INNOVATE™ South Africa

We were never just advertising people wanting to do big TV ads, we were entrepreneurs wanting to build brands and businesses. We were also very inexperienced and naïve and while that made things much more challenging in the early years, it has made us more effective the more time has...

Where do brands and marketers look to understand middle-class consumers go to find actionable, realistic, useful data? That was the question the team at WhyFive Insights asked almost a decade ago when they launched a unique annual survey and data set called BrandMapp. “We were working in media at the...

We partner with entrepreneurs across Africa who are experts in their fields, supporting them in an enabling, energising collaborative environment. We have partnered with agencies that operate independently and have their own P&L, however, our philosophy is built on principles of seamless collaboration. As such our solutions are agnostic and...

Throw in some “What if…” blue sky thinking, a good dollop of youth and passion and Cinevation was born. It was 1997 and cinemas were 35mm which meant advertising took months to produce and was so expensive that it was reserved only for the big guys. Over a glass of...

Gabi Lowe and Pippa Shaper are Certified Life Coaches – experts in creating and teaching Authentic Resilience. Their mission is to train people to learn the tools and skills of authentic resilience, to recover from difficulties; to equip them with strategies to endure and overcome life’s challenges with a sustainable...

Innovation is the lifeblood of Daily Maverick – from its origins as a print magazine featuring long-form current affairs, to its current form as a digital news publisher with more than five million unique visitors every month.   Founded by Editor-in-chief Branko Brkic and CEO Styli Charalambous in 2009, eagle-eyed...

Established in 2010 as the incarnation of the South African venture capital division of ‘Here Be Dragons’ – a privately owned emerging market investment group founded by internet entrepreneur and cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth. By leveraging knowledge, networks & funding, Knife Capital accelerates the international expansion of entrepreneurial businesses that achieved...

A painting pig from Farm Sanctuary SA is hogging the limelight and inspiring animal lovers to make the connection between what they eat and the industries that they support.   When South African Joanne Lefson rescued a small piglet from a local industrialized hog facility in 2016, she knew this...

Using Michael Porter’s cluster theory as a cornerstone of its strategy, CiTi designed interventions to grow, transform and enable a leading digital economy on the continent.   CiTi’s interventions have been acknowledged to have supported South Africa’s charge to the top of the inaugural fDi Africa “Tech Ecosystems of the...

Bank Zero is a unique and powerful App-based bank with Zero fees and a patented secure card. It caters for both individuals and businesses. Digital, social and financial connectedness is a reality and it’s also a very human trait. Bank Zero supports this directly in its innovative design. By friending...

Intuitively Innovative Mediology is South Africa’s largest independent integrated media and digital marketing agency. Founded in a media-agency-sea-of-sameness, Mediology distinguished itself by harnessing the science of media planning, fusing it with insights and wrapping it around the big ideas that differentiate brands. Thereby enhancing brand stories and narratives by placing...

Kudoti was founded in 2019, offering a tailored solution based on our clients sustainability goals and offers an end-to-end solution from developing strategy with our clients, implementation thereof, and right through to tracking and tracing and reporting, enabling brands to become fully circular through real-time data. Unlike solutions from outside...

INNOVATION IN THE PORT SECTOR Innovate to Compete Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), a division of Transnet SOC Ltd is responsible for the operations of 16 port terminals across seven of South Africa’s ports. More than 9,000 employees work diligently every day to ensure that containers, cars, bulk, and break-bulk cargo...

BRAVE IDEAS ARE WHAT ENABLES A BRAND TO RELENTLESSLY CAPTURE THE ATTENTION AND LOYALTY OF CONSUMERS.   Creating a partnership based on shared responsibility enables clients and their agencies to build brands that become permanent fixtures in the hearts and minds of consumers. It is a philosophy and way of...

What began as an unfurnished open space on the fourth floor of The Hudson Building in De Waterkant, Cape Town, with 13 people in 2010, is today a growing agency with over 250 talented, creative and diverse people, across a Cape Town and Johannesburg campus, and an agency that has...

Reco. Was founded in 2017 with only one dream, one application. one vision, and that is to create a tool to enhance and help financial advisors’ workflow. Our core vision expanding to providing solutions to complete the circle with, technology – Insurance and telecommunication to businesses and organisations.   The...

Building Resilience Builds CompetitivenessWesgro is the official tourism, trade, investment and film promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape. It serves as the first point of contact for foreign investors and local companies. In addition, this agency attracts and facilitates national and international investment, works to grow the...

By leveraging the natural generosity inherent in maker culture, the project is able to unlock a new level of efficiency in skills transfer. Creating a safe environment where anyone can learn to use new technologies, where experienced professionals can share their knowledge and help the next generation. Makers” make things,...

Let’s start at the beginningBack in 2009, Programmatic ad buying was in its infancy locally, despite its success being celebrated internationally. This spurred on the birth of Mark1, a company that would go on to pioneer technology and data-driven media buying in the South African market. Fast forward to 2020,...

When Michelin star chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen first laid eyes on Boscia House, a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse situated at the beautiful Tswalu Kalahari in the Northern Cape, he saw the vastness of the region as a canvas on which to create something special. Worlds away from the beautiful waters...