28 November 2008
	PROFILES BOOMTOWN

Type of agency - Branding & design Ownership - 100% local Key person - Neil Hart Revenue - R23m Accounts gained - 5 Accounts lost - 0 Total clients - 30 Number of staff - 33 Equity - 10% Biggest client - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) The Port Elizabeth-based agency has been around for 14 years and has grown to the point where it is thinking of opening a Johannesburg office in 2009. Having already secured so many of the Eastern Cape's big brands (and turned down takeover offers by national agencies), it may feel regional growth prospects are limited. In the 2007 AdFocus, Boomtown described itself as an advertising agency. It now calls itself a strategic brand agency. "This is not just a sign-at-the-front change," says the agency. "It's been a 12-month shift that has refocused us." After NMMU, its biggest clients are the Coega industrial development zone, Eveready SA, the Cacadu district and Nelson Mandela Bay municipality and tourism. New accounts last year were the Coega Development Corp, Eveready, Clay Brick Association, Powerplate SA and Woodlands Dairies, worth about R10m in added turnover. The agency won five of the six pitches it entered.