Advertising News South Africa

morrisjones&co and kulula part ways

Nina Morris, co-founder and managing director of morrisjones&co, announced on Thursday, 17 August 2006, that morrisjones&co would no longer be servicing kulula.com which it launched in South Africa in 2001. The total advertising account has been awarded to King James, following the work the agency did for the launch of the low cost airline's credit card.

"It's been an amazing five years," said Morris, "and we wish kulula.com all the best. Everything must come to an end, and due to our growing portfolio of diversified clients, it's necessary for both parties to move on."

Kulula.com has experienced year on year growth of 40% and is South Africa's biggest online retailer, according to morrisjones&co.

"We named it, we painted it, we made it fly," said Angel Jones, co-founder and creative director. "Within three days of launching, newspaper headlines were already using the name 'kulula' intead of 'low cost airline' which was an immense achievement in branding".

Not only did morrisjones&co come up with the name, "kulula", it designed the logo, created all the advertising, wrote all the quirky on-board commentary, inspired the uniforms, produced the in-flight menus and much much more. "It's what we call "allvertising"," explained Jones, "a 'wholistic' approach to the whole communication process".

In 2003 kulula.com was voted Financial Mail Advertiser of the Year. The 'Expect More' campaign was voted Campaign of the Year 2004 by SA consumers. Work on kulula.com has won numerous awards, including a Silver Loerie and First Place Creative Circle.

Concluded Jones, "It has been great to work with a client who had the balls to take risks with us along the way. It's not often one has the chance to give birth to a brand, and we thank everyone at kulula.com for a great half-decade."

morrisjones&co is expect to announce its empowerment deal within the next few weeks.

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