Polly the bull terrier was Jupiter’s legendary first dog. She arrived at the Johannesburg offices one day as a stray, and befriended the team for the next fifteen years. She was appointed to the board as Head of Security and travelled into work every day in Graham’s Rolls Royce, only to settle in the pride of place in front of the roaring fireplace. These days dogs of all shapes and size wander through our doors, and we love them all.
Every year, staff at each agency gather for our annual staff photo, a tradition that’s gone back 20 years. We record our time together because we value our time together. One day, many years hence, we want our staff to look back on their days at Jupiter and honestly be able to say “There’s nowhere else I would have been during those special years. No other agency. No other country.”
In Blantyre, Jupiter has its own set of branded wheels with the number plate Jupiter-1, and it can often be seen cruising around town to fancy meetings with clients. Graham liked the idea so much, he is investing in a Jupiter-WP.
We love any excuse to celebrate, and a birthday is as good an excuse as any. In Lusaka, on each person’s birthday we celebrate with a BBQ in the back garden in their honour.
Everyone who has worked with us holds a special place in our company, and we like to remember everyone who has played a role in making our business what it is today. So when we say a sad goodbye to a familiar face, a tradition has developed where they give us something to remember them by, which is then displayed in our office. From antique typewriters and brass bells, to photos and framed underwear on our walls, our workplace tells a story of all of our friends, present and past.
A few years ago, we celebrated the first day of spring by jumping into a fountain outside of our office. It was so much fun, we turned it into an annual tradition. Despite not having a fountain anymore, we all still take a traditional jump through inflatable paddling pools. It’s usually pretty chilly, but a glass of champagne and some strawberries usually make up for it.
Winters are special at Jupiter. Winter warmers like delicious hot chocolate, moreish marshmallows and cosy fires are bound to get everyone into snug-as-a-bug mode.
Our country’s State of the Nation address sets out the vision for that year, along with focus and development areas. If a country can do it, why can’t we? So every year, we host our own State of the Nation address, where we talk about our goals and mission, but also enjoy a slap-up breakfast while taking in the beautiful views of Cape Town from the steps of Rhodes Memorial.
Be it a pitch win, special Birthday, long service mention or any other excuse for a Jupiterian huddle – you can be sure that the Jaggermeisters will be lined up and ready for action.
Once a year, our Johannesburg office hosts a Creative Week where groundbreakers of the industry are invited to give an invaluable glimpse into their creative minds. If you’re interested in the latest trends in advertising, pure innovation and what drives astounding creative thought, sign up for Jupiter’s Creative Week and enjoy a generous serving of some fresh inspiration.
On the last working day of each year, everyone brings their kids into work (or for those who don’t have children, their dogs). The tradition also says that newbies need to take a dash around the agency to see who is fastest.
Every Friday we celebrate the end of a long and hard working week, by kicking back with our colleagues and enjoying a cold beverage. It’s a time for chit-chat, in-jokes and the start of new friendships.
Polly the bull terrier was Jupiter’s legendary first dog. She arrived at the Johannesburg offices one day as a stray, and befriended the team for the next fifteen years. She was appointed to the board as Head of Security and travelled into work every day in Graham’s Rolls Royce, only to settle in the pride of place in front of the roaring fireplace. These days dogs of all shapes and size wander through our doors, and we love them all.
Every year, staff at each agency gather for our annual staff photo, a tradition that’s gone back 20 years. We record our time together because we value our time together. One day, many years hence, we want our staff to look back on their days at Jupiter and honestly be able to say “There’s nowhere else I would have been during those special years. No other agency. No other country.”
In Blantyre, Jupiter has its own set of branded wheels with the number plate Jupiter-1, and it can often be seen cruising around town to fancy meetings with clients. Graham liked the idea so much, he is investing in a Jupiter-WP.
We love any excuse to celebrate, and a birthday is as good an excuse as any. In Lusaka, on each person’s birthday we celebrate with a BBQ in the back garden in their honour.
Everyone who has worked with us holds a special place in our company, and we like to remember everyone who has played a role in making our business what it is today. So when we say a sad goodbye to a familiar face, a tradition has developed where they give us something to remember them by, which is then displayed in our office. From antique typewriters and brass bells, to photos and framed underwear on our walls, our workplace tells a story of all of our friends, present and past.
