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The Gate Keeper: Chapter 15 (In which people think about life)

by Andrew Miller TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande is an agency in crisis. Their ‘basket of boutique services’ strategy has bombed. Only a massive new project can keep the doors open – all eyes are now on the corporate tent at Mangaung. Far in the background, an emergency replacement executive PA with decades of experience makes important decisions. Interns rise, board members take unexpected steps and things begin to change…

The copywriter gets jealous while the boss fretts about the potential for success at Mangaung…

Pendoring Awards more competitive than ever

by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Pendoring Awards, established in 1994 to promote and award Afrikaans language advertising, is coming to the Cape, one of the two provinces in South Africa where it is spoken by the majority of residents. It’s been warmly embraced by the city and its ad agencies.

The Pendorings have joined Cape Town’s Creative Week and the award ceremony takes place the Friday before the Loerie Award ceremonies (which happens on the Sat & Sun evenings of Sept 22 & 23).

Pendoring General Manager Franette Klerck says the move to Cape Town has reenergised the award show which has been run as a Section 21 (not-for-profit) company since 2010. This year saw over 500 entries – a jump of 40% on 2011. Entries from ad schools increased from 62 to 94 this year while entries from agencies jumped from 283 to 384.

Most categories saw increased entry levels although numbers for Outdoor were disappointing, Klerck admits. Digital entries grew well and, in a departure from judges comments on the crop reviewed in 2011, were commended for a dramatic increase in quality

Tom Fels new deputy MD at MACHINE

by Herman Manson. MACHINE, the agency with strong BTL and digital competencies launched last year by Adrian Hewlett, has announced the appointment of its new Deputy MD , Tom Fels.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Draftfcb MD to head Jupiter Drawing Room Joburg

MarkLives has confirmed that the former Managing Director of Draftfcb Johannesburg, Jerry Mpufane, has joined The Jupiter.

The Gate Keeper: Chapter 14 (In which betrayal is implied)

The intern takes her new desk in the corporate office and becomes a resolution to conflict. Mama E wonders what the hell is going to happen next…

Charl Thom on the role of industry awards

by Charl Thom. Enough has probably been said about media accreditation for the Loerie awards over the last couple of weeks.

Abdulla Miya: bridging business goals and communication outputs

by Kim Penstone When Abdulla Miya resigned from Net#work BBDO in October 2011, he didn’t have a job lined up at another agency. In fact, on the morning that he was due to meet with agency heads Keith Shipley and Mike Schalit to put in his resignation, he heard that his tentative plans for a new business venture hadn’t panned out. But he resigned anyway.

At the time of his resignation, he was MD of Net#work BBDO, and over the previous 14 years at the agency, had played an integral role in the agency’s phenomenal success and growth. He decided the time was right to go it alone, and announced that he would start his own strategic consultancy in 2012. He did not have a firm business plan or even one client to his name.

Maybe Miya is an eternal optimist, but he puts it down to faith. Partly external, because he is and has always been, a very spiritual person. But also internal, because after 23 years in the advertising industry, he had earned a solid and outstanding reputation as that rare breed of advertising man who could bring together the often opposing worlds of business strategy and creative communication.

SA agency helps reverse milk category decline in Nigeria

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Here is a South African ad agency with just about its entire business sitting in Nigeria. Leftfield has some bragging rights for bagging (several jono swanepoeltimes) the advertising account of Nigerian dairy giant FrieslandCampina WAMCO – worth R100 million.

FrieslandCampina WAMCO (with its Peak and Three Crowns milk brands) is the Nigerian affiliate of dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina of The Netherlands (with an annual turnover of 9 Billion Euro).

Leftfield founder, Executive Creative and Strategic Director, Jonathan Swanepoel (or just Jono in the office), has had quite a storied career in ad land, including a stint in South East Asia where he joined Leo Burnett, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as ECD. It’s here where he helped the agency pick up the regional dairy account for Friesland Foods which saw it produce campaigns for markets in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia and helped it grow from 45 to 150 people in three years.

Swanepoel built his reputation in the emerging markets of Asia and when he returned to South Africa he launched Leftfield with the FrieslandCampina WAMCO business. He was surprised to have to fight for the business only six months later in a competitive pitch but managed to retain it. Leftfield recently again successfully defended the account – now worth a R100 million – beating several well established Lagos based agencies.

The Gate Keeper: Chapter 13 (In which vision improves)

The chairman of the board tries to avoid tears, and qualitative market research, but fails…

Wayne Naidoo leaves Lowe + Partners, ACA

Wayne Naidoo has resigned as Group CEO of Lowe + Partners SA. Naidoo has been with the agency for close to fifteen years and helped oversee its rebranding from Lowe Bull to Lowe + Partners SA earlier this year. No firm date has been said for his departure but Naidoo says it will be sooner rather than later.