Jupiter, king of agencies

Both Jupiter offices were shortlisted for the Large Agency category, but Johannesburg got the nod, thanks to its outstanding new-business achievements.

The runner-up in the Large Agency category was Ogilvy Johannesburg, after it topped the creative league for the year and also won R487 million in new business.

And Jupiter Cape Town took the southern regional award, thanks to a combination of an outstanding creative award-winning record and more than R100 million in new billings. Jupiter Cape only recently qualified for the Large Agency category (defined as agencies employing 120 or more people).

Biggest achievement

The group’s biggest achievement was to win R1.2 billion in new billings with the acquisition of five major new clients in six weeks towards the end of last year. These include MTN, Absa, SAA and Sasol.

The Big Idea award, which is presented to an idea-led campaign that can by interpreted across a range of disciplines, went to TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris for the Tsotsi anti-piracy campaign. The award was sponsored by Paarl Web.

Nota Bene, the media strategy-only agency, was named as Ads24 Media Agency of the Year. This was because of its all-round performance: billings growth of 38%, new business of R410 million, and awards from the Roger Garlick Award, Brand Strategy magazine and clients. Nota Bene was also rated by RECMA, the Paris-based monitoring service, as SA’s top media agency for the second straight year.

An excellent turnaround showing from Universal McCann earned it the runner-up slot. Two years ago it was languishing in a backwater; today it is a competitor to be feared in new-business pitches.

The Campaign of the Year was Lowe Bull’s “Get a Girlfriend” programme for Axe male deodorant. The campaign uses a full range of media channels to reinterpret the core theme: a stream of nerdy sexual failures engaged in meaningless tasks because they didn’t have girlfriends. The solution, of course, is to use Axe.

Other winners

• Advertising Person of the Year: Groovin Nchabeleng
  
• Design/Branding Agency: Grid
  
• Marketing Services Company: Mortimer Harvey
  
• Mid-size Agency: KingJames
  
• Durban Agency: FCB Durban
  
• Small Agency: Ireland/Davenport
  
• Newcomer: FoxP2
  
• Digital Agency: Gloo
  
• PR Consultancy: Magna Carta.