South African agency Lowe and Partners SA, winner of the Grand Prix in the 2015 ACA Apex Awards, has been rebranded as MullenLowe South Africa.
The formation of the Mullenlowe Group in 2015 saw global creative network Lowe and Partners merge with IPG US-based agency network Mullen. From January 2016, all Lowe agencies have been now been renamed MullenLowe across 90 offices in over 65 markets across the globe.
The amalgamation with Mullen allows the Lowe group access to an established footprint in North America and offers Mullen the opportunity to service business in other territories around the world.
“MullenLowe South Africa has access to a great knowledge bank in our global colleagues and a network across the world. But we’re also small, we’re nimble, we’re hungry and we’re a challenger brand,” said Katinka Pretorius, managing director of MullenLowe South Africa.
The new Challenger Octopus brand identity was designed to represent the positioning of MullenLowe Group as a global creative boutique, with a challenger attitude.
“The Challenger Octopus embodies philosophy of putting the brand at the centre of everything and then finding the right discipline to support that brand,” said Sarah Dexter, who heads up Oil, MullenLowe South Africa’s brand strategy and research consultancy.
Dexter explained that the octopus represents a bringing together of all disciplines. “This is not about maximising one channel, but maximising what’s really right for the brand. We’re challenging the traditional model – removing silos, putting the brand at the centre, and providing channel-agnostic solutions for what the brand really needs. This is what we mean by hyper-bundling. We’re bringing the best talent from various disciplines together to do what’s best for the brand, “ she said.
The Mullenlowe Group works with some of the world’s leading brands.
“In many countries, the brands we partner with are Number One. And when you’re number one you don’t want to slip to number two or three or four,” said Dexter.
“Our challenger mentality ensures that you’ll start disrupting things, whatever position you have in the marketplace. Disruption ensures our clients an unfair share of attention. And we know that when people are talking about our brands it translates into the behaviour we’re aiming to achieve,” she added.
The MullenLowe Group offers specialist expertise in brand strategy, creative content development, performance analytics, and through the line advertising with MullenLowe, full service, integrated digital marketing with MullenLowe Profero, media and communications planning and buying with MullenLowe Mediahub, and strategic activation, CRM and shopper marketing with MullenLowe Open.
European and US brands are looking to Africa for brand growth and MullenLowe South Africa works in collaboration with its network partners in various African countries to help achieve this growth for their international as well as their local clients.
