Two years ago the scene was radically different for Mike Abel, who had just returned from a stint in Australia, to start his own agency. As any agency person departing that market for these home shores will tell you, the market instantly starts talking tail between the legs, didn’t cut it, running for home wounded stuff.
Tag archives: m&c saatchi abel
The rise of Machine
So there is this online media sales house right, small fry really, just one guy selling space on a website at a time when internet advertising was fairly undeveloped in the South African market. It’s not really even a sales house, more like a sales guy with a bit of ambition.
Lowe drops Bull, Peter Badenhorst joins as ECD
Lowe Bull is rebranding as Lowe + Partners South Africa after the international parent company acquired a majority share in the local agency. Its two offices become Lowe Johannesburg and Lowe Cape Town.
Martin MacGregor, ex-MD of Nota Bene CT, joins M&C Saatchi Abel
Martin MacGregor, the former MD at Nota Bene MEC Cape Town, has joined M&C Saatchi Abel as managing partner: connection (we’ll get to that in a moment).
“If you want loyalty, buy a dog”
Grant Fairley may have been right when he bluntly stated, “If you want loyalty, buy a dog”. I include close family, trusted colleagues and clients and other true friends into this little equation (no offense to any of them) but pure transactional customers…mmm, not so sure.
M&C Saatchi Abel gets thumbs up from Moray MacLennan
M&C Saatchi Abel is buzzing. The agency, which launched in early 2010 with no clients signed up front but a powerful management team, has grown to more than 63 staffers working with 29 client organisations. It just won the account for Geely – the Chinese auto manufacturer that also owns Volvo. The agency recently took another floor in the block in Cape Town where it is headquartered.
Mike Abel asks are you a Challenger Brand or simply the Underdog?
M&C Saatchi Abel MD Mike Abel takes a closer look at the art of creating true challenger brands.
Finding Cape Town’s Design Voice
Can Cape Town become to Johannesburg what Austin is to Dallas, Barcelona is to Madrid or San Francisco is to LosbAngeles – not as big, not as industrial but certainly more creative, entrepreneurial and tech-centric? Gavin Levinsohn, CEO of Ogilvy Cape Town asks the question, but already it seems rhetorical.
The perils of the online discounting culture for your brands and business
I’m fascinated by the growth and proliferation of the on-line couponeers and discounters like Groupon, Catch of the Day and the like. “Everyone loves a deal” this we know, but what does it mean to brands, margin, customer trust and sustaining pricing models? Asks M&C Saatchi Abel boss Mike Abel.
Tiger in the ecommerce henhouse
by Herman Manson. Kim Reid, diplomatically perhaps, doesn’t care what the competition of his online retail venture, Takealot.com, is up to. The ecommerce market in South Africa is so nascent that it makes more sense to focus on successfully implementing your own strategy and building your own business, rather than fretting about what other players are doing, he says.