Client: Joburg Ballet
Product: Brand
Media: Film / Social / Digital / PR / Design / Branded Content / Use of Data
Year: 2018
Role: Chief Creative Officer
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The Joburg Ballet had a problem. Ticket sales had been down year on year, primarily because they had struggled to appeal to a younger, more diverse audience. Despite introducing more contemporary, African-inspired productions, they were not even a consideration for most South African millennials, who saw ballet as a stuffy, old Colonial art form. In short, Joburg Ballet needed to become more relevant. They needed to step out of the dance studio and theatre, and become a part of popular culture.
To this end, they launched a campaign called Breaking Ballet, an ongoing series of bite-sized ballets inspired by the big, trending stories of the moment. Each little ballet is beautifully documented in a short film, which is then fed back into the online conversation as quickly as possible. These bite-sized ballets were about anything – entertainment, sport, politics, social issues – the only criteria was that they are based on current stories that our audience care about, generating big buzz online.









1 x Gold Lion
1 x Silver Lion
1 X Yellow Pencil
1 X Graphite Pencil
2 X Shortlists
1 x Gold Pencil
1 x Silver Pencil
4 x One Show Merits
2 x Silver Epica
1 x Bronze Epica
1 x Gold Clio
1 x Silver Clio
1 x Bronze Clio
1 x Commendation
for being exceptional
in its field.
2018 TBWA WW
Disruption Live
Overall Winner
1 x Public Service Award
3 x Gold Loeries
1 x Silver Loeries

1 x Winner Social Video
1 x Winner Real Time Response

2019 WARC Top 100 campaigns (86th)

2020 WARC Top 100 campaigns (80th)

1 x Gold Bookmark
4 x Silver Bookmarks
1 x Bronze Bookmark
Case Film
No1 Change of Seasons
No2 Money Fight
No3 Strike a Rock
No4 Love is Love
No5 Rain Must Fall
No6 Januworries
No7 Copy Cat
No8 Africa Forever