FNB x PnP: "iCONIC DUO, EPIC REWARDS"

Year: 2025
For: FNB × Pick n Pay
Role: Concept, cultural framing, writing

South Africans are under pressure, but we don’t narrate our lives like victims.

We survive through humour. Through shorthand.
Through combinations that only make sense to us, here.

Like Nik Naks and white bread.
Rusks and rooibos.
Loadshedding and candlelight dinners.

We turn to healthy forms of culture, not coping.

To drive card usage and acquisition for the FNBxPnP partnership by creating a campaign that makes the benefit feel simple, human and impossible to ignore.

Rewards programmes usually speak in maths.

Percentages. Cashback. Points.

But South Africans don’t experience value numerically: we experience it relationally.

The challenge was: How do I make a financial partnership feel like a cultural one?

We treated FNB and Pick n Pay the way South Africans treat everything that works: As an iconic duo. Like Karabo & Archie. Like Siya & Eben.

Instead of explaining benefits, we placed the partnership inside a long lineage of Mzansi pairings that just work, even when logic says they shouldn’t.

The brand didn’t announce itself.
It recognised itself.

Iconic Duo, Epic Rewards.

I relied on cultural humour here because it is precise. Miss it and you’re out.

There was risk and opportunity in:

• referencing real behaviours
• using affection instead of authority
• trusting that people would “get it” without explanation

Brand: Game
Year: 2023
Category: Retail / Festive
Tone: Warm, distinctly South African, magic realism
Objective: Drive emotional connection and festive footfall during Christmas.

In South Africa, “Compliments of the season” isn’t just a phrase, it’s a blessing. A shared language of goodwill that makes even strangers smile

Human Truth:
When you compliment something, it grows. When you compliment someone, they shine.

In a country that often carries heavy news, small affirmations can feel like magic.

• Emotional Hook: Instead of hard-selling, the campaign leaned into soft power to sell: kindness, community, shared joy.
   
• Cultural Relevance: Using a phrase deeply embedded in South African festive vernacular grounds the idea in something people already feel.
   
• Magic Realism: A storytelling device that captures the intangible power of kindness in a tangible way.
   
• Retail Connection: Game becomes the place where compliments live: a retail space that equips South Africans to make each other feel special.

COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON (From GAME)

Execution: A little girl whispers a compliment to a humble tree. The tree grows taller, stronger, more beautiful — and soon the entire neighbourhood joins in. Compliments spread. So does joy. So does the season.
And in the middle of it all, Game is there to help make the moments real.

Brand: Dairy Gives You Go (Dairy Group)
Medium: Radio
Tone: Comedic, over-the-top, rhythmic, proudly local

Objective: Cement recall and memorability by exaggerating the brand promise in the most unexpected, ridiculous ways.

South Africans have never been more multi-hyphenate than they are today. That means they needs the energy to be able to. 

Category Truth:
Dairy is a natural, affordable, everyday energy source, but people have forgotten that. So, we reminded them of it.

Emotional Truth:
We often underestimate our own energy, and the simple things that power it.

• Functional + Emotional Hook: By linking dairy to everyday human energy, the brand moves beyond being just a food group, it becomes a fuel for living.
   
• Cultural Relevance: South Africans are always “on the go.” This campaign meets them in all these places, in a gym in a lab,  in taxis, classrooms, homes, and dreams.
   
• Reframing: Instead of shouting health facts, we celebrate the lived experience of energy.
   

DAIRY GIVES YOU MORE GO THAN YOU KNOW!