Branding Company news South Africa

Magnetic named Best Branding Agency in South Africa

Founded in 2006 as a creative design agency, we're proud of our continued growth at Magnetic. Growth in our agency offering, growth in our people and growth for our clients. This year we were recognised as the Best Branding Agency in South Africa by Clutch, the leader in data-driven B2B agency reviews internationally. This recognition is something we're especially proud of as it qualifies our efforts.

Establishing our branding agency in South Africa

Our success in South Africa has not been overnight. Our team has been diligently working since 2009, scaling our offering and perfecting our craft. Not only helping local brands dominate their industry but very successfully helping brands and companies grow and expand beyond the borders of South Africa and the US.

With headquarters in South Africa and the US, our agency has played an integral role in the strategic cross-regional growth for brands large and small. Since 2014 our client base, along with most business models, including our own, have become increasingly globalised. We are unlocking and implementing growth strategies for SA clients into US, African and European markets, and likewise for our US clients into African and European markets very successfully.

Global impact – How our branding agency in South Africa has contributed to over $1 billion in global revenue

Over the last five years, our agency has worked with a select group of globally positioned brands. Our success with these brands has relied heavily on close collaboration and streamlined communication between our offices in the United States and South Africa.

Rebranding a global tech giant

AVEVA, the global leader in industrial software, underwent a brand merger with Schneider Electric in late 2018. This merger positioned AVEVA in the top 30 most significant software brands in the world. It required a global rebranding effort to join the two tech giants and position their expansive industrial software portfolio for sustained growth. Magnetic Creative was also previously involved with the global rebranding and positioning of Schneider Electric and Wonderware, leading to our involvement with the rebranding after this large-scale merger took place.

Magnetic named Best Branding Agency in South Africa

Jay David, the Digital Marketing Manager at AVEVA during the rebranding process, spoke to Clutch about his client experience with Magnetic. After rebranding key software portfolio products for AVEVA, David said about the effect Magnetic’s work had on their global software sales,

Magnetic named Best Branding Agency in South Africa

Our team in South Africa played a crucial role in the rebranding and roll-out process for AVEVA:

  • Provided geographically relevant market insights for EMEA and APAC regions while facilitating client communications in local time zones.
  • Management and production of brand visual and motion asset development in EMEA and APAC regions. (Magnetic produced brand content and client success stories in nine different countries during this period.)
  • Translation and roll-out of over 2,000 physical and digital branded collateral pieces.

Global brand positioning for an international consumer product manufacturer

Since 2017, Magnetic secured an Agency of Record (AOR) relationship with Global Leisure Group. GLG is a manufacturer of innovative, quality outdoor cooking and heating products and the manufacturer of three prominent brands, Nexgrill, Megamaster, and KitchenAid.

The goal of the relationship between our agency and GLG has been simple, yet challenging:

  1. Grow Megamaster into the most prominent and successful grilling (braaing in South Africa) brand in South Africa.
  2. Expand and launch Megamaster into the US market.
  3. Grow Nexgrill and KitchenAid market share in the US while building brand equity.
  4. Expand and launch Nexgrill into the European market.

Simple, right?

Competing with established household brands like Weber and Cadac, we helped Megamaster take 60% of the South African market share, building one of the largest and most engaging social brands within the South African outdoor cooking category.

We also launched Megamaster into the US and helped secure deals with major big-box retailers and positioned the brand for growth online.

We also successfully re-established Nexgrill’s brand in the US and then launched them in eight new countries with major growth in the US and Europe.

Global revenue growth for the GLG family of brands has grown by over 600%.

Local impact – How our agency in South Africa is contributing to local market growth

While many businesses in Africa focus exclusively on growth in other markets, it has remained a core strategy for our team to support regional growth locally. Our agency works with a diverse range of clients in South Africa and surrounding countries. Local clients based in South Africa include brands in the consumer goods, professional services, manufacturing, food and beverage, financial, legal, tourism, technology, and conservation industries.

Our agency is proud to exercise our branding and marketing services to promote economic growth in the region. With a flourishing workforce and local talent pool, we’ve extended our service offering and adding value by including digital media management, video production, content marketing and high-level brand strategy while remaining very cost-competitive.

How branding is helping save the rhinos in South Africa

A local brand taking advantage of our agency’s services is Rockwood, a rhino conservation located in the Northern Cape of South Africa. Since retaining our services, we rebranded the business, relaunched the brand online and produced numerous videos for use online and as part of ongoing content marketing campaigns.

Magnetic named Best Branding Agency in South Africa

Our initial efforts for Rockwood have been focused around increasing voluntourism – while we wait for international NPO registrations to start approaching the general public to help with conservation funding – and to grow the brand’s footprint both locally and internationally. The voluntourism program is one of a kind that allows volunteers to work alongside a dedicated team of rangers, vets, and scientists. We have already received enough applications to fill Rockwood’s volunteer requirements for the whole of 2020.

Rockwood was also recently nominated for an international film award, Reedy Reels, with a first-time theatre screening at the festival – an achievement that will undoubtedly bring more international exposure to this important cause. Please watch the short film documenting Rockwood's fight to save the southern white rhino.

Branding for the fintech industry in South Africa

Methodical Investments, an independent South African specialist fund manager, turned to our South African agency for rebranding, creative strategy, and digital marketing in 2018. The firm used a highly quantitative, data-led approach to investment management and relied on our team to conceptualise and produce the emotional, creative aspect of their brand.

We were challenged with connecting the left- and right-brained aspects of their business in a meaningful way to communicate with the target audience and bring the true essence of the brand to life.

Continuing to grow our branding agency in South Africa

Specialising in branding, digital strategy, and advertising, we work with large and small brands in and around South Africa. With offices strategically located in South Africa and the United States, we are primed to partner with businesses looking to extend market share overseas.

Future growth plans in South Africa include location expansion into Cape Town as well as growing our headquarters on the beautiful Garden Route. We look forward to building more partnerships with businesses in the region and continuing to challenge our teams.

If you are a business owner in South Africa looking for a strategic partner in branding, creative, and marketing, please reach out.

A continued partnership between Clutch and Magnetic

Magnetic Creative has been featured on Clutch, a B2B platform comparing service providers within the same industries, since 2015. In the most recent awards, Clutch announced top-performing firms in South Africa. Verified client reviews are central to Clutch’s research and the integrity of their ratings. Clutch uses these verified client reviews to create an authentic rating of the firm, measuring product effectiveness and expertise in the field. Using this data, Clutch generates a leader matrix, plotting these two criteria. Based on their research, Magnetic Creative was rated #1.

This award is a credit to our agency’s expanding global footprint. Our team in South Africa has been making giant strides for our clients in the region. The impact they are making by implementing data-driven branding, creative, and engagement campaigns have been amazing to see unfold, for our business and the industry alike. Thank you, Clutch for this award and our continued partnership!

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