American Chamber of Commerce Thanksgiving 2025
Shared tables, shared futures: bringing diplomatic weight to a celebration of gratitude
BBA helped to ensure AmCham's annual Thanksgiving Dinner was a strategic showcase of US–South Africa partnership, balancing diplomatic gravitas with warm celebration through cohesive event collateral, animated storytelling, and press communications.
The brief
The American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa needed comprehensive creative and communications support for their flagship Thanksgiving Dinner: an annual gathering of 400 business leaders, diplomats, and government officials celebrating the US–South Africa economic relationship. The event required a unifying theme that could carry across sponsorship materials, printed collateral, stage design, and multimedia content. With potential high-profile political attendance and timing near B20 discussions, the brief demanded sophisticated positioning: celebratory enough for a dinner party, substantial enough for diplomatic significance.
A motion graphic video translating complex investment statistics into accessible content was also needed, plus post-event press communications capturing the evening’s impact.
Focusing on what unites, rather than what divides
Strategic theme architecture
BBA developed 'Shared tables, shared futures', a theme that honoured Thanksgiving's gathering tradition while positioning the US–South Africa relationship as partnership rather than patronage. This framing carried through every deliverable, from sponsor wall to press release.
Multidisciplinary delivery
The project drew on BBA's full capability set: strategic positioning, graphic design, motion graphics scripting, event collateral production, and press copywriting. This integration ensured consistent voice and visual language across print, digital, and environmental touchpoints.
From statistics to stories
Rather than presenting statistics as slides, the animation brought each number to life through visual design and animation. When the video revealed that 80% of American investment goes to skills development, the audience saw not a percentage but a story about their collective commitment to South Africa's future workforce.
