Sandla Yilani

Creative Director with 10+ years' experience across media, publishing, fintech and sports betting, leading creative, content and video teams across brand, digital, social and commercial storytelling. Led creative and video teams through significant growth and change, helping double team output. Experienced in turning business objectives into creative work, managing senior stakeholders and taking ideas from pitch through to execution.

Creative Director - Media24

(2024-12)

• Doubled team output during significant organisational change by improving workflows, developing talent and creating clearer ways of working across creative and video.
• Contributed to 20% year-on-year growth in content delivery by improving productivity and collaboration across editorial, sales, commercial and client teams.
• Lead multidisciplinary creative and video teams across design, art direction, writing, video, editing, production and project management.
• Lead the evolution of Daily Sun into a digital-first content platform, contributing to 21% growth in digital audience and engagement.
• Manage studio budgets, resourcing, vendors, production workflows and competing priorities across multiple projects.

Head of Design - SportPesa South Africa

(2023-08 - 2024-12)

• Led a team of 5 across design, copy, video and production, taking work from brief through production and QA across digital, social and experiential campaigns.
• Set creative direction for the SportPesa South Africa brand across campaigns, sponsorships and out-of-home, maintaining consistency across consumer touchpoints.
• Translated marketing and commercial objectives into creative campaigns through close partnership with Marketing, Product, Sales and Digital leadership.

Digital Art Director - LulaLend (rebranded to Lula)

(2022-12 - 2023-08)

• Supported the LulaLend-to-Lula rebrand by rolling out the new identity across digital marketing and customer-facing communication.
• Developed concepts, layouts and social-first creative while maintaining brand consistency through the transition.
• Improved campaign turnaround by repurposing existing content and working with traffic and creative teams to deliver against deadlines.

Senior Graphic Designer - Lumico (Pty) Ltd

(2022-07 - 2022-11)

• Took client briefs from concept to delivery across design, photography and video for digital campaigns.
• Created UX/UI wireframes and reviewed final web builds against design intent.
• Supported shoots and managed client sign-off and revision cycles.

Junior Graphic Designer & Social Media Coordinator - Mindset Network NPC

(2019-11 - 2021-12)

• Developed and managed social media campaigns aligned to company objectives, building the brand across digital and print channels.
• Used monthly social and mobile-app performance reporting to inform campaign direction and content decisions.

Social Media Marketing Consultant → Junior Market Researcher - Bubblegum Education Design

(2016-03 - 2019-10)

• Progressed into a Social Media Marketing Consultant role, managing campaigns and content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
• Developed brand and product identities across digital and print, while using market, competitor and campaign research to inform strategy.

Diploma - Art & Design - College of Cape Town

Diploma - Applied Generative AI

Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certificate - Google Skillshop

Matric - Ekuphumleni High School