Howling Media Book a call

Find your customer.Make the ad.Keep what works.

For businesses that know they need ads and don't know where to start. We work out who buys from you and make the ads in whichever format suits them, from copy and design to photo, video and AI. Then we test them until one earns its keep.

A cold can beside half an orange against a red wall under a blue sky

You've got something worth buying.

The Sea Point promenade from above on a Saturday morning, busy with walkers, runners and families. A mother with a pram and an older couple on a bench are circled in red. Customer A Customer B

First, who buys it.

Then, where they look.

  1. Feed
  2. Stories
  3. Reels
  4. Search
  5. YouTube

Then, what makes them stop.

Now make the ad, then a few.

A sportswear brand's feed ad with the line Start at one

Let the numbers choose.

Version A

Version B

Orders for the same spend

B wins.

Then go again.

Start with a free 15-minute call.

Most ads get made backwards. Someone shoots something nice, posts it, boosts it and hopes. We start with the person who buys and work back to the ad.

  • Boosted posts nobody can measure.
  • A beautiful video that sold nothing.
  • An agency quote priced for a much bigger brand.

Where to start.

  1. A free 15-minute call.

    What you sell, who buys it and what you've tried so far. The diagnosis happens on the call, so you leave knowing what we'd fix first.

  2. A proposal.

    A few budgets to choose from, with what each one buys. The ad spend is billed to you directly.

  3. Onboarding.

    Access, brand files and the numbers to beat. Then the first round starts.

Then the work runs in rounds.

Every round runs the same five steps and starts from what the last round showed.

  1. Who buys, why they buy, where they spend their time online and what makes them stop scrolling.

    Built from your sales, reviews, comments and competitors, whatever you have, then written up as a profile you can argue with.

  2. What to say, to whom, on which channel, and what to test first.

    One page with the audience, the message, the formats, how the budget is split and what counts as a win.

  3. The ads, in whatever the idea needs, from copy and design to photo, video or AI.

    Several versions of every ad, so the test has something to choose between.

  4. The versions run side by side and the numbers pick the winner.

    You see what ran, what it cost and what it brought in, in plain words.

  5. Keep what works, cut what doesn't and make the next round.

    The winners get new versions, and the next round has to beat them.

One product, a different ad for each customer.

People stop for different things, so each customer profile gets its own version, made for where it runs, from the Facebook and Instagram feeds to Stories, Reels, Google Search and YouTube.

  • Facebook feed
  • Instagram feed
  • Instagram Stories
  • Reels
  • YouTube
  • Google Search

Example

Victa Training kit

Test plan

Hypothesis
First-timers are more likely to order when the free size swap is the first thing they see.
Variants
The size-swap offer against the first-season line, same audience, same spend.
Metric
Cost per first order.
Win
The line with the lower cost per first order.
Facebook and Instagram feed
victaSponsored
Victa feed ad for Customer A, Start at one.
Shop now

victa Start at one. Proper kit for your first season, and free size swaps for 30 days.

victaSponsored
Victa feed ad for Customer B, Same time tomorrow.
Shop now

victa Same time tomorrow. Kit built for five days a week.

Instagram Stories
Victa story ad for Customer A, Start at one.
Victa story ad for Customer B, Same time tomorrow.
Reels
Victa Reels ad for Customer A, Start at one.
Victa Reels ad for Customer B, Same time tomorrow.
YouTube
Victa wide ad for Customer A, Start at one.
Victa wide ad for Customer B, Same time tomorrow.
Google Search

Sponsored

Victa

Training kit for beginners | Free size swaps, 30 days | Victa

Kit for your first season of training. Swap the size free for 30 days.

Sponsored

Victa

Training kit for regulars | Built for five days a week | Victa

Training kit for people who train five days a week. Same time tomorrow.

Ads that are ready to run.

You get the whole ad: the idea, the words, the pictures and the setup on Meta and Google. We test versions and tell you which ones to keep.

  1. Copy

    Words that say what you sell to the person most likely to buy.

  2. Design

    Ads that look like one business made them, sized for every place they run.

  3. Photo

    Pictures of your product, your people or your place, taken or made with AI.

  4. Video

    A short video ad plus shorter edits, so you can test more than one version.

  5. Motion

    Movement added to a still ad, or a short animation that explains your product.

  6. AI

    AI images, video and voice for what a shoot can't cover, finished by hand.

