Andrew Ambrogioni Direct Marketing's most awarded individual

Action Agency's Andrew 'Ambro' Ambrogioni is the country's most awarded individual in the direct marketing industry, following an impressive performance at the Assegai Awards held recently.

Ambrogioni visited the stage seven times - three times to receive gold, twice to collect silver and once for a special mention. All awards were granted for client, Telkom, for two campaigns - Giants and Laduuuuma.

Since he started his career in the direct marketing industry, Ambro has walked away with over 50 international and local awards, one of which was Assegai Nkosi, 13 golds and six silver.

On an international level, Ambro's work has also stood up with the best in the world. The Echo Awards, which offer the most auspicious global accolades for direct marketing excellence, has awarded Ambro each of the three times he has entered - five golds.

Not bad for a 36 year old Italian who completed a graphic art diploma in Florence and a diploma at Inscape Design School. Ambro's career includes a spell at Ogilvy and Mather and Leo Burnett in the early years (1990 - 1993) after which he proved his business flair, having started Bates Direct in 1994 and then moving on to launch The Penny Black with Stephanie Dunbar. When Dunbar left for Australia in 2000, Ambro joined Action Agency to handle blue chip accounts including Telkom.

Ambro is a great champion for his discipline, who gets a kick out of generating creative campaigns with measurable ROI.

"It is gratifying to see how this business is growing on a global level and how it is taking up increasing shares of budgets across all business sectors," he says. "I really enjoy growing and creating work for an industry that has for so many years had the unfortunate stigma of being the underdog as a marketing medium, and elevating that perception to one that can stand up to any ATL and design creative work. This has immense personal award. Together with coaching and growing fellow creatives into the direct marketing field."