On 1 April 2011, two people who had spent just over a decade publishing magazines for a living launched a digital marketing agency. No investors. No business plan worth the paper it wasn’t printed on. Just a ridiculous name, a shared belief that great content could sell anything and a stubbornness that, looking back, was probably our single greatest asset.

Fifteen years later, we’re still here. Still standing. Still arguing about headlines. Still unreasonably passionate about kerning.

We should probably talk about the name. People always ask. The short version: A legendary breakfast at Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Poached eggs on twisted toast. A joking comment that if we ever started our own thing, we should call it that. The other two names we submitted for registration were forgettable corporate nonsense. Thank heavens the quirky one won.

The longer version is that the name turned out to mean something. Toast is universal. Everyone knows it. Everyone has it. Add a twist and you have something unexpected. Something that makes the ordinary worth noticing. That’s been our operating principle for 15 years, even when we didn’t know it yet!

What do you learn in 15 years of running a boutique agency in South Africa?

You learn that load shedding kills deadlines but not determination. Clients who trust you are worth more than clients who pay the most. That “we need it yesterday” is not a deadline; it’s a lifestyle. That the best brief is often the one the client didn’t know they needed to write. That a small team of people who care will outperform a large team of people who don’t, every single time.

You learn that trends are unreliable friends. We’ve watched Google+ come and go. Clubhouse, the metaverse come… and go. We’ve watched Vine come and go (a pity, we reckon, as it pioneered short-form mobile video in six-second loops in 2013, after all). NFTs arrive like rock stars and disappear like one-hit wonders. QR codes die and resurrect. Print declared dead so many times it should qualify for a miracle at Lourdes. We’ve seen social media evolve from “why should we be on Facebook?” to entire ecosystems of content, commerce and community management.

Through all of it, one thing has stayed constant. The work that lasts is the work that tells a true story well.

We came from magazines. MagFocus, FHM. heat. ZOO Weekly/Weekliks. And today, we still proudly design and publish the now digital-only, award-winning Poultry Bulletin magazine. The media world taught us many invaluable things, including that every page must earn its place. Every headline competes with the reader’s thumb. Every piece of content exists in a marketplace of attention where the price of boring is invisibility.

That discipline is printed into everything we do. When we build a website, we think like editors. When we write a social post, we think like creative feature writers. When we develop a brand strategy, we think like publishers who know that the cover sells the magazine, but the content keeps the subscriber.

Magazine people see the world differently. We can’t help it. It’s a gift. And occasionally a curse when you’re proofreading a restaurant menu and silently marking typos with a red pen you keep in your pocket for exactly this purpose. (That would be Louis.)

The agency world has changed radically since 2011. When we started, responsive web design was a novelty. Instagram was a year old. TikTok was a sound a clock made. AI was something from films. Google Ads was called Google AdWords and nobody had heard the phrase “content marketing”. They just called it what it was. Great writing and imagery that sells things.

Today, we build apps, develop SaaS platforms, run AI-powered search optimisation strategies and create content across many channels. Our toolkit has expanded beyond anything we could have imagined. But the core hasn’t shifted. We still believe that strategy without creativity is a spreadsheet and creativity without strategy is art hanging in the wrong room.

If there’s one thing that defines Twisted Toast, it’s our clients. Not in the sycophantic “our clients are amazing” sense that every agency trots out. In the honest sense that the relationships we’ve built are the reason we’re still in the game.

Some clients have been with us for many years. They’ve become friends. We know their children. We’ve celebrated their wins and helped them through difficult patches. We’ve had hard conversations, you know, the ones where we say “that’s not going to work” or “you need to spend more” or “actually, you need to spend less, just spend it better.” Those conversations require trust. Trust takes time. Time is what 15 years gives you.

To every client who has trusted us with their brand. Thank you. Not the polite, contractual thank you. The real one. The buttered one. With honey.

