BELL aWard

A leading research light

The Bell Award honours an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the betterment of the media sector, whose oeuvre of work has informed and enriched the industry narrative. This year’s recipient of the Bell Award has made an invaluable and significant contribution to the South African research and media landscape over many decades – not only as someone you can rely on in times of conflict and indecision to supply and reason with the facts, but as a pioneer for black women in research in South Africa.

Jos Kuper, doyenne of research in South Africa and the inaugural winner of the Bell Award, has this to say about Kubheka: “Bea made herself an intrinsic and essential part of the industry, without which many unnecessary and perhaps insensitive marketing and advertising initiatives and messages would have seen the light of day. And she did so without antagonising anyone; in fact quite the opposite. It came from deep within her big heart.”

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

From humble beginnings working in a laundromat, Kubheka started to come to the fore as a research executive at Bates Wells in the early ’80s. Her groundbreaking sociological research and quietly reasoned insights on black

Winner

Bell Award: Beatrice ‘Bea’ Kubheka

By Gordon Muller

consumers began to make marketers sit up and take note.

For me, Kubheka made a lasting impression on many young people in the industry who were trying to find a reasoned approach to extricating marketing and advertising from the racial quagmire into which it was steadily sinking. She changed the way people thought about advertising and media in South Africa.

Kubheka liked to be seen as someone who was located deep within her own culture, a person who enjoyed using research to tell the untold story. More often than not the only female in the executive frame, she boldly challenged the mindset of an industry overwhelmingly dominated by white males, but always with a gentle and provocatively humorous touch. You could say she practically invented quiet diplomacy in the South African advertising industry.

After leaving the advertising agency world, Bea spent a number of years at MMR Research doing pioneering work in the newspaper publishing industry. After succeeding Kuper as head of MMR, in 2003 Kubheka moved on to become the first managing director of one the country’s earliest black economic empowerment market research companies, African Response.

YoU coULD SAY SHE prAcTIcALLY INvENTED qUIET DIpLoMAcY IN THE SoUTH AfrIcAN ADvErTISING INDUSTrY

LEADING LIGHT

Andrea Rademeyer, founder and CEO of research group Ask Afrika, says of Beatrice: “Building companies is one thing, building an industry quite another. Bea has done both. Bea has always spoken about the research industry’s potential to tell the backstory of our societies, about the imperative of authoring a local view on products and brands. She has been an inspiring leading light to many youngsters hesitant about entering this intellectual industry. Her kindness was a magnet to many.”

In 2011, Kubheka relinquished her role as MMR managing director, becoming the chair of Synovate’s African Response until her retirement.

Jon Salters, CEO of Synovate Africa at the time, says of Beatrice: “She has become one of the most recognised, respected and well-liked figures in the South African market research industry.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

In an advertising career spanning over 40 years, Gordon Muller has held senior management positions at a number of major international advertising agencies. He is a past chairperson of the Advertising Media Forum and the Advertising Media Association of South Africa and was awarded the Financial Mail Adfocus Lifetime Achievement Award 2011, The Media magazine Legend Award 2012 and was voted by his peers the MOST Awards Media Shepherd 2017. As an independent media consultant, he offers a depth of communication services.