As part of its ongoing commitment to continually improve the quality of the integrated communication solutions it develops for its clients, FCB South Africa has refined the structure of its below-the-line capabilities.
Anticipated benefits of the realignment include faster turnaround times, reduced overheads and – most importantly for the group and its clients – an improved creative product.
In line with the restructuring, the management, traffic and administration of three independent entities whose specialist communication capabilities overlap have been collapsed into one below-the-line company. At the same time, four specialist creative hubs have been formed.
Kim Kullman has been appointed general manager of the merged entity. She will be supported by two executive creative directors, who will be responsible for overseeing the creative hubs. They are Fred Swart, who joined FCB Design two years ago as its creative director; and newcomer Marthinus Duckitt, who started his career in the advertising industry in 1989.
The merged entities are FCB Impact 361° (which offered multimedia, sponsorship, sales promotion, event management, and experiential marketing), FCB Design (corporate identity, product, packaging, annual reports, and brochures), and FCBi (direct response advertising, customer relationship marketing, web design, online advertising, and interactive marketing).
The four new creative hubs are design; events/promotions; direct marketing/CRM; and interactive/multimedia.
FCB Redline, the group's public relations resource; Finset, its in-house production facility; and FCB Jonssons, the financial advertising and investor relations specialist; will continue to operate as independent companies.
Announcing the restructuring, FCB South Africa's Group Managing Director, Maserame Mouyeme, said it was a major and very positive step forward for the group's integrated offering aimed at dramatically raising the below-the-line creative offering to new heights. At the same time, it will ensure total service delivery capability is enhanced.
"When FCB South Africa began building its below-the-line expertise, the capabilities it brought on board were quite distinct," she said.
"However, with numerous rapid technological developments and a proliferation of new media, the boundaries between the disciplines blurred considerably. This resulted in a duplication of skills sets within the various below-the-line specialist companies, which in turn saw staffing and digital equipment costs spiral.
"Furthermore, the way in which the integrated offering grew resulted in an unnecessarily top heavy management structure, and also put some distance between the client and the creative teams to the detriment of the creative product.
"The new structure is far leaner, more flexible and creatively focused. It is inline with today's marketing and technological environments, and I anticipate the changes will greatly enhance the quality of integrated solutions we deliver to our clients," said Mouyeme.
