The work behind the work: choosing directors, protecting ideas and trusting instinct
IDIDTHAT and Heineken Beverages presents I SAID THAT, the Q&A series featuring South Africa’s top creative talent.
Chantelle Dos Santos has spent the last 18 years making ads for some of the biggest brands, while obsessing over the kind of details most people never consciously notice, but absolutely feel. An art director at heart and now Creative Director at Bananas, she brings a mix of craft and hard-earned perspective to the work, with a belief that the tiniest of choices can make the biggest difference. In this conversation, she shares what she looks for in directors, the marketer relationships that elevate the work, the South African campaign she still wishes she’d made, and why overthinking can quietly kill a great idea.
Chantelle has worked across some of South Africa’s biggest brands, learning first-hand that great work rarely comes from playing it safe. From stepping into leadership roles to helping shape career-defining campaigns like KFC ‘Anything for the Taste’, those experiences have sharpened her belief that instinct matters and that the work is always better when the people behind it are too.
“The best directors make you go, ‘How did we miss that?'”
Q: When you’re choosing a director, what are you looking for, and what gives you pause?
Chantelle: I’m looking for someone who can make the idea feel bigger than it is on the page.
Not just someone who can make it look beautiful. That’s important, but it’s not enough. I want someone who reads the script, gets the tension, gets the joke, gets the little human quirk, and then finds that extra thing we didn’t even know was there.
The best directors make you go, “How, how did we miss that?”
They find the moment people will remember. The awkward/comedic pause, the weird casting choice, the random origami chicken calling card. That one thing that turns a script into something people actually talk about and remember (especially my mom).
Q: When do you back an up-and-coming director over a proven one?
Chantelle: It depends on so many things: the script, the client relationship, the brand, and the tone of the work.
A proven director gives you comfort, which is sometimes exactly what you need. But an up-and-coming director can bring a different kind of perspective, energy, and hunger. In the end it’s about understanding what the job needs.
KFC ‘Beyond the Sea’
KFC ‘Beyond the Sea’ received multiple craft mentions at the IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards, including recognition for Kim Geldenhuys’s direction, alongside editing, grading, production design and VFX craft, awarded by Creative Director Juliet Honey and Justine Puren-Calverley.
Q: What do you wish more directors understood about working with agencies and clients?
Chantelle: What I wish more directors understood is that by the time the script gets to them, it’s already been through the wringer. Countless reverts, debates, compromises, small heartbreaks, and people saying “quick tweak” when they absolutely do not mean quick.
My writer always said there are three versions of every script: the one you first fall in love with, the one that comes back from the client slightly bruised, and the one that finally gets made. That final version can be a beautiful surprise or simply something you learn from.
So, what we need from a director isn’t another critique of the work but a partner who can help protect and strengthen what’s still alive in it.
Q: What’s one piece of South African work you wish you’d done?
Chantelle: There are so many incredible pieces of work but if we’re keeping it to film, I’d have to say Allan Gray, ‘Beautiful’. It’s a masterpiece, and something I wish I’d made. Even now, when I think of it, I immediately start humming “Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi.”
Allan Gray ‘Beautiful’
Q: What’s something in your own body of work that you’re super proud of?
Chantelle: I have pieces of work I love for different reasons, but if I had to choose one, it would probably be KFC ‘Anything for the Taste.’
KFC ‘Anything for the Taste’
KFC ‘Anything For The Taste’ received Best in Craft for Greg Gray’s direction, alongside a Craft Mention for editing by Ricky Boyd at the IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards, awarded by ECD at FCB Tian van den Heever and Head of Production at Chocolate Tribe Rob van den Bragt.
Chantelle: It was one of those rare projects where everything felt like it had the right kind of madness behind it. A brave client, a brave team and a brand that gave us room to make something genuinely entertaining.
It was a career-defining piece for me. Not just because it was my first big piece of work as a Creative Director, but because of what it represented: stepping into that role and making something we cared about with people who really cared about it too.
Winning big at Loeries for KFC
Q: Who is a marketer you’ve loved working with – what made that relationship work so well?
Chantelle: It’s important for creatives to develop real relationships with their clients and not just leave it up to client service. I had that with Grant Macpherson. He’s someone I loved working with because he allowed me to be honest, properly honest. He always heard me out, even when we didn’t see things the same way, which was often. We fought for the work, but never in a way that felt undermining. There was trust, respect, and space to disagree, which is rare, and that’s where the best work comes from.
Chantelle says, ‘The photo captures a dinner during our shoot, where I shared my mom’s motto with the KFC team: “Focus and shine.”
Q: What kills a great idea before it gets made?
Chantelle: Overthinking. The minute I put too much doubt into it, I start self-sabotaging. I question the thing that made me like it in the first place, and suddenly the idea starts losing its nerve.
I’m learning to trust that the creation is in the making. Sometimes you have to stop interrogating the idea and let it go do something weird.
Chantelle at Cannesl Lions 2025 with Open Chair
Q: What’s the biggest shift you’ve seen in how work gets made across your career?
Chantelle: The mad pace of it all. The time between thinking, selling, making, and putting something out into the world has almost disappeared. There’s less room for real craft: to sit with an idea, pull it apart, make it better, and push it further. The pressure is often on getting it out there, and you can see that in the final piece.
Q: How do you keep your own taste intact in an industry that rewards speed and volume?
Chantelle: I think taste comes through in the smaller choices you still make under pressure, a sharper line, the crop of an image, a more considered font, making the title 10% smaller (always) or holding a shot a few frames longer.
For me, it’s about knowing when to fight and holding onto your standards without becoming precious. Moving quickly, but finding small wins where you can.
Castle Lager ‘Here’s to the fans that stood the test of time’
Castel Lager ‘Here’s to the fans that stood the test of time’ is the latest offering from Chantelle, her team at Bananas and the good folks at Retroviral. Directed by Giant Films’ Paul Ward, the spot recreates soccer history, decade by decade. From 1996 to 2026. No archival footage, just craft.
Q: AI… how are you practically using it in your day-to-day and has it come up with any great ad ideas yet?
Chantelle: AI has been a very different experience in a big agency versus a start-up. In a start-up, you use it more instinctively. As an art director, I mostly use it to visualise ideas and mock things up faster. At Bananas, there are only two art directors, Sean and me, and Chelsea, my AI Generative Assistant, gives me extra creative capacity. It doesn’t do the job for you. It clears the table faster, so you can get to the part that actually needs a human being.
Q: Now that you’ve joined the team at Bananas, what excites you about making work here?
Chantelle: What I love about working at Bananas is that it’s this small, slightly crazy mix of people who seem to be wired in a similar way. People who care deeply, move quickly, and are willing to get their hands dirty to make something better. It’s collaborative in a way I haven’t experienced before, because everyone is close enough to the work to really shape it. There’s something exciting about that. It makes the work feel alive.
The Bananas – Sean Harrison, Chantelle, Justin Gomes and Saf Sindhi
Q: If you could speak to your junior creative self, what would you say?
Chantelle: You’re going to meet some of the most amazing people in this industry. Don’t get stuck with the wrong ones, there are plenty of those too. The right ones will make you better, call you out when you need it, back you when it matters, and remind you that the work is better when the people are too.
Q: What are you binging or obsessed with right now – TV, movie, music, podcast
Chantelle: I know I should probably say something industry-related, but I’m going to be honest and sound semi-middle-aged: true-crime doccies, podcasts, all of it.
Produced by the IDIDTHAT Content Studio
Credits: Anne Hirsch / Julie Maunder
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