ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2026 Toronto & NYC (11-15 May) - Wrap Up
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing SA and Africa at this summit.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2026 Toronto & NYC (11-15 May) - Day 3
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing SA and Africa at this summit.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2026 Toronto & NYC (11-15 May) - Day 2
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing SA and Africa at this summit.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2026 Toronto & NYC (11-15 May) - Day 1
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing SA and Africa at this summit.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2026 Toronto & NYC (11-15 May) - PREVIEW
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing SA and Africa at this summit.
Part 2: Less Noise, More Nerve—Why The Boardroom And The Agency Relationship Are Being Renegotiated
Some conversations are worth having twice. Part 1 of this series covered how three of South Africa's leading marketers are rethinking budgets, measurement and creativity — in a masterclass hosted by Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS), featuring Melanie Forbes of Cell C, Buli Ndlovu of Nedbank and Lance Coertzen of Twizza. Part 2 picks up where the pressure really lives: in the boardroom, in the agency relationship and in the questions AI still can't answer.
AI Is A Tool, Not A Strategy
Despite AI dominating industry conversation, the panel treated it with grounded pragmatism.
One marketer’s framing cut through the noise: before reaching for AI, get the human intelligence right. "You still need the curiosity and creativity of human beings — then you use AI to scale it. Consumers have real tensions. AI is an enabler. It shouldn't be the soul of what you create."
A useful tool, in other words. But not a substitute for understanding people, and not a strategy in its own right.
Earning A Seat — And Keeping It
Across the organisations represented, marketing is no longer peripheral to how growth is defined and delivered.
A leading marketer was unambiguous: "Marketing is actually a commercial role. Everyone should be a marketer in the business, including our CFO. Growth shouldn't just be marketing's responsibility."
Another offered a concrete illustration of how the tide is turning: "Our CMO presented alongside the CEO and CFO to analysts. That says everything about how the role is evolving."
But influence comes with expectation. The boardroom seat has been earned. Holding it is the harder task.
The Agency Relationship, Renegotiated
The traditional model — brief, respond, deliver, repeat — is giving way to something more fluid and more demanding.
One approach that’s gained traction: an "annual marketing pilgrimage" that brings all agency partners and senior business leaders into the same room. Business presents its plans and anxieties directly. One moment that stuck: a business leader telling the room that "the thing keeping me up at night is that you're too focused on awards, whereas I'm focused on headline earnings." That kind of clarity lands differently when it comes straight from the source rather than filtered through a brief.
The panel was pointed on what needs to change on both sides. "Agencies need to push back more. If the brief isn't clear, say so." And on what makes a relationship work over time: values alignment. One creative agency was chosen in part because growth sits at the centre of its own purpose. "That alignment means they already understand their role in what we're trying to achieve."
An Industry Finding Its Honesty
The session reinforced why these masterclasses continue to draw a crowd — around 80 attended. They offer something rare: a candid account of what's actually happening inside organisations.
The most useful note, though, was the forward-looking one. Constraints aren't easing, and the expectation is that agencies will need to respond with a different kind of thinking. "Innovation isn't always tech. It's how you think and how you approach problems."
The industry isn't becoming more complicated. It's becoming more honest about what works, what doesn't and what marketing is actually there to do.
IAS Heads To New York and Toronto For Adforum Worldwide Summit 2026
The global advertising elite are gathering in Toronto on the 11 May and finishing off in New York on the 16 May for the AdForum Worldwide Summit. South Africa's Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) will be there for the conversations that matter.
Toronto enters the AdForum circuit in a highly anticipated debut, featuring a number of unique and interesting agencies.
This twice-yearly invitation-only event brings together the world's leading search consultants with agency CEOs who are rewriting the rules of creativity and client growth. It's an exclusive forum where business opportunities are discussed, industry shifts are decoded and the future of marketing communications takes shape.
What makes the Summit essential
The AdForum Summit is all about access and insight. This year, agency leaders from holding companies, global networks and breakthrough independents will present their strategies, vision and work directly to over 30 global search consultants spanning six continents. These aren't public presentations; they're private, candid conversations held at agency offices where CEOs share their view from the top with the people who influence where the industry's money flows.
For consultants navigating an increasingly complex marketing ecosystem, it's a fully hosted, week-long immersion into which agencies are actually driving growth for their clients right now.
Toronto and New York 2026: the line-up
This year's programme features agencies at the forefront of creative excellence and business transformation. Global powerhouses, including WPP, Stagwell, Dentsu Creative, and Publicis will present alongside a strong showing from independents like, DEPT, 72andSunny, Iris and Critical Mass. Toronto sees the introduction to agencies Pigeon, King Ursa and Broken Heart Love Affair, to mention a few.
Conversations will centre on network consolidations, the surge of independent agencies and how agencies are adapting to marketers' rapidly evolving needs.
Why IAS attends
For two decades, IAS has been the only South African pitch consulting company consistently participating in the AdForum Summit. It's how they stay ahead.
"We accept the invitation, along with the investment in costs, because staying at the forefront isn't optional—it's essential," says Johanna McDowell, Founder and CEO of IAS and partner for SCOPEN Africa. "The AdForum Summit gives us direct access to the conversations shaping our industry's future. This year is particularly significant as agencies grapple with fundamental questions: How do they partner with business differently? How do they break through old models and tackle the next frontier of challenges? These are the discussions that matter for our clients back home."
IAS will join 34 other consultancies from across the globe, representing markets from the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, United Arab Emirates and Australia. McDowell will represent SCOPEN Africa at the Summit alongside SCOPEN colleagues from Spain.
Bringing insights home
South African agencies, brands and marketers won't miss out. IAS will host a masterclass on June 10, 2026, sharing key insights, learnings and case studies from the Toronto/New York City Summit. Follow IAS on LinkedIn for details.
The AdForum Worldwide Summit runs from 10-15 May in Toronto and New York City.
Part 1: Less Noise, More Nerve—How South African Marketers Are Spending Smarter And Creating Brave
There was a noticeable shift in tone at the latest masterclass hosted by the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS).
Led by IAS CEO Johanna McDowell, the session brought together three marketers at the coalface of local business: Melanie Forbes, CMO at Cell C; Buli Ndlovu, Executive Head of Marketing for Personal and Private Banking at Nedbank; and Lance Coertzen, Head of Marketing at Twizza — a challenger soft drink brand that, as Coertzen noted, had been acquired by a major competitor just a week earlier.
Across telecoms, banking and FMCG, their realities differ. But the pressures felt strikingly similar: more channels, more data, more expectation and less room for waste.
A Rethink On Spending: Less Spread, More Intent
Budgets may have grown in some quarters, but the proliferation of channels has ensured they're harder than ever to manage. The temptation to be everywhere has stretched resources thin, often without impact.
One marketer named the dynamic plainly: "You move from a state of panic and fear. If I'm not there, is my competitor there? Why aren't we shouting loud enough? So you shout about everything, at small volume."
The response is restraint, and a harder look at what earns its place in the plan. "If it doesn't differentiate us, it doesn't get funded." A fellow marketer described a similar discipline: "Less is more. Pick your lane and do it properly."
When The Numbers Stop Telling The Truth
Digital campaigns generate reams of data. Whether any of it is useful is another matter.
One of the panellists offered a concrete example: a video campaign reported 300% above benchmark on view-through rate. "You go one level down in the detail, and the average view time was 5.8 seconds. Our brand didn't appear until 15 seconds in. Nobody saw it. The metric was nonsense."
The problem isn't the metrics — it's stopping there. They need to ladder up to something real. What's replacing the noise is more deliberate: brand tracking, customer experience data, preference as an early signal of growth.
Which brings it back to the boardroom. "The board doesn't fund creativity — they fund growth."
The Bar For Creativity Has Moved
None of this signals a retreat from creativity. If anything, the bar has shifted upward.
The challenge is no longer just to be seen, but to be remembered. One panellist described the pressure candidly: "How do you create something thumb-stopping? Because far too often, it's just vanilla."
That requires trusting work that doesn't feel comfortable. "I've had to trust work I wouldn't have approved before. It performed exceptionally well. My brand only appeared in the last 18 seconds."
For agencies, the implication is clear: safe, category-driven work isn't enough.
Spending smarter and creating braver work are necessary. But neither counts for much if marketing can't hold its ground where decisions get made. That's where Part 2 begins.
Good Work Doesn't Happen in a Vacuum: Mark Awards Launches New Partnership Categ
Behind every effective campaign is a relationship. The 2026 Mark Awards is making that relationship visible with a new category dedicated entirely to the client-agency partnerships driving measurable business growth.
The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) has announced its sponsorship of the Partnering for Growth Award, created to recognise the collaborations that build brands over time, not just the work they produce.
The Mark Awards were established by Mark Lives to celebrate what creativity-led award shows often miss: innovation, technology, effectiveness and real commercial impact. After drawing more than 300 entries in their inaugural year, the 2026 edition returns with sharper focus and stronger momentum.
The new Partnering for Growth Award reflects that shift. Rather than rewarding a single campaign or short-term burst of success, it recognises partnerships that have helped build brands over time through shared ambition, strategic alignment and strong execution.
Entries will be open to both large and small agencies, as well as in-house and specialist partners, with judges looking for clear evidence of growth in areas such as market share, sales, brand equity, audience engagement or category leadership.
Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS, says the category speaks directly to what many businesses need most right now: relationships that create real value. “Great marketing rarely happens in isolation. It happens when clients and agencies challenge each other, trust each other and stay focused on outcomes. Too often, the spotlight falls only on the final piece of work, not on the partnership that made it possible. This award changes that, and we’re proud to support it.”
The award will be judged by senior marketers, bringing a client-side perspective to what effective collaboration looks like in practice. Criteria will include business impact, strategic collaboration, innovation and the ability to create learning that can scale.
