Hailing from Cape Town in the Western Cape, Isaacs has always had a keen interest in sport, although physically being involved in sport was not her strongest point growing up, she ventured into sport administration and coordination while she was still in school.
Her large sponsorship portfolio includes Cape Town City Football Club, FNB Varsity Cup, Women’s Football, Netball, FNB Classic Clashes and football development programme called FNB Football First.
Passionate about the work she does at FNB, Isaacs mentioned some of her favourite projects such as Cape Town City FC Dream Club 100 project and the Future of Rugby content series where they gave away pair of rugby boots to the whole Golden Lions women’s side and to a Free State School squad.
Speaking with Tlamelo Kganakga, Isaacs chats more about her journey and the importance of uplifting communities.
Shafeeqah, thank you for chatting to us. Please tell us about yourself and where you are from.
I’m that quintessential Cape Town girl, with a passion for people and travel, especially Africa. Love the beach, music, food and being around interesting people. I’m quite the nerd and I have vast reserves of knowledge about all kinds of random things that only help me in 30 Seconds.
On the career front, I am a Sponsorship Specialist at FNB, focused on Football and Youth Sport. I take care of a large portfolio, including Cape Town City FC, FNB Varsity Cup and Shield, Varsity Men’s and Women’s Football, Netball, FNB Classic Clashes and our football development programme called FNB Football First. But as part of the larger team, I was privileged to work on the Sevens World Cup and FNB Wines2Whales mountain biking event this year as well.
In previous roles I’ve been involved in the Currie Cup, mass participation events like the Cape Times Big Walk and DirectAxis Walk for Hunger and various football tournaments and leagues, including the Coke Cup, Bayhill Cup, Engen Under 17 tournament, amongst others.
When and where did your love for sport begin and did you play?
I attempted to play sport for many years and I’m definitely not a natural! However, I grew up watching my dad and family play cricket and football and we’d often watch local rugby as a family. I remember being obsessed with sport movies as a kid. And of course, the Springboks!
At some point, in high school, I realised being an athlete was not on the cards for me. One of my teachers got me involved in sport admin and coordination. And I guess this is when I discovered my gift for organisation and my place in the sporting world.
When I completed my first degree, I had the opportunity to join SAFA Western Province (now SAFA Cape Town) as an intern and I worked my way into a permanent new role, focused on marketing and events. That first job paid me R1000 a month, but it was the best sacrifice I could’ve made. I was already in the industry when I completed my BCom Marketing and my post-grad.
Please tell us about your role in the work that you do when it comes to uplifting communities through sport. And, why is it important to take sport projects to disadvantaged communities and FNB being part of this?
I believe in a concept called ABCD or Asset-Based Community Development. It states that people and communities always have exactly what they need to move forward. So, I’ve always seen my role as one of enabling them to find that “thing”. It’s beyond “Teach a man to fish”. It’s about showing them that they can fish, plant, grow, build, collect.
So having said, that I believe our role as corporates and corporate sponsorship managers is to create opportunities that enable this kind of thinking and growth.
Sponsorship isn’t a fluffy thing. It’s good business. Not only for marketing purposes, but because no business wants to operate in an environment where unemployment and poverty is rife and people feel hopeless. Sponsorship done right will create a whole ecosystem of success around the sport or arts property, for example. Better players and better match days, mean more fans, more vendors making money and sustainable sports organisations that can pump more money into development.
That’s why I’m so passionate about financial education, and not only for players. Many of us, as adults, know the pain of not having been taught to be financial savvy earlier in life. If I knew in my twenties what I know now, my life would’ve been very different! Financial education is a powerful tool for life and one I am very excited to share with more youth.
Over and above that, we love creating opportunities to give back. So, we want players to share their knowledge, their skills and time with their fans and upcoming players. We recently linked up 6 Varsity footballers with the Cape Town City FC team for a few days in Cape Town. They got to experience life as a pro; meet and train with their favourite professional players as they prepped for their CAF Confederation Cup match, fully kitted out, and a VIP match day experience. I know every one of those players left Cape Town with a renewed sense of purpose. And everyone who followed them on social media felt it, too.
I recently filmed a piece of content and it warmed my heart to see the connection that CTCFC player Craig Martin made with one of our Football First players. He was the only one who could calm the nervous 12-year-old down enough to finish her interview!
We must not only want to develop stars, but stars that share what they’ve been blessed with. We want to develop a world where young people who have dreams can feel safe in pushing towards them, knowing anything is possible. That’s what I want anyway 😊.
Please share some examples of your favourite projects that you have been involved in.
Where do I even begin! The ones that involved social impact tend to be most memorable for me.
One was the Cape Town City FC Dream Club 100 project, where we awarded all the semi-finalists with R1000 towards school fees for the year.
We also once paired up our staff with the coaches and players of CTCFC, DHL Stormers and the Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras to do some much-needed maintenance and cleaning at the Langa Cheshire Home.
During the Future of Rugby content series, which followed the fans and people around the Currie Cup, we got to give away amazing suite experiences complete with a fresh pair of rugby boots to the whole Golden Lions women’s side and to a Free State School squad. For most of them this was the first new pair they had ever owned.
FNB Varsity Cup and Shield and the Varsity Sports tournaments are really creeping into my heart. Youth and sport in one beautiful package. It feels like a gift to me, and I’m incredibly inspired to make it even more amazing.
Cape Town City FC is also an amazing property with so much swag and an incredible bunch of fans.
