The Creative Counsel


The Creative Counsel is a South African advertising agency that was founded in 2001 by Gil Oved and Ran Neu-Ner. Herman Manson, founder of Marklives, reported they were the only South African agency earning more than R250 million in annual revenues.
In 2015, French advertising giant Publicis acquired the company ina record deal, estimated to be worth over R1.5-billion. The primarily focus of the agency is the below-the-line advertising, and it has investments in a number of other advertising plays operating across a number of fields. Other divisions include events and activations, and creative conceptualisations. One of its notable investment in the digital space is in PopiMedia, which specialises in social media strategy development and campaign creation. The Creative Counsel was also an investor in the launch of Product of the Year South Africa where it helped launched the initiative in South Africa along with Product of the Year Management and Preetesh Sewraj.
In 2016 the agency announced they will incubate five black-owned startups in media, marketing, digital, mobile industries. They will be supported and mentored by the agency’s management team, but the group has no interest in taking equity in participating businesses.