BusinessDayTV Sep 20, 2026
With Jeremy Sampson, Chairman of Brand Finance Africa
Two Airlink jets came in low over the rugby in Cape Town, the footage traveled the world, and weeks later the country is still arguing about it. Jeremy Sampson's test of whether any of that was worth anything is a number the airline will not publish for two or three months: its bookings.
The usual verdict on a viral marketing moment is that the exposure was priceless. Sampson, who values brands for a living, treats the moment as the cheapest part of the job and the start of a funnel that still has four stages to run.
"So if you don't have the awareness you're stuffed. You can't start there. You've got to actually make sure awareness."
Jeremy Sampson, Chairman of Brand Finance Africa, on BusinessDayTV, has spent decades putting monetary values on South African brands, and wrote the opinion piece on the flyover that this interview follows. His firm is 30 years old this year, is based in London and works in more than 30 countries.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 8 lessons that matter.
Key Takeaways
The flyover bought the first stage of the marketing funnel and nothing beyond it: without awareness "you're stuffed", and awareness is where the work starts
The test is bookings over two or three months, not the size of the conversation
Sponsorship is often bought to block a competitor rather than to sell anything
Field research that used to take a couple of months now comes back in a day, because the people being surveyed are reachable on a phone
Brand valuation and brand strength both have an international ISO standard, and Brand Finance scores a sector against roughly 90 segments
The marketers and the finance team had never met when the firm first valued South African Breweries' brands
A new chief executive can be measured on what the brand was worth when they arrived and when they left
On AI he says "it's not technology versus humans", and on the digital bubble that there will be blood on the streets
1. The Flyover Everyone Saw
The host opened on the moment itself: two Airlink aircraft over the stadium in Cape Town, live on television, then everywhere. Sampson said the flypast was not the surprise. The height was.
A flypast was expected; that one was not
Well, I think you know we've got a country that's rugby mad and being in the stadium DHL stadium in Cape Town, everyone was expecting a flyover.
Jeremy Sampson
The people in the ground did not see how low it was until they saw the video
But when it came in so low, everyone was shocked.
Jeremy Sampson
What followed, he said, was the argument itself: some saying it was too low or dangerous and asking why anyone did it, others answering that this is South Africa. Weeks later the conversation is still running.
2. Awareness Or You're Stuffed
Sampson put the flyover against what sponsorship is actually bought for, and gave two reasons before he gave any about the airline.
Sponsorship generates revenue, and it also shuts a rival out
Well, what's the point of sponsorship? You know, you and I know that mainly it's to generate more revenues for the owner, but also it's sometimes to block out the competition.
Jeremy Sampson
He noted that the airline which had sponsored the flypast loyally for years, and the national carrier before it, have been forgotten in the noise. Then he laid the marketing funnel over it: awareness, consideration, familiarity, adoption, loyalty.
The first stage is the one you cannot skip
So if you don't have the awareness you're stuffed. You can't start there. You've got to actually make sure awareness.
Jeremy Sampson
The other thing the moment corrected, on his account, is the assumption that Airlink is a minor operator.
People underrate how much of Africa the airline already flies
It's got a huge footprint across Africa and it's a very good airline
Jeremy Sampson
3. The Acid Test Is Bookings
Sampson refused to call it a success on the strength of the coverage, and named the measurement he would accept.
Watch the traffic for two or three months
Now, obviously the acid test will be perhaps over the next two or three months, what's the traffic like? Do people move to them? Will people join them? Will people fly them?
Jeremy Sampson
The airline is privately held, so the number is not going to arrive in a filing. He expects the company to say something about it anyway.
Return on investment is the thing that settles it
So they're not a public company, but I'm sure after 2 or 3 months they're going to tell us how they've done, have they got that return on investment that we often talk about, which is so crucial, but everyone's talking about them and that's the first part of the table stakes.
Jeremy Sampson
4. Research In A Day
The host asked what data can do to make marketing less dependent on luck. Sampson answered with the old timetable: brief an agency, agree the questions, appoint someone, price it, then send people into the field. In South Africa part of the population is reachable on a mobile phone immediately and part of it is not.
The answers used to come back months later
So you might only get a response and information back after a couple of months.
Jeremy Sampson
Connectivity is what collapsed that timetable
What we're finding now is that increasingly people with mobile whatever if they're connected digitally and this is where you know Elon Musk and what he's doing is almost connecting the world. It doesn't matter where you are right out in the Bundu if you have a mobile you're connected. So you can get the results very fast.
Jeremy Sampson
5. What A Brand Audit Is
Sampson split what his firm sells into two measurements, one financial and one not.
A financial value, and a separate measure of brand strength
Now in brand finance's case, we often look really at two things. It's a brand audit, which boils down to the financial value of the brand, but also what we call the brand strength, the brand equity, which is almost the non-financial side of the brand.
Jeremy Sampson
The inputs he listed for the second one are the market the brand is in, its sector, its competitors and its marketing spend. Both halves, he said, are governed by a published standard rather than by house method.
Both have an ISO behind them
And both of those areas, and people don't realize it often, have an international standard, an ISO.
