Net#work BBDO reverts back to one-agency-two-offices model

Boniswa Pzisa, CEO of Net#work BBDO. © Net#work BBDO.

Boniswa Pezisa, group CEO of BBDO, says this move is something that the agency started discussing sometime during February last year because it wanted to become more “adaptable and agile". She says, “We've seen a lot of changes happening within the industry. Margins are getting thinner, client-expectations are changing on a day to day basis. So, we realised we had to reorganise ourselves and be adaptable and agile to deal with this sweeping change that is happening.”

Cutting out duplication

Pezisa says back then the concept was to create pods within their offices. “We realised to really make it work we have to cut our duplication.” She explains that when they started the agency, they were one agency with two offices. They wanted to go back to that. “The fact is we were really the best at the time when we were organised like that. Literally within two months of starting Net#work BBDO, we had two offices, one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town, only because we had acquired an account in Cape Town. And it was quite clear that we didn't have to duplicate a lot of things, all we needed was a really good account management structure in Cape Town to service the client. And that worked well.”

But why did it work? Pezisa says what was clear was that they needed very a senior C-suite to deliver. “So, we went back to that model and revisited and relooked this option. And almost a year later we are implementing it. The journey then is also to make certain positions redundant,” she admitted

New leadership team banging the BBDO drum

Leigh Andrews  26 May 2016

Pezisa says what they also realised was that their creative star power is a group seated in Johannesburg. “We asked ourselves, ‘Why not harness that?’ And we did exactly that. Strategically we are very strong here in Johannesburg. And when you marry creativity and strategy the outcome is very strong. So, we are harnessing that and we really tightened that. It doesn't mean that we won't have day-to-day strategic servicing that really empowers account management in Cape Town. We are also cognisant of that, especially from a client day to day need point of view.”

#IMC2018: The science of how brands grow

Jessica Tennant  16 Feb 2018

Strong operational structure

“We've cut out duplication, we appointed our creative output, appointed our strategic output and made sure that we had a strong account-management team in Cape Town, servicing clients with the support of strategy,” says Pezisa about their progress. “The other area that we realised would be critical for all clients, which is something we never had at the beginning, was making sure you've also got a strong operational structure in existence in both offices. Not duplication but to assist all teams,” she adds.

#Loeries2016: What BBDO's Grands Prix wins mean for African creativity

Leigh Andrews  26 Aug 2016

In a nutshell, Pezisa says they’ve created creative and strategy pods, and then a strong account management lead pod in Cape Town with operations to make sure that they deliver on every client's needs. With regards to the 140 BBDO brand name, Pezisa says they we will probably need to deal with the company law issues around phasing it out and their next step would then be to rebrand the Cape Town office to Net#work.