FoxP2 brings experienced strategy, management brain into the fold

FoxP2 has brought Sello Leshope, an industry veteran with many years of strategy development and business management experience as well as Loerie and Apex Awards wins to his name for both copywriting and strategy, into its fold as Strategic Planning Director effective April 1.

Leshope joins FoxP2 from Ogilvy Africa where he was previously the Regional Strategic Planning Director for the group and Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Strategy for Geometry, its shopper marketing agency.

FoxP2 was recently ranked as South Africa’s most creative medium-sized agency on the Loeries Official Rankings 2020 for the second year running.

“I’m excited to join FoxP2 and be part of their narrative,” said Leshope. “I’ve always admired them for their remarkable creative work but it’s been amazing to see them mature into the well-balanced powerhouse they are today while not only retaining, but sharpening their creative edge.

“Joining them is an honor because it’s not just a job, it’s about being part of a living legacy, especially when your partners are the founders of the business,” he said.

“As the most effective creative agency in South Africa, according to Scopen, our fierce belief in powerful insights that can transform business and unlock consumer attention is why we’re hiring someone who’s the real deal,” said FoxP2 Creative Partner and MD Grant Jacobsen.

“Someone whose view on our industry is progressive and whose talent is razor sharp. Someone who knows how to find the narrative in the data and exploit the gap in the market. Someone who is as comfortable sparring with Grant Sithole as our Executive Creative Director, as he is holding a boardroom full of CEOs. Someone whose experience across both decades and the continent tempers his passion with wisdom and pragmatism. Sello is that someone,” Jacobsen said.

Leshope’s experience as lead of a cross-functional strategy team overseeing disciplines including shopper, brand, digital and consumer insights across multiple markets and categories is impressive.

A specialist in brand, shopper, trade, customer experience and behavioral change disciplines and campaigns, he has worked on global and regional campaigns in Financial Services, FMCG, Retail and Telco sectors as well as on social campaigns addressing gender-based violence, malnutrition, HIV/ Aids and Covid-19.

Not only has  Leshope worked on a number of single-market blue-chip accounts  such as, SABMiller, Diageo, Distell, Unilever, British American Tobacco South Africa, Volkswagen South Africa, Safaricom, WWF Kenya, Mondelez, P&G, Old Mutual South Africa and Capfin, his regional planning experience includes a multi-market portfolio across East, West, Central, Southern Africa and Francophone Islands, working on Coca Cola, Airtel, British American Tobacco East Africa, NCBA Bank, Ecobank, Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC), PSI (Population Services International) as well as Africa CDC amongst others.