TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, The Jupiter Drawing Room share South African Agency of the Decade award

The Jupiter Drawing Room and TBWA\Hunt\ Lascaris have been named joint Agency of the Decade at South Africa’s annual AdReview Awards.

AdReview editor Tony Koenderman asserted that Jupiter – led by GrahamWarsop, above right – had been “the most spectacular business successstory” in advertising this past decade, and also commended its “peaksof supreme achievement” in the creative sphere. The publication notedthat TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris – led by John Hunt, above left – paved the wayin the first half of the decade, with Jupiter coming into itsown in the second half.

The story of The Jupiter Drawing Room’s decade was one of astronomicgrowth. In addition to setting new industry benchmarks in terms of newbusiness wins and BEE partnership, Jupiter also grew by over 300% interms of staff and by an astonishing 750% in terms of revenue, anunprecedented performance considering the group was already a mid-sizedagency at the start of the decade under review.

This award wasespecially competitive considering the quality of recognition thatSouth African agencies have received internationally over the last fewyears. In the past four years, South African agencies have won fiveCannes Grand Prix awards. The 2009 Cannes Report ranked Johannesburg asone of the world’s ten most creative cities, ahead of San Francisco,Amsterdam, Berlin and Buenos Aires.

Jupiter’s founding chairmanGraham Warsop called the win, “extremely satisfying” and “well deservedrecognition for a talented team that has worked with tireless devotionover the ten year period”.  But he noted, “We aren’t resting on ourlaurels, we have some big plans for this decade that we hope will dwarfour achievements in the last one.”

The Jupiter Drawing Room(South Africa) & Partners is Africa’s largest independentadvertising agency group, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.The group specialises in world-class integrated communication and itsprestigious client list includes ABSA, Edcon, MTN, Sasol, Hyundai,Sanlam and Woolworths. Jupiter is 49% owned by the WPP Group and is theonly agency from Africa to be ranked by US trade publicationAdvertising Age in the Top 5 Most Creative Agencies in the World.

AdReviewis a yearly supplement produced by South Africa’s best-selling businessand financial weekly, Finweek. The supplement is currently in its ninthyear.