The Smarties South Africa Awards recognise the country’s most innovative and effective modern marketing campaigns, that meet consumers on their timelines, celebrating work that is social, digital and culture-first, leveraging the power of community to build both brand and business equity. Ogilvy South Africa is immensely proud that their specialist capabilities and modern marketing excellence were acknowledged with the title of 2025 Smarties Agency of the year, receiving 16 awards on the evening, including an incredible 13 golds, across multiple clients.
Digital first thinking has shaped the next era of modern marketing, with clients increasingly committing a greater percentage of their marketing budgets to social, influencer and digital strategies, fuelling deeper co-creation among agencies, consumers, and creators. As a result, it has become an increasingly vital pathway for brands to leverage digital led brand building, in order to drive measurable return on investment.
Additionally, KFC was honoured with the Brand Of The Year title for 2025, as well as the Best In Show award for Block Booked, a digital campaign that converted calendar bookings into lunchtime sales. The work done on this campaign showcased digital commerce excellence by tapping into a deep understanding of the modern shopper's behaviour.
Mukundi Munzhelele, Marketing director at KFC Africa says: “I’m really proud to see KFC named Brand of the Year and to have our Block Booked campaign recognised with Best in Show. Huge thanks to everyone across the team and to our agency partners at Ogilvy, this shows what we can achieve together.”
Pete Case, CEO and creative chairman of Ogilvy South Africa, comments: “We’ve made huge investments in our Digital and Social specialist services over the past few years, so it’s wonderful to see the hard work and passion of our teams being rewarded here at the Smarties. The extra level of excitement coming from seeing one of our longest standing clients win the Brand Of The Year title too. Congratulations to the KFC team and all of the winners on the night.”
