Charlie Stewart, Rogerwilco’s CEO, says, "We do extensive work in Europe in the not-for-profit sector with clients, including various United Nations divisions, charities like Roll Back Malaria, Stop TB and the Royal Society for Blind Children."
"But to grow this division within our business, we need to have an on-the-ground presence from which to service our clients, as well as seek new opportunities and close the deals," Stewart adds.
All production will, however, remain in South Africa. This is as there is a growing trend among European firms to outsource to local service providers thanks to the country’s competitive pricing, similar culture and time zones.
"We have a highly-skilled team of strategists, designers, developers and content producers in our South African offices and they are our advantage when winning and servicing international business. That said, we’ve recently seen a number of our key staff immigrate. We’d obviously prefer to offer them the option to stay within the Group and work for us abroad, which is another reason why the UK office makes business sense," says Stewart.
"While we operate in a global village, Europe is still a step ahead of us when it comes to deployment of advanced marketing technology. By working with more international brands, we will benefit greatly from their association and can share these experiences with the rest of the local team," he adds.
The move is a milestone for the now 11-year old agency, which represents local businesses such as WesBank, Gumtree and Nestle. A multiple award-winner, most notably in SEO and content marketing, it is also among only a handful of Drupal web developers in the country.
"Drupal allows us to build far larger, more robust digital platforms, which are typically the preferred choice among our international clients. Being among only a few suppliers in the country, we see this specialist skills-set as a major opportunity, as coupled with our affordability, we also have a deep knowledge of this content management software," concludes Stewart.
The new office opened its doors on Wednesday, 1 May.
For more information, visit www.rogerwilco.co.za or www.rogerwilco.co.uk.