The campaign has put Helen Zille firmly in the spotlight, but the marketing story is unfolding alongside a political one. Following the November 2026 local government elections, the DA mayoral candidate is in contention for Johannesburg’s top job, although coalition negotiations must still determine whether she secures the numbers to become mayor. Clea Dias examines the campaign.
One of my standout South African campaigns this year has to be the DA’s!
Now, I don’t want to get into a political debate, but from a marketing perspective, I think this campaign is a brilliant case study in integrated marketing.
A few things stood out to me:
1. They understood distinctive assets
The DA has built recognisable visual and human assets that make the work immediately identifiable. And Helen Zille has arguably become one of them. 👀
In fact, have you noticed her hair becoming progressively more pronounced and more blonde? There’s certainly no sign of retirement there.
2. They cut through
Some of the digital content was genuinely funny. 😅 We talk about reach, frequency and impressions, but if you want to be remembered, you need to make people FEEL something. Humour is a powerful way of doing that.
3. The timing was smart
The campaign was live months before the election date. They weren’t waiting until everyone was already talking politics to enter the conversation. They built familiarity early and then had the opportunity to build on it.
4. They tapped into real, everyday tensions
The messaging connected with challenges people were actually experiencing in their daily lives. It made the proposition relevant rather than simply telling people what the party stood for.
5. And, importantly, there was a clear value proposition
You knew what they were asking you to believe and why it mattered.
Integrated marketing at its best! Not just putting the same campaign on every channel, but understanding what each channel can do, building distinctive assets that create recognition, using emotion to create memorability, getting the timing right and keeping a clear proposition at the centre of it all.
A very good reminder that great marketing doesn’t have to be complicated.
It just has to be strategically joined up. 💡
Clea Dias is the group marketing director at Growth-Ten. She leads marketing and brand strategy across Richfield Education, aaa School of Advertising, and alt_ed. Her focus is on balancing brand building with performance marketing to drive sustainable growth in competitive education markets.
