by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which ad agencies in Joburg were most admired by their peers in 2017! This is part of this week’s announcement of the 2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders’ Most Admired Poll results for Johannesburg. Next week will be the national results; last week we revealed the Cape Town results.
- Monday: Most-admired ad agency bosses in Jozi
- Tuesday: Most-admired creative leaders in Jozi
- Wednesday: One to watch in Jozi
- Thursday: Most-admired agencies in Jozi
- Friday: Most digitally integrated in Jozi
- Monday 5 March: Contribution to agency diversity and transformation (Jozi)
Every year since 2012, MarkLives has been polling South Africa’s top agency leaders to find out what they think of their competitors, whom they see as effective managers and great creative leaders, and where they believe their future competition is likely to come from. We ask them who’s got digital integration right and — for the first time — who’s done best on transformation.
The most-admired ad agencies in Jozi (tied)
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Joe Public United |
The Odd Number |
| Joe Public United will be happy to reclaim the top spot — albeit shared — having won it for four of the previous five years.
In early 2017, Joe Public United was awarded South African Breweries’ Castle Milk Stout account, in addition to Redd’s and Brutal Fruit. It also won business from Adcock Ingram, British American Tobacco and Cell-C. The group topped last year’s Apex Awards table, and came 16th in the overall Loeries rankings and 9th in the Loeries ranking by agency group. Staff numbers grew by 40% (December 2017 compared to December 2016) and revenue grew by 37% for the period Jan–Dec 2017 (compared to Jan–Dec 2016). |
In 2016, The Odd Number was voted joint runner-up one to watch in South Africa in 2017 and joint one to watch in Jozi in 2017. It delivered.
Last year it won work from FNB Business, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and Miller Genuine Draft. In 2017 the agency walked away with Pendoring’s sought-after Umpetha Award for the best advertisement in an indigenous language (excluding Afrikaans). It also ranked 18th in the overall Loeries rankings. AdFocus name it its Small Advertising Agency of the Year. The Odd Number was launched by Xola Nouse and Sibusiso “Sbu” Sitole in April 2015. |
Previously
In 2016, it was FCB Africa. Between 2012 and 2015, Joe Public United won this accolade every year.
The runner-up
FCB Africa
FCB Africa had a tremendous 2016 and its star continued to shine in 2017 when FCB Joburg was named the Agency of the Year title, as well as the Large Advertising Agency of the Year, at the 2017 Financial Mail AdFocus Awards.
The agency might have lost Engen in Cape Town after a six-year run but, in a joint pitch, FCB Cape Town and FCB Joburg won the Sasol account for the group. Hellocomputer Joburg added Ascendis Health, and Hellocomputer Cape Town Uber Kenya. FCB was also appointed as one of two agencies across Tiger Brands’ major portfolios.
FCB Africa is a Level 1 BBBEE contributor that is 55% black-owned and 32% black female-owned. As as a result of a highly-successful financial year, its broad-based shareholder (a trust linked to the Maharishi Institute, a free university for underprivileged black youth), was able to fully pay off its shareholding a number of year ahead of projections. All dividends will start flowing into the trust, enabling it to fund between 200-300 young women’s education on an annual basis.
Previously
In 2016 Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg was our runner-up. In 2015 and 2014, FCB Africa was voted our runner-up. In 2013, it was Ireland/Davenport. In 2012, our inaugural poll, the runners-up were Black River FC and M&C Saatchi Abel.
How the poll works
Towards the end of 2017, we invited agency executives to nominate their most-admired agency, creative leader and most-admired agency both in their region (Johannesburg or Cape Town) and nationally. We also asked them which agency did the best at digital integration and at transformation (a new question), and which agency they saw as the one to watch in the future. Execs couldn’t nominate their own agencies or staff members. All the nominations were then tallied up for the final result. The editors of MarkLives had two votes in the final poll.
Note: Runner-up(s) will only be named if they achieved a good nomination tally relative to the winner’s position. Contenders are named if they stand out significantly above other nominees but weren’t able to close in on the winner’s tally. The most-admired agency of the year is disqualified from the One to Watch category; votes cast in its favour in this category are discarded.
Previous Jozi results
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.
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