We’ve just entered February, the month King James Group celebrates its 20th birthday, but taking a look in the rear-view mirror, their 19th year was certainly one for the books. They strengthened their offering in combining Society and Punk to launch King James Digital.

And as one of the country’s last remaining independent agencies, not only were they voted as SA’s favourite and most successful agency in the Scopen AgencyScope 2017, also racking up accolades as second in creativity overall and most creative agency in Cape Town, as well as second most attractive agency on marketers’ list to pitch; top for good momentum, productivity and original creative ideas; most desired agency to work for; one of the most balanced agencies in the country and the nation’s top independent agency.

As of today the agencies formerly known as Society and Punk have combined to form King James Digital. Forward unto glory!������ https://t.co/xhgvFtODDt

— King James Digital (@KJDigitalSA) October 12, 2017

We're so excited to share AAI & AAC's new #EqualityChallenge #advertiser guidelines&to announce that @KingJamesGroup is FIRST ad agency to endorse guidelines & fundamental principle of advancing #LGBTIQ equality through ads! #LGBTAds @ALsparkles #TakeTheEqualityChallengePledge pic.twitter.com/eLnmlLx843

— AIDS Accountability (@AAI_AIDSwatch) January 31, 2018

King James crowned with three gold Loeries 2017

Digital crafts – writing craft gold: Uk’shona Kwelanga

Integrated campaign – campaign gold: Sanlam Conspicuous Savers

Live events gold: Sanlam Financial Services’ Every 1 Counts

They also added the following Loeries to their fleet:

• ‘digital and interactive - social media’ silver, ‘branded content video - single execution’ silver, and ‘digital integrated campaign’ bronze for Sanlam National Savings Month’s ‘Sanlam Conspicuous Savers’;
• ‘digital and interactive - website or microsite’ bronze for Sanlam Investments’ Smart Invest;
• ‘Integrated campaign’ silver and ‘digital and interactive - social media’ bronze for Sanlam My Choice Funeral Plan’s ‘Uk'Shona Kwelanga’;
• ‘service design’ campaign silver for the City Of Cape Town digital platform;
• ‘service design’ campaign bronze and a ‘digital crafts - use of technology’ craft certificate for Sanlam Safety Incubator; and
• a ‘design crafts – typography’ certificate for Sanlam Financial Services’ ‘Make the Most of Every Month’.

Impressive!

Squad DEEP! #kjloeries

A post shared by King James Group (@kingjamesgroup) on Aug 19, 2017 at 10:08am PDT

King James Group itself came fifth in the 2017 overall ranking by agency size for large agencies with 100 or more employees; as well as seventh in the overall ranking by agency 2017 Loeries Ranking table (up from 20th spot the year before), which includes agencies from across the Africa and Middle East region as well as international agencies that produced work to be flighted within the region; fifth in the ranking for SA agencies, up from 12th the year before; seventh in the regional agency group 2017 Loeries Ranking table, for group networks across Africa and the Middle East; joint-ninth in the communication design table, based on the communication design category; fourth in the digital and interactive communication design category, based on the digital and interactive communication category.

CCO Alistair King ranked fifth in the chief creative officer table, with King Jamesers Matt Ross and Devin Kennedy ranked as joint-eighth in the executive creative director table, with Dan Pinch 10th and Jenny Ehlers 19th in the same table. The creative director ranking table also featured the regal Cameron Watson and Michael Wilson in joint-13th spot, with Watson and Elridge Marshall in joint-13th position on the agency art director table. Emma Drummond is ninth on the writer table, with Wilson and Vikash Gajjar in joint-17th position.

King James also featured in joint-13th in Creative Circle’s interim rankings for 2017 in the individual agencies group, and joint-ninth in their agency group ranking table.

I caught up with Kennedy, executive creative director at King James Group “since the stone age,” and Ross, chief creative officer with the Group “since the bronze age,”, now at the new King James Digital, to find out how they plan to extend their winning streak this year. As it’s still the beginning of the year, they’re “pretty much working on everything right now…”

It was a satisfying result for us, especially on the number of integrated campaigns that were again recognised. It’s a very clear affirmation for us that we are achieving what we set out for ourselves, as a group and with our clients. The breadth of our wins is evidence of the strength of our full group of agencies and the high calibre of their separate offerings.

We’re an idea-driven industry. And while you can try and put structures and systems in place to work better or smarter, it still comes down to coming up with surprising and challenging solutions. If you do that, the rest will follow.