For IAS, the sponsorship is a natural fit. For over two decades, the company has helped brands and agencies move beyond transactional relationships — building partnerships grounded in shared goals, rigorous selection and long-term accountability. The Partnering for Growth Award reflects exactly the kind of thinking IAS brings to every engagement.
As accountability intensifies and the industry shifts its gaze from who made the work to how the work works, the Partnering for Growth Award arrives at exactly the right moment.
Key dates for The Mark Awards 2026
Entries Open: 1 April 2026
Early Bird Deadline: 22 April 2026
Final Deadline: 7 May 2026
For more details and to enter visit Mark Awards here.
Twenty Years of Making the Right Match
When Johanna McDowell founded the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) in 2006, pitch consulting was a foreign concept in South Africa. Agencies were sceptical. Marketers had never heard of such a service. Twenty years later, IAS is marking a milestone that speaks for itself.
The business was born from McDowell's experience working with the Advertising Agency Register (AAR) in London in the 1980s — a pioneering UK outfit that brought rigour and transparency to the agency selection process. Years later, when the moment came to start her own venture, she approached the AAR, trained in their methodologies and built something the local industry didn't yet know it needed.
"Having worked on both the agency and marketer side, I’d seen the process from every angle. The idea of bringing this kind of structured, impartial process to South Africa never really left me," says McDowell. "The early resistance was real, but so was the gap in the market. Two decades on, I'm proud of what we've built: a business grounded in trust, transparency and genuine industry knowledge."
What sets IAS apart is the marketing fluency it brings to a process that procurement departments — however well-intentioned — often can't replicate. Its evaluation system is built around the brief, with defined criteria, rigorous scoring and verbatim post-pitch feedback to every agency involved. For agencies, that means genuine insight rather than silence. For marketers, it means confidentiality, precision and a clearer path to the right partner.
"Over 20 years in the industry, I've seen how quickly an agency search can become complex and emotionally charged," says Nikki Munsie, Business Director at IAS. "Our role is to bring clarity and discipline to that process — creating alignment between strategy, people and ultimately the work. That's where the real value sits, and it's what we've been delivering for two decades."
Pitch management was only the beginning. IAS’s masterclass programme — another concept adopted from the AAR and shaped into something distinctly local — now runs 14 to 15 sessions annually, drawing up to 130 attendees from across Africa through hybrid formats. Topics range from practical upskilling to industry insights, often informed by McDowell’s regular participation in global AdForum summits.
To mark the anniversary, IAS will host a celebratory event in June 2026, featuring the results of a white paper examining how South African marketers are balancing brand building and performance marketing — a timely conversation for an industry in flux.
Twenty years in, the business nobody believed in is still very much open for business.
#MasterclassNotes: Why distinctiveness is now a priority for marketers, agencies
At the end of 2025, a few things happened in the industry globally and locally that have made a lasting impression on all of us and which have highlighted some clear direction for agencies and marketers.
Last year was certainly an unprecedented time among the industry global networks with consolidations and acquisitions making headlines. During the last quarter of 2025, three aspects stood out for me:
The turbulence among agency networks; the sunsetting of some agency brands; the choices made in those processes
The AdForum Worldwide Summit in London in October revealed some new trends and agencies seeing things differently
Scopen Africa’s AgencyScope South Africa results identified a new challenge for marketers, as identified by marketers themselves
Marketers are looking for agencies which will ensure that the brands they look after are distinctive and will be differentiated from any new competitors. How will marketers recognise such agencies? Those agencies will need to be distinctive and have their own strong branding that means something. Hence the growing importance of:
Clear agency positioning
Distinctive branding: brands that invest in distinction grow 170% more than the market [see image below]
Differentiation from other competing agencies
This doesn’t mean that the other attributes aren’t still important, ie:
Knowledge of consumers
ROI
Ability to work with shrinking budgets
Adaptation to AI
So how did this change my typical face-to-face feedback presentation from AdForum Summits? Normally, I report on each of the agencies that participated but this time I highlighted the ones which stood out and were really distinctive, which I now share below (in my October 2025 column here on MarkLives, I highlighted emerging trends).
Distinctive agencies at AdForum Worldwide Summit October 2025
We met with 21 agencies at the October 2025 summit, from large network agencies to small startup agencies and established independents. The ones that stood out for their positioning and distinctiveness were as follows:
Wonderhood Studios
Wonderhood is about brand and broadcast and captivating audiences. It talked about keeping people engaged and what constitutes a good idea:
Fizz — How you react: feelings/laughter/emotion
Fame — Example of “England without immigration”
Flex — How “stretchy” is the idea? How many channels will it work in?
Wonderhood has a tool called the Captivating Coefficient. An example of captivation in action is the Waitrose Chicken case study, with 98 different assets and channels, which resulted in the highest consideration for Waitrose since 2019.
The agency is very collaborative with other agencies and oit has created “creative councils” with its clients (the larger ones) when there are many agency partners, including in-house agencies.
