Tequila\ changes direction

Explains Rizwana Bawa, managing director at Tequila\, “Recent developments in the international advertising industry show that digital is exploding overseas and South Africa is catching-up with the trend as our broadband improves. The time is right to bring the mix of top-end creative and design with technical digital knowledge to the market.

Despite being cutting-edge and delivering high-quality work for its clients, management at Tequila\ realised that in order to remain relevant to clients they had to rethink the way Tequila\ does business. “It has been a wonderful year of change and hard work which has brought us to this point,” says Bawa, “one of the key insights for me has been that the generic label of “through-the-line agency” does not describe our capabilities and specialist skills. We need to hone those skills and be known as being great at what we do, not a jack-of-all-trades agency.”

Significant appointments have also been made recently to steer the agency in the right direction, including the appointment of Elana Dovous as digital manager and long time TBWA\ stalwart Justin Wright as creative director.

“Historically digital agencies have spent a lot of time understanding a client's business objectives to drive the thinking for online and web development, without addressing the brand and the message to market” explains Douvos, “the core strengths of digital, design and conceptual design that Tequila\ brings allows the brand to maintain a high profile in the process as well as ensuring a holistic campaign concept.”

Wright adds, “Part of the new strategy is aimed at providing clients with more than traditional media. Tequila\ offers more than just advertising, we investigate the best possible ways of targeting our clients' consumers. Our core offerings include both digital and mobile advertising, and some ideas that are yet to be categorised by the industry as an accepted channel.”

A member of the TBWA\South Africa group, Tequila's clients include Standard Bank, Nissan and soon-to-be-launched telecoms company, Neotel.