The collaborations have led the three specialist agencies to formalise their relationships to grow in the local and global advertising industry.
According to Wayne Naidoo, CEO of Duke and newly elected chairman of the Association for Communication and Advertising, this is the natural next step for the agency that has experienced growth over the past five years.
He says: “In an industry beset with negativity and implosion, we’ve emerged as a positive force. We’ve attracted a raft of great local and international brands and experienced fantastic growth. We’ve enticed some of the country’s most exciting talent to work with us under the mentorship of Mike Beukes and the guidance of our head of strategy Steve Miller.
Now, we have entered into a new, exciting and maturing phase by creating a formidable, full-service communication offering by partnering with Mark1 and Positive Dialogue Communications to form the Duke Group.”
Together, the three teams of the Duke Group consist of more than 60 people, most of whom are senior, experienced players. The group has a footprint in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Tracy Jones, owner of Positive Dialogue Communications notes that: “What has really brought us together as a robust, collaborative team is our shared ethos of doing the best possible work for our clients that delivers meaningful, measurable results for their brands and organisations. As independent businesses, while focused on our different core strengths, we each evolved through these radically changing times in similar ways.
We are new generation communication businesses with different structures, roles and outlooks when compared to other agencies. We don’t see an industry that’s full of doom and gloom; we see an abundance of opportunities to do cutting-edge, results-focused work that makes a genuine difference. We could easily recognise and appreciate this agile, forward-thinking and positive ‘doing’ in each other, and this underpins the excitement and inspiration we have for going forward together.”
Across the three agencies, there is an array of industry awards that back up these claims.
Positive Dialogue is a regular winner in the annual Prism Awards, amongst others – twice taking best agency gold awards over the past five years. Duke featured at Cannes and One Show, was a top-three small agency at AdFocus and was ranked third best small agency at the 2018 Loeries Awards.
Mark1 too has significant industry recognition, the latest being a big win at the 2018 IAB Bookmark awards and MMA Smarties awards for a cutting-edge virtual reality campaign for KFC.
A few more of our #CCMonthlyAwards Jan&Feb 2019 jury members are Jesse Sharkie from @BoomtownSA and Gareth Cohen from @dukeadvertising #CreativeCircleSA pic.twitter.com/DUsOusr2ws
— SA Creative Circle (@CCreativeCircle) March 26, 2019
“Combining creative, digital and new generation PR forces in one team provides the integration we all know our clients want and need to adapt successfully to changing consumer expectations and behaviours.”
We share a determination to operate at the highest level of customer service and exceed our customers’ expectations by strategically working with them to help them achieve their actual business and brand goals,” says Du Toit.
