M&C Saatchi Abel celebrate 2nd birthday

M&C Saatchi Abel will be two years young in February. CEO Mike Abel is understandably upbeat when reflecting on two years of exponential growth and prospects of a big 2012!

“From startup in 2010, we grew revenue to in excess of R33m in 2011. We go into 2012 with planned revenue on existing business in excess of R50m,” said Abel.

“New business acquisitions and organic growth from the Nedbank Group, Brandhouse, AVI, Samsung and M-Web, towards the end of 2011, have given our C.T. and JHB offices a flying start to 2012,” commented Jacques Burger, CEO of the JHB office.

“New business requires the right talent. We are in the process of doubling our investment in people, from 50 at the beginning of 2011 to in excess of 100 people in our two offices by the end of the second quarter.  Our expertise pool has been enhanced in the retail, automotive, FMCG and Agency operations areas. Recent appointments include Sonja Fahn, Creative Director, Retail. Di Springer, Specialist Strategy and Makosha Maja, Strategy. Katinka Pretorious, Head of Account Management in JHB. Bill Stephens, Exec Consultant, PR. Melody Arendse, HR and Training Manager. There will be further exciting news on the people front in the next few weeks,” continued Abel.

“Creatively, we’re building momentum too,” says Group Executive Creative Director Gordon Ray. “In the past 12 months we have won 11 awards, a gold Loerie, our first and the inaugural award in the PR space. A silver Bookmark award, one gold and three silver Assegai Awards. Most importantly, our work is making a difference to our Clients’ bottom line, and that’s a great feeling, especially in these tough economic times”

In November last year, M&C Saatchi Abel hosted the annual global M&C Saatchi Worldwide partners meeting in South Africa. David Kershaw, M&C Saatchi plc CEO, had this to say about the South African agency “The SA Agency is the new exciting child in the family. It’s the model of how to build an advertising company and will be the base of how we expand in the future.”

“To cap it all, it was an exceptionally proud moment to receive the award for the best performing agency in the M&C Saatchi global network in 2011!  It was a landmark year! An incredibly exciting journey has only just begun,” concluded Abel.