The Power of Accurate Representation with Neo Mashigo
Production company Robot, based in the heart of Cape Town, is a proud supporter of South African creativity. Throughout this interview series on LBB, we’ll hear from creatives who’ve worked in SA, talking about their experiences and sharing their unique take on the country’s creativity.
As the chief creative officer at M&C Saatchi Abel and founder of the creative collective and production company I See a Different You, Neo Mashigo is a proudly South African creative. His experience within the industry stemmed from his ambition of being a lawyer and wound up in him using the ability of research to explain how creatives had missed the mark with cultural nuances.
Once Neo realised that he wanted to authentically represent the Black population within the advertising space, he began working with his art director friend to produce projects. Finding his way into the industry, through an ad by the Creative Directors Forum, he worked his way into an accelerated agency programme where he worked during the day and went to advertising school in the evening.
Starting out at Net#work BBDO alongside award-winning creatives, Neo honed his skills to the point where he’s at now. Using his experience to create I See a Different You, the production company provides film and photography services as well as a creative Saturday school, where younger creatives can hone their skills in an environment that emulates his upbringing of doing art, creative writing and karate classes on the weekends.
Speaking about South Africa’s creative landscape, the challenges and the opportunities, Neo talks to LBB’s Nisna Mahtani.
LBB> What is South Africa and its creative landscape like?
Neo> South Africa is an amazing place with huge, huge potential. The environment, the diversity - the semi-desert, beaches, forests, mountains - there are lots of places that haven't reached their full potential, and haven’t been explored. The regions that are known have been marketed in that way to the global audience but when you go to other regions which are less developed, they’re amazing. When I travel, I like to seek out the places the media isn't speaking about. There are two worlds, the built-up, developed spaces and the less developed, and you can see that depending on the place you’re in.
In the creative space, there are also two worlds, just like the actual environment. There’s the opportunity to become a big deal overnight and what is positive about the global economy is the ability to go from nothing to being on top of the world. You can see that in your neighbour next door, you see the progression happening and that gives people the energy to want and go for their dreams. In general, the overall creative landscape in advertising shows that our work is good, very creative and quite competitive.
LBB> Were there any particularly memorable campaigns which you remember from your childhood?
Neo> There was a brand called Bull Brand [canned meat] and the ad had three versions, an English version, a Sesotho version and a Zulu version. It was a group of young boys, boy scouts and cubs in a choir and they were singing a chant in the style of a boy scout song – and I was a boy scout myself – the song was about corned beef and the boys were singing about what they wished for when they grew up. I sang along to the Sesotho version and the Zulu version, the lyrics were “if you want to grow old and strong, you have to eat Bull Brand” and it carried along like that. There was a beautiful melody and a memorable song.
The other one was Chomp Chocolate, where an animated hippopotamus was showcasing its strength. This campaign also had a song to it, which just repeated the brand name!
LBB> What were some of the things you noticed when you were more aware of the advertising industry?
Neo> The older I got, the more I realised, as a young Black person, that people who did some of the ads didn’t get the culture. I became more observant and generally interested in communication, which stemmed from doing speech and debate at school. When I did that, my awareness became heightened. It stood out to me when things were wrong but also, when they were right, because I appreciated it more.
Growing up, there was a separation between Black and white, and white people were driving the communication for Black people. This meant things were lost in translation or directly translated, and of course, you could tell that the people creating this content were not in touch. There was no real protest against that because there were bigger issues to be dealt with as a country, however, you could tell that tonally and in the nuances, there were little things which were off.
LBB> After democracy was reinstated, what were some of the changes you saw?
Neo> There was a concept in South Africa of the ‘rainbow nation’, which was coined just after democracy. This involved the ‘rainbow-fication’ of advertising where ads would have one Black guy, one Indian guy, and another coloured guy and they’d all have big smiles on their faces. In reality, those people would never hang out together, so it was cheesy but developed some of the biggest adverts in the country – this ended up being the case with a lot of beer brands because ‘bru’ is the slang name for friends.
As more Black people started getting into the industry and more Black marketers came about, people became more vocal about the things that they didn’t like and what they didn’t appreciate. Now, there’s a mix of brands that are getting it right and brands that are still lagging behind, at the end of it, the ones lagging behind can see the benefits for the brands getting it right. Those brands are spoken about, people repeatedly support them and they have an affinity with the brand.
LBB> What are some of the challenges the market has been facing recently?
Neo> The biggest challenge right now is that given the size of our economy and our market, there is only so much budget that we have at our disposal to get a project done, and in the rest of the world, the budgets have increased so much that we find it difficult to compete on that level. We can compete on ideas, but certain things come up when you get to execution, and there are quick wins that money can get you. That sets the standard and that’s where we’re finding it hard.
If you ask South Africans about what they want to win right now, in terms of awards, it would be in the digital and TV categories. Our TV has always been good but we hardly win at Cannes [Lions] for TV because the budget gets minimised by the time it reaches the platform. For us in the country, TV is big so it’s a big deal for us to try to win it. I’m judging the Leories TV category at the moment and I feel that the standard on the idea and storytelling side of things has dropped.
LBB> When you last spoke to us, we spoke about the younger and more diverse market in the country. What is the scope of talent?
Neo> The challenge is that the amount of money we can pay is smaller than people’s ambition, so there is a talent war. Either we’re fighting each other, within the market or we’re losing people to the international market. I can't say there’s an agency that’s managing to keep people. A lot of us have lost people to overseas agencies.
It’s not only people who move and leave the country, but it’s also people who work solely on international clients and it’s made it easier for the international market because they can do a trial for six months while living in SA. That means the risk is lower, they can see how people work before taking them on full time. What I found surprising is that people take on these jobs to be paid in pounds or dollars because it gives you a certain lifestyle back home.
The biggest worry is that there’s a gap in the market for junior and mid-level creatives because they’re not honing their skills in the right spaces, and that’s a very important portion of our creative market. I hope that people who join bigger agencies realise the differences between the international market and the South African market.
LBB> And what are some of the differences in the South African market? What is the pace in the industry like?
Neo> We are used to having a brief, getting it shot and done. Most people, especially the creatives who wind up in New York or London, end up working on a campaign for a very long time. They’ll be working on a campaign for a year and a half and won’t be able to show you anything, they can’t say anything. Also, that project may not even see the light of day because it has to be approved on so many levels.
Marketing in South Africa functions differently because we are making the ads locally for the local market. With most campaigns, we have two weeks before we present and the brands don’t have the budget to keep the creatives turning over for a long time. It’s both a good and a bad thing, sometimes campaigns take time but in the middle of the process, clients might change their ideas on the brief. When it comes to big brands like Coca-Cola, we’ll work on the briefs which need to be produced quickly.
LBB> What keeps you motivated and driven? And what advice would you give to creatives who are in the early stages of their career?
Neo> My attitude towards work has always been that I work for myself. Whether I have signed a contract of employment or not, I as myself am a company on my own. I provide my services to a company, we have a contractual agreement on what I do but the conditions mean I am self-employed. That’s what I say, stop thinking you aren’t a business. You are a business. That will determine how you perform in the space because there are people who perform like businesses and people who perform like employees. If you feel like you own the space, your attitude reflects it and if you own the space, you feel like a partner in the project.
