AVATAR celebrates 10 years of consistent growth
AVATAR, South Africa’s largest 100% black-owned Agency founded by entrepreneurs Zibusiso Mkhwanazi and Veli Ngubane, celebrated its 10-year anniversary in a star-studded cocktail event at its new offices in Sandton last night.
In marking the occasion, Avatar also announced a new talent programme for 10 students in the creative field. The programme will open in Q2 2023, and further details will be shared closer to the time.
With its roots firmly on the ground, the independent agency group has its eyes set on the next 10 years.
Mzamo Xala, Group CEO, says, “As we continue our mission to do world-class work for world-class clients through our world-class people, we’ve been hard at work in the last 10 years strengthening our core: building a business culture that wins.”
The humble beginning of Avatar is reminiscent of the usual bootstrapping story – starting out in Mkhwanazi’s bedroom with R2,000 to its name. M+N, the holding company which Avatar belongs to, has now grown to a R400m business that continues to propel forward its ambition in Africa and the rest of the world.
It counts the likes of Tecno, one of Africa’s biggest smartphone makers who appointed the agency as its global integrated marketing agency in 2021 when it delivered creative brand work for several continents, as one of its pioneering moments.
Avatar’s decade-long success in the industry has seen the agency group work on top-tier brands including Unilever, Caltex, Fox Network and Converse, as well as homegrown brands like Central Energy Fund, WesBank, KFC Add Hope, SAA, DBSA, Telkom and BCX, among others.
More recently, Avatar was named as ISUZU South Africa’s Agency of Record; an appointment that will see the agency further entrench its strategic, creative and digital muscles in Africa.
“But 10 is only the beginning. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we are going to liberate our fellow Africans to power their own stories with ideas that move people, so clients can build greater brands, and we can be in a great place to shine our talents,” adds Xala.
Avatar’s 10-year event hosted celebrities including Maps Maponyane, Penny Lebyane, and Lebo M. It was also attended by industry stalwarts like Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke, formerly of Facebook Africa, Happy Ntshingila, Chairman of AMA, and Sylvester Chauke, founder of DNA Brand architects.
Power FM, which did a live broadcast from the event, was the exclusive media partner for the event.
