Client

Creative Agency

Media Agency

My Role

Reach

Engagements

Finalist Entries

Teal Hogg, Ade Van Heerden, Koinonia Baloyi

Finalists

Winner

Zoe_67fdd4e018.webm

large_teal_hogg_53d4f47b5f.png

medium_teal_hogg_53d4f47b5f.png

small_teal_hogg_53d4f47b5f.png

thumbnail_teal_hogg_53d4f47b5f.png

teal_hogg_53d4f47b5f.png

Misty_Copeland_transcode_1adc21f06e.webm

thumbnail_nxt_new_logo.png

nxt_new_logo.png

L'Oréal

Reckitt Benckiser

Sasfin Bank

Under Armour

WCBS

Media & Search Specialist

### ✍ **Project Overview**

My Proactive Ideas Crew and I were working late one evening. We were brainstorming random ideas which we thought would be really fun to execute. This was one of the ideas which sprung up from this late night session. We wanted to increase the blood donor count in the Western Cape using only organic media and our blood donors app. We wanted existing donors to invite their friends to donate blood using a unique code generated by the user. This would be the beginning of their bloodline.

Users would be split into 3 tiers. The first tier was reserved for users you managed to sign up directly. The second tier was reserved for users who your direct affiliates had signed up as blood donors. The third tier was reserved for users who were signed up by your second tier affiliates. This 3 tier system was the basic outline for the bloodline.

Unfortunately this idea was never implemented due to budget constraints.

Bloodlines

### ✍ **Project Overview**

This idea sprung up when the Proactive Ideas Crew went and had a night out on the town. We were walking through the streets of Cape Town at night and were staggered by the homeless situation around us.

Doorways on the streets were filled with sometimes more than 5 people at a time. We decided that we wanted to use our skills to help raise awareness around the situation and get people to start helping out. We wanted to build a property site modeled off of the Airbnb design, where users would browse for a new place to stay. Each property image showcased a different doorway. Each property also had their own unique list of features. All of these properties would be listed for free.

Instead of being able to book a room or rent a home, the user was met with the story of the person who was living in the doorway being advertised. They would also be met with the option to either donate or volunteer.

Homeless

### ✍ **Project Overview**

This campaign was a global campaign which we localised in South Africa. It celebrated Under Armour's female athletes by using visual techniques and poetic odes to elevate their athletic performance. The goal was to elevate Under Armour's athletes and inspire all females to be UNLIKE ANY. We localised this campaign in South Africa and went on a mission to find local ambassadors for the brand. We managed to acquire 3 incredibly strong candidates - Teal Hogg (Winner), Ade van Heerden, and Koinonia Baloyi.

Unlike Any

South Africa

Analytics

Media Strategy

Paid Media

Training

Sports Equipment

under_armour_32eacf0c0a.svg

large_Unlike_Any_1e990109c3.PNG

medium_Unlike_Any_1e990109c3.PNG

small_Unlike_Any_1e990109c3.PNG

thumbnail_Unlike_Any_1e990109c3.PNG

Unlike_Any_1e990109c3.PNG

**✍ Project Overview**

The World Gold Council needed to understand whether their marketing spend was actually working, and if so, then how much, on which channels, and with what lag. Gold is a considered purchase driven by macroeconomic sentiment as much as brand preference, which makes it a uniquely complex environment for marketing effectiveness modelling. I was tasked with building a Marketing Mix Model from the ground up to give WGC the ability to answer these questions with statistical confidence.

**📐 Building the Model**

The model was built in Python on Google Colab, using a multivariate regression framework with adstock transformations to account for the carry-over effect of media exposure over time, and saturation curves to capture diminishing returns at higher spend levels. Each channel was modelled individually before being combined into a unified model, allowing us to isolate the contribution of paid media from baseline sales drivers like macroeconomic conditions, gold price fluctuations, and seasonality.

**📊 The Google Sheets Effectiveness Layer**

Alongside the Python model, I developed a complementary effectiveness multiplier model in Google Sheets, designed to make the outputs accessible and actionable for non-technical stakeholders. This layer translated the regression outputs into channel-level ROI scores, budget scenario planning tools, and spend optimisation recommendations that the client could interrogate directly without needing to touch the underlying code.

