COMMERCIALS NEWS

Brand communication gets its day

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:36

Just under 3 000 entries were received for this year’s Loerie Awards, which take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) this month. Recognising creativity, innovation and excellence in brand communication, the Loeries are open to South Africa, Africa and the Middle East.

Entries for the 33rd 2011 Loerie Awards are slightly up on last year with the radio category showing particular growth.

“We received 270 entries for radio, which is a significant increase on 2010,” says Loerie Awards CEO Andrew Human. “I suspect that this increase is due to the fact that radio is a very cost effective production medium. The standard of South African radio ads is generally very high, which is evident as we won the Cannes Lions Radio Grand Prix this year. There is also lots of investment in radio advertising locally.

“The number of entries in the digital category also increased this year and South Africa shows a lot of potential in digital advertising production quality. TV entries remain quite stable, with neither a dip nor an increase in number. We have a lot of smaller fringe media categories – such as ‘Internal Marketing Programmes,’ which generate only a handful of entries.”

Human notes that regional entries still only account for a very small portion of entries. “Because South African production values are much higher than many other countries in Africa, the Loeries Committee is considering establishing a separate regional awards event. We do get small pieces of good work from Africa, such as an entry from Mozambique in 2010 which won an award. Some years ago a Dubai entry won a Grand Prix.”

Realignment

Earlier this year the Loeries introduced an entire re-working of its categories, which has been well received by the industry. “All the judges commented favourably on the new categories so it’s been a really good realignment,” comments Human. “We modernised the awards in line with how the industry has evolved. When the Loeries were introduced in 1978 they were just for TV advertising. They were later expanded to include above-the-line and below-the-line advertising. Today there is no longer that segmentation in the market.

“For the first time ever we don’t have an advertising award category. Instead categories are structured according to media focus. Any point where a brand touches a consumer is a brand communication so the Loeries include every single touch-point. We have an alternative media category to accommodate entries that don’t fit into any of the categories.”

The international jury chairmen were reportedly impressed with the overall standard of entries. Says Human: “South African work plays at a high standard globally and people underplay the fact that we’ve won four Cannes Lions Grand Prix awards in six years. That’s hugely significant; no other African country has ever won a Grand Prix at Cannes. The international judges who evaluate the Loeries each year are very aware of South Africa. For instance, our Brazilian judge found lots of commonality between the Brazilian and South African markets.”

New venue

The Loerie Awards are split over two evenings — on Saturday 17 September for the Print and Radio categories, and the TV, Design and Digital categories follow on Sunday 18 September.

This year the venue for the award ceremonies has moved from the Good Hope Centre to the CTICC, prompted by industry feedback.

“The Good Hope Centre was a big experiment for us and a challenge in terms of staging. We want the Loeries to be more prestigious and to celebrate the winners on a first class level. Moving to the CTICC and changing the dress code to black tie will raise the bar,” explains Human.

Funk Productions is handling the production and direction of the two award events while Gearhouse SA is responsible for the technical staging.

As the CTICC seats 1 500 people (a thousand less than the Good Hope Centre) there will be a live relay of the awards ceremonies to nearby venue The Fez, where junior creatives can watch the events. After the ceremonies everyone will move to The Fez for a single, all-inclusive after-party.

The Loeries committee has partnered with MTV to bring pan-African musical acts to perform at the parties. There will be no performances during the awards ceremonies but a number of surprise ‘exciting MCs’ will present the awards.

An edited special of the ceremonies will be broadcast on SABC1. In addition the Loeries will receive coverage on SABC magazine programmes such as Top Billing and Xpresso.

This is the third consecutive year that Cape Town will host the Loerie Awards. A tender has gone out to various cities (including Cape Town) to host the event for the next three years. Submissions will be evaluated by the Loerie Awards working committee, which is made up of industry representatives.

The Loerie Awards are internationally recognised and are the only awards endorsed by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA); the Creative Circle (CC); the Brand Design Council (BDC); the Commercial Producers Association (CPA); the South African Institute of the Interior Design Professions (IID); and the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA).

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