Jono Swanepoel |
Fortunately all you need to do is look left before crossing the street of empty promises to find Leftfield, a boutique agency headed up by experienced minds that have created phenomenal growth for their clients and themselves, despite the recession.
Co-founder and Strategic & Creative Director, Jono Swanepoel, explains how the agency achieved 54% value share growth for their global client in just three years. "Firstly we repositioned the brand completely, off an emotional platform versus a rational one, and used traditional media, including TV, to build the emotional connection and reach. More importantly, we've consistently broadened the brand's face-to-face contact points with the consumer - through brand activations on the ground at universities, created a successful reality TV show now in its third season, strengthened the brand link to soccer via TV and radio shows, and driven sales via promotions.
"Over the three-year time frame we've made the brand more youthful in terms of image but also used web, mobi and activations to put the brand in the consumers' hands. Having a brave Dutch client with real vision has obviously been key, especially their recent innovation drive to refresh the brand. It's our shared vision and trust that created the success."
Considering this was achieved for the world's third biggest dairy company, Friesland Campina, operating in the tough Nigerian market, these results become even more impressive. Based on this success the client has awarded Leftfield two more brands which have a combined market share of 76%.
Peak: Market-leading milk brand in Nigeria |
When you listen to Jono you soon realise you are talking to that rare breed of creative that has an extraordinary depth of strategic marketing knowledge and vision. Not surprisingly Jono was previously Creative Chairman of Leo Burnett Indonesia, a 150-man agency ranked No. 1 for creativity in that market. Prior to that he's widely recognised as a key driving force in taking HerdBuoys from a medium sized agency ranked No. 32, to an agency ranked No. 5 in billings and awards under the HerdBuoys McCann-Erickson banner. Despite these successes and an awards tally of over 50 awards, you'd be hard pressed to find someone more openly approachable and ego-free.
What makes Leftfield unique? To quote Jono: "We're obsessed about getting phenomenal results, secondly, we have four senior directors heading up the agency across four key areas, and thirdly, we develop bold creative ideas that tend to go massively viral. I think it's this ability to amplify the idea across all media that delivers an amplified ROI for our clients."
For those who may remember the epic Sprite campaigns post 1994, or the Telkom "Dog" TV ad which was voted SA's Most Loved Ad in 2003, you'll be familiar with Jono's ability to create ads that resonate. For recent proof of Leftfield's ability to amplify a bold creative idea, look no further than their Wozela campaign. Designed to highlight the reuse of plastic, they challenged South Africa and the world, to redesign the Vuvuzela for better use right after the FIFA World Cup ended. Results? The campaign was headline news on CNN, BBC, ABC, CBC, Al Jazeera, BBC Africa Service, Central China News, while hundreds of blogs, radio, stations and print media also covered the campaign. Awareness created? Wozela reached over 100 MILLION people with a ROI of 1142%.By far the biggest digital and PR success story of the past five years.
To find out what super-sized results Leftfield can deliver for your brand, chat to Strategic & Business Director, Jason Cumming on 083 297 0450 or Jono Swanepoel on 074 104 3588 alternatively, visit
www.leftfield.co.za.
