KingJames tops AdReview Awards

All the winners

Ad Agency of the Year

In a year when there were few runaway winners, the top accolade went to a business that achieved dominance at the 2010 Loeries, and turned a rather mediocre performance of 2009 into an excellent 2010 with revenue growth of 27%, and won close to R100 million in new business.

It's this kind of all-round performance that AdReview judges look for. But extra factors that underscore the winning performance are good, too, such as some excellent new brands added to the portfolio: McCain and Santam (both won in competitive pitches), and British Airways are accounts every agency would have given its eye-teeth for.

The agency was also appointed to handle the pan-African Johnnie Walker whisky business for the next phase of its global "Keep Walking" campaign. That resulted in KingJames work appearing in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Cameroon.

Creatively, KingJames ended up second on the AdReview creative league table, but that was because TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris's Trillion Dollar Billboard campaign was running its awards cycle through to just before the Loeries. A year after its first flighting, it is no longer eligible for further awards from the same competitions.

So big was the Trillion Dollar that it put Hunt Lascaris on top of the creative heap for two successive years. But, by the time the 2010 Loeries came along, the Trillion Dollar had shot its bolt. KingJames had its own killer app - the Allan Gray Legends campaign - which helped it to a triumphant creative year.

The group has become a leader in integrated advertising, which it delivers through a portfolio of seven agencies specialising in such disciplines as public relations, direct marketing, branding and media planning. The seamless nature of this delivery was a matter of comment among the judges.

Marketer of the Year

Before Lars Reichelt appeared on the scene, the local mobile phone industry looked rigid, uncompetitive and over-priced. To many, it seemed nothing more than a cartel. And when Cell C obtained the third network licence, it apparently took the view that it could do no better than play by the rules of the Big Two, Vodacom and MTN.

But since Reichelt has taken the helm at Cell C, he has shaken up the industry like nobody else has been able to do, refusing to accept the status quo, tackling the market leaders on both price and service, and repositioning the third network operator with its primary focus on the data (rather than voice) market.

In turn both outrageous and canny, Reichelt has rebranded Cell C, rolled out a new network infrastructure, reduced corporate debt and given real reasons to believe that competition has finally arrived in the cellphone industry.