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The DStv Ngoma Awards Are Zimbabwe's Creative Scorecard — And the Agencies Chasing the Metal Are Reshaping the Continent

From Brett Mead winning 23 Ngoma metals in a single night, to Donald Machaya landing a Loeries nomination, to Ashley Mhonda becoming the first Black African to judge New York — Zimbabwe's creative decade is here. ZAAPA's Creative Directors Forum is the room where it all gets built.

By Rutendo Bvuma 11 June 2026 16 min read

Campaign Breaks

142 stories

Tech Disruption

98 stories

Agency Shifts

76 stories

Talent Showcases

53 stories

Latest Stories

Awards Intelligence

"The OG Influencer": SA's First 9-Owner OOH Coalition Fires Back at Digital — The Billboard Is the Original Cultural Influence

Primedia Outdoor, JCDecaux, Tractor Outdoor, Provantage, Reveel, Relativ Media, Alive Advertising, Evolv Outdoor, and Innovocean — nine SA media owners united for the first time. Creative agency Boundless built the cheeky platform: "No one throws shade like me." SA OOH market: $257M in 2026.

Thandeka Moyo · 8 min read

Tech Disruption

Nielsen Exits South Africa After 38 Years — GfK Video360 Will Rebuild TV Planning from the Ground Up by 2027

The BRC has appointed GfK to replace Nielsen as South Africa's TV audience measurement provider. The three-phase migration — Q1 2026 Establishment Survey, January 2027 new trading currency, December 2027 full Total Video service — will integrate linear TV, broadcaster VOD, and streaming into one unified planning dataset.

Tendai Mpofu · 9 min read

Agency Shifts

Dicomm McCann Executes Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe's 'Bank On Growth' — The Account Win That Caps the Agency's Busiest New-Business Year

McCann's Harare affiliate has delivered the 'Bank On Growth' brand platform for Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe — reframing the Standard Bank subsidiary as a long-term growth partner beyond traditional banking. The mandate follows recent wins: Baker's Inn, Goldstar Sugar, Dial-a-Delivery, Pizza Inn 30th anniversary, EU Delegation.

Chidi Okafor · 7 min read

Vibrant African billboard campaign in Harare

Ad of the Week

Local Campaigns Redefining Global Aesthetics

"This wasn't a global brief adapted for Africa. This was Africa creating its own brief — and the world noticed."

This week's standout: A Harare launch campaign from a homegrown beverage brand that fused Shona visual iconography with street-level media placement to achieve 4× the industry average engagement rate. Pure, unfiltered African creative confidence.

Harare Campaign Analysis

Reviewed by

Nkechi Eze, Creative Director

Read Full Review

Creative Spotlight

Portrait of young African female creative director

Spotlight

Spotlight: Donald Machaya, ECD & Founder — DatCitizen Creative Group

He opened DatCitizen's doors in 2015 with a brief and a vision — and within six months, won at the Ngoma Awards. By 2018 he was on the Loeries shortlist with the Kwenga campaign. By year end: Creative Director of the Year at the Zimbabwe Business Awards.

This month we track Donald Machaya — ECD and founder of DatCitizen Creative Group, the force behind the Kwenga Steward Bank campaign that made Zimbabwe's informal sector dance its way onto the Loeries shortlist. B.Com Marketing (UNISA), art director, corporate identity specialist — and the man behind the publication you're reading right now.

By Tendai Mpofu

12 min read

Talent Showcases

ZAAPA's Creative Directors Forum: Where Sapi Bachi, Denford Magora and Zimbabwe's Best Creative Leaders Set the Annual Industry Agenda

By Seun Adegoke · 5 min read

Awards Intelligence

Brett Mead's Portfolio at Shift Engage: InnBucks 'Money-Eating Rat', Zambezi 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle', KFC 'K=FC²' — The Harare Campaigns on the Clio Network

By Tendai Mpofu · 6 min read

Zimbabwe

Sapi Bachi: "Patience Chivaviro as GM and Dumisani Mahobele as Creative Director — This Is TBWA Zimbabwe's Next Chapter"

By Rutendo Bvuma · 6 min read

Campaign Breaks

Jericho's Ngoma-Winning CBZ 'Partners for Success': How Ashley Mhonda Made Print Earn Its Gold Metal

By Chidi Okafor · 8 min read

Awards Intelligence

Denford Magora: "Jericho Didn't Ask Permission to Be Africa's Most Globally Connected Independent Agency. We Just Became One."

