Joe Public United ranked number one in the top 12 agencies at the 2021 Pendoring Awards

10 Nov 2021

One of the many joys of being a South African is our love of language and our ability to use it fluidly. Work, migration, education, urbanisation, the places we live, friendships, marriage, to name a few, have influenced our languages to the point where most of us are more than bilingual, with the average South African using 2.84 languages, often in a single conversation.

Joe Public United ranked number one in the top 12 agencies at the 2021 Pendoring Awards

It's this love that the advertising and communications industry celebrates every year at the Pendoring Awards, to showcase the richness of South Africa’s creative content in all its 10 indigenous languages. And no agency has yet to capture the #SpeakSouthAfrican spirit quite like brand and communications group, Joe Public United (JPU).

JPU was awarded top honours by coming in as number one in the top 12 agencies of 2021, and together with their clients and growth partners, collected a total of 29 awards: eight Craft Gold awards, four Gold awards, five Silver awards, two Campaign Silver awards, eight Craft Certificates and two Campaign Craft Certificates.

JPU prides itself on delivering on its purpose of growth and more specifically driving exponential growth. One of the many ways the group is doing this is by working together with its clients to create work that resonates with South Africans in a way that’s relevant and insightful – and diversity in language is a fantastic vehicle for this growth and creative excellence.

JPU’s entries came from some of SA’s most loved brands like Flying Fish, Castle Milk Stout, Castle Free, Chicken Licken, Assupol, Vital and Nedbank and were entered across a broad range of categories from Digital Communication, Design and Film, to Integrated Campaigns, Live Events, OOH, Print and Radio, showing clear evidence of its ability to help brands connect with a local audience.

“Without our clients and our people this wouldn’t have been possible, so thank you,” said Pepe Marais, group chief creative officer, Joe Public United. He also stated that “Being recognised as the top-ranked agency this year is a testament to the incredible partnerships we have with our clients who work with us to achieve our purpose of growth.”

The 26th Pendoring Awards were held as a virtual event on Thursday the 4th of November 2021. Categories were only open to South African non-English languages. All entries had to be at least 70% in either Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, siSwati, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, Setswana, Sepedi or Sesotho.

Award wins breakdown: