MullenLowe South Africa has been appointed as the lead creative agency for Pepkor Africa in all seven of the African countries in which it currently operates (including PowerSales in Zimbabwe), following a 5-way pitch process. From October 2016, the creative challenger agency will be tasked with strategically and creatively driving awareness and sales in the burgeoning economies in which the brand is represented. The appointment by Africa’s single biggest retailer provides further recognition of the agency’s understanding of the African market and its ability to deliver effective and market-specific creative campaigns.

MullenLowe will be hyper bundling its services to deliver country-specific insights, communication strategy, in-store activations and sales-driving communication. Commercially successful brands need to have respect for their consumers and their people – something Pepkor Africa truly understands and respects. Pepkor Africa acknowledges their customers as remarkable people and strives to help them make it possible for their families to live with dignity and pride, while the brand’s unique Sikhula KunYe (Growing Together) culture unites everyone throughout the organization. MullenLowe SA will employ its challenger brand ethos to deliver on the brand promise and culture through its strategic and creative executions.

“We are extremely excited to partner with MullenLowe as our lead agency on the continent. Pepkor Africa currently operates across 7 diverse African countries, each with its own unique challenges and opportunities. That requires an agency partner with a solid network and strong insights into the intricacies of the market. MullenLowe has proven themselves as a dynamic agency that truly understands what we need to take our African brands to a whole new level,” says Beyers van der Merwe, Marketing Director at Pepkor Africa.

MullenLowe SA will be creating country and culture-specific creative solutions for PEP in Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia. MullenLowe SA brings valuable communication and consumer experience across Central and East Africa, Francophone Africa and the Horn of Africa. This experience ensures the team has deep-rooted knowledge of the subtle intricacies required to deliver effective campaigns across a variety of multi-cultural African markets. The agency is passionate about doing African work properly, without relegating it to a separate division or partner network. Passion for the brands that are entrusted to it are at the heart and soul of the agency group.

Comments Sarah Dexter, Regional Planning Director, MullenLowe South Africa: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Pepkor Africa team for a number of reasons. We believe that what they do and how they do it is to be admired. The team behind the brand is remarkable and genuinely empowering and from our interactions, I am confident that they truly believe in partnering – they have been generous with their time, constructive with their feedback and inspiring with their approach to us.”

The agency approaches work in a hyperbundled way to bring multi-disciplined talent together to create the best ideas. Hyperbundling is the new way of working and approaching challenges. Where integration involves the pulling together of many complex campaign elements into one idea, hyperbundling starts with the idea and the right channels to best deliver that idea. This provides the ideal manner in which to approach any campaign in any market, and specifically in a highly fragmented and multi-cultural continent such as Africa.

“We look forward to working with the Pepkor Africa team and to further entrenching our ability to execute effective campaigns within African markets. The account win allows us to bring fresh talent into the MullenLowe SA group and to build on existing knowledge,” concludes Dexter.

About MullenLowe Group

We are consistently ranked among the most awarded creative and effective agency networks in the world, and have topped the Effie Index as the most effective global network in terms of points per dollar revenue for the past 5 consecutive years. MullenLowe Group is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG).

Contact

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For more information, visit us at www.southafrica.mullenlowe.com or follow us on Twitter @MullenLoweSA on Instagram @MullenLoweSA and on Facebook.com/MullenLoweSA