Behind every great brand is a great agency.” This statement, an adaptation of a saying: “Behind every successful man is a woman”, appeared in the first paragraph of Loeries website official ranking homepage category.
Loeries has remained one of the most-vibrant competitors to Cannes’s Lion, a global marketing and artistic award, which holds in France yearly.
In the recent Loeries ranking by agency 2016-region, excluding South Africa category, Noah’s Ark occupies the ninth spot. It is also the only Nigerian advertising outfit among the top 15 agencies. With its recent global affiliation with Denstu Aegies Network, the firm has, indeed, has a tall ambition of becoming one of Africa’s top agencies.
Dentsu Aegies, a marketing communication agency with presence in 145 countries, five continents, 35,000 workers, last week said it would enter into partnership with Noah’s Ark for a year with possible extension.
Last year, the agency won the Grand Prix at the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF), organised by the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAN). It has consistently remained in the top five for five years.
However, ranked among TBWA/RAAD from United Arab Emirate (UAE); J. Walter Thompson from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Memac Ogilvy- Dubai, J. Walter Thompson- Beirut, FP7/DX8, Cheil Worldwide- Dubai, J. Walter Thompson-Dubai and Memac Ogilvy- Doha, the Group Managing Director of Noah’s Ark, Mr. Lanre Adisa, said “today, we are the most-celebrated within and outside Nigeria”.
Now in it is sixth year, the Loeries Official Rankings provides authoritative and independent indication of ‘who is who’ in the brand communications industry across Africa and the Middle East.
“The rankings are calculated on a methodology that allocates points to brands, agencies and individuals based on results from the Loeries Creative Week, held in August,” said Loeries Chief Executive Andrew Human.
During an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos last week, Adisa said Noah’s Ark decided to embrace global affiliation to play at the top level in Africa and worldwide.
“Why Dentsu Aegies? At different fora in the industry, I have been a believer of collaboration. If you want to go far, you go together. I believe to go far, you have to collaborate at the global stage. At various points, I have spoken against isolation.
“For us, Denstu is one of the best global agencies with the highest growth rate. Right from our first contact with their team in Nigeria, we discovered that they are not just here to mark time. We could see testimony in their local media affiliate agency, MediaFuse Nigeria. Today, it is the biggest media agency in Nigeria and West Africa,” he said.
Adisa believed that having won local and international awards consistently with its creative outputs for local brands, with some of its unapproved and controversial creative jobs such as Boko Halal among declared winners at various international advertising awards such as Loeries, Lueza’s Archive, which is regarded as the world Bible of advertising, Noah’s Ark‘s ambition to become a top player in Africa is because the agency is no more that small agency that started five years ago.
“We believe this partnership with Dentsu will make us achieve our dream to be the best in Africa,” he said.
Also, the Media Fuse Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd Managing Director, Emeke Okeke, said the selection of Noah’s Ark, a Dentsu’s affiliate, is premised on the agency’s impeccable credentials.
He said the agency has displayed determination to play at the global level, a character that gels with the global agencies.
