Agency of the Decade win for The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa)

Johannesburg, South Africa - The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) & Partners won the coveted Agency of the Decade Award at South Africa’s annual AdReview Awards on Wednesday, April 21. A joint award was made to another well known SA agency group, TBWA Hunt Lascaris.

Editor Tony Koenderman asserted that Jupiter had been “the most spectacular business success story” in advertising this past decade, and also commended its “peaks of supreme achievement” in the creative sphere.

The story of The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) & Partners decade was one of astronomic growth. In addition to setting new industry benchmarks in terms of new business wins and BEE partnership, Jupiter also grew by over 300% in terms of staff and by an astonishing 750% in terms of revenue, an unprecedented performance considering the group was already mid–sized at the start of the decade under review.

The publication noted that TBWA Hunt Lascaris’ major achievements were skewed to the first half of the decade, with Jupiter coming into its own in the second half.

This award was especially competitive considering the quality of recognition that South African agencies have received over the last few years. In the past four years, South African agencies have won five Cannes Grand Prix awards. The 2009 Cannes Report ranked Johannesburg as one of the world’s ten most creative cities, ahead of San Francisco, Amsterdam, Berlin and Buenos Aires.

Founding Chairman Graham Warsop called the win, “extremely satisfying” and “well deserved recognition for a talented team that has worked with tireless devotion over the ten year period”. But he noted, “We aren’t resting on our laurels, we have some big plans for this decade that we hope will dwarf our achievements in the last one.”

Renee Silverstone, CEO of The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg), the largest agency in the group, says, “This accolade belongs to both the talented team at the agency and its clients. This award belongs to us all and reflects both Jupiter and our clients’ business success and is a wonderful recognition of our great SA brands, including Edcon, MTN, Absa and Sasol. Jupiter, as always, remains committed to delivering excellence and partnering our clients in building and sustaining brand equity in a highly competitive, tough economic climate.”

Kevan Aspoas, MD of The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town), which also picked up Cape Agency of the Year on the night, says, “Over the past decade, our greatest achievement has been successfully building brands for our clients. Clients such as Hyundai and Brandhouse have seen their brands grow as a result of Jupiter’s through-the-line offering and we are incredibly proud of that.”

The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) & Partners is Africa’s largest independent advertising agency group, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The group specialises in world-class integrated communication and its prestigious client list includes ABSA, Edcon, MTN, Sasol, Hyundai, Sanlam and Woolworths. Jupiter is 49% owned by the WPP Group and is the only agency from Africa to be ranked by US trade publication Advertising Age in the Top 5 Most Creative Agencies in the World.

AdReview is a yearly supplement produced by South Africa’s best-selling business and financial weekly, Finweek. The supplement is currently in its ninth year.

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