Publicis London — The Leo Constellation
We hadn’t seen Publicis at AdForum since 2017, so this was an important meeting. The agency team explained the history of how it’s transformed and that it’s unlike any of the other holding companies. It sees itself in a “category of one”. The group (at that time in October) was the no. 1 agency group by revenue and its client retention rate is 87% — the highest in the industry.
Leo Constellation at that point consisted of 15 000 people across 90 markets and it aspires to become the no 1 creative network globally. How will it do this?
Do the best work
Be generous — across the network
Win together
Samy
Samy is an independent agency founded in 2013, with a staff complement of 1 000 in 23 offices and 55 markets. One of the fastest-growing influencer marketing groups, it’s “end to end social”. And the name? Heart, soul and mind, and gender-free.
Social and influencer is the fastest growing sector of the advertising industry; we pitch consultants heard this several times at the summit.
Samy is a social-first agency and client comments include that “they make brands social”.
And the agency? “We make brands matter” with an intelligence-inspired creative approach, it says.
Dept
Dept describes itself as “The Growth Invention company” as invention fuels growth.
Three key points:
How do you grow faster than the world is changing?
Consumers are moving faster than companies
Companies need growth that does more than keep up
Dept remains one of the largest independent agency groups; we pitch consultants have met them many times. It itself intends to grow by connecting its distinct five specialisms: brand and media; customer experience; commerce; tech and data; and CRM and personalisation.
Its growth-invention framework is “Discover/Invent/Grow” and the agency remains 50% tech/50% marketing. First and Fast. Partner-led.
Gut
Founded seven years ago with 10 offices, full-service creative agency Gut is very active in North and Latin America, Europe and the Far East. Its HQ is in Miami, with offices in Amsterdam, Madrid, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina etc. Its priorities are agency people first; work second; and clients third.
Its positioning is “A brave agency for brave clients”. How does it do this? Bravery is not binary; bravery is a scale. It has workshops with clients in order to see where they are on the brave scale and where they want to be. Clients often rate themselves as braver than their brands.
When Gut takes on a client, it sends a comprehensive RFI to the client as it wants information, too — it’s a two-way relationship.
In terms of awards, it’s won seven Cannes Lions Grands Prix; nine Grand Effies in seven years; and is ranked the most effective network in the world. It has some of the best case studies that I’ve seen, ever.
Coolr
Another independent social agency that was founded eight years ago, Coolr sees social as the third pillar of marketing: media, creative and social. It uses social to transform brands — positioning. It has offices in the UK and US, and has six divisions/key areas:
Strategy
Creative
Content creation
Channel management
Distribution
Analytics
Coolr is the fourth fastest growing agency internationally, according to AdWeek.
Omnicom Advertising
It wasn’t only the independents which were able to position themselves. We met with a few agencies from Omnicom Advertising Group [now Omnicom Advertising — ed-at-large] and which have continued in the new structure because they’re distinctive and differentiated:
AMV/BBDO — “We craft big ideas that people love”
Native/AMV — creator-led social
AMV/Works — B2B specialism
Lucky Generals — “A creative company for people on a mission”
VCCP
This is always a highlight of the AdForum Summits because it’s consistently brilliant and has such clear positioning. The agency has been in business for 23 years and its founder reminded us of how and why the agency was started — as a challenger agency for challenger brands. Although we see many agencies claiming to be challengers, I’ve not seen any agency in particular making this claim be distinctive or stand out.
We had a three-hour session with VCCP and so were really able to see more of it and understand it more in depth. It believes that we’re “living in an era of illusion”. This started in 2005 with Facebook but now there’s an acceleration of artificiality and an avalanche of fake. Fake news, fake reviews.
The result has been a massive collapse in institutions eg governments, media and brands.
So, what can brands do about it? Double down on real. What is VCCP doing? Three things:
Sport — creating shared experiences in sport, real shared emotions
Entertainment — shared excitement, real exclusivity, real exposure, real culture
Outdoor — VCCP identifies the new “fragility of digital” and that, as a result, brands are disappearing. Strong brands need a physical presence and there are now new frontiers in outdoor. Brands can create real moments in a real world.
IPG Media Brands (now Omnicom)
It talked about media’s third revolution.
Shifting dynamics: 50% of media spend is going through media platforms. Its well-known tool Axiom is all about the enrichment of data, and what it does is add real consumer data into media-buying costs and creates margin, as well as helping to target the consumer more accurately. As a result, Media Brands sees the cost of FTEs coming down, while the cost of media will increase but through real enrichment.
Integration at last: 25% of major pitches are now fully integrated — media and creative. This is already causing media and creative agencies to move together in a more connected way, whether through the holding company (holdco) or connected network.
AI and the renaissance of brand: Brands are starting to move away from what the platforms (Google, Meta etc) are telling them and are relying more on their media agencies to advise them on best practice.
