The Global Index also has two South African digital agencies in its top 5 ranking with Digitas Liquorice at number two and Yonder Media at number three. The MMA BII ranks agencies (media, creative and specialist), holding companies, agency networks, advertisers, brands and technology enablers that deliver the highest level of business impact through mobile-first campaigns from the entries to the 2017 MMA SMARTIES. The Index is based on the World Advertising Research Centre’s (WARC) methodology, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness. 

“This is a significant achievement for South African digital agencies and a testament to their ability to grow their clients’ business models through mobile. They have performed exceedingly well against their peers, outperforming most of the global players, highlighting that South African agencies are as well developed in mobile as their global counterparts. This despite the perception that these countries are further along the development curve when it comes to mobile,” says Sarah Utermark, country director of the MMA SA.

“It’s an honour to be recognised on both the global and local stage, particularly when it’s for an organisation as prestigious and renowned as the Mobile Marketing Association,” says Digitas Liquorice’s CEO and founder, Miles Murphy. “Each of our campaigns entered into the 2017 SMARTIES had different business objectives, therefore the impact varies. However, Amarula’s '#NameThemSaveThem' raised awareness around elephant poaching with the campaign reaching 15 million people and all 400 000 elephants named. And for 'SA Homeloans House Rules' we created a series of hilarious short video content that an audience who wasn’t looking for a home or in the mood for serious financial talk would want to watch, and generated potential leads of up to R4.8 billion. ”

In the BII’s Advertisers global category South African brands also performed well. Yum! Brands ranked fourth and Distell Group ranked 25th, out of nearly 200 advertisers. Within the Brands global category Shoprite is 15th, KFC 24th and Amarula 25th out of over 270 brands. 

“These South African brands and digital agencies have a lot to be proud of and demonstrate the level of expertise that we, as a country, possess. The MMA SA congratulates all the winners,” concludes Utermark.

The full results can be found here.

For more information, visit www.mmasa.org. You can also follow the MMA SA on Facebook or on Twitter.
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