Retroviral Clinches Silver as Small International Agency at Prestigious AdAge Awards 2025

South African agency, Retroviral has won silver for small international Agency, from international publication AdAge (Image supplied)

The publication says that the agency was built on the “simple idea that challenger brands should demand to be noticed”.

Mike Sharman, founder and chief creative officer, told Bizcommunity that the agency has for 15 years of built a “simple idea for brands that has relied on us dissecting almost 7.9 million minutes of complexity”.

The agency came about because Sharman wanted to put videos on cellphones."In fact, we’ve put videos on billions of cellphones,” says Sharman.

Innovative campaigns

The agency is responsible for some of the most innovative campaigns, many of which have also garnered it an impressive list of awards.

The agency has done work for brands such as Checkers Sixty60, Kreepy Krauly, RocoMamas, Russell Hobbs and M-Net.

Campaigns include The Sixty60 Swindler, My Kreepy Teacher, and Nando's Last Dictator Standing to name a few.

One of the most awarded campaigns is its Showmax streaming campaign, which was a live stunt with Eric Cantona, the former French soccer player. The campaign generated more than one billion impressions and $10.4m in earned media.

It also exceeded the targets for signups to the new Premier League offering by 150%.

South Africans will also remember its Autotrader’s Do It Big campaign.

A long line of awards

As for awards, this latest award is one in a long line of awards, from Provoke Media’s Sabre Awards, where the agency has been a consistent winner over the past few years, to being namedd AdFocus Awards Small Agency of the Year 2023.

This year, it was named Provoke Media’s African Agency of the Year for 2025 (sharing the title with We. Communications), and it brought home six African Sabre Awards at the Awards held in June.

Retroviral was also recognised in two categories at the EMEA Sabre Awards, with its Showmax Premier League Launch recognised.

A single-minded concept

In its submission to AdAge the agency says,” By leveraging social listening, client data and insights, we work out proactive opportunities to drive impact."

Or as Sharman puts it, “No business plan. No venture capital. Just a dogmatic, well-travelled, Jo-burger, with a smart mouth and single-minded concept: “There are a lot of dicks in business. Don’t be the BIGGEST, be the BEST Dick …”