Ogilvy SA wins Digital Agency of the Year at 2017 FM AdFocus Awards

Ogilvy South Africa has been awarded the 2017 Financial Mail AdFocus Digital Agency of the Year after winning creative and effective awards for seven different clients in eleven different digital disciplines throughout the year.


Work for KFC, Vodacom, DSTV, Volkswagen South Africa, Audi, and SAB were highlighted in the winning entry. Wins included South Africa’s first Gold award at Cannes for Digital Film, and a variety of recognitions from global and local awards. The AdFocus accolade for Ogilvy follows the agency receiving the 2017 Bookmarks Digital Agency of the Year award.

"Since the Gloo merger, we’ve merged business units, budgets, and disciplines across the Ogilvy group to deliver work that lives way beyond the bounds of traditional digital. We’ve done this across some of South Africa’s biggest and most complex brands who’ve been brave partners in the process", Ogilvy South Africa chief creative officer Pete Case says.

"Next year, we may not see this stand-alone category again, as digital is increasingly such a layered and pervasive conversation. It’s part of everything we do at Ogilvy in our journey to make brands matter in the lives of the modern consumer," Case adds.

Ogilvy’s national digital lead, Richard Murton, says there’s no single ingredient that has driven the success. He adds, "Rather, it’s a combination of a clear ambition, a focus on generating long-term ROI, an innately curious set of digital people open to the opportunities of disruption, transformation, and the ever-changing technology landscape; and finally, a culture underpinned by the need to fail fast and to learn quickly along the road."

Aside from digital client work, Ogilvy has developed its own digital training curricula, pioneering a creative partnership with Facebook and creating an in-house innovation lab. The year 2018 sees the launch of more new services that use digital that aim to create personalised connections with consumers.

Ogilvy's win as Digital Agency of the Year takes the collective tally for Gloo and Ogilvy to eight awards in this digital category, over the past 10 years.