GEOFF LOUW - ADVERTISING AGENCIES

NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ADVERTS | MORE PRESS ADS | MORE ADS |

Here's a small selection of above the line newspaper and magazine ads. I did most of these while working in advertising agencies, before I became a freelancer.

The ad agencies involved were Partnership / FCB (later Publicis Johannesburg), Ogilvy & Mather Mauritius, and Saatchi & Saatchi Mauritius.

I heard a quote somewhere to the effect that print advertising is the finest of the arts. I agree with that to an extent. Well, there's definitely an art to it anyway. It's not easy to combine visuals and words to deliver a specific message. At the end of the day though, ads are less about art and more about promoting products. I found that advertising agencies which focus entirely on winning awards often do so at the expense of increased product sales. Unfortunately, the others tend to produce boring work, which from the consumer's standpoint is worse. The ads are less likely to get noticed if they're boring. So there's a balance that needs to be struck.

While my work usually won awards, my objective was to bridge the gap and do striking and meaningful stuff that also sold products.

I came up with all the headlines and visuals for these ads. I also did the retouching, illustration and pre-press work.

A magazine ad to sell acoustic guitars. It had to appeal mainly to beginners, but also to experienced players.

This newspaper ad was 1 column wide x the full height of the newspaper. It was cheap to run and got lots of attention for the product.

"Mauritius, the Well-Oiled Transhipment Hub." Perishables are one of the main items that Air Mauritius Cargo transports.
The ad was targeted at freight forwarders, the type who put bikini-calendars behind their office doors.
The original headline was "...the Stress-Free Transhipment Hub," this was improved by the copywriter to "Well-Oiled."

This ad was designed to advertise the island of Mauritius as a safe place to invest. If companies from Europe, the Far East or Australia want to export goods to Africa, there are numerous advantages to setting up in Mauritius.

They've got more assurance of getting paid, as well as tax breaks, inexpensive labour and a stable government, amongst other factors. The client helps them set up light industry (eg, bulk-breaking) .