27 September 2002
	SA'S BEST ENTREPRENEURS TBWA Hunt Lascaris THE BOOT SALE THAT BOOMED By Tony Koenderman

When in 1983 Reg Lascaris and John Hunt launched an ad agency that later became TBWA Hunt Lascaris, they had little capital, no offices and no clients. They presented concepts to clients from the boot of Lascaris's car. They then borrowed a corner of the Carlton Centre offices of Kelly, an early client. The company survived by neither of them drawing salaries for six months and by keeping overheads low. But a year later, with a total staff of eight, they achieved a small profit. Today, the agency is SA's second-biggest, with a blue-chip client list that includes BMW, Standard Bank, Tiger Foods, Woolworths, MTN and the SABC. It is SA's leading winner of creative awards, with an international reputation as one of the world's best advertising agencies. Its work has been used globally by a number of clients, including BMW, Mini, SA Tourism and Nando's. It is handling Sasol's worldwide expansion and has just won the corporate campaign for Spar Europe. In 1993 Hunt Lascaris became the first southern hemisphere agency to be named International Agency of the Year by American trade newspaper Advertising Age. From the beginning, Lascaris and Hunt had a vision of being "the first world-class agency in Africa", a dream that has now been achieved. But they keep setting new targets, the latest of which is to win the Cannes Festival "best agency" accolade. As a youngster, Lascaris dropped out of university, which he found boring. Working in the property division of a mining house, he tried desperately to get a job in advertising, eventually offering to work for nothing for six months. He worked his way up, changed to three different agencies and met John Hunt along the way. A year later they opened their own agency. With global condemnation of apartheid at fever pitch in 1985, and isolation looming, they fought to bring an international partner on board - TBWA. An initial 10% equity stake has been built into 100% control. Today, Hunt Lascaris is recognised in the network as one of its top three agencies and the leader in applying its "disruption" strategy, which is used to develop creative ideas by challenging the status quo. For SA's first democratic elections in 1994, Hunt Lascaris became the ANC's ad agency, undeterred by bomb threats in a tensely polarised society. Lascaris has co-authored five books on SA trends and opportunities, the first of which was Third World Destiny, written with Nick Green. It challenged racial stereotypes in advertising. In 1996, Lascaris was appointed to the TBWA Worldwide board, and heads the Africa, Middle East & Mediterranean region.