IDIDTHAT and Heineken Beverages presents I SAID THAT, the Q&A series featuring South Africa’s top creative talent.

Creative partnerships are notoriously difficult to get right. Careers move in different directions, agencies change, opportunities come and go, someone wants to put out a solo album. So we are loving copywriter Devaksha Vallabhjee and art director Danike de Jager’s journey. The two have spent almost a decade moving through the industry side by side, from Ogilvy to AndPeople, King James (now Accenture Song), Saatchi & Saatchi, Duke and now FCB.

Together they’ve helped shape campaigns for brands including KFC, Nando’s, AXE and Maynards, building a creative partnership rooted in a shared taste of pop culture, a mutual willingness to say the weird idea out loud and a love of selfies. We caught up with the pair to talk about how ideas actually get made, what they’re looking for in director treatments, the South African work they wish they’d done, and why protecting an idea is often the hardest part of the job.

Q: You’ve both come from very different backgrounds. Dev through journalism and publishing, Danike through design and visual communication. How do those different perspectives show up in the work you make together?

Devaksha: I think my background has allowed me to come into advertising with a little more critical thinking. I can maybe sip the Kool-Aid a little more carefully lol. But mostly, I just love all things pop culture, and I’ll always try to make work that can contribute to that culture. I think Dani’s tastes complement that really well – whether it’s the same taste for content in general or to see a certain type of look in a movie or fashion trend and we can figure out how to use it in a fun way.

Danike: I think a more traditional visual communication background helped in the practical sense of knowing the programs and technical skill, but yes, most of our ideas and work come from us having a shared interest in other things. Whether it’s movies, music or scrolling TikToks. I’m definitely lucky to have a writer who can write beautiful long-form copy as well as the shorter stuff advertising generally requires, and I feel her journalism degree comes through in just how genuinely smart she is, which always helps the work in a strategic way.

Q: You’ve worked together across six agencies and almost a decade of your careers. What’s kept the partnership going?

Devaksha & Danike: It definitely helps that we were friends before becoming working partners and genuinely respect each other’s talent. We always say that the secret is creative safety. Being creative requires you to be vulnerable – to say the weirdest thought, ask the dumbest question, and get the bad ideas out. If you feel safe, you can be yourself and make great work. That, and a shared love for an ‘easy-drinking’ wine.

Q: For people outside the industry (and, to be honest, even me), what exactly does a writer and art director actually do? And how does an idea go from a brief to something people eventually see on screen?

Devaksha & Danike: It’s rarely as simple as Dev writing the headline and Dani making the picture pretty. Mostly, we’ll work together to understand the problem the brief is trying to solve and then come up with ideas for how to solve it, starting with a human insight or truth to base it on. That’s the most fun part, where there are no limitations to the thinking or rules about who does what – we’ll both think of lines, and find references and draw things out. Once we’ve got the idea, it becomes about shaping it into its final form – we might work separately on scripts, campaign lines, storyboards or moodboards, etc. After that, we’ll make sure it’s seen through to execution – briefing directors, choosing cast and VO artists, bringing in more designers or illustrators and crafting the final product together. 

Q: An idea can change hands many times between the brief, presentations, treatments, production and post. What’s the thing you’re most protective of once an idea gets approved?

Devaksha & Danike: It’s hard to explain, but the idea itself needs protecting! Once more people become involved and you go into the process of making it, the idea can change or get watered down. It can be easy to lose sight of the original, singular thought behind the idea. That clarity is sometimes the hardest thing to protect.

Q: When you’re thinking of directors to pitch on ideas, what are you looking for?

Danike: Our approach is usually to try and find a director whose style, humour or expertise suits that particular idea. If we have to choose three directors, we’ll go with one who is a ‘safety’ – someone who will definitely nail the brief because it’s completely up their alley. One who is a ‘wild card’ because their style or approach might be completely different to how you imagined it, and that can sometimes make for the best and most interesting work. And then we will also add a ‘dream director’ on the list who might be someone we’ve always wanted to work with, or who’s out of our budget, or even someone who we love and doesn’t get their flowers enough. Different perspectives also always make the work better, so we’ll make sure we have at least one white man for diversity

Q: What’s the best way a director has ever challenged one of your ideas?

Devaksha: We always want a director who can take what you’ve come up with and make it better. The best moments are when directors see things in the idea that you could never see yourself, and once they point it out, you can’t imagine the ad without it. It’s just spending that extra time with the script or even with the brief itself to see something that we missed. 

It always helps when a director says, “This could be funnier, or this could be cut or short-handed”, for example. 

Q: What’s one thing marketers do that consistently helps great work get made?

Devaksha & Danike: Trust is the biggest game-changer. When a client really trusts you, it gives you the vote of confidence you need to trust that you and your team can take their problem and come up with the best solution. Trust means we get the space and time to do our thing, but also collaborate on a deeper level beyond robotic small talk on Teams.

Q: If you could choose one piece of South African work and pretend you did it yourselves, which piece would it be and why?

Devaksha: I’m gonna throw in a deep cut because I recently saw it being reshared on Tiktok – the JOKO ‘Do you know who I am’ airport ad. It’s exactly the beautifully simple, no bells and whistles type of ad that we always strive to make. But also, it became such a memorable piece of South African pop culture – everyone knows it, it was quoted on school playgrounds, you can watch it a million times and never get tired of it. And now, new people love it on TikTok 20 years later – that’s insane.

Danike: Most recently I’ve been very envious of the Vaseline work, it’s just so simple and insightful. You could just see it in the response of everyone who saw it. When the public loves it and shares it, you know you’ve done something right because you’ve tapped into a truth. But honestly there’s a lot of work to envy in this country, we have so many amazing creatives.

Q: What’s your favourite piece of work you’ve made together, and why?

Devaksha & Danike: It’s between our recent AXE work and our ‘Hot & Crispy’ work for KFC a few years back. Both for very different reasons. The AXE work started with a silly idea that we came up with on a night out, and with very little money and almost no time, we managed to quickly turn around some cute and funny social videos. It was a great reminder of how fun making work can be when you keep it simple – and you have the permission!

And then our ‘Hot & Crispy’ piece was probably the biggest ad we’ve made – and one of our first together. It was a really long creative process that started with a completely different idea – but it felt like we won the Lotto when we heard we’d be making it and when we saw the budget . It was a really hectic 3-day night shoot that left us a bit shell shocked after, as all the best learning curves do.

Q: AI is already changing how creatives research, write, visualise and present ideas. Where or how has it helped your process, and where do you think people are getting carried away?

Devaksha: I think when AI is used as a tool and not a replacement, we can benefit from it. For example, we’ll use it to generate images that don’t exist as references for clients BUT they need to stay as a references – not as a replacement for real people. It’s there to aid the process, not become it. It can be used cleverly to give smaller brands with smaller budgets a chance to make ‘bigger’ work, but the idea generation, research and insights will always come from us.

Q: As you’ve become more experienced, what’s something you’ve become almost obsessive about in the work?

Devaksha: I can’t believe I’m still saying this in 2026, but we’ll always fight to make work as South African and locally relevant as possible. We still get some really ridiculous feedback about scripts being ‘too township’ or someone’s accent is ‘not the right fit’ and that is always worth pushing back on.

It’s not about diversity tick-boxing, it’s about the textural things that add real context and flavour. Whether it’s the language used in radio scripts, or the props on a set, it always matters to do justice to our actual reality and experiences.

Q: What are you both currently obsessed with outside of advertising? A series, podcast, book, creator, hobby, rabbit hole, anything.

Devaksha: I’m trying to do screen time that isn’t doom scrolling. I recently got a Nintendo Switch for cosy gaming – just finished one called ‘Cult of the Lamb’ where you’re a cult leader but also cute. Other online but offline things are making outfit collages on Pinterest, and doing the NYT crosswords while listening to podcasts (‘Who? Weekly’ mostly) in the hopes I can stave off the brain rot.

Danike: Outside of work, I have become obsessed with making very wonky bowls and vases in my pottery classes. It’s just creative for its own sake, and using your hands to make something is incredible because all our work is obviously on the computer now. I’ve also become a full millennial hipster with my photography. I have a digital camera I love, but I’ve been buying small point-and-shoots that I keep in my handbag to just take pictures of my friends when we are out and about. It’s so lovely to develop them months later and see all the memories again. And then, always True Crime/Scam podcasts – it’s demented, but it’s how I fall asleep at night lol.