Carat scoops Media Agency of the Year and Roger Garlick Gold and Grand Prix

Carat SA was last night named “Media Agency of the Year for 2011” at the Annual FinWeek AdReview awards ceremony.   The achievement caps a year of outstanding growth for an agency which in the space of only two years has risen from relative obscurity to become one of the largest and most competitive players in the industry.

To top it off, Carat and its sister agencies Vizeum and Isobar, also walked off with the coveted Grand Prix Roger Garlick Award for ‘Best use of Mixed Media’ with its Cell C Photo Code campaign and a Roger Garlick Gold Award for ‘Best use of New Media’ with its adidas 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign.

With total gross billing for 2011 projected at R2billion, Carat’s growth over the two year period has exceeded 66%.  During this period it has picked up the business of several blue chip companies – including Cell C, Spur, Johnson and Johnson, Nokia, Old Mutual, Woolworths, Cadbury Kraft and Virgin Active – and achieved all of this during a serious economic recession  when many companies were forced to reduce their marketing spend.

Managing Director Quinton Jones ascribes the Agency’s success to a better understanding of how consumers engage with media and therefore an ability to deliver better results on behalf of clients. He also acknowledges the hard work and dedication of Carat staff and pays special tribute to Carat’s Johannesburg office under the leadership of Erica Gunning, which was only established in 2009 and now employs 22 members of staff with billings in excess R700million per annum.

“The way in which people respond to the media is constantly evolving, even as technology and the media itself evolve.  With the assistance of highly specialised research tools, our dynamic and results-oriented team in Cape Town and Johannesburg has ensured that Carat is leading the way in terms of its understanding of these changes and how consumers engage with the media.

“I am particularly pleased that Carat has been named AdReview’s Media Agency of the Year for the second year in a row.  While many marketers have still not even heard of Carat, this achievement underscores our ability to deliver on the promises we make to clients”, he says.

Carat SA is the only media agency in South Africa that has an AA rating from Adreview Finweek