By Fatima Al-Rashid · 5 min read

Opinion

The DStv Ngoma Is Our Benchmark. The Loeries Is Our Proof of Concept. Cannes Is the Goal.

Sapi Bachi, MD TBWA Zimbabwe · ZAAPA Supervisory Board Member

Opinion

Ashley Mhonda: "When I Walked Into That New York Judging Room, I Wasn't Representing Jericho — I Was Representing Every Zimbabwean Creative Who Ever Doubted Whether Their Work Was Good Enough."

Ashley Mhonda, Creative Director, Jericho Advertising Zimbabwe

Opinion

Donald Machaya: "The Kwenga Campaign Proved That Zimbabwe's Informal Economy Is a Creative Goldmine Nobody Else Is Digging."

Donald Machaya, ECD & Founder, DatCitizen Creative Group · datcitizen.co.zw

Industry Numbers

Loeries 2024 & MAZ NEMA 2025 — Verified Data

DStv Ngoma metals won by
Shift Engage in one night

2018

DatCitizen / Donald Machaya
on the Loeries shortlist

1st

Ashley Mhonda — first Black African
to judge New York Festival

1980

ZAAPA founded — home of Zimbabwe's
Creative Directors Forum

2015

DatCitizen opens — Ngoma Award
win within the first 6 months

Ngoma

Zimbabwe's advertising oscars —
ngomaawards.africa

Sources: DStv Ngoma, ZAAPA, ngomaawards.africa, Newsday ZW, LinkedIn · June 2026

Campaign Showcase

View All →

Harare

Tregers OOH Launch — "Harare Belongs to All of Us"

Agency: Dentsu Zimbabwe · Loeries 2026 Finalist

South Africa

Zambezi Lager 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle' — Brett Mead & Shift Engage Bottle a Nation's Identity Into One Campaign

Agency: Shift Engage · CD: Brett Mead · Ads of the World / Clio Network

Nairobi

Safaricom M-Pesa — The Social Campaign That Redefined Fintech Communication

Agency: Ogilvy Nairobi · Cannes Bronze 2026

Johannesburg

South African Tourism 'Alive With Possibility' — Global Reach, Local Soul

Agency: FCB/SIX Joburg · Cannes Silver 2026

The DStv Ngoma Awards Are Zimbabwe's Creative Scorecard — And the Agencies Chasing the Metal Are Reshaping the Continent

Latest Stories

"The OG Influencer": SA's First 9-Owner OOH Coalition Fires Back at Digital — The Billboard Is the Original Cultural Influence

Nielsen Exits South Africa After 38 Years — GfK Video360 Will Rebuild TV Planning from the Ground Up by 2027

Dicomm McCann Executes Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe's 'Bank On Growth' — The Account Win That Caps the Agency's Busiest New-Business Year

Local Campaigns Redefining Global Aesthetics

Creative Spotlight

Spotlight: Donald Machaya, ECD & Founder — DatCitizen Creative Group

Talent Showcases

ZAAPA's Creative Directors Forum: Where Sapi Bachi, Denford Magora and Zimbabwe's Best Creative Leaders Set the Annual Industry Agenda

Brett Mead's Portfolio at Shift Engage: InnBucks 'Money-Eating Rat', Zambezi 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle', KFC 'K=FC²' — The Harare Campaigns on the Clio Network

Sapi Bachi: "Patience Chivaviro as GM and Dumisani Mahobele as Creative Director — This Is TBWA Zimbabwe's Next Chapter"

Jericho's Ngoma-Winning CBZ 'Partners for Success': How Ashley Mhonda Made Print Earn Its Gold Metal

Denford Magora: "Jericho Didn't Ask Permission to Be Africa's Most Globally Connected Independent Agency. We Just Became One."