Artificial intelligence & standing out
AI is normative by nature and it can compound things — including the wrong things. It’s not a race to the bottom but a race to the mean ie average/aggregate. Here’s a quote from Mark Ritson: “AI will make us all masters of efficiency but slaves to mediocrity. The more we automate, the harder it will be to stand out.”
The answer to this is the brand itself, as the brand is the difference and the differentiator. AI learns best from differentiators and more variety in data and prompts. Technology is no longer the differentiator; technology has democratised many attributes. Thus:
Diversity of people + depth of data = differentiating brands
“AI no longer simply reads about your brand. It learns from it.” —Travis Schreiber, Fast Company
Conclusion
If one of the key challenges that marketers are facing is ensuring that their brands are differentiated, agencies and marketers alike will continue to look for solutions that will ensure distinction, differentiation and, ultimately, success.
You can also read this Marklives article online here
Social-first: The future of brand building?
At the AdForum Summit in London last October, one message kept surfacing: social and influencer marketing has become the fastest-growing sector of the global advertising industry. Not experimental. Not tactical. Central.
What started as repurposed TV content has evolved into something that demands its own strategic thinking, budgets and specialist expertise. Social—meaning content, creators and communities, not just platforms—is emerging as a third pillar of modern marketing, sitting alongside creative and media.
Which means agencies need to be evaluated differently, too.
Where Brands Are Actually Built
Coolr, presenting at AdForum, put it bluntly: social is now "where brands are built". Not adapted from other channels. Built from scratch. That shift matters.
Social today needs its own brief, its own production calendar and its own creative approach. It's not a 15-second cutdown of a TVC crammed into a vertical frame. It requires ideas designed for feeds, for communities and for cultural moments from the start.
SAMY made the strategic case clearer still: this isn't about monitoring mentions. It's about analysing consumer conversations at scale using AI and natural language processing, mapping communities, understanding attitudes and emotions, then defining where a brand actually fits in people's lives. The output? Thousands of content assets. Millions of engagements. Sometimes billions of views.
This is infrastructure, not improvisation.
Why Influencer Management Needs Grown-up Rules
Running parallel to strategy is another discipline that's ballooned in complexity: influencer management.
Marketers now expect agencies to find, vet, contract and manage creators on their behalf. That means watertight contracts, clear deliverables, brand-safety checks, compliance monitoring and performance tracking. It also means protecting brands in an environment that remains lightly regulated and, occasionally, dodgy.
Scam artists exist. Inflated follower counts are common. Badly managed creators can torch brand equity in an Instagram story.
Why Credentials Now Matter More Than Ever
For marketers appointing agencies in this space, the question isn't just "can you do social?" It's "can you prove it, and can you protect us?"
That means asking for case studies with real numbers, not vanity metrics. It means understanding how influencers are contracted, managed and held accountable. It means checking brand safety protocols and performance measurement that goes beyond impressions.
The conversations at AdForum highlighted a gap: how do marketers assess capability in a discipline that's moved from experimental to essential without everyone noticing? The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS), for one, has started requesting detailed social and influence credentials from agencies in its network—not to box-tick, but to establish baseline competence.
Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS, frames it this way: "Influence marketing is moving into the mainstream, but it's still a complex and evolving discipline. Marketers need to select partners with proven expertise, transparent processes and the ability to safeguard both performance and reputation."
The South African Context
South African brands are also investing more heavily in creators, community-led storytelling and continuous content streams. Which means the same questions apply. Marketers need to interrogate credentials with the same scrutiny they'd apply to a major media pitch or a brand repositioning.
Social-first might well be the future of brand building. The question isn't whether to invest. It's whether you're working with an agency that can handle the scale, complexity and accountability that Influence now demands—and whether you've asked the right questions to find out.
Good Work Doesn't Happen in a Vacuum: Mark Awards Launches New Partnership Category
Behind every effective campaign is a relationship. The 2026 Mark Awards is making that relationship visible with a new category dedicated entirely to the client-agency partnerships driving measurable business growth.
The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) has announced its sponsorship of the Partnering for Growth Award, created to recognise the collaborations that build brands over time, not just the work they produce.
The Mark Awards were established by Mark Lives to celebrate what creativity-led award shows often miss: innovation, technology, effectiveness and real commercial impact. After drawing more than 300 entries in their inaugural year, the 2026 edition returns with sharper focus and stronger momentum.
The new Partnering for Growth Award reflects that shift. Rather than rewarding a single campaign or short-term burst of success, it recognises partnerships that have helped build brands over time through shared ambition, strategic alignment and strong execution.
Entries will be open to both large and small agencies, as well as in-house and specialist partners, with judges looking for clear evidence of growth in areas such as market share, sales, brand equity, audience engagement or category leadership.
Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS, says the category speaks directly to what many businesses need most right now: relationships that create real value. “Great marketing rarely happens in isolation. It happens when clients and agencies challenge each other, trust each other and stay focused on outcomes. Too often, the spotlight falls only on the final piece of work, not on the partnership that made it possible. This award changes that, and we’re proud to support it.”
