Get ready for Limelight to dominate the spotlight

In a short time they've already found their feet in attracting an impressive, talented team, winning some great accounts, like the Mentholatum account from incumbent Carat in a five-way pitch.

And the winning streak is set to continue, with a number of new business pitches in the pipeline. More importantly, Sergeant says: "South Africa needs more independent hot shop boutique strategy and planning houses for media, as too many large buying shops don't have the time and/or the inclination to give clients heavy-weight strategy and planning - we are poised for success."

So, even though Limelight is way too new to have been through the awards cycles - next year they're expecting to start winning all the awards they were winning for previous agencies.

It's that 'can do', positive, success-centric approach that stands out for me - so much so that I chatted exclusively to Sergeant, director of strategy and Baikoff, director of planning and founding partner, to find out why they feel poised to become South Africa's best boutique media strategy and planning hot shop...

Sergeant and Baikoff.

1. Tell us how Limelight Consulting got started?

Sergeant: Limelight was started in March of this year, 2015. I left OMD in February as executive head of strategy for South Africa and a month later my friend and long-time colleague Joanna Baikoff joined, leaving Mindshare. We both love what we do, it's in our blood. All our clients feel our passion but we felt that all the large agencies lacked the tenacity, the drive, zest for life, to make media exciting. It was clear we needed to head out on our own.

2. Explain the agency name.

Sergeant and Baikoff: Limelight is a name that we came up with to denote exactly what media agencies should be doing - putting our clients in the limelight. The 'lime' means fresh and the 'light' means ideas, and fresh, new ideas are the key to innovative use of media.

3. What's the basic work flow or creative process in the agency?

Sergeant explains: We are all briefcase strategists, doing our work at clients’ offices and off-site, so we use the wonderful Harbour House in Kalk Bay as our meeting venue with clients.

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Sergeant and Baikoff: We focus on strategy and planning. We deal directly with clients, taking an understanding (or brief) of their business needs and marketing objectives and use our wealth of experience, knowledge and world-class tools to provide the best possible and most innovative media strategy to achieve the clients' objectives. We work very closely with our media owner partners, and any agency partners the clients may already have to then take the media strategy and form a cohesive and comprehensive media plan. Through our media owner relationships we negotiate the best rates for our clients and the best value from the deals. In some cases, where a client has an international alignment with a media-buying agency, we work alongside the media buying agency which places the bookings on behalf of the client.

4. Tell us about the key account wins this year that have made an impact on your portfolio...

Sergeant and Baikoff: Early off the mark, we won a campaign for the Department of Arts and Culture. We then won a campaign for the Soweto Wine Festival, and more recently we have won the full portfolio of Mentholatum. While these are all exciting, the last one is the most fun as we had won it against three of the biggest media buying houses. It's time for a shake up and that's our aim.

5. List any exciting new developments in the team that have enhanced your overall skillset.

Sergeant and Baikoff: We have added an impressive duo to our team - Chris Kriel and Philip Korinek, both with a colourful history in the most senior levels of marketing statistics and analysis. We have completely reinvented the industry standard tools for market research and more specifically media research, adding real-time, web-based analytics to marketing campaigns that we manage. I'm very excited about this development - it shows real accountability to our clients.

6. What makes you stand out from the rest?

Sergeant and Baikoff: Limelight is the media boutique which stands out from the rest. As a boutique, we are small, focused, and provide, honestly, the best world-class strategy and planning available anywhere. Other agencies have a smattering of good strategy and planning here and there but, with us, we are all heavy-hitters allocating real time and effort to our clients.

7. Please explain your strategy.

Sergeant and Baikoff: We sell senior heavy-weight media strategy and planning services. We are focusing on a small group of blue-chip clients, providing media strategy and planning for their brands. The buying can go with anyone (buying really is just a clerical function), it's the magical strategy and planning that makes us tick and returns the most awesome campaigns. We have attracted a talented team of 11 so far and will continue to be extremely picky with the talent we take on as, ultimately, we are a talent business.

8. Talk about the state of the local 'media strategy and planning' industry - does it compare internationally, is the local standard of work high, what are the biggest pain points, etc.

Sergeant and Baikoff: I've worked in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and in the UK and in Ireland. The level of media strategy and planning in South Africa is embarrassing. There are so many great media strategists and planners out in the market place in South Africa but they are unable to provide stellar performances because the agencies that employ them give big international accounts to inexperienced and ill-equipped juniors (to save costs), dump way too many accounts on the few talented senior strategists and continue to keep an ageing group of has-beens in the mix. In no other country do you hear the question of a media agency, "do you do digital?" Only here - and that's because so many of our agencies, when asked to name a new media, would say "eTV".