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AWARDS
Where egos dare
CHAIRPERSON – Festus Masekwameng
been open to the rest of Africa and the
Middle East but the majority of entries
still come from South Africa. Of the
regional entries this year, most were
from the Middle East with a
smattering from South Africa’s
neighbouring countries. As Human
points out, the Loeries budget currently
prohibits big spend on regional
marketing. Other factors are small
advertising budgets and the restricted
size of the industry in African
countries. Internationally, the Loeries
have a high profile and are the only
South African awards event to feature
in the ratings of the annual Gunn
Report.
Party time
Since May this year ad agency
creatives around South Africa,
the continent and the Middle
East have been encouraged to
‘Feed Your Ego’ by entering the region’s
most prestigious brand communication
awards, The Loeries. Winners will be
announced during Loeries weekend,
which takes place for the first time ever
in Cape Town, from 24 to 27
September.
With the recession affecting
absolutely everything and everybody at
this time, it’s encouraging to note that
Loerie entries are only down overall by
5%. Consider that entries for this year’s
Cannes International Film Festival
were down a massive 40%.
Loeries CEO Andrew Human
believes that advertising awards are a
good economic measure in a recession.
“In the past few years awareness of the
Loerie Awards from areas outside
traditional advertising has grown. Our
Design category has grown by 10%
while the main Advertising category
went down by 5%. Experiential entries
were down 20%, but some of the drop
is attributable to the fact that we
changed the rules in the TV and Radio
Infomercial category – only clips of two
minutes were eligible. This cut out the
30-second promos, which subsequently
moved to the TV category instead.
There was a significant drop in the
student category – 15%. Our entry fees
stayed the same as last year so maybe
there was a drop in enrolment at
tertiary institutions.
“The main Radio category has 252
entries, TV has 221 entries, Newspaper
195 and Magazine 162. Experiential
has 437 entries, of which 160 fall into
the Digital category. I’m delighted to
say we have 38 websites competing at
the Loeries this year, which is a huge
increase from 2008.”
Four new awards were introduced for
this year’s competition: New Voice
Radio Award (promotes non-English
radio advertising), the Creative Use of
Paper (promotes the use of paper in
LOERIES CEO – Andrew Human
design), the Mobile Advertising Award
and the Internet Advertising Award.
“Media owners subsist on advertising
so they need to attract as much of it as
possible,” continues Human. “Each of
the new awards was created to
encourage advertising in different
mediums. The New Voice Radio
Award has been very successful and
we’ve received 52 entries, mostly in the
African languages as well as a few
Afrikaans ones. Every single entry
submitted on paper is eligible for the
Creative Use of Paper Award. The
Mobile and Internet categories are
small as they are hampered by
unrealistic costs of access with inferior
bandwidth.”
Loeries chairperson Festus
Masekwameng adds: “The new awards
have generated lots of excitement in the
industry. As for this year’s entries in
general, it’s been great to see that some
clients have been consistently brave
with their campaigns. It ‘s also
wonderful to witness some new clients
entering the fray and doing interesting
work, so it’s not all about the same old
brands.
“The Loeries are all about
recognising creative excellence and it’s
good to take time out to pat each other
on the back. I would like to take this
opportunity to congratulate all the
winners in advance. A Loerie award is
very difficult to win. Every single
Loerie recognition – from finalist to
Bronze, Silver and Gold Loerie to
Grand Prix – is a significant
achievement.”
Judging
Over 130 judges, all leading experts in
their fields, judged the 2009 entries,
presided over by international jury
chairmen Jan Jacobs (Johannes
Leonardo, New York), Jim Sutherland
(Hat-trick Design, London) and Matt
Shirtcliffe (Saatchi & Saatchi DGS,
New Zealand). Entries were judged on
innovative concept, bringing new and
fresh thinking, excellent execution,
relevance to the brand, relevance to the
target audience, and relevance to the
chosen medium.
In a first, a period of discussion was
allowed after the first round of judging.
The Loeries committee received very
positive feedback from the juries about
this new innovation, as while it
lengthened the process, it ensured that
second round entries were thoroughly
scrutinised. All work was judged
anonymously.
Says Human: “I think we had a very
high standard of international judges
this year and they will be a hard act to
follow. Jan Jacobs, who is an ex-South
African, was impressed that the work
has become local and is no longer
imitating London like it used to. Both
Jim Sutherland and Matt Shirtcliffe
were very happy with the quality of the
entries.
“Smaller agencies are definitely
beginning to make making more
impact at the Loeries. Last year two out
of four Grand Prix were won by small
agencies – Trigger and Am I
Collective, which only had a single
entry in the whole competition. The
standards are very high this year so
even winning a Bronze Loerie is
nothing to be sneezed at.”
For some years the competition has
Loeries weekend, with the awards
ceremonies taking place on the Friday
and Saturday nights, is akin to a fourday
long party with a myriad of
activities. And this time it’s happening
in Cape Town, with the Loeries Village
situated in Long Street.
Says Masekwameng: “I think people
are really looking forward to
experiencing the awards in Cape Town.
We had a great run in Margate for
many years, but now it’s time for a
change. The Loeries are beginning to
attract more interest from beyond the
advertising industry and I think this
will be reflected in the attendance at
the awards ceremonies.”
At the time of going to press, ticket
sales were above those of last year, with
the Saturday night close to sold out. As
per the Good Hope Centre venue,
seating has grown to 2 500 per night (as
opposed to 2 100 in Margate).
Human was not at liberty to
comment on the actual awards
ceremonies other than to say both
nights will be red carpet events with
lots of VIPs and celebrities. “I can,
however, talk about all the activities
surround the two awards ceremonies.
All the after parties on both nights will
take place in Long Street. Camps Bay
will become a mini Loeries Village for
the weekend and all agencies are urged
to book their parties there. On the
Thursday there will be the Battle of the
Bands, the Chairman’s Party and the
Mayor’s Party.”
Sponsorship of the event, in these
recessionary times, has been difficult
says Human. “Our two main sponsors
are Ads 24 and the SABC – everyone
is aware of the SABC’s difficulties.
Nevertheless the Loeries has kept a
very tight budget, especially seeing as
we decided to keep entry and ticket
prices the same as in 2008. The Loeries
are a bigger event this year, in terms of
the number of seats.
“On the upside, the City of Cape
Town and Cape Town Tourism have
contributed to infrastructure costs.
Gearhouse South Africa being a
sponsor has assisted in technical costs.
Without these partnerships the Loeries
event could not happen.”
14
SCREENAFRICA – September 2009