Every day this week, we’re handing the mic to a different South African at Cannes Lions 2025. We’ve asked them to capture one day, however they experienced it, in their own words. First up is Day 1 with none other than Mike Abel, Founder & Executive Chairman M&C Saatchi Abel & Group SA, here to give us a taste of his first day of Cannes, South African style.
It’s day one of Cannes, and while the rosé is chilling and the Croisette is filling up fast, South Africa’s Cannes Lions judges have already been hard at work. Every year, a select group of our industry leaders are invited to represent the country at the highest level of creative judgment. Whether they’re deep in shortlist sessions or seated on the Grand Prix jury, these are the people helping shape the global creative benchmark. Let’s raise a glass (and maybe our lanyards) to the brilliant minds doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Cannes Lions 2025 is almost here, and before these four industry heavyweights jet off, we had questions. Four, to be exact. So we threw them at Spotify Africa’s Head of Marketing Star Kachisa, Spitfire’s Liesl Lategan Kyriakou, Carbon Films’ Bruno Bossi, and LoveSong’s Suhana Gordhan to find out what they’re expecting from this year’s festival; from the trends they’re tracking to the ideas they’re backing.
“The biggest risk you can take is to be ignored." That is the founding belief behind the new agency in town, Bananas. Leading with ‘mischief and meaning over money and metrics’, Bananas is founded by Saf Sindhi (former AMV BBDO creative and Ogilvy Creative Partner) and Justin Gomes (former FoxP2 founder) with multi-award winning, Sean Harrison, completing the creative trio as head of art.
As part of this year’s Cannes Lions build-up, we’re celebrating a powerful initiative that’s all about access and representation. Open Chair, the platform founded by industry powerhouse Suhana Gordhan to uplift and connect women across the creative industry, successfully secured 15 passes for South African women through the festival’s global ERA Programme (Equity, Representation, and Accessibility).
How do you tell the story of a brand that helped shape a town, generations of livelihoods, and an entire industry? If you’re the team at Olamuk, you do it with humanity, a lot of care and six beautifully crafted documentary portraits.
Last week we hosted our first-ever IDIDTHAT Cannes Predictions Night, bringing together agency creatives to celebrate South Africa's work entered into Cannes 2025. It was a night full of love, laughter, wristbands and world-class craft.
As the countdown to Cannes kicks off, the official IDIDTHAT.co Cannes Predictions are here! This is the South African work handpicked by our panel of judges as the strongest contenders to roar on the global stage. We asked them to view the work entered by South Africa into Cannes this year and choose the pieces they believe will turn heads in France. A massive shoutout to our judges Fran Luckin, Sbu Sitole, Roland Sweet, Danni Pinch, and Safaraaz Sindhi. Thank you for being absolute gold as always!
South African creativity, your champions have arrived. Each year, we ask a panel of industry greats to review the SA work entered into Cannes Lions and select the pieces they believe could turn heads on the global stage. We’re proud to introduce our 2025 IDIDTHAT Cannes Predictions judges.
The IDIDTHAT x LITTLEBIG Cannes coverage collab returns, and we couldn’t be prouder. Thanks to our partners at LITTLEBIG, we’re once again able to back South African creativity loudly and proudly. Follow us as we spotlight the work, the talent, and the gees that make our industry world-class.
Spitfire’s newest signing is no stranger to the craft, with a decade of experience, Director Ying-Poi joins the production house with momentum. And if you ask EP Liesl Lategan Kyriakou, this one was written in the stars.
This year, South Africa brought home a Wood Pencil at the prestigious D&AD Awards and it went to The Odd Number for their powerful Salvation Army campaign. With thousands of entries from across the globe, getting awarded at D&AD is no small feat, so huge kudos to the team for flying the SA flag high!
Comedy chaos, community drama, and a very big billboard in a very small yard. Flying Fish’s latest spot has all the ingredients of a “Surprisingly Good” mockumentary. Brought to life by Joe Public and directed by Jono Hall from Gentlemen Films, the hilariously escalating ad puts performance and tone front and centre.
Hungry Films director Juniper recently wrapped one of the most ambitious car campaigns we’ve seen in a while. The brief? Shoot nine Mercedes vehicles, deliver six hero 30-second spots for AMG, four retail ads, and a truckload of extra content. It all had to be done in just five days. For sixteen different regions. And she made it look good.
Our ad industry is pivoting at warp speed. Creativity’s under pressure, tech is rewriting the rules, and uncertainty is the only certainty… cue the tiny violins. Or listen to Blacksmith. Their new showreel's intention is to inspire others to simply keep creating.
In South Africa, gun violence is so normalised it hardly makes the news. That’s why M&C Saatchi Abel and Gun Free South Africa decided to do something radical: propose a bulletproof playground. Biometric access. Panic buttons. 24/7 surveillance. All to protect kids from stray bullets while they try to, you know, play.
Released over Mother’s Day weekend, ‘Moms Need Moms Too’, is the new spot PrettyNeat produced to officially launch director Maxime Davenport on their roster. In the film Maxime explores the invisible, unrelenting weight of motherhood, the kind that doesn’t really get posted to Instagram. But this one did and in just a few days, it struck a chord, racking up over 70,000 views on PrettyNeat’s profile.
After nearly two decades lighting up sets from London to Los Angeles, crafting cinematic commercials, fashion films, and music videos director Craig Moore is back on home turf. Now based in Cape Town, Craig has rejoined the ranks at ROBOT, the creative machine he co-founded with Executive Producer Liam Johnson, and he’s bringing the heat to South Africa’s creative scene.
South Africa’s telco advertising is having a moment. M&C Saatchi Abel’s new brand platform for MTN, ‘Today We Make Moves’, is a rallying cry for more authentic, emotionally resonant work in the sector and it launches with an ad that does exactly that.
Focusing on honing her craft by directing big-scale Netflix productions across genres over the past two years, Darling Films’ Director Kit is now bringing all that experience back to commercial sets full-time. We’ve pulled together a few standout scenes that show just how much range and muscle she’s built. Welcome back to Ad Land, Kit, we missed you!