Staff Reporter
Windhoek-Just like clouds build up slowly over time on a hot day before shaking your world with a good thunderstorm, the same can be said for Namibian advertising agency, Weathermen & Co Advertising (W&Co).
Celebrating four years in the business, W&Co – a subsidiary of the Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group – marked this milestone by winning a five-way pitch for the premium advertising contract with the country’s leading mobile telecommunications service provider, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC), and more recently, First National Bank (FNB) and other brands in the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) stable.
W&Co managing director Leon Crous said: “We’re incredibly excited about the recent wins, and immensely proud of the team who pushed really hard to make this happen. And while we are over the moon about the contracts signed with MTC and FNB, we are just as excited about the 4th year anniversary of W&Co.
“A few things need to click together to make a business journey a successful one. The business schools simply say that there are three key components. Your numbers need to make sense, you need a compelling story, and you need the right people on the proverbial bus.” He said W&Co people have always been core to the company’s success. “We’re fortunate to have a great team of individuals that are ferociously passionate about what they do and to deliver value to our clients. We have phenomenal support from our business partners and shareholders, and we have great clients that entrust us with their brands and allow us to do what we do to the best of our ability. It’s in these enduring relationships that we manage to make the numbers happen and create work that allows us to work with a growing number of clients.”
Crous adds that the W&Co team thrive on progress and the energy that comes with working on exciting brands that allows the team to produce work that create lasting impressions.
“We’ve gone from a start-up to an agency that is delivering quality strategic work that’s making a real difference to our clients’ brands while impacting their business results, and this has proven us to be a valued partner in their business.”
O&L Group executive chairman Sven Thieme says W&Co has over the past few years proven to have the potential to be one of the best in Africa.
“We are extremely proud of what Weathermen has accomplished in such a short span of time and I am personally inspired by the passion, dedication and drive of this extraordinary creative team that continuously delivers breakthrough ideas and results.”
An employer of more than 20 staff, W&Co is also a former “ad of the week” winner by renowned South African marketing blog www.marklives.com for its Tafel Lager TV commercial.
Thieme said: “W&Co was born in The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town in February 2013 by a group of agency folk with extensive expertise in the management and creative execution of numerous O&L brands. What started as a discussion about the needs and wants of O&L with Jupiter CT, turned into a company determined to take over the world of advertising in Namibia – a company that now boasts some of the country’s largest corporates as clientele.”
Other clients apart from the lucrative deals just signed with MTC and FNB include Total Namibia, Namibia Breweries, Namib Mills, Namibia Dairies, and the O&L Group amongst others.