Babalwa Nyembezi: Collaboration builds brands in harmony

Source: © 123rf 123rf Babalwa Nyembezi says choosing collaboration builds brands in harmony

Media would typically be briefed separately by the client, and there was little collaboration with us on how the strategy was being built or how it influenced the creative.

If we were lucky, our slides might be collated into one deck a few hours before the presentation — a superficial show of “integration.” But meaningful, joint strategy development? That just didn’t happen.

In 2018 that changed. I had recently joined the Absa team at Wunderman Thompson when I had my first real experience of collaborative strategy — with the team at Carat.

Their strategists were so eager to share their thinking, it felt only natural that we’d do the same. Despite being briefed separately, we started reaching out proactively, exploring ways to approach the brief together.

It felt like we were one team, not two agencies. There was alignment. There was energy. There was synergy.

So when Carat approached me two years later with an opportunity to join them on the media side, I was intrigued. I knew first-hand the value of that collaboration.

Being able to build a solution with insight into both media and creative has made our work on Absa more holistic and more effective, rooted in real business objectives rather than fragmented campaign-by-campaign executions.

We had, in practice, operated as co-lead agencies. And that mindset made all the difference.

Neither of us was trying to outshine the other — we were both focused on making brilliant work that worked.

Since then, I’ve worked hard to bring that same open-hearted, collaborative spirit to every account I’ve led over the last two years.

And I’ve seen firsthand that when creative agency partners bring that same energy, we create real magic.

But I’ve also seen that in more traditional models, where one agency leads and others follow, collaboration often becomes an afterthought — especially for media.

Good agency collaboration

What does good agency collaboration look like?

Recently, my team and I have been studying global case work from our sister agencies to find patterns in the partnerships that produce consistently strong results.

The common thread? True collaboration starts early and is structured intentionally.

Here are a few of the most powerful habits we’ve observed:

Joint briefing from day one

When all partners are briefed together, we build from the same strategic foundation — not in parallel, but in tandem.

Co-ownership of the insight

Sharing data and audience insights early ensures that every partner solves the same problem, not separate interpretations of it.

Shared responsibility for the ecosystem

Great ideas are only as strong as the context they live in. That means media and creative should co-own the ecosystem planning — from messaging to channel to execution.

From where I sit now on the media side, the business case for this kind of partnership is clear.

When media and comms work together from the outset, we don’t start with the assumption that a 30-second TV ad will be the campaign’s cornerstone.

We start with the consumer insight, consider the ecosystem they move through daily, and build with intention, crafting both message and media around where attention and meaning intersect.

One recent example stands out. While unpacking audience data for one of our brands, it became clear that a TV-led campaign wouldn’t resonate with the youth segment we were trying to reach.

The brief was to build brand relevance, and to do that, we needed to show up differently.

The data pointed us toward a more distributed video strategy, grounded in where the audience was most attentive.

Our response to the brand and partner agencies clearly articulated the ecosystem, and the comms strategy had to flex within that framework.

And while strategic direction is critical, execution is everything.

Strategy that’s hard to implement isn’t a strategy — it’s theory.

Building brands in harmony

That’s why we’re working on more consistent ways to foster collaboration outside of individual briefs.

One example is the Lumen attention study we conducted last year, which gave us rich insights into how users engage with content across environments.

We’re now sharing these findings with our creative agency partners, helping them better understand how and where attention is won, and what that means for how creative should be built.

These may seem like small acts, but they build a shared language and foster real alignment over time.

Because in the end, collaboration is more than chemistry. It’s a choice. A habit. A culture.

And when we choose it — intentionally, consistently, early and often — we stop building campaigns in silos and start building brands in harmony.