by Herman Manson (@marklives) We list the agencies you made time to read about here on MarkLives during 2016.
1. Agency Leaders 2015
At the beginning of 2016, we revealed South Africa’s most-admired ad agencies for 2015 — as voted for by advertising executives!
Most-admired agency boss (James Barty)
Most-admired creative leader (Alistair King)
Most-admired agency (Joe Public United)
One to watch (Y&R SA and Promise)
Most digitally integrated (Ogilvy & Mather South Africa)
Look out for our Agency Leaders’ Most Admired 2016, starting Monday, 31 January 2017!
2. Y&R South Africa, VML to integrate
by Herman Manson. The South African operations of the Y&R network — including advertising agency Y&R South Africa, digital agency NATIVE VML and shopper agency Labstore — were integrated under a single management team. Former Y&R SA CEO, Andrew Welch, returned to London to manage Landor (in 2011, he joined Y&R SA from Landor). Jason Xenopoulos, NATIVE VML co-founder and CEO, took on the role of group CEO. Graham Lang remained in place as CCO of the integrated group.
3. Quirk rebrands as Mirum, appoints new CEO
by Herman Manson. Quirk rebranded as Mirum as of Tuesday, 1 November 2016. Mirum is the global digital agency brand of the J. Walter Thompson Company, part of WPP. The global agency has 2400 staff across 46 offices in 20 countries. Quirk, now Mirum, employs 150 people in South Africa. The agency also announced that Quirk founder and CEO, Rob Stokes, moved on to become its SA chairman, and James McKay became the new CEO in SA, with Andrew Bloom its CCO.
4. The Odd Number builds on two
by Herman Manson. In primary school, Xola Nouse introduced Sibusiso “Sbu” Sitole to a girl Sitole liked and Nouse knew. More important than the introduction, in retrospect, was the friendship that would take the duo through high school, varsity and careers into the business partnership that is The Odd Number.
5. R\VERBED, a black-woman-owned ad agency now going for scale
by Herman Manson. Monalisa Zwambila owns and manages what is probably South Africa’s largest independent, black-woman-owned advertising agency. Over the last decade, R\VERBED (Riverbed) has emerged as a medium-sized agency with revenue well above R50m and 40 employees, placing the agency in league with similar-sized agencies, such as Grey Africa, Saatchi & Saatchi and Net#work BBDO. Year-on-year revenue growth in 2015 stood at 26%, 13% in 2016 and is projected to hit 35% in 2017, pushing it into to the R70m–R100m revenue tier.
6. Moray MacLennan on M&C Saatchi’s SA investments
by Herman Manson. The South African agencies remain jewels in the crown of the M&C Saatchi network, said Moray MacLennan, worldwide CEO of the group. It invested heavily, even in its own terms, upfront in talent when M&C Saatchi Abel founder, Mike Abel, opened the Cape Town agency in February 2010. At the time, the strategy was criticised by rivals but it’s paid off handsomely as the SA network continues to grow, both in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
It’s also expanded to include Creative Spark, which M&C Saatchi PLC acquired in late 2015 to house conflict work from M&C Saatchi Abel and to boost digital skills within the SA group, and Dalmatian (formerly Domino Digital), for much the same reason. Other agencies in the stable includes M&C Saatchi CONNECT (media) and M&C Saatchi Africa.
7. Openco — the agency that won over BMW South Africa
by Herman Manson. Openco — The Open Collaboration — caused a significant upset in 2015 when it won the BMW advertising account from long-time agency, Ireland/Davenport. It was subsequently crowned Small Agency of the Year at the 2015 Annual AdFocus Awards, beating FoxP2 Johannesburg, House of Brave and King James The Second. The agency was set up in 2008 by four partners with a focus on serving telcos; its first client was Virgin Mobile. MD Sean Donovan, and CCO Louis Gavin are both co-founders. After the other two partners left (Sam Michel and Vusi Vuma), Monde Africa stepped in as head of strategy, as well as a shareholder.
8. Philip Ireland’s advice for ad agency entrepreneurs
by Herman Manson. Philip Ireland, a founding partner and chief creative officer at ad agency Ireland/Davenport, recently announced that he was leaving the business. While he wouldn’t be drawn on his reasons for leaving, or his plans for the future except that he expects to stay in advertising in some way or form, he did share some lessons he’s learnt as a creative entrepreneur and in helping run one of the country’s more-iconic agencies.
Ireland has had an illustrious career in South African advertising. He won South Africa’s first award for digital creative at the One Show Digital New York in 1999, SA’s first people’s choice Webby award for Best Social Media Campaign in 2016, and was voted Most Admired Agency Leader 2014 in Financial Mail. In the past, he worked at Ogilvy Johannesburg, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, Leo Burnett Singapore and Net#work BBDO.
9. From bust city to Boomtown
by Herman Manson. What are the odds of building a reputable, national agency out of the Eastern Cape? If you’re Boomtown, very good, apparently. Coupling creativity, possibility and positivity — all part and parcel of the ethos of the agency — has helped create a successful business in an unlikely environment. And don’t ever diss owning livestock.
10. Rebuilding McCann South Africa’s creative reputation
by Herman Manson. McCann Worldgroup SA reunited Fraser Lamb and Mick Blore, group CEO and CCO of the group respectively, in a bid to push the agency up the creative rankings.
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the founding editor of media.toolbox (1998–2006) and Mobile.Works, and the co-founder of Brand magazine. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal for Convergence, as well as of Fast Company South Africa. Winner of the 2011 Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year award, he was also a finalist twice in the Highway Africa Award for the Innovative Use of New Media in Africa (2003 and 2004). Over his 20-year-plus career, Herman has contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including the Mail & Guardian, .net, Intelligence, AdVantage, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications. He has consulted on web architecture to several financial institutions.
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