Happy Ntshingila’s rise to fame as an
advertising guru is the bedtime story that most wannabe South African
advertisers grow up on. In 2006 the charismatic marketer went from managing
director of HerdBuoys McCann-Erickson to Absa group’s marketing executive, and
since 2008 he has sat on Absa’s board as Executive Director: Marketing and
Communication.
Chosen as South Africa’s Marketing Person
of the Year in 2007, Ntshingila is responsible for Absa’s government relations
and the Absa Group’s communications and public relations, BEE, corporate social
investment, marketing and customer experience.
Born in Soweto in 1960, Ntshingila graduated
from the University of Fort Hare with a Bachelor of Arts in communications in
1983. He began his career the following year, starting out in Durban at the
Unilever Group in sales and marketing.
In 1985 he took the opportunity to move
back closer to home to keep an eye on his mother, who had taken ill, and took a
position at IBM, first as an editor, then as media liaison, and finally as a
communications specialist.
Working at IBM was the closest Ntshingila, the
eldest child with two sisters and a brother, got to his childhood goal of being
a hardcore journalist.
He then moved to Tiger Brands where he
worked in public relations for King Korn before joining to Oglivy & Mather
as an account manager. There Ntshingila worked on brands like Joko tea, Royco,
Mrs Ball’s Chutney, Tastic Rice and Steers.
“I really enjoyed advertising. It just
gelled with me,” says Ntshingila.
In 1991, after four years at Oglivy &
Mather, Ntshingila and two partners, Peter Vundla and Dimape Serenyane, started
their own advertising agency HerdBuoys. “We didn’t have any clients. Just a
serious belief in ourselves and our abilities,” says Ntshingila.
Ntshingila adds that the trio had the
difficulties faced by all business start-up, plus additional barriers to entry
as the first black owned and managed advertising agency in the country. He says
they had to work twice as hard to prove their worth – and they did just that,
and more. HerdBuoys went on to change the landscape of advertising in South
Africa.
HerdBuoys’ rags to riches story is so colourful
and intriguing that Ntshingila has written a book about it. Black Jerusalem tracks the events and
people who shaped HerdBuoys. With characteristic wit and flair, Ntshingila give
a no-holds-barred account of working through the night, pretending to have an
office, and buying a TV minutes before a crucial presentation. It’s fast paced,
irreverent, and conveys Ntshingila’s energy and determination which is an
important ingredient in his recipe for success.
By 2005 HerdBuoys had merged with McCann-Erickson
and was ranked amongst the top 10 advertising companies in the industry.
HerdBuoys made ads for South African Breweries, Coca-Cola, Vodacom, General
Motors, and Telkom to name only a few.
Ntshingila, who heads to the gym to work
off the stress, concedes that the hardest challenge he’s had to face has not
been with a client or an intimidating presentation in a packed boardroom.
Ntshingila says it was the death of his
mother in 1989. “A part of me died too – at the time I did not know how to
cope,” he says. His work suffered and he lost all motivation until he
eventually took stock of his life and decided to turn a bad situation around. This
was an important life lesson for Ntshingila and he says he’s always been able
to walk into tough situations since then knowing he has the strength to deal
with it.
He has brought his strength, love for life
and abundant energy to Absa.
For Ntshingila the great thing about the
banking industry is the diverse range of people it deals with. You can go from
talking to students, to putting out a totally different message for the money
markets, and then communicate with people who’ve never had a bank account
before, he explains.
His work is exciting and challenging. “There
is also a lot of innovation happening in the banking industry with the shift to
mobile payments and Internet banking,” says Ntshingila.
The global economic crisis has had an
impact on Ntshingila’s work. As with many other businesses, his marketing
budget has been cut. The budget is still “quite hefty” but the focus is now on
achieving more, with less. There’s also been a changed in the communication
focus with the message being one of prudence. We’re emphasising savings, debt
counselling and budgeting, he says.
