African Proverbs

The Namibian ELM market perceives Sanlam as too big a company to fully understand or address their individual needs; and they therefore prefer smaller entities, which they believe to be more approachable. However, after Sanlam had taken over NamLife, a popular entity with the segment, they wanted to create awareness of the fact that they do understand the market and work to gain their trust. We decided to approach our market with a more traditional style of communications – using African proverbs. For Namibians, and most Africans, proverbs represent a poetic form that uses few words to achieve great depth of meaning. Speakers who know and use proverbs have power within their community – they use them to affirm decisions and to gain support and respect. Our idea uses some of these proverbs to speak to our audience’s roots in traditional values; and to highlight their truths or lessons on life and success.