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Andy Rice, advertising and marketing strategist, was born on March 28, 1950. He died after a long illness on February 6, 2024, aged 73. He was in Seconds House from 1963 to 1968, following in the footsteps of his older brothers Tim and Jo. After reading History and Economics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, uncertain what he wanted to do with his life, he took a year-long road trip across the African continent from north to south in a Land Rover with two (non-Lancing) friends.
When they reached South Africa the plan was to put the Land Rover on a ferry to Mumbai and drive home overland from India. However, with funds exhausted he was forced to take a job and, apart from a brief spell back in London in the early 1980s, it remained his home for the rest of his life. His entry into South African business eventually led to him branching out on his own in 1997 when he founded Yellowwood Future Architects, a specialist brand consultancy that grew to become South Africa’s leader in its field.
On his business card, Andy Rice described himself as “head and shoulders above the rest”. It was not a boast but a perfectly reasonable assessment given that he stood 6ft 8in tall.
It was also a fair description of his standing as the guru of South Africa’s advertising and marketing industries. Like a one-man Saatchi & Saatchi, he was regarded as the country’s leading brand strategist.
A man of enormous energy with a zest for life, he was an in-demand speaker whose presentations were characterised by a blend of dry, self-deprecating humour and sharply honed wisdom. He also hosted shows on South African radio.
A keen sportsman, he ran his own social football team, called the Cloggers which, according to one of his players, “did not have a great track record of points scored every season but sought comfort from their motto ‘form is temporary; class is eternal’.”
A modest domestic record did not prevent Andy’s team taking the pitch at Wembley Stadium. He organised a trip to the UK for his squad to play on the hallowed turf shortly before the arena’s massive redevelopment. A sound system in the empty stadium replicated the roar of a full crowd and at the end of the match the Cloggers ascended the steps to the royal box to be handed medals by a lookalike Queen Elizabeth II.
The following day his brothers arranged for him to play in a charity cricket match on the equally hallowed turf at Lord’s, making him almost certainly the only sportsman ever to play at Wembley and Lord’s in the same weekend.
He is survived by his wife Bev, their son Jonah and his stepson Oscar.
Sir Tim Rice OBE