Nurturing Creativity in Business

In a world dominated by sameness, speed, and scale, creativity has become a crucial differentiator. Yet in many organisations, it's still treated as a luxury, rather than a business essential.

The third session of the Marketing Masterclass Series, hosted by eatbigfish Africa, MASA, ACA, and Daily Maverick, took a deeper look at what it really takes to nurture creativity in business today.

The hosts, David Blyth and Khaya Dlanga of eatbigfish Africa, were joined by two seasoned leaders in the South African creative landscape:

• Gillian Rightford, Executive Director of the ACA, lead for the Effie Awards South Africa, founder of Adtherapy and School of Thought.
• Carl Willoughby, Chief Creative Officer at TBWA and Chairperson of the Creative Circle.

Together, they explored the current state of creativity in marketing and advertising, and the structural, cultural, and leadership changes required to unlock its full value.

Creativity is a commercial lever, not a luxury

Creativity is often misunderstood as a “nice-to-have” or a tool for embellishment. But data presented during the session told a different story. While brand size is the most significant driver of advertising efficiency, improving profitability by a factor of 20, creativity is the second most powerful factor, and the most actional lever for marketers, boosting outcomes by a factor of 12.

If growth is what every marketer wants, then creativity must be in their toolkit.

The real problem isn’t a lack of creativity, but the environment in which it is expected to operate. As noted - there isn’t a crisis in creativity, but rather a crisis in the industry around how creativity is bought, sold, valued, and remunerated. Many agencies are struggling to get brave ideas across the line, and even when they do, they’re often not rewarded accordingly.

Fear is the enemy

One of the session’s core themes was that risk aversion is stifling creative excellence. The rise of crowd-sourced opinions and bloated approval processes being two of the biggest threats to effective creative work. More people are involved in sign-offs, often diluting strong ideas into safe, forgettable content.

Speakers urged marketers to say yes to the work that makes them feel uncomfortable, referencing a panel at Cannes where both the CMO and CFO of a global brand agreed that creative discomfort is a necessary ingredient for success.

Rather than fearing creativity, marketers need to fear its absence.

Build psychological safety and protect the process

Creativity doesn’t thrive in fear-based environments. It requires psychological safety, where teams feel empowered to take risks, test ideas, and challenge the status quo.

You can’t rush brilliance. Good creative work needs time, energy, and collaboration. When clients and creative teams spend meaningful time together, especially during product ideation, briefs improve, understanding deepens, and the resulting work is stronger and more resilient.

This kind of integration helps reduce miscommunication, makes the briefing process more intuitive, and allows for quicker, more courageous decision-making.

Creativity needs to be strategic

To be valued internally, creativity must be seen not as decoration, but as direction. It was emphasised that marketers need to embrace creativity as a strategic tool. That means understanding it, learning how to talk about it in commercial terms, and using it to reduce, not increase, risk.

Too often, ideas fail not because they’re wrong, but because they’re not positioned clearly enough within a business context. Creative thinking must be connected to business outcomes, customer value, and long-term growth. The better marketers get at framing their ideas in this way, the more likely they are to be championed by leadership.

Flatten the approval chain

Another recurring frustration voiced by the guests was the growing number of stakeholders involved in creative sign-offs. The current approval process is often so bloated and inefficient, that it leads to compromise rather than clarity.

The solution? Supercharge the relationship between creatives and decision-makers. Draw fewer lines between creators and approvers, and build direct, trusting relationships with those who can say “yes” to bold ideas.

The goal is to move work swiftly and decisively from idea to impact, without it being diluted along the way.

Surprise, delight and scare us

One of the session’s most memorable soundbites came from Gillian Rightford, quoting her former colleague Matthew Bull: “Surprise, delight and scare me. If you surprise and delight the consumer - you have nothing to be scared of.”

The panel echoed this sentiment, advocating for marketers and agencies to back bolder, braver ideas. “Do more scary stuff,” said Willoughby. “That’s where the magic often lies.”

Creating a culture where discomfort is not just tolerated but embraced is vital for producing work that cuts through noise and earns attention.

Advice for marketers 

The session closed with some simple but powerful guidance for marketers:

• Embrace discomfort. The best work often feels uncertain at first. Trust the process.
• Invest time. Spend more time with your creative partners. Let them into your world, and step into theirs.
• Be decisive. Make the call. Don’t rely on consensus.
• Learn about creativity. Understand how it works, and what it needs to thrive in your organisation.
• Streamline sign-offs. Build strong relationships with decision-makers and keep the flow of work unobstructed.

The Marketing Masterclass Series continues on 14 August, with a session focused on building brand power.

To register and stay updated, visit events.dailymaverick.co.za and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing in South Africa. DM