Jeremy Sampson
The monitoring that follows is a red, amber and green scoring of a whole sector, with every bank in banking scored the same way. That is how the firm shows a client who is strong, who is weak and where the easy gains are.
The scoring runs to about 90 segments
We have something like 90 segments depending on the sector you're in.
Jeremy Sampson
6. When Marketing Met Finance
Asked what he tells executives who want to justify a marketing budget, Sampson said the first conversation is not about the budget at all. It is about the two departments that do not speak to each other, and in business-to-business companies there is often barely a marketing department to speak of.
The accountants turn adversarial when they see the number
And this is where we can help. We can work alongside especially the marketers because you know sometimes the accountants can get fairly adversarial or aggressive when they see the size of the budgets.
Jeremy Sampson
He expects consumer goods companies to be the exception, and said that sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. His example was the first valuation his firm did of South African Breweries' brands.
Two teams inside one company, meeting for the first time
We introduced the marketers to the financial guys. They didn't know each other. And I still can't get over that to this day.
Jeremy Sampson
The work that follows is management consulting on brands, and the objective is not always to win.
Sometimes the job is to cancel out what a competitor is doing
You don't have to necessarily beat them, but you have to parry what they're doing. You have to neutralize what they're doing.
Jeremy Sampson
7. The Brand As The Asset
Sampson's pitch to a board is an analogy with a household balance sheet: ask an individual to name their main assets and they will say a car or a house.
Most companies do not treat the brand as the asset it is
You know, as an individual, if I asked you what were your main assets financially, and it would probably come down to a car or a house or whatever, and then I say to a lot of companies, do you know your major asset is your brand or your brands.
Jeremy Sampson
From there he proposed a way to grade a chief executive that has nothing to do with earnings per share.
Value the brand when they arrive, and again when they go
If you have a new CEO coming in, you know, one of the metrics to measure the new CEO is what's the value of the brand today and what's it going to be like when they leave?
Jeremy Sampson
His example was the handover at Apple
Perhaps, you know, Tim Cook has just left after 15 years at Apple.
Jeremy Sampson
8. A Tool, Not A Rival
The host asked how a technology as disruptive as AI fits into planning a marketing program. Sampson called it the million-dollar question and pointed at how fast the argument itself is moving.
The debate about AI ending the human race is ten days old
Well, I think that's the million-dollar question. You know, just in the last 10 days, the latest twist to AI is AI could kill off the human race. Well, that's only a debate that started 10 days ago. It is happening so fast and speed and agility is one of the key things.
Jeremy Sampson
He puts it in the toolbox rather than opposite the worker
It's a tool for humans for it's technology with humans. It's not technology versus humans. It's a tool to add to the toolbox.
Jeremy Sampson
The use he named is speed, and his example is the one every office now recognizes.
A recorded call returns the minutes and the main points in minutes
No, it's amazing today when you can be on a call whether it's Zoom or whatever and you record you know at the end of the call you press the button out come the main points you want to respond in such a way and ding, ding, ding, and know within a matter of minutes you've got a full response you've got the minutes and everything
Jeremy Sampson
Bonus Insights
The great brands are old, and that is the point
Well, it's fascinating that the great brands have been around a long time. And one forgets, you know, Coca-Cola 130, 40 years, whatever it is, but that means it's been through the depression and wars or whatever. And that's where today the great brands have got to navigate these stormy waters.
Jeremy Sampson
Staying relevant is a staffing question
And that means they've got to be totally alert, stay totally relevant, have people who understand these new gizmos, tools, call them what you like, and adapt them to help the company to go more into growth areas.
Jeremy Sampson
Asked where companies should put their money, he named the technology companies the market is built on: Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, which he noted has risen in the last five years despite having been around a long time. He then declined to time what he thinks comes next.
On the bubble: yes, and nobody knows when
People are talking about a digital bubble at the moment. Yes there's going to be blood on the streets. But when will that be? Well, who knows?
Jeremy Sampson
How it feels from inside the industry
So we've got to ride along and it's a white knuckle time I think for all of us in marketing.
Jeremy Sampson
Sampson's bottom line is that a viral moment buys a brand the first stage of the funnel and nothing else, and that the only honest verdict on the flyover will be whatever Airlink's traffic does over the next two or three months.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Airlink (The airline whose jets flew over the stadium. Sampson says it is bigger than people assume, with a large footprint across Africa, and that the flyover has to convert into traffic to have been worth anything)
Brand Finance (His firm: 30 years old, London-based, in more than 30 countries, selling brand valuations and brand-strength scoring)
Coca-Cola (His example of a brand old enough to have survived the depression and world wars, and which now has to survive this)
Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia (The technology names he says the moment is built around; Nvidia is the one he singled out as having risen in the last five years after a long existence)
South African Breweries (The first brand valuation he described, and the job where he found the marketing and finance teams had never met)
Zoom (His example of AI's practical use: record the call, press the button, get the minutes and the main points back within minutes)
Books & Resources Mentioned
Airlink's flyover broke the internet, but can it win bookings? – Jeremy Sampson (The opinion piece the host opened the interview with, written for the Financial Mail)
ISO 10668, brand valuation (The international standard behind the financial half of the brand audit he described)
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