Wetpaint Advertising

For the next industry profile in South Africa, we're going to take a little different approach. Wetpaint Advertising is a small, boutique agency in South Africa that caters to clients such as Epson, Sony, Philips, Huawei, and other companies. What struck me most interesting about Wetpaint is that they almost completely run by women. Check out their homepage here: http://wetpaint.co.za/index.php you can see from the "About Us" section that Wetpaint's employees have a lot of personality an fun with what they do. 

Here is their mission statement:  "Our mission is simple: create successful branding and manage the growth process of our clients whilst keeping all of their creative elements bright, impactful and innovative"

I really love the website's overall design and spunky-ness. It really gives Wetpaint an edge and makes me as a visitor want to learn more about what they do. Above that, Wetpaint claims that this: "Wetpaint Advertising is the only Boutique advertising agency in South Africa that offers you the comprehensive service of a full scale agency, with all the benefits of a small dedicated team, at a fair price."

I think this is a clever strategy and likely offers Wetpaint more flexibility and customization with what they do instead of having to go through so many channels and departments that larger agencies like Ogilvy deal with. And, judging from their list of clients, their strategy is attracting big time companies.

The Campaign Sample

I have chosen Wetpaint's Sony campaign to analyze here. Here's the link:  http://wetpaint.co.za/sony.php

Basically, Sony was rolling out a bunch of new surveillance cameras, medical devices, printers, projectors, and other business support products. Wetpaint went in and (if you click "Go To Campaign", you can see it), created some catchy web and print ads to drive traffic to the Sony website, prompting inquiries about the product. I really liked the layouts and high-resolution photos of the products being used as they were intended in the ads. While there is some lengthy copy, it only supports what Sony is trying to get across about their product and adds value to the ad. This campaign was pretty similar to a few others that Wetpaint has worked on, and I think it's good work.


-Dave Larmann

Power of 9 Advertising Agency

Power of 9 is an advertising agency in Cape Town that opened in 2004. The agency first began as a strategic brand consultancy and then became a strategic branding agency that was innovative and creative. The founder, Catherine Herbst feeds the culture of curiousity.

Power of 9 offers services of research, brand strategy, creative concept and creative executions to media planning, event, production, project management and consulting. 

"South Africa says ‘it’s possible’. We agree. Despite many negatives, the pioneering spirit soars with South Africans opening their minds to possibilities as numerous and incandescent as stars in the sky" (powerof9.co.za).

Client website list:
Accenture
Adcorp
Amdec
Brits Nonwoven
Clicks
Fillipo Berio
Hosaf
I&J
Nexxus
ORO Africa
Private Client Holdings
Quest
SAWIS
STAG Properties

Sites of interest

Facebook – Power of 9
Trendwatching.com
Stumbleupon
Ads of the World

Work:

 Power of 9 Commissioned photography for OROAFRICA. Photographer: Malcolm Dare

Natalie

The Jupiter Drawing Room

History: 
The Jupiter Drawing Room first opened its doors in 1989. It originated in Johannesburg and later expanded to Cape Town in 1994. The name, The Jupiter Drawing Room, was inspired by the short story called, "Guy de Maupassant"which takes place in Normandy, France. It is about the 'entertainment' that women would put on for the local tradesmen and dignitaries. Unlike the tradesmen who received their entertainment in the basement of the country house, dignitaries had a special room on the first floor. This room was called The Jupiter Drawing Room.

Jupiter Drawing Room's philosophy: "Rem tene, verba sequentur". In english this means, "Grasp the subject and the words will follow." The company thrives on the idea that a thorough understanding is necessary to achieve the best work.

Today:
The Jupiter Drawing Room is South Africa's second largest advertising agency. It is currently ranked top 10 in the world for design. They work with well-known American companies such as, Nike, Elizabeth Arden, Hyundai, Coca-Cola, Minute Maid as well as many other global corporations. In doing so, their media spans from tv and cinema, print, design, outdoor, digital to radio spots.

Nike: 

Hyundai: 
Print ad-

Radio Spot:

 

Other awesome ads by The Jupiter Drawing Room: 


CSI: 

South African Bank (ABSA): 

A compiled portfolio of various media categories is available here.

Ogilvy South Africa

For our first industry profile in South Africa, I chose to look at Ogilvy, whose website can be visited here: http://www.ogilvy.co.za/.


Ogilvy South Africa's main theme is that of "liberation". With South Africa being a country that gained their independence not too long ago, Ogilvy thought that this would be a unifying theme for their work. I really like this approach. Ogilvy writes "Liberation is a philosophy that embraces how we lead, who we employ and the culture we aim to create. Liberation underlines our belief in the power of creative ideas to unshackle the potential of brands."
I think that this is a cool theme and I like the dual meaning of "liberation" for the South African people. 


A little background: Ogilvy was founded in 1949 by David Ogilvy and is now one of the biggest "mar-com" firms in the world, with 450 offices in over 120 countries. Personally, I was completely blind to the world of advertising agencies until recently, and I had no idea that one advertising agency had so much reach. 120 countries? That's impressive considering how many cultures and psychological perspectives that vary across the world that would affect how an ad was composed. Anyway, Ogilvy South Africa is the leading marketing communications firm in South Africa, and specializes in a variety of different areas including promotions, digital advertising, and CRM. They've got it covered.


Looking at the portfolio that is available online, it's clear that some of the biggest customers for Ogilvy South Africa are Volkswagen, KFC, and Cadbury. The company has multiple campaigns up for all three. I'll start with KFC's "Snax" campaign. Ogilvy outlined the following:

• Snacking on the go has become increasingly popular in today's busy world, particularly for the younger generation
• KFC needed to show that they understood the busy lifestyle of teens with their Snax product
• Snax: quick, portable meals that could be eaten on the go, making sure teens never missed anything important due to a meal

The main vehicle here was the "Live on the Run" commercial that Ogilvy made. Here's the link http://www.ogilvy.co.za/our-work/kfc-snax/. The commercial basically focuses on two young adults: a male and a female, who are shown running around town to convey their fast-pace lifestyle. Our characters are then shown running into a KFC and emerging with the Snax, and then meeting up and making out. I think the commercial was effective in the sense that it spoke to young adults in terms of an active lifestyle. The two meeting at the end as a couple elicited feelings of how people still try to make time for their significant other in their daily lives, and I enjoyed the constant jogging of the characters that conveyed how they were literally running through their lives.
-Dave Larmann