The award will be judged by senior marketers, bringing a client-side perspective to what effective collaboration looks like in practice. Criteria will include business impact, strategic collaboration, innovation and the ability to create learning that can scale.
For IAS, the sponsorship is a natural fit. For over two decades, the company has helped brands and agencies move beyond transactional relationships — building partnerships grounded in shared goals, rigorous selection and long-term accountability. The Partnering for Growth Award reflects exactly the kind of thinking IAS brings to every engagement.
As accountability intensifies and the industry shifts its gaze from who made the work to how the work works, the Partnering for Growth Award arrives at exactly the right moment.
Key dates for The Mark Awards 2026
Entries Open: 1 April 2026
Early Bird Deadline: 22 April 2026
Final Deadline: 7 May 2026
For more details and to enter visit Mark Awards here.
Closing the Gap Between Pitch and Partnership
Why the real work in a new client–agency relationship begins after the pitch, with early foundations shaping everything that follows.
The honeymoon period after a pitch win is meant to be exhilarating. New partners. New energy. Big expectations. Yet, in reality, this is often where things quietly start to unravel.
It's the quiet irony of most new client–agency relationships: everyone is busy, but no one is aligned. Once procurement wraps up the technical details and the champagne glasses are cleared away, marketing teams are left to manage the partnership without a shared playbook. Agencies dive straight into delivery, keen to prove their worth. Clients let them, desperate to get work out the door. The result? Momentum without method.
In a market where budgets are tighter, pitch cycles are shorter and internal teams are stretched thinner than ever, there's even less room for missteps. Yet proper onboarding—the unglamorous work of aligning on ways of working, decision-making processes and what success actually looks like—remains the thing most often skipped.
"You can't build a strong creative partnership if you haven't agreed how you'll work together, how decisions get made and how success will really be judged," says Nikki Munsie, Business Director at Independent Agency Search and Selection (IAS). With over 25 years in the industry, she has seen how easily good intentions derail without proper foundations.
The gap widens when pitch processes are rushed or lightly managed. Chemistry meetings are skipped. The pitch team disappears, replaced by an account team the client hasn't met. On the client side, new stakeholders enter the room with different priorities. Suddenly, it feels less like a partnership and more like an arranged marriage.
Then there's the pitch work itself—the big ideas that won the business, now buried in a forgotten deck, overtaken by new urgencies and poorly sequenced briefs. It's a costly waste of thinking and energy on both sides.
Too often, relationships are assessed six or twelve months in, when frustrations are entrenched and trust is already dented. At that point, performance reviews become post-mortems. There’s no value in judging a relationship a year in if the groundwork was never done.
The smarter approach is to treat the early days as exactly that: early days. Contracts, handovers and inductions should run in parallel, not sequentially. Scopes of work need room to evolve, rather than being locked down before anyone truly understands the workload. A memorandum of understanding can provide structure while allowing space for reality to surface.
This isn't about bureaucracy. It's about creating conditions where creativity can thrive, rather than constantly firefighting misalignment. When ways of working are clear, agencies can focus on doing their best work, not on decoding internal politics. Marketers can get the best out of their agencies, not simply the most.
“The real opportunity lies in those first six to nine months, when expectations are set, trust is built and both sides learn how to make each other better,” says Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS. “It's a process, because meaningful relationships take time to bed down. The goal is simple: ensure the foundations are solid long before anyone starts measuring outputs.”
Because when the foundations are right, the work tends to follow.
#BizTrends2026 | IAS' Johanna McDowell: AI, creativity and media agencies
As I write this article in the last few days of December, it is interesting to note that there is talk of a tech bubble burst – this talk first started about two months ago - and certainly focused on the investment that tech companies are making in Artificial Intelligence AI.
Johanna McDowell, CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) and partner in Scopen Africa shares some thoughts on what might occupy our minds in 2026
It will be interesting to see if this bubble grows or subsides. Either way, it will continue to have an impact on industries globally, in whatever sector.
For this article, I don’t intend to comment or dwell on AI as too much has already been written about something we are still learning about.
I like working with AI tools, for sure, as I know that those tools have to learn from my input as well as the other way around.
Original thinking is the critical success factor in developing our skills and harnessing the power of AI and this is set to become ever more important in the years to come.
We are only at the very beginning of what AI can do and what it can teach us as well as what we can teach it.
Connectedness
Where AI might be more helpful and accelerate successes is in the area of connectedness.
I read a very insightful article recently that talked of the various mergers of advertising and communication agencies globally in recent months within the holding companies, which have also been merging, and this article was very clear that it will be the media agencies who will have a profound impact within marketing itself as the multiple, ever-increasing media fragmentation continues.
Those media agencies will have more and more impact on media choices made by marketers who are probably confounded by the array of choice and yet wanting to make the best choices for their budgets.
