MarkLives Agency Revenue Rankings 2019

by MarkLives (@marklives) Our latest revenue ranking update, released today, Monday, 7 October 2019, aims to give marketers an overview of the relative scale of advertising agencies in the South African communications landscape.

Revenue bands and staff count aren’t reliable indicators of the health of a business but they do offer important context in terms of the scale of new business an agency can take on and their relative positioning in the industry (in the categories small, medium and large). This year we’ve also added BEE levels.

Agencies listed in the ranking are included based upon publicly available revenue bands for 2019. The information has been sourced directly from agencies and holding companies, through a survey run via MarkLives.com, and from publicly available information, including the business and trade press, such as AdFocus, and our directory service, Ramify.biz.

Note: Billings is the amount of client money that flows through an agency; what you can touch but you can’t keep equals billings. Revenue is the money agencies get to keep, and this is the number MarkLives is working on.

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2019 ranking (largest to smallest)

Agency	Network/ independent	Staff count	BEE	Source
R550m+
Incubeta	Independent	350	Level 2	Management
Ogilvy South Africa	WPP	850	Level 1	Management
TBWA\South Africa Group	Omnicom	533	Level 2	Management
R450–550m
Publicis Groupe Africa	Publicis Groupe	1500+	Level 1	Management
Wunderman Thompson South Africa	WPP	500	Level 1	Management
R350–450m
The Creative Counsel	Publicis Groupe	1000+	Level 1	Management
R250–350m
TBWA\Hunt Lascaris	Omnicom	305	Level 1	Management
R200–250m
FCB Joburg	IPG	188	Level 1	Management
Joe Public United	Independent	300	Level 3	Management
King James Group SA	Independent	329	Level 1	Management
VMLY&R South Africa	WPP	300	Level 1	Management
R150–200m
99c	Independent	350	NA	Management
M&C Saatchi Abel	M&C Saatchi	170	Level 1	Management
R125–150m
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
R100–125m
Iconic Collective	Independent	200	Level 4	Management
Liquorice	Publicis Groupe	100+	Level 1	Management
McCann1886	IPG	119	Level 2	Management
The Riverbed Agency	Independent	50+	Level 1	Management
Tradeway	Independent	65	Level 1	Management
R80–100m
Avatar Johannesburg	M&N Network	49	Level 1	Management
Demographica	Independent	50	Level 1	Management
Grey Advertising Africa	WPP	130	Level 1	Management
HelloFCB+	IPG	81	Level 1	Management
R70–80m
Clockwork Media	Independent	69	Level 2	Management
Grid Worldwide	Omnicom	57	Level 1	Management
Hellocomputer Joburg	IPG	62	Level 1	Management
R60–70m
Carat	Dentsu Aegis Network	54	Level 2	Management
FoxP2 Group	Dentsu Aegis Network	54	Level 1	Management
Leo Burnett	Publicis Groupe	100+	Level 1	Management
MullenLowe	IPG	44	Level 2	Management
Saatchi & Saatchi	Publicis Groupe	60+	Level 1	Management
Vizeum	Dentsu Aegis Network	40	Level 1	Management
R50–60m
Promise	Independent	76	Level 2	Management
Publicis Machine	Publicis Groupe	50+	Level 1	Management
R40–50m
Flume	Independent	48	Level 2	#AgencyFocus
Havas Village	Havas	71	Level 2	Management
Mela	M&N Network	15	Level 2	Management
The Odd Number	Independent	35	Level 1	#AgencyLeaders2019
R30–40m
DUKE Group	Independent	71	Level 1	Management
HDI Youth Marketeers	Omnicom	22	Level 2	Management
Jellyfish	Independent	69	Level 4	Management
MSL	Publicis Groupe	40+	Level 1	Management
Old Friends Young Talent (OFYT)	Independent	58	Level 4	Management
Rogerwilco	Independent	49	Level 2	Management
R20–30m
Black River FC	WPP (49%)	35	Level 1	Management
BRANDTRUTH//DGTL	Independent	25	Level 2	Management
Conversation LAB	Independent	60	NA	Management
Creative Spark	M&C Saatchi	30	Level 1	Management
HaveYouHeard	Independent	50	Level 2	Management
Hoorah Digital	Independent	45	Level 2	Management
iProspect SA	Dentsu Aegis Network	29	Level 1	Management
Minanawe	Publicis Groupe	20+	Level 1	Management
Mpull	Independent	38	NA	Management
NP Digital	Independent	30	Level 2	Management
Red Cherry Interactive	Independent	25	Level 1	#AgencyFocus
Retroviral	Independent	13	Level 2	Management
Swipe iX	Independent	30–40	Level 7	#AgencyFocus
R10–20m
3Verse	Independent	24	Level 2	Management
Abnormal Advertising	Independent	12	Level 2	#AgencyFocus
Amnet	Dentsu Aegis Network	12	Level 4	Management
Avatar Cape town	M&N Network	9	Level 1	Management
BWD Advertising	Independent	18	Level 1	Management
Dalmatian	M&C Saatchi	10	Level 1	Management
Darkstar	Independent	7	Level 1	Management
DentsuX	Dentsu Aegis Network	8	Level 2	Management
M&C Saatchi Connect	M&C Saatchi	14	Level 1	Management
M&C Saatchi Africa	M&C Saatchi	22	Level 4	Management
Mobi Hunter	Independent	7	Level 3	Management
Platinum Seed	Independent	20	Level 4	Management
SoulProviders Collective	Independent	25	Level 3	Management
The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town)	WPP (49%)	20	Level 4	Management
Under R10m
Avatar Media Agency	M&N Network	2	Level 1	Management
Avatar PR	M&N Network	5	Level 1	Management
BE	Independent	10	NA	Management
Epitomic Branding	Independent	2	Level 2	Management
Fear & Faith	Independent	2		#AgencyFocus
Kilmer & Cruise	Independent	9	Level 4	Management
Lemok Agency	Independent	10	Level 1	Management
M&N Entertainment	M&N Network	13	Level 1	Management
Power LAB	Independent	4	NA	Management
Retroactive	Independent	4	Level 1	Management

The information provided by agencies is impossible to audit and MarkLives accepts such information in good faith.

Left out? Add your information for inclusion.

See also

• MarkLives Agency Revenue Rankings 2018
• Ranking South African ad agencies by revenue 2014

Updated at 11.02am on 14 February 2020; 6.35pm on 25 October 2019; 10.17am on 21 October 2019; 15.09pm on 11 October 2019; 9.12 am on 8 October 2019, and 11.29am, 11.17am, 10.41am and 9.45am on 7 October 2019.

 

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