South African audio needs to evolve | Xolisa Dyeshana's key takeaways

Xolisa Dyeshana, chief creative officer and partner at Joe Public, gives lessons from his experience as 2025’s Cannes Audio & Radio jury president (Image by Danette Bretienbach © Bizcommunity)

But there was not a single entry from South Africa.

Dyeshana was speaking at the recent Creative Circle Full Circle event, which reflects on Cannes 2025, the winning work and South Africa’s performance at the awards.

This is his third tour as a Cannes jury member, but his first as jury president, and he gave a fascinating account of what it means to be a jury president, which includes going through the last five years' work in the category.

"I had to do a deep dive into it and in doing so, find the trends in the category and sort of predict what the jury will see this year."

Super slick Cannes

He says Cannes is super slick. "They know what they're doing, and so they provide you with this little thing, called the Jury President Content Guide, which is incredible, because in it they detail every single part of your journey."

After immersing himself in the Guide and category, next up was meeting the jury, which he says was both fantastic and as intimidating as anything, with world-class creatives from 20 different countries.

Dyeshana then took the audience through the process of the jury, from online judging and meetings to meeting in person in Cannes.

A second chance

This brings us back to where we started, with no South African work on the shortlist.

He describes what happened next. “The jury is allowed to go back and bring an entry back into the room.”

This is how it works. "The jury has the opportunity to go back and bring something back from the first rounds of judging. But it has to be work that in your first round of judging, you gave a score of seven to nine."

He explains that in the first round, when you judge, you give work a one to three if you think it should be discarded. It is a four to six if you think it should get into the room to be discussed. A seven to nine is deemed to be worth a Cannes award.

And that’s how South Africa's work got into the room because it had been judged a seven to nine in the first round.

The country went on to be shortlisted in the category, with Joe Public’s campaigns for its client Hansa Pilsner winning Bronze Lions.

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Lessons for SA in this category

Based on this, he presented the lessons we can learn from.

1. Our approach to radio must change.

   What was once our superpower has become our downfall. We sit for hours to craft our work beautifully, but how do we make people engage with the work we are putting out there? It’s a huge opportunity for us.

2. Switch on the entry form.

   What appears on your entry form can mean the difference between converting and going all the way to gold. Technically, all pieces qualify, but the jury is looking for more.

   He told the story of one piece of South African work that was turned down by the jury because it had only been flighted once.

   “I knew that we managed to do that piece just in time for Cannes, so I knew that the flight time was minimum, but it qualified, but I also knew that we hadn't put the media money behind it - yet.”

   The jury concluded that the brand did not believe in this work. “I know this was not the case, but I could not give the context to this as I was not in the room,” he says.

3. Scale, scale, scale.

   "I know that we are not America. We've got 1,000 radio stations for one county, and they have that many in one state. But it's important to show that people spoke about and engaged with your work."

   Where you can, he adds, it's important to show your skill.

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Clear trends

In general, there are some clear trends that came out of the Autio & Radio category this year.

One, particularly pertinent to South Africa, is the move away from traditional radio.

1. Transcended radio

   Traditionally, South Africa has done well in this category. "But we have done well with "traditional” work."

   Much of the work, he says, transcended traditional radio, even if that's where it started. “The industry appears to be embracing the idea that sound can go beyond mere listening and become an interactive experience.

   “We're seeing that sound can be social, sound can be direct, sound can even be visual.”

   Dyeshana says only two percent of the winning work in this category was traditional radio.

2. Brands are back

   “I think from everything that we saw, it was very, very clear, brands are back,” says Dyeshana.

   This is a change from the dominance of non-profit work of the last few years.

   “The biggest number of entries that we had was from the FMCG category. After that, you had consumer services, then not-for-profit and media and entertainment.”

   He explains that if you'd looked at this category a couple of years back, not-for-profit probably would have had the most entries.

3. Humour is on the rise

   Humour has been on the rise, and he says it is an element we saw a lot of in the work this year.

   “Whether it is the seriousness of the world, the economic times… whatever it is, humour and fun are really showing up.”

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Lastly, Dyeshana spoke about why shows like Cannes, in particular, are important.

“Making it a shortlist at Cannes is proper, big branding rights, because such a small percentage of the work gets onto a shortlist and also goes on to win.

“So, while Cannes is a small percentage of what we do, it is what inspires us and shows us what we can aspire to in the 99% of what we do.”