A winning formula for Ogilvy & Mather at the 20th annual APEX Awards

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) South Africa, the integrated creative communications agency for the digital age, was recognised at the Sandton Convention Centre, collecting five APEX trophies for work that has positively impacted clients' bottom lines through creative and effective marketing cases.

Hosted by the Association of Communication and Advertising (ACA) and regarded as one of the toughest industry accolades to win, O&M South Africa maintained its position as the most effective communications agency in the country, having collected 38 awards over the past seven years.

This year, the ACA collectively awarded three Gold statues, two of which went to O&M. The agency group was also awarded a Special Award, one Silver and one Bronze for noteworthy work on behalf of clients KFC, SABMiller and FNB.

The FNB ATM "Switch" campaign by Gloo@Ogilvy, O&M South Africa's digital business, was awarded a Gold award in the Change category for generating thousands of leads by converting the one-way communication channel into a two-way acquisition platform. It was also awarded the Millward Brown Special Award for successfully demonstrating an ingenious response to a limited advertising budget. Both these wins complement the campaign's recent showing at Cannes Lions having being the only digital work from South Africa to be awarded at this year's festival.

The second Gold for O&M, went to Castle Lite in the Sustain category: O&M Cape Town partnered with SABMiller to gain brand distinction, effectively shifting it from a market share decline pre-2010, to remarkable year-on-year double digit growth for the past five years. The success story is now considered best practice among SABMiller's global marketing teams.

O&M Johannesburg and KFC also took home a Silver in the Launch category for "Discover the Crunch" and a Bronze in the Change category for "Ka-Ching". Both campaigns used behavioural change and economics to exceed target sales and increase market share in each of their respective sectors.

"These awards reinforce the fact that there is a powerful relationship between creative thinking and overall effectiveness," said Neo Makhele, Group Strategic Director, Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. "Each piece of work has its own individual story, but all of them have one thing in common: they have exceeded our expectations in driving growth for our clients. The recognition speaks to the volume of talented individuals that live within our business and we thank each of our clients for investing their confidence in us."

"Our mission at Ogilvy & Mather is to ultimately produce work that works," said Abey Mokgwatsane, CEO, Ogilvy & Mather South Africa. "Our Twin Peaks philosophy of being both creative and effective is pervasive throughout our business. We're excited to have the opportunity to help build our clients' brands and are thrilled to share these honours with each of them."

The leading agencies table below demonstrates the group's performance over the past seven years:

APEX Awards 2008 - 2015