By David Jenkin

“I think what makes us special,” said Elevator’s business and strategy director and mass market specialist, Bongani Chinkanda, to those gathered for the new agency’s launch breakfast, “We’re going to be one of a few agencies that in one weekend are able to do high-end, top-end experiential executions, but at the same time we’re in the mass market, with all those insights coming from the same team.”

Elevator has diversity in terms of culture, as well as a national footprint with offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. However, it’s the way they have brought everything together that sets them apart, he said.

The new agency comprises the subsidiary divisions of Elevator Engage, offering employee engagement campaigns; Elevator People, offering activations and event staffing; and Elevator Digital, offering social media and digital campaigns.

“We were all moving out of our services,” added Mike Silver, founder of Stretch Experiential Marketing and now joint CEO of Elevator, “Trying to keep your agencies in boxes is very difficult. What we realised is that traditional media, for a large part of the market, is dying – TV and print specifically. All three agencies were grounded in human experiences, real life brand experiences, so to evolve into other channels and become more of an integrated below the line agency made a lot more sense for us. Above the line agencies are trying now to operate more in those content and brand experience spaces but doing so with an above the line mindset, and there are obviously challenges for them along the way.” 

Trevor Bernberg, founder of Point Blank Marketing Communications and now joint CEO of Elevator, said, “We aim to reinvent the way that brands are launched or built through compelling, memorable communication campaigns. Our combined offerings will allow us to deliver even more meaningful connections between our clients’ brands and their consumers.”

Bernberg continued, “There are two very distinct arms of growth that are going to come out of Elevator right now. The biggest, for me, is the opportunity to leverage clients that are already within this business. It’s going to be extremely powerful, we’re already having big conversations with Point Blank clients and with Stretch clients about where each agency can leverage each other. The other big opportunity is obviously new business, going out and bringing in new clients.” He notes that with the teams combined, Elevator has four business development specialists across the country.

Upliftment through words and action is at the core of Elevator’s philosophy, Bernberg explained, hence the company’s name – it too refers to the upliftment of brands, communities and people.

“To use an example, two weeks ago, we walked away from R10 million worth of business,” said Chinkanda, “We were asked to pitch and we said no. And the reason was because we would have had to break the back of everyone in the agency … If you have to be bold enough to say ‘no thank you’, because you’re thinking about the people, and we don’t want to be a conveyer belt of ideas.”

Bernberg added, “It’s about keeping the culture and the workload consistent, not destroying people, because we could end up destroying the machine by pouring too much into it. It obviously has to be a balance, and that’s going to come from the top levels, from the three of us.”

Bernberg continued that building the team and its capacity will be a focus, and they aim to become the best in South Africa before starting to look at expansion beyond the border. 

Elevator already has an impressive list of clients to start with, namely Uber, Standard Bank, Tiger Brands, Heineken, Pernod Ricard, Lipton, Cell C and Hisense.

For more information, visit www.elevator.co.za.