by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) Johannesburg-based full-service communications agency, Riverbed, has set high targets for 2018, in a bid to take the business to what CEO Monalisa Sibongile Zwambila calls “the next level”. Emerging from what was a challenging year for many in the industry, Riverbed is leveraging new wins and hires to bolster both its creativity and position in the market. Monalisa Zwambila Advertising added on “We started very much as an activation and PR agency, and then we added on our advertising competency,” she says. “What we really want to be in a position to do is make a difference in terms of creativity.” Zwambila is confident...

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Today, we reveal which agency creative leaders were most admired by their peers in Jozi during 2017! This is part of this week’s announcement of the 2017 MarkLives Agency Leaders’ Most Admired Poll results for Johannesburg. Next week will be the national results; last week we revealed the Cape Town results. Monday: Most-admired ad agency bosses in Jozi Tuesday: Most-admired creative leaders in Jozi Wednesday: One to watch in Jozi Thursday: Most-admired agencies in Jozi Friday: Most digitally integrated in Jozi Monday 5 March: Contribution to agency diversity and transformation (Jozi) Every year since 2012, MarkLives has been polling South Africa’s top agency leaders...

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Iconic South African ad agency The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) has been closed down, The Lionheart Brand Holding Company, owners of The Jupiter Drawing Room brand, has confirmed. The agency is no longer trading and the shutdown happened over the course of 3–4 months earlier this year. It no longer employs any staff. Two former senior managers at the agency, Gugu Madlala and Sizwe Kumalo, have contracted with Jupiter Joburg’s remaining client roster through their agency, Black Powder (as in gun powder). Madlala explains that he and Kumalo had initially joined Jupiter Joburg to help drive new business opportunities and to explore empowerment...

by Carey Finn (@carey_finn) The Mother City may traditionally have not been seen as welcoming to black-owned and operated agencies, but Avatar Cape Town hasn’t let that hold it back. Though not yet two years old, the agency has secured several significant accounts and seen strong growth. “Business has been great” “Since the day we opened our offices in October 2016, business has been great,” says managing director Mthunzi Plaatjie, who estimates that it’s won advertising accounts worth close to R85m in billings (total client marketing spend) over the past 12 months. He is hoping this figure could soon surpass the R100m mark. The agency...

After two years of actively searching for the right partner to add value and grow the business, Artifact Advertising South Africa has completed a new partnership, with Philasande Sokhela. The ad agency is now a BBBEE level 4 agency (under the new MAC codes), with several divisions offering specialities where needed, including digital (Level 4 SME), promotions (100% black-owned), integrated (51% black-owned) and print (51% black-owned). “We are immensely proud and positive about our new shareholding, especially since it is a completely transparent partnership, bringing new ideas to the business and offering increased value to our customers,” says Andy Taoushiani, Artifact...

ISSUED BY: PROVANTAGE MEDIA GROUP Leading out-of-home company Provantage Media Group is proud to announce that they have just been awarded a Level 1 B-BBEE rating by Grant Thornton - the highest BEE rating achievable. This makes Provantage one of the largest OOH media companies to have achieved a Level 1 rating and one of a small group of enterprise organisations within the Marketing and Communication sector to qualify as being truly empowered within the context of South African legislation. In addition to the level 1 B-BBEE rating, Provantage recently completed an equity transaction, which has resulted in the company becoming...

Posted By: TMO Reporter DStv Media Sales is offering 25% bonus airtime for every rand of airtime bought by qualifying small agencies. DStv Media Sales will schedule the bonus airtime in available inventory. The move comes after the company admitted to price-fixing and fixing trading conditions in contravention of the Competition Act in May. In terms of the consent agreement filed with the Competition Tribunal, DStv Media Sales has agreed to an accumulative remedy of R180 million, the Competition Commission said in a statement. “They agreed to pay an administrative penalty amounting to R22 262 599. The company will also pay R8 000...

Posted By: Michael Bratt  Using eye tracking technology to gather concrete data about how people interact with adverts, Mike Follett and his company, Lumen Research, have unearthed some startling feedback into that important relationship. Follett was speaking at SPARK Media’s recent workshop, which also included an address by Dr Virginia Beal from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing in Australia. “Rather than have an opinion of what was working, as everyone has an opinion, I thought it would be more useful if there was data around how people engage with advertising,” Follett explained. The attention technology company uses eye tracking to work out the reality of attention, measuring...

DNA Brand Architects has added luxury vehicle brand Volvo Cars South Africa to its list of clients. DNA Brand Architects won the Volvo Cars South Africa account after a multi-agency pitch where members of South Africa’s advertising industry were competing to secure the business. Volvo Cars South Africa says choosing to work with DNA Brand Architects was a clear-cut decision and it is proud to welcome the team on board. "The process towards awarding this business was very thorough and meticulous. But what we were looking for was a creative agency that would be able to do things differently, and take our brand...

BY: JOHANNA MCDOWELL 25 years ago, there were very few - if any - black owned and run agencies. Probably the only one at that time was Herdbuoys. They represented the start of a new era in South Africa where black advertising professionals were taken far more seriously than in previous times. Today in 2017 the Independent Agency Search & Selection company has identified more than 100 black owned entrepreneurial agencies across the full spectrum of 13 marketing communications disciplines. This is in addition to those agencies that have transformed in the past few years through BEE and various black ownership trusts and...