Advertising News South Africa

KingJames tops AdReview Awards

KingJames was crowned Ad Agency of the Year at the annual AdReview Awards in Johannesburg last night, Wednesday, 20 April 2011 - the first Cape Town agency to take this accolade. Both John Farquhar ("the conscience of the ad industry") and Andy Rice were honoured with Lifetime Achievement awards, and Cell C's Lars Reichelt was named Marketer of the Year.

All the winners

CategoryAgency/name
Ad Agency of the YearKingJames
Cape Agency of the YearKingJames
Magazine CampaignKingJames
Marketer of the YearLars Reichelt of Cell C
Ad Achiever of the YearDamon Stapleton of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris
Lifetime AchievementJohn Farquhar
Lifetime AchievementAndy Rice
Newcomer of the YearMesh.
Outstanding PerformanceFoxP2
Outstanding PerformanceTrigger/Isobar
Outstanding PerformanceVolcano
Outstanding PerformanceVWV
PR Consultancy of the YearAtmosphere.
Baobab Award for effective client relationshipsTBWA Durban
Baobab Award for effective client relationshipsDraftfcb Johannesburg
Gauteng Agency of the YearDraftfcb Johannesburg
Design and Branding Agency of the YearGrid
The Big IdeaKeep the Flag Flying by Draftfcb
Media Agency of the YearCarat
Small Media Agency of the YearVizeum

Ad Agency of the Year

In a year when there were few runaway winners, the top accolade went to a business that achieved dominance at the 2010 Loeries, and turned a rather mediocre performance of 2009 into an excellent 2010 with revenue growth of 27%, and won close to R100 million in new business.

It's this kind of all-round performance that AdReview judges look for. But extra factors that underscore the winning performance are good, too, such as some excellent new brands added to the portfolio: McCain and Santam (both won in competitive pitches), and British Airways are accounts every agency would have given its eye-teeth for.

The agency was also appointed to handle the pan-African Johnnie Walker whisky business for the next phase of its global "Keep Walking" campaign. That resulted in KingJames work appearing in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Cameroon.

Creatively, KingJames ended up second on the AdReview creative league table, but that was because TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris's Trillion Dollar Billboard campaign was running its awards cycle through to just before the Loeries. A year after its first flighting, it is no longer eligible for further awards from the same competitions.

So big was the Trillion Dollar that it put Hunt Lascaris on top of the creative heap for two successive years. But, by the time the 2010 Loeries came along, the Trillion Dollar had shot its bolt. KingJames had its own killer app - the Allan Gray Legends campaign - which helped it to a triumphant creative year.

The group has become a leader in integrated advertising, which it delivers through a portfolio of seven agencies specialising in such disciplines as public relations, direct marketing, branding and media planning. The seamless nature of this delivery was a matter of comment among the judges.

Marketer of the Year

Before Lars Reichelt appeared on the scene, the local mobile phone industry looked rigid, uncompetitive and over-priced. To many, it seemed nothing more than a cartel. And when Cell C obtained the third network licence, it apparently took the view that it could do no better than play by the rules of the Big Two, Vodacom and MTN.

But since Reichelt has taken the helm at Cell C, he has shaken up the industry like nobody else has been able to do, refusing to accept the status quo, tackling the market leaders on both price and service, and repositioning the third network operator with its primary focus on the data (rather than voice) market.

In turn both outrageous and canny, Reichelt has rebranded Cell C, rolled out a new network infrastructure, reduced corporate debt and given real reasons to believe that competition has finally arrived in the cellphone industry.

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