Thank you, it’s been a long time coming
Today, our story is better than it was 10 years ago in 2026.
All the major global networks with agencies in South Africa now have women chief creative officers. Of these, 80% are Black women.
A host of independent agencies with women founders find themselves at the top of major pitch lists.
The leadership gender shift is also evident across brands in major sectors like financial services, FMCG, the motor industry as well as telecommunications and e-commerce.
What was long held as a sad indictment of the industry’s inability to transform rapidly enough was the Loeries Rankings list for CCOs.
For years, that list, which is actually a reflection of the industry itself, was dominated by White men.
Now that list (amongst other rankings) proudly carries names of women like Jessica Babsy, Chuma Maqanda, Boitumelo Dibetso, Palesa Mofokeng, Thabi Xaba, Carla Ehlers, Sohyeon Bang, Hanna Schutte, Michelle Lourens, Lerato Mbangeni, Chantelle Dos Santos, Lauren Dixon-Paver, Abi Dracopoulos, Devaksha Vallabhjee, Danike de Jager, Thandeka Gilbert, Fu Myeni, Zainab Mitha, Lauren Mitchell, Khanyi Modiba…. The list is too long. For once.
Speaking from her offices at the V&A Waterfront, Mandisa Vilakazi, CCO, says, “I founded this agency to make the kind of work that SA hasn’t seen yet. To do that, my studio needed to be filled with the kind of women and men that ad agencies haven’t seen yet.”
Mpume Ngobese, Koketso Masisi and Zee Kabane, the indomitable trio heading up the African Independent Network, say, “We are so refreshed and energised by the fact that it’s no longer about the European or American networks telling us how to do business in Africa. Now we tell the world how it’s done.”
Mariam Mohammed, CCO, says, “Growing up in the ad industry, I never saw women who looked like me sitting in a boardroom, let alone heading the table. I didn’t just create my own table, I created an empire.”
Naledi Manama, chief creative consultant to the president, says, “We’ve always known that creativity is a powerful contributor to the creative economy. I ensure that women in this country are not just making key purchasing decisions but changing the market entirely.”
For decades, the industry’s rug had formed an ominous heap, under which dark stories of abuse, harassment, discrimination and bullying have collected.
But through a massive wave of consciousness and action, including dialogue, interventions, better reporting systems, visible safety measures, and good old-fashioned accountability, today the industry feels healthier and safer than it’s ever been.
Every nook of this industry breathes differently now with new representation and diverse voices, including that of the LGBTQI+ community.
Did you know that the gender pay gap is so tightly closed, it’s like a jam jar from the 50s?
The film industry has seen women take up the helm not just behind the lens, but in editing suites, and sound and visual effects studios.
Our Hall of Fame for the next 20 years is at work right now. Right now, South Africa is dethroning the South Americans, the Europeans and the US at our global award shows with real work that really matters.
Right now, copywriting is alive and well – especially in our Nguni languages.
Right now, the focus group has been officially banned.
Microsoft Teams has finally been laid to rest, no one’s circling back, deadlines are real, logos are elaborate again, no one’s dumbing down advertising “for the masses” and now, we bill for worth, not a clocking of hours.
Right now, we sleep better, we shut down our laptops, and we have so many richer stories to tell because we are far more interesting and interested.
Remember all that hullaballoo about AI? Yup, just a tool. Because we are more human than we have ever been.
Put that in your speech, Maqdam President when next you address nations as the new leader of the first world.
When asked to write about trends, one assumes that a trend is something that is currently in action, moving, representing a way forward. Have we moved forward? In small ways, yes. Some of the women mentioned here were part of Open Chair’s Cannes Lionesses initiative last year, and with them, we feel the future has already begun. But the leaps are not gigantic enough to become trends. So instead, I chose to write about a future we all want to see at Open Chair – a future that seems a little fantastical but shouldn’t be. A future where all we have to do is focus on the work, where women are untroubled and unstoppable. A future in which we’re not still talking about lack, fear and discrimination, but one in which we are rejoicing because so many of us made it.
