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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 mike@theframptons.com.