"This is an amazing win for us, not only because it recognises the hard work of everyone who has contributed to building MACHINE into the force that it is today, but also because it firmly positions us as one of South Africa's top agencies," says Hewlett.
This year, the judges of AdReview recognised two agencies in the Breakthrough category: MACHINE and House of Brave. MACHINE was also a finalist in Design Agency of the Year, as well as in Cape Agency of the Year.
"We are incredibly proud to find ourselves in such illustrious company," says Hewlett. "Being recognised alongside the likes of Ogilvy South Africa, and Joe Public (to name but a few) is a real honour - and we would like to sincerely congratulate all fellow award winners."
By comparison to the majority of award winners, Hewlett and MACHINE are relative newcomers to the industry. Hewlett founded MACHINE in 2012 when he engineered the restructuring of four previously-independent marketing services divisions into a single below the line, integrated agency offering with digital at its core.
In its second year of operation, the agency grew its fee and commission income by a whopping 42%. Today, with a staff complement of 95 and clients including Sanlam Reality, Nedbank, Red Bull, Citroen and L'Oreal, the agency is the country's fourth biggest independent advertising agency. Having earned a very respectable 148 creative points in 2012, it also claimed the 13th spot on the hotly-contested Creative League Table.
Jake Bester, Executive creative director at MACHINE was equally as proud, "I couldn't be happier right now. While the Loeries showed what we were capable of creatively, this acknowledges the MACHINE business on the whole. Thank you so much to everybody who took a chance on us'.