A few years ago, we celebrated the first day of spring by jumping into a fountain outside of our office. It was so much fun, we turned it into an annual tradition. Despite not having a fountain anymore, we all still take a traditional jump through inflatable paddling pools. It’s usually pretty chilly, but a glass of champagne and some strawberries usually make up for it.
Winters are special at Jupiter. Winter warmers like delicious hot chocolate, moreish marshmallows and cosy fires are bound to get everyone into snug-as-a-bug mode.
Our country’s State of the Nation address sets out the vision for that year, along with focus and development areas. If a country can do it, why can’t we? So every year, we host our own State of the Nation address, where we talk about our goals and mission, but also enjoy a slap-up breakfast while taking in the beautiful views of Cape Town from the steps of Rhodes Memorial.
Be it a pitch win, special Birthday, long service mention or any other excuse for a Jupiterian huddle – you can be sure that the Jaggermeisters will be lined up and ready for action.
Once a year, our Johannesburg office hosts a Creative Week where groundbreakers of the industry are invited to give an invaluable glimpse into their creative minds. If you’re interested in the latest trends in advertising, pure innovation and what drives astounding creative thought, sign up for Jupiter’s Creative Week and enjoy a generous serving of some fresh inspiration.
On the last working day of each year, everyone brings their kids into work (or for those who don’t have children, their dogs). The tradition also says that newbies need to take a dash around the agency to see who is fastest.
Every Friday we celebrate the end of a long and hard working week, by kicking back with our colleagues and enjoying a cold beverage. It’s a time for chit-chat, in-jokes and the start of new friendships.
The Jupiter Drawing Room was founded in Johannesburg in 1989 by Graham Warsop. The agency name came from a grand room in a bordello in a Guy de Maupassant short story. The Cape Town office opened its doors in 1994.
From those early days as a small, yet creative, boutique agency brand, it has grown into one of South Africa’s largest advertising groups and is recognised, both locally and globally, for its creative abilities.
In 2009, a ‘dream deal’ was completed with communications giant WPP which acquired a 49% stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room. In 2012 The Jupiter Drawing Room opened its first agency outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe. A new brand-holding company, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), was created under which two agencies fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a dynamic young agency enjoying meteoric growth in the Zimbabwean market.
In 2013 further offices were opened in Zambia and Malawi, and in 2014 The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Mauritius) was formed.
The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) is the country’s current joint Agency of the Decade (Source: FinWeek’s AdReview).
The Jupiter Drawing Room was founded in Johannesburg in 1989 by Graham Warsop. The agency name came from a grand room in a bordello in a Guy de Maupassant short story. The Cape Town office opened its doors in 1994.
From those early days as a small, yet creative, boutique agency brand, it has grown into one of South Africa’s largest advertising groups and is recognised, both locally and globally, for its creative abilities.
In 2009, a ‘dream deal’ was completed with communications giant WPP which acquired a 49% stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room. In 2012 The Jupiter Drawing Room opened its first agency outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe. A new brand-holding company, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), was created under which two agencies fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a dynamic young agency enjoying meteoric growth in the Zimbabwean market.
In 2013 further offices were opened in Zambia and Malawi, and in 2014 The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Mauritius) was formed.
The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) is the country’s current joint Agency of the Decade (Source: FinWeek’s AdReview).
We could have placed an order with the local office furniture outfit. We could have gone to a trendy Italian boutique and bought something in day-glo pink or imitation zebra skin (we are, after all, an advertising agency).
We could have. But we didn’t.
When we went out to furnish the drawing room at Jupiter, we expended the entire budget on just one item. An original Chesterfield.
During those first weeks, back in May 1989, we soon realized that the Chesterfield was not just a piece of furniture; it was symbolic of something much grander. Something at the very heart of The Jupiter Drawing Room’s approach to its work. Craftmanship.
Meticulously researched and finely tuned concepts, painstaking attention to even the smallest details; it is easy to believe these qualities do not matter in the great scheme of things. We believe they have never mattered more.
That Chesterfield has become an icon for our business. It represents the qualities of creativity and beautiful craftsmanship that we want our work to be associated with.
Over the years we have developed a series of ‘Chesterfield’ adverts, which bring to life the essence of The Jupiter Drawing Room brand.
We could have placed an order with the local office furniture outfit. We could have gone to a trendy Italian boutique and bought something in day-glo pink or imitation zebra skin (we are, after all, an advertising agency).
We could have. But we didn’t.
When we went out to furnish the drawing room at Jupiter, we expended the entire budget on just one item. An original Chesterfield.
