#Newsmaker: Hero's Amanda Lambe promoted to MD

She will be working closely with ECD Jabulani Sigege, who joined Hero six months ago. “Our purpose is to work together as a team to inspire our units to create solutions that embrace every aspect of modern advertising,” says Lambe.

We’ve appointed a new leadership team with Amanda Lambe taking over the reins as MD in partnership with the new ECD Jabulani Sigege. https://t.co/0RokT6x18I #HeroUpdate pic.twitter.com/bbSpXJxdAc

— Hero Group (@herotweet) May 2, 2019

How do you feel about your promotion?
I started my relationship with Hero in 2009 [as a client], and at the time I would never have imagined that 10 years later I would be its managing director. I’ve always been committed to giving my all to make a difference at an agency that makes a difference, and with Hero being on the path of transformation that it is, I feel as though my promotion is well timed.

Amanda Lambe

What excites you most about the agency and where it’s going?
As an agency, our aim is to create work that changes and shapes behaviour. The world is constantly changing, so we have to be agile to remain in tune with what is happening around us. We’re doing this by ensuring that we have diversity at all levels – operational, management and executive.

What do you love most about your career, and the advertising industry in particular?
When I started working, I could never have dreamt about being where I am now. My career has taken a few unexpected twists and turns along the way. What I love most about what I do is the people. Having the right people join the team and then seeing those people grow is very rewarding.

I don’t think there is something in particular to like about the advertising industry. On the one hand, the advertising industry will take as much from you as you allow it to and on the other hand it allows you to make a real difference to people’s lives. At Hero, our aim is to create a balance, to create work that is meaningful and that will effect change.

To work in advertising, you need to be resilient, agile, open-minded and realise that you’ll always be learning.

Tell us a bit about your experience and what you hope to achieve in your new position.
I started out in the banking industry and then moved on to long-term financial services. After completing a qualification in marketing management, I went into below-the-line marketing, then strategic communication, and then, later, with the internet becoming a daily part of people’s lives, into digital marketing. I specialised in social media management, which led me to Hero.

I don’t want to use the tried-and-trusted formulas that we tend to fall back on because they work. The Hero leadership team is not typical of the advertising industry, and I am looking forward to working closely with Jabulani, our ECD, to produce work that we can be proud of, that we can stand behind.

Amanda Lambe and Jabulani Sigege to helm Cape Town-based Hero

30 Apr 2019

Any career highlights you’re particularly proud of?
I am particularly proud of the Hero team’s efforts around the City of Cape Town’s #ThinkWater campaign. Through driving awareness about the water crisis and the impending Day Zero, we helped to reduce water consumption from 1.2 billion litres per day to less than 500 million litres per day. Having been part of the team that worked on this with the city is career-defining.

Campaigning to #DefeatDayZero

Leigh Andrews  8 Feb 2018

Outside of that, I ran a Movember campaign when I was at Old Mutual, for their severe illness product offering. The campaign grew Old Mutual's Facebook following by 88% and raised over R180,000 for men’s health awareness. The campaign was featured as one of the top campaigns for that year on Movember's global showcase.

What are you most looking forward to?
I am looking forward to galvanising a team and to creating work that gets noticed by the industry, potential clients and talent, and to create work that will surprise and delight.

What’s at the top of your to-do list?
I have to-do lists on my phone, on the back of napkins, in my notebook, on loose pages on my desk, on post-its… As a leader, my job is a matter of constant reprioritisation because what is important at 10am may be less important at 10:30am.

My daily priorities are to make sure our environment is conducive to being productive.

Taking care of the Hero team is one of the most important things for me. Second to that is to make sure that we remain on target with our clients’ campaigns and, of course, I always have my eye on new business development.

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to for work?
The one book I’ve read, which is not a business book at all, but has helped my business life considerably is The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. The five love languages are: quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service and gifts. The book is aimed at couples, to help them improve communication, but after I read the book it was exceedingly clear to me that it works perfectly well in a corporate environment.

Tell us something about yourself not generally known?
I was on the debating team in high school, so I guess you could say that I’ve always questioned the status quo.

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