by Herman Manson (@marklives) Adelaide Potgieter is the key figure, alongside Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson, of one of the South African ad industry’s more-enduring trade legends.
As a twenty-something, she sent him a mannequin’s arm and leg with a note stating, “Dear Mr Basson, I would give an arm and a leg for a moment of your time”.
He sent her the bust of a mannequin with a note that read “Thank you for the arm and the leg, but you have forgotten the most important part of the body, the heart!”
A slice of Shoprite
It got her and Mad.Ad (today Mad Advertising), a relatively unknown entity at the time, onto the pitch list and, ultimately, a slice of the Shoprite business.
Today, Mad World (the group holding company) is a R60m-business with interests in advertising, events, audiovisual production, the production company behind Die Nataniël Tafel, a design and construction firm specialising in TV and stage sets, a call centre, several restaurants and cafes (Bread and AMadoda), a boutique mall (The Bromwell) and a property development arm.
But let’s get back to the agency. Potgieter had gone from selling luxury cars to a brief stint as marketing manager at Afrikaans talk-radio station, Punt Geselsradio, before the station folded under a cloud of controversy.
Took control of her own destiny
Following the collapse, and with only R1500 in her back pocket and a baby on the way, she decided to take control of her own destiny and launched her own agency, believing she could do a better job at brand building than a lot of advertising did at the time.
Early on, her new shop which she named Mad.Ad (in a nod to the state of her life at the time, she quips) did project work for Murray & Roberts and then for George Hadjidakis and his 7-Eleven chain. For the latter, Solomon — the brother she roped into the CEO role at her new business — drove the promotional 7-Eleven bus through Cape Town while a broadcasting system blared out the virtues of its produce (at some point he bumped the bus, to the continued mirth of his sister).
They had no computers; email was sent from a copy shop. Adelaide did her own media-buying and -planning, while Solomon trained himself in sound engineering and design.
Standing on street corners
Elsewhere, the sister-brother duo would stand on street corners (in winter!), handing out fresh 7-Eleven bread for promotional purposes. Not that many windows were wound down, although it was ultimately declared a success (they resigned the 7-Eleven business after they won business from Shoprite).
In summary: they broke into the market the very, very hard way, which might explain some of the affinity the entrepreneurial Shoprite boss seems to feel for this agency.
There was also a rather controversial (the controversial bit is self proclaimed) stint as the local ad agency for the Church Of Scientology. It’s a job they seem to wish they had never taken on but it certainly adds to the eccentricity of the agency.
A family outfit
The Mad World Group is very much a family outfit: father André (also a property developer) serves as commercial director and mom Adi (a former teacher who took a pay cut to move down to Cape Town and help out the kids, initially with experiential events) is a director of the Mad Group’s corporate operations.
Current clients include Shoprite Holdings companies Shoprite, Checkers, OK and Computicket, as well as a Pioneer Foods brand.
The agency offers a full-through-the-line service. It employs around 40 people, the group around 110. According to Solomon, the group is currently busy with an entire BEE re-structuring , as well as a share structure for long standing employees in the near future.
Doing it themselves
The various specialist businesses were established, says Solomon, because they found it difficult working with third parties, and they found they could execute work faster by doing it themselves. New business ideas keep popping up, and they keep on making them happen, he adds . It caters to the family’s divergent interests while tying into current projects.
Mad Advertising breaks the agency norm and is a unique, certainly unconventional business, says Solomon. It generates ideas, incubates them and finally puts them to market as companies. It certainly assists the agency in honing skills and staying on top of the market and issues affecting entrepreneurs.
For much of its existence, the agency side of the business has centred on its Shoprite business. Now it hopes to build upon some of the achievements it delivered for the retailer to expand its client base.
A creative plug-in service
Solomon describes the agency full service communication and advertising agency, but points out that the agency excels as a creative plug-in service focused upon idea generation and experiential marketing. It’s also active on the events side; MadWorld is planning to bring several events, currently in development phase, to the local market.
It is the agency behind the hugely successful Championship Boerewors event plus Die Nataniël Tafel production (see case studies below). The group holding company also plans to roll out its AMadoda restaurant brand nationally.
Both siblings agree that, with their focus firmly on the Shoprite business, they’ve not played a very active role in the broader ad industry. Their own brand thus remain relatively unknown, making it harder to get a foot in the door with marketers or to land on pitch lists.
Mad Advertising is now concentrating on building up its reputation; it has a substantial body of work and, according to Solomon, the credentials to be a market player.
Case study: Championship Boerewors
From a small staff incentive to a R300m brand
Mad World was asked in 2001 to reinvigorate an internal staff competition that was run then by retail brands, Checkers and Shoprite, respectively. At the time, the meat markets inside each brand’s supermarket could produce their own traditional boerewors, which they then sold under the Championship Boerewors label. The aim of the internal competition was to reward the ‘best of the various’ meat-market manager’s personal recipes.
Mad turned it on its head by creating a public competition; challenged all South Africans to enter; searched the country for the best boerewors recipe; put together a very stringent and scientific competition structure; and built a brand that was real, South African, humorous and fun.
The agency involved various personalities in the competition, including Leon Schuster, Nataniël and Mandoza, and got it written into the 7de Laan storyline.
Today it is the biggest boerewors brand in the country. What with sales growing annually, the brand has gone from a minor seller of just over R500 000 annually to over R300m per annum.
Case study: Die Nataniel Tafel
With Die Nataniël Tafel, hosted by entertainment personality Nataniel, Mad Advertising saw an opportunity a couple of years ago to venture into a new industry while also creating a platform and a channel on which to promote brands.
For Die Nataniël Tafel, Mad collaborated with Nataniël House of Music and procured Checkers as a sponsor; thanks to the vision of Whitey Basson and the support of Neil Schreuder, the show got prime airtime and ran for 65 episodes over five seasons.
It achieved success on Kyknet, built a huge social media following for the brand (Die Nataniël Tafel), and the sponsors benefited greatly in sales and brand exposure.
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