Lacklustre 2012, golden 2013 and XL 2014 for NATIVE VML

It's been an excellent year for NATIVE VML, especially when you factor in its strategy to become South Africa's leading agency for the digital era by producing purpose-driven work that lives in people's lives.

Jason Xenopoulos, NATIVE VML CEO

But where did NATIVE come from? It didn't suddenly appear fully formed two years ago. NATIVE's Marketing Manager Aloysius Magerman explains that NATIVE was the original name of the company post-merger of Stonewall+, Cambrient and Brandsh four years ago. The name was born from the fact that most of the leadership were true digital natives and that we were native to digital. The addition of 'VML' came with NATIVE's VML partnership, obviously.

With the basics down, I asked Jason Xenopoulos, CEO of NATIVE VML, to tell us more - he emphasises the importance of taking strategy and creativity beyond the strategy and creative departments, and that all-important inspiration and creative energy...

Images from the Nedbank Ke Yona campaign

What's the basic work flow or creative process in the agency?

Xenopoulos: At NATIVE VML we're obsessed with creating value: value for our clients, value for their customers, and value for the wider world as well. In order to create value, you have to understand each stakeholder's needs. We begin our creative process by clarifying our clients' business objectives while really "getting under the skin" of their customers' needs. We have several strategic-planning tools and methodologies that assist us in extracting these insights and forming them into a compelling creative brief. This creative brief forms the basis of the ideation process, which is an inter-disciplinary collaboration between specialists from various areas within the business. We do not believe that strategy and creativity are the preserve of the strategy and creative departments. Everyone at NATIVE VML is expected to be strategic and creative. At the end of the day, regardless of the process or work flow, great ideas are born from that intangible stuff called inspiration. We try our best to create an environment that feeds and stimulates everyone so that they can channel creative energy, which is vital to the creative process.

Campaign to 'make syphilis disappear'

List any exciting new developments in the team that have enhanced Native VML's overall skillset.

Xenopoulos: We believe that the future of marketing sits at the intersection between creativity and technology. As a result, we are adding skills on both ends of that spectrum. On the one hand, we are deepening our knowledge of various tech platforms to enhance our ability to deliver real business value to our clients, while simultaneously extending our full-service marketing resources to provide a more fully integrated marketing solution to brands.

Work for The Exchange

Wax lyrical on awards you've won

Xenopoulos: Over the past 12 months we have totally overhauled our creative credentials. After a lacklustre performance at award shows in 2012, we burst into the limelight last year with a host of awards, including being named Agency of the Year at the Bookmarks in October 2013, and the past year has been even better. We netted a host of awards at local and international awards shows, including The New York Festivals, One Show, Webby's, SXSW, Solal Marketing Awards, Discovery Sports Awards, Ad of the Month, Ad of the Year, Ad Review, and Pendorings, all of which were topped-off by a fantastic performance at The Loeries, where we won nine Loeries including two Golds, resulting in us placing fifth overall among all large agencies in South Africa.