The ‘girlboss’ may have fallen out of cultural favour, but women’s influence on the creative industry has never felt more present.
At Old Friends Young Talent, they are known as the women in SPAM, a playful shorthand for the women working across social media, PR, advertising and marketing. An acknowledgement that so much of the thinking, shaping and doing inside the agency is being driven by women across every discipline.
This is less about counting the women in the room and more about recognising the influence they have in it. Women at OFYT are not sitting on the sidelines of the work; they are in it from the very beginning, helping shape what gets made, how it lands, and why it matters.
That perspective carries through to the agency’s approach to brand storytelling, creating work that doesn’t just seek an audience, but feels considered, work that understands people first and platforms second.
The storyteller
Louise Newman is one of the women driving this thinking. While her role spans copywriter and creative director, she is, at her core, a storyteller. Her recent work on the Satrix account showed how financial education doesn’t have to feel intimidating.
Through sharp writing and an instinctive understanding of her audience, she helped encourage a new generation to think differently about their financial future without ever talking down to them. When she’s not working on Satrix, she can be found creating for Kia South Africa, Remax, and The Crazy Store.
Then there is Aakifah Rodrigues, one of OFYT’s longest friends, having been part of the agency for more than a decade. Her journey from intern to Senior Designer to Creative Director is not just a title progression; it reflects what happens when you give people room to grow beyond a single lane.
Aakifah brings a deep cultural instinct to her work, and an ability to read the consumer in a way that often can’t be taught.
The conversation
She and Louise can often be heard agreeing with one another in a way that sounds suspiciously like disagreeing, particularly when debating which Kia tagline lands hardest, or which angle to take for Vida e Caffè’s latest campaign.
Because they know that the best work is rarely shaped by one point of view. It comes from conversation, different perspectives and people who care enough to keep working at an idea until it feels right.
That same mix of instinct and experience sits at the heart of the agency’s PR and influence offering, led by head of department, Chanelle Mac Allister. With more than 10 years in the industry, Chanelle has become the go-to when brands need to land in the real world, and not just on paper.
She has helped steer work across Woolworths Food and Home, Woolworths Fashion and Beauty, ASICS South Africa and G-Star RAW. What defines her approach is an understanding that visibility alone is not influence.
The fixer
Internally, she is known as OFYT’s fixer, but that undersells it. She is often the one holding the moving parts together, translating between clients, creators and culture and making sure the work actually connects.
In today’s landscape, a brand’s reputation is often shaped in the scroll of a feed. Caitlin Wood, OFYT’s head of social media, leads the teams behind brands including Skin Republic, GloPotion, The Crazy Store and Durbanville Hills Wines.
Her role is to understand what each community cares about and give every brand a voice people want to hear from. Rumour has it she also types more than 100 words a minute, which undoubtedly helps.
Together, these women show that influence inside Old Friends Young Talent is not limited. It lives in the decisions made, in the strategy, the conversations, the instincts, the timing, and the care taken to make sure ideas resonate.
The interns
And just as importantly, that influence is being passed on. OFYT’s intern programme, which has a 90% conversion rate into full-time roles, has become one of the most tangible ways the agency is shaping the next generation of talent.
Many of those interns are young women stepping into the industry for the first time, learning not just how to do the work, but how to trust their voice inside it. They are not being shaped into a mould; they are being given space to find their own.
Supporting women in the industry, then, has to go beyond the language of empowerment, especially during Women’s Month. It means giving them room to grow across disciplines, to lead, to challenge, and to shape the culture of the organisations they are part of.
Women at Old Friends Young Talent are not just part of the future of brand storytelling, they are the ones writing it.
