Last week, I watched the Die Antwoord documentary, ZEF. Die Antwoord (which translates to The Answer) is a South African rap/dance/rave music group that can be an acquired taste. I’ve known about them for years—mainly through their early music videos—but I never paid close attention to their career. Until now.
The documentary on Amazon Prime turned out to be one of the most compelling examples of how a bold creative direction can become the pivotal moment in a brand’s success. It’s not just about talent or luck—it’s about finding a culture, embodying it, and letting that drive everything else.
Die Antwoord is made up of a couple who go by the name of Yolandi and Ninja, supported by DJ Hi-Tek. When Ninja met Yolandi he was already an aspiring rapper, but with little success. Once he met Yolandi he was captivated by her voice and asked her if she would feature on one of his early tracks. They started making more and more music together as they became a couple, and it was tough.
The couple went through years of struggling to get their music out, living in poverty and raising their young daughter, 16. (16 is Yolandi’s lucky number) They were talented artists and musicians (again, acquired taste, I know), but they really struggled with the performance identity.
Being white rappers from South Africa was almost comical in a way.
There is a part of the documentary where Yolandi and Ninja are talking about a really low point in their journey. They are sitting in traffic, and Yolandi sees a guy sitting in the back of a pick up truck with a crazy hair cut and tattoos all over his body. She points out how much she likes his Zef style to Ninja who gets really jealous because he thinks Yolandi is attracted to this guy more than him.
Whether it was an epiphany, or something that was driven by Ninja’s crazy jealousy or both, this is the moment the success of Die Antwoord was born.
It wasn’t when they started to rap, they didn’t all of a sudden get one of their tracks on the radio. It was when they decided to create a rap group based around the South African movement, Zef.
Zef is a South African subculture—an unapologetic celebration of being a little trashy but stylish. It’s raw, rebellious, and speaks to people who don’t fit neatly into society’s mould. While Zef had been around for years, it didn’t yet have a face, a sound, or a leader.
When Yolandi and Ninja adopted Zef, they went all in. They got Zef haircuts, filled their bodies with Zef tattoos, and exaggerated their personalities to align with the movement. Their music videos—like “Enter the Ninja”—were Zef through and through, blending raw visuals with art inspired by the culture. From stage graphics to murals to their fashion, they amplified Zef in every way possible.
In doing so, they didn’t just represent Zef—they became Zef. They gave the culture a face, a leader, and a soundtrack. And people followed. Die-hard fans didn’t just like their music—they adopted a movement.
Their whole art form became a reflection of the movement, they featured in all of their video clips (see enter the ninja video clip below) and they amplified it all with on stage graphics, murals and fashion. Pretty much every touch point they have. They dove into this creative direction with everything they had, and pretty quickly it was as if they had been the founders of the Zef movement. They gave the culture a face, a leader and a sound. One that millions would quickly adopt and follow religiously.
This effort made it impossible to separate the culture form Die Antwoord, they would become the movement. Die Antwoord were Zef.
The important part is that Zef wasn’t just a look, it was a movement. It was a world view, a belief system that everyone who was involved shared. This shows us that it wasn’t necessarily the product (the music) that enabled them to launch into fame, it was the creative direction they pursued. Although I would never be able to prove it, I am sure Die Antwoord could have been a punk group, or maybe a metal band and they would have the same outcome. Because in this case it actually wasn't about the product itself, it was about letting people express themselves through a style, and the thing that brought them all together was Yolandi, Ninja and DJ Hi-Tek.
Early on in my career I read Seth Goddin’s book Tribes: We need you to lead us.
In this work, Godin talks about the importance of identifying and leading existing communities, or “tribes,” by creating products or services that resonate deeply with their values and beliefs. He suggests that instead of developing a product and attempting to build a culture around it, brands should find a pre-existing culture and create something that embodies and serves it. This approach creates a sense of belonging and loyalty among consumers, as they feel part of a culture.
