Y&R Advertising and VML have acquired an undisclosed stake in Kenya’s communications agency, Creative Edge Ltd to bolster its East African presence.
The new outfit will be named Creative Y&R and will join Y&R outfits in South Africa and Nigeria. Employees of Creative Edge will not be affected and Prital Patel CEO of Creative Edge will remain CEO of Creative Y&R.
Established in 1995 by Prital Patel as a design studio, Creative Edge has grown into an integrated communications agency, bolstering its offering to include advertising, digital, brand development, media planning and buying, strategy, packaging and custom publishing. Recently the firm launched its digital arm dubbed Qube which is also part of the acquisition.
Patel’s Creative Edge works closely with the family run Ramco Group which also runs Market Power International.
Last year, Amethis Finance acquired a 30 percent stake of Ramco Plexus, running 9 companies under the Ramco Group. Ramco Group owns 70% of the Ramco Plexus.
In a statement Yossi Schwartz, chairman of Y&R South Africa and Africa said, “As a network hub, it’s essential for Creative Y&R to offer, and be experts on a wide mix of disciplines, to provide brand development for its clients and support its smaller regional agencies.”
Brands Creative Y&R is running or targeing include Crown Paints, Oil Libya, EABL, Planet Yogurt, Kapa Oil, Daawat, Broadways, Cadbury GSK and Google amongst others. Prital will be tasked with expanding Creative Y&R in the East African region with support from Y&R South Africa.
According to Yossi, much like Nigeria, Kenya is one of the most energetic markets in sub-Saharan Africa, influenced by the growing trend of urbanisation in Africa and the innovation of high-growth markets. A PWC Kenyan entertainment and media outlook: 2013-2017 Report shows that annual growth rate for the entertainment and media market in Kenya in the next five years is 16.3% – one of the highest in the world.
Yossi says Y&R will launch the Y&R Labstore to the local market. Y&R Advertising Labstore is a global retail and shopper marketing network that already operates in 20 markets. Y&R Advertising has been in Kenya for long, and had offices on Mombasa Road on the same building with its sister company SilverBullet PR which ran out of business and shut down its Kenyan outfit.
Prital says Creative Edge’s talented creatives have experience across several different disciplines and bring together a unique blend of creativity, passion and drive which will see Creative Y&R a success.
“We have a common objective of working with clients to strengthen their brands and share Y&R’s vision to be our clients’ most important partner, delivering outstanding creative work. We’re really looking forward to being a part of a global network with the ability to tap into resources, tools and knowledge and be able to return that value through local insights and market leadership,” said Prital.