We should mention our team. Small, as we said. Deliberately so. No revolving doors, no junior account executives learning on your budget. Angela, Quinton, Erik, Dylan and David. These are professionals who are with us because they choose to be. They care about the work. They argue about colour palettes. They stay late not because anyone asks them to, but because the thing isn’t right yet, and they refuse to send it out wrong.

And a special shoutout to our long-term associates, who are truly the best in the business, Melinda and Kevin – you are our family.

You don’t build a 15-year agency with talent alone. You build it with people who give a damn.

Fifteen is an interesting number. Not round enough for a midlife crisis. Not young enough for novelty. It’s the age where you know what you’re good at, you’ve stopped pretending to be good at things you’re not and you’ve finally accepted that the inbox will never be at zero.

It’s the age where whimsy becomes a strategy, not an accident. Where you can say with confidence: We’re not the cheapest. We’re not the biggest. We’re not trying to be either. We’re an agency that shows up prepared, thinks before it designs, designs before it posts and never confuses motion with progress.

Semper in Altum. Always higher.

Here’s to 15 years. Fifteen years of twisted thinking in a topsy-turvy country we love with all our hearts. Fifteen years of early mornings, late nights, fantastic coffee, a little French champagne and breakfast meetings that change everything.

Our toast is warm. The butter soft and the jam homemade, just the way we like it!

COMING SOON

We have been quietly building something we are genuinely proud of.

Rostersmith is a SaaS platform purpose-built for healthcare practices that need to eliminate the pain of roster scheduling. Think pathology labs, radiology groups and multi-site medical practices – any environment where complex shift patterns, regulatory compliance and provider availability collide in ways spreadsheets were never designed to handle.

Rostersmith is a multi-tenant platform hosted on modern cloud infrastructure, meaning practices of varying sizes can be onboarded quickly without complex installations or hardware requirements.

If you manage rosters for a healthcare practice and would like to be among the first to experience Rostersmith, we would love to hear from you.

Visit rostersmith.co.za to find out more.

Last Thursday, at the corner of Winnie Mandela and Republic in Sandton, right across from the Pick n Pay, I watched a man without a face mime for tips.

Not metaphorically. Actually, without a face. Just glasses, a fedora and a long trench coat covering what I can only assume was a talented human being perched somewhere inside. His invisible head extended from the back of the coat, with a hat balanced impossibly on a thin wire, defying physics and common sense in equal measure. Oh, the nowhere head had glasses, too. The mid-morning traffic idled. Some drivers looked bemused. Others reached for change. A few filmed it on their phones.

This is South Africa in December 2025 and bloody hell, it’s magnificent.

Sidenote. When I went back to buy some pictures of the headless man for this story, he had changed it up to a purple-ish head of hair yet still, let it be known, in a decidedly headless fashion.

Welcome to the robots

For the uninitiated, “robots” is what we call traffic lights here. Why? Nobody really knows. Perhaps because they stand there all day telling us what to do. Perhaps because we’re just delightfully contrary. Or corny. What matters is what happens at these robots, at every major intersection from Joburg to Pretoria and beyond, from dawn until well past dusk.

The robots are where South Africa comes alive. Because often, specifically in Jozi, the robots are dead. This visual silence of the three-coloured traffic wardens thus offers all manner of hustlers, dancers, mimes, promoters and informal direction givers an opportunity to shine. In all colours of the rainbow. If not the nation.

Here, you’ll find jugglers tossing balls or batons whilst the light cycles through amber if it’s lit. Kids in self-made uniforms perform dances in perfect sync with beer crates. Mimes freeze, then extend a hand for a pittance. Vendors sell everything from cold drinks to phone chargers to artwork that ranges from terrible to genuinely brilliant. A particular favourite at holiday time are the wire Christmas trees, fashioned right there on the sidewalk with pliers and ingenuity.

A broken system created a robot hustle spot at every city intersection and somehow, impossibly, it became a beating heart of who we are.

There are beggars, yes. People in genuine need asking for help. OUTsurance-sponsored traffic wardens in high-visibility vests trying to restore order to chaos. Garbage collectors making their rounds. Dancers who’ve memorised the traffic light sequence better than the algorithm that controls it.

