AdMakers International

History: 
AdMakers International has been delivering marketing and advertising solutions for only the most luxury items for over 23 years. They pride themselves on marketing high-ticket items such as, luxury property, private yachts, jets and expensive cars. They see this as their specialty.

AdMakers approach: 
To deliver tangible results.

How you ask? AdMakers explains it... 

• By bringing more than 23 years of specialist marketing knowledge and expertise to the table
• By employing a first-class team of strategic thinkers and award-winning creatives
• By having the same, original core management team in place for the past 23 years
• By never losing sight of the end goal (which is to successfully sell your product) and ensuring that this underpins everything we do
• By being prepared to risk-share on selected projects, deliberately investing the agency in their long-term success
• By getting involved – deeply involved – in all aspects of your marketing, not just ‘end-stage’ advertising

They feel that as a part of such an "elusive and often misunderstood, niche" they have the unique insight that can tell a brand what will and won't sell. 

Luxury Clients (just to name a few): 

Yachts

• Riva Yachts
• Tamsen Yachts
• Wally
• Maori Yachts

Private Jets

• Gulfstream 
• Execujet 

Luxury Cars

• Rolls Royce
• Porsche
• Ferrari
• Maserati 
• Cadillac
• Hummer
• other General Motors brands 

Real Estate

• Golf Estates
• Country Lifestyle Estates
• Marina Developments
• Beachfront Developments
• Retirement Estates
• Re-developments and Conversions 

**AdMakers has a collective value of more than US$50 billion across Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and exotic island destinations such as the Bahamans, Maldives and Seychelles. 

Recent Awards: 

Best Development Marketing Europe – European Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing Croatia (5-star) – European Property Awards
Best Architecture (Multiple Units) Croatia – Highly Commended – European Residential Property Awards
Best Developer Website Croatia – Highly Commended – European Residential Property Awards
Best Development Seychelles – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing Seychelles – African Residential Property Awards
Best Interior Design Seychelles – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing South Africa – African Residential Property Awards
Best Architecture (Multiple Units) Seychelles – African Residential Property Awards
Best Developer Website Seychelles – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing Seychelles – Highly Commended – African Residential Property Awards
Best Developer Website South Africa – Highly Commended – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing South Africa – Highly Commended – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Africa – African Residential Property Awards
Best Interior Design Africa – African Residential Property Awards
Best Development Marketing Africa – African Residential Property Awards

-Julie Jensen 

DraftFCB

DRAFTFCB at a glance


DraftFCB is the third largest advertising company in South Africa. It is known for completing tasks in the most simple way possible.

What is DraftFCB's approach: "Delivering the 6.5 Seconds That Matter"

The company feels that there is no time to waste in the advertising world. They developed a process that is designed to get what matters to the customer and do it fast. After drastic amounts of research, DraftFCB found that today consumers are increasingly selective and demanding when dealing with marketing messages. Consumers, now more than ever, have a choice to engage with a marketing message (or not). Their study found that 6.5 seconds is the amount of time consumers give marketers to get their attention and allow the message they are portraying to have an impact. This is true across all medias.

How is DraftFCB structured? 
In a formation they call, "The Wheel". The company thrives itself on its ability to work in unison rather than as separate entities. They developed this procedure to ensure that every phase of development from strategy to execution stays in unison. With such a demanding market of consumers today, efficiency is an important aspect that takes lots of research to get just right and they believe they have figured it out.

DraftFCB's idea of success?
Success is measured in terms of how they change the decision making process of the consumer in favor of their client. In doing so, they focus on three key areas: Consumer Attitudes, Brand Metrics, and Sales.

Clients/Ads

Oreo 

Sharpie

Honda

Other American known clients: 

Taco Bell

Coors light

Dockers
KFC
KY lubrication


Awards 2011 (South Africa Office):
D & AD award: Lexus
Loeries award:  Vodacom, TV on Demand, Toyota

-Julie Jensen

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

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