From 15 to 23 September Cape Town will be transformed into a hub of inspiration, creativity and celebration as thousands of people involved in the brand communication industry gather for Creative Week, at the centre of which lies The Loerie Awards.
Now in its 34th year, The Loerie Awards has expanded over the decades to encompass every area of brand communication to include radio and print, design, architecture, direct marketing, non-broadcast video, live events and digital media.
2012 Winners will be announced at glitzy ceremonies hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 22 and 23 September and will be awarded the coveted Loerie Trophy, inspired by the Knysna Loerie bird.
Entries for this year’s Loerie Awards are significantly up from last year and almost match 2008’s record high of 3 375.
“This year we received 3 200 entries, a big increase on 2011’s figure of 2 870,’ says Loeries CEO Andrew Human. “I’ve always said that the Loeries serves as a barometer of the economy. If you look at 2008, that was the height of the global economic boom. By the following year the recession was in full swing and the Loeries experienced a significant drop in entries. Now we’re on the rise again, hopefully in line with the world’s economic recovery.’
The 2012 Loeries have seen the introduction of a new category – Rest of Africa & the Middle East. Some 140 entries have been received from countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Reunion, Uganda, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe.
According to Human, the aim of the new category is to better represent the region. He elaborates: “Prior to 2006 we allowed countries from all over the world to enter the Loeries and we had a separate international category. In 2006 we reduced it to regional representation from Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean Islands, but those entries got lost in the large volume of South African entries.
“This year we decided to increase our focus on the rest of Africa and hosted a launch event in Nairobi. As a direct result of our concerted push into Africa the number of entries from the region has literally doubled this year.’
Judging goes local
In other new innovations both the Loeries Judging Week and the International Seminar of Creativity have been moved from Johannesburg to form part of Creative Week in Cape Town.
Judging will take place at the Cape Town City Hall, the historic venue of Nelson’s Mandela’s first speech following his release from prison. At the end of each day’s judging, finalists for those categories will be announced. The Loeries has its own bespoke management system to transition judges’ results straight into the awards ceremonies.
Scheduled for Friday 21 September, the International Seminar of Creativity will also take place at the City Hall and boasts international names such as Tony Granger (global chief creative officer, Y&R, New York); David Nobay (creative chairman, Droga5, Sydney); Chris Lee (founder and creative director, Asylum, Singapore); Alex Schill, (global chief creative officer, Serviceplan Group, Hamburg); John Hunt (Worldwide Creative Director, TBWA); and Cecelia Wogan-Silva (Director of Independent Ad Agency Relations at Google USA).
The International Seminar will include a Google Hangout session with international speakers participating via the Internet.
Also part of Creative Week are the Student Portfolio Day and the first ever Loerie Awards Trade Expo, which is set to attract exhibitors such as media companies and suppliers to ad agencies.
Human notes that there has been a big shift within the Loeries. “It has moved beyond just being about an awards event to showing the economic value of creativity.
“The Loerie Awards celebrate the value of ideas. By way of comparison, the focus at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is now more on the seminars and networking and the presence of brands rather than just the awards.
“It’s important for the South African and regional market that the Loeries not be seen as something just for creatives – we need to be engaging with CEOs, marketing directors and brands and showing them that ideas and innovation are vital assets to our economy.’
On the campaign trail
With the slogan, Viva African Creativity. Viva! the 2012 Loeries campaign, conceived by The Jupiter Drawing Room, plays on the anti-apartheid struggle.
Says Human: “The main motivation behind this idea was to create a specific South African campaign, not just an awards campaign. Our role is to reward and inspire creative excellence so the campaign uses political struggle art from the 1980s to represent the struggle for creativity. We even have a Creative Freedom Charter and Creative Freedom Songs. It’s a nice, fun inspirational campaign and our aim is for people who attend Creative Week to leave inspired.’
Last year saw the awards ceremonies move from Cape Town’s Good Hope Centre to the Cape Town International Convention Centre, a change which Human says has allowed the awards events to become more “grown up’.
He continues: “Guests now have padded seats and air conditioning and it’s more of a black tie event than before. We also have a live relay where both awards ceremonies will be broadcast in an adjacent hall to guests who don’t have tickets for the main venue. The formal seating accommodates 1 600 people while the live relay has room for 800 people.
“Each awards session is only two hours, running from 7pm to 9pm. A lot of our focus has been to make the awards events inspirational and not a punitive five-hour ordeal. It’s all about how to make the Loeries fun, creative and inspirational.’
On Sunday the live relay, including DJs and a cash bar, will be at the Loeries’ official party at Collective Dreams Studios.
Gearhouse is the technical partner for, and a major sponsor of, the awards ceremonies, while the awards are produced by Funk.
By Joanna Sterkowicz
screen africa magazine – september 2012
