Mr Price poaches manager of go-getting ad agency

17 May 2016

In a blow to multi-award winning advertising agency Ireland/Davenport, it has lost its MD to Mr Price.

Mr Price poaches manager of go-getting ad agency

Sue Napier, who has been at the agency since its launch in 2005, had resigned, she confirmed. Napier, who was born in Durban, is returning to her home city to become marketing director of retail chain Mr Price's apparel division.

She will leave the agency at the end of next month, and no successor has been chosen. Until the middle of last year, Ireland/Davenport was considered one of the most successful independent startups in SA's advertising industry.

Named after founding partners Philip Ireland and John Davenport, its first client was car maker BMW. It was followed by names like Avis and Plascon before South African Tourism, in 2010, and Vodacom, in 2013, catapulted it into the big league.

The success persuaded global advertising and communications group WPP to buy a stake and the agency's management won a national leadership award at the 2014 industry AdFocus awards.

But it all unravelled in a few weeks in mid-2015, when Vodacom, SA Tourism and BMW all moved their business to other agencies. Vodacom accounted for 40% of Ireland/Davenport's revenue. This led to substantial job losses at the agency.

"It was incredibly hard to do," said Napier. "We had never retrenched anyone before."

Since then, Ireland/Davenport has regained some ground with the Isuzu vehicles and Budget Car Rental accounts.

Napier said Mr Price approached her with a job offer in late March and the deal was done. "The offer was simply too good to ignore."

furlongerd@bdfm.co.za

Source: Business Day

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