture and earn people’s attention. Koketso has been instrumental in building that philosophy into our business. She’s helped redefine what creativity looks like at Retroviral, elevating design into integrated thinking, strategy into storytelling and ideas into work that people genuinely want to talk about.’
Masisi has also played a pivotal role in shaping the agency’s culture. Today, women represent 78% of Retroviral’s workforce, while Black women make up 52% of the business, reflecting the agency’s long-standing commitment to building diverse creative leadership.
Her leadership has coincided with a period of sustained commercial growth, with the creative studio helping deliver award-winning work and new business across brands including AB InBev, AutoTrader, BIC, Lil-Lets, Motus, Truda Foods, Emeris and The Braai Republic.
Beyond the agency, Masisi has established herself as one of South Africa’s emerging creative leaders. She regularly serves as a juror across local and international award programmes, speaks at industry conferences and leadership forums, and is currently completing the ACA Women in Leadership Programme.
She is also the founder of Ko.Kreate, an initiative dedicated to creating opportunities for women of colour in advertising through mentorship, collaboration and leadership development, extending the same philosophy of empowerment that has shaped her leadership within Retroviral.
‘For me, creativity has never been about making advertising. It’s about creating work that changes how people think, feel and behave while building spaces where talented people can thrive,’ said Masisi. ‘This appointment is incredibly meaningful because it reflects the belief that creative excellence and people leadership should go hand in hand. I’m excited about what we can build next, not just for our clients, but for the next generation of creative talent coming through our industry.’
Sharman believes Masisi’s influence reaches well beyond the campaigns she has creative-directed.
‘Great creative leaders don’t simply produce great work. They leave an organisation fundamentally different from how they found it. Koketso has done exactly that. She’s brought extraordinary creative standards, immense humility and a relentless commitment to building ideas with purpose. Awards have followed, but they’ve never been the destination. The real achievement has been helping transform Retroviral into an agency where integrated creativity isn’t a department. It’s our operating system.’
As Executive Creative Director, Masisi will lead Retroviral’s integrated creative output across the agency’s growing client portfolio while continuing to build a multidisciplinary team focused on creating ideas engineered for earned media, business growth and lasting cultural impact.
The appointment marks another significant chapter in Retroviral’s growth story, reinforcing the agency’s belief that the future belongs to businesses where creativity, strategy and communications are seamlessly integrated to build brands that people do not just see, but actively participate in.
RETROVIRAL
https://retroviral.co.za/