It’s untidy. It’s organic. It’s occasionally maddening. And it’s the most beautiful melting pot you’ll find this side of the world.

The economics of hustle

Let’s be honest about what created this phenomenon. South Africa’s formal unemployment rate is extremely high. Our systems have been creaking under the weight of corruption, mismanagement and decades of challenges. When traditional employment doesn’t nearly reach everyone, people create their own opportunities. The robots became stages. Intersections became marketplaces. Red lights became chances. Dead lights even more so.

But here’s where the story gets interesting. Here’s where 2025 became the year, perhaps, that everything started shifting.

South Africa’s remarkable turnaround, for now:

• No. More. Load. Shedding. Fingers firmly crossed.
• Interest rate cuts to a low prime rate of 10.25% now, with more cuts to come.
• Inflation hovering around 3.6%.
• South Africa secured its first credit rating upgrade in nearly 20 years, with the JSE All Share Index up over 30% year-on-year and trading near all-time highs above 111 000 points. (SA is one of only three countries globally to secure an S&P upgrade in 2025.)
• Government of National Unity bringing stability and accelerating reforms. Again, fingers crossed.
• South Africa hosted Africa’s first-ever G20 summit in Johannesburg (22-23 November), a highly successful event that secured a unanimous 122-point declaration despite a US boycott.
• And, importantly, a remarkable Springbok team winning everything.

Read those numbers again. We’ve gone from 335 days of load shedding in 2023 to essentially none in 2025. Eskom has achieved a stable power supply, marking what many thought impossible just two years ago. The South African Reserve Bank has implemented strategic rate cuts, with the prime lending rate now the lowest in years.

The formation of the Government of National Unity following the May 2024 elections brought something we haven’t seen in years: (Relative) political stability and seemingly genuine reform momentum. Markets responded. The rand strengthened to its best levels against the dollar in a long time. Our 10-year bond yield has dropped to around 8.6%, its lowest level in over three years. Business confidence, while off its February peak, remains above five-year averages.

Property, prosperity and progress

The property market tells its own encouraging story. After years of real-terms decline, residential property prices are finally showing genuine growth, up 6.1% year-on-year by mid-2025, now comfortably outpacing inflation. Commercial property is surging. South Africa’s real estate investment trusts (REITs) staged a decisive rally in October. The SA REIT Index returned 10.8% for the month, outpacing equities at 1.6% and bonds at 2.6%. Year to date to 31 October 2025, the sector is up 26.4% as earnings momentum, firmer sentiment and lower funding costs converge.

This isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. This is people seeing a future worth investing in. This is developers building again. This is families buying homes. This is confidence returning to a market that had all but given up hope.

The GNU: Making government work

Perhaps most remarkable is watching the Government of National Unity actually function. Political parties from across the spectrum, sitting in the same cabinet, working towards common goals. It’s messy. There are disagreements. The 2025 budget process showed us that coalition governance isn’t always smooth.

But it’s mostly working.

The GNU has prioritised rapid, inclusive economic growth. It’s accelerating infrastructure development, with over R1 trillion being invested in building and repairing the country’s backbone. Reforms in energy, logistics, telecommunications, water and visa regulations are creating space for growth. Ports are being fixed. Roads are (sort of) being maintained. The electricity sector is being unbundled and modernised.

Most importantly, the GNU is showing that South Africans can work together despite our differences. That we can find common ground. That we can build something better than what came before.

Our untidy, organic, wonderful truth

Is South Africa perfect? Absolutely not. We still have severe unemployment. We still have abject poverty. We still have omnipresent inequality that makes us all extremely uncomfortable. Crime remains a massive challenge. Service delivery in many municipalities needs serious improvement. We’re not pretending these problems don’t exist.

But something has shifted. The economic indicators are pointing upward for the first time in years. Load shedding, that omnipresent spectre that defined 2022 and 2023, has become a memory rather than a daily reality. Interest rates are coming down. Inflation is contained. Investment is returning. Consumer confidence is rebuilding.

