Exclusive | Behind Nando’s Siya Sauce TVC: Script the world, not the star

Retorviral's Mike Sharman says they script the world around the celebrity in the latest Nando's campaign (Image supplied)

You’re not simply producing something funny. You’re contributing to the creative legacy of a brand that has spent decades setting the benchmark for South African advertising.

A brand that doesn’t just reflect culture. It creates conversation around it. And when the brief involves Siya Kolisi, one of South Africa’s most recognisable sporting personalities, the pressure becomes considerably more tangible.

Nando’s teams up with Siya Kolisi for new limited-edition sauce

1 day

The opportunity nobody could refuse

Retroviral had previously participated in Nando’s agency pitch process.

While we weren’t appointed to the broader account, an opportunity emerged to collaborate on the fast, tactical and culturally relevant work that has become part of our agency’s DNA.

Following the success of its Bukayo Saka sauce, Nando’s was exploring another personality-led product. This time, featuring Siya Kolisi.

The challenge? Create an entertaining campaign that felt unmistakably Nando’s, while giving Kolisi the freedom to be himself.

On 13 May, we received confirmation that Kolisi would be available on 26 May. Thirteen days to conceptualise, write, cast, produce and shoot. Five hours of access to Siya. In reality, three and a half hours of filming time.

No approved script (yet). No production company (yet). No established production infrastructure (yet). Just an opportunity that was too good to turn down.

The problem with putting celebrities in commercials

The conventional celebrity endorsement model is predictable: Put a famous person in front of a camera. Give them a script. Ask them to deliver the punchline. Capture the product shot.

But being exceptional at rugby doesn’t automatically make someone an exceptional comedic actor.

And why should it?

The value of working with someone like Kolisi extends far beyond his recognisability. It’s his personality, his humanity and the relationship South Africans have with him.

Attempting to bottle that lightning by 'scripting' his personality risks removing the very quality that makes the partnership interesting.

So we reversed the traditional approach.

Instead of scripting the celebrity, we would script the world around him.

Build the world. Let the star react.

Our concept was to transform a Nando’s restaurant into a sitcom-style universe that meets mockumentary camera techniques.

We assembled an eclectic ensemble of South African comedic talent: Siv Ngesi, Sobantu Nqayi, Ray Malo, Vafa Naraghi, Nina Hastie, Jam Jam and Anton Taylor.

Seven distinct personalities. Seven different comedic energies. One unsuspecting Springbok captain.

Rather than forcing everyone into a conventional advertising script, we built scenarios around the performers, giving each the freedom to bring their own personality, timing and interpretation to the screen.

They were given guardrails with the freedom to break them.

The objective wasn't to make Siya responsible for delivering punchlines. It was to surround him with enough comedic talent and controlled real world situations to react to.

The number one rule of improv is just to say 'yes' and embrace everything that comes at you.

The supporting cast would drive the narrative. Kolisi would simply be Kolisi.

The creative principle was straightforward: structure the chaos, but don’t manufacture the reaction.

We spent pre-production understanding our performers - people Kolisi felt comfortable with - developing character archetypes and writing scenarios around their strengths and their comedic idiosyncrasies. Every scene had a beginning, a purpose and a potential payoff. But the interactions themselves were allowed to breathe.

Our direction to Kolisi was equally uncomplicated. Don't stress about what the other characters say. Just respond naturally.

If something didn’t work, we’d deal with it in the edit.

This wasn’t improvisation without preparation. It was improvisation made possible by preparation.

Jessica Wheeler, chief brand and customer officer at Nando’s, captures the thinking behind the approach.

“We knew from the start that the last thing Siya needed was a script telling him how to be Siya. So the job was really to create the right world around him, then get out of the way and see what happened.

"Retroviral completely embraced that. It was fast, a little chaotic and probably required more trust than everyone was entirely comfortable with, but that’s often where the best Nando’s work comes from," explains Wheeler.

That trust was fundamental. The client understood that the creative opportunity wasn't in controlling every performance, but in creating the conditions for something entertaining to happen.

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When the director leaves the building

Of course, no good production story is complete without a minor catastrophe. Approximately a week before the shoot, our director withdrew from the project. The timing was spectacularly inconvenient.

With the clock ticking, finding a replacement risked introducing another creative interpretation into a process already moving at a considerable pace.

So I made the decision to direct it myself.

Not because I’d been harbouring some secret ambition to become a commercial director.

But because the concept was clear, the team understood the ambition and we needed to keep moving.

My ECD, Koketso Masisi was my wingwoman, as we shot film, then stills. Rinse and repeat; no time to overthink it.

We had an exceptional EP - Kate Goliath and her incredible Goliath and Goliath Production team, the perfect DOP for this style of storytelling - Dale Fortune, and a crew, cast and creative approach built around trusting the people we’d assembled.

The day was an addictive blur. Three takes max for most setups. Minimal overthinking. Maximum trust in the performers. And, crucially, the freedom to capture moments that weren't necessarily written down.

We emerged with enough material to construct a two-and-a-half-minute hero film, alongside a series of shorter executions for different platforms. One shoot. Multiple formats. A campaign designed to entertain first and advertise second.

Speed is not the enemy of craft

There’s a broader lesson here for our industry.

Brands increasingly demand speed, cultural relevance and content efficiency. Yet our production processes often remain rooted in systems designed for a different media environment.

Multiple approval layers. Lengthy development timelines. Expensive production structures. There’s absolutely a place for these processes. But there’s also a place for creative thinking that sees limitations as opportunities rather than obstacles.

A five-hour filming window forces you to simplify. A celebrity who isn’t a trained comedic actor encourages you to rethink the storytelling model.

A tight deadline demands decisive creative leadership. And a production built around multiple scenarios creates opportunities for a broader ecosystem of content.

Speed doesn’t have to compromise creativity. Sometimes it forces us to become more resourceful.

The trick is knowing what to protect.

In this instance, we protected the central idea, the quality of the cast and the authenticity of the performances.

Everything else had to be adaptable.

The privilege and pressure of Nando’s

Nando’s occupies a rare position in South African advertising.

Its audience expects more than a product message. They expect cultural intelligence, humour, irreverence and a willingness to challenge convention.

That reputation is both an extraordinary privilege and a formidable responsibility for any creative partner.

You can’t simply imitate the work that came before you. But you also can’t ignore the DNA that made the brand famous. Our ambition was to find a contemporary expression of that spirit.

Something rooted in South African humour, featuring one of our most celebrated sporting personalities, but delivered through a format that felt more like entertainment; a Netflix sitcom rather than advertising.

Whether audiences ultimately embrace the work is their decision. What matters to me is that we didn’t respond to the pressure by retreating into the safest possible execution.

We backed an idea. We backed our people. And we accepted that the outcome would be determined by the quality of our creative decisions under pressure.

Creative bravery is a practice, not a positioning statement

The advertising industry loves talking about bravery. It’s in our credentials decks, agency manifestos and awards submissions. But, creative bravery isn’t a line on a PowerPoint slide.

It’s what happens when circumstances aren’t ideal and you still choose to pursue an interesting idea.

It’s taking responsibility when the production plan changes. Trusting your cast instead of controlling every word. Recognising that sometimes the most valuable thing you can do with a global sporting icon is give him permission to be human.

And understanding that the absence of certainty doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of opportunity.

I don’t believe every campaign needs to be produced in 13 days. Nor do I believe creative chaos should become an operating model. However, I do believe we’ve become so accustomed to protecting ourselves from risk that we occasionally protect the interesting ideas out of existence.

This project reminded me why I fell in love with this industry in the first place.

The unpredictability. The collaboration. The adrenaline. The possibility that something genuinely entertaining can emerge from an unlikely combination of people and circumstances.

Ultimately, we were tasked with promoting a limited-edition sauce; the Siya Sauce. (Spoiler: Siya was involved in the development of the flavour profiles)

But the opportunity was to create something bigger than the product itself. A little entertainment. A little cultural relevance. A little South African magic.

And hopefully, something that makes people look at Nando’s advertising and think: There’s the brand we know and love.

Because the biggest creative risk isn’t always trying something new.

Sometimes it’s doing things the way they’ve always been done; in TV land