South Africans follow sport religiously, having a national team for almost every sport. So we formulated a campaign to find our country’s first national Creative Team. Declaring Design Indaba ‘The Creative Playing Field’, we named speakers the international touring team and launched a search for a national host team. We sent out calls for entries on national and online media. Consumers were invited to try out online and at organised events. The public voted for their favourites via social media. The team was announced at Design Indaba Expo. The prize: National creative fame and their entries immortalised as public sculptures.

Shortlisting 400 contenders, the team was announced at the Expo, where entries were exhibited. Talkability resulted in three million rand more free publicity coverage than previous years. We had an 8 % increase in Expo exhibitors and 20% increase in industry buyers. Our Superstars website received 20 000 unique visits over the promotional period. The Conference was sold out and was recognised as the world’s best design conference. Most importantly, we achieved our objective, increasing Expo visitors by 19%, the first increase in three years.