Hold onto your hat.Southeaster, Customer A

Bring something better to the braai.Southeaster, Customer B

Start at one.Victa, Customer A

Give someone the sea.Tidehouse, Customer B

A Victa feed ad set as a magazine cover, the athlete breaking out over the masthead
Magazine cover, Victa
A Victa feed ad, the athlete cut out on red with the words behind her
Flat colour, Victa
A Tidehouse feed ad laid out as an editorial page
Editorial page, Tidehouse
A Lekker Smash feed ad, four burgers held over a wall of the word smash
Word wall, Lekker Smash
Hands at a tasting table set with wine glasses and small plates, De WildeveldtA couple in robes embrace by the pool, De WildeveldtA couple stand on a rock at sunset, De Wildeveldt

Shot with Futurehouse Agency for De Wildeveldt.

Recent photos
Four hands bring four burgers together while a word wall slides behind them
Seven hands hold burgers in a ring, made with AIA saucy burger bite, made with AIFour burgers held together on orange paper, made with AIGloved hands hold four burgers against a white wall, made with AI

Made to do a job.

Four client projects, each made for a goal.

Still from the OneDayOnly campaign spots

Six campaign spots.

Brief
The year's biggest campaigns for South Africa's largest daily deals site, Birthday and Black Friday among them.
Made
Six spots written for the feed: Birthday, Deal Verification, Suit Up, Spilling Tea, Eating Cake and JBL, each cut to the versions its channel needed.
Ran
Paid ads on Google and Meta, and OneDayOnly's own social channels.
Did
Every campaign hit its sales and marketing targets, measured on return on ad spend and cost per lead.
Role
Concept, direction, production and edit.

See the OneDayOnly project

Still from the Life Artois shorts

Life Artois campaign, six shorts.

Brief
Show how people host at home for the Life Artois campaign, with celebrity chefs and influencers at the table.
Made
Dinner and games-night shorts with Chef Nti, Zanele and Bertus, shot over two days with a food stylist on set.
Ran
Media24's publishing titles and websites, and the campaign's own channels.
Role
Production, direction and edit with Media24's content team.

See the Stella Artois project

Still from the Backsberg harvest film

Brand film, 2025.

Brief
Show the harvest and the hand-made side of Backsberg's winemaking to the people who buy and sell the wine, here and abroad.
Made
A three-minute film from the Paarl vines into the cellar, the winemaking team on camera, a voiceover carrying the year, and cut-downs for social.
Ran
Pitch decks and supplier meetings, local and international, with the cut-downs on the estate's social channels.
Role
Concept, direction, camera, edit and voiceover.

See the Backsberg project

Still from the Red Room film

Brand film, with Futurehouse.

Brief
Put the signature Peking duck in front of more diners, and show what it takes to make it.
Made
A one-minute film from the kitchen to the table.
Ran
The Red Room's own channels.
Role
Concept, production, camera and edit, with Futurehouse Agency.

See the Red Room project

Brands Jo has made work for.

  • Backsberg
  • OneDayOnly
  • Stella Artois
  • Tanqueray
  • Media24
  • New Media
  • SnapScan
  • Boschendal
  • Tokara
  • DGB
  • Belmond Mount Nelson

AI makes the versions. A producer picks what runs.

Testing needs versions, and versions used to mean another shoot. Now they usually don't. We make images, video and copy with AI, mostly Higgsfield and Claude, and nothing runs without our eye on it. When real light on a real product is what the job needs, we shoot it.

Nobody pays us for slop.

Jo-Ash Rajcoomar, black and white portrait

You work with Jo.

Jo-Ash Rajcoomar founded Howling Media in 2018 and launched the studio in 2020. Jo leads every job.

At OneDayOnly, a South African online retailer, Jo worked on video ads that ran as paid ads and had to sell.

Jo works on the campaigns too, including Meta and Google ads on contract for RE Cost Seg: the budgets, A/B tests (two versions of an ad run against each other), a version for each audience, and the numbers in Google Analytics.

Each job gets the right people: designers, motion and animation artists, photographers and editors. Jo has managed large crews, and Howling Media works with Sean Oosthuizen at Futurehouse Agency, among others. We use AI when it's the best tool for the job.

See the Futurehouse work at futurehouseagency.com

There's no account manager in between. The person on the call is the person making your ads.

AI in the rest of your business.

The tools that make the ads can also write the reports, answer the repeat questions, draft the proposals and sort the inbox. If you'd like your team working this way, ask about it on the call.

Start with a free 15-minute call.

Bring what you sell and who you think buys it. You'll leave knowing where to start, whether or not we work together.

Or send a few lines

Add your name so Jo knows who to reply to.
Add an email address Jo can reply to.
What do you need?
Have you run ads before?
A line on what you sell is enough to start.
You'll hear from Jo within a working day.

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