More From Ad Citizen

ZAAPA 2026: What Zimbabwe's Five Industry Forums — Creative, Media, Digital, Financial, Outdoor — Are Actually Debating Right Now

Jericho's Denford Magora: How He Built Zimbabwe's Largest Agency Group in One Year on a Jupiter Drawing Room Spine

Brett Mead at Shift Engage: The Harare CD Behind 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle', 'K=FC²', 'Dark Forces' and 'The Future of Money'

TBWA Zimbabwe's Sapi Bachi: MD, ZAAPA Board Member, and the Standard-Setter for Disruption in Harare

Opinion

The DStv Ngoma Is Our Benchmark. The Loeries Is Our Proof of Concept. Cannes Is the Goal.

Ashley Mhonda: "When I Walked Into That New York Judging Room, I Wasn't Representing Jericho — I Was Representing Every Zimbabwean Creative Who Ever Doubted Whether Their Work Was Good Enough."

Donald Machaya: "The Kwenga Campaign Proved That Zimbabwe's Informal Economy Is a Creative Goldmine Nobody Else Is Digging."

Industry Numbers

Campaign Showcase

Tregers OOH Launch — "Harare Belongs to All of Us"

Zambezi Lager 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle' — Brett Mead & Shift Engage Bottle a Nation's Identity Into One Campaign

Safaricom M-Pesa — The Social Campaign That Redefined Fintech Communication

South African Tourism 'Alive With Possibility' — Global Reach, Local Soul

The DStv Ngoma Awards Are Zimbabwe's Creative Scorecard — And the Agencies Chasing the Metal Are Reshaping the Continent

Latest Stories

"The OG Influencer": SA's First 9-Owner OOH Coalition Fires Back at Digital — The Billboard Is the Original Cultural Influence

Nielsen Exits South Africa After 38 Years — GfK Video360 Will Rebuild TV Planning from the Ground Up by 2027

Dicomm McCann Executes Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe's 'Bank On Growth' — The Account Win That Caps the Agency's Busiest New-Business Year

Local Campaigns Redefining Global Aesthetics

Creative Spotlight

Spotlight: Donald Machaya, ECD & Founder — DatCitizen Creative Group

Talent Showcases

ZAAPA's Creative Directors Forum: Where Sapi Bachi, Denford Magora and Zimbabwe's Best Creative Leaders Set the Annual Industry Agenda

Brett Mead's Portfolio at Shift Engage: InnBucks 'Money-Eating Rat', Zambezi 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle', KFC 'K=FC²' — The Harare Campaigns on the Clio Network

Sapi Bachi: "Patience Chivaviro as GM and Dumisani Mahobele as Creative Director — This Is TBWA Zimbabwe's Next Chapter"

Jericho's Ngoma-Winning CBZ 'Partners for Success': How Ashley Mhonda Made Print Earn Its Gold Metal

Denford Magora: "Jericho Didn't Ask Permission to Be Africa's Most Globally Connected Independent Agency. We Just Became One."

More From Ad Citizen

ZAAPA 2026: What Zimbabwe's Five Industry Forums — Creative, Media, Digital, Financial, Outdoor — Are Actually Debating Right Now

Jericho's Denford Magora: How He Built Zimbabwe's Largest Agency Group in One Year on a Jupiter Drawing Room Spine

Brett Mead at Shift Engage: The Harare CD Behind 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle', 'K=FC²', 'Dark Forces' and 'The Future of Money'

TBWA Zimbabwe's Sapi Bachi: MD, ZAAPA Board Member, and the Standard-Setter for Disruption in Harare

Opinion

The DStv Ngoma Is Our Benchmark. The Loeries Is Our Proof of Concept. Cannes Is the Goal.

Ashley Mhonda: "When I Walked Into That New York Judging Room, I Wasn't Representing Jericho — I Was Representing Every Zimbabwean Creative Who Ever Doubted Whether Their Work Was Good Enough."

Donald Machaya: "The Kwenga Campaign Proved That Zimbabwe's Informal Economy Is a Creative Goldmine Nobody Else Is Digging."

Industry Numbers

Campaign Showcase

Tregers OOH Launch — "Harare Belongs to All of Us"

Zambezi Lager 'Zimbabwe in a Bottle' — Brett Mead & Shift Engage Bottle a Nation's Identity Into One Campaign

Safaricom M-Pesa — The Social Campaign That Redefined Fintech Communication

South African Tourism 'Alive With Possibility' — Global Reach, Local Soul

The Ad CitizenDaily Intelligence Brief

The Ad Citizen
Daily Intelligence Brief