And more importantly, those media agencies, through their own data lakes, will be able to enrich the data provided by the platforms like Google, Meta etc in order to make certain that marketers are reaching their target audiences more accurately.
Level of creativity
Having said that, creative agencies will increase in importance because of the level of creativity which will be required in order to not only ensure brand differentiation for marketers, but to innovate in ways that will create new paths for those brands to reach consumers.
Overall, what marketers want from agencies is for a better understanding of the consumers that they are trying to target. This has been highlighted in every edition of Agency Scope since we first produced it here in South Africa 10 years ago.
And what does all of this mean for client agency relationships, new specialist agencies in the marketing ecosystem, and better results?
Marketers will still be seeking those agencies that can deliver, whether it is fully integrated creative, media, brand and social or a series of specialist agencies.
Those choices will largely depend on the competence within the client marketing department, the available budget and the experience of specialism or integration to date.
We will continue to see great variances in how agencies are appointed and retained.
Real business partners
Agencies that will grow in importance and strength will be those that are real business partners to their clients.
Clients are not necessarily only looking for great campaigns – although of course, those are important.
They are looking for agencies that will partner with them to ensure that marketing is taken as seriously as it needs to be in order to drive the growth for business and the brands that the business represents.
This will require closer discussion, more trust and less dependence on tools to prove return on investment although of course those tools will play a role.
The closer an agency client can be, the more honest and, at times, confrontational, the better the ultimate relationship and results for the brands and businesses concerned.
Focus on budget
Will there still be a focus on budget? Yes of course. But the focus will be on how that budget needs to be spent as opposed to the limitations of that budget.
And in a world where media is fragmented but very much connected, creativity at a deep level will certainly enable brands to continue to differentiate from their competitors and any new competitors that may enter the market.
AdFocus Awards 2025: The Power of Partnership in a Changing Industry
Recognising agencies that don’t just create, but perform—with a spotlight on the IAS-sponsored Partnership of the Year Award.
Now in their 45th year, the AdFocus Awards stand apart as South Africa’s only business-focused accolades for the marketing and advertising industry.
While most awards celebrate creative output, AdFocus looks deeper—into how agencies are built and led.
This year’s theme, “Creative Capital: Building Agency Value in a Complex World,” underscores that evolution. “Agencies aren’t just creative shops anymore—they’re strategic businesses building long-term value through impact creativity,” says Vicki Buys, MD of Ogilvy South Africa and this year’s awards chairperson.
With entries double those of 2024, the 2025 competition has attracted record engagement, signalling a confident industry where creativity and business performance go hand in hand.
Winners will be announced at the AdFocus Awards ceremony on 26 November.
Spotlight on Partnership
Within this broader celebration of agency excellence, the AdFocus Partnership of the Year Award, sponsored by the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS), shines a light on what truly fuels great work: trust, collaboration and results.
The IAS has sponsored this award for over 15 years, briefing judges and helping define criteria that go beyond campaign success. Their sponsorship reflects a deep understanding of what makes agency relationships work—expertise gained from years of connecting brands with the right partners.
Notably, the award recognises the marketer’s role in shaping and sustaining that success. Strong partnerships don’t just depend on agency excellence—they rely on committed, strategically-minded marketing teams who champion bold ideas and drive ongoing performance.
To qualify for entry, partnerships must span at least three years and show sustained performance — “not just a spike in success, but proof of consistent collaboration that drives growth,” as the award criteria state.
This year’s finalists clearly demonstrate that endurance.
From Legacy to Leadership
Last year’s winners, Ogilvy South Africa and the KFC marketing team, proved the long game still wins. After 20 years together, the partnership didn’t rely on legacy—it evolved. KFC’s marketers championed a refreshed taste narrative and backed brave creative decisions, resulting in a 36% sales surge and a renewed cultural edge driven by bold, youth-focused storytelling.
This year’s shortlist tells another powerful story—99c and Checkers, The MediaShop and Shoprite Checkers, and Ogilvy South Africa and Volkswagen—each pairing reflecting a partnership that transcends contract cycles, showing how collaboration can build both brands and businesses over time.
The Heart of the Industry
Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS and partner in SCOPEN South Africa, explains: “This award recognises the human chemistry behind commercial creativity. Exceptional work is only possible when the client-agency relationship is built on integrity, shared ambition and respect.”
In a climate where client-agency relationships risk becoming transactional, the Partnership Award is a reminder of what great marketing is built on—connection and creativity that deliver measurable results.
Both marketers and agencies receive the award—an acknowledgement that high-performing work is always co-authored.
The AdFocus Awards may honour agencies, but the IAS Partnership of the Year honours the connective tissue that keeps them thriving: the partnerships that last and continue to drive the industry forward.
Ogilvy Takes Top Honours at 2025 IAS Agency Credentials Award
Three agencies rise above the pack in credentials that truly speak for themselves.
The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS), in partnership with the Assegai Integrated Marketing Awards, announces Ogilvy as the top performer, for the third consecutive year, with Offlimit Communication as runner-up and Roger Wilco in third place in this year's IAS Agency Credentials Award. Both submissions delivered credentials that didn't just showcase their work—they revealed their DNA.
