Foreword

Wendy Bergsteedt Dr Beate Stiehler-Mulder Faheem Chaudhry Alistair Mokoena Jay Badza Lehlohonolo Mokhema Oresti Patricios

The brutal new battle for business

The theme for this year’s FM AdFocus is how intense competition in the campaign and communications industry has moved to open warfare as agencies and consultancies compete aggressively for accounts

uring one of this year’s

Dinterminable Zoom or Teams meetings, a well-known creative director said to whoever was bothering to listen: “Everyone is telling us to pivot. The ad industry needs to do much more than that. We need to prance, pirouette and pas de deux, otherwise it’s over.”

Then a cat jumped on his lap and the meeting called to discuss new approaches to creativity in the industrydefaulted to what many virtual gatherings were doing —a no t he r spirited conversation about feline dexterity and companionship during the lockdown.

Advertising and marketing agencies have had a torrid 2020. The cruel domino impact of Covid-19 was felt in the earliest days of the economic shutdown. An immediate drop in consumer confidence led to a drop in sales, which in turn forced brands to slow or halt their communication, which led to smaller agencies closing or shedding staff and the more resilient ones having to dig deep into their reserves.

There is nothing to suggest the bloodletting is over, and brands will remain jittery about spending and will demand from their agency partners more output accountability and justification than they have ever had to give.

It ’s the agency that can do this with precision, transparency and data-driven solutions that will succeed in the new environment. And they have a fight on their hands. One that was already shaping up before the world got sick.

The big global business consultancies saw a gap years ago to move into the space occupied by the brand communications industry. Their argument was simple. For too long many brands had been bemoaning strategic weakness in the industry and an inability to solve problems up and down the value chain.

That, however, was the core offering from these hot-desking, high-charging behemoths, which thought upskilling in the campaign and communications space surely wasn’t difficult? It wasn’t. And in recent years a skills and acquisition raid has been happening to the point where intense competition has moved to open warfare as agencies and consultancies compete aggressively for accounts.

In fairness to the ad community, many big shops have upped their game, and choice for a client needing big business solutions backed by creative thinking is much harder, with the pendulum at times swinging back to ad land.

This new battle for business is the theme for the 2020 edition of the FM’s AdFocus as both sides of the equation make their case.

The awards programme this year was always going to be different. Some agencies decided not to enter, wanting to focus all their efforts on their clients, their staff and survival. It ’s a position no-one can argue with. We look forward to welcoming them back in time.

To those agencies who participated, the common theme among all entries was how tough and resilient they were forced to become in a short space of time. To that end, a new one-off category was developed that looked at exactly that —how agencies successfully adapted during 2020.

Our advice to the industry would be to reach out to this year’s overall winner, Triple Eight, and, keeping masked and socially distanced, interrogate what it did and how?

A special mention must be made to the new chair of the judging jury this year, Tumi Ra b a ny e , whose management of the process in the virtual world was nothing short of magnificent. This project would also not be a success without the rest of the jury members who donate their time and expertise because they have a strong belief in the brand industry and its importance to the economy.

A further word of thanks is extended to Deloitte —our eagle-eyed auditors under whose supervision the judging takes place.

Years ago, in an earlier incarnation of AdFo c u s , lifetime achiever winner Graham Wa r s o p said he was far too young to win, as his professional life still had many laps to run. The same can be said of this year’s recipient, Bernice Samuels, MTN’s head of marketing. Her brand, despite the hardships of the past year, has just been named the most valuable in Africa. We ask her to accept the accolade knowing her professional race is far from run.

