It's time for the new, the changed, and everything we've not seen before.
SA entrepreneur Mike Frampton, the founder and ex-chairman of DDB South Africa, has been in the advertising industry for over 18 years. The founder of Framptons in 1990, which became part of the DDB network in 1999, Frida Communication - Mike’s new passion - is an agency dedicated to courage and commitment, named and enshrined in the spirit of Frida Kahlo, one of Mexico’s great artists of all time. Contact Mike on cell +27 (0)83 626 0416 or email .
SA entrepreneur Mike Frampton, the founder and ex-chairman of DDB South Africa, has been in the advertising industry for over 18 years.
Having started his own agency Framptons from scratch in 1990, at the age of 25, he was originally an art director who grew rapidly into blending creative and strategic thinking into a recipes which clients and consumers loved.
The agency went on to win an Agency of the year award in 1998. In 1999, Framptons was enticed to join the DDB network, one of the largest agency groups in the world and the most creative in the last 20 years. DDB South Africa has gone on to win every major advertising award, including Cannes Grand Prix for South Africa!
Mike sold the majority of the agency in 2007 and still remains a 19% shareholder of DDB SA (albeit non-executive).
Having had enough of the mega agency, but still having a love of the industry coupled with a power infrastructure to call upon in DDB should it be required, Mike felt it was time to get back to a boutique agency that could provide its clients with the fire power often required in a rapidly changing brand environment.
Currently a marketing and strategic consultant to some of the major brands in South Africa, Mike also holds shares in Test in Store, a global first in in-store research, and is a shareholder and serves on the boards of two other marketing related companies. Mike is the sole shareholder of Chalkham Hill Press, a publishing company dedicated to educating, informing and broadening the horizons of South African art.
Notwithstanding the above, Mike is also an accomplished fine artist and has held one-man shows in New York, sponsored by the South African Consulate General and a number of other sell-out one-man exhibitions, of which BMW was a major sponsor.
Frida’s Communication is Mike’s new passion. An agency dedicated to courage and commitment, named and enshrined in the spirit of Frida Kahlo, one of Mexico’s great artists of all time. Mike has partnered with a not-too-similar but as courageous woman, Debbie von Holdt.
Mike is also mad, passionate and a dedicated chef and father of three. He only works with the best. Mike and Debbie’s relationship goes back to early Framptons days. They jointly founded Frida’s in 2008.
Contact Mike on cell +27 (0)83 626 0416 or email .
In these times of angst and mayhem, don’t tell me that you can’t go out with something that could work and or at least prick interest. If it weren’t for my son, I would never have come across this leaflet/handout. As a rule I hate the robot “hander-outers”of paper, but this one is special.
I just a had a great lunch of chicken drumsticks pre-spiced and ready to go (being psychopaths as we are at Frida Communication, we cook every day, not only because we are hungry, but because we are really interested in the innovative products which a number of brands are beginning to produce and place on our retail shelves). Quite remarkable that for how many years haven’t we eaten, enjoyed and loved a classical and traditional chicken leg, but my, how amazing it is when the traditional chicken leg is transformed into something we have never tasted before? (Good on you, Spar).
Nothing in this industry is probably more exciting than being invited to pitch on a major brand. There is nothing more exciting, nothing more rewarding than in our creative minds to be seen as a preferred shortlisted and or contender in a pitch.
Have you drawn a headline lately? It seems that globally, and locally, there is a trend to bring back typography which is distinctive, original, but more importantly hand-drawn. Have a look around and you will notice that all the major brands are more and more using handwritten typography in an attempt to differentiate themselves.
So it goes like this. In my last entry I referred to the concept that more and more photographers are sending back models (18 years and younger) that have no life experience and that more and more retouches are being called upon to create the “imperfections” required to create the life experience the camera and our audiences can and do detect. My partner in Frida Communication thought I had lost the plot and questioned the principle of imperfection in brand advertising today.
