Social.Lab continues its international development by launching a 10th market in South Africa!

After expanding to New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Singapore, Dubai and Bucharest, the social networking agency acquired by WPP in 2013 continues its international development by launching  in South Africa, South Africa is one of the 10 largest Ogilvy markets in the in the world  and is one of the global centres of creative excellence.

Social.Lab will operate in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. 

From November, Christophe Chantraine will take over a team of 15 media experts to build an offer combining social Lab's paid social expertise with the creative excellence of Ogilvy South Africa. Social.Lab South Africa will serve a large roster of local and international clients like VW, Audi, Unilever, Vodafone and AB-Inbev, a customer for whom Ogilvy SA won a Grand Prix at the latest Lions Cannes edition.

According to Chantraine, “This new direction in my career has certainly been the most important and the hardest to take, but it was impossible for me to refuse such an opportunity. I felt a real appetite and high expectations regarding the unique offer of Social.Lab in this growing market. After several years on the creative side (TBWA) and then on the media side, it was finally logical that the next step would be to implement an 100% integrated offer, benefiting as much as possible from proprietary know-how, methodologies and technologies Developed by Social.Lab around the world.”

 

Yves Baudechon, co-founder and President of Social.Lab Worldwide comments that, “With 15 agencies in 9 markets, and 400 experts, we continue to develop our network at a steady pace. South Africa is an ideal gateway to the entire African continent, digital is exploding, and 86% of South Africans have a mobile phone. This is a mobile and social society and Gilles and I are delighted that Christophe has accepted this mission.” 

 

As far as Belgium is concerned, Arnaud Vanhemelryck who takes over the role of Christophe as Head of Media. Active since 2012 at Social.Lab, Arnaud has spent the last 3 years with the group's New York team where he oversaw the media team and the social strategy of global clients such as IBM and UPS. He returned to Belgium at the beginning of the year to take over the global media partnership with Van Europe and to drive large-scale projects like BMW's global social media pitch, which recently resulted in a victory.