Leadership in the creative industry can contribute to the kind of society we want to build and to influence brands positively. In this episode of The Lead Creative, we are joined by Abey Mokgwatsane, the Managing Executive of Brand, Communications, and Sponsorships at Vodacom. He was previously the CEO of Ogilvy and the CEO of a global brand experience agency, VWV before that. He has been in leadership positions for just over 20 years in both agencies and brands, where he has built a wealth of insights and knowledge. In this episode, Abey unpacks some trends that have influenced both brand and agency relations, as well as strategy. “In my view, clients seriously underestimate how much work they need to do in order to facilitate a successful agency relationship. Often the thing that takes time, is not the interface between the client and the agency. It is the interface between the client value-chain itself; such that by the time that interfaces with the agency, it is clear.” - Abey Mokgwatsane We also get into the thinking behind Vodacom insourcing some elements of their digital marketing functions, which has led to useful brand insights. This includes the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as they gather customer and user data.