by Herman Manson (@marklives) Award recipients at the 2012 Bookmarks Awards are excellent speed walkers. Following the rules of the evening (up on the right hand side of the stage, photo on the spot marked with a small white x, then exit left) they raced in a giant loop around the stage at the Artscape to receive their Pixels.
Riaad Moosa, the MC for the night, kept calling out the names of more winners, sometimes up to four in a row, and every-one from women in 
high heels to guys in skinny jeans motored down the aisles up the stairs and onto the stage to receive their award and get snapped by the photographer in record speed.
It happened so fast that every now and then the award would be handed over before co-workers could arrive on stage to share in the glory, and they would have to troop over and out of sight without an award, a photo or applause. They were good sports though, some dragging back the escaped trophy and co-worker, others doing a quick bow before escaping themselves.
The rapid pace set by Moosa wasn’t unwelcome. Some 148 awards were given out on the evening, which took place at the much under-rated Artscape with its ample parking and plenty of space. The theatre was close to filled in terms of seating capacity but my inner claustrophobe never got spooked into aiming for the doors and a quick exit.
The crowd dressed up smartly and looked relaxed. This ain’t the Loeries and thank goodness, no hard edges, nothing terribly pretentious and no matching uniforms for agency staffers – unlike much of ad land the geeks seem to have escaped the 80’s.
Personally I thought we could have skipped sitting through the 88 bronzes presented on stage. That said the Bookmarks 2012 was the most enjoyable and well produced award show this year.
It provided two ‘comfort’ breaks during the ceremony, with drink flowing freely and the bar being generally accessible, even to journalists, and people were quick to get back to their seats on time for the ceremony to continue. The breaks allowed for some socialising and lightened the general mood considerably. The evening felt less drawn out than was the case at other award shows this year.
The overall ceremony was great – speeches were kept to the minimum, as MC Moosa was superb, keeping the crowd entertained and going off-script when the opportunity arose. Elana Afrika managed the special award announcements equally well. While MC Hammer was to the Loeries what Martha Stewart was to the Design Indaba several years ago I heard no negative feedback on Moosa or Afrika. Sometimes local just rocks.
Like the entertaininment for the evening, Gazelle, a band that must be the product of a romantic union between Mobuto Sese Seko and a zebra-skin gloved Michael Jackson.
In her opening remarks Nikki Cockcroft joked that Don Packett, who hosted the rather disastrous 2010 Bookmarks award ceremony, might well consider rocking up next year. If he does he would be pleasantly surprised.
For the list of award winners click here.
– Industry news you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!
It was okay. The biggest oversight was not having a proper visual display to showcase the work that won. 3D projection mapping is cool, but not at the cost of actually displaying the case studies!
The take home value for me ended up being this:
• Shitload of bronzes
• Woolworths and FNB were sponsors
• Gazelle was trapped in a box for 2.5 hrs.
Yet I have NO IDEA what the winning work actually looked like. Top that off with an hour self-appreciating Special Honours…
The evening was good, well-organised – I just think think they missed the point. Yes, people are there to receive awards, but also to be inspired. I didn’t see one case study the entire evening and I find that a bit alarming.