CORPORATE INTERVIEW
Xolisa Dyeshana, A Creative
at Heart
By Billy Etale
A
dvertising is a discipline. Like
medicine, law or banking, it is
not just another pastime; it is a
vocation. But as Xolisa Dyeshana laments,
there is always a disconnect between
the expectations of advertisers and the
output of copywriters who are tasked to
creatively actualize the desires of brand
managers. Often times, the foregoing has
put marketers and advertising creatives on
a collision course. He advises that there
should be more synergy between the two
professions to realise the aspirations of
both.
Xolisa has had it all. He studied graphic
design in Cape Town as he could not
afford the dear fees that the few colleges
that teach advertising creative design in
South Africa demand. Upon completion of
his studies, he could not get employment
in his field of training and thus ended up
working in a call centre for over a year in
the same city.
His big break came in 2006 when FCB
- the largest advertising agency in SA -
sought for a copy writer: He applied and
was taken despite the position not being
his field of specialization.
“It has been a long challenging journey
since then,” offers Xolisa who is currently
the Chairperson of the Creative Circle
- the highest decision-making body for
advertising creativity in South Africa. “It
has not been rosy. I have had to smoothen
cracks to rise up the ranks but I believe in
myself and work hard so my position today
is courtesy of a culmination of numerous
lessons and years of toiling,” he says.
Xolisa, who was in Nairobi recently as
the chief judge of the 2017 Advertising
Practitioners Awards (APA) observers
that Kenya has great creatives but they are
in the minority.
One of the aspirations of APA is to
uplift the standards of creative work in
Africa and spur growth in the advertising
creativity industry. The awards are held
Looking closer at the brand we realized that we
shouldn’t be thinking of the dairy farmer as the
market. Here we are talking about a brand that
has transcended categories from being a veteri-
nary product to personal care and now baby care.
30 MAL21/17 ISSUE
in accordance with strict laid down
procedures that bring out the best in
the works presented. “The awards are
impeccable; they are done in an extremely
diligent and fair manner. The jury is totally
independent and prejudices have no place
in decision making,” Xolisa points out.
The awards are done in two rounds.
Round One is about deciding which
works qualify and the ones to be thrown
out. Round Two involves discussing what
may have been erroneously left out, rating
and awarding of points.
The works that earn between zero and
49 points do not win any awards; those
that earn between 50 and 59 earn bronze;
between 60 and 69 get silver while those
with 70 and above are rated gold. The
stages of the process are undertaken
in rigorous consultation among all the
members of the sitting jury.
On the obtaining status of advertising
and creativity in Africa, Xolisa opines that
there is a huge ground for integration of
the new into the old. “With the advent of
digital and mobile platforms, marketing
and more so advertising has greatly
changed but we need to holistically look at
advertising opportunities; from tradition
to the current state to create a seamless
story of a brand,” he remarks.