Rugby has always been my favourite sport, so working the Currie Cup was unreal. I have wonderful memories from working on that campaign and lessons that really pushed my skills to the next level.
What has been some of the challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
I remember being at a rugby match as a VIP, not too long ago, and being the only person of colour in the room. When we were allocated seats, my seat was far away from the other guests and I had to sit on my own. No doubt, I had lots to say to the Union rep!
I’ve also had to work with a male sponsorship agency account manager who would only took instructions from my white Chief Marketing Officer and not me, as the Sponsorship Head.
I think sometimes the general public don’t see sponsorship as a “real” job. They see the glamour of you hanging around sports stars and being in VIP suites. They don’t see the long hours working at your desk on boring admin tasks, or the many, many days you are away from home. You’re expected to work the normal hours of a marketer AND be available when and where the matches actually happen. Work-life balance in this industry is near impossible. This is why it’s so important to squeeze as much joy out of it as you can when you can.
What are some of your career highlights?
Sponsorship is a marketing role and I’ve had the opportunity to work on and with some incredible brands throughout my career. But getting to work on projects that truly changes lives is amazing.
Raising enough money to feed 180 000 people through the DirectAxis Walk For Hunger campaign.
For a short while, being part of the Springbok Women’s committee.
Travelling to Congo Brazzaville with CTCFC – This was an eye-opening experience for which I don’t even have the words!
First time in the tunnel at Newlands for the Currie Cup – Magic.
Meeting the legendary Benni McCarthy at my first CTCFC game in 2018.
Getting to conceptualise and create amazing content, including the DirectAxis CTCFC Launch video which got over 2 million views.
Being part of the team to pull off the Bafana Bafana vs Jamaica game at Athlone Stadium at only 21.
Finishing my post-grad diploma, top of my class with an 80% aggregate, in the same year that I lost my dad and Covid hit us.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you do?
My dad. So, over the years, that was one thing we could always relate on. Even though it pained me that he was a hardcore All Black fan!
Secondly, I’d say it’s the sportspeople themselves. I feel like it has really affected me as a human being to be around greatness so often. Even when it’s a 13-year-old amateur football player. To be surrounded by people who have dreams is a big deal for me. And because I’m a natural connector of dots, I can always do my best to help them reach them.
Lastly, I’ve always worked in roles where I worked relatively alone. But at FNB I am part of an amazing team of people who really care about what they do. I’m enjoying how much I learn from my colleagues and believe I am better at what I do for it.
Why is it important for women to take sponsorship roles in sport?
I think it’s important for there to be more solid role models in the sport industry, male and female. But yes, sadly the environment was not built to attract and keep women in it. This industry is full of “Boys Clubs”. There are nuances that are difficult to prove and that’s why it has been going for so long.
Feminine energy in any industry is so important. Neurologically, men’s brains are geared to have amazing single-focus. Women, on the other hand, are multitaskers, because our brains enable us to see patterns and connections. This makes us amazing at planning and at maximizing opportunity. I mean I only have to think back to how my mom could cook a small pot of food and manage to feed one hundred people!
We are sorely lacking that in the industry. So, I want to challenge the men in the industry to make space for us. Make the environment safe for us. We will only enhance what exists. And I want to challenge women to make space for yourselves, too. For example, I wish I had understood the value of personal branding when I was younger. It’s not about vanity. It’s about putting yourself in the best position to be of service.
Many women athletes are searching to have financial backing. What do you think needs to be done to promote sponsoring women athletes and where do you want to see it progressing?
There’s an important job to be done across sporting codes. That is to teach athletes early on that they are a brand and a business. That being a great athlete is only afforded to you for a short time and it takes strong character and, at least, some business sense to maximise your time. We recently started offering financial education workshops to our Varsity athletes and I’d love to be able to roll this out more widely and to an even younger audience.
We live in a world now where social media can make or break a career. For women athletes, I want to encourage you to keep telling your stories. Let people follow you on your journeys. Use your social media and make connections. People are hungry for good news and inspiration, and sport is about so much more than just what happens on the field.
One of the reasons I’m so proud to be at FNB, is that we are committed to building women’s sport. We have been working hard building the youth women’s sport, particularly football, and we will keep doing so. We’re sponsoring the Springbok Women’s team as well. Even in the mountain biking space there is a big drive to develop women riders.
What’s your greatest career ambition?
It used to be singing the national anthem at a sporting event, but Francois Pienaar gave me that opportunity recently at a boules tournament. I think it was consolation prize for playing so badly!
I’ve never really had ambitions, to be honest. From Day 1, I was just grateful to be working in sport and I’ve just been giving my soul to what I do. To even be working in sponsorships at FNB is a dream I never could have imagined. So, I think I’ll continue to wing it.
But… if I’m being brave, which I am, I’d say I would love to either be working on the Formula 1 or in African football.
What’s your advice to women who aspire to work in the sport industry, especially getting into sponsorship?
Don’t listen to them when they tell you not to pour your heart into everything you do. It’s way more fun this way.
Having said that, don’t take anything personally. Whether you sit on the sponsor or rights holder side, you will hear NO a lot. It never has anything to do with your abilities. This industry is complex and corporates are not a bottomless pit of money.
Fun. Have it. You are going to work really hard and have crazy hours. You may as well enjoy it.
The fan is at the centre of everything. Get to know them and put yourself in their shoes. You will learn so much.
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