The GNU, for all its imperfections, is showing that multiparty democracy can work in one of Africa’s most complex political landscapes. That coalitions don’t have to mean chaos. That different visions can work towards common goals.

And at every robot, from Sandton to the rest, from the Atlantic Seaboard to the East Rand, people are hustling. Creating. Performing. Surviving. Thriving.

The robot hustle and jive aren’t just street entertainment. It’s a metaphor for everything South Africa is and is becoming. Resourceful. Creative. Resilient. Diverse. A place where someone can dance without a face at a traffic light and people will stop, smile and maybe toss some notes. Where beggars become traffic wardens when the system fails. Where breakfast vendors and backflip artists share the same intersection.

It’s untidy. It’s organic. It’s the wonderful melting pot of the land we call home.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a man without a face who just did something impossible with a hat at the corner robot and I really need to see how all that ends.

The term AI native may soon start replacing digital native for marketing and tech companies. A new digital divide is forming, one that separates those who embrace AI tools and use it for everything and those who don’t.

People who understand generative AI tools have integrated it fully in their lives, for work and personal use. They don’t need to think about when and why to use genAI systems based on large language models. It’s obvious to them that these tools have already reshaped human existence and they are on board. They’re all in.

This always on genAI mindset is what future-fit companies increasingly look for in employees and partners. They are not navel gazing ad infinitum for charlatan consultant-doublespeak “use cases” to justify laser focusing on these systems as essential work tools. For them, the use case is revealed through using genAI habitually.

When ChatGPT launched three years ago, The Toast were early adopters as a professional business tool on our journey to transitioning to an AI native agency. We’ve expanded our paid tools to four top tier genAI platforms and regularly mix and match these tools in a constantly adaptable mix of engines to power everything from deep research, analysis, reporting, vibe coding and strategy to error correction and beyond.

As par for the course our tools have built up a huge knowledge base about how we operate, our agency style and processes, assisting us in speedily executing complex tasks with clarity.

As with everything in marketing, the magic is enabled by the brief, so we spend significant resources on creating, developing, refining and checking our briefs so that eventual genAI outcomes are high on a trust scale. Not that we abdicate anything. Far from it. We make sure genAI mistakes and off-brand generations are corrected in a learnable way, so that these occurrences are enhanced with focused guidance for future tasks.

Our agency has recently conducted proprietary genAI tool usage research amongst tightly defined audience groups. While it’s not unexpected to note that 90%+ of respondents use these tools frequently and that 81% use ChatGPT specifically, it’s noteworthy that Google’s Gemini app is rising in popularity, specifically since the launch of the excellent Gemini 3 Pro, as are Meta’s genAI helpers.

GenAI agents have so far underperformed for us, despite all the associated hype. In a recent conversation with a senior media business leader, he spoke about genAI agents as if his company was using them successfully. However, it took just one or two questions, to realise he was just BS’ing. This example could highlight one of the most important attitude lessons about genAI. Don’t believe any of the hype. Believe the results.

Not that we haven’t used agents. The results have simply been underwhelming. We’ll continue to watch what transpires carefully and let the agents loose when we reckon there is true value to be had. It’s a wait and see for now.

We have successfully fully integrated data repositories such as mail, storage and the like, to relatively speaking positive effect. The core tools are strong when it comes to contextualised searching, finding and analysing quickly, so integration has thus far yielded more useful results than agents.

Our best way of using genAI is mainly manual. We do the core thinking, develop deep problem statements, curate what we want from the tools and then check, correct and edit all results.

The pure act of having integrated genAI doesn’t mean we simply take it as it comes. Rather, we’ve become adept at productively using the tools for what they’re (currently) best at and we keep a keen eye on them as they develop. In the process we’re acquiring a useful amount of knowledge about how to best implement these tools as time goes by.

And in our book, learning offers a professional use case.

Padel isn’t just the fastest-growing sport in the world. It’s the new boardroom. Recognising this shift, we are chuffed to announce the rollout of our latest out of home (OOH) campaign, conceptualised and executed in close partnership with Attacq’s Waterfall City brand team.

The strategy: Where business meets the baseline

Our goal was clear: To capture the energy of Johannesburg’s premium padel courts and seamlessly blend it with the premium business lifestyle offering of Waterfall City. We didn’t just want to place ads. We needed to create an immersive environment.

Through a series of strategic ideation sessions, we identified the “sweet spot”, that intersection where high-performance business and living meets high-performance play. The result is a takeover consisting of high-impact advertising boards and full-scale vinyl wrap executions that surround players and spectators with the Waterfall City aesthetic.

The creative: A perfect match

The copy needed to be punchy, witty, and relevant to both the sport and the precinct. We focused on double entendres that speak to the competitive spirit of the game and the business excellence of the city.

“Everything’s in play. Where living works.”

By wrapping the courts in stunning visuals of Waterfall City paired with sharp headlines, we turned the courts into a canvas. Some of our favourite lines now live courtside:

• “The perfect match. At Waterfall City.”
• “Play the game. With a business lifestyle.”
• “Everything’s smashing. At Waterfall City.”
• “Business is our pleasure. At Waterfall City.”
• “Eat, play, love! At Waterfall City.”

The execution

From concept to installation, the delivery had to be flawless to match the premium nature of both the sport and the client. The vinyl wraps transform the playing cage into a branded experience, ensuring that whether you are smashing a winner or cheering from the sidelines, you are immersed in the Waterfall City brand.

A massive toast to our partners at Waterfall City and our creative team, as well as Pure Padel for a campaign that truly hits the sweet spot.

On 1 April 2026, Twisted Toast Digital turns 15. It’s hard for me to believe.

I’m not sure why but lately both our history and future have been on my mind. We’re lucky to be busy with work from a wide and diverse client roster across many different industries. This made me think about all our various clients with whom we’re sharing our journey, as well as our agency’s ebb and flow.

Our aerospace client from Texas, USA is one example of a valued, long-standing client that has been with us from December 2019, marking a six-year relationship across the Atlantic. Another international client based in Norway, a leader in research auditing, started with us in February 2015 and we’ve just completed an innovative new business intelligence data visualisation project for them.

Several other clients from different business sectors, including public benefit, property development, agriculture, media and architecture have been with us for over a decade each.

Then a week or so ago, we were approached by a leading brand in logistics for urgent assistance that may lead to a long-term partnership if all goes well.

Amazingly for me, we may even go right back to our media roots. An exciting development is currently shaping up that could land us back in (now digital only) magazine publishing. We’re keeping fingers crossed, because it will be great fun to go back to our history in media creation and publishing. We’ve even started toying with the idea of a Twisted Toast Media Division, if the right stars are aligned.

A hardcover printed book project we’ve just completed for a special client was a labour of love and reminded us of the power of the (carefully edited) written word. Actually, we find ourselves writing more than ever before! For another new client we are providing media relations and PR services.

In this vein, we were recently successful in placing a long-standing New York-based client in the entertainment industry on the jury panel of a local film and television awards programme, which took some doing as things at these awards were in flux for the better part of the year. But now it’s over the line and everything is in motion.

During pitch prep for another possible client engagement, we had enormous fun toying around with Sora 2, the AI-only 10-second social media video app from OpenAI. We stitched together a 30-second commercial from three separate 10 seconders, making up an almost-real commercial.

While playing with Sora 2 was amazing at first, we soon realised that while it’s a great process to go through to get us thinking about the creation of a commercial in a practical way, it’s just such a gimmicky thing that we wouldn’t show it to anyone else!

The good old, tried-and-tested “theatre of the mind” storyboard process works so much better for clients to imagine, themselves, what could be done for a campaign, rather than delving too much into soulless, unnecessary production noise. Clients are adept at understanding ideas on their own merit. There is thus no need to pre-produce commercials at the ideation stage. This insight is a great relief for us.