Jeremy Maggs Ed i t o r

Consultancies muscle in on traditional ad agency territory ................................................... 6

Industry faces fight for survival ................... 10

Purpose-driven agency gets business and social results ....................................................... 12 Foreword ............................................................................ 3

COVER STORY

Consultancies muscle in on traditional ad agency territory ............................................................................... 6 Research: Industry faces fight for survival................. 10

ADFOCUS AWARDS

AgencyoftheYear ........................................................ 12 LargeAgencyoftheYear ............................................. 15 MediumAgencyoftheYear ......................................... 16 SmallAgencyoftheYear ............................................... 17 NetworkMediaAgencyoftheYear ............................ 18 PartnershipoftheYear .................................................. 19 PRAgencyoftheYear .................................................. 20 Shapeshifter of the Year................................................ 21 IndustryLeaderoftheYear .......................................... 22 LifetimeAchievementAward ....................................... 24 StudentoftheYear ........................................................ 26

COMMENTARY & INSIGHT

The expertiserequiredforanewparadigm .............. 27 Could big data threaten traditional advertisingagencies? ................................................... 28 Thepushforchange ..................................................... 30 Role of international best practice in a post-Covidworld ............................................................ 32 Creating true partnership requires culture ofcollaboration .............................................................. 33 Whatclientsarelookingforinapost-Covidworld .. 34 Awardsrankings ............................................................. 35 FMCreativeChallenge .................................................. 36

CORPORATEPROFILES ...................................... 38

CASESTUDY ............................................................. 48

Life as a brilliant, yet misunderstood mid-weight copywriter ........................................................................ 58 Lifetime achievement award ......................... 24

Creating true partnership requires culture of collaboration ....................................................... 33

Life as a brilliant, yet misunderstood mid-weight copywriter ..................................... 58

Financial Mail editor: Rob Rose

AdFocus editor: Jeremy Maggs

Project co-ordinator: Lynette Dicey

Surveys editor: Les Tilley

Layout: Busisiwe Ntsamba

Sub-editor: Danni Marais

Graphics: Colleen Wilson

Head of advertising sales: Eben Gewers

Sales manager: Kay Naidoo

Sales: Cortney Hoyland, Debbie Montanari, Nigel Twidale

Photographers: Freddy Mavunda, 123rf Contributors: Samantha du Chenne, Brett Morris, Ann Nurock

AdFocus Awards project co-ordinator: Danette (Breitenbach) Ca p p e r

AdFocus Jury: Tumi Rabanye, industry consultant, 2020/2021 juries chair; Alistair Mokoena, country director, Google; Dr Beate Stiehler-Mulder senior lecturer, marketing and stakeholder engagement - department of marketing management, University of Johannesburg; Camilla Clerke –EC D, HelloFCB; Faheem Chaudhry –M D, M&C Saatchi Abel JHB; Haydn Townsend –MD, Accenture Interactive; Jay Badza –founder & head honcho, Orchard on 25; Lebo Motswenyane –founder, Lucky No.8; Lehlohonolo (Hloni) Mokhema –general manager, Absa Group Communications; Lesego Kotane –MD, King James Group Johannesburg; Michael Oelschig, MD, Wunderman Thompson SA; Mmapula Mokoena –head of marketing, Yalu SA; Mpume Ngobese –MD, Joe Public Connect; Oresti Patricios –CEO, Ornico Group; Pride Maunatlala –head of marketing, TFG, Foschini Division, Foschini; Sindiswa Masuta –s t ra te gy business director, Grey Group; Thabiet Allie –CEO, TurnUp Music; Wendy Bergsteedt –group head marketing, coronation fund manager

Media Jury: Candice Goodman –MD: Mobitainment; Carmen Murray –founder, Boo-Yah; Koo Govender –CEO, Dentsu Aegis SA; Mbali Ndandani –Africa Digital Lead; Unilever, Margie Carr –MD, InTouch Media; Monique Claassen –client service director media domain, Kantar; Oresti Patricios –CEO, Ornico Group

Student Award Jury: Bonolo Modise –senior copywriter & creative director, FCB; Dali Tembo –CEO & co-founder, The Culture Foundry; Dr Beate Stiehler-Mulder –senior lecturer marketing & stakeholder engagement, dept of marketing management, University of Johannesburg; Gregory King –integrated creative director, Promise Group; Mphothe Elizabeth Mokoena –homecare marketing director, Unilever; Makosha Maja-Rasethaba –partner head of strategy (Jhb), M&C Saatchi Abel; Trevor Ndhlovu –CEO, Black River FC

Deloitte auditor: Tinesh Govender

Printing: Hirt & Carter