KingJames refocuses

CAPE TOWN AGENCY KingJames has focused its above-the-line advertising resources in a centralised Cape Town super-studio and restructured Johannesburg as a division rather than a stand-alone business. It’s a new response to a recurring problem faced by Cape agencies that outgrow their home market. With limited resources, transplanting a Cape-style creative culture into the far bigger Johannesburg market isn’t easy.
“It allows us to meet client needs for a high level of delivery and also for quick turnaround on retail and below-the-line work,” says CEO James Barty. “Growth in Johannesburg was slightly disappointing, as it failed to deliver the performance we believed possible. In general, last year was a particularly difficult year, so we were at a crossroads.”
Johannesburg now focuses on account management, under Charles Matterson, and below the line, under Kassie Naidoo.
Centralising its creative work allows the agency to have all its creative teams at senior level, with junior implementers, but no middleweights.
“Johannesburg clients naturally want the same level of creativity we provide in Cape Town and have responded very positively,” says Barty. “Marketers understand it’s not a compromise but actually fosters great creative work.” The Johannesburg office still has 15 people. “Claims of our demise in Johannesburg are wildly exaggerated,” says Barty.
Long a pillar of Cape creativity, the KingJames group is now a medium-large agency with 98 people in all. Its outstanding work for Allan Gray, among others, would earn it a permanent place in any advertising hall of fame. But 2009 wasn’t its best year: revenue dropped 6%, while its trophy cabinet looked relatively bare. But new business acquisition – notably, Foodcorp and Europcar – was strong. In the AdReview ratings, KingJames earned a C- business rating and B for creative. But the group’s star performer – Atmosphere Communications – was runner-up for the AdReview PR Consultancy of the Year.