Nine new categories have been introduced into this year’s PromaxBDA Africa Awards, which take place at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre on 28 October. This is the only event of its kind dedicated to on-air promotion and broadcast design.
According to event director Vanessa Sheldrick, the new categories for this sixth edition of PromaxBDA Africa were created to add more relevance to the African market. They include Best Director; Best Visual FX & Compositing; Best Design Without Footage; and Most Outstanding Marketing Initiative.
For the first time all entries will be uploaded this year,” continues Sheldrick. “Annually, the global Promax and BDA organisations award excellence around the globe. The Promax Muse and the BDA Isis are viewed as the ultimate accolades for promotion, marketing and outstanding design contributions in today’s broadcast and electronic media industries.”
All of the judging is done online and the majority of judges come from overseas to keep the Africa event entirely fair. There are 12 judging groups made up of 10 professionals each. Among these are 10 South African judges who judge Best Funniest Spot; Best Public Service Announcement; The Mama Africa Award; and Best News / Current Affairs Promo.
Running alongside the awards event is the PromaxBDA Africa Conference which is to date the only convention of its kind that brings together South African TV producers, designers, promoters and broadcasters under one roof.
“This one-day convention provides its sponsors a prime ‘real estate’ platform in which to promote its offerings and to form effective and influential alliances with leading marketing, design and TV professionals. Year-on-year, we’ve seen incredible growth, increased creativity and newly formed partnerships.
“It also provides an opportunity for delegates to hear about the latest global trends in the industry. PromaxBDA Europe chair, Liz Dunning, who spoke at PromaxBDA Africa four years ago about IPTV, will return to do a rebranding session. This should be a very popular session since more and more channels seem to be rebranding or launching channels.
“Marice Tobias of Tobias Entertainment Group, who has the BBC, Discovery Networks and VH1 in her client portfolio, will present a session on how to direct talent to produce deliveries that cut through the clutter. Mateus de Paula Santos will talk about designing in Brazil for Brazil and the rest of the world.”
Creative director of Johannesburg’s Orijin, Bron Dean, will once again present her very popular session, Around the World in 60 Minutes.
Says Dean: “I enjoy presenting this session very much as it is incredibly interesting and inspiring to dig through the work of our peers and colleagues from around the globe, who promote many of the same programmes we do and work within essentially the same limitations and against the same challenges we do, to come up with incredible and diversely different solutions. Our colleagues in India in particular always have the most interesting and unique take on promos.”
For more information visit www.promaxafrica.tv.
