The inaugural Scopen Africa Decade Awards were announced at a special event held in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 24 February, where the leaders and agencies that have consistently sustained excellence for over 10 years across the six biennial editions of the Agency Scope study since its local launch in 2016 were recognised.
The inaugural Scopen Africa Decade Awards were announced at a special event held in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 24 February. Pictured: All the winners (image supplied)
The event also celebrated Scopen’s 10th anniversary in the country.
Most Admired Marketer of the Decade
Nedbank’s executive of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Khensani Nobanda, was named the top marketer of the decade. Receiving the award, Nobanda said that she has been incredibly lucky to work in this industry.
“I am one of the five percent of really happy marketers. I love my job.”
Nobanda has worked at Nedbank since 2017, when she was hired by Tulani Sibeko.
But three months before she was due to start working there, Sibeko resigned. “I told my mom I was thinking of applying for his job. She said you haven’t even started there and you want a promotion!”
But she says she had nothing to lose and so she did apply, and in January 2018, the then CEO Mike Brown called her to his office (“I was wearing shorts!”) and told her she had the job. She says what followed has been the "best eight years of her life.”
She attributes this, her success and the brand’s success to being part of the bank’s exco. “I am lucky that the bank supports and trusts my marketing team.”
She adds that if she were to look at another job, her first thought would not be what people think. “It would be about influence because I want to be an impactful marketer."
She also says the industry has given her many opportunities, such as judging at the Cannes Lions and serving on the Loeries Board.
Talking about what the award means to her, she says, “For a child whose dad comes from Orlando Soweto and mom from a rural area in Swaziland, this is insane. This was not meant to be for me.
“This award is recognition of everything I have done because it shows my actual purpose, which is to show the art of the possible."
The Most Admired Marketer of the Decade is determined primarily through peer validation by fellow marketers, supported by agency feedback, making it a rare endorsement from within the profession itself.
Most admired professionals
In the advertising space, this was Joe Public’s co-founder and group chief creative officer, Pepe Marais, and in the media space it was Park Advertising group managing director, Chris Botha.
Botha says it is a privilege to work in an industry where he has so many friends. “We are also privileged to work in this industry where we get to do new stuff, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work in this industry. Thank you for making life wonderful.”
Marais was not present at the event, as he was attending a client conference, or as he says, in the trenches. He spoke toBizcommuity afterwards, and expressed gratitude to the industry and that he is honoured that the industry thinks of him in this way.
"If I reflect on it, and before I give credit to our people and clients, I have to put a spotlight on Joe Public, which has been in this business since 2010 and started showing its power in about 2015 to 2016 and then in the next decade, purpose flexed within our organisation.
"For me, this award is simply a byproduct of being motivated by purpose, so I want to first give credit to this amazing approach of purpose, which is a way of being consistent in your intentions, followed by actions, and then delivering results like financial results, awards and recognition."
He adds, "I am grateful first and foremost that I work with an organisation that is purpose driven, grateful for my partners and my team and our clients who allow me and us to do what we love."
He says this excites him for the next decade. "I am turning 58 this year, it doesn't feel like it, I feel like I am still at the start of a journey, and that the beauty about being an entrepreneur and creative being is that we keep on growing until the day we depart from this beautiful experience we call life.
"I am very humbled and grateful for the recognition, but I am interested and excited for what still needs to be done as an agency and on a personal level.
"I believe we should represent our country and the continent and really show up on the global stage, so this is a tick behind 10 years of effort towards the longer-term objective to be a significant player on the global stage."
Rankings in the three Most Admired professional categories are based on the aggregate number of mentions each individual has received over the past decade from marketers and industry peers.
The cumulative total of these mentions determines the order of recognition.
Most Balanced Creative Agency and Media Agency awards
Joe Public was named the top creative agency, and Carat the media agency.
Speaking for the Joe Public, Gareth Leck, the group CEO and founding partner, says creating an agency is like having a child. “This award makes me emotional. What binds us together as a team is the love of creativity, and it warms my heart that creativity is seen as key by marketers.”
The media agency award went to Carat. Lerina Bierman, managing director, Carat says that in an industry that has changed so much in the last 10 years, the one constant is the people. “In Carat, the interns we took on 10 years ago are now the leaders of our business.”
She adds, “It is a massive honour to be recognised over the period of a decade. It is something quite special to stand here and see the past decade. This is the agency we want.”
The Most Balanced Creative Agency and Media Agency awards are evaluated across three core pillars: market perception, client results and competitor opinion.
Agencies are listed as top performers rather than ranked first, second or third, reinforcing the emphasis on sustained, all-round performance rather than strength in any single area.
Why long-term insight still matters
Johanna McDowell, Scopen’s partner in South Africa and CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS), emphasised the awards’ distinctive approach of recognising consistency, not hype.
“They highlight the people and agencies who keep delivering, while also reminding us why long-term insight still matters.”
As such, the Decade Awards recognise credibility built over time through peer respect, client experience and competitor opinion, rather than rewarding short-term success,
The Scopen Africa Decade Awards is part of a broader series of tenth-anniversary initiatives, with further coverage of the keynote insights and industry discussions to follow.
