Thirty-two years into democracy, South Africa's advertising industry remains untransformed, with black-owned agencies capturing only a fraction of the country's vast marketing and communications economy. The industry is now valued at over R130 billion, but black-owned agencies receive barely 2% of this amount. This is according to Groovin Nchabeleng, founder and executive chairman of the Blueprint Group and chairperson of the Black Agencies Network Association (BANA).
Nchabeleng, who has spent three decades in the advertising industry, attributes the lack of transformation to the geography of decision-making. He says multinational clients select their advertising partners at global headquarters level, often long before any brief reaches South Africa. This means that multinational-linked agencies, which make up only about 10% of the total agency count, control roughly 80% of the sector's R130 billion revenue.
Despite the industry employing thousands of black professionals, the workforce has not translated into black economic ownership. Nchabeleng says that roughly 80% of the sector's 2,000-plus agencies are majority black-owned, but the majority of these firms are small, exempted micro-enterprises turning over less than R10 million a year. In contrast, multinational-linked agencies control the largest budgets and make the key decisions.
Nchabeleng's own trajectory runs through the same industry he now criticizes. He entered advertising in 1995 and founded Blueprint in 1999, which has become one of the country's longest-standing 100%-black-owned communications groups. His survival strategy has rested on a mix of local private-sector clients, state-owned entities, and non-core communications services.
The issue of racial mobilisation and its critics has been raised, with some arguing that an advocacy body organised explicitly around race is outdated. However, Nchabeleng rejects this framing, drawing a comparison to how Afrikaner capital built itself through deliberate, coordinated policy in an earlier era. He argues that disparity does not correct itself and that deliberate intervention is necessary to normalise transformation.
BANA has opened talks with the Association of Communication and Advertising (ACA), the industry body dominated by multinational agencies. Any measurable outcome will depend on the Sector Code's monitoring and evaluation framework translating research findings into enforceable change. The MAC Sector Code has conducted new research, which puts the sector's value at over R130 billion and its workforce at roughly 15,000 professionals across more than 2,000 agencies.
The issue of artificial intelligence (AI) has also been raised, with Nchabeleng describing AI adoption as unavoidable. He says clients now routinely require AI to be part of a pitch, and agencies are expected to tell clients when creative work has been AI-generated. The industry is still grappling with the implications of AI, but Nchabeleng believes that agencies that ignore it will be overtaken by it.
Key points
- Black-owned agencies receive barely 2% of South Africa's vast marketing and communications economy.
- Multinational-linked agencies control roughly 80% of the sector's R130 billion revenue.
- The industry's lack of transformation is attributed to the geography of decision-making, with multinational clients selecting their advertising partners at global headquarters level.