It’s been a productive learning curve though, figuring out when and more importantly, when not to call on AI for help. In addition, it’s great to know that while AI can be incredible in adding to our thinking, we’re way ahead of it when it comes to practising our own human, emotive creative craft.

The publicity work we’re doing, coupled with our possible re-entry into the world of media publishing, means we could find ourselves on both ends of the media spectrum, creating and pitching media releases, stories and exclusives, as well as receiving these from other practitioners on behalf of their clients. Quite a unique spot for us to be in as not many media relations agencies also publish their own media!

This helps us understand both sides of the media equation, that the practice of media relations is, not to put too fine a point on it, all about relationships. And personality, of course, which I humbly propose we’re not too short of.

As December approaches it feels good to be in a creative agency in Mzansi. Our work is varied, partnerships long, momentum real. Long may it last.

More than a decade ago, we had the privilege of meeting Zahn Hulme, executive trustee of Atterbury Trust and head of brand marketing at Atterbury Group, to discuss how our agency could assist with content marketing. What started out as a business relationship soon evolved into a deep and treasured friendship. And it all revolves around the simple, yet profound sentiment inherent in the Afrikaans word omgee.

Zahn combines professional skill and infectious joie de vivre with a compassionate spirit devoted to improving lives. After roles as a Deloitte auditor and university academic she has led Atterbury Trust for over 20 years while contributing materially to Atterbury Group’s growth. Under her leadership, from 1999 to 2025 the trust supported 940 bursary loan students, with 178 current students in 2025 and 680 qualifications completed so far.

As Jacomien Rousseau, one of the first six Atterbury Trust student loan recipients, says: “Atterbury Trust believed in my potential and gave me a future.” She explains that the support was more than funding. It was a commitment to people and to a better future. She was never a number but part of something larger and credits Zahn with building a culture of care that has changed thousands of lives, hers among them.

Francois van Niekerk, co-creator with Louis van der Watt of both the Atterbury Group and Trust, says of Zahn: “She could certainly have achieved predictable success on any ‘normal’ corporate ladder. Instead, she chose to build Atterbury Trust. Her strategic vision, philanthropic passion and above all her faith-driven dedication have inspired me over the years. Beyond her leadership of the trust, Zahn proved her commercial acumen at Waterfall City. She created early momentum and helped initiate the project, laying a firm foundation for Atterbury’s sustained growth on this development.”

Never one to pass up on an opportunity to discover new destinations, Zahn has lived in many parts of South Africa, and Germany for a while. She has also travelled the world, always with her treasured family along for the ride. Zahn has climbed mountains, walked 500 miles and swum from Robben Island to Bloubergstrand. Twice (so far). She is an extraordinary woman who says “yes” many more times than the rare “maybe”. An inspiration to all who know her.

An exciting new chapter awaits Zahn and towards the end of the year she will step away from her day-to-day operational duties at the trust to live out her passionate purpose in new ways. What’s for sure, is that an adventurous travel schedule is ready to be pencilled in and there is no doubt she will continue giving to others because, as you can surely tell, she cares.

Fare-thee-well Zahn, we can’t wait to hear all about your new plans, schemes and dreams!

We often get asked the same question: “So where did the name Twisted Toast come from?”

The short answer? Breakfast.

But not just any breakfast. This was no Wimpy fry-up or standard hotel buffet. Many moons ago, Louis and I were at a company conference with our team from UCM (UpperCase Media, the joint venture where we published FHM and heat magazine for Media24 and Emap). The venue? A tiny boutique escape in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands called Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse.

Richard Poynton runs this gem, yes, the same Richard of Granny Mouse fame and a chef widely celebrated for his inventive, farm-to-table cuisine. His food is legendary: Creative, surprising and frankly, unforgettable. The kind of experience that makes even seasoned media execs go quiet at the table.

Even our brand identity and logo carry this meaning. Two intertwined slices of toast, designed as speech bubbles. It’s a nod to connection, conversation and the magic that happens when ideas are shared.

