The Jupiter Drawing Room expands into Zimbabwe

The deal sees the creation of a new brand-holding company The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), under which two agencies will fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a growing agency in the Zimbabwean market.

Expanding into the Southern Africa region

Jericho, founded two years ago by Denford Magora, has established a client base that includes Old Mutual, Schweppes, Toyota and Nando's. Magora will become CEO of The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), with the mandate to assist in the further expansion of The Jupiter Drawing Room offering into the Southern Africa region.

"Our partnership with The Jupiter Drawing Room will raise the bar in terms of creativity and the servicing of clients in Zimbabwe. It is an important development because it represents the first major investment by a leading international advertising agency into the Zimbabwean market in the last two decades. We are deeply honoured that Graham Warsop and his agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room have chosen to partner Jericho to launch Jupiter in Zimbabwe. It is also a huge vote of confidence in Zimbabwe to see this investment come to fruition" said Magora.

Nancy Ziyambi, the former marketing director of the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has been appointed as managing director of new agency in the Jupiter family.

"I look forward to this honour and challenge. I am excited by the prospect of working with The Jupiter Drawing Room team. And I am especially pleased the time is right for this partnership," she said.

Jericho will continue to operate as a 100% Zimbabwean owned agency, with 70% of The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) in the hands of local Zimbabwean shareholders.

First office outside South Africa

This will be the third Jupiter Drawing Room agency office opened, Johannesburg in 1989 and Cape Town in 1994, and the first to open its doors outside South Africa.

The Jupiter Drawing Room founder and chairman Graham Warsop says, "We admire the success Denford and his team have achieved to date with Jericho in Zimbabwe. We share a belief in the ability of distinctive, powerful creative ideas to transform the fortunes of brands."

"At this time there is a dearth of agencies across the African continent committed to offering clients genuine distinctiveness in the work being produced and true integration of communications disciplines."

"Denford will assist us in helping unlock the huge potential of creative talent and entrepreneurship across the African continent. By galvanizing this talent and applying the lessons learned on the coal face of the South African market, we hope to create a new breed of integrated agency across Africa; combining quality and efficiency, creativity and effectiveness, technology and craftsmanship".