Big-agency craft.
Held to a number.
You set the number. We report against it every month.
Not impressions, not reach, not a shelf of awards that moved nothing. Every quarter opens with the number you have to move, and every month closes with the work measured against it.
Twenty minutes. You leave knowing what we would move first, and what it would be measured against.
Big-agency rigour, built on Coca-Cola, Samsung, Heineken and Eskort, inside VML and Metropolitan Republic. A native read on African culture. Senior craft, held to a commercial number.
The Problem
Creative you can
put a number on.
You set the number at the start of the quarter. We report against it monthly. The work is either doing what you hired it to do, or we change the work.
| The legacy agency system | UPLVL Creative Lab |
|---|---|
| ✗The number you actually had to move was never written down | ✓The number is agreed before any work starts |
| ✗Reported on impressions, reach and awards | ✓Reported monthly against that number, not against reach |
| ✗Work that misses gets defended, then repeated | ✓Work that misses gets changed, not defended |
| ✗A quarterly review that reads like a showreel | ✓You know inside a month whether it is working |
| ✗The plan does not change until the next pitch | ✓Senior craft, built on Coca-Cola, Samsung and Heineken |
| ✗You find out how the year went at the end of it | ✓Hours you can see, not a black-box retainer |
We spent twenty years making work that won the room. This is the same craft, pointed at the number you have to move.
The Work
Work that moved the number.
Not just the room.
Three years on Coca-Cola across North, Central and Southern Africa, inside Studio X, WPP’s dedicated Coca-Cola agency. Then Samsung, Heineken, Med-Lemon and Eskort. Every campaign below had a number behind it.
Entertainment
Creative Consultancy for VML (Studio X)
Ayra Starr x Coca-Cola
40M streams, 9:1 organic-to-paid ratio
On this campaign, borrowed distribution outperformed cold traffic 9:1.
Read the case study
FMCG
Creative Consultancy for Metropolitan Republic
Eskort x We Love Russians
15% sales uplift over the campaign period, on a commodity sausage brand
Cultural insight beat a 5x media budget. R1M paid, R5M earned.
Read the case study
FMCG
Creative Consultancy for Metropolitan Republic
Med-Lemon x Bra Shakes
Broke into 18-34 without alienating core market
Authentic native content beat scripted brand ads 4:1 on sentiment lift.
Read the case study
FMCG
Creative Consultancy for Metropolitan Republic
Grand-Pa x Stick Pack
New format, new buyer, new purchase occasion
Format is a growth lever. The same product in a different package unlocked an entirely new buyer.
Read the case studyFour brands, four different problems. Every one of them had something to move, and moved it.
How We Work
A number nobody acts on
is a wish.
So the retainer is built around four commitments. They sit in the contract, not in the pitch.
One · The number
Agreed before any work starts.
- The commercial number you are judged on, written into the quarter
- One number, not a dashboard of nine
- Set with you at the start of the quarter, not reverse-engineered at the end
- If it cannot be measured honestly, we say so before you sign
Two · The team
Stated hours, against a name.
- Every retainer states the hours it includes and the person against each one
- Your Creative Director on the business every month, from eight hours, sixteen at the top tier
- Anything beyond the stated hours is quoted and agreed before the work starts
- Thirteen people, so it still ships when the job gets big
Three · The month
One report. Against that number.
- Monthly, against the number you set, not against impressions
- What moved, what did not, what we are changing because of it
- One page you can forward to your exec team without rewriting it
- Production costs are quoted separately, so the fee stays legible
Four · The change
When it misses, the work changes.
- Work that is not moving the number gets replaced, not defended
- A quarterly creative refresh is written into the retainer
- You are never locked into a concept that has stopped working
- The call on what changes is your Creative Director's, taken in the monthly review
None of this is unusual. It is just written down, and written down is the whole difference.
Onboarding
Approved as a supplier
without the chase.
UPLVL Martech is VAT registered and fully documented. The compliance pack is attached to every vendor onboarding rather than requested from us: company registration, VAT registration, tax clearance, banking confirmation and a B-BBEE certificate at Level 2.
Your procurement team should not have to chase a supplier for the documents that let them approve the supplier. Everything they need arrives with the first proposal, in the format they file it in.
Nothing here needs a phone call to establish.
What We Do
Everything you would
brief an agency for.
Grouped by what it is there to move. A discipline that is not attached to a number is just a service you are paying for.
Get known
- Brand and campaign strategy
- Creative concepting and art direction
- Search and answer-engine visibility, so your brand shows up in search results and in the answers people are given
Get chosen
- Copywriting and scriptwriting
- Competitions, creator content and promos people actually enter
- Production management, in every format
Keep it moving
- Measurement and reporting, against the numbers you set at the start of the quarter
- A quarterly creative refresh, so the work does not go stale between campaigns
- Content systems your team can run without us
If it is not on this list, we will say so, and we will tell you who does it well.
The Team
Thirteen people. Every hour
you buy belongs to one of them.
Not a pool, not a resourcing spreadsheet, not a number that grows when the invoice does. This is the whole bench.
On the work
- Gift Afrika · Copy · 22 years · Saatchi & Saatchi. Publicis. Ogilvy. Promise. VML. Metropolitan Republic.
- Linda Ndinisa · Art Direction · 19 years · Ogilvy. BlueMoon. Roots 255. DWF Collective. Avatar. Metropolitan Republic. VML.
- Bana Afrika · Operations · 18 years · R600M of projects delivered across those years, and teams scaled from 5 to 60.
So it ships
- Hlengiwe Simelane · Account Director
- Blessing Mnguni · Senior Designer
- Fifi Mathambo · Social Media Lead
- Nandi Makhanya · Social Media Manager
- Haiden Coleman · Creative Technologist
The associate bench
- S'khumbuzo Madlala · Design Lead
- Raoul Seafield · Animator
- Thabiso Molefe · Design and Finished Art
- Gugu Mofokeng · Data Analyst
- Romeo Mtshali · Search and Answer Engine Specialist
The bench is why a big job does not become a queue.
How You Buy It
Three retainers.
Every hour accounted for.
Each tier states the hours it includes and the person against each one. Hours beyond the tier are quoted and approved before the work starts. Nothing is billed to you that you have not agreed first.
Essentials
94 hours a month
- Digital content strategy and communications plan
- Monthly content calendar, three posts a week
- Rollout of the agreed creative concept, with a quarterly creative refresh
- Monthly reporting against the number you set
Always On
146 hours a month
- Everything in Essentials
- Community management, half an hour every working day, across your agreed channels
- Social content strategy and calendar
Always On + Campaigns
218 hours a month
- Everything in Always On
- Quarterly campaign ideation and rollout
- Motion design and animated content
- Expanded strategy and creative direction, with the Creative Director at 16 hours a month
- Project work is quoted per brief.
- Three-month minimum, then monthly on 60 days' notice. No annual lock-in.
- Production, licensing, media and influencer costs are billed separately, at cost. All rates exclude VAT.
- Full rate card on request, or on the call.
Questions marketing leads ask us first.
Let’s Talk
Bring us the number
you have to move.
Twenty minutes. No pitch, no deck. You will leave with what we would do first, what we would make, how you would know whether it worked.
Book a 20-minute callLinda Ndinisa · +27 83 509 5664