**🔍 Benchmarking Against Meridian**

The model's methodology and outputs were benchmarked against Google Meridian, Google's open-source MMM framework. This validation exercise gave WGC confidence that the approach was methodologically sound and comparable to best-in-class industry standards, while also surfacing where the bespoke model offered advantages specific to their business context.

**📚 We Learned**

1. How to build a full MMM pipeline in Python, from raw data ingestion to model output.  
2. How to apply adstock and saturation transformations to media variables in a regression framework.  
3. How to isolate paid media contribution from macroeconomic and seasonal baseline drivers.  
4. How to translate complex statistical outputs into accessible planning tools for non-technical stakeholders.  
5. How to benchmark a bespoke model against an industry-standard framework (Google Meridian).  
6. How modelling for a considered, macro-sensitive category like gold differs from FMCG or direct-response contexts.

Marketing Mix Modelling

**✍ Project Overview**

Pi, built by Inflection AI, was the world's first emotionally intelligent AI companion. The product was unlike anything that had been launched before, which meant the launch strategy had to be equally unconventional. AKQA was tasked with introducing Pi to the world through social media in a way that felt genuinely human, not like a product announcement. The answer was simple: don't talk about Pi. Let Pi talk.

**💬 The Core Idea**

Rather than broadcasting what Pi could do, the strategy put Pi directly into real conversations across platforms, responding to people the way it would in an actual one-to-one interaction. The launch became a demonstration, not a declaration. Every comment Pi left, every thread it joined, every reply it sent was the product proving its own value in real time.

**📐 A Platform for Every Dimension**

A full channel strategy was developed across seven platforms, each given a distinct role in Pi's social presence. Twitter was Pi's home for cultural moments and real-time wit. Instagram was built around warmth and one-to-one connection. TikTok gave Pi its sense of humour through pop culture video formats. Facebook served as a community resource for people who needed support. LinkedIn positioned Pi as a thinking partner. YouTube hosted longer-form conversations. Tertiary platforms including Reddit, Discord, and Twitch extended Pi's reach into communities where authentic, unfiltered dialogue already happened naturally.

**🎭 Defining Pi's Voice**

A six-dimension tone of voice framework defined how Pi showed up: Curious, Supportive, Humble, Welcoming, Humorous, and Intelligent. Each dimension was calibrated differently per platform, giving Pi a consistent personality that could flex its expression depending on context without ever feeling inconsistent or manufactured.

**🤝 Community and Influence**

Detailed community engagement rules governed how Pi entered and exited conversations: response speed, which threads to join, when to go deeper and when to close, and a clear escalation path from public comment to private one-to-one conversation. An influencer tiering strategy ran from nano to mega, with named targets across each tier, ensuring Pi's reach extended beyond organic discovery from day one.

Hey Pi

**✍ Project Overview**

Twelve South is a Nashville-born tech accessories brand, known for premium Apple-adjacent products like AirFly and Butterfly. Despite strong product recognition, the brand had a fundamental problem: customers knew the products but not the brand behind them. AirFly was outpacing Twelve South itself in search equity. AKQA was engaged to develop a growth strategy to address this, and to position the brand for significant commercial scale.

**🔍 The Core Finding**

Twelve South was competing in the wrong tier. The brand sat uncomfortably between design-forward and disruptive, without owning either position clearly. The strategic opportunity was to move upmarket into the accessible luxury segment occupied by brands like Dyson, Rimowa, and Herman Miller, targeting consumers who care deeply about the objects they use every day. That insight became the foundation of the brand framework: Twelve South as the only tech accessories brand for those who care enough.

**👥 Audience Prioritisation**

Six audience segments were identified and mapped against acquisition efficiency and revenue potential. Frequent Travelers, Apple Consumers, and Luxury Consumers emerged as the highest-value targets. A saturation model sequenced spend across these segments to maximise return at each stage of investment, avoiding the common mistake of spreading budget evenly across audiences with very different conversion economics.

**📐 The Investment Case**

The data revealed a reverse funnel dynamic: weak brand awareness was creating drag on performance media ROI, while owned and retail channels were significantly outperforming. The recommendation was a phased investment approach, sequenced to prove the model at lower spend before committing to a full brand campaign and platform redesign. The strategy gave Twelve South a clear, evidence-led path from where they were to where they needed to be.

Twelve South Growth Strategy