South Africa Special: Molefi Thulo

Molefi Thulo, CD at O&M Johannesburg shuns praise for his witty Loerie- and Lion- bagging Lucozade campaigns, which have helped to raise his agency’s rankings. After all, he still believes that there’s room for improvement in his country’s advertising. In particular, he’d like to see European and US styles eschewed in favour of more work with a genuine South African aesthetic

Grey College in Bloemfontein, South Africa, knows how to breed future rugby stars. Since 1906, the school has produced more Springboks (38 and counting) than any school in the country. Luckily for the advertising industry, though, Molefi Thulo’s rugby career broke off, quite literally, at the age of 16, when a particularly vicious tackle snapped both his collarbone and his nerves. “There’s something about breaking a bone that dampens your bravery,” he deadpans.

Nonetheless, after school he headed for the big bad city to study marketing at Jo’burg’s Wits University. Originally destined for the client side, his fascination with TV adverts and the process of “having an idea come to life on the screen” inspired Thulo to apply to advertising agencies instead. He got his first job as a junior copywriter at DraftFCB thanks to Nkwenkwe Nkomo, former group chairman at the South Africa office and a major proponent of transformation in the ad industry: “He believed in me as a young black person, and gave me a chance.”

Things can always get better

Another mentor in those early days was Brett Morris, FCB’s current group CEO, whom Thulo credits with inspiring his love of radio – the medium on which Thulo has built much of his success to date. They worked side by side, penning copy for audio spots such as Raid’s Nothing Should Get In The Way Of Dreamtime. “He was an incredible writer, sharp and intelligent,” remembers Thulo.

Nine years later, he joined Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg, soon winning a promotion to creative director, and began working on one of the agency’s biggest accounts, Lucozade. 2014 brought his biggest career success to date with Give Me Strength, a radio campaign that, instead of playing on the obvious sport-performance angle, focused on the drink’s ability to get people through everyday frustrations: a kids’ party; a PowerPoint presentation; even (shudder) an Enrique Iglesias concert. It won a Grand Prix at Cannes that year, bolstering South Africa’s impressive reputation for radio advertising.

Asked why South Africa excels in the medium, Thulo says it’s “tight deadlines, forcing you to think and plan clever”, plus healthy competition: “You look at the work of Jenny Glover [ECD of TBWAHuntLascaris Jo’burg, number one radio agency in the Cannes 2015 Global Creativity Report] and think, how can I be better?” He adds that the volume of radio work produced by the region gives agencies more practice, too.

Last year, Give Me Strength expanded into a TV and integrated media campaign, including four hilarious spots directed by Bouffant’s Dean Blumberg featuring exhausting encounters with children and performance art.

The team also added a clever digital activation based on the desk-bashing despair induced by slow internet connections: they embedded audio clips on WeTransfer pages exhorting users to persevere.

The campaign picked up three Loeries in 2015, but Thulo is quick to bat away praise, saying success was down to a group effort: “[Group head copywriter] David Krueger, [art director] Tammy Retter and [CD] Peter Little are a highly talented bunch of people who push you to be better… And Dean is this amazing, calm individual who won’t stop until he gets the right results.”

As for the general creative standard, Thulo says frankly there is still room for improvement. “To say it’s at a high level we’d be lying to ourselves. If we didn’t have anything to go by in terms of past records, you could say ‘Ah, well, this is the best we can do’ – but we know we can do better.” Thulo notes that festivals are calling for more South African flavoured work, but “the tricky thing is identifying exactly what that is.

We are a rainbow nation, but some may default to American- or European-style work, rather than something that’s truly South African.” His 2012 Sithi Salute Kleva campaign for KFC featured local slang and celebrated local personalities – the ‘abokleva’, or self-made entrepreneurs – but this type of work is still the exception, not the rule.   

Talent, not tokenism, required

Many in the industry say faster transformation is critical to producing work that’s truly reflective of the country. How much responsibility does Thulo, as a rising black creative, feel to engender change?

“I always look at it in the sense that someone gave me a chance back then and it’s my responsibility to do the same thing. You can’t expect to change the world overnight, but you can try.”

He’s adamant, though, that transformation requires real talent, not tokenism: “A lot of people think it’s just balancing the scale, but it’s not about that. We’re not going to put someone in a role if they can’t deliver. You’re not doing anyone any favours that way. But when you find someone who’s really talented, Ogilvy gets behind them.”

Identifying young potential is the first step, and Ogilvy is creating internship programmes for those who can’t afford the traditional route through advertising school.

What about the issue of talent retention later down the line? Thulo admits that the hefty freelance rates commanded by black creatives, particularly in the current economy, are creating an exodus from agencies, but “perhaps it’s more to do with wanting creative freedom, having a bit more flexibility or being entrepreneurial.” With Ogilvy currently top of the 2015 Loeries agency rankings, and last year’s merger with award-winning digital agency Gloo bringing “new energy into the building”, Thulo is happy right where he is.