And yes, if you’ve picked up a theme here, you’d be right. We are a little food-obsessed. From breakfast metaphors to naming an entire agency after toast, it’s safe to say creativity, like food, is at the heart of everything we do.

So yes, our name came from breakfast. But more than that, it’s become a perfect shorthand for who we are. Simple, versatile and always with a creative twist.

Because, I mean really, who remembers “Digital Media Architects”?

At Twisted Toast, creativity and food go together. After all, our best ideas usually arrive somewhere between the first sip of coffee and the last bite of something delicious!

Let me be clear about one thing upfront: I never set out to be a pop star.

Fantasised about it, yes. Usually somewhere between my tenth beer and the closing credits of The Commitments. But I’ve never had the cheekbones, the hair, or the pelvic thrust for it. I’m an ad copywriter. Have been for 40-odd years. My job has always been to write for others. BMW’s “mouse on the (power) steering wheel” commercial, Dell, Breweries, FHM, banks, you get the picture.

But in my head, there were always songs.

Proper ones. With meaning. With intent. That rhymed. With words that I wanted to punch you in the gut, or grab you by the balls, or whisper into your ear at 2am when the world felt a bit too quiet.

I started writing them in my teens — scribbled on notepads, typed out on my clunky Olivetti, stored on floppies, lost, found again, polished, rewritten, sung in my head while driving or in the shower or staring out of a window like some wannabe Leonard Cohen.

Only problem? No one wanted to sing them.

And my singing voice? Let’s just say Springsteen’s got nothing to worry about. Hell, not even the bloke who sings backup vocals at the Plumstead pub on Friday karaoke night.

You’d think after decades in the creative industry, I’d have a Rolodex of soulful crooners, smoky baritones, tortured indie darlings, or ex-Idols’ contestants willing to lend their pipes to a verse or two.

Nope. Not a one.

I’d send lyrics. They’d reply politely. “Nice stuff, KK… but it’s not really my style.” Which is muso-speak for “Don’t give up your day job, boetie.”

No. I lie, once roped in my friend Tony Ndoro, a top bloke with connections, to ask his musician friend John (surname lost to time) if he’d take a crack at a song I’d written for my son. A personal one. Close to the heart. John said yes, eventually sent something back… and I wish I could say it was beautiful. But no. It sounded like he’d recorded it underwater, in a cupboard, during a power outage. I couldn’t make out a single word, half the lyrics were missing and the emotional bit, the part that mattered, had been replaced with what I can only describe as jazz-adjacent mumbling. So, I never played it for anyone. And my 100% record of songs-never-heard remained unbroken.

I couldn’t blame them. My songs weren’t fashionable. They were structured. Thoughtful. They had lyrics – you know, those things we used to care about before every chart hit turned into a hormonal diary entry over a rap beat.

So, the songs sat. And waited. As I aged. Like wine. Or milk. Depending on how you look at it.

And that was it. I was hooked. I realised this weird, wonderful AI had solved the one problem I hadn’t been able to. Someone to sing my songs. So, I got busy. I fed it lyric after lyric. Some protest, some poetic. Some bleak, some wry. Songs about truth. About loss. About the sheer absurdity of being human in a world increasingly run by algorithms and ego.

Not every attempt was gold – sometimes Suno decided my aching ballads needed synth pop, or that my gentle lament needed a ska trumpet – but when it clicked, it really clicked for me. So much so, I did what any emotionally unprepared, slightly grumpy, wannabe Dylan does when something momentous happens: I made an album. It’s called “It’s About Time.”

Why “It’s About Time”? Because it took me fifty years and one semi-sentient robot to finally bring my lyrics to life. It’s also a sardonic nod to the fact that I’ve been threatening to do this for decades, much like fixing the garage door, learning to cook, or being kind to strangers.

Seven tracks to date. Some I think are quite good. One cuts off before it ends (user error – my bad.) A couple of protest songs, ballads, a dash of blues. Some surprisingly hopeful. Others that aren’t. In short: the musings of someone who’s experienced seven decades of living on this crazy planet and still believes in music.