During those first weeks, back in May 1989, we soon realized that the Chesterfield was not just a piece of furniture; it was symbolic of something much grander. Something at the very heart of The Jupiter Drawing Room’s approach to its work. Craftmanship.
Meticulously researched and finely tuned concepts, painstaking attention to even the smallest details; it is easy to believe these qualities do not matter in the great scheme of things. We believe they have never mattered more.
That Chesterfield has become an icon for our business. It represents the qualities of creativity and beautiful craftsmanship that we want our work to be associated with.
Over the years we have developed a series of ‘Chesterfield’ adverts, which bring to life the essence of The Jupiter Drawing Room brand.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.
Despite being a relatively small independent agency, situated at the tip of Africa, creatively we have been able to compete with the giant agencies globally. We are honored that we were the first agency from Africa to be ranked by US trade publication Advertising Age in the Top Five Most Creative Agencies in the World, based on creative performance.
Our trophies cabinet sports major awards from every one of the world’s most prestigious international festivals; Cannes, The One Show, Clios, D&AD, LIAA, New York Festivals, Midas etc. Our Cannes tally alone numbers over 20 Lions, including 14 Golds.
The Jupiter Drawing Room is the only agency in the world to have been selected to feature in UK trade publication Campaign’s annual edition of ‘The World’s Leading Independent Agencies’ for nine consecutive years.
We are category agnostic and pride ourselves in having developed, to a world-class standard, a number of disciplines under one roof. Interestingly, for an agency noted for its advertising work, The Jupiter Drawing Room has been ranked the second most awarded Design agency in the world at the US One Show Design awards. The Cape Town office has also been named Design Agency of the Year twice in South Africa’s annual AdReview Awards – the only times this accolade has been awarded to an integrated agency, rather than a specialist design agency.
The Jupiter Drawing Room was also the most awarded Design agency at South Africa’s premiere advertising event, the Loerie Awards in 2011. For good measure Jupiter also picked up 50% of the Gold’s handed out in the Digital categories that year.
At the 2015 Loerie awards, Jupiter’s performance once again saw it ranked as Africa’s No1 Communications Design Agency.
Innovation is at the heart of what we do. This was recognized in spectacular style when The Jupiter Drawing Room became the first agency in the world to win a prestigious Silver Pencil in the Ambient Media category of the UK’s D&AD Awards.
The Jupiter Drawing Room founder and group chairman, Graham Warsop, was the first creative director from South Africa to judge the ‘Big Four’ global shows; Cannes, D&AD, One Show, and Clios (the latter as chairman of the judging panel). He has been inducted into the New York Festivals Hall of Fame and was ranked the No1 Creative Director in the World at the London International Advertising Awards (LIAA) 20th Anniversary retrospective, in London. Locally, he has been inducted into both the Creative Circle Hall of Fame and, most recently, the Loeries Hall of Fame.
Members of our creative staff are regularly flown around the world by international awards shows, eager to have their presence on global awards juries and/or to participate in conferences. Ross Chowles our Executive Creative Director in Jupiter (Cape Town) is regularly flown to China by the prestigious New York based One Club, to give educational lectures and workshops. Ross recently became the first person from Africa to be elected to serve on the One Club's prestigious international board.
The Jupiter Drawing Room’s performance as an agency (not just an independent) saw it voted joint Advertising Agency of The Decade by FinWeek’s AdReview in 2010.
In a remarkable set of events, that became dubbed ‘The Perfect Storm’, Jupiter (Johannesburg) won R1 billion in new business in three pitches on three consecutive days. This feat set a SA industry record (still unbroken) for the most business put on by a single agency office, in one year.
In the New York Festivals Midas Awards, the only awards show in the world exclusively dedicated to financial services advertising, The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) has fared particularly well. In The Midas Awards 10 year anniversary rankings, Jupiter was declared the best performing agency in the world in the last decade (beating some pretty big global competitors). In 2014, Jupiter also won the inaugural Midas Innovation Award.
In 2012, we opened our first agency outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe. A new brand-holding company, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), was created, under which two agencies fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a dynamic young agency enjoying meteoric growth in the Zimbabwean market. Over the next three years, further offices were opened in Zambia, Malawi and Mauritius.
Our African expansion has yielded positive results. Jericho, our sister agency in Zimbabwe, was voted FinWeek AdReview’s inaugural African Agency of The Year in 2013. In 2014 it won Zimbabwe’s first Loerie Gold for client Unilever (Unilever had never won a Gold Loerie in any country before).
