South Africa’s Mark1 Media has been accepted as Tribe Global’s first agency in Africa. The Cape Town-based, full service, digital marketing business joins 30 other successful, independent, owner-run communications agencies globally.
“The addition of Mark1 is significant for several reasons. We fill a big geographic gap, we can now talk knowledgeably about Southern Africa, they bring great digital and social skills and they are award winners,” said Tribe Global’s managing director, Ian Wright.
The benefits of belonging to a network of agencies in 48 cities across Europe, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, are massive. Managing director of Mark1, Daan du Toit, told The Media Online that work from other territories would “certainly be a benefit in the mid to longer term” but that the immediate benefit was “definitely knowledge sharing from the other members”.
“While we obviously love the fact that we are independent, this naturally has its challenges and one challenge is certainly not having international counterparts to gain some deep learning from,” he said.
“Being part of Tribe Global immediately illuminated that challenge for us and we are gaining invaluable knowledge from other territories almost daily.”
Du Toit said they were proud to be the first African agency accepted into the tribe, especially as they have very strict criteria for being accepted. “I am sure having our best year in terms of winning awards has counted massively in our favour [Mark1 Media has won several MOST Awards over the past few years].
“They also limit the number of agencies allowed in every territory and it is a massive compliment to be accepted as their first member on the continent. We are extremely passionate about digital marketing in Africa and growing the local industry, so I feel we are the ideal partner for them here.”
