The 2005 London International Awards (LIAA) honouring Advertising, Design and Interactive Media, has recognized South Africa's top talent: Graham Warsop, executive creative director of The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) was ranked as the No. 1 Creative Director in the world and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) was recognized as the world's leading independent agency.
More recognition for South Africa came when TBWA Hunt Lascaris (Johannesburg) was voted the 2nd most awarded advertising agency in the 20 years of the LIAA. The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) was 4th. John Hunt appeared in the table of the top five creative directors, coming in 4th place.
Barbara Levy, President and CEO of the London International Awards says: "The true measure of the best creative directors and their agencies is their ability to perform to the highest standards consistently.
"These awards set out to recognize that achievement. For a country as small as South Africa to feature in the top five is impressive. For it to occupy two positions in both the agency and creative director tables including the No. 1 creative director is a truly remarkable achievement and clearly demonstrates, yet again, the depth of talent and quality of work emanating from South Africa's shores."
In the 2005 Advertising Awards South Africa's largest independent agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room, picked up a statue for their print Nugget Shoe Polish "Police Officer, Use the Shine" campaign. Statues were also awarded to DDB Johannesburg for Glad Refuse Bags "Prisoner" and Ogilvy Johannesburg for Exclusive Books "Dummy Copy".
Warsop formed The Jupiter Drawing Room in May 1989. In 1994 Warsop stepped down as Managing Director of The Agency after the agency had become the first mid-sized agency to be voted Overall Agency of the Year by Financial Mail in its AdFocus publication.
Warsop was appointed CEO of Jupiter and set out to build a communications group. This began with The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) and Hercules in 1994. Other companies followed, including The Penny Black, The Imagination Corporation and Trilogy.
By 2001 The Jupiter Drawing Room occupied 5th place in the South African table of Agencies Ranked By size - the only independent agency ever to be ranked so high.
In the seven years Warsop was CEO of Jupiter, the group was the fastest growing agency in the history of South African Advertising. It also won six Agency of the Year awards in its category during these seven years and was twice voted Overall Agency of the Year and three times voted Runner-Up Overall Agency of the Year.
A complete list of winners is available on www.liaawards.com/2005finalists.
