Ordinarily, it should be old hat that a business organisation, even if it is one of the best in its industry, is majority black-owned, as the Jupiter Drawing Room is.
The agency’s press release Âwriters say it is “Africa’s largest, black-owned, independent advertising agency”. What is less subjective is that last month Jupiter was voted the AdÂFocus Ad Agency of the Year.
Jupiter is 57% black-owned following the coming on board of empowerment entity MSG Rimani in 2004.
If ever there was a sector in South Africa that should reflect the diversity of society, the ad industry’s case is incontrovertible.
As Jupiter’s deputy chairperson, Mohale Ralebitso, who joined the company last year from Liberty, where he was group marketing director, points out, there is as much a business arguement as there is a creative one for things not remaining as they are in the R45-billion-a-year industry.
The business case sounds simple enough. If everyone accepts that black talent is expensive, the elementary thing to do is ask why.
“If you have 10 apples and society wants 100 apples, the price of the 10 apples will appreciate by that factor. Blacks didn’t invent that principle,” he says in the simplest explanation yet of the supply-and-demand theory driving wages of talented blacks.
Ralebitso believes that business in general has not done enough to come to the skills party.
“We have not responded appropriately to improve skills through a demand-based approach expected of us, while complaining of a shortage of skills. The training and educational bodies can do only so much to provide essential skills. We have, through learnerships and other workplace-based training initiatives, to develop the skills we need to remain competitive and, where possible, create employment as we grow our businesses.
“But, alas, capital seems to still be on strike in South Africa, with foreign direct investment following the lead, even as our fundamentals suggest that South Africa should be enjoying more long-term investment, both local and foreign.
“The advertising industry has gone some way in embracing transformation intellectually and in principle.” The problem, he says, is that some in the industry are happy to pay their dues to the sector’s education obligations but miss the point of the skills levy — to increase the skills base to transform the sector.
“I am worried that the targets are too soft and foster a gradual, rather than a speedy, transformation. I am of the view that change in this area has been too slow and needs to be accelerated.
“The expectation that the marketing, advertising and communication sector would transform while wider industry remained stuck is silly and, even if achieved, would not see the South African economy being deracialised because the sector is small in comparison to the wider economy and sectors that it services.”
Ralebitso says too often discussion about transformation of the economy has focused on percentages: “We have graduated to discussing matters of principle and using those to inform the percentages within the broader context of building a society that works and, within that, conducting business in a manner that ensures sustainability, equal participation and respect for the high order values that gave rise to our Constitution.”
The other reason it is important to foster more diversity in the field is so that differences in culture and outlook can be harnessed.
“We are a new country with a fresh perspective. We should stop trying to impress people about how the same we are.”
Ralebitso dismisses the notion that, for Jupiter, its black-ownership credentials give it the prestige that comes with being the odd one out in the middle of an industry struggling to reflect a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it.
“If you ask me if I am happy that our level of black shareholding is higher than that of our competitors, the answer is no. We want them to be there as well. There are things we should not compete on. It shouldn’t just be about who can pay more.”