For most of us, the advertising world is mysterious. It’s an industry with a jargon of its own, bewildering acronyms, and creative people delivering campaigns that bring our favourite brands to life. In short, it appears to be a place where confident women can make an impression within the working ranks and in boardrooms.

When talking to trendsetting women in advertising, it is interesting to find out where they come from, what they do, and where they are going. Take Shereen Zuma, Daniella Schaller, and Anuq Willson at Offlimit Communications (OLC), an agency that attracts potential employees by asking, ‘ Do you want to work and live in the Next?’.

It appears that the women at OLC not only understand this question but do live in the ‘next’.

Take Shereen Zuma, Managing Partner at OLC, as an example. Her history with the business stretches back to 2005, the days when OLC had a staff of three. At the time, she was on track to being an accountant when she ‘fell into’ advertising and became a founding partner of OLC. Leaving the company in 2014, when staff numbers had grown to about 90, she returned in 2019 to continue helping to drive the company.

It’s now an environment that has changed substantially. Social media and, most lately, the Covid-19 pandemic have left their marks on the business, helping end an era when corporations paid massive retainers to their ad agencies, who were their sole creative providers behind.

“We have added specialties like PR and digital marketing to our offering. Our above-the-line business has grown and, like most players in the industry, has had to adapt to a new reality where clients have several agencies looking after different aspects of their business. Our objective now is to recover from the unavoidable external stresses that impacted OLC and keep the business  resources, recruitment, and staffing focused on achieving our business strategy.”

From an organisational point of view, women have always been the most natural choice for client-facing roles,  PR work, production, and support roles, says Shereen.

“ About 80% of our staff are female,” she says, adding that they compete on equal terms with male counterparts in an industry where job security can depend on major clients being retained.

“Most of us don’t know what we are getting into when we are young and are entering an industry that looks glamorous and fun from the outside. Agency jobs require hard work and often long hours- something that has to be considered by women who may be sole breadwinners.”

“On the other hand, there are tremendous opportunities in the industry for women. Times have also changed, and employment security can’t be guaranteed in any profession, “ she says.

What is required for success is strong emotional intelligence because advertising involves dealing with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds. You have to know just when to be soft and when to be hard. Major doses of grit and perseverance are needed to get through high-stress, deadline-driven days.

For the talented, going freelance will always be an option.” Professional, reliable freelancers will always get work and be able to use the freedom to achieve a balanced life and undertake projects they enjoy,” she concludes.

For Daniella Schaller, the move into the agency world was a natural progression that began in the hospitality industry, included banqueting management, and involved the satisfaction of seeing happy people enjoying events she had helped plan and execute.

She says that women are naturally suited to an industry that has become more ‘emotion-centric’ in what it produces.

“Women are more empathetic and understanding, grasp detail better, and can bring warmth to situations that need to be carefully handled. It is an industry that also enables a determined woman to decide how successful she wants to be and allows her the space to achieve her personal dreams. This is especially true at OLC, where your skills, dedication, and work ethic determine your success. ”

It is the characteristics that women bring to their jobs that help surmount unique challenges, she says when referring to working in 2011 on the African Cup of Nations football tournament.

“I was part of a team helping to run public viewing sites across Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for Samsung Korea. It was a strong ‘male-centric’ environment not conducive to women running projects. Besides this prejudice, I had to contend with a language barrier- speaking French isn’t one of my strengths.”

“We also had to cope with outdated equipment, a lack of suitable infrastructure and summer storms that constantly threatened to deliver crippling damage to our facilities. After one storm, we had to make emergency running repairs to an LED screen. We constantly had to dismantle and reassemble sites to keep them operating.”

Other remedial work included getting some French lessons, importing additional equipment from SA and putting in the long hours needed to keep things functioning. The reward, a happy client and advertising objectives being achieved.

Agreeing with Shereen, Daniella says that the industry has grown fast and become more stressful.

“Campaigns have catapulted in size. They now include social media, events and print campaigns running simultaneously. You face more demands, have to be familiar with more media types, and acquire more technical skills.”

“As women can multi-task, it is a situation that we adapt well to. More and more women are leading major campaigns, winning industry awards and being appointed to head up agencies.”

Although advertising does attract people from a range of backgrounds, Anuq Willson Business Unit Director is probably unique. In her first life she was a professional dancer who counted industrial theatre, and writing scripts for TV shows amongst her accomplishments.

Transitioning into advertising as a junior account executive, she grew into account management. Amongst her ambitions was developing a skill set that included using her background as a dancer to add value to events and competitions in the entertainment industry.

“Women are attracted to the advertising and events industry as they have an emotional attachment  to what they do. They become invested in their projects and naturally want to add the extra touches and detail to make the product something a client will love.”

Working with people provides ongoing challenges, she says, pointing out that creating effective teams means guiding people to meet the demands of each project regardless of their size.

“Forecasting, adaptability and being able to look ahead so that you can pre-empt a client’s expectations are abilities that are essential to effective teams and have no regard for gender. Creating teams where people rely on the synergies between each other is something that women are particularly good at.”

“The rewards of my job are having the freedom to act, design something on paper and then see it take place and bring a brand to life. Working across social media, programmed work, activations, and PR also give you the chance to get truly involved -something that is great when they occur in a single project.”

Success means that agencies must constantly evolve to keep up with changes in the brands they work on. Making sure that expectations are met means people are upskilling to meet challenges and keeping pace with what is new in marketing. “Everyone is forced to relook what they know to keep up with what is required of them.”

Anuq says she would recommend the industry to anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. “You are not only learning about client service but are also  involved with production, logistics, financial management, and teamwork- things that help you build a future involving management.”

“Nothing is perfect; things are unpredictable, and agencies must adapt and be agile. You must be able to change roles to meet demands and wear many hats to get jobs done. But, once you are in the industry, you will find that there is no place you would rather be,” she says.