I always liked this approach, although I knew it was quite a hard sell to businesses that don’t buy into marketing. It feels counter intuitive to most brands to sell anything other than the product. We see this conversation unfolding right now with the new Jaguar brand. People yelling ‘WHERE IS THE CAR’ from the treetops claiming that the marketing team has well and truly dropped the ball. But I keep seeing this pattern of culture before products in some of the world's most celebrated brands.
Most successful business leaders will tell you that there was an element of luck which led to their success. Which I think is true, and I think that luck was evident in Phil Knight’s autobiography Shoe dog.
I won’t go into detail about the book, but the luckiest thing that happened to Nike was the rising culture of leisurely running. It sounds weird now, but pre 1960’s ish no one really just went for a jog. Running was left up to the athletes running around tracks, not just casually down the road or along the beach.
But as luck would have it, just as Nike was coming up, running was becoming a cultural phenomenon… creating a mass amount of people who were looking for ways to express themselves in this new culture. Running shoes was the perfect answer.
A more recent brand who demonstrates this philosophy is Liquid Death, a carbonated water brand out of the US. They took possibly one of the most mundane products available and embedded themselves in a culture of punk and metal which catapulted the brand all over the globe. What made it successful?
They knew their audience.
They knew their audience was edgy, had dark humour and lived on the edge of society. So that’s exactly what Liquid Death needed to be. It’s not the fizzy water that people love - you can get that from another brand for probably half the price and it will taste exactly the same. It’s the brand, the culture, the movement.
They are also master marketeers, you can read a little more about them in my blog post here, better that back sweat.
Take a piece of paper, write down your product and fold it evenly into a square. Now throw it into the bin.
You have a great product or service. This approach doesn’t discredit that in the slightest. But what you need to do is look at your audience through the lens of their culture. Not your product. Look for subcultures that are passionate, underserved or misunderstood.
If we look at our examples:
Die Antwoord didn’t make up Zef, they embodied it.
Nike didn’t convince people to start running, they encouraged it.
Liquid death didn’t create punk/metal culture, they embraced it
Creating a product and getting it to market is a big enough job as it is (I know from experience), don’t try and start a movement at the same time. Join one instead.
You can’t half ass this. You will be seen as an imposter. If you have one foot in one foot out, the die hard fans won’t pick up what you're putting down, and the people who do notice won't care enough to make an impact. This comes to the often challenging realisation that you can’t be for everyone. If you try to please everyone, you’ll be loved by no one.
If we look at Die Antwoord, they whole heartily embraced the Zef style. From the hair cuts, the tattoos, the video clips to the live performances and clothes they wear. They are Zef through and through. This creates a cohesive narrative. Your brand needs to look, sound, smell and taste like the culture you have embodied. No exceptions.
The more fearless you are, the more consumers will award you. You can’t be everything for everyone. Remember how I say that Die Antwoord were an acquired taste? When they started touring the world, South Africa tried to disown them. They plastered them all over the local media and labeled them as a disgrace. This only fuels the fire in your culture. When people feel like they belong to something, and that something is getting attacked, they will do everything they can to defend it. Because in a way they are defending themselves.
Liquid Death do the same, their brand of water is simply ‘too much’ for the majority of bottled water drinkers. But how many people do you know that are passionate about drinking fizzy water? I’m guessing zero. And then think about how many people do you know who are passionate about music? Seems simple right?
Being polarising is a good thing for a brand.
So if Die Antwoord are actually selling tickets to become part of the Zef movement, and Liquid Death are selling tickets to a punk rock and metal show, what about your brand? What are you selling beyond the transaction? Who or what are you enabling your audience to become as part of the unwritten agreement that they will become part of your brand?
When you are running a brand that feels lost it is hard to do anything in marketing. Even a social media post is hard to do. This is where a strong creative direction comes into play. It defines exactly what you say and how you say it, it gives you reference to how you look and how you behave. It gives you tools to be able to quickly and consistently express and promote your brand on all types of media.
Without it, brands often stay in the shadows and never promote themselves because they never no what to say and nothing seems right.
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