We can’t afford to give up our billboard in the sky
SAA is one of the best ways to promote the brand of our country abroad
● As South African Airways (SAA) faces its crunch time under business rescue, so much is at stake.
It is not only an operational battle to relaunch the airline as a going concern and save jobs and livelihoods, but also an emotional battle to salvage the dreams, aspirations and pride of many South
Africans who had come to see the national airline as the foremost brand ambassador for the country in the global economy.
A national carrier connects a country with the world. As an advertising practitioner and entrepreneur, I can safely opine that a national carrier is probably the single biggest advertising tool and a billboard available to any country to market itself in the global economy.
The economics justify this assertion. Currently, it costs about R500,000 a month to lease the biggest billboard in SA. Imagine the savings in marketing the South African brand that accrue to SA each time an SAA plane flies to its numerous global markets.
No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, nothing says “I am going home” more than seeing your national carrier while waiting to board at a foreign airport.
SAA is a vital cog in national brand management and saving it from demise has many benefits from a national branding and advertising perspective. I share some of these using my lived experiences with SAA.
In 1995, I was a 22-year-old advertising graduate bristling with hope and imbued with sky-high optimism wrought in the nascent democracy.
Like many others, I was looking to spread my wings and reach out to this newly touted “rainbow nation” in the sky. I started my advertising career as a junior account executive at Leo Burnett, a global advertising agency that managed the SAA account.
As a rookie working on the SAA account under the direction of my seniors, I faced the daunting task of having to learn and understand aviation jargon.
One day, our principal on the SAA account at the time, Ian Bromley, asked my boss if I had ever been on an aircraft, seeing that I was working on the account.
Of course, I had neither been on an aircraft nor travelled outside of SA. And so, I received a call one Friday afternoon that I should not come to work the following Monday but instead go to the US embassy and apply for a visa.
It was exciting times for a young boy from Atteridgeville whose longest trip until then had been the annual Christmas trek from Pretoria to his ancestral roots in Sekhukhune, Limpopo.
A week later I was in the business class of an SAA 747-400 jumbo jet, named “The Drakensberg”. I am not sure who was more excited: me or my family. None of us had been on a long-haul flight to the US.
Before the flight, I was taken to church and prayed for, followed by a ceremony in my honour that was organised at home. It felt like a re-christening.
My late grandfather, Joseph Sehlope Nchabeleng, whom I am named after, had the foresight to organise “potjies” for me. He reasoned that I would get hungry during the 18-hour flight.
Neither of us knew that I would not need any of that during the flight. Food would be served on board!
I had gone to the US to help launch SAA’s Voyager programme, which we had been working on at Leo Burnett. This is my SAA story, and the looming demise of this once proud airline cuts deep into my heart and those of numerous other South Africans.
After my maiden working trip to the US under Leo Burnett, we executed the iconic Ellis Park flyover during the Rugby World Cup final in 1995. We organised another flyover, of the FNB Stadium, during the Africa Cup of Nations football final in 1996.
I was also part of the team that worked with the legendary Felicia Mabuza-Suttle in the “Vulindlela” campaign, when we launched a recruitment drive for more black
South Africans to enter the aviation industry as part of the transformation agenda for the sector.
My rich experiences with the national carrier from an advertising context compel me to conclude that losing the airline would be terrible.
I do not know how we got to this parlous situation with our national airline, but it feels like we missed our flight when there was absolutely no reason to.
Today, many years later, as I am penning this instalment in the office of my own ad agency, Blueprint SA, it feels as if we, as a country, have spurned a golden opportunity. It feels like we are letting go of a crown jewel, an heirloom.
Confronted with the doom and gloom season of rearranged priorities and focus in view of Covid-19, it is tempting to surrender to fate, but I choose to remain optimistic, emboldened by the fighting spirit of South Africans and epitomised by Nelson Mandela.
We are seized with a rainbow moment in our democracy to join hands in our diversity as stakeholders and salvage our national carrier from the brink of extinction. It is still entirely up to us.
In conclusion, I aver that there remains a window of opportunity for the presidency, the Treasury and key departments such as trade & industry, foreign affairs, and tourism to come together and engage on how best to save our national carrier.
It is not just about saving jobs and livelihoods as forcefully expressed by the trade unions, but also about keeping our tradition of connecting the world with that “warmest” African welcome.
In SAA, we have the most effective national brand ambassador that we desperately need in these times of renewed nationalism.
Nchabeleng is an award-winning advertising guru and entrepreneur with directorships in several unlisted companies including Blueprint Group, Koni Multinational Brands and United Royal Kingships. He writes in his personal capacity