In 2009, we were privileged to enter into a ‘dream deal’ with Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP, who became 49% shareholding partners in our agencies; allowing us access to resources that we never believed possible.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.
Despite being a relatively small independent agency, situated at the tip of Africa, creatively we have been able to compete with the giant agencies globally. We are honored that we were the first agency from Africa to be ranked by US trade publication Advertising Age in the Top Five Most Creative Agencies in the World, based on creative performance.
Our trophies cabinet sports major awards from every one of the world’s most prestigious international festivals; Cannes, The One Show, Clios, D&AD, LIAA, New York Festivals, Midas etc. Our Cannes tally alone numbers over 20 Lions, including 14 Golds.
The Jupiter Drawing Room is the only agency in the world to have been selected to feature in UK trade publication Campaign’s annual edition of ‘The World’s Leading Independent Agencies’ for nine consecutive years.
We are category agnostic and pride ourselves in having developed, to a world-class standard, a number of disciplines under one roof. Interestingly, for an agency noted for its advertising work, The Jupiter Drawing Room has been ranked the second most awarded Design agency in the world at the US One Show Design awards. The Cape Town office has also been named Design Agency of the Year twice in South Africa’s annual AdReview Awards – the only times this accolade has been awarded to an integrated agency, rather than a specialist design agency.
The Jupiter Drawing Room was also the most awarded Design agency at South Africa’s premiere advertising event, the Loerie Awards in 2011. For good measure Jupiter also picked up 50% of the Gold’s handed out in the Digital categories that year.
At the 2015 Loerie awards, Jupiter’s performance once again saw it ranked as Africa’s No1 Communications Design Agency.
Innovation is at the heart of what we do. This was recognized in spectacular style when The Jupiter Drawing Room became the first agency in the world to win a prestigious Silver Pencil in the Ambient Media category of the UK’s D&AD Awards.
The Jupiter Drawing Room founder and group chairman, Graham Warsop, was the first creative director from South Africa to judge the ‘Big Four’ global shows; Cannes, D&AD, One Show, and Clios (the latter as chairman of the judging panel). He has been inducted into the New York Festivals Hall of Fame and was ranked the No1 Creative Director in the World at the London International Advertising Awards (LIAA) 20th Anniversary retrospective, in London. Locally, he has been inducted into both the Creative Circle Hall of Fame and, most recently, the Loeries Hall of Fame.
Members of our creative staff are regularly flown around the world by international awards shows, eager to have their presence on global awards juries and/or to participate in conferences. Ross Chowles our Executive Creative Director in Jupiter (Cape Town) is regularly flown to China by the prestigious New York based One Club, to give educational lectures and workshops. Ross recently became the first person from Africa to be elected to serve on the One Club's prestigious international board.
The Jupiter Drawing Room’s performance as an agency (not just an independent) saw it voted joint Advertising Agency of The Decade by FinWeek’s AdReview in 2010.
In a remarkable set of events, that became dubbed ‘The Perfect Storm’, Jupiter (Johannesburg) won R1 billion in new business in three pitches on three consecutive days. This feat set a SA industry record (still unbroken) for the most business put on by a single agency office, in one year.
In the New York Festivals Midas Awards, the only awards show in the world exclusively dedicated to financial services advertising, The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) has fared particularly well. In The Midas Awards 10 year anniversary rankings, Jupiter was declared the best performing agency in the world in the last decade (beating some pretty big global competitors). In 2014, Jupiter also won the inaugural Midas Innovation Award.
In 2012, we opened our first agency outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe. A new brand-holding company, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), was created, under which two agencies fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a dynamic young agency enjoying meteoric growth in the Zimbabwean market. Over the next three years, further offices were opened in Zambia, Malawi and Mauritius.
Our African expansion has yielded positive results. Jericho, our sister agency in Zimbabwe, was voted FinWeek AdReview’s inaugural African Agency of The Year in 2013. In 2014 it won Zimbabwe’s first Loerie Gold for client Unilever (Unilever had never won a Gold Loerie in any country before).
In 2009, we were privileged to enter into a ‘dream deal’ with Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP, who became 49% shareholding partners in our agencies; allowing us access to resources that we never believed possible.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.
