Ogilvy Johannesburg creative team Karin Barry (art director) and Derek Shevel (copywriter) have won the annual Street Pole Ads Award, for work submitted on behalf of DStv History Channel.
The ads, which literally stopped traffic wherever they were shown, used headlines such as “Mandela arrested in Joburg” and “Prince Charles to Divorce” to capture the attention of passing motorists, only to reveal in the following posters that they were, in fact, advertising the History Channel and its ability to bring history back to life.
The award, which is held annually to recognise creative excellence and the appropriate application of this creativity to the Street Pole medium, is judged by members of the Creative Circle.
Fran Luckin, creative director at Ogilvy Johannesburg and one of the judges on the panel, comments that this particular campaign walked off with the win primarily because it used the medium in an intelligent manner.
“So many of the entries were very gimmicky, and used street pole posters in all the ways we’ve seen before – so there were skinny people hiding behind poles, and scared people climbing up poles. But this particular campaign used the medium in a fresh way – not only taking advantage of its similarity to newspaper hoardings, but also of the consecutive run of posters to allow a reveal. It was really intellectually rewarding.”
The winning team will wing their way to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2006, courtesy of Street Pole Ads, where their work will be entered into the Outdoor category. In addition, to demonstrate their thanks to the winning client for their support of the medium, Street Pole Ads has presented DSTV with space to the value of R100 000 for their next campaign.
Other judges on the Street Pole Ads Award judging panel included: Asheen Naidu (Net#work BBDO), Brett Morris (FCB), Festus Masekwameng (TBWA Hunt Lascaris), John Davenport (Ireland-Davenport) and Mike Barnwell (Grey Worldwide).
