Six years ago, when I was at Coca-Cola, we blew up an idea Australia had toyed with. We made it huge in SA. Last night, I found out that Australia is flighting the ad we shot for the Share a Coke campaign - six years later. The creatives were two young black girls. Let me share

We had been struggling to find the right ad idea with the creative partner agency. As a former creative myself, I liked to get involved. One day during a tissue session, there were two young black girls in the boardroom. I had never seen them before.

I was told they had an idea to present to me. The girls were @Nkgabi_Motau and Mukondi. Nkgabi stood up and presented a script about this dog looking for its name on Coke Bottles and cans. The song playing the whole time is “That’s not my name” because it can’t find its name.

The dog is dejected but won’t give up. Eventually it sees its name on a billboard and gets excited. The name is Bobby. The added punchline for black South Africans in this case is that every other dog ekasi is called Bobby.

I was so in love with the idea. And especially happy that these two young black girls were the ones to present their idea to me. Mukondi was the shy one. She has a soft spoken voice but an excellent writer. Nkgabi was the extrovert and a talented art director.

There was one problem with the ad. A few months before, I had commissioned a study from a research agency called Millard Brown. The purpose of the study was to show me what kind of ads resonated and didn’t with South African audiences. Not to worry, I am getting to the point.

A lot of international Coke ads weren’t working for the SA market and I wanted to use this study to present to global so that they could finally let us shoot more local work. I was succeeding because I had started shooting a few local Coke ads.

The study came back. It clearly showed that when there were animals, the ads did not work with black audiences. The evidence was overwhelming an undeniable. Every ad had to go to research before it was shown on TV. If it didn’t pass, it wouldn’t go through.

I raised this point during the presentation. And I said they should present it to my boss, @sharonakeith and the Coke team. I would have an argument in case the issue of animals in ads was brought up. I believed in the idea and did not want to fail the girls.

The day of the presentation came. Everyone turned to me. They had not forgotten the thing about animals in ads. Sharon said she loved the ad but what about the research I had commissioned which basically said no animals in ads. Luckily, I had a case.

I said the difference between this dog and others in ads is that those dogs and animals were treated like human beings. Sharing beds with humans, licking people’s faces. This dog was doing what a dog in any township does - walking around the streets (except that it can read).

Sharon, to her eternal credit, after hearing my argument looked at me and said, ok, if you believe it’s going to work then go ahead. She trusted my judgement completely and then I panicked. what if I screwed it up?

I saw this ad as a high energy ad. I shared a the “clap” ad by MTN which had been shot by a previous Agency I had worked at. I had no involvement in that ad but I always loved it. It was shot by Greg Gray.

I sent the script to my global boss, Jonathan Mildenhall, in the US who said he loved it and it must have the same energy as the MTN “clap” reference I had also sent. (Greg Gray ended up shooting it)

I sent the script to the research agency and they said well, they don’t think it’s going to do well because there is an animal. I made the same argument but they were not convinced. To cut a long story short, when it came back from research it was best scoring ad ever in SA.

I was never prouder of Nkgabi and Mukondi. Of course there were many other people involved, but it meant a lot to me to see that happen for them. The ad was made only for South Africa but it became such a massive success that it traveled to more than 90 countries the next year.

When Warren Buffett, Coca-Cola’s biggest shareholder, opened his AGM, his first slide was Bobby, saying it was a demonstration of what great creativity can do to turn around a business. As with any project of this magnitude, there were many people involved.

There are also many familiar faces in the ad . Later that year, Russia wanted to shoot their own version but with white people, so they came to SA and shoot the same ad with white people. And so did Kazakhstan.

And yes, the names will be photoshopped to reflect Australian ones.

Moral of the story, South African ideas can travel.

And the dog was eventually cast from Hollywood because we couldn’t find one that could perform in SA. I swear