Diversity, ownership, and transformation in the creative industry can have a positive impact on brand communication and advertising. Veli Ngubane, founding Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Avatar and co-founder of M and N Brands joins us on this episode to talk about their outlook towards building an African owned agency network.

Veli talks about the importance of representation in boardrooms and agencies which leads to more diverse and culturally representative brand communication and advertising. Instead of only looking to transform the work that reaches the consumer, he also talks about the importance of ownership as a pillar that would positively change the creative industry.

“When you want to change an industry, ownership is the fastest way to transform that industry. So when we talk about transformation, when we talk about the societal changes that transformation requires ownership becomes an important pillar.” - Veli Ngubane

Veli notes that telecommunications brands from Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, and Cell C, have all shown exemplary diversity and cultural insight in their work. Thinking back to their campaigns, Veli highlights MTN’s Ayoba campaign; Yebo Gogo by Vodacom; the light-hearted “For Yourself” campaign by Cell C, and the memorable “Molo mhlobo wam” work by Telkom.

These brands and others in the telecommunications industry have shown that they understand the customer and the culture that they operate in.

“You will see that the industry is transformed when the work reflects a more diverse positioning when we don’t have protests due to lack of insight and general ignorance.” added Veli.