A recent Forbes article by an agency contributor got me thinking again about something we encounter daily at Twisted Toast. The real differentiator for modern brands isn’t better tech, slicker automation or even access to more data. It’s creative energy. Not the abstract kind, but strategic, intentional creativity that connects emotionally and builds long-term brand value.

This insight came into sharp focus during a comprehensive study we conducted for one of our clients, a market leader in a category where, to be honest, everything tends to look and sound the same. Objectively, the product offering across competitors is fairly uniform. But in a sea of sameness, the brands that win are those that show personality. And that’s where creative makes the difference.

We’re fortunate to work with a client who understands this. Their marketing team allows us to do what we do best, which is to develop and execute creative brand strategies that differentiate powerfully at the content and lifestyle level. It’s a true hybrid model, traditional and digital media in perfect balance and we’ve seen remarkable results.

Hybrid marketing with reach, relevance and resonance

Trusting the creative process and the right partners

One of the most energising aspects of this relationship is the trust placed in us to choose the right channels and collaborators. This trust means we’re not bound to always select the biggest, most well-known or cheapest media options. We choose partners who align with the brand’s values, who get the brief and who bring their own spark to the work. We favour resonance over reach alone and depth over superficial impressions.

It’s refreshing. We’re not chasing likes or views. We’re creating something that will last. We back media partners who back us in return and we build momentum through meaningful association, not short-term influence.

Even in today’s hyper-digital environment, this long-term, deliberate approach pays off. We have the case study (and sales success), to prove it.

Brand as long-term investment

There’s a lesson from the financial world that applies perfectly to marketing. Long-term investments in the right assets, made with patience and discipline, tend to deliver the best returns. It’s the same with brand development. When you view brand as an asset to be nurtured, rather than a campaign to be optimised, you begin to see the cumulative value of consistency, trust and emotional connection.

Quick wins come and go. Viral moments disappear faster than they arrive. But brand equity, when built deliberately, compounds over time.

That’s why we believe in working with people who understand the value of long arcs, not shortcuts. There’s a quiet power in aligning creative with long-term goals. There’s also stability, avoiding the boom-bust cycle of chasing attention without substance.

What really sets a brand apart?

The Forbes piece I mentioned made a key point. Differentiation doesn’t come from buying first-party data, building clever algorithms or relying on the latest “MarTech stack”. Those are tools, not solutions.

What matters most is creative execution, strong, emotional, relatable and original creative that works across channels, over time. That’s what builds brand equity.

It could be a long-form, well-written blog article post that makes sense to generative AI and humans alike. A striking billboard with a punchy headline. A stylish print ad that evokes aspiration. A seamless exhibition experience. A website that’s useful even before the customer decides to buy. A great radio interview that leaves a lasting impression.

When creative thinking underpins all these pieces, when the work feels true, consistent and alive, it delivers lasting value. Over time, it works.

Proof in performance

We began working with this client about 18 months ago. This winter, typically a quieter sales season, they experienced a significant uptick in leads and conversions. Customers mentioned the brand by name. They recalled the creative. They felt a connection.

Meanwhile, when we looked at their competitors, we saw a different approach. Product-heavy communication, long lists of features, specs and attributes. Everything was about the “what,” not the “why.” Detailed, yes. But emotionally flat. Absent story. Little spark. No connection.

Product bullet points absolutely have their place, on websites, product pages, technical sheets. But in the space where brands live, in advertising, media, social and experience, emotion wins. Storytelling matters. Originality matters. Personality matters.

Selling the sizzle, not just the steak

Here’s what our evidence shows. The work we’ve done to sell the sizzle, through original, creative, emotional communication, is helping grow our client’s brand. Leads are up. Sales are up. Positive brand recall is strong.

Meanwhile, the competition keeps selling only the steak, product specs without any creative lift. It’s all accurate, all factual and largely forgettable.

And that, dear reader, is the absence of brand personality. And as we all know, personality goes a long way.