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Integrated marketing agency

Boring
is bad
for
business.

One team in Johannesburg, from strategy to media buy. We plan it, make it, buy the media and report the numbers.

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See our work

Trusted by 11 brands over 12 years of work across Africa.

  • MINI
  • Michelin
  • Spotify
  • Hollard
  • Knorr
  • Aromat
  • LegalWise
  • Brand SA
  • SANRAL
  • DGB
  • Dept. of Higher Education & Training

Selected work

Campaigns that refuse to be ignored.

All work
Drink More Water campaign for Pernod Ricard

Pernod Ricard01

Drink More Water

A responsible-drinking message carried by creators across three seasons: drink water between drinks, and the night lasts longer.

Influencer Marketing · Content · Experiential

  • Shell V-Power: Feel the Fuel campaign for Shell

    Shell

    Shell V-Power: Feel the Fuel

    An Ultimate VIP road trip in Ferraris and BMW M cars, creators feeling the fuel, and a live podcast at the F1 Match Party.

    Influencer Marketing · Experiential · Content

  • #GlowWithCentrum at Clicks Beauty campaign for Centrum

    Centrum

    #GlowWithCentrum at Clicks Beauty

    A brand space at Clicks Beauty built to be posed in, played in and shared, for the world's number one multivitamin.

    Experiential · Activation Design · Content

  • MINI Electric campaign for MINI

    MINI

    MINI Electric

    Making the electric MINI a lifestyle choice rather than a compromise.

    Influencer Marketing

See all 9 case studies

The problem

Most campaigns don’t fail. They get handed over.

Four agencies, each excellent at its own part, and nobody measured on whether the whole thing worked.

The usual way

4 agencies.
3 handovers.

  1. Creative agency

    Makes the work

  2. Media agency

    Buys the space

  3. Social agency

    Runs the channels

  4. PR agency

    Places the story

The brief changes hands three times. The waste is in the gaps.

The Digital Plug

1 team.
0 handovers.

  1. StrategyPositioning, audience, the gap in the market.
  2. CreativeThe idea, the identity, the art direction.
  3. ContentWhat gets made, and who is trusted to say it.
  4. InfluenceCreators matched by locality and relevance.
  5. MediaPlanned, negotiated, bought and optimised.
  6. MeasurementOne reconciled view, against the commercial goal.

Nothing changes hands. Everyone is measured on the same number.

  • 01

    More integrated than a specialist.

    A creator shop cannot buy your media. A media shop did not make your work. We do both, on the same brief, which is where the efficiency actually comes from.

  • 02

    More human than a network.

    Fifteen people, and the ones who pitch you are the ones who do the work. No account handlers in the middle, and no junior team swapped in once the contract is signed.

  • 03

    More commercial than a creative shop.

    Beautiful work that nobody bought media against is a cost centre. We are judged on the number the campaign was built to move.

One brief, one team, one set of numbers. That is also where the money comes back.

One office in Bryanston. Campaigns across Africa.
Projects deliveredCampaigns, brands and builds, shipped.
1500+
Years in marketBrand work across South Africa and the continent.
12
Media savings reinvestedBought better, spent back into the work.
R8.5M+
Awards and featuresIncluding Small Agency of the Year.
6+

The Digital Plug

What we do

Thirteen ways to stay unboring.

One integrated team across creation, amplification and measurement. Plug in anywhere.

Showing 13 services

How we work

Six steps. No surprises.

Every engagement is scoped and priced to the brief. No off-the-shelf packages.

  1. Onboarding

    Every project starts with a written plan and a timeline. We put the care into the set-up so the rest of the project can go into your brand.

  2. Discovery

    Think of us as your brand therapists. Collaborative workshops take a deep dive into your challenges, your audience, market dynamics and persona to find the core of the business.

  3. Strategy

    We pinpoint the gap in your market, then build a positioning framework and a roadmap that ignites action. This is where the creative and the media brief get written together, not separately.

  4. Execution

    Strategy becomes a physical and digital brand: identity, design, web, content, creator campaigns and the media that carries them.

  5. Hand-off

    The final product is yours. A detailed hand-off meeting and organised files mean you can confidently take the reins.

  6. Support

    We aim for a partnership, not a delivery. Long-term marketing and maintenance plans keep the work growing with the brand.

Send the brief as it is. Rough is fine. We’ll shape it with you.

Start a project

Recognition

Small Agency of the Year.

Five awards across two bodies, and the two clients who have put their names to the work.
  • 2024

    Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)

    MMA Smarties

  • 2024

    Most Innovative Social and Digital Media by a Small Agency

    The New Generation

  • 2023

    Small Agency of the Year

    The New Generation

  • 2023

    Best Use of Podcast/Vlog to Promote a Brand or Event

    The New Generation

  • 2023

    Most Innovative Social Media Campaign by a Small Agency

    The New Generation

“We are proud to have worked on an award-winning campaign with TDP. They are committed to the conceptualisation and execution of briefs while going the extra mile.”
Vincent GegeMarketing Manager · LegalWise South Africa (RF) Pty Ltd
“TDP delivered one of the best online media campaigns one of our clients has ever run in market.”
Philasande ComboClient and Strategy Lead

Before you ask

Good questions.

Still unsure about something? Ask us directly. We reply within one business day.

Ask a question

  • The Digital Plug is a pan-African integrated marketing agency based in Bryanston, Johannesburg. One team handles the strategy, the creative, the content, the creator campaigns, the media buying and the reporting, so a campaign does not have to survive being handed between four suppliers. Thirteen services sit under six capabilities, and any of them can be plugged in on their own or run together.

  • A specialist optimises their piece. An integrated agency optimises the outcome. When the same team writes the strategy, makes the creative and buys the media, the creative is built for the placements it will actually run in, the media plan is built around the idea rather than the other way round, and nobody spends the budget defending their part of the work. It is also where the efficiency comes from: we have reinvested more than R8.5 million in media savings back into client campaigns.

  • Every engagement is scoped and priced to the brief, so there are no off-the-shelf packages. Send us what you have and the budget you are working with, and we come back with a plan priced to match it. Media budgets are quoted separately from fees so you can always see what you are paying us and what is going into the market.

  • Six steps with no surprises: Onboarding, Discovery, Strategy, Execution, Hand-off and Support. It begins with a working session on your brand, audience and goals, and everything after that is signed off with you before work starts.

  • No. Send the brief as it is, rough is fine. We shape it with you in the discovery session until it is something everyone believes in.

  • We are based in Bryanston, Johannesburg, and we work with brands across South Africa and the rest of the continent. Clients have included MINI, Michelin, Spotify, Hollard, Knorr, Aromat, LegalWise, Brand South Africa, SANRAL and DGB. We were named Small Agency of the Year at The New Generation Awards in 2023.

Got a project? Ready when you are

Let's plugyou in.

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We reply within one business day

Big enough to buy the media, small enough that the people who pitched you do the work.