M&C Saatchi Group bags substantial accolades at the 2022 AdFocus Awards

Jacques Burger - M&C Saatchi Group CEO

The M&C Saatchi Group was shortlisted as finalists in Large Agency of the Year (M&C Saatchi Abel) and Group of the Year (M&C Saatchi Group South Africa). Both are substantial achievements that underpin the group’s unwavering focus on creating beautifully simple solutions in an increasingly complex world, but also the added wins from specialist group agencies – Levergy and Razor PR – showcase the combined smarts within and a focus on delivering impactful work for clients across disciplines.

Razor PR was named AdFocus PR Agency of the Year ranking for its second consecutive year. Celebrating its third birthday in January 2023, Razor has been nominated every year since launching – winning the category twice. In 2022 Razor was also named African Agency of the Year by global PR magazine Provoke and was shortlisted as the best corporate agency in the world. Razor is the most awarded agency in Africa and from Africa – having also collected the Grand Prix for Best Overall African Campaign in the last 12 months (for Tiger Brands) as well as being the only local agency recognised in the Top 20 Global Campaigns at the Global SABRE Awards.

“As we entered our third year, we did so with some heavy expectations of ourselves. While we had done good work as the ambitious young start-up, we are very aware that we cannot remain a start-up forever. We have embraced scaling up in people and skills with a focus on not losing our culture,” said Razor partner and managing director, Dustin Chick.

Levergy

Levergy, the sport and entertainment arm of the M&C Saatchi Group, was named Specialist Agency of the Year, following on from its Sport Industry Awards Agency of the Year win in November. Recently celebrating its 10th birthday anniversary, the agency has also celebrated a surge of industry awards. Most notably, winners for Excellence in Strategic Sponsorship for Nedbank’s Runified campaign at the 2022 Marketing Achievement awards, and picking up 11 awards at the Assegai’s including the Zinthatu Award.

"We strive to develop leading creative yet brutally simple work for our clients, and these award wins are great examples of this,” says Struan Campbell, CEO and founder at Levergy about the awards. “We build partnerships in the truest sense of the word, and collectively we will continue striving to create real impact in the market through people’s passions.” The agency also recently won Agency of the Year at the 2022 Hollard Sport Industry Awards.

“We are incredibly proud that our specialist agencies took top honours”, says Jacques Burger, Group CEO M&C Saatchi Group South Africa. “We have always orientated around living as a group of companies run by partners – or as we like to call them “creative entrepreneurs” – who are both emotionally and equity-invested in their own businesses and who share each other’s success. Individually, each businesses could (and truly does) stand alone, but collectively we’re able to deliver effective and diverse marketing and communications work that helps us genuinely shape our industry and the categories of work we play in.”

When M&C Saatchi Abel opened its doors – during a recession and an over-traded industry with powerful and established competitors – many believed the odds stacked against it were simply too high. But after winning Large Agency of the Year in 2019, and being shortlisted every year since, it is clear that the agency’s is story one of audacity, tenacity and an unwavering belief in solving problems with creativity.

Razor PR

In the Agency Group of the Year category, only two groups were shortlisted, M&C Saatch Group and TBWA, proving that the group is consistently landing smart thinking solutions that hit the target, cementing long-term relationships some of our country’s most beloved brands including Nando’s, Standard Bank, Lexus, Takealot Group, and most recently PepsiCo.

“When the pandemic hit we had to take a step back as a group and look at a different world needing new ways of problem solving at scale. Our Smart Proposition means that each company within the group subscribes to the same Brutal Simplicity of Thought philosophy that permeates the DNA of its current leaders, partners and creative.

We love a good problem, but more than that, we love a good solve. For our clients, who need us to seamlessly connect all the dots in the most powerful way, letting go of structures and rather taking a group approach means we consistently deliver cohesively creative solutions that hit the target. Being recognised so highly at this year’s awards proves that our group solution orientation is spot on,” concludes Burger.