On 7 December 2013, Woolworths had planned an in-store performance. The plan was to support our Christmas campaign, with a surprise performance by the Soweto Gospel Choir. After the Thursday night rehearsal for the next day’s planned performance, on Friday, December 6th, 2013, news broke that our beloved Nelson Mandela had passed away. With a nation in mourning it was clear that we had to change our plan for the scheduled morning performance. I was the creative agency lead at rehearsal that night, and together with the Soweto Gospel Choir, we decided to change the performance to be a tribute to our “Tata Madiba.”

We all stayed behind to rehearse and make adjustments to the performance scheduled a few hours later. It was a very emotional and also wonderfully creative moment to be able to collaborate and pivot to create something that resonated with so many. We chose to sing Johnny Clegg’s emotional song “Asimbonanga,” one of the most popular anti-apartheid songs. It has also been called a "beautiful chant to Nelson Mandela.”

The video we created of the performance aired on News networks locally and across the globe, including CNN, CBS, SKY NEWS, and South African Broadcast Association News. The video was featured on Upworthy, the HuffPost, and 9gag.com, garnering over 5M views on YouTube.