Following a successful sale to, Murphy was then asked to stay on as COO within Publicis Groupe Africa, where he led 42 agencies across 36 African markets. 

"I'd been watching the coming together of the agency over the previous 18 months and was enthused by the scale of aspiration and the parts of specialist best-of-breed legacy agencies in South Africa, including JWT, Aqua, Cerebra, Mirum, Applogix, Acceleration and The Hardy Boys," says Murphy.

"Each of these companies was first to market and the best in their specialist disciplines. How could I say no? I relish a challenge, and this one is perfect for me," adds Murphy. 

"[The team at Wunderman Thompson South Africa] represents all the expertise that we offer our clients. Our debate is open, honest and lively, but once we agree on a plan, we are a united front. My leadership team is one of the joys of this new role and I feel honoured and humbled to be working with them," Murphy says.

Murphy says, "My primary concern is to protect the safety, wellbeing and livelihoods of my colleagues. I'm also concentrating on maintaining exceptional client output throughout this phase."

"The lockdown has sped-up all the trends that the agency was already riding and so the pandemic has somewhat fast-tracked our client's adoption of technology-enabled communication channels. We've seen significant growth across these disciplines," he adds.

"While many of the essential building blocks are already in place, I've joined Wunderman Thompson at a transformative time. We have a superb team, sought-after clients, and access to a global network, but there’s still much to do in raising the profile of the agency and the innovative work we create," Murphy says.

Our team also increasingly acts as a centre of excellence for our global network, and we’re operating as a technology hub for clients worldwide, so we plan to expand this substantially. Over the next year or two, I want to significantly increase employment opportunities for South Africans in our sector by letting them work on local and global brands."  

Murphy concludes that his vision is to build Wunderman Thompson South African into the 'leading tech-enabled integrated agency with creativity and innovation at its core'.

For more information, visit www.wunderman.co.za. You can also follow Wunderman South Africa on Facebook or on Twitter.