Passion
The fire that propels our hearts to desire the achievement of our goals.
ABOUT ADRENALIN / SOUTH AFRICA. ACROSS BORDERS.
Fearless
by nature.
01 / OUR STORY
Built on ideas.
Born to challenge.
Adrenalin is a leading Pan African ideas company founded in 1998 by Bester Zambuko and Kareen Zambuko, then two young entrepreneurs who identified a gap in the market for a technologically enabled full service Advertising & Design Agency. Today, Adrenalin is a Pan-African media company with presence in South Africa and Zimbabwe. It services clients in 12 African countries and has won more than 35 advertising and business awards on the continent.
Being a child of the continent, Adrenalin combines local knowledge and worldclass digital tools to effectively service the African market in delivering creative solutions and digital campaigns that provide audience data and analytics at a very granular level. Our growth plan also seeks to take advantage of the crystallisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area ACFTA which we see as a 10X event with a potential to fundamentally influence the future economic standing of Africa in global geopolitics. In the words of Rita McGrath, the future does not happen all at once, but is unevenly distributed. We believe that the time for the Honeybadger has come.
02 / OUR BRAND TOTEM
Fearless
creativity.
As in many African and other high-context cultures, Totems are powerful avatars that communicate the beliefs and values of a particular tribe or clan. The Adrenalin brand totem is the Honeybadger, a mammal that is widely distributed in Africa and is well adapted to thrive in its environment. It is known to have very few predators. Part of its defences is its incredibly thick but loose skin which makes it nearly impossible for a predator to get a firm grip on its body, also allowing it to writhe and turn on its attacker. It is also known for creative problem-solving. It has an insatiable taste for honey –hence the name “Honeybadger”. It is also notorious for successfully challenging much larger predators such as lions and leopards, giving it its reputation of being a real badass of the savannah. In Africa, only one thing separates the winners from the losers - grit, and nowhere is it more evident than in the life of the Honeybadger.
03 / THE HONEYBADGER MENTALITY
Champion of
the challenger.
Since inception Adrenalin has cut a distinct market positioning of being the Champion of the Challenger Brand, brought about by its proven record of creating seismic shifts that lead to Davids slaying Goliaths in an unevenly distributed marketplace. This has been achieved through an intentional focus on working with Challenger brands, that are hungry and willing to punch above their weight and shake the foundation on which the Market leaders are built.
The Honeybadger mentality is all about a Can Do attitude and an unwavering belief in Doing the Impossible.
It is inspired by the scholarship of big thinkers like Malcolm Gladwell who, in his book “David and Goliath”, unpacks the hidden strengths of the underdog. It is also inspired by the work of Adam Morgan of “Eating the Big Fish” fame.
The Honeybadger mentality would also be incomplete without acknowledging the inspiration derived from the work of Daniel Kahneman’s bestselling book, “Thinking Fast and Slow”, which brought to the fore the hidden secrets of human behaviour, without which no campaign could ever be effective. By taking brands through a process of asking better questions, Adrenalin evolves brands from being mere followers to fast-followers; and from fast-followers to becoming challenger brands.
Above all, however, Adrenalin exists to awaken brands into finding their purpose.
04 / WHAT GUIDES US
Conviction.
In full colour.
Faith
The conviction that we are difference-makers who make the difference.
Agility
The ability to see round corners and catalyse change.
Excellence
The quality of being outstanding, that’s our standard.
Integrity
Do what is right and fear no man.
Positivity
Our motivation comes from a place of love and light.
BETTER TOGETHER
At the intersection.
Beyond the expected.
Technology. Brand. Experience.
Three perspectives. One ambition: growth.
ONE COMPANY. TWO CREATIVE WORLDS.