by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which agency creatives were most admired by their peers in Cape Town in 2015!
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 creatives, and where they believe their future competition is likely to come from.
Next week, we announce the 2015 results from Johannesburg. National results will be announced in two weeks’ time.
- Monday: Most-admired agency bosses in Cape Town
- Today: Most-admired creatives in Cape Town
- Wednesday: Most-admired agencies in Cape Town
- Thursday: One to watch in Cape Town
- Friday: Most digitally-integrated in Cape Town
The most-admired creative in Cape Town
Alistair King
Founding creative partner
King James Group
Alistair King has been creating outstanding work for Sanlam (One Rand Man) and Santam (One of a Kind) especially. In 2015, his agency scored Agency of the Year at the African Cristal Awards, where it also took a Grand Prix. It was ranked the top agency overall at the 2014 Midas awards, as well, and won six Golds at the 2015 Loeries, as well as seven Silvers and six Bronzes.
Previously: In 2014, King and Justin Gomes, FoxP2 ECD (see below) tied for the top spot. In 2013, it was Chris Gotz, then chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. In 2012, our inaugural poll, it was King once again. What will 2016 bring?
The runner-up
Justin Gomes
Executive creative director
FoxP2
Runner-up Justin Gomes recently completed his stint as Creative Circle chair, during which he aligned the organisation closer to the Loeries. In 2015, the agency drew creative attention for its Garagista ‘Anti-Hipster’ campaign. Its launch campaign generated over R25m in earned media and had a global online reach of over 79m people. Its followup campaign — ‘Tears Of The Hipster’ — won at the Creative Circle Award of the Month and was again featured as MarkLives.com’s own Ad of the Week.
Previously: There were no runners-up in 2014. In 2013, Gomes was a joint runner-up were together with Graham Lang, CCO at Y&R South Africa. In 2012, our inaugural poll, Gomes was also runner-up. Will there be any changes in 2016?
The contender
Ross Chowles
Creative director
The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town)
The One Club, the producers of the One Show Awards and Creative Week, appointed Ross Chowles to its international board of directors at the start of 2015.
Since then, Chowles has brought the workshop element of the One Show to South Africa — focusing on helping to fast-track the advertising careers of black students.
Chowles is also known for educational initiatives at his own agency, and through his Bright Talks initiative.
How the poll works
Towards the end of 2015, Cape Town’s agency leaders were invited to nominate their most-admired ad agency, the most-admired creative director and the most-admired ad agency boss — all in Cape Town. We also asked them which agency did the best at digital integration and which agency they saw as the one to watch in the future. Nobody could nominate his or her own agency or staff members, and agencies or execs who work out of the Mother City could be voted for. All the nominations were then tallied up for the final result.
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 stood out significantly above other nominees, but weren’t able to close in on the winner’s tally.
See previous poll results for Cape Town:
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the inaugural Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year in 2011 and has, over his 20-year-plus career, contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including AdVantage magazine, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications.
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