The 2025 competition attracted entries from creative, digital and media agencies nationwide. The judging panel comprised leading South African marketers alongside international expertise from Cesar Vacchiano, President and Global CEO of SCOPEN International, and global marketing procurement specialist Tina Fegent.
"What struck me about the winning entries was their refusal to hide behind industry jargon and award logos," said one marketer judge. "These agencies understood that we're not just buying their work—we're buying them. Their credentials showed who they really are."
The IAS Agency Credentials Award, relaunched in 2021 as part of IAS's partnership with DMASA, has become the industry benchmark for credentials that deliver tangible results. Unlike typical industry recognition, this award places agency submissions directly in front of the people who matter most: marketers making procurement decisions.
Johanna McDowell, Founder and CEO of IAS, believes this year's winners exemplify what credentials should achieve: "Don't treat credentials as an afterthought. They speak for the agency when it's not there to speak for itself. Ogilvy, Offlimit Communication and Roger Wilco understood this completely—their submissions told compelling stories that went far beyond case studies and buzzwords."
The award evaluates both written credentials and agency culture presentations, recognising that today's marketing landscape demands authenticity over artifice. Agencies that win understand credentials aren't just about what they've achieved—they're about who they are.
The award's partnership with the Assegai Awards—now backed by international recognition through the Echo Awards—continues to place South African agency excellence on the global stage.
"What set the winners apart? Clarity," said Fegent. "They knew their positioning, showed their culture and delivered ROI. Simple as that."
In a marketplace where sameness is the enemy, Ogilvy, Offlimit Communication and Roger Wilco have proven that authentic differentiation isn't just possible—it's powerful. Agencies that dare to be genuinely themselves will always rise above the noise.
Integration, AI and Emotion: Mapping The New Agency Blueprint at AdForum 2025
The world's leading agency search consultants gathered in London in October for the AdForum Worldwide Summit 2025, charting the course of an industry balancing AI-driven efficiency with a creative renaissance. South Africa's Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) joined 34 global consultancies in closed-door sessions with CEOs from powerhouses like WPP, Ogilvy and Publicis Groupe, and independents, including Lucky Generals, Coolr and JOAN Creative, in discussions centred on integration, AI and the enduring value of creativity in a data-driven world.
Integration Reimagined
After two decades of separating media, creative and tech into silos, the pendulum has swung back. Integrated pitches are up 25%, signalling a deeper structural shift. Holding companies are restructuring around "constellations"—unified teams linking media, creative, data and tech.
"Clients want joined-up solutions across creative, media, technology and commerce," said Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS. "What's exciting is that this time, integration is being driven by collaboration rather than consolidation."
Social Takes The Lead
Social media now commands more spend than television, and specialist agencies are thriving. The influencer economy, now worth nearly $40 billion globally, demands real-time cultural engagement and creator collaboration.
"Social has become an essential communication strategy," McDowell noted. "It drives results and builds brands, and the agencies that connect the two are winning."
The Emotion Edge
AI stole the spotlight, but emotion stole the argument. Agencies are beginning to rebel against metrics that make creative work safe, same and forgettable.
Creativity is returning to centre stage as clients recognise that attention and emotion directly correlate with marketing ROI. As a leading consultant noted, “The real opportunity is human intelligence enhanced by AI—that’s where empathy and imagination still win.”
The consensus? The differentiator for agencies won’t be their tools, but how creatively they apply them. Technology may enhance efficiency, but lasting differentiation comes from human intuition and emotional resonance.
AI and the Race to the Mean
AI democratises technology but risks homogenising brands through what one agency called "a race to the mean," as outputs push marketing towards category averages. The real edge now lies in proprietary data and in combining human intelligence with AI.
"AI should strengthen creativity, not merely reduce cost," consultants warned.
The Business Model Shake-up
Traditional hourly billing is crumbling. Forward-thinking agencies are pioneering outcome-based pricing, subscription models and performance payouts tied to results. Additionally, agencies are prioritising talent and adopting flexible talent structures, including fractional roles and hybrid models that mirror current work preferences.
"Clients don't want to buy hours. They want to buy impact," one consultant observed.
Bringing it Home
For IAS, the takeaways from London extend beyond observation. “These insights help us guide South African marketers towards partners that think boldly and operate to global standards,” says McDowell. “The energy in London was electric—and we’re bringing that momentum home.”
IAS will unpack its key learnings at a Masterclass on 28 January 2026, open to agencies, marketers and brand leaders across South Africa.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2025 LONDON 20-23 OCT WRAP UP
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing South Africa and Africa at this summit.
ADFORUM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2025 LONDON 20-23 OCT DAY 3
AdForum is a unique, invitation-only and hyper-focused event for agency CEOs to present their strategy and vision to the world's leading search and management consultancies. IAS is proud to be representing South Africa and Africa at this summit.