28 November 2008
	PROFILES THE BRAND UNION

Type of agency - Branding & design Ownership - 70% WPP, 30% Southern Place Investments Key person - Anthony Swart Revenue - R60m Accounts gained - 21 Accounts lost - 0 Total clients - 55 Number of staff - 67 Equity - 30% Biggest client - African Petroleum What better way to learn if your branding skills work than to try them out on yourself? The international group that had been known since 1996 as Enterprise IG became The Brand Union in November 2007. A year on, it's as if Enterprise never existed. Internationally, the group has managed 31 of the world's top 100 brands. The hiring of David Lett from the UK as creative director helped bolster the SA agency further at a time when it enjoyed its best financial period for six years. Its move into Africa brought a host of new accounts: of the 21 signed up during the review period, 10 were companies outside SA. Major SA gains included the SA Post Office, kulula.com and Autopage Cellular. The combined value of the new accounts was R47m. The Brand Union's biggest accounts are African Petroleum (Nigeria), Absa, Neotel, Unity Bank (Nigeria) and Nedbank.