Speech Transcript

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Media That Moves People: Creativity, Context, and Courage in an Age of Noise

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Good morning everyone.

What a line-up. Seth Godin, Michael Jordaan, Rassie Erasmus… and then me - the guy who still forgets to unmute himself on Teams. I was told I’ve got twenty minutes, which in advertising terms is about the average lifespan of a campaign presentation before someone asks, “Can we make the logo bigger?"

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But seriously, it’s a privilege to be here with people who shape how the world sees, hears, and feels. Because in this business, whilst perception isn’t everything - it’s a pretty good start. Attention however, is everything.

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The Real Value of Attention

Last year, advertisers spent over $700 billion trying to reach people for less time than ever before. More money. Less attention. If attention is the new currency, then South Africa’s creative engine is also under significant pressure from global inflation. The question we should be asking isn’t just how we hold attention, but how we then earn connection. Because anyone can rent attention. Only creativity earns it.

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1. General Media Trends & The Connected Future

It’s no longer traditional versus digital - it’s connected versus disconnected. Everywhere I look, the biggest danger isn’t being behind the trend; it’s being disconnected from people. We’ve built smarter dashboards, better data, and more efficient pipelines… but we’ve forgotten that it’s busy, warm-blooded human beings on the other side of those impressions. We’re living through what I call attention inflation. We’re spending far more to say even less. The one thing that still breaks through? Creative distinctiveness. That uniquely South African wink - that irreverent twist, that insight that makes people go, ”Ah, that’s so true.” That’s our only unfair advantage in a world of sameness. TV, streaming, outdoor, social - none of these are separate worlds anymore. People don’t think in channels; they think in stories and narratives. They move seamlessly from the radio on their commute to the ad they scroll past at lunch to the series or podcast they binge at night. Our job is to make those stories connect - emotionally, culturally, and contextually.

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I’m all for AI. I love that it can do the grunt work, the repetition, the testing. But it cannot, yet, replicate humour, timing, or chutzpah. That’s why I’m not scared of AI. I’m scared of people who stop thinking creatively because they think AI will do it for them. And then there’s the trust gap. Audiences are tired of being interrupted or tricked. They’re choosing fewer, better sources – YouTube or Netflix over noise, Substack over clickbait spam. People are seeking intentional consumption, not just infinite scrolling. That’s an enormous opportunity for brands to stop behaving like advertisers and start acting like trusted publishers. Say something worth hearing. Build something worth returning to. Because here’s the thing:

- The world’s most valuable media platform - TikTok - creates nothing.

- And the world’s most valuable brand - Apple - sells simplicity and sleek style, in a world addicted to chaos.

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In the attention economy, curation often beats creation. The future isn’t more channels. It’s more meaning. Or as I like to put it: Media used to interrupt what people love – today, done properly, it has to become what they love.

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2. The Future of Media Strategy & Buying

Integration is the new form of independence. We’ve seen this pendulum swing for decades. Full-service agencies. Then independents. Then in-house. Then back again - usually when clients realise that being the agency boss is a full-time job they didn’t actually want. Legacy agencies are rebounding because clients are exhausted by scattergun thinking. They don’t want five presentations and twelve dashboards. They want one integrated sharp idea that moves the needle.

Media independents are thriving where they blend their specialisation with creative empathy. And in-house models can be powerful for speed and proximity, but they risk losing objectivity and the cross-pollination that sparks new ideas. The real answer isn’t full-service or independent. It’s what I call full-thinking.

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At the Up&Up Group, we call this intelligent practice: partnerships built around the idea, not around ownership. Creative, media, PR, data - one table, one problem, one goal. When you get that right, the output changes dramatically. A South African retailer merges its media and creative brief into a single sprint. Instead of one team planning the message and another figuring out where it goes, they did it together. Less spend. Triple the engagement. Why? Because the context became part of the creative. That’s what Africa has been doing, in many other ways, for decades – trying to make more out of less. Turning constraints into creativity. It’s in our DNA. So when people ask me, “Where is media going?” I say: Away from buying blunt impressions, and toward designing meaningful impressions that matter. A click without connection is a waste. Connection remains priceless.

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And now for something completely different. I’ve been asked to say a few words around our style of leadership, that together with my partners, has allowed us to build the biggest independent agency group in the country, over 15 years. Leadership today isn’t about knowing the answers - it’s about asking better questions. Getting to identify the real problem. I’ve spent over three decades in this business, and I’ve seen many kinds of leaders. Some brilliant. Some brutal. And a few who confuse PowerPoint for leadership. Too many leaders today are brilliant operators but weak navigators. They know the mechanics but they’ve forgotten the meaning of what we are trying to achieve. It’s daily work to challenge oneself and course correct. We often reward technical mastery over moral clarity - and that’s a problem. Because the media sector doesn’t just shape markets; it shapes minds. Today’s leaders need three things: data literacy, cultural empathy, and creative bravery. They’ll have to be fluent in numbers, yes - but also in nuance. They’ll have to read dashboards and room tone. And they’ll need the courage to make decisions that aren’t popular, but right. So what can we do?

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First: Prioritise mentorship over management.

We don’t need more bosses - we need more builders of people and critical thinkers. Pair young planners with seasoned strategists. Create cross-generational learning loops. You’d be amazed how much innovation happens when the 25-year-old and the 55-year-old share a brief.

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Second: Encourage creative curiosity.

Send media teams into production. Send PR teams into analytics. Make sure they bump into perspectives that unsettle their habits. The best leaders are polymaths - not anal perfectionists.

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Third: Lead with purpose.

Anchor decisions in values, not just vanity metrics. In a country like ours, where the media landscape mirrors society, we have a duty to reflect light - not just create noise. Know what you’ll never compromise for clicks. Because here’s the truth: Great media leaders don’t just chase eyeballs - they build enduring  trust. And trust compounds longer than CPMs.

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Closing Call

The next generation of media leaders won’t come from the biggest networks. They’ll come from the boldest ideas. They’ll come from the young strategist who questions the old rulebook. From the copywriter who can both code and decode. From the data scientist and neuro scientist who loves stand-up comedy. And from the people in this room - if we keep the courage to lead with creativity, not fear. Because in the end, the best media strategy in the world still needs one thing: the courage and abilty to say something worth hearing. Creativity is that courage. And as we say in our shop, it’s what elevates everything.

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Thank you.