Joe Public named Agency of the Year by Marklives

Source: Herman Manson, Marklives

#1. Joe Public

Over the course of the 2022, Pepe Marais, Joe Public co-founder and integrated GCCO, was inducted into the Loeries Hall of Fame, while art director Raphael Janan Kuppasamy received the 2022 Loeries Young Creatives Award [read more about him in our Young, Gifted & Killing It December 2022 interview]. Client Chicken Licken walked away with the 2022 Loeries Brand of the Year at the same event [it was also our #AgencyLeaders 2021 Most Admired Brand]. Joe Public also did away with the United in its name, rebranding simply to Joe Public.

The agency, which is 63% black- and 26% black-female-owned, recorded revenue growth of 25% over the course of 2022, and also grew its profit by 40% year on year. It expanded geographically to KwaZulu-Natal, retained all of its top-tiered clients and added new business of R40.5m. It also secured the Nedbank Digital business. Other account wins through late 2021 and 2022 included Good Hope FM, Hansa (December 2021) and Woolworths (October 2021).

Scopen’s 2021/22 AgencyScope South Africa report named the agency as its Agency of the Year and its No. 1 Attractive Agency for clients, as well as the Best Agency to Work for in SA.

“We do formal relationship surveys with 14 of our top clients that account for 90% of our revenue,” says Gareth Leck, Joe Public co-founder and GCEO. “The average survey score in the period under review was 81%, scoring in the excellent relationship range.”

Going back to the awards side, Joe Public was ranked the No. 1 Creative Agency in the MEA region for four consecutive years (2018–2021) at The Loeries [the final rankings for Loeries 2022 should be out end of this month]; the Ciclope Agency of the Year for the fourth year in a row; and The One Show 2022 Middle East & Africa Independent Agency of the Year. In the 2022 WARC Creative 100 rankings, Joe Public United was ranked the 36th Most Creative Agency Overall globally and was the only agency to make the top 50 from the African continent, coming in as the No. 1 Agency in Africa.