Despite being a relatively small independent agency, situated at the tip of Africa, creatively we have been able to compete with the giant agencies globally. We are honored that we were the first agency from Africa to be ranked by US trade publication Advertising Age in the Top Five Most Creative Agencies in the World, based on creative performance.
Our trophies cabinet sports major awards from every one of the world’s most prestigious international festivals; Cannes, The One Show, Clios, D&AD, LIAA, New York Festivals, Midas etc. Our Cannes tally alone numbers over 20 Lions, including 14 Golds.
The Jupiter Drawing Room is the only agency in the world to have been selected to feature in UK trade publication Campaign’s annual edition of ‘The World’s Leading Independent Agencies’ for nine consecutive years.
We are category agnostic and pride ourselves in having developed, to a world-class standard, a number of disciplines under one roof. Interestingly, for an agency noted for its advertising work, The Jupiter Drawing Room has been ranked the second most awarded Design agency in the world at the US One Show Design awards. The Cape Town office has also been named Design Agency of the Year twice in South Africa’s annual AdReview Awards – the only times this accolade has been awarded to an integrated agency, rather than a specialist design agency.
The Jupiter Drawing Room was also the most awarded Design agency at South Africa’s premiere advertising event, the Loerie Awards in 2011. For good measure Jupiter also picked up 50% of the Gold’s handed out in the Digital categories that year.
At the 2015 Loerie awards, Jupiter’s performance once again saw it ranked as Africa’s No1 Communications Design Agency.
Innovation is at the heart of what we do. This was recognized in spectacular style when The Jupiter Drawing Room became the first agency in the world to win a prestigious Silver Pencil in the Ambient Media category of the UK’s D&AD Awards.
The Jupiter Drawing Room founder and group chairman, Graham Warsop, was the first creative director from South Africa to judge the ‘Big Four’ global shows; Cannes, D&AD, One Show, and Clios (the latter as chairman of the judging panel). He has been inducted into the New York Festivals Hall of Fame and was ranked the No1 Creative Director in the World at the London International Advertising Awards (LIAA) 20th Anniversary retrospective, in London. Locally, he has been inducted into both the Creative Circle Hall of Fame and, most recently, the Loeries Hall of Fame.
Members of our creative staff are regularly flown around the world by international awards shows, eager to have their presence on global awards juries and/or to participate in conferences. Ross Chowles our Executive Creative Director in Jupiter (Cape Town) is regularly flown to China by the prestigious New York based One Club, to give educational lectures and workshops. Ross recently became the first person from Africa to be elected to serve on the One Club's prestigious international board.
The Jupiter Drawing Room’s performance as an agency (not just an independent) saw it voted joint Advertising Agency of The Decade by FinWeek’s AdReview in 2010.
In a remarkable set of events, that became dubbed ‘The Perfect Storm’, Jupiter (Johannesburg) won R1 billion in new business in three pitches on three consecutive days. This feat set a SA industry record (still unbroken) for the most business put on by a single agency office, in one year.
In the New York Festivals Midas Awards, the only awards show in the world exclusively dedicated to financial services advertising, The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) has fared particularly well. In The Midas Awards 10 year anniversary rankings, Jupiter was declared the best performing agency in the world in the last decade (beating some pretty big global competitors). In 2014, Jupiter also won the inaugural Midas Innovation Award.
In 2012, we opened our first agency outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe. A new brand-holding company, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners (Zimbabwe), was created, under which two agencies fall; The Jupiter Drawing Room (Harare) and Jericho, a dynamic young agency enjoying meteoric growth in the Zimbabwean market. Over the next three years, further offices were opened in Zambia, Malawi and Mauritius.
Our African expansion has yielded positive results. Jericho, our sister agency in Zimbabwe, was voted FinWeek AdReview’s inaugural African Agency of The Year in 2013. In 2014 it won Zimbabwe’s first Loerie Gold for client Unilever (Unilever had never won a Gold Loerie in any country before).
In 2009, we were privileged to enter into a ‘dream deal’ with Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP, who became 49% shareholding partners in our agencies; allowing us access to resources that we never believed possible.
We started life as a small group of entrepreneurs who launched a business from scratch, wanting to create a global creative reputation.
We never really focused on the money but in 2009, 20 years after we started out with no money, but plenty of dreams, our agency was valued at over US$ 56m.
Today, we’re just as entrepreneurial, and just as motivated to produce category-defining innovative thinking.
We’re also still majority privately-owned in Africa, meaning that our destiny not just rests in Africa, but also in our hands.
Our dreams too.