Our latest ad campaign – Awkward Last Words – is changing the way South Africa talks about death.
By Grant Fietze, Executive Manager of Group Marketing
Since 2012, Capital Legacy has been using humour to make conversations about wills more accessible.
Most financial services companies talk at people. Instead, we decided to make them smile, and in doing so changed an entire industry.
We’ve been on a mission to get more South Africans to have valid wills. Not by wagging a finger at them, or leading with fear, but by doing something almost unheard of in financial services: being genuinely entertaining.
The result? A category that was barely a conversation is now one that South Africans are actually talking about.
Disrupting a category built on discomfort
The wills and estate planning industry has traditionally relied on one emotion to motivate action: dread. Stern-faced advisors. Sombre imagery. Uninspiring, undifferentiated, almost entirely ignored.
Like most people, South Africans would rather talk about the weather, the weekend, sport, or the future of AI than to sit down and draft their wills. Death is awkward. So, the industry kept shouting into a void, and the majority of South Africans still had no wills.
We chose to disrupt this status quo. By going with humour over fear.
Marketing that moves you
Our 2025 Awkward Positions campaign didn’t look like financial services ads. It looked like something you’d share with a mate. By leaning into bizarre but relatable moments that remind us how unpredictable life can be, it got people talking. Not because it scared them, but because it made them laugh.
This year, we’re evolving the Awkward Positions concept into Awkward Last Words: those throwaway phrases uttered just before things go sideways.
‘It’ll be fine.’
‘What does this button do?’
‘Electricians are too expensive, I’ll do it myself.’
We all know people who say things like this. And we all laugh about it, until we realise that these stories don’t always end in laughs – they sometimes end in tears.
The tonal shift from chuckling to realising, ‘Actually, I must get my will sorted,’ is the space we’ve carved out as a brand.
The numbers behind the mission
This isn’t just about clever advertising. It’s about real impact.
We analysed more than 1 700 deceased estates administered over a 12-month period: 61% of estates with minor children were single-parent estates; 45% included property. These are real families, who could have been left to navigate real chaos – administrative delays, uncertainty over guardians for children, unnecessary costs, emotional strain – had there not been a valid will in place.
Ultimately, our campaigns are all aimed at making the loss of a loved one easier for the people behind numbers like these.
Growing the category, not just the brand
What sets our approach apart from a typical marketing play is not only competing for market share in an existing category, but actively growing the entire wills category in our country, making the concept of having a will more mainstream, more accessible, and frankly less of a buzzkill to think about.
When more South Africans have wills, everyone wins. Families are protected, estates are wound up cleanly, and the industry grows and matures.
Not just standing out in a crowded market but expanding the market itself.
That’s the disruption.
The most awkward thing you can leave behind
There are no last words that protect your family. Only a will can do that.
The most awkward position you can leave your loved ones in isn’t an embarrassing story, it’s dying without a will. We want to make sure fewer South African families find that out the hard way.
And we’re doing it by making you smile, first.
Find out more about drafting your will, or the administration of your deceased estate.