Nwabisa: A copywriter is a translator of human behaviour. We observe how people live, what they laugh at, what they fear, what they long for, and we turn those observations into something that moves them.

If you can land an idea in a way that feels both inevitable and surprising, you’re not just writing, you’re shaping perception. And that’s the real job. A good copywriter writes beautifully. A great one understands people deeply enough to write simply.

Nwabisa: You feel it before you can explain it. There’s a quiet certainty that settles in the room, when everyone has that knowing smile while their eyes dart around to each other searching for if everyone else feels it too.

I remember that feeling when my CD partner, Kevin Radebe, and I presented the idea for Savanna’s ‘We Outside’ campaign, specifically the ‘Mozzie‘ film, to our ECD Steph van Niekerk. It had been a tough few weeks trying to create something distinct enough to launch the new 500ml can while still sounding unmistakably Savanna.

But that Friday night, on that call, we all knew.
It scared us a little. The expressions, ‘wtf’ and ‘are we sure?’ were thrown around a few times. Which is usually a very good sign.

Savanna ‘Mozzies’

Nwabisa: The ad game in New York is not for the faint of heart. You have to love this work, because you often have to fight for it bright and early on a Monday morning after a weekend of grinding non-stop. So, I had to stop overthinking. Silly ideas don’t need to be hidden, just said out loud so you can open space to keep things moving.

Collaborating with Ava DuVernay’s team on Netflix’s ‘Colin in Black & White’ promo reminded me that storytelling carries responsibility. When culture is involved, nuance isn’t optional, and when Ava is reading your script, you gotta make it count. Working on projects like this, especially in a culturally sensitive country like the U.S., taught me the discipline required to create ideas that resonate at scale whilst acknowledging the weight of the subject matter. There is very little room for indulgence, every word must earn its place.

Colin In Black & White – ‘The Path is Power’ Official Teaser

Nwabisa worked on this while freelancing as a Creative Director at Netflix. 

As ACD on Optimum Nutrition, after winning the business across Europe and North America, that experience strengthened my strategic approach. I went from being a creative who just wanted to make cool stuff, to being a problem solver who approached each brief with curiosity. Because no matter who we were communicating with, in any country, good ideas don’t survive without strong foundations.

Optimum Nutrition

Nwabisa: A brief is a brief. So the difference isn’t really in the creative process, but rather what the team deems most important in that process. In many global markets, craft is non-negotiable. There’s a shared understanding that great work takes time, rigour, and collaboration.

What South Africa has, and what I’ll champion until the cows come home, is cultural texture. Our humour, our languages, our contradictions. You can’t manufacture that, and bringing that through in our copy and visual language tends to take precedence.

When you combine world-class craft with that kind of authenticity, the work becomes very difficult to ignore. And that’s the sweet spot I always strive to reach.

Nwabisa: Curiosity. The best directors don’t just protect the script, they expand it. They bring perspective you couldn’t have arrived at alone.
I look for people who are confident enough to challenge the work, but humble enough to serve it. Red flags tend to be the opposite – defensiveness, ego, or a lack of curiosity. Collaboration requires openness and vulnerability. 

Nwabisa: If it scares me a little but feels undeniable, I push. Fear is often a signal that you’re approaching something original.
I also ask myself a very honest question, “Would I be proud to have this represent my taste?” Awards are wonderful, but pride lasts longer.

Even when ideas don’t make it to the final stages of the process, anything that I felt passion for, I keep in my back-pocket and try again when the appropriate opportunity arises – could be on a different brief or a completely different client. 

I also fight for ideas when the team I’m leading seems to see something I don’t. I trust the people I work with, therefore I stay open. Great advertising only happens when teams feel safe enough to experiment, fail occasionally, and try again.

Nwabisa: That it’s an act of respect. Simply put, craft declares that the audience matters enough for us to obsess over the details.

Whether writing something playful for Cheetos or shaping something that carries more weight, I learned that refinement is how good ideas become unforgettable ones – one painful decision at a time.

Nwabisa: I go back to people. I watch how they move through the world because human behaviour will give you the most truthful insights and solutions. I start conversations and eavesdrop on ones I have no business in. 

And sometimes, stepping away feels productive. Clarity has a funny way of arriving when you stop chasing it.
Also, TikTok. Always TikTok.

Nwabisa: Emotional intelligence is underrated in our industry. The strongest creative partnerships are built on trust, the ability to disagree without destabilising the relationship.

Curiosity is another non-negotiable. Nobody knows everything, and the sooner we admit that, the more expansive the work becomes.

Nwabisa: Every piece of Adidas work I’ve ever been part of has reshaped how I think about collaboration.

I first worked on the business at Johannes Leonardo in New York, partnering with teams from across the world to build ideas at true global scale. These are not fast projects (some take months, even years) and during that time you’re working with a vast ecosystem of talented people, each bringing a perspective and, quite naturally, a desire to leave their signature on the work. It becomes an ongoing exercise in listening, negotiating, and evolving your own ways of working. 

Adidas ‘You Got This’

Years later when I joined the brand again at TBWANeboko in Amsterdam, our role was to develop the larger global platforms and then brief local markets to interpret them authentically. That process required more than logistical collaboration, it demanded strategic nuance and a deep sensitivity to tone, culture, and context.

As a writer, your instinct is often to protect the purity of the idea. Adidas taught me the value of letting go, of trusting external partners, and recognising that great global work isn’t diminished through collaboration, it’s strengthened by it.

Nwabisa: At this stage in my career, I’m less interested in making noise and more interested in making work that leaves a mark. On culture, on people, and on the teams creating it.

I am equally energised by leadership. Growing talent is not separate from the work; it is how the work gets better. When people feel supported, they take braver swings that produce iconic outcomes.

I’m also excited to be creating in a world I understand instinctively. Home is home. It is where my deepest and most honest insights come from. There is a fluency you cannot manufacture when you are speaking to your own people.

South Africa is a uniquely fertile market for communication. The rigid rules that often govern agencies in Europe and the U.S. simply do not hold the same power here. We are more flexible, more playful, and often more willing to take risks. That openness creates space for work that feels alive.

Nwabisa: As a Creative Director on Savanna, I promise this is not shameless brand loyalty talking, but honestly, the classic Savanna ads many of us grew up watching are hard to beat.

Savanna ‘Are Those Jack Russels?’

They were a masterclass in restraint. Beautifully simple, sharply observant, and unmistakably South African, yet never so insular that the humour could not travel. That balance is incredibly difficult to achieve.

What I’ve always admired is their intelligence. Even as a child (I’m very aware that I was absolutely not the target market) I understood why they were funny. Revisiting them as an adult, you start to see the layers. I admire the discipline it takes to land a joke without over-explaining it.

The thing about good comedy is that it looks effortless. It almost never is. Those ads did something else that I think our present-day industry can do more of. They trusted the audience. They did not shout for attention or rely on massive budgets. They simply presented a sharp human truth and let you arrive at the punchline yourself.

Now I have the privilege of helping carry that legacy forward. How unreal is that?!

Nwabisa: Do it scared. 

Early in my career, I underestimated my own voice. Many of us do before we realise the industry does not need replicas, it needs perspective. And every person has one, crafted by our unique lived experiences. And it’s incredibly valuable stuff when you have the gift to put it into words. 

I would tell her to trust her instincts sooner, move past her mistakes faster, and stop shrinking to fit rooms she already earned the right to be in. I would tell her to keep writing. Especially on the days it feels most difficult. Those are usually the days you get closer to your truth.

Finally, I would tell her to take more risks, because the courage to move forward despite fear would take her further than she could imagine. It would carry her across continents, into rooms she once only encountered in awards annals, and lead to being mentored by people she had long admired from a distance

P.S. My biggest flex is having a direct line to Jeff Goodby, who taught me, among other things, that growth rarely asks for readiness, it’s all about movement.

Nwabisa: As an industry, we’re at an interesting turning point.

AI is already changing copywriting in very real ways. At its best, it is a powerful support tool. But when it becomes a substitute for thinking, the work quickly loses clarity, tone, and human connection.

It is also shortening the distance between brief and execution and because of that it’s putting pressure on roles, particularly at junior levels. That uncertainty is real, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. When technology can generate language and imagery in seconds, it forces our industry to confront what it truly values. Efficiency is no longer the differentiator. Judgment, taste, discernment are.

These are all things that AI can’t replicate. It can’t sense when a line will land differently in Soweto than it does in Soho, and it can’t take responsibility for the social impact of the work it puts into the world.

AI can accelerate the process, but it cannot replace that instinctive shift in the room when everyone recognises you have something good. And that human recognition, curiosity, passion to push boundaries, and doing it